19. Valencia
19
Valencia
T hree torturous days had gone by since Romeo and Hunter had propositioned me. Three days of me arguing with myself that it was a bad idea but also thinking we only lived once. This was a bad idea through and through, but the two nights we had sex were some of the hottest sex I had ever had. If we had a contract, that would make me feel a hell of a lot better.
I was sexually frustrated even though I had just done a live show and made the most money I had ever made on a live. I was almost a hundred percent sure Hunter and Romeo were my top tippers. Did I come hard imagining them jerking off to me… yes, and it was so frustrating.
Today I arrived at the rink early because we were taking pictures for a calendar we were doing with a local animal shelter. It was another good opportunity, and it wasn't hard to convince my boss it was a good idea, plus the dogs we were going to use were adorable and in need of a good home.
I set up my lights and camera making sure everything was ready, being careful that I didn’t break my neck on the slippery ice. The volunteers from the local shelter started to arrive just as I finished setting up. There was a Husky who was the fluffiest doggy I had ever seen and he seemed to love the cold.
The first set of guys started to show up. We split the guys into groups of six so they didn’t have to be here all day, and we could get them in and out more quickly. The captain of the team was my first photo, and I wanted to get him out of here as quickly as possible so he could go home to his pregnant wife.
“I appreciate you doing this for us,” I mentioned, as soon as I saw him. His little boy had come along, and he was preoccupied with the volunteers of the shelter showing him the dogs.
“I think Walker thinks this is the coolest thing and it gives Heather some time to chill by herself,” he smiled.
“Well, I’m glad to help,” I said, as a volunteer offered a small French Bulldog to Cap.
“Hey, little guy,” he said.
“His name is Maximus,” the volunteer said.
“Oh, he’s adorable,” I said, scratching his head.
“Hey Max, let’s make you famous,” Cap said, skating away to the x I had on the floor.
Maximus clearly liked Cap because he kept licking him, making him laugh. They were the cutest pictures and when Walker went to get into the photo he stole the show. I would definitely send these to Heather.
A few of the men from the second line took a couple of photos and I was lucky enough to bribe one of the coaches to take pictures too. The first set of guys took me about an hour to finish and as we waited for the second set of guys to show, I took a quick bathroom break and grabbed a snack.
As I made it back to the ice, I saw the two guys I didn’t expect to see and didn’t want to see. Romeo and Hunter were talking to Webber and Clark. They weren’t supposed to be here, but I would be surprised if they bribed their way into the photo shoot to torture me with their smolders and lip bites.
“Need some help?” Fred Baxter, our other goalie, offered me his arm.
“You’re a doll,” I said, taking it, making walking so much easier.
“Someone should have scratched the ice for you,” he said, as we got to my set up.
“It was busy the first hour and I didn’t even think of it,” I said, trying not to look at the men who had been staring at me since I took Baxter’s arm.
“Let me help you out,” he said, making sure I was gonna be fine standing alone.
“I got it, man,” Ro said, scratching the ice to give me some grip in my shoes.
“Alright, who is first?” I hoped Hunter or Ro would say they wanted to so they could leave, but of course, they didn’t.
Baxter wanted to go first so he could leave to a family function. One of the volunteers brought an Australian Shepherd mix and she was darling.
“Oh no, you are too cute to handle,” Baxter said, kneeling beside her.
She looked a little wary, but as soon as Baxter talked to her more, she relaxed around him. They took the most adorable pictures together. I was capturing the moment they fell in love, and I really hoped he would take her home.
Once Baxter was done, Clarke came forward with a puppy who looked like he wanted to get out of his hands. He was pushing and biting his jersey and anything he could get his hands on. The moment he put him down, the puppy took off and Clarke skated after him. It wasn’t perfect, but I decided this might be even better. They made me laugh and the best photo was where Clarke fell, and the puppy decided to lick his face. Everyone was enjoying the playfulness, and it made my heart melt.
The next two photos were easy with the dogs falling asleep in their arms and Webber sitting on the ice cradling the puppy like a baby. These guys seemed quite attached to these dogs and I really hoped one of them got adopted.
Even though I tried to get them to take pictures, Gomez and Riggs were fighting to be the last ones. My will could only handle so much before I agreed to whatever contract they had drawn up. Hunter was up first with an adorable Golden Retriever mix. He looked like a retriever, but he was small, fitting in his arms with an adorable sweater that had the Yetis stitched on it.
The dog loved Hunter, and it got him to give me a real smile and a hearty laugh. He looked relaxed and so fucking good-looking.
“Damn, he looks gorgeous when he actually smiles,” Romeo said, standing a little too close. “Thank God he doesn’t smile too often or else he would be dangerous.”
“He would have had you on your knees sooner,” I said softly, snapping another picture.
“Probably, but it's a place I’m finding I’m pretty comfortable being,” he quipped, and I chuckled. “You could get a front row seat. Just another taste so you can see what you’re missing out on.”
“Ro,” I whispered.
“Just reminding you,” he said, stepping back, giving me space to take more pictures of Hunter who looked completely smitten with the dog.
“Ok, I think I have the perfect picture,” I said, taking off my sweater because my body was flushed from my mind racing about the possibilities of what it could be like to have a contract with these two hockey players.
“He’s adorable,” he said, skating up to me.
I focused on the dog giving it a few scratches, looking anywhere but at Hunter.
“He needs a home,” I said, wanting at least one of them to go to a good home.
“I would love it, but I’m not home enough,” he said, kissing his nose. “It wouldn’t be fair to him.”
“That’s what they have doggy hotels for,” I said quickly.
They looked to be perfect for each other.
“He’s gonna be a big dog, I don’t have the space,” he said looking at me.
“Buy a house,” I said, getting my camera and taking one last picture of the dog curled up in his arms.
“Valencia,” he chuckled.
“Hunter,” I said, looking down at my camera.
A loud laughter turned our attention to Romeo who was holding a small white dog who was so tiny you could have missed it if you weren’t looking for it. The ladies were swooning as Romeo held the dog, pet it and let the dog give him kisses. I realized he had two small dogs in his hands, and it was adorable.
“Come on, Gomez!” I waved him over as one of the ladies held out her arms, he shook his head, skating over with both dogs.
“Of course he has to outshine everyone,” Hunter said, shaking his head.
“Don’t be made because he makes women swoon,” I chuckled.
“I only want him swooning over one woman and that should be you, so you can finally put us out of our misery and say yes,” he said, as I finally looked up at him. “I know you want to say yes, come to my apartment and we can discuss it and if you still don’t want it, then you can walk away. We won’t bring it up again.”
“You make it sound so easy,” I whispered.
“All three of us together is easy,” he said, as Gomez skated into position and skated away.
I looked back at Hunter, telling myself this was a bad idea for the hundredth time. Romeo was such a natural in front of the camera. The brother and sister Maltese mixes were adorable and we ended up taking a photo with Romeo on his stomach, one dog licking his cheek and another one on his back. It was so fucking cute that even I would purchase a damn calendar. Maybe next time we could have them shirtless...
After I was done with Gomez, I packed up and thanked the volunteers for their help. I found out Baxter ended up adopting his dog and Cap was thinking about taking home his dog too, but he had to talk with Heather. Even if Baxter was the only one to adopt a dog, it was a great event.
I took a few pictures of the volunteers with the dogs to post on our social media. They were amazing. I hoped we would be able to do this again in the future. As I was putting my camera away, a small piece of paper fell out with an address, it had nothing else on it and I knew exactly whose it was. Dammit, they knew exactly what they were doing, and I didn’t know if I had any excuse not to go.
I walked to a nice building in the downtown area. The parking was horrendous and I almost said fuck it after I had to go around the block twice. A doorman opened the door for me, he smiled and directed me to the front desk.
“Um.. Hello, I’m here to see Hunter Riggs,” I said, feeling a little out of place.
“Hello, Ms. Cortez, he is expecting you,” he said with a big smile. “Follow me.”
“Hello, oh, ok,” I said following him.
He pushed the button for the elevator and hit a button for me after scanning a card.
“Have a good afternoon, Ms. Cortez,” he said, before the elevator closed.
I was definitely not in south Denver anymore. Nerves ate at me with each floor that passed. This was a colossal mistake, one that I was going to pay for because our society would never blame them if they found out about us. Sometimes I hated the world we lived in and how women always took the blame.
The elevator stopped and I took a deep breath. I walked out trying to figure out which way to go. I found his condo relatively easy, but now I was frozen outside of his door. This was the last chance I had to walk away because I knew when I walked through those doors, I wasn’t going to say no.
“Last chance,” a voice yelled from the other side of the door.
I wanted to be annoyed, but I laughed because, of course, they were waiting for me. These men were going to be the death of me.
I noticed the camera on the doorbell. “Open up,” I said, as it immediately opened revealing a shirtless Hunter. “Oh, for fuck’s sake really?”
He shrugged, “I’m not above playing a little dirty or maybe making this decision easier for you.”
I walked past him to Romeo in nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs walking from the kitchen. It was an open concept and the dining room, living room and kitchen were all in the same space with a beautiful view of the mountains.
“Seriously?” I snapped.
Romeo smirked, coming towards me with a tray of drinks.
“I hate wearing clothes at home and I just got out of the shower,” he said, presenting me with a glass of amber liquid, what looked like a margarita and a glass of white wine. “Plus, I expected you a little later. I thought maybe you would make a few laps around the block before you walked around and then came into the building.”
I don’t know if I should be impressed or annoyed that he kind of knew me so well. I thought about walking around, but the wind had a bite to it, which meant that I did not want to walk around in it. I grabbed the amber liquid, contemplating if I needed something a little stronger. Romeo raised a brow at my choice, and I drank all of it at once. My body stilled, waiting for the expected burn, but it never came. It was smooth and smoky, telling me it should have been sipped and not taken like a shot.
“That was sexy, Val,” Romeo said, grabbing the margarita, holding out the wine for Hunter.
He took it, ushered me to the couch with his hand at the small of my back and I could feel his heat through a couple of layers.
“Let me take your coat,” he said, pulling it off me along with my scarf and Yeti beanie.
Even though I had on jeans with a long-sleeve shirt, I felt naked. Dammit, I should have kept the drink so I would have had something to hold. When I got nervous, I tended to fidget and just as I was going to sit down, I decided against it. I looked out the window, seeing the beautiful snow capped mountains as clouds were rolling in.
“I have the contract here,” Hunter said, pulling my attention to him and Romeo who were standing behind me. “We can go through it, clause by clause, or if you’d like, you can look at it on your own and come back to us with any changes.”
He held out a small packet of papers making this even more real.
“Wait, before I look over this, I want to know your usernames on the site,” I blurted out because I had been dying to know.
“I like you not knowing,” Hunter smirked.
“GoRigger96,” Romeo said.
“I knew that was one of you,” I grinned. “Come on Hunter, tell me, please.”
“SwitchRus,” Romeo said with a smirk.
“Dammit, I was going to make her work for it,” Hunter scowled.
“Thanks, Ro,” I said, blowing him a kiss.
Hunter rolled his eyes. “Can we get back to the contract?”
“Is this a good time to tell you I’ve never been in a contract,” I said, walking to the sofa needing to sit down. “I kind of dated a man who was a dom, but we never had anything like this in an official capacity. We met at the local club and then went our separate ways.”
“He never made you sign anything?” Hunter scowled.
I shook my head.
“He never asked you about your wants and needs?” He seemed angrier.
“Did you go over what you were willing to do and not do?” Romeo also looked mad. “Your hard and soft limits?”
“No, we just played and if there was something I wasn’t liking I would say red, but sometimes we did it again to make sure that?—”
“He made you do what you didn’t like to do again?” Hunter growled.
“Uh, yes,” I said, feeling embarrassed. “He said to make sure it wasn’t a one-time thing.”
Their anger made me feel stupid. I knew something wasn’t right with the arrangement, but I wanted the attention from the hot older man. Saying no meant he would leave me and younger me thought I could handle it.
“What did he make you do again?” Hunter clipped.
“Uh….” My mind went completely blank as I started to panic, wondering what they would say when they found out what I let happen.
Romeo hit Hunter in the abs walking up to me. “You don’t always have to have a contract, but it’s valuable information for both parties. It protects you, but it seems he skipped over it because he was a fucking asshole.”
I knew he wasn’t a good guy, but I liked that an older man had wanted me and most of the time I had fun. Mostly.
“Why did it end?” Hunter composed himself a little more and didn’t sound so angry.
I pursed my lips, not wanting to say, but I knew I needed to because I knew they wouldn’t let it go that easily.
“He pressured me to let him share me with his friends again,” I said, trying not to get lost in the memory of seeing his four friends there and the things they liked to do.
“Again?” Romeo’s nostrils flared.
“How many times did he do it?” Hunter clipped, sitting on his haunches in front of me.
Their anger was alarming. I knew it wasn’t directed at me, but it was putting salt in a wound that was still healing.
“Is this necessary?” I snapped, hating how vulnerable I felt.
“No.”
“Yes.”
They spoke at the same time, but Hunter’s yes was louder by far.
“No,” Romeo said, glaring at Hunter. “You don’t have to do anything you are uncomfortable with.”
Hunter scowled. “This is why contracts are important. We all need to set our boundaries because we all need to know. This isn’t just for my pleasure or Ro’s pleasure. This is for all our pleasure. You are an equal part of this.”
I looked away, biting my lip before I got emotional. They weren't telling me something I didn’t already know. It was better to play dumb than to face the fact that he took advantage of me, guilted me into doing things he said he liked and manipulated me into only pleasuring him most of the time. I started to cam after that because it gave me a sense of control, especially after learning a lot about the community. I had discovered a lot about myself, like learning to say no and that no one would fight for me unless I did it.