Shane’s own heart started going a little crazy. “You should see a doctor about that.”
Ilya grinned and shook his head. “Is just being in love, I think.”
Shane covered his face with a pillow. He couldn’t look at Ilya in that moment. Couldn’t let Ilya see him either.
“Come back,” Ilya said, laughing.
Shane tossed the pillow aside. “I fucking miss you so much. I wake up alone every day and itsucks.”
“I know. Four more days.”
Shane groaned. “We’re not even going to have time to see each other before our game, are we?”
“Probably not.”
“God, that’s going to be brutal.”
“Maybe I will kiss you during a face-off.”
“Pretty sure that would be a face-off violation.”
“You are a nerd.”
“I’m also naked right now.”
“Oh yes?”
“Mm. Except my glasses.”
Ilya grinned and stood up. “Let’s go to my bedroom, then.”
Chapter Eleven
Ilya bent over the face-off circle in Montreal and smiled at the man across from him. “Hi.”
Shane’s lips quirked up. “Hi.”
They’d done this dance so many times, but this time felt the hardest. Ilya hadn’t seen his boyfriend in three weeks, and now he was inches away from him, heart-stoppingly beautiful and completely forbidden.
“Do you have plans after the game?” Ilya asked casually.
Shane’s smile grew. “I’m wide open.”
Ilya hoped his own eyes showed the promise he was trying to silently transmit:you will be.The way Shane licked his bottom lip suggested the message had been received.
The puck dropped, Ilya won the face-off, and the game was on.
During their fourth shift together, Ilya was battling Shane for the puck against the boards. Shane struggled against Ilya’s weight as they clashed their stick blades together. “You got any more tricks to show me?” Shane said.
If he was trying to distract Ilya, it worked. Shane wasn’t usually the one to try to fluster Ilya with secret sexy messages on the ice. The surprise caused Ilya’s body to slacken long enough for Shane to skate away with the puck. Ilya smiled to himself as he chased after him.
The next time Ilya was pressed against him, later in the first period, Ilya answered Shane. “I don’t think I need tricks.”
For a split second, their eyes met. Shane’s were dark and full of promise, but then he said, “We’ll see,” and shoved Ilya off of him.
Honestly, Ilya wasn’t expecting anything too complicated to happen tonight. After three weeks of not touching each other, Ilya would be surprised if they even made it past the living room, or bothered to take their clothes off, before they were both spent and sleepy.
But they did have tomorrow. And the next night.
