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  Copyright © 2016/2019 by Meg Harding

  Cover Design: Garrett Leigh

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a rewritten, re-edited version of a previously published work.

  Created with Vellum

  Under Review

  Meg Harding

  Oceanside Press

  Synopsis

  Nathan Barres has always loved hockey more than anything else, and as captain of his team the pressure is on to perform well. When a hook up with Felix Moore stirs feelings he’s not comfortable with, he flees the scene. He's not expecting to see Felix ever again. So when an injury knocks him out at the start of a new season, he's less than pleased to see the Winnipeg Wolves newest physical therapist is none other than his one night fling.

  Time hasn’t dulled their chemistry, and Nathan’s feelings are back like they’d never left. When Felix proposes a way to burn through the energy between them, how is Nathan supposed to say no. It might be all fun and games to Felix, but Nathan needs to get whatever this is out of his system. Unrequited love? No, thank you.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  About the Author

  Also by Meg Harding

  Chapter One

  Jeremy Isler—Thor as he was known to his team—hooked his giant, colorful tattooed arm around Nathan’s neck and dragged him back against his large body as he tried to exit the locker room. “Where do you think you’re going, Barres?” He had a loud booming voice to fit his loud booming personality.

  Nathan didn’t bother trying to squirm out of his hold. He was a big guy, six feet even and all muscle, but he had nothing on Thor. “Back to the hotel?” he said, hope tinting the words. He was tired from the game, could feel the bruise coming in over his ribs from where Colorado’s defenseman, Fortier, checked him into the boards in the last period. Honestly, he’d like to sleep.

  “But we won,” said Thor, shaking him a little. “Come out. Celebrate!”

  The rest of his team picked up on what Thor was trying to do, and they quickly and loudly joined in, demanding Nathan come out for “just one drink” with them.

  “Promise,” said Andy Muriel, laughing. It pulled at his newly applied stitches. “One drink. Then you can split. Hey, we’ll even let you pick the place.”

  There was a chorus of protests at that. The guys all started to bicker about where they wanted to go. Apparently they didn’t trust Nathan to come up with a “hopping” place.

  He waited around for everyone to get dressed and get their gear together as they figured it out. Thor leaned next to him with his big arms crossed, giant Deadpool tattoo on display, and a smug look aimed at Nathan. Nathan rolled his brown eyes in response. “What’s gotten into you?”

  “It’s good for you to be out,” said Thor, frowning slightly. “Good for you to spend time with the rookies.” He didn’t say that this was the last stretch before the playoffs and they needed their captain, but Nathan knew it was implied. It wasn’t a sure thing for the Winnipeg Wolves this year. They were working hard, and the last couple of games hadn’t been good. This was their first win out of a five-game losing streak. It was the first time the locker room hadn’t felt filled with crushing disappointment in two weeks.

  Nathan bit his lip, worrying at a chapped patch. He wished he had his mouth guard to chew on instead. “I’ve been slipping lately, haven’t I?” he asked, watching Ethan Bisset and Sasha Anosov flick their towels at each other.

  “Nah,” said Thor. “Just a little in your own head.” He clapped him on the shoulder. Nathan almost staggered a step forward. “You’re not alone in this. None of us were ready for the season to be over.”

  “Not ready to go back to Switzerland, eh?” joked Nathan, trying to lighten the mood.

  Thor scoffed, big nose scrunching up. “I always miss Switzerland.” He smiled; it was wide and dimpled, and you couldn’t tell that two of his front teeth were fake. “But I want a Stanley Cup more.”

  He got that, thought everyone on the team could get that. Nathan constantly missed Victoria, BC, and his family, but he wouldn’t give this up. Wouldn’t give this up. He thought in a year or two they might be the ones hoisting the Cup high. They were coming together, slowly but surely. He wanted to be there when it happened.

  He’d like that year to be this year, but he knew the odds were slim. He wasn’t going to stop fighting for it, though.

  “Stop thinking,” said Justin Renner as he tromped by, smacking Nathan hard on the ass with the flat of his hand. It stung without his padding. “It looks painful.”

  Nathan went after him, tried to get him in a headlock, and they ended up scrabbling around in the tunnel, laughing and shoving each other into the walls.

  Bisset broke them up after a couple of minutes, shaking his head. “It’s bar time,” he said. “Play on your own time.”

  Sometimes Nathan felt weird being captain of people who were older than him, more mature. But then he remembered Bisset flicking his towel at Sasha’s ass and thought they were all a little immature in the end. And he wasn’t that young anymore. Not so fresh and green to it all. At least when it came to hockey.

  They ended up at a hole-in-the-wall they almost stumbled by until Marc Bonnet got a look inside and called for them to come back. For a place easy to walk past, it was pretty busy inside, and they didn’t get a lot of attention as they filed in. Bisset and Thor went to get booths in the back, and Nathan headed to the bar with the rest of the guys.

  One by one, his friends went back to the booths, drinks in hand. Nathan was left standing by himself and still unable to catch the attention of the lone bartender. “Seriously?” he muttered after the guy walked right by him and proceeded to give the brunette girl on his left a drink.

  The guy on his other side started to laugh, and he leaned across the bar, tapping the bartender on the shoulder. “Leo, you’re being a tool,” he said. “Get this guy a drink.” He turned to Nathan. “What do you want?”

  Nathan blanked. The guy next to him was hot, okay? He had a youngish Johnny Depp type of look kicking (think Chocolat, a favorite of Nathan’s). It was the shoulder length brown and blond hair, pulled back into a ponytail, and deep brown eyes that made him think of that. His lips were full and his cheekbones high. He was tall, close to Nathan’s six-foot height. He was wearing a dark gray dress shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His forearms were gloriously tan, with a light dusting of dark hair, and when he moved his arm a certain way, Nathan could see his veins standing out. His mouth went dry. He was pretty sure the guy was older than him too, if only by a little.

  “Um,” he said when the guy arched a brow and stared at him. He heard the bartender snort. Leo, he mentally corrected. He shook himself and cleared his throat. “What do you recommend?”

  The guy turned to Leo. “Get him my usual.”

  “Coming right up.”

  Nathan ignored the way Leo was smirking and looked at the guy next to him instead. “Thanks,” he said, smiling self-deprecatingly. “I don’t think I’d have gotten one otherwise.”

  “It’s no problem,” he said. He held out a long-fingered hand. “I’m Felix Moore. Nice to meet you.” Felix smiled up at him, and Nathan’s breath caught.

&
nbsp; Nathan flicked his tongue against the back of his teeth, clasping Felix’s hand in his and shaking. He had a firm grip. Nathan could feel the calluses against his own. “Nathan Barres,” he managed to get out. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

  Leo set his beer in front of him, and when Nathan made a move to pay, Leo waved him away. “On the house,” he said.

  Nathan looked from the beer to his friends and back to Felix. What he wanted to do was stay and talk to Felix, but he couldn’t do that if he had his entire team watching him. He was out to them, that wasn’t the problem… but to the world? To the world, Nathan wasn’t out, and where his team was, there was sure to be someone snapping pictures with their phone. Felix must have seen his indecision, because he smiled again and clapped Nathan’s arm. “Have a nice night.” Felix tilted his head at Leo. “Leo won’t ignore you anymore.”

  Nathan thanked him again, returned the sentiment, and made his way to where his friends were all shoved together arguing about one of Colorado’s plays. He chanced a look back, but Felix had his back turned and was enthusiastically talking to the man next to him, if his waving hands were any indication. He felt a curl of disappointment but tried to shake it off. Nathan dove right into the argument with the rest of his team, letting the sheer ridiculousness of it distract and entertain him. He didn’t go back to get another drink, instead choosing to slowly sip at the one he had. If he talked to Felix again, he wasn’t going to be able to walk away. And though they didn’t have a game the next day, Nathan didn’t feel like being hungover for the plane ride back.

  One by one, guys began to trickle off, till Nathan was left in a booth with Sasha and Renner, who were duking it out over who played better pranks. Renner’s brown hair was sticking straight up from where he kept running his hands through it in agitation while Sasha’s dark curls were limp from the humid air and starting to hang in his eyes. They shook with every move of his head. Nathan wanted to tell them they both sucked, but at the same time didn’t want to get in the middle of it. He didn’t want to open his locker and have glitter come flying out at him. He was good.

  He left quietly, not bothering to interrupt them. The hotel wasn’t too far, and he didn’t mind walking back on his own.

  It was a nice night, not too hot and not too cold but that perfect spot in the middle. There was a light breeze, and the moon was fully visible, projecting soft light down. It was a Friday night in downtown Denver. The streets were busy, and music blasted from the doorways of clubs. Crossing the road to their hotel was a bit of a pain, but he managed without getting run down. The elevator doors were starting to close as he entered the lobby. He quickened his pace and called, “Hold the doors!” For a second he thought whoever was in there hadn’t heard him, or was going to ignore him, but then the doors started to slide back open, and he sighed in relief.

  Then he got a good look at who was inside.

  “Oh,” he said, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. The guy from the bar, Felix, was leaning against the side of the elevator. Felix’s hand fell back to his side when he saw Nathan. “Hi.” Nathan felt like smacking himself in the face. Could he sound more awkward?

  Felix smiled at him, a slow thing that spread and was absolutely breathtaking. “Hello again,” he said.

  “Hi,” repeated Nathan. He closed his eyes in frustration.

  Felix snorted. Nathan shouldn’t find the sound unattractive, but he did. “What floor do you need?”

  He could answer this one without sounding like an idiot. At least he thought he could. “Fourth.” He paused. “Thank you.”

  “I’m on the third.”

  Nathan glanced at him, saw his suggestive look, the way Felix’s dark gaze swept up and down Nathan’s body. He swallowed heavily. “That’s… nice?”

  Felix rolled his eyes, but he didn’t stop smiling. “It is,” he said. “There’s a really big bed. Very comfy.” He honest-to-God winked.

  The number above the door went up to two.

  “You’re… you’re hitting on me, right?” Nathan clarified. “Like, that’s an invite, yeah?”

  “Yeah,” said Felix, laughing. “It was a cheesy-ass invite. Don’t get them often?” He looked skeptical, like he thought Nathan should be getting hit on by hot men in elevators all the time.

  The elevator dinged, and Felix stepped off before Nathan had a chance to process this. “I’m in room 306,” he said, and the doors slid shut. Nathan was left staring at his own reflection. His brown eyes were wide, his plump lips parted in surprise, chapped from the ice. His blond curls were looking flat. There was a cut on his cheekbone, noticeable despite not needing stitches. When the elevator dinged for the fourth floor, Nathan stared at the empty hallway and made a decision. He pressed three and went back down.

  He tapped his left hand nervously against his thigh as he stood in front of 306. All he had to do was knock. It wasn’t hard. He didn’t understand why this was any different from any of the other times he’d hooked up. Granted, he normally didn’t do it during road trips. Or after games. But he did hook up. He knew what he was doing.

  Taking a deep breath, he knocked.

  He only had to do it once before the door opened and a fist clenched in his shirt, tugging him inside. The door slammed behind Nathan, and a minute later he slammed into it. He blinked in surprise. Now that didn’t happen often. Especially not when the guy was smaller than him. They may be close to the same height, but Nathan had more muscle, probably outweighed Felix by a good twenty or thirty pounds.

  “You’ve done this before?” asked Felix, and Nathan could feel himself flushing at the implication.

  “Yeah,” said Nathan, clearing his throat, “of course.” It was one thing for him to think he was acting weird; and it was another thing for his hookup to pick up on this sudden awkwardness.

  “Fantastic,” said Felix huskily, and then they were kissing.

  His hands were on either side of Nathan’s face, fingers spread wide. Felix moved his lips insistently, his teeth scraping along Nathan’s bottom lip, sinking in every now and again and worrying at the tender skin. Nathan sighed into the kiss, opening his mouth and letting Felix in. He grabbed Felix’s waist, manhandling him around until he was the one against the door and Nathan was pressing him back. He slid a leg between Felix’s, inched his fingers beneath the waistband of his slacks.

  “Fuck,” he whispered, biting at Felix’s jawline as he slipped a hand down to grab a palmful of Felix’s ass. Nathan pulled him forward, rubbing Felix against his leg, loving the way he moaned as his cock dragged over Nathan’s thigh.

  “Definitely fuck,” said Felix, voice husky. He shoved at Nathan’s shoulders. “I’m going to ride you.”

  Nathan staggered a step back. It was like he could feel his heartbeat throbbing in his dick he was so hard. “Okay,” he gasped. That sounded perfect. He certainly wasn’t going to say no. Felix grabbed his hand as he strode past, yanking him along and pulling Nathan down on top of him as he hit the bed.

  That was the beauty of hotel rooms. The bed was never far.

  They got tangled in each other as they tried to remove their clothes. Nathan reached for Felix’s shirt, while Felix tried to undo Nathan’s pants and simultaneously rid him of his shirt. When Nathan accidentally ended up knocking his hand hard into Felix’s chin, he sat back on Felix’s thighs and took a deep breath.

  “I’m going to take my clothes off,” Nathan said, trying to be the voice of reason, “and you’re going to take yours off.”

  Felix flicked Nathan’s nipple as he let go of his shirt, but he was nodding eagerly, and the second Nathan shifted off him, he sat up, and his shirt was flying across the room. Nathan liked to think they could set a record with how fast they undressed.

  He ended up underneath Felix, with Felix’s thigh between his legs and his cock leaving sticky trails over their stomachs. He panted into Felix’s mouth, hitching his hips and letting out a low groan when Felix reached between them to cup his balls.

  He
broke their kiss, kicking his head into the pillow and digging his fingers into Felix’s firm ass. He tugged at him with that grip, urging Felix up, till he was kneeling over Nathan’s face and gripping the headboard to keep steady.

  “This wasn’t the riding I had in mind,” he gasped, but he didn’t complain when Nathan started sucking on his sac. In fact, he didn’t say anything at all. He was whimpering, his knees clamped tight around Nathan’s head. Nathan held his hips steady, licked a trail over and behind his balls, pressed his tongue hard against the sensitive spot below. Felix made a sound like the breath had been knocked from him, hunching his body over Nathan’s head.

  “Fuck, fuck,” Felix whined. “I’m going to… I want to….” He trailed off as Nathan licked over his hole and let go of his hip with one hand to follow the path of his tongue with his fingers. Nathan was hard as hell, his hips arching up into the air, uselessly seeking friction, but he wasn’t done.

  He slipped his thumb into Felix, teasingly pulling at his rim and letting it pop out. He put his mouth back on Felix’s balls, let his teeth lightly graze the sensitive skin. That earned him a full-body shudder, and he felt precum dribble onto his cheek.

  Felix ran his fingers through the liquid a minute later, and Nathan moaned around his balls as he watched him lick his fingers clean. He pulled away long enough to say “Lube” and then went back to work.

  Unfortunately, the lube was in Felix’s bag, which was on the floor at the end of the bed. Felix informed him of this between shallow breaths. Felix’s hips jerked, dragging his sac over Nathan’s face, as Nathan slipped his finger free and patted him on the ass. “Get it,” he told him.

  While Felix scrambled from the bed, Nathan palmed himself and started stroking. He spread his legs, pulling his knees up, giving Felix a nice view as he hunted through his bag. “That wasn’t well planned, was it?” teased Nathan as Felix cursed, still searching.