Page 46 of Lucky Sucker

The tradition, from what I knew of it, began fifteen years ago when the captain back then fell face first into a dessert table from winning the first game of the season, and it was considered lucky, especially because the rumor was, he’d been very drunk, and was close to falling into the table with all the cutlery and sharp knives too.

Wren looked at me from the front lawn in complete shock, the fun color changing lights from the windows illuminating him in reds, pink, blues, and I could’ve stared at him all evening. I had tried to already.

“Come on,” I said, holding a hand out to him. “They’re not going to get you.” I turned again to see some of the other players squirting whipped cream from the can right into each other’s mouths. Yeah, they were done throwing it at me now.

Before coming to me inside, Wren took a picture on his phone.“You’re gonna have to explain that one to me,” he said. “I might have to write about it.”

I shook my head with all the different creams and fillings flying off me as if I was a wet dog that had been drenched. “As long as I look good in the picture.”

He giggled, trying to shy himself away from the spray effect of my shake. “We’ll see.”

This celebration was bigger than the one we’d held for Jack’s birthday. There was still cake, albeit a healthier one from Julia’s words, but in the air, I could smell Liam’s cooking. He took any opportunity he could to get on the grill in the garden, and any chance to show off his cooking skills.

After walking around to get seen, Wren’s stare told me all I needed to know about what he thought we should’ve been doing next.

“You wanna shower with me?” I asked.

His teeth sank into his lip. “Can we?”

“As long as we don’t take too long, and we show our faces again here before the party is over,” I told him.

Before we could head upstairs, Liam stopped us with a cooler box in his arms, showing off in some aspect to his nickname. “You’re not going already,” he said. “I’m about to put some steaks on the grill. Fresh steaks, these things are—” He attempted a chef’s kiss, but without the finger motion, so he just gestured with a kiss to the air. “Not wagyu, but the next best thing.”

“You think I look good like this?” I asked, gesturing to the mostly melted and sticky to my skin cream. If I went outside like this, I’d have been eaten alive by night bugs. “Of course, we’re coming back down, but we’ve eaten, so maybe save one for later.”

“And you?” he asked with a nod to Wren.

He glanced in my direction, as if asking for permission or a response.

“Do you want one?” I asked him. “Or we could share one.”

He nodded. “Yeah, we’ll share.”

Once upstairs in my room, Wren looked physically overworked and flushed.

“You ok, baby?”

“I’m fine, it’s just that I’m not sure if I like steak. And I didn’t want to waste one just to try it,” he said. “And Liam said they were expensive.”

I pulled him into my arms in a deep hug and squeeze. “You’re wrong, they were not expensive at all. They were bought in bulk. And they’re good. But if we share, then you can always eat more if you like it.” They were a great source of protein, which is why we had a large cooler full of them, but even then, they were only ordered and brought out for nights like this.

“And that’s why you’re such a good Daddy.” He pressed his head into my chest, and I could feel the light thrumming patter of his racing heart on my skin.

“You’re definitely going to need to get in a shower with me now,” I said, transferring the sticky remnants of cream from my skin to his. “What a shame that is.”

The idea that tonight would include sex somewhat scared me. I never went into any game scared; I was prepared and amped for each game, but this wasn’t a game. This was something wilder, there weren’t a set of rules, and nobody was telling me plays. I was going into this knowing that our bodies had connected on a level I’d never allowed my skin to connect with anyone else before. Pleasures were different for everyone. The pleasures I devoured mostly were those of ideas, the way a person made me feel, and how their actions could play a part in their affection towards me. A stroke of my skin, but only beneath my ribs, or the underside of a bicep. They were the areas that I recalled getting me hard.

Neither of us got hard in the shower, which I thought could’ve been a fun place to play, especially where bodily fluids were concerned, but that wasn’t the play. The play was going to come to me later, when I collected my parcel from the basket downstairs. The one I’d forgot to grab on the way up.

Wren hadn’t brought a change of clothes, which was my fault, I’d only been focused on the clothes he was going to wear to bed, or to play in. So, I dressed him up in a pair of my sweatpants which were far too long in the leg for him, and an oversized team hoodie.

Most of the team were outside in the back, warming themselves up by the fire and waiting for Liam to finish cooking the steaks. He was peculiar about them, making sure nobody ever had one that was well done, I think a well-done steak might’ve sent him into a coma.

“Just in time,” Liam called out, drawing attention to me and Wren as we walked, hand-in-hand. “The next steak is yours.”

Being captain was great for these little perks of respect, and I knew Liam wasn’t the one who’d tried to get me removed from the team, which meant, there was still someone who did, and it occasionally gnawed at me.

Wren clung to my hand after being unable to bring his stuffed orca down with him, not because he hadn’t wanted to, but because he’d seen the mess the whipped cream had made and was scared for the life of his orca. So, the orca, alongside the magic bag of teddies were all tucked up in my bed, waiting for us to get back.

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