Page 28 of Bar Down

I push on his abs enough for him to pull out, before I take off the condom and put my hand on him. His arms shake above me as he comes, chest heaving and breath ragged. When he’s halfway to collapsing on top of me, I pull him down and hold him tight.

“That was—” he rasps, trying to catch his breath.

I chuckle, “Good, I take it?”

His head lifts and he gives me a gorgeous smile, a dimple popping in his right cheek. “More than good,rakas.”

“Hmm, that’s good,” I say, kissing along his shoulder and neck as we lay tangled up in my bed. Not long after, we shower and return to bed.

When Eli holds me through the night, it reminds me of New Year’s and how he took care of me. He’s always there for me, a constant ray of fucking sunshine.

I really hope I don’t fuck this up.

THIRTEEN

Present Day

Eli

Ash is riledup during our warm ups. We ended up being on the ice at the same time, running drills and working on improving certain areas. I’ve been working on my RVH since it’s something I rarely use. As a big player, reverse vertical horizontal lets me use my body efficiently when the play is behind the net, but it’s not something I defer to unless necessary.

Ash has been working on his passes, puck control, and balance. Generally when I’m in the zone, I don’t get easily distracted, but every time I take a break, my eyes stray towards him. And every time, he’s caught me looking. When he gives me a wink, my stupid heart flutters in response. While he’s being nice and flirty with me, I could sense some tension with him and some of the other players, especially Jackson.

I caught the tail end of their interaction in the locker room when Ash slammed Jackson in the locker, but I have no ideawhy. I don’t know where we stand after everything. It feels like there’s an ocean of space between us and I want so badly to know how he is. But I’m not even sure Ash would tell me if I asked.

After a couple of hours of training, we’re done for the day. Juuse and I catch up in the locker room. He’s putting his gear on as I take mine off and put on the too small shirt and shorts I got from Ash. He’s looking at me in a way I can’t, and truthfully, don’t want to decipher right now. It’s not Juuse’s gaze I want on me, after all. Before I can get embarrassed or explain why I don’t have normal clothes, he asks, “Do you still want to grab that coffee tomorrow?”

“Yeah, of course. Let me know where.”

“There’s a place called Water Bearer, they have breakfast food and good coffee.”

“Sure, I’ll be there at eight?”

“Perfect!” he smiles and squeezes my shoulder before heading out onto the ice.

As he leaves, I catch Ash looking between us with a furrow in his brows. When he notices me staring at him, he gives me a small smile, but I can tell it’s forced. Things are feeling a bit awkward, and I don’t know what to do about it, except get him to talk to me. With our track record, it’s unlikely either of us will actually speak what’s on our mind.

I stand up and walk over to him. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he says, his smile growing more genuine.

“Any chance you could drive me to a clothing store?” I laugh.

Ash sighs and, low enough for just me to hear, he says, “Bummer, I really like you in those shorts. You should lose your luggage more often.”

I sigh and shake my head, but we walk together to his car and he drives me to our favorite store, Meijer.

Ash

I tryto swap out the pants Eli added to the shopping cart with a size down, but he catches me and gives me themurder glare.His face is so expressive and I can’t help but smile at him. His eyes are narrowed and his jaw is set, hands on his hips. I sigh dramatically and swap the pants back.I guess now I have to live with the fact that I’ll never see his perfect ass in those too tight shorts again.

It’s tragic.

On the bright side, no one else will see it either. I’m not sure what I picked up on in the locker room, but the way Juuse was looking at Eli made me want to punch the other goaltender in his stupid pretty face.

And to be fair, I wanted to punch lots of people in the face today, but did hehaveto check Eli out that blatantly? And what was all of that about the two of them going to breakfast together?

Is Eli open to dating now? Or is he too oblivious to realize Juuse is into him?

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