CHAPTER SEVEN #2
“Well, I think our stuff got all jumbled up together then. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.” Tanner looked and sounded surprisingly contrite.
Leif forced himself to take a deep breath. “So you accidentally stole my key card last night. Fine. You couldn’t have bothered to return it before then?”
“I tried knocking on your door last night!” Tanner protested. “You didn’t answer. I was going to text you, but I don’t have your number.”
“All you had to do was slide it under my door or drop it off at the front desk,” Leif pointed out.
Tanner grimaced. “I didn’t think about that.”
“Yet you just thought that this was the way to do it?” Disbelieving, he waved a hand at Tanner, who still had his pants halfway down.
“Oh.” Tanner looked at his lap as if just now realizing that Leif was fully dressed and he wasn’t. “Uhh, shit. I can explain.”
“Try me.”
Tanner lifted his hips, tucked his still-hard cock into his underwear, then dragged his pants up to his hips. He didn’t do them up though.
“Okay, so, um, funny story.”
Leif suddenly noticed he had a beanie on and his hair looked … wet where it peeped out in damp little curls.
Ugh, given Tanner’s history, the wet hair probably means he probably blew off a team event to go hook up with someone, Leif thought sourly. Or maybe he hooked up with a teammate. Leif wondered who, then realized it didn’t matter.
How dare Tanner waltz in here after fucking someone, hoping Leif would take his sloppy seconds.
“Do you mind telling me this funny story?” he snapped.
“Oh, right.” Tanner looked surprised, like he hadn’t realized that he needed to do that part aloud. “So, I got back from a pool party at Dustin Fowler and Charlie Monaghan’s house and thought I’d see if you were back …”
A little of the tension in Leif’s shoulders eased.
Okay, so maybe he’d been wrong about the hookup but he still couldn’t get over his annoyance as Tanner described coming into Leif’s room, checking it out, and then deciding to jerk off on Leif’s bed.
“And it never once occurred to you that this was inappropriate?” Leif snapped. “Who breaks into someone’s room and masturbates in their bed? You, apparently!”
“Uhh.” Tanner got a sheepish look on his face. “Well, okay, I didn’t really think about it that way. I just got caught up in the moment waiting for you to get back! I was thinking about last night and how hot it was and … I’m sorry.”
By the end, he looked almost miserable.
“Do you believe me?” Tanner asked, looking up at him with big dark eyes.
There were little grooves between his brows that made him look worried.
Like it actually mattered to him that Leif believed him.
“That I’m genuinely sorry and I wasn’t trying to be weird?
I made a mistake and I’ll own it. I feel bad now if I made you uncomfortable, or whatever. ”
Leif sighed. Weirdly enough, he actually did believe it.
Would a normal person do any of this? No.
Had Tanner Clayton ever been normal a day in his life?
Probably not. “Yeah, I believe you. Don’t ever do it again or I’m calling hotel security.
” He pointed a finger at Tanner. “And give me my card and get out.”
“Aww, man. Okay.” Tanner sighed, picked something up off the bed, then set it on the nightstand. “There’s your card. No more shenanigans, I swear.”
Leif didn’t trust that promise at all, but he nodded. “Okay.”
He grabbed the card off the nightstand and walked to the door. He opened it, went into the hall, and tested the card. Thankfully, it let him right in.
When he returned to the room, Tanner stood beside the bed, his trousers hanging low on his hips, revealing a slice of his Adonis belt and the top of his underwear. It was, unfortunately, a good look on him. Even with the wet hair and beanie still on.
“Can I ask you something?” Tanner asked, biting his lip.
Leif eyeballed him. “I guess. I might not answer.”
“Um, are you strictly a top?”
Leif rolled his eyes. “Not strictly. But … usually. Depends on the guy I’m with.”
“Huh, okay.”
“Why?”
“I dunno. I was just curious.” Tanner shrugged and reached for his fly. “I was thinking about how hot last night was and then I started wondering about what you liked in bed and how hot it would be to rub my cock all over your abs.”
Leif suppressed a shiver, although he still wasn’t cold.
“Too bad you blew any chance of finding out,” he said drily.
“Wait, you mean there was a chance before this?” Tanner froze, hands on his zipper.
“Of us hooking up again?”
Tanner nodded.
Leif grimaced. “I should say no, but I keep making a liar of myself.”
Tanner smirked a little. “We are pretty hot together.”
“Last night wasn’t bad,” Leif admitted.
“Wasn’t bad?” Tanner snorted and stepped closer. “Sure, dude. You keep lying to yourself that way.”
“I’m not lying!” Leif protested. “It wasn’t bad.”
“Okay, but it was more than that,” Tanner countered. “It was fucking sizzling and you know it.”
“Sex is not a fajita!”
“No, it isn’t. But you were pretty filling.” Tanner winked.
Leif groaned. “Oh my God, Clayton. What is wrong with you?”
Tanner shrugged. “Dunno. People have been trying to figure that out my whole life.”
“You should be taken to a lab and studied,” Leif threw back.
“Probably. I just hope they’re sexy experiments.”
Leif groaned. “Would you shut the fuck up?”
“Probably not on my own,” Tanner said with a shrug, his trousers slipping a little lower. If he didn’t have an absolute shelf of an ass like every other hockey player out there, they would have been pooled around his ankles. “But you know how to shut me up.” He winked.
Leif groaned. “Do you ever stop flirting?”
“If you want me to, yeah.” Tanner suddenly looked serious.
“I mean, I fucking love this shit. Our flirting and poking at each other is super fun for me. But I do feel kinda bad that I, uh, broke into your room and was jerking off and if I’m legit making you uncomfortable, I’ll—I’ll back off.
I’ll keep the shit on the ice, and we can go back to just being annoyed at each other there. ”
Leif hesitated, surprised by both Tanner’s sincerity and the fact that he wasn’t immediately jumping all over the offer. That was what he wanted, right? So why wasn’t he saying that?
He could. If he told Tanner that he never wanted to hook up with him again and to lose the flirty banter and keep it professional, he honestly thought Tanner would attempt to behave.
So why did picturing that feel … disappointing? Why did that feel flat and boring?
“If you don’t want this anymore, that’s cool,” Tanner said holding his hands up, palms out. “I don’t want to pressure anyone. But this shit is fun and you know it. You enjoy this too.”
“Damn it,” Leif swore, because he really did.
“So own it, man. Admit you get off on this too.”
“I …” Leif hesitated.
Tanner made a face. “Look, I don’t want to legit pressure you into something you don’t want. Active consent is hot.”
Only Tanner can say that and not sound like an absolute tool, Leif thought with a sigh. That was the worst part. He legitimately meant it. And Leif could scoff at the idea because it was Tanner but Leif didn’t want to pressure anyone into sex either. Or, have it done to him.
“So you need to decide if we’re doing this or if we’re not,” Tanner said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Doing what, exactly?”
“Poking at each other until it explodes into a super hot hookup.”
“You want to keep arguing and hooking up?” Leif asked, still disbelieving.
“Yeah. I mean, I don’t fucking want to date you or anything so don’t get any ideas.”
A burst of laughter escaped Leif before he could stop it. “Definitely not.”
“But … why not? We could hook up while we’re here, then maybe hook up when the Rockets are visiting Boston, or the Harriers are playing in New York.” He shrugged.
“And it wouldn’t mean anything,” Leif said slowly.
“Exactly.”
“I’d keep dating guys in New York and you’d keep fucking everyone in Boston.”
Leif winced internally at the thought. Would that bother him? This wasn’t usually how he did things.
“I’m not fucking everyone in Boston,” Tanner said disparagingly. “There are straight dudes and lesbians and ace people in Boston, you know.”
“And those are the only reason someone wouldn’t be attracted to you,” Leif said, fighting back a smile.
“Obviously. I’m irresistible otherwise.” Tanner gave him a wide smile.
Leif snorted. “Sure you are.”
“So, are you in?”
“I’d have to tell the guys that I was hooking up with someone else … I mean, just to be safe and honest, right?”
“Yeah.” Tanner gave him a confused look. “Obviously. Don’t you already?”
Leif glanced away. “I—I usually just have sex with one person at a time.”
Tanner smirked. “No threesomes or foursomes or moresomes?”
“No. That wasn’t what I meant anyway, but … no.”
“I think they’re fun.”
“You would.”
Tanner shrugged. “Honestly, we don’t even have to talk about what happens after this tournament is over. Let’s just have fun while we’re here and go from there. You’re single right now, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Leif said.
Tanner stepped closer and hooked his finger in the waistband of Leif’s trousers. “So let’s not overcomplicate this. Tell me, Princess, do you want this or not?”