Page 38 of Skating to Him

TYLER

Ihoped I hadn’t freaked him out by coming on too strong earlier. I bit into my slice. He’d been looking at me funny ever since. And Sylvia? Yeah, that was a problem. He’d better not be tempted to hook up with her to see if he still liked girls. I winced. My thinking was fucked up and flawed. We’d barely been together, and I already wanted him all to myself. This was his journey, and I needed to let him navigate it how he saw fit. I drank my beer. Even if it hurt a little bit, it was what I signed up for. I licked sauce off my fingers. “So, tell me what you know about gay sex?” Might as well get this conversation started.

His eyes widened. “Well, I, uh, I’ve been watching gay porn.” He ate some pizza.

“Okay, so you have a clue. What we just did on the wall over there”—I huffed a laugh. At some point, we needed to move things into a bed—“was called frotting.”

His brows snapped up. “It has a name?”

With a nod, I said, “It does. I rather like it myself.” I gave him a cheeky grin. Might as well make this less awkward by injecting some humor. “We can keep doing that if you’re into it or?—”

“What about blowjobs?” He licked his lips. “I really like those.”

“I don’t know of a guy who doesn’t.” I set my pizza down. “Do you think you’re ready to put my, uh, my dick in your mouth? You know, so you can reciprocate?” Jesus Christ, this sounded juvenile. But then, I’d never had this conversation with Cory in high school and look where it had gotten me? I wanted this time to be different, and here we were.

“Yeah, I think I could do that.” He tipped his beer can back. “I could try, at least.”

I sipped my beer, fighting the image of him sucking me off.

“Do you top or bottom?” He sank his teeth into his lower lip.

Slapping my hand to my mouth, I startled and spat beer into my palm. Beer dribbled down my chin. “Shit, what?” I snatched a napkin off the table and wiped my face, choking out a chuckle. He had a gay friend. Of course he would have heard those terms. He wasn’t stupid.

“Did I ask it wrong?” Furrowing his brows, his gaze fell to his plate. “I thought it would be pretty important.”

“No, you didn’t ask it wrong. I’m vers. I like all of the above.” He was right. It was pretty important if we were going to have anal sex anytime soon. As my heart jolted, I stared at him for a second. “Have you been watching guys fuck each other?”

Shrugging a shoulder, he said, “I’ve seen a few of those. Mostly, I’ve been watching guys jerk off or give each other head.” His cheeks reddened.

My attention dipped between his legs. A clear boner stretched to the band of his joggers. My skin heated. Somehow his inexperience and openness were turning me the fuck on. “Tell me what you like the most.” I slid a new slice of pizza onto my plate and took a bite.

He adjusted his cock to the side. “I think the blowjobs are really hot.” He sipped more beer. “I don’t know if I’m ready for anal. It looks like a lot of work.”

“It is.” I thought through this. “For the guy on the bottom.”When he was ready, if we got that far, I’d prep beforehand to make it easier on him. “But for now, let’s just ease into things, okay?” I was pretty sure he still had to process what we’d done already.

“Sure.” He ate more pizza, and his breath caught. “What about condoms?” His gaze flicked to mine as he chewed.

“We should use them unless we both get tested.” Fuck if I was going to catch something from Sylvia or the other girl I’d seen him with. But then, I was no saint myself. “I always use them even though I’m on PrEP.” I peered at him. Did he know what that was? “There are other things you can get besides HIV.”

He straightened his spine. “Well, I’ve always used condoms too. Not only do I not want some STD, I’m not ready to be a baby-daddy.” He smirked.

I chuckled. “Yeah, I hear ya. That’s smart.” I held up my fist and he bumped it with his own. We were on the same page when it came to our sexual health, at least. “Have you ever had anything?”

“Nope, and I’m keeping it that way.” He picked a pepperoni off his slice and dropped it into his mouth. “I know it’s not related, but after seeing my mom sick with MS, I’ve been really careful with my health. So many things can go wrong, you know?” His grin waned.

I hadn’t thought of that. I set my empty plate next to the pizza box and shifted closer to him. “How is your mom? Have you spoken to her lately?”

“We talk on the phone periodically, but it’s been a while.” He picked at the crust on his pizza. “It’s hard. I’m trying to get away from all that so I can focus on my hockey career. If she’s in a bad spot when I call, I can’t sleep and worry for days.” He shook his head. “Sometimes I text one of my brothers first, so I know what I’m going to face.”

I wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Well, we’re in thistogether now. You know the only people I’ve told about my mom are you and Myles? And the only reason I told Myles was because he overheard me talking to my mom.” He had to know he could confide in me.

“Yeah?” His gaze searched my face. “It’s nice having someone here who understands. I wasn’t going to tell anyone.”

As my gaze ran over the adorable-as-fuck freckles across his nose, my heart bloomed with warmth. Talking with him was easy. I pressed my lips to his and held the kiss, breathing him in, and then broke it. “We’ll be there for each other, on and off the ice.”

“I’m glad I came to Arizona, Tyler, and I’m really fucking glad I met you.” A soft smile spread over his lips.

“I’m glad you did too.” I hugged him tightly. Thiswasdifferent from what I’d had in high school. It was so much better. I glanced at the television resting on a console across from us. I wasn’t ready to go home yet. “Hey, want to watch something together?”

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