Chapter 4
Chapter
Four
Ari
T his definitely means we’re boyfriends now. It has to, right? Will I look like a fool for not saying anything?
Problem is, the raccoon was less afraid of me than Cody looks right now. Shit. Did I force this? I only want to force him in the fun way. You know? The shove him against the wall and kiss the daylights out of him kind of way.
But only if he wants me to. Meyers only take willing victims.
I inhale my hot dog—the hot dog he brought me—and eye the rope of licorice hanging around his neck.
“Do you not like this? Being here with me?”
His hand fists into my plaid jacket. I don’t think he realizes he’s doing it. “No. I like … like it here. With you,” he adds.
I rub his thigh. “I like hockey,” I tell him.
“I know that,” he says, fighting a smile.
“Also, like hot dogs.”
“Ari!”
“And licorice.”
“Stop—”
“And you, darlin’.”
He freezes, swallows, takes a breath. “I like you, too,” he whispers. “So much.” I barely hear the last two words.
“So … then we’re boyfriends,” I dare to pronounce.
Cody laughs. It’s the first time I’ve gotten him to laugh. It’s not the first time I’ve heard it—just the first time it was because of me. My heart skips a beat.
“Don’t you think that’s moving kind of fast?” he says.
“It’s not fast enough. I want to snatch you up before someone else does.”
He fiddles with my collar, intermittently flicking his brown eyes to mine. “I’ll think about it.”
“Think about it? What’s there to think about? I’m a great guy.” I slip my hand into one of his. He uses the thumb of his free one to continue rubbing the collar of my shirt.
“You’re a great guy,” he agrees. “Or I wouldn’t bring you hot dogs.”
Don’t I know it? I’ve worked my ass off to win him over. I’ve never had to work this hard to get anyone to give me the time of day.
“But you’re okay to sit here with me like this?”
He nods. “For ten more minutes and then I have to get back to work.”
Damn work . I wanna hold him here forever.
But I get ten minutes.
“Or,” he says.
I like or. I like or a lot. “Yeah?” Tingles of anticipation pepper my skin.
“The hockey locker rooms are empty. No cameras in the back.”
Fucking, A! I yank him up so fast, dragging him away from the ice. Away from the public. He’s so damn shy, I didn’t peg him for someone who’d do depraved shit in a public locker room, but maybe he’s not shy so much as he’s timid. And it seems that the real Cody comes out as he gets braver.
I don’t waste time. As soon as we’re out of camera range, I slam him against the wall just like I wanted to. I grip his wrists in one hand, pinning them overhead, and now he’s at my mercy. First thing I do, suck his neck. His heavy mackinaw’s in the way, though. My frantic fingers find the buttons, popping them with quick flicks. I push the heavy wool off his shoulder, enough for me to feast. My teeth tease the sensitive skin at the base of his neck, pulling a filthy moan from him.
“I wanna suck your cock. Wanna make you moan like that again for me. You want that, darlin’? Want me to make you cum so hard?”
His giant eyes analyze me, the spell of lust broken for the smallest fraction of a second. “I should see if you’re any good at it before I decide if I’m gonna date you,” he says.
“That’s right,” I agree, breathing against his skin, sucking a bright hickey onto the underside of his jaw. “Test the merchandise.”
“P-Please.”
He’s still watching me with careful eyes, but the white-hot desire is clear. Somehow, the conflict reminds me of the way he was stiff in my arms as if he didn’t know what to do with his body.
That’s okay, sweets. I’m more than happy to guide you.
My body eclipses his, crowding him further into the wall. I make a point of pressing his joined wrists into the wall. “These stay here. Got it?”
“Yes.”
His body stiffness evaporates. My knees hit the worn rubber floor, and I unzip and pop the button of his jeans.
I pull his hard cock out, letting his balls hang heavy over the elastic waistband of his boxer shorts, and pull those down enough to expose his ass. I grip a handful of each cheek, and suck the middle of his shaft, right over the crooked vein zig-zagging up the front.
The fucking sound that comes out of his mouth. Pre-cum dribbles out of my cock, soaking through my cotton boxers.
“That’s it, I wanna hear you, Cody.” We’re far enough away from everyone, no one will hear him. I don’t want them to hear him. Today, those moans are for me.
I lick my way up the shaft, falling immediately in love with the taste of him. I inhale a gust of his clean, soapy scent, letting my tongue swipe over the purpling head. Cum is supposed to be salty, but not his, it’s sweet. I slurp the slippery cum away and then swallow his cock into my hot mouth.
Cody lets out a curse.
I suck a few more times, then let my tongue drag over the base, to the underside of his nuts. I roll them in my hand and suck some more, fucking him slowly with my mouth. His balls draw up, he’s about to come.
I pull off his cock.
“Ari!”
I chuckle. That may have lost me a point, but not only can’t I help myself, it’ll be better for him if I draw it out a little. I stroke his wet cock and anguished little pants rush from his lungs. He’s got his hands where I put them like a good boy. I stroke slowly until he’s away from the edge of an orgasm, then I suck him into my mouth to bring him right back to it. He cries out, threats to my good name spill from his lips.
“That’s right,” I say, after the fifth round of edging the fuck out of him. “You come when I want you to. You wanna come?”
“Please … please, Ari.”
Him begging like that owns me. It’ll convince me to do fucking anything.
His hips search for my mouth in a desperate attempt to get off, and my jaw aches from sucking him for so long, but I’d keep us in this limbo for a lot longer if we didn’t have jobs to get back to.
“Look at me, baby. Watch while I suck your fucking soul through your cock.”
I suck hard, his balls pinch, and I don’t pull off this time. Cody scrabbles against the wall, but his hands stay where I left them as I suck down his cum like a starving man, giving his nuts a gentle squeeze. Just like with the soda on his fingers, I make sure he’s clean before making my way up his body and shoving my tongue into his mouth.
It’s rough at first, as if the last remnants of our passion have to work themselves out, but it slows into something soft and romantic.
“How was that, baby?” I’m gonna have to live through the rest of our shift with a dick that’s hard as a hockey stick, but the debauched view I’ll get for the rest of the night is worth it. Do I tell him he’s a hot wreck?
There’s a sly smile on his lips. His hands finally slip from the position they’ve been glued to for the past eight-ish minutes so his hands can grip the lapels of my plaid jacket.
“It was alright.”
“Alright?” I screech. “You look like a sleepy kitten.”
“Yeah. Alright. I think the only way to know for sure is for us to do that again.”
Again. He wants to do it again. We have to get back, so it can’t be now, but there’s gonna be an again.
I have two more shifts until it’s Thanksgiving. Things progressed in a big way last shift, so do I change my timeline? That’s the big question. Maybe we need more time. At least I know he’s interested, but it wasn’t a yes. Sexy times do not a relationship make.
I need more than “interested”.
A Meyer needs a certain level of commitment. Mom left us when I was eight. As far as I can tell, she was going through something, and as an adult, I respect that, but shit like that leaves scars behind.
Intentional or not.
I’m so far in with Cody already. I’ve never felt like this before. He’s the one for me. I know it in my heart of hearts. I’m the arrogant shithead that assumed he’d be just as into me. But what if he’s not? What if I moved too quickly? Cody’s timid as fuck. Jesus, Ari Meyer, you just had to put his dick in your mouth. He seemed pretty into it, though. Will he retreat? I guess it depends on how into me he is.
This is the first time I’ve considered that he might not be as into me as I am him. I was in a damn bubble with my head in the clouds.
But that blowjob. It was toe-curling.
Hesitant as he may be, he’s still a dude. It can’t really be a bad thing, can it?
Ugh. Fuck, I dunno.
“Earth to Ari,” Mercy says. “I’m leaving at seven to take Dad to that appointment with the lawyers I can’t afford. You said you’d watch the kids.”
Fuck. I had said that, but I fucked up. When I said it, I’d totally planned on asking Rita for the night off, but I forgot. Shit. The hockey season is about to start, he had exactly two days to fly in for this appointment. My brother’s keen to make it as a coach in the National Hockey League. He was able to land a coaching job with the Canadian Hockey League this year, so he’ll be in and out of town.
I’ve been hellbent on showing him that we’re fine without him.
“Um, yep. Night off, bro. You’re all good,” I lie. Mercy doesn’t need that kind of stress—Dad brings him enough of it—so I’ll figure something out.
“Thanks, man.”
Once he’s gone and the kids are fed, I get them dressed to go out. The rink’s a public place and they all know how to skate. Even the littlest Meyer—Rachel—can get around okay using one of those ice skate trainer thingies. We’re a hockey family. We live, sleep, eat, and breathe hockey. I’ll wear a pair of skates with skateguards while I work. That way if they need me on the ice, I can be there in a jiff.
It’s totally gonna be fine.
“Where we goin’, Ari?” Dawson asks.
“Skating.”
“Sweet!” He pumps his fist.
“Our bedtime’s at nine,” Bryce says.
“Not tonight.” Merc’ll understand. But just in case … “Keep this between us and I’ll buy you an ice cream at the rink.”
“Deal.”
When Cody sees how many Meyer children I’ve brought, his eyes widen and then narrow. But at least it’s because of the children and not because of the sexy times.
I think.
“Hi,” Rachel says. “Ari said we could have ice cream.”
Shit. Cody raises a judge-y brow.
“These are my little brothers and sister,” I explain. “I was supposed to babysit, but I forgot.”
I was on the verge of something with Cody, but this looks bad. Hell, I guess it is bad, and I’m flushing any chance I had down the drain.
“They can skate,” I explain. “Bryce and Dawson both play hockey and Rachel’s in lessons.” I don’t mention that those lessons are taught by Merc and yours truly, but we’re professionals. Kind of. We know what we’re doing, anyway.
“We’re pretty damn awesome,” Dawson says.
“Kids who swear?” Cody asks.
“You guys,” I hiss. “Outside manners.” We have different manners inside the house than we do outside. It was the best we could come up with. When you don’t have a real parent, you get the rules your older siblings invent out of necessity.
Cody nods. “I’m trusting you, Ari.”
Dammit. Pressure. So much pressure.
Things seem okay, though. I give him a special smile. Bam! Instant blushing, blooming in his cheeks. Adorable.
I help all my siblings with their skates to some degree. Bryce needs help tightening his better. Dawson gets his skates on, but can’t tie them at all, so I do it for him. Rachel puts them on the wrong feet, so I get her fixed up, sliding her foot in and then holding the skate between my thighs while I lace her up. I make all of them wear helmets, elbow pads, and knee pads, much to Dawson’s dismay.
“Don’t get injured,” I warn them before they head out on the ice.
“Why would we?”
Because you’re Meyers, I don’t say. “Look after your little sister.”
“I can skate, Ari,” she says, crossing her arms. So feisty, that one. I think she’s gonna grow up to be tough and confident like Mercy.
“I know you can, sweetheart.”
I keep my eyes on them, which means there’s less time for staring dreamily at Cody. That’s probably good tonight. I doubt he’ll have any loving gazes to send my way after springing something like this on him. I sharpen skates and make sure the boys are keeping Rachel upright. They’re good older brothers and they do a good job with her. Us Meyers mature a little faster than the norm. We have to.
With the last skate sharpened, it means everyone’s out on the ice and the concession stand can take a break. I expect to see Cody looking my way, but he’s gone.
The sexiest man alive skates onto the ice.
Or, well, he tries to skate onto the ice. Oh, Lord. He cannot skate. He hasn’t even done those skates up properly and he’s gonna bust his ankle. Was he so worried about the kids that he rushed out there as soon as he could? I don’t know why he would. They’re fine. Rachel notices him struggling and skates over to assist with her skate trainer. Cody declines, clinging to the boards instead, his eyes darting in every direction.
Fuck, I’ve got to get out there. I rip off my skate guards, hop over the boards like a maniac, and rush to his rescue. I think I like rescuing him a bit too much.
I grip under his wrists to hold him upright, catching him just before he hits the ice. He collapses against me. “Lemme fix your skates, eh?”
Cody flushes pink, barely able to look at me, but nods.
“They’ll be okay,” I assure him, referring to my younger brothers and sister.
“I see that.”
Um, okay. Isn’t that why he risked his neck to skate out here?
I take him off to one of the benches and do as I’d done for the kids, holding his skate between my thighs, lacing him up nice and tight, then lead him onto the ice.
I skate backward, encouraging him with a smirky smile. He totters a bit, but bravely attempts to glide.
“There you go, baby. Bend your knees. Don’t try to walk, push your foot away from the center like you’re trying to draw a sharp C.”
He practices that for a full lap with me as his human skate helper. I keep watchful eyes on him and the kids at the same time. In a Meyer house, you learn to do a lot of things while also watching children.
“Wanna go another lap?” I ask.
He smiles. “Yes.”
I take us into a second round.
“You’re good at this,” he says.
“I’ve had some practice.” I wink, and I’m loving this, but I can’t help my curiosity. Why didn’t he learn to skate? His family owns this rink. It doesn’t add up.
“I know what you’re thinking, Ari.”
“How?”
“It’s written all over your face.”
“I respect if you don’t wanna to tell me.” Even if it’s killing me. I can tell it’s something bad. I want to smash all the bad for him. Make it go away.
“Sorry, you can’t punch this enemy, Ari. It’s … I wanted to. I grew up here. I watched all the other kids skate. I tried. But I wasn’t a natural—didn’t have the Meyer skating magic around then, I guess.”
“I am so mad that we lived on the other side of town back then. If I were here, I’d have given you Meyer skating magic.”
“Are Meyers born on ice skates?” The corner of his lip hitches into a half smile.
“Pretty much.”
“Well, I wasn’t. The kids made fun of me. Knocked me down. Pushed my face into the ice. Mom and Dad tried with lessons stuff, but it was too late. My little brain already believed what those kids said about me.”
I skid to a backward stop. He collides with my torso, and I wrap my arms around him in his thick mackinaw. “Do you still believe whatever those mean little dicks said?”
He looks away. “Well, no. Not exactly. It’s just … it didn’t stop there.”
Oh, I see. People bullied him until he retreated to the only safe place he knew of—inside himself. All his protective layers make sense. We’d moved by the time I hit high school, and I definitely saw him around, but I was a jock, and he loved science. I spent high school either playing hockey or trying to get schoolwork done in between helping Merc look after our younger siblings. I didn’t have time for much else.
“And it’s weird how it all works in your head. Those voices—ones that don’t even matter—become a soundtrack of criticism from which you base all your decisions. I’ve learned to block a lot of them out.”
But some are harder to ignore than others. He doesn’t say it out loud, but the words hang in the air anyway.
“Ugly things grow from those voices, weeds nobody planted. They wrap around you and suffocate who you could have been. Those beliefs become real, too. An identity you don’t like or want, but you’re trapped in.”
Okay, he’s right. I want to punch all that in the face, but it doesn’t have a face to punch. It’s a faceless demon he’s been fighting alone.
Not anymore. I’m here. Maybe I can’t magically make it all better, but I can support him.
“I swear I didn’t know, Codes. I fucking swear, or I would have pounded the shit out of whoever was saying shit to you.”
He laughs, and the tension coiling in my gut relaxes. “I know that now. I see that you had other priorities.”
His gaze lands on the kids. Rachel’s slipped to the ice, her brothers help her up, but I should go over there. I pull him into me, so I can hug the fuck out of him.
“Think you can skate beside me if I hold your hand?”
“If we go slow,” he says.
“Of course.”
I take his hand for the rest of the way back, and my quick little lesson has paid off for him. He’ll still need practice, but he’s already got the hang of the basic skating movement pattern.
“You fucking did it,” I say into his ear.
Cody shivers. Yeah, that kind of shiver. It goes straight to my special places, and I have to beg my dick not to get a boner in the middle of the family night skate while I’m next to my younger siblings.
“Meyer magic,” he whispers.
“C’mon, Rach. Let’s practice those drills Merc showed you,” Bryce says. Merc calls them drills for Rachel’s benefit—she wants to be like her big brothers—but they’re just simple skate techniques.
Cody clings to me, watching her. “She’s really good. Not even just for her age. I know I can’t skate, but um, I watch a lot of people skate,” he clarifies.
“Yeah, we think she’ll make it into a women’s league. She loves the ice. We have a hard time pulling her off.”
“Wish I could skate half as good as she can.”
“You will. I’m gonna make sure.” I give him a goofy grin.
Dawson tugs on my jacket. “C’we get ice cream now, Ari? You promised.”
“Yeah, c’mon.” I lift Rachel to my side, and Bryce returns her skate trainer. I hold Cody’s hand, and we slowly glide our way off the ice.
Cody watches me differently. I detect some awe, but there’s something else too. I hope to fuck it’s him falling for me as much as I already have for him. I don’t know what I’m gonna do if he rejects me after this. Never step foot in this rink for starters.
I’ve got the kids on a bench in front of the concession stand, set up with ice cream. That’s how Mercy finds us. And boy is his frown deep. Whoa. I might have misjudged his “okayness” with this.
“You said you had the night off.”
“Which I used to take them ice skating.” He crosses his arms. “Okay, fine. I forgot to take the night off, but we had fun, didn’t we guys?”
“We got ice cream,” Rachel says, proudly showing him her dripping cone.
“Yeah, at nine o’clock at night. I see that. No one’s going to sleep tonight, dude.”
“I’ll stay up with them,” I promise.
He sighs, and my stomach plummets to the bottom of an invisible cavern. This is exactly what I didn’t want—a stressed out Mercy. He’s got so much going on. All I want to do is take a load off him, but now I’ve shown him that he can’t trust me. I’m just another person who’s let him down.
Cody rushes over. “Sorry, sorry, um, Mr. Mercy, is it?”
“Mr. Meyer,” Mercy corrects.
“Yeah. Meyer. Mr. Meyer. I’m Ari’s manager and it’s my fault he had to work tonight. The guy that was supposed to work for him called in sick. I yelled at Ari so he’d come here. That’s … super bad workplace etiquette. It won’t happen again.”
Merc’s brows pinch together. He looks between Cody and me because, okay, it’s pretty obvious that a guy like Cody isn’t gonna intimidate a guy like me. He doesn’t look like he yells much, either. But Merc has no idea how much Cody’s icy glares affect me. Cody wouldn’t have to do much to get me to do anything for him.
Meanwhile, I’m over the moon that Cody would even try to get me out of hot water with my brother. I love Merc to death, but he’s fucking menacing at the best of times.
Great, now I’m staring at Cody, swallowing, licking my lips—my cock’s urge to be inside him won’t dampen until it gets what it wants—finding it impossible to fight the urge to be closer to him. So I don’t, moving next to him just so I can live in the airspace around him. Merc doesn’t miss any of that, and his brows raise in a new way, settling into a smirk.
I’m so fucking busted.
“Yeah, guess I can’t be too mad at you for coming in to work. Okay, c’mon little Meyers. We’re going home.”
“Wait!” Rachel says. She bounces over to Cody, signaling for him to lean down, planting a wet, ice-cream-stained kiss on his cheek. Oh, man. That’s gonna bother him. He doesn’t like icky and dirty things. “Thanks for the ice cream.”
“You’re welcome, sweetheart,” he says.
There’s a sticky white lip imprint where she kissed him. He doesn’t react, doesn’t say a word about it.
We wave bye as they file away from us, and I lean into Cody. “It’s driving you crazy, isn’t it?”
“She’s adorable, but it’s so sticky,” he complains.
“Here.” I reach across Cody to the concession stand and grab one of the wet nap packages, opening and unfolding it. Taking his chin between my fingers, I maneuver his face so I can gently wipe away all traces of drying ice cream. “There.”
With my heart beating in my stomach, I press my lips to his freshly cleaned cheek. My lungs heave, filling with the simple joy of touching him.
I pull away; he melts into a smile. “You’re in so much trouble,” he says.
“Why?”
“Bringing your siblings to work?”
“I brought them to family skate night. I just also happened to be working,” I say.
His smile grows. I can’t be in that much trouble.
He grips the lapels of my shirt, pulling me to him, returning my cheek kiss with a kiss of his own, planting his lips against my jaw. My body rushes with currents. My cock wakes up, ready for action, and my hips jerk involuntarily. My skin fucking burns under those lips. Stunned doesn’t begin to describe how my face must look.
And there are people around now, filing off the ice. One of the pretty women who’s offered me her number before is nearby. Was he marking his territory? Fuck that’s cute. He can mark me anytime he wants.
I definitely want to mark him.
“We have one shift left before Thanksgiving weekend,” he says. “I’ll tell you my answer then.”
“I think my chances are good,” I say. Tonight erased any worries I had.
He smacks me. “Don’t get cocky. My answer’s still up in the air, anything could sway it one way or the other.”
“I’m a Meyer. We come by cockiness naturally.” He’s totally gonna say yes. I lean in, pushing my luck, letting my lips brush over his forehead. He closes his eyes and sinks into the kiss. He lets me pull him into my arms. I want to kiss his lips again so badly, but I’ll wait until he’s officially mine.
Yeah, come this time Friday, Cody’s totally gonna be mine.