Ilya huffed. “You do not know how to flirt.”
Shane’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Ilya.”
Ilya looked away. “I was jealous, maybe.”
“Keep going.”
“I... It was stupid, okay? I am not proud.”
When he turned his gaze back to Shane, he found him smiling at him, but not in a nice way. More in a victorious, smug way. “What did you really think was going to happen?”
Ilya shrugged. “Maybe you would think he was nice. Hot. Not a rival hockey player.” He was terrified that one day Shane would realize he could be with someone who wasn’t a dark secret. That it could be easy to love someone.
Shane exhaled loudly, his exasperation clear. “I have spent thewhole daytrying not to—” His eyes darted to the door, which was ajar, likely realizing how loudly he was talking. He dropped his voice to a near whisper. “Trying not to be obvious about how fucking in love with you I am.”
“Shane—”
“No. Shut up. If you really don’t get that I’m not going to leave you for the first cute guy who smiles at me, then I don’t know what we’re even doing, Ilya.”
“I’m sorry,” Ilya said, because suddenly he really was. “Was a weird day. I was maybe just...” He sighed. “I’m sorry.”
Shane rested a hand on Ilya’s chest. “I’m yours. You know that.”
“I know.” Ilya found himself leaning in for a kiss, completely forgetting where they were.
He remembered slightly too late.
“Oh god,” said a voice from the doorway. “Not again.”
Ryan Price was filling the doorway with his massive body, looking mortified.
“We weren’t!” Shane said quickly. “We were just talking.”
Ryan glanced between them, which wasn’t hard to do because they were practically stuck together. “Okay.”
Ilya took a step back, and very calmly said, “Can we help you with something?”
“The, uh, news guys are packing up and wanted to talk to you. I ran into them on my way out.”
“Thanks.” Shane sounded like he wanted to die. “We’ll be right there.”
Ryan nodded again. “Okay. Well. See you tomorrow.” He darted away before either Shane or Ilya could respond.
“I like that guy,” Ilya said.
“Me too. And I like that he can keep a secret.”
“Yes. Maybe we can go out this week with him and his Fabian.”
“What, like a double date?”
“Sure. Why not?” They’d had Hayden Pike and his wife, Jackie, over to Shane’s house a few times. And they’d gone to the Pikes’ house once, which had been fun because Ilya had been able to play with their four awesome kids and ignore Hayden. But they’d never hung out together with another queer couple. Not one that knew about their relationship. Ilya thought it might be...neat.
Shane’s face scrunched up in an adorable way and Ilya knew he was trying to find a reason to protest, but in the end he smiled and said, “Wow. We could really do that, couldn’t we?”
Ilya smiled back. “We could.”
Shane blew out a breath. “Okay. I’m going to go talk to Laurent.”
