Chapter Sixteen #3
“It’s not our shelter,” Jax said, but before he could expound, Chris ran away with the prospect, listing things they could do with the money.
Luca tuned him out. He had other things to worry about, namely what date he could take Chris on in Ottawa now that he could actually officially date the man.
He scrolled through option after option.
They had the whole afternoon and most of the evening once they landed, a rare day off on the road.
The time ought to be set aside for a team bonding excursion, but no one wanted to suggest doing something together after the disaster on Halloween, not even Chris.
As Luca tabbed through walking tour after sightseeing suggestion, all of it left him cold.
He was probably doing Ottawa an injustice, but nothing sounded as spectacular as he wanted it to be.
Couldn’t the NHL play in Paris? Or in Venice?
Ice hockey on the canals would be amazing.
Although, the water was so polluted people would fall through the ice when all the garbage started generating heat.
Maybe Amsterdam’s canals would be a safer bet.
And Amsterdam must have something wonderfully romantic Luca could do with Chris.
They arrived at the hotel at half past noon, and ten minutes later, Chris knocked on Luca and Mooney’s door. Luca hadn’t found anything yet; he was still scrolling through travel blogs with increasing frustration, and Chris saw his agitation immediately.
“What’s wrong?”
“I haven’t found anything for us to do,” Luca admitted, with a sideways glance at Mooney, who pretended not to hear or notice him. “I wanted it to be special today, and everything is just…tourist shit.”
“We can hang out here. Why don’t you come to my room?”
Mooney said nothing as they left, but at least he knew where Luca went this time.
Once they were alone, Chris sat on the edge of the bed and patted the space next to him.
“But…”
“But what?”
Luca sighed and sat next to him. “We did all these romantic things when I wasn’t trying. And you love romance. Shouldn’t it be…”
“I love romcoms,” Chris corrected.
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“No.” He laughed. “God, I would hate if romcom stuff happened to me in real life. Imagine if I had to move to Montreal and take over my dad’s business.
I don’t know anything about plumbing. But romcoms are predictable, and they always end well.
I have a hard time with serious movies. They make me sad; romcoms never make me sad.
I mean, a little bit jealous. I always thought nothing so big or exciting would happen to me ’cause I’m not built for it, but now…
yeah, no, I watch them because they’re safe. ”
“Oh.”
“And you know my favorite thing about all the stuff we did together?”
“Hm?”
“You wanting to spend time with me.”
Luca took no responsibility for the immediate need to seal his mouth to Chris’s, or for the fact that they spent the next half hour kissing perched on the edge of the bed like teenagers whose parents had asked them to leave the door open.
“How about,” Chris suggested, “we order room service and watch a movie? Doesn’t even have to be a romcom.”
They would do the same thing at home—share a meal and watch TV curled up together.
The only difference was that Luca now had full license to touch Chris everywhere he could, which he took complete advantage of.
By the end of the movie, his skin buzzed with comfortable, low-key arousal, and his lips were swollen with kisses.
But Chris pulled away with a frown. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m—I’m not—”
Luca moved his hands from Chris’s ass to the safer territory of his waist. “It’s fine.”
“But you’re all…”
Luca shrugged. “I have been turned on by you many, many times before. I will live.”
Chris sighed and looked away.
Following him, Luca shifted so he could set his chin on Chris’s chest and look at him. “Chris? What’s wrong?”
“…Nothing.”
It obviously wasn’t nothing. Luca cast his mind about for what might be the issue. “Are you worried about what Hayes said about management trading him?”
“Nah, they wouldn’t, not with Phil on the coaching team.”
“So what is it then?”
In a voice so quiet Luca could barely hear him, Chris said, “It’s stupid.”
“You are upset. It’s important.”
“I thought I was fixed, okay?”
Luca blinked. Fixed? “What do you mean?”
Chris sighed and cuddled Luca close, burying his face in Luca’s neck. “I thought…I love you, and I want to be with you. I thought it would be easier now. The sex stuff.”
Luca kissed one perfect, hairy pec. “Not wanting sex does not mean you are broken.”
“I know that.”
Luca kissed the other pec and waited.
“I’m trying to know that. I’ve been thinking of myself as defective for so long, you know? I didn’t know it was just…a normal way a person could be.”
Nuzzling into the spot between Chris’s pecs, where he could lay his head and listen to Chris’s heartbeat when they finished talking, Luca said, “Do you know I’m so proud of you?”
“You are?”
“Mm-hm. Two months ago, the idea of being an alternate scared you so much you had to go panic in your car. When Tom came out to me, you were so frightened of the fallout you nearly lost your appetite.”
Underneath him, Chris’s chest shook with laughter. “Those were good enchiladas. I’m glad I made it through the freak-out.”
“You bent over backward to make everyone happy, and you blamed yourself every time someone wasn’t.”
“Are you going somewhere with this?”
“Shh. Yes. You stood up for yourself so many times, and you found ways to accept who you are when I know it can’t have been easy to come to terms with.” Luca kissed the skin under his lips again. “Maybe it’s all right if not everything changes at once?”
“Maybe,” Chris allowed.
“Also, regardless of your sexuality, I have a high sex drive. Maybe you don’t, which would be fine.”
“But wouldn’t we be kind of incompatible, then?”
Luca scoffed. “I have a very functional left hand, thank you.”
“Oh, you do it with your left? But you shoot right.”
“You can watch if you’re curious.”
At last, Chris thawed, his hands coming up to stroke along Luca’s sides through the material of his T-shirt. “I think I’d like that.”
“But not now. Now, I’m cuddling my boyfriend. I think he needs it.”
Chris hugged him close and kissed the top of his head.