We found Mike in the basement fiddling with the cooling machines, and, as I’d anticipated, he agreed with Perry that the ice was too soft and was already on it.
“You see?” I said as we jogged back up to the main floor. “I told you Mike would fix everything.”
“You did tell me that.” He stopped me on the landing to pin me against the wall and kiss me stupid.
Yeah. No regrets. I was grinning like a fool as we emerged from our side quest just in time to start the game.
Perry
I should have just gone to Mike directly, like Evan suggested, instead of bothering to confront Andre. I’d known Andre would get belligerent over it and refuse to do anything. He’d ruin the upcoming bonspiel out of spite because he’d always had a thing for Evan, and I’d taken Evan home from the party that night, denying him his shot.
Well, fuck him, quite frankly. No one got a shot at my guy unless I said so. Which, while I wasn’t opposed to the idea, if I didn’t like the guy, it would be a problem. I did not like Andre and his proprietary attitude.
My preoccupation with him distracted me from the game, though, and Evan took me aside after the fifth end to calm me down.
“I’d give you a quickie BJ in the bathroom, but I’m pretty sure Andre has cameras in there for that exact reason,” Evan said as we walked to the bar to get water.
“That would be illegal.”
“Of course it would. Doubt he cares. He’s a degenerate.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“Anyway—” He turned to face me as we waited for Sheri to get us bottles for our team. “—I can promise you something better when we get home tonight, if you make like a good boy and focus on winning the last three ends.”
“Who’s calling who a good boy here?” I asked, dragging him against me and wrapping an arm around him.
“Sorry. I’m the good boy who’s taking good care of my man and offering all the pleasures of my flesh in exchange for a few really accurately thrown rocks.”
“You think the promise of good sex is all it takes?”
“Great sex,” he corrected. “And yes. Because I know you. You would never take the reward if you didn’t earn it, but my ass is irresistible, so you’ll win the game so you can win me.”
“You know the rest of the team would absolutely lose their minds if they knew we motivated each other with sex to win, right?”
“What makes you think we don’t know?” Robbie, our third, had appeared on Evan’s other side. He took some of the bottles Sheri passed across the bar to us. “Don’t get me wrong. We think you’re both freaks, but we’re not going to quibble with a winningstrategy, so let’s go. Come throw a few more stones, then you can go home and get your other stones off.”
“Why?” I muttered as I took some of the waters in one hand, Evan’s hand in my other, to follow Robbie back to our game. “Why is he like that?”
Evan grinned. “I like that he gets us.”
I grumbled a bit more, keeping it under my breath, as we made our way back, but my grumbling cut off abruptly, as did the walking, when a small group of men sauntered in the door.
“Holy shit,” Robbie whispered, and turned big eyes on me. “Is that…?”
I nodded. Alan Channing had just walked into our dinky little curling rink a week early.
“Jeez, he’s fucking hot,” Evan whispered.
Really?I threw him a look.
“Well, objectively, he is.”
Channing was tall, over six feet, which I knew because he was taller than me, and I’m six one. His black hair hung in waves to his collar, some of it neatly tied back in a half-ponytail to keep it off his face. His entire team had foregone the usual clean-cut template most curlers had, and embraced this long-haired, bohemian aesthetic. He had big, strong, capable-looking hands, which he rubbed together as he looked around him.
Yeah. Okay. Objectively, he wasn’t hard to look at. Whatever.
“Who’s in charge here, then?” he asked.
