7. Drake
CHAPTER 7
DRAKE
I woke when the bus exited the turnpike—we all did, pretty much—and found myself curled up against Jon. He groaned and stretched but didn’t seem disturbed by my presence, even giving me a sleepy smile when I sat up. I checked my watch while blinking away sleep. It was late—a little past one in the morning, and I absolutely wanted more sleep.
Despite being tired, my body remembered these kinds of bus rides from juniors and I enjoyed them. The quiet companionship. The team murmuring around me. But more importantly, for the first time this season, I felt like me again. Exhausted, yes, but happy with the game I’d played and how I’d skated. I’d scored two goals and helped my hockey team. What was better than that?
I owed Jon a lot. From his first talk with me to opening his home. He was a good captain and a good player. Someday, he’d probably make a great coach, given that he knew the game really well—that high hockey IQ of his. He was such a kind person, too.
He was also really fucking hot. Even as rumpled as he now was, those warm brown eyes and wide smile tumbled everything inside my chest.
He patted my thigh. “We’re almost back to the rink. Then we’ll get you home and to bed.”
My brain was a haze of sleepy and horny, so I nodded rather than blurt out something inappropriate. It was his bed I wanted to crawl into, but boy, was that presuming too much. Jon had been flirty, sure, and yes he wanted more, but we’d yet to be on the date he wanted as a feeling-out process. Despite all of our close proximity, we’d just met. He didn’t want a meaningless hookup, and I didn’t want to be a meaningless hookup to Jon.
Once we got back to the practice arena, we got our bags and headed to his truck. “You good to drive?” I asked.
“Oh yeah. I’ve done this a lot. I mean, I’m tired, but I know the way home, and it’s only about fifteen minutes. This time of night, all I have to worry about are critters on the road.”
I don’t think I’d ever get over how bright his smile was. The air was cold—below freezing—and so was his truck until the heaters kicked in. The cold chased away some of my lethargy, but silence crowded the cabin, and I didn’t know how to break it when Jon didn’t fill it with his usual chatter.
Was that good? Bad? Fuck. He must’ve noticed me shifting in my seat, because when we pulled into the driveway of his house, Jon patted me on the knee as if to reassure me. “Hey. We’re here.”
I knew that. I also knew I wanted more of his hands on me. “Yeah,” I said. “It was a good night.” Ugh, what a boring thing to say.
He chuckled as we climbed out of the truck, and I wished I had his ability to be that relaxed and at ease. Content. Truly happy. Just be who I was. I’d only ever found that in moments on the ice.
In the foyer of the house, Jon threw his keys into a bowl on a table by the door, and instantly Thor and Loki were there, meowing their heads off.
“Hi guys,” Jon said. “I know, I know. I was gone forever.” He rolled his eyes. “Need to feed these guys or they’ll never leave us alone.”
“I thought you free-fed?” I’d seen the bowls out in the kitchen, and they always had kibble in them.
“Yeah, well, they don’t always understand that they can just go eat what’s there. Or maybe the bottom of the bowl is showing, so it must be empty and they’ll starve to death or the bowls are in the wrong place or some random reason.” He laughed. “Cats.”
It’d been a while since I’d had one as a pet, but I got it. They could be particular beasts. I trailed Jon to see which it was. Loki and Thor circled us like little furry sharks.
Well, one little furry shark and one huge lumbering one that had a permanent peeved look.
“You bozos,” Jon said with all the affection in the world. Then he shook the cat dishes. “Okay, they’re a little low, but you guys weren’t going to die.” He set about adding food to the bowls.
For a moment, I watched his lean form as he moved around the kitchen. I didn’t want to just—say goodnight and climb up the stairs, but staring at him seemed too much, so I hung up my coat in the hall closet and lingered while he finished up.
When he was done, he gave me a sleepy smile. “You need anything? Water? A snack?”
Him. I needed him. I shook my head. “No, I’m good.”
“Okay.” He put his hands on those hips of his, and looked around. “I think they’re fine here. Let’s head up, eh?”
He crossed the living room and toward the stairs.
“Jon.”
My touch on his arm halted his steps, and he turned to face me. “Yeah?”
His expression was so open, so gentle. So absolutely beautiful in the dim light of the hallway. “Can I… Can we… Would you…” The words stuck in my throat and the lines of his face morphed toward confusion. “Look, I know we haven’t had a chance to go on that date yet, but—can I kiss you? I really need to kiss you.”
The lips that I wanted so badly curled up, and he stepped close. Suddenly, it wasn’t bewilderment in his eyes, but hunger. I could’ve sworn a spark lit in his dark eyes. “You can absolutely kiss me,” he said, voice low and rough.
We moved together, my hand landing on his shoulder, his cupping my neck, and our lips met. I’d expected something devouring from him, but his kiss was soft, almost sweet. Until I slid my other hand up into that hair of his. Then he groaned deeply and opened to me.
Instinct took over, and before I even thought about it, I had Jon pressed against the nearest wall. His grip around my neck tightened and his other hand landed on my ass. Only need in our kiss now. Tongue tangled and the passion and fire I’d expected from Jon was there. I wanted to slide down his body and worship him on my knees. Especially considering how hard his dick was against me.
Jon broke our kiss and touched his forehead to mine. “Drake.” Raspy voice. “You can say no. I need you to know that.” He leaned his head back enough for our gazes to meet. “I’m captain,” he whispered. “You’re staying in my house. ”
My turn to be confused. “I was the one who asked you for a kiss.” And I had him pressed firmly up against the wall of that very same house.
His laugh was a strange nervous bark. “I know. But I’m going to ask you for something, and I want you to know you can say no.” He was so damn earnest.
“Believe me, you’re not forcing me into anything.” I ran my thumb over his cheek. “I can’t imagine you forcing anyone into anything, except an opposing player into the boards.”
That got me another strangled laugh.. “It’s just—I don’t want to screw this up.”
“Screw what up?”
“This. Whatever this is—I want to get it right. And it’s late and we’re both tired and?—”
I stole a quick kiss to stop his rambling. “Jon, what do you want ?”
He let out a sigh, cupped my face between his hands, and said, “I want you to take me upstairs and fuck me until I can’t think.” He paused. “I was going to say, ‘until I can’t think straight’, but that’s kind of impossible, given that I’m queer and?—”
God, this man. I swallowed whatever else he was going to say into a deep, hard kiss, and finally let myself run my hand down his torso to his cock. He groaned again and thrust into my hand.
“I can do that,” I whispered against his lips. Then I backed up and nodded toward the stairs. “Your room or mine?”
Jon was uncharacteristically wobbly. “Your choice.”
“Yours.” If I was fucking this man into a mattress, I wanted it to be the one he regularly slept in. Maybe that was a little possessive of me, but if this were the one time we’d be together, I wanted him to crawl into bed in the coming days remembering my body against his.
I took Jon’s hand and led him up to his bedroom.
Once inside, he closed the door. “Cats,” he said breathlessly. “Don’t need them in here right now.”
Made sense. Last thing I wanted was big Loki, or even Thor, jumping up while we were in the middle of things. Or watching us. That would be a little weird.
I gathered him in for a kiss and we began the slow dance of touching and tasting as we stripped clothes off of each other’s bodies. I finally got a good view of his tattoo sleeves, which consisted of vines and animals and angels. Some playing cards. Crowns. A flower. I also got a glimpse of the small line of script on his ribs, but I was way too busy with his mouth to read his torso. I’d get there eventually.
I pushed him back against the bed, and he let himself fall backward, legs splaying apart. Taking that as an invitation, I crawled up his body, kissing as I went, until I got to that sharp mouth of his. I didn’t think I would ever get tired of him kissing me back. He kissed like he did everything, with passion and purpose and for longer than I thought he might.
When he came up for air, he waved toward the left side of his bed. “There’s lube in that nightstand. And condoms… condoms… fuck. They’re in the bathroom in a cabinet.” He sounded dismayed. “It’s probably easier for me to get them than tell you where.”
I gave his dick a few pulls and enjoyed the sight of him rolling his eyes back before he squeezed them shut, arched, and moaned.
“Guess you should go get them, huh?” I said.
“You’re evil.” He didn’t sound at all upset, and his mouth ticked to a grin when I let his dick go. “Be right back.” He scrambled off the bed and to the bathroom. A moment later, he came back with a box of condoms.
“You don’t keep them in your nightstand?”
“Oh, um.” He shrugged. “When I have a regular partner, I do. But it’s been a while and they kind of reminded me that I really wasn’t finding what I wanted with hookups.” He sat down on the bed slowly and looked, suddenly, bone-weary exhausted. He gestured between us. “I know this doesn’t have that high a chance of being anything permanent, but it… this doesn’t feel like a hookup. And I just really want to be with you.”
Wow, that was actually pretty heavy, all together. My chest ached for this man. He was so damn happy all the time, but underneath that, how much loneliness lurked? I took the box from his hands, put it on the table with the lube, and then took him into my arms and kissed him. He was pliant and after a moment, folded his arms around me, too.
When I rolled him onto his back, I whispered. “I’ve wanted you since I walked into your bar. You’re so damn good looking. But what caught me was your smile, and how you care about everyone. I don’t know what this is either, but it’s not a hookup, and I’m going to make damn sure you enjoy every second.” I paused and skimmed fingers over his nipple. “And that you can’t think when I’m done.”
There was that brilliant smile again.
I worked my way down his body, kissing and nipping as I went, pausing over the text on his ribs—which I still couldn’t read because it wasn’t in English. Swedish, I thought. I nibbled right below that, and Jon gasped, and urged my head lower.
Yeah, okay. I slid my fingers over Jon’s hips before I wrapped a hand around his cock and sucked the head into my mouth.
“Oh my God,” Jon moaned. “Fuck, Drake.”
Jon was just about the perfect size to suck off. Not too long or wide, and I loved the noises he made, and the way he squirmed and thrust under me as I worked his length into my mouth, and eventually my throat.
I swore he squeaked at that. One high-pitched sound, as if he was completely shocked. When I came up for air, he found my head with his hands. “Drake… Drake, you do that again, I’m gonna come.”
I met his gaze, and there was a mix of desire and apprehension there. “You want that? Want to come down my throat then be fucked senseless after you’re good and sensitive?”
His eyes widened a bit, and I swear his dick got harder in my hand. “Yeah,” he breathed. “God, it’s been—” He cut himself off with a laugh. “Yeah. I want that.”
I was more than happy to give him what he wanted. I took my time sucking him off, though. Worshiping his dick and edging him with slow licks and sucks and exploration until he was babbling nonsense between begging me to make him come. My name was interspersed with gasps, pleading, and cursing—including something that sounded French and profane. When he was a trembling mess, I finally took him down my throat again. Didn’t take much time before he was breathlessly croaking out my name while his cock thickened—then he was spilling himself into my mouth. Jon’s moans were deep and glorious, and when I finally came up for air, he was glassy-eyed.
“Holy shit,” he whispered. “You’re good at that.”
“Thanks.” I grinned down at him. “It’s not all I’m good at in bed. ”
God, him and his dark hair all mussed up, the sheen of sweat on his chest, and those brown eyes sparkling. He levered himself up, cupped me behind the neck, and kissed me. “Is that so?” he said, when he’d freed my lips.
“It’s your lucky night. You get to find out.” I paused. “How do you want to—” I gestured to the bed around us.
That got me a chuckle. “On my back, if that’s fine with you.”
Fucking this man in any way was going to be a pleasure. If all we ever did was me sucking him off, well, that and a few pumps of my own dick would be enough. “Absolutely.”
While he grabbed a pillow for his hips, I got the lube and condoms. Sitting back on my heels, I drank in all of Jon. His inked arms and shoulders. His sculpted, lean body with those thick thighs. The devilish look on his face, all angular and foxlike.
This wasn’t a man who should ever be lonely. Not with the heart of gold and fast-working mind that went along with that amazing body. “You’re so damn perfect.” I drew a condom out of the box, and tossed the box back toward the nightstand.
“I absolutely am not,” he said. His smile remained. “You know that.”
Except he was perfect. And beautiful. And—at least right now—mine.
“Mmmhmm. Whatever you say.” I stroked the inside of his thighs and watched his eyes roll back as he sank down onto the mattress. I teased his balls and taint, licked my thumb, then rimmed his hole.
“Fuck,” he breathed.
“Sometime, I’m going to eat your ass,” I said. “But not tonight.”
His reply was a croak .
Watching him like that got me hard enough to put the condom on, then I lubed up my fingers and went back to rimming his hole, dipping a finger in and watching him squirm.
More curses, more pleas, and those imploring eyes as I worked him open and found exactly the right spot. He arched, practically lifting off the bed.
“Fuck, Drake! Please just—fuck me already!”
Well, that was an invitation if I ever heard one. I slicked myself, then eased my way into him. God. The heat. The tightness. I closed my eyes against the pleasure, and we both moaned when our bodies met.
When I peeled my eyes open, Jon was staring up at me, those dark eyes of his intense, his mouth open. I wanted to carve that expression into my brain. Then I started moving, and he gasped.
Fucking Jon was an absolute delight, and though he was on his back, he rocked his hips in time with my strokes until we hit a rhythm that had us both moaning. He was by far the hottest man I’d ever been with, and watching him as I gripped his hips and drove my cock into him was—everything.
He was quieter this time. Less curses, but the moans were long and deep. At one point, he wrapped a hand around my neck to pull us into a frantic kiss, I nearly lost it. Finally, I breathed his name. “Jon…”
“Can still think,” he murmured.
Time to fix that. I pressed him back into the bed, stroked into him until I found the angle that made him lose the ability to breathe without gasping—and pounded him. Relentlessly. Utterly enjoying how he twisted and moaned beneath me and how his hands clenched me and the bed—anything he could reach .
Then his eyes widened. “Fuck—fuck—I’m going to?—”
He clenched around me so tight, I could barely move inside him and oh God—I was coming too. “Jon!” My own pleasure crashed like an unexpected wave against me as I spent inside him.
As we came down from our orgasms, Jon shivered in my arms, and I had enough sense of mind to pull up the throw at the bottom of the bed and curl around him. I murmured into his ear, “Can you think?”
All I got back was, “Mmmmph,” and he pressed against me. I took that as a no, and simply held him, pleased that I’d managed what he’d asked. We’d have to get cleaned up soon and I needed to ditch the condom, but for the moment, I was content to just lay here.
A moment later, a loud, rhythmic pounding on the door stirred Jon. “Ugh,” he said. “That’s Loki. He’ll do that all night if I don’t let him and Thor in.”
“So, you’ll move for the cats, but not for me?”
Oh, he could think now, because his gaze was wickedly sharp. “I moved quite a bit for you tonight, you know.” The smile that followed made my heart flip.
Fuck yeah. The way he’d twisted and writhed and met my thrusts was fresh in my mind. I let out a shudder of a breath, which prompted a gleeful chuckle from him. We climbed off the bed. He headed to the door, and I headed into the bathroom to ditch the condom and clean up.
A moment later, Jon joined me. “I’d suggest a shower, but I’m really fucking tired now and it’s...” He looked at his watch-less wrist, then shrugged. “It’s really late.”
Had to be. I raked a hand through my mess of hair. “I should go bush my teeth.” Even as the words left my mouth, his eyes widened in the mirror’s reflection and I saw the panic there in the bright lights.
“Please stay,” he blurted out. “Of course you don’t have to, but if you want you can stay with me tonight, I’d like it, and I think, I think maybe you would, too?”
God, he was always so sincere, so hopeful and beautiful. I desperately wanted to stay. “Yes.”
Hope bloomed to joy in him, and I couldn’t help drawing him into a kiss. “I’ll still need to brush my teeth, but I’ll be back over.”
“Good. I’ll be here with the cats.”
That’s not exactly what happened, because Loki followed me back to the other room, sat staring at me while I brushed my teeth and cleaned up more. He gave me a strange little bark as I came out, then led me back to Jon’s room.
“Your cat is herding me.”
Jon was already under the covers, propped up and reading a book. Thor was curled up at his feet. “Is he? That’s strange. He’s never done that with anyone before. He really likes you, I guess!”
I snorted. “How many other guys have you hosted at your place and also slept with?”
Oh, the little ruddy spots that lit on his cheeks. “Uh, none, actually. I’m usually a very upstanding captain who never makes a move on teammates I host.” He paused. “And I haven’t dated anyone in a while. Not since I got Loki, at least, and that’s been—” He paused, and seemed to search for an answer on the ceiling. “Five years? Yeah. Five. And he’s never herded anyone to my room except me.”
“But—” I stopped myself from blurting out the rest, shook my head, then climbed into bed next to him. I went with, “Five’s a lot.”
Loki lumbered up onto the bed and marched up between us, settled in, and purred, content with the world. Jon wasn’t as content, it seemed. He tucked a bookmark into the pages of his book, then set that aside. “But?”
Yeah, I figured he wouldn’t let that slide. I met his gaze. “You’re one of the most stunning people I’ve ever met. And you’re nice. Why aren’t you married to some… amazing person who’ll love and cherish you?”
A whole parade of emotions marched across his face. “Uh. Wow.” Then he scratched the back of his head. “Well, first, I think you’re overestimating me quite a bit. I mean, I know I’m attractive, but there are tons of better-looking guys out there. I do try to be nice, but I can be crotchety and annoying—ask any of the guys in the room. I can be an absolute pain in the ass.” He shook his head. “I’ve got a pile of flaws.” The rapid fire of words fell away. He smoothed his hands over the bed’s comforter. “And second—my life is basically hockey and running the bar. Most amazing people want time with you, you know? When it was just hockey—well, the right person never came around, and the bar did, and people needed a safe place so…” He trailed off. “I’m rambling. It’s late.”
He’d twisted the comforter in his hands. “I did just meet an amazing person.” Jon raised his gaze to mine again. “But we haven’t been on a date yet, so?—”
My heart melted right fucking there. “I’ve been nothing but a grouchy pain in the ass. Hardly amazing.”
That smile of his ticked up. “Well, you weren’t exactly a pain in my ass tonight…”
Oh my God. I dropped my head into my hand and giggled. “I’m too tired for this.” But I beamed at him. “So no date yet, but dating?”
“If you want, yes. I mean—yes. Let’s try it?” He paused. “You can change your mind in the morning if you wake up and realize the sex and me aren’t that?— ”
I leaned over Loki, caught the back of Jon’s neck, and pulled him into a kiss. When I relented, he was breathy and speechless. “You’re amazing. I’m not going to change my mind. We should sleep.”
Loki chirped and looked particularly peeved, even for a Maine coon.
“Sleep,” he said. “Probably a good idea.”
He turned off the light, and we settled in under the covers, Loki between us.
I shouldn’t be in love. This was too soon to be in love. We hadn’t known each other all that long. But goddamn, this man. This damn man. He was everything.