Chapter 4
Four
“Look at you, Montineau, grinning like a Cheshire cat.” His teammate, Luka Hendersen, punched him on the arm as they made their way onto the ice for their practice for the day.
Luka was actually a teammate of his back home, too, in Colorado. So he knew Hawk well enough to tease.
“Am I grinning? Is that unusual?” Hawk started his warm-up trying to get away from Luka by doing a lap or two to get his muscles loose. And to figure out the surface of the ice.
But Luka kept up with him. Right on his ass. Chirping the whole way like he usually did during a game. “Yeah. You look almost happy, you grumpy bastard.”
Hawk glanced back over his shoulder. “I had a good night last night.”
“Oh shit, good for you, man. Hooking up with somebody that fast.” Luka glanced around to make sure no one else was listening. “Who was he?”
Hawk appreciated his circumspection. He was out to his team, his friends and family, but he wasn’t out to the world at large.
A lot of the guys who were playing on the USA team with him had no idea.
Not that he was ashamed of being gay, but he didn’t particularly want to deal with constantly having to come out and worry about the guys who weren’t so friendly about it.
“I’m not gonna tell on you, man. That’s not just my secret to tell. Suffice to say that we had a very good night, and I’m planning on having a very good night again tonight.”
“Dude.” Luka lowered his voice a little more. “Did you rent a hotel room or something? How did you get a place to do that while you were here?”
Hawk chuckled. “A friend of his has a single right now until his roommate shows up after the opening ceremony, so he traded off to let us use it.”
“Dayum, you are so fucking lucky to fall into something like that.”
He knew Luka meant it for him, but Luka would never take advantage of something like that. He was a happily married guy with two kids.
“I feel pretty lucky.” He did too, because Caleb was special.
He was not only hot as fire and funny as hell, but there was just something about him that Hawk really liked.
Like he’d put Hawk at ease immediately and didn’t make him feel like he had to be fake.
Hell, the whole “no small talk” clause was probably the most helpful thing Hawk had ever experienced, socially at least.
“Hey, you beauties! Put your asses over here for a little bonding with your tendy.” That was Nils Leemamn, who waved them over, and he and Luka rolled their eyes at each other as they skated to him. Goalies were so weird.
More players joined them, chatting, doing laps, and stretching before the coach came out to start them running drills.
It wasn’t until they were on their way back through the tunnel to the locker room when Luka caught up with him again. “So?”
“So, what?” He wasn’t giving Luka any details about Caleb.
“Come on, man. Obviously it was good if you’re going back. Just tell me, is he a medal contender in something?”
“Yes.” Caleb was probably a shoo-in for the damn gold, in fact. Caleb had a far better chance to win something, anything, than Hawk’s team did. He knew they were going to struggle.
“Nice. American?”
“I am not playing twenty questions with you, bud.” Hawk did adore Luka, even if the man made him nuts. He was just too good-natured to stay mad at or even get mad most days.
“You are no fun. I have to live vicariously since Marina couldn’t come with the kids, huh?”
“I’m hitting the showers.” Hawk went to his stall and started stripping off gear. He didn’t need Luka talking about his sex life in the locker room. Or at all.
“You good for supper, at least? Or are you meeting…” Luka went in low-voiced. “Mr. Right Now?”
He snorted, whacking Luka’s arm. “He has a team meeting dinner of some sort, so I’ll hit the dining hall with you, if you want.”
“Yeah, man. I’ll even stop nagging. We gotta stick together against these yahoos.” He waved a hand at a couple of guys from a rival team back home.
“You got it.” Hawk stripped down, wrapping a towel around his waist to head to the showers, fist-bumping Luka on the way by, almost apologetically.
He knew he wasn’t going to be the best company at supper.
He was too damn excited about seeing Caleb again tonight for dessert.
Caleb grabbed a box and filled it with two kinds of cheesecake, some cookies, and some sort of fried pastry, with goo in the middle, for two.
The team dinner was pretty much over, and they were getting to take dessert back to their rooms. He wanted to impress Hawk with his selections, because the guy had said he had a bit of a sweet tooth…
“Caleb, my friend.” Josef Hynmek, a halfpipe guy from Poland, came to jostle his arm, and he almost dropped the second pastry. “We are going out of the village to find a beer. You should come with us. Is better for you than sugar.”
He stared at Josef for a second, hand hovering over the box he held. “Dude, beer is, like, all sugar.”
“Is all carb, but not so much sugar as that.”
“Cheesecake has protein,” he pointed out. Hynnie loved beer. Like, loved it. So Caleb teased a lot.
“Yes, yes. You come with us?”
“Not tonight, man. I got plans.” He waved the box after he popped the last pastry in. “Good ones.”
Hynnie tilted his head. “Already so soon?” Then a wide smile split his face, his pale blue eyes twinkling. “Good for you, my friend.”
“Thanks, dude. We’ll hang in a few days, okay?”
“Yes, yes. Fine. When is just us snowboarders together, huh?”
“Yeah.” Caleb closed up the box. “Totally. We’ll have plenty of time to do that.” He winked, then headed out, eyes downcast so no one else tried to grab him and make him be social.
Normally, he was super-friendly with all the guys, but he had a hot date with Hawk. And Hawk’s pecs. His eight pack. And his ass… Caleb could write odes to that ass if he did poetry.
He made his way across the village to the tower the rendezvous room was in, humming under his breath. He had his earbuds in, so it looked like he had on music, but he was listening to make sure no one called out to him.
He didn’t want to be rude, but he could act like he hadn’t heard a damn thing.
He hit the elevators, hoping Hawk was right behind him. Caleb didn’t want to lose any time they might have together. He didn’t want to examine too closely how into this guy he was, because nothing was going to come of it, but there it was.
He got to the room, pleased to see the bedsheets had been changed on both beds, the covers neatly pulled up and the floor and bathroom scrubbed.
That was awesome. He’d billeted in some pretty awful places for competitions, but this was nice.
He set the dessert up on the table and pulled out some napkins and a couple of plastic plates. There were plenty of drink options, including a little coffee maker that would also yield hot water for tea, which was plentiful around the village.
God, he was nervous. That was a ridiculous way to be, because this was a hookup. A repeat one, sure, but a hookup.
That was all.
The knock on the door made him bounce, but Caleb wiped the huge grin off his face before he answered, going for nonchalant.
“Hey.” Hawk stood there wearing a Team USA hoodie, a smile curving his mouth, his silvery gray eyes lighting up with it.
“Hey. Come on in, man. I got us dessert.”
Hawk stepped into the room, and they stared at each other for long moments.
Then Hawk reached out to snare him and reel him in with one hand behind his neck, taking a kiss that curled his toes and made his dick half hard in seconds.
He put his hands behind Hawk’s head, holding on with his fingers buried in that short hair, and reveled in the heat of Hawk’s body against him and how much bigger the guy was than him. It was the kind of thing that could become a real kink if he let it.
He knew Hawk could just end him sexually if he wanted to. The man could dick him down until he screamed.
Hawk moaned, and they finally pulled apart to break for air, staring at each other, and Caleb wondered if his pupils were as blown out as Hawk’s.
Hawk licked his lips, staring right into Caleb’s eyes. “So, what did you get for dessert?”
“Condoms and lube?” He grinned. “Last night was great and all, but I want the main event tonight. Oh, and I also brought cheesecake and pastries.”
“Oh damn, I love cheesecake. I think we’ll wait to do that between round one and round two, yeah?” That grin was back, and it made his heart actually flip-flop. Like Caleb felt when it went ba-dunk for a minute.
“I like the sound of that. Rounds one and two. Maybe we can do all sorts of things tonight.” Caleb grabbed a handful of Hawk’s sweater and tugged as he backed into the room, heading for closest of the beds.
When they got there, they stood still for a minute looking at each other before Hawk reached for Caleb’s hoodie, yanking at it to try to get it off. Caleb helped by unzipping it and then shoving it down off his arms once Hawk got it open and pushed back over his shoulders.
He grabbed the hem of Hawk’s sweater and yanked it too, needing help when it got to the shoulder level because he just wasn’t fucking tall enough to do this. How freaking hot was that? How Hawk was that much bigger than him. It gave him a thrill.
It also gave him the rest of a full chub. In fact, he was hard as a rock right now and they hadn’t even gotten started good. This guy did it for him.
Caleb scrabbled at Hawk’s T-shirt, wanting it off too, and he had to laugh because underneath that sweater the T-shirt was soft and worn and not at all like a white undershirt. It was printed with Colorado ThunderSnow hockey logo.
Caleb pushed it until it was up under Hawk’s armpits, and then Hawk took the rest of the way off.