41. Novi #2
“My baby … does that mean I’m married to a llama now?”
“Ah … sure.”
The firemen are out of their shirts, huge muscular bodies rippling in the party lights.
Dex and Tripp are still arguing about balls.
Ezra is screaming something about bestiality.
Lachie has stopped cheering and has joined the strippers, swinging his shirt in the air. It’s not until he loses his balance and almost face-plants like Ezra did earlier that Easton and Connor step in.
“Bedtime for you,” Connor says.
“You’re not my dad.”
“You’re drunk,” Easton grits out, narrowly avoiding a flailing arm.
Then the brothers are somehow in a three-way brawl and argument that it’s too hard to keep track of which Kiki says what.
“Am not?—”
“Are too?—”
“You’re just like Connor?—”
“Hey! I’m so much better now?—”
“You take that back!”
“Never!”
“My feelings are getting hurt here, guys?—”
Lachie tackles Easton, and the two of them wrestle on the ground as Connor tries to break them up.
“Fuck it.” Ezra stands suddenly. “No one can say that Ezra Palashhhhhtook won’t do anything for his man! I’m coming for you, baby!”
He runs at the llama, and the sudden movement startles it. The animal takes off, Ezra chasing, and the crashing around inside the house makes Gabe pause.
“Ahh …”
Aleks sighs and sits his ass on the outdoor coffee table. Then he turns up the music to drown out the noise inside. He plucks out one of Oskar’s twenty-dollar bills. “Take it off! Take it off!”
That’s all Gabe needs to encourage him.
We all watch the show, pretending to ignore Ezra’s shouts.
“Anton, wait! One kiss should break the curse and turn you back into a man! Just hold still!”
I lean over to Anton, who is sitting right next to where Ezra was. “Should you put stop to that?”
“Hmm … maybe.”
“Are you going to?”
“I’m curious to see if he’ll do it, honestly. It’s like a love declaration.”
“Isn’t that what getting married was?” Colby asks.
“You know,” I tell Colby, “in Russia, we must battle a cow as part of proposal.”
He stares at me for a long moment. “You’re fucking with me.”
“You will find out when you propose. But if there is no cow, do not blame me when I say no.”
“Who says I’m proposing to you?”
“Because I am not allowed grand gesture without telling first. Then it will not be surprise.”
He thinks for a second. “Fine. You don’t have to talk to me about the proposal.”
“Ty vyydesh’ za menya zamuzh.” Will you marry me?
“I don’t know enough Russian to know what the hell you said.”
That was the point. “When you figure out, you let me know.”
He tries to copy what I said under his breath.
Ezra falls back against the couch, panting hard. “It’s done.”
I don’t think I want to know what it is.
Colby turns to him. “What does ty vyydesh’ za menya zamuzh mean?”
Ezra gapes at him. “Are you hitting on me? I am a married man.”
“Yeah he is,” Anton says, wrapping an arm around him.
“You’re alive!” Ezra goes for a kiss that Anton narrowly avoids.
“Why do you have llama breath?”
“It’s your fault.”
Anton shushes him. “You’re distracting me from the strippers.”
“There are strippers ?”
Colby cuddles up to me. “Would you kiss a llama for me?”
“I would do anything for you.”
“Oh yeah?” He turns an evil grin on me. “Even strip?”
I stand up immediately. “I will show these little boys how it is done!”
The others are cheering before I even get my shirt off. I toss it Colby’s way and join the two men in their thongs. It doesn’t take long for Oskar to be beside me, and then Lachie scrambles out from under where Easton has him pinned and joins too.
When I get down to my underwear, Lachie and Oskar spank my butt as I twerk, but I do not blame them because it is a glorious ass.
Colby is laughing, Ezra and Anton are making out, because I am so hot, obviously, and Quinn’s face is bright red as he watches us between his hands.
Aleks and his boyfriend are dirty dancing, and Dex fist pumps awkwardly as Tripp drinks straight from a pitcher.
Connor has given up on his brother, Lane’s eyes are locked on Oskar, and West and Asher are both talking into the phone between them, watching like they can’t believe their eyes.
But oh yes, boys. Radimir Novicov has moves on and off the ice.
No matter how many of our friends are here though, I only have eyes for one man. The man currently waving Oskar’s discarded cash my way.
The one with hearts in his eyes.
Who puts love in my heart.
It took us a very long time to get here, so I appreciate every moment with him more than ever. Even when we are with the Collective. And a llama.
He is my whole world.
A loud bleat comes from behind me, and his attention immediately redirects.
Aleks freezes. “I don’t want to turn around, do I?”
“Nope.”
Connor scrubs a hand through his hair. “Seriously, Lachie? Where the fuck were you?”
He looks just as surprised as us to see more animals. “Umm … just a guess, but I think there might have been a farm involved.”
That’s my cue to leave. I slip past the others, grab my clothes, and then pull Colby back through the house.
“I am sure they have a free bedroom here somewhere,” I tell him.
“I didn’t know we’re staying the night.”
“We are not.” I wink at him. “But I can think of far better things to do to you while they deal with the animals.”
Colby’s grip on my hand tightens as I lead him upstairs. “Not our monkeys, not our circus.”
I pull him to a stop on the landing. “There are monkeys here? I take it back. Collective parties need firemen on speed dial.”
“No, it’s a saying. Like a phra—” Colby stops himself and narrows his gaze at me. “But you know that, don’t you?”
“Da.”
“You’re lucky I love you.”
“Pfft. You are lucky to love me.”
Colby rolls his eyes with all the love in his heart, and I wrap my arm around his back and pull him against me.
“To be serious?—”
“Is that even possible with you?”
“Ignoring that. No jokes. I am lucky that you love me. I am privileged to even have the chance for you to love me. And I don’t want to mess this up.
The world might love Novi, hockey extraordinaire, but only you get to love Radimir Novicov, the real me.
The scared boy who grew up to be a scared man. ”
He cocks his head. “But you’re not scared now, right?”
“The only thing scary in my life is the possibility of ever losing you.”
Colby’s lips curve at the edge. “Then I guess we better make sure that never happens.”
I kiss him in agreement. “Never.”