Chapter 15 #2
“Anyway,” Dawson drawled, “so you don’t think they should hate-fuck about it? I’d be pretty damn surprised if you weren’t behind that idea.” He shot Aidan a pointed look and he went even redder.
“It’s not that I don’t, it’s that hate-fucking doesn’t solve anything,” Aidan said, cheekbones going brick red when he got to the word fucking. “How does that help him get folded into our group?”
“Aw,” Dawson said. “You see the vision too, then.”
Aidan shot him an aggrieved look. “Seriously? If you saw the vision too, then why are you giving me shit about it?”
“Because you’re actually the most fun person on earth to give shit to,” Cam said and then smacked a hand over his mouth when both Aidan’s and Dawson’s heads swiveled in his direction.
Dawson looked absolutely delighted, but Aidan’s jaw was near the floor.
“I told you,” Dawson said, laughing now. “Knew it would happen eventually, rook.”
“I don’t even want to know,” Aidan said, but at least his grumbling seemed good-natured enough.
“The answer is exactly what Cam said,” Dawson admitted. “It’s too much fun to give you shit.”
Aidan sighed heavily. “Trying to remember why I was looking forward to you joining the Thunder.”
“To kick your extra points?” Dawson teased.
“I’d make Levi do it,” Aidan said.
Dawson slapped a hand across his heart and gasped overdramatically. “Replaced that easy, rook. Can you even believe it?”
“Imagine Levi trying to punt,” Cam observed. “I’d pay good money to see that.”
“Yeah, what about you, Aidan? Not gonna make an attempt on your own? Just gonna serve your boy up to be humiliated?” Dawson teased.
“Who says he’d be humiliated?” Aidan argued.
Dawson looked over at Cam. “He’s so dickmatized he legitimately thinks Levi is good at everything. Newsflash, bud, he’s not.”
“Not sure I agree with that,” Aidan said primly. “But, to get back to the actual topic, which is not how ‘dickmatized’ I am or how enjoyable it is to make fun of me, but how we can get Ramsey to be part of the group.”
“Aren’t we already doing it?” Dawson asked. “Wes made sure he showed up tonight.”
“We could do more,” Aidan said. “We gotta fix his issues with Nate first. I’m gonna talk to him.”
“To Ramsey?”
Aidan shook his head. “Nate. There’s clearly something going on, and I think we can deal with it. Without the hate-fucking. ’Cause there’s no way that’s gonna solve anything.”
“Seems pretty ballsy, thinking you can fix this,” Dawson said, but historically, Cam thought Aidan made a pretty good argument that he could.
“And what, you just wanna leave that guy out to dry?” Aidan gave Dawson a sharp look, and Dawson’s expression melted from teasing to understanding in a second.
“I get it,” Dawson said.
“I’d think you would,” Aidan said, nodding. “Didn’t leave you out to dry either, Hall. Thought about it. But I didn’t.”
“What?” Dawson looked shocked. “But Marty—”
Aidan picked up his water and stood. “Who do you think gave him the idea?” he asked.
The game was restarting, but Dawson was staring at Aidan’s retreating back like he couldn’t quite believe what he’d said.
“What is it?” Cam murmured. Not sure he’d followed what had just happened.
“I thought . . .” Dawson shook his head, like he was trying to clear it. “Marty approached me, after Baltimore released me. Everyone else wanted a tryout, for me to come in and kick with some other guys, but not him. The Thunder were the only team to offer me an outright contract.”
“You didn’t know it was Aidan.” Cam was getting it now.
“We hadn’t talked in years. I mean, the kind of easy small talk you exchange on the field before games, sure, but nothing more than that. I wouldn’t have even said we were still friends.”
Cam reached over and squeezed Dawson’s knee. “Guess you were.”
“Guess we were.” Dawson sounded mystified still.
Cam didn’t know whether he felt grateful that someone had given a shit about Dawson still—and someone who was in a position to do something about it—or a little envious that it had been Aidan.
At least he didn’t need to worry about Aidan harboring feelings for Dawson.
It was obvious how head over heels he was for Levi.
“I think . . .I think Aidan’s one of those dudes where if you’re one of his guys once, you’re one of his guys forever,” Cam suggested.
“Yeah.” Dawson looked like he was just now realizing this.
“You think he can fix this thing between Ramsey and Nate?”
Dawson shrugged. “If anyone can do it . . .”
A second later Elliott Jones sniped in a beauty of a shot and they were all on their feet, yelling about it. “Shit!” Cam exclaimed as the suite celebrated the goal. “That was sick.”
“Sure was,” Dawson agreed, and they exchanged a smile.
“It’s no football game,” Dawson said as he let them into his apartment a few hours later, “but that was a great way to spend an evening.”
“Yeah, for sure,” Cam agreed. “I’ve not really watched hockey much before.”
“Everyone told me this was a hockey town, and I can see that now,” Dawson said, toeing off his shoes and hanging up his jacket. Cam followed suit and then trailed after him into the kitchen.
“We’re six and oh and I think everyone’s getting behind us now,” Cam argued. He’d heard that too, though—that Toronto only cared about hockey, about how their Leafs hadn’t won a Stanley Cup in sixty-some-odd years.
But there’d definitely been a big cheer from the crowd between the second and third period when they’d shown the team in their suite on the jumbotron.
“Careful, rook,” Dawson joked, “you’re gonna jinx us.”
“Never,” Cam said stoutly.
“Yeah,” Dawson said and leaned in, pinning Cam against the counter. “I think you’re gonna have to undo that, rook. You got any ideas?” His voice was teasing and lit Cam up inside.
When it came to Dawson, Cam always had ideas.
Cam wound his arms around Dawson’s neck, pulling him in closer. Kissing him with everything he was feeling but hadn’t said yet. “Yeah. Take me to bed.”
He thought he’d been clear enough, but when they reached the bedroom, Dawson pressing him down to the bed, Dawson still hesitated.
“You’re sure?” he murmured against Cam’s lips. “Tomorrow—”
“You’ll be gentle,” Cam said.
“Oh yeah?” Dawson tugged Cam’s sweatshirt off, and then his fingers went to the button of Cam’s jeans. Tugged them down.
“But not too gentle.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. I know how you like it.” And he did, by now. So well that it always took Cam a little aback whenever he realized Dawson didn’t seem to realize what they were doing. How they were so much more than just friends and fuck buddies. Everyone else saw it. But not Dawson.
Maybe he just wasn’t ready yet. When Cam thought of how Dawson had genuinely believed that nobody had wanted him any longer, it was hard to be surprised.
He just needed more time. More patience. And Cam could give him both of those things, freely. Especially when it was as easy as it was tonight, Dawson’s mouth hot and sweet on his, his touch leaving trails of aching fire through him.
Pushing Cam farther back on the bed, Dawson teased his cock with his tongue as he slicked up his fingers and slid one in, careful and gentle.
Cam had always thought it would be easier if Dawson’s affection was obvious, but tonight, it felt bigger than Cam could hold, the warmth in his eyes and the clear tenderness in his touch.
“Harder,” Cam begged, spreading his legs wider. Needing more. Needing Dawson to push him, to push all these feelings away, even for a moment.
“God, you’re so hot like this,” Dawson murmured, sounding blown apart.
He slid another finger alongside the first, but then he leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to the crease of Cam’s hip.
Cam couldn’t squirm away from it. He could only lie there and feel it, the perfect juxtaposition of Dawson’s insistent fingering, fast and a little rough, and the soft, thoughtful look on his face.
Pleasure spiked through Cam as he teased a third finger around his rim, rubbing against that spot deep inside. He groaned deep, limbs shaking as Dawson took him apart.
“Come on,” Cam begged. “I’m ready—I want it. Want you.” Dawson needed to do it before Cam lost his brain-to-mouth filter and along with getting fucked into the mattress Cam confessed all the half-realizations and feelings he was still pretending he wasn’t having.
“Want you too. So fucking much.” Dawson pulled off his shirt. Shoved his jeans down. And a second later was crowding against Cam, skin to skin. “Make me crazy.”
Cam made him crazy? Cam almost laughed then, a little hysterically. Dawson didn’t even know how he was turning him inside out. Making him want things he’d never given a second thought to before.
He looked at Aidan and Levi, with their clear sense of possession between them, and craved more. Not from just anyone, but from Dawson. Thought about how Dawson had grabbed his hand during a particularly fraught moment in the third period and held on long past it.
It would’ve been so much easier—but maybe not better—if all he’d wanted from Dawson was this. Him pushing in, cock hard and slick as it moved inside him, lighting him up from the inside out.
His hips settled against Cam’s hips, Dawson groaning with it, and Cam turned away, burying his face in his elbow. His face and all the embarrassing noises that he couldn’t help making.
Dawson gave him a sharp smack on the thigh. “None of that. Let me hear you. Tell me how good this dick makes you feel.”
Cam squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them again. Wondered if Daws even knew how he looked right now. “Amazing,” he admitted breathlessly.
“Gonna make you feel even better,” Dawson said, beginning to thrust in earnest, his fingers wrapped around Cam’s knee, that same tender-rough contrast turning Cam inside out.
Cam couldn’t even tell him to stop, because it felt too good, too right. He was lost to it. Dawson tucked his body under his, attuning every nerve Cam possessed into his frequency.