Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ALEXIO
On the plane, I watched as we began our descent into Boston. There was something to be said about flying private when I was solo. I didn’t do it all the time. I rarely splurged on this kind of cash, but I also wasn’t in the mood to hang around Seattle with my thumb up my ass when I could be home.
When I could be with him.
When I could be fixing everything that I let go wrong because I left without him knowing how I felt.
Pulling my phone out of the holder, I opened up the last string of texts I’d exchanged with Jonah. We’d been talking this whole time—about everything, about nothing. About his breakfast and the weather, and the shoe his cat tried to eat.
But the last thread was different.
It was last night, in my hotel room. I was alone, horny, missing him so badly I ached in places I didn’t know I could ache.
Me: I can’t wait to see you.
Jonah: What will you do?
Me: Pin you to the door, suck your brains out through your dick, eat your ass, then fuck you senseless.
Jonah: I’m already down one since. Maybe leave those alone?
Me: Fine. But am going to make you come so hard you hear the voice of god.
Jonah: always wondered what he sounded like.
Jonah: I want to know what you’ll feel like inside me. Sometimes I swear to god you could fuck me cited.
Me: I will give it my best shot.
There wasn’t a chance after that I was staying in Seattle any longer than I had to.
No one asked me to stay when I told them I was leaving. Well, except Vanya, but he was always in my fucking business. Luckily, he didn’t ask to come along. He just told me to tell everyone hi and to give Athena a kiss from him.
It took me a moment to remember that was Jonah’s cat.
Twisting my coin in my fingers, I fought the urge to call him as the plane began to taxi.
It was late afternoon, and I had no idea what Jonah was doing now, but I knew that he didn’t have a game, and Nikos had already texted me, letting me know that the court thing was over and Jonah had gotten the power of attorney.
It meant they could move forward with Peter and get him somewhere he could be safe. It meant he could maybe start treatment that would make his life a little less…whatever it was.
A small part of me wondered if maybe he should suffer after everything he’d put his boys through, but the bigger part of me didn’t believe that. And I knew Jonah agreed, considering he was doing everything he could to make all of this happen.
It was why I liked him.
It was why I—
No. It was too early for those three words.
The plane came to a stop, and I stretched my back, wincing at my fresh bruises.
My ribs were swollen from a nasty check I’d taken that had sent me flying into the goal pipe, and I’d taken a puck to the jaw.
It clipped my bucket first, which had knocked me sideways and taken the momentum out of it, so nothing was broken.
No teeth needed to be repaired or replaced.
But I was a little worse for the wear and once again starting to think about retirement and what it would be like to not have my body beat to shit by the end of the season.
It was warmer now in Boston than it had been just a few weeks ago. There were clouds in the sky making it hazy, but it was creeping toward April, and the cherry trees were reaching the end of their bloom.
As I climbed into my car and started down the road, I could see a few of them starting to sprout their small green leaves.
The city was starting to get busy again now that the deep ache of winter was passing. I felt more alive then too. I never did fully adjust to being away from the coast, even if it felt like it had been a hundred years since I’d seen Cypriot sands beneath my feet.
I took a breath and imagined what it would be like taking Jonah there.
Watching him stand beside the water. He wouldn’t be able to see the expanse of ocean in front of him, but he would feel it.
Subtle, soft crashing waves over his feet, the breeze whipping his wavy curls around his face, the smile he’d give me because there was something about that place that was so… freeing.
I was never much of a historian, but I used to think of the ancient feet that had once walked those same sands I grew up on, and it gave me the strangest sense of purpose. The strangest sense of…connection.
The coin in my pocket felt heavy suddenly, but in a good way. A reminder that while I was part of something bigger, the small pieces mattered too. That I was allowed to do hockey and be good at it, and take care of my family, but also have something for me.
I pressed my foot harder to the gas pedal and felt a punch of relief when I reached Jonah’s building.
There was a single parking spot across the street, so I snagged it before the SUV with yoga stickers all over the back could get it. The person behind the wheel in massive shades flipped me off, but I ignored them as I hopped across the street and made my way inside.
There was a small queue for the elevator, so I took the stairs, my knees protesting through every flight, but eventually, I was on Jonah’s landing, slightly winded, but my heart was beating fast for another reason.
I was going to see him. Maybe. Probably.
And when I did, I was going to finally fucking kiss him.
Hurrying down the end of the hall, I came to a skidding halt in front of his door. This…was his door, wasn’t it? It looked wrong. Like I was on the wrong floor. Or maybe I was just so fucking jet-lagged I didn’t know left from right or up from down.
I lifted my fist and knocked and was met with silence. So I knocked again.
Then one more time.
Then I looked down to see a doormat with a huge bird reading Welcome. This was not Jonah’s door.
Fucking fuck.
Counting in my head, I realized I was one story short, so I raced back to the stairs as my breath stuttered in my lungs and took the steps two at a time. I was nearly gasping for breath by the time I came to the top of the landing, and that was the moment Jonah’s front door opened.
I froze as he stepped out, but it took me only half a second to realize it wasn’t Jonah at all.
It was his brother. I’d never met Micah, but I’d seen him on videos plenty of times.
They looked so much alike except for the fact that Micah’s eyelids were closed, dark lashes always fanning down, and he had a scar on the left side of his jaw.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying with the blood thundering in my ears, but then I caught a single word. “Brut.”
My face bloomed hotly. I didn’t actually wear Brut, though at this point, it didn’t matter. I’d thought about changing my cologne a dozen times, but I realized it was one of the ways Jonah knew it was me. How he always knew it was me.
I waited for him to say my name as he poked his head out into the hall, but he didn’t. He was silent. Then he hugged his brother goodbye, and the door shut again.
Pressing myself against the wall, I squeezed my eyes shut as Micah moved past me. His cane nearly skimmed my shoe before it hit the stairs, and he took them quickly and furiously, like he was attempting to get them to collapse beneath his feet.
This moment was another faux pas. I knew that. They couldn’t see me—it was my job to tell them I was there. Hurrying to Jonah’s door, I took only a single second, and then I knocked.
It flew open, and he appeared, my fucking angel. The man I wanted to be my everything.
“There’s no way you left anything, dude. You didn’t even bring anyth—” He stopped abruptly, then swallowed. “Alexio?”
“Hello.”
“Was that you a second ago?”
“It was.”
“Fuck you! I—”
I was on him after that. I couldn’t stop myself. My hands flew to his waist, and I backed him into the apartment, kicking the door shut before spinning him and pinning him to the wood. My nose went to his neck, lips grazing over his hammering pulse, and he held me too, like he needed me.
Christ, I was so fucking gone.
“You’re a dick,” he grumbled.
“I know,” I murmured against his warm, flushed skin. “I know. I’m sorry. I panicked.”
His hands flew into my hair, curling it around his fingers, and he tugged just hard enough to sting. “You’re early.”
I laughed and nuzzled his jaw with my own. “I know that too.” My breath left my lungs with a harsh tremble, and it took all of my self-control not to just kiss him right there. But I needed to know he wanted it even half as much as I did. “Jonah.”
He hummed softly.
“I want to kiss you. Fuck. Fuck, please let me kiss you.”
He pulled back, brows lifted, eyes wide. “Isn’t that my line?”
“Your…line?”
His mouth twitched. “You said I’d have to beg you for it. But this sounds an awful lot like you’re begging me.”
“I am. I’ll get down on my knees if you want,” I murmured.
He swallowed heavily. “I have enjoyed you on your knees.” His hand moved to my cheek, cupping it softly before his thumb explored to the left, tracing the shape of my lips. “You have a pretty mouth.”
“So do you. It’s all I could think about while I was away.”
He sucked in a breath. “You didn’t tell me that. We sexted, and you didn’t say anything close to that.”
I bowed my head. “I know. I needed to say it in person. I needed you to understand how fucking desperate I am for your lips and tongue.”
The moment was quiet and a little tense, and then Jonah’s touch dragged down toward the front of my throat. He still said nothing.
I swallowed thickly, then asked, “Do you need me to beg?”
“I need you to fulfill your promises. There was something about being on your knees and sucking my brains out, then giving me sight through orgasms?”
I burst into laughter and grabbed him by the waist and lifted. He jumped with me, his freakishly flexible legs wrapping around my waist, and I used my hips to pin him to the door. Fuck, he was so…everything.
He was everything.
“I did some research online, and apparently, scientists are claiming no amount of amazing orgasms can create sight in those who were born without eyes.”