Page 82 of Arctic Titans of Northwood U: Volume 2

I pointed out that the guy who served drinks in one scene was supposedly Ellison’s real-life partner and Tyler thought that was a cute, if obscure, piece of information. We had both seen the steady rise to fame of the film’s leading man, who had a particular love for indie production even though his good looks promised him action movie stardom.

Then, when silence settled comfortably between us, Tyler asked, “Do you miss Jennifer?”

After a momentary surprise, I laughed it off. “To be honest, I forgot all about her.”

Tyler twirled his invisible mustache. “So my plan is working.”

I threw my head back and laughed. “All of this just to get me distracted?”

His shoulders shook with laughter. “You got me.” He raised his hands in surrender. “And I’ll keep distracting you more and more and more.”

“Forever and ever,” I said. It was spoken as a joke, but as the words rolled off my tongue, we caught each other’s gazes. On the table, Tyler’s index finger hooked under mine, and he looked deep into my eyes as if wondering whether or not I meant what I said.

“That sounds like a really good future,” he said softly.

That future flashed before my eyes as his index finger gripped mine. It would be a fine life; Tyler waking up in my arms every morning, his face being the first thing I would see. We’d have morning coffee together on the porch. Oh, we would have a porch and a house that came with it. And we’d have a nice wooden table with garden recliners to kick back and start the day right. Our lawn would be trimmed and bright green and the weather would always be just right. I could smell the freshly cut grass and the sweat on my bare chest after the day’s work, but Tyler wouldn’t mind. He’d wait for me on the porch with a couple of cold beers, pull me in despite my sweat and stink, and kiss me hard. It would turn him on. He’d say, “I’d have you like this if you weren’t a freak about keeping the sheets clean.” And I would laugh, lifting him off his feet and pressing him against the door. And then I would prove to him how I wasn’t a freak at all, rolling in a clean bed with grass stains and sweat and cum after we made love.

I blinked.

Tyler was there, looking at me. A heartbeat had passed since he’d spoken.

I cleared my throat. “We’ll make it good,” I said. “It’s gonna be the best.”

The smile that spread on his face, brightening him up, was worth every risk we were taking. It made my heart twice as big. I twined our fingers on the table and held his hand for a long time. We looked at one another, had our wine, and enjoyed the moment. I was hell-bent on making it last.

Chapter Twelve

TYLER

With every day that passed, I seemed to get more used to it. With every game we won or lost, I seemed to get closer to Sebastian. With every trip to the gym or a secret late-night date, our old relationship seemed to shine a little brighter.

I hadn’t realized how big the consequences of that first kiss were until we relaxed, bit by bit, and got used to the new reality. It was slow going, but every inside joke or game of table soccer reminded us of who we were to one another, regardless of what we did to one another when the lights were out; or weren’t out. That was hot, too. I loved watching his dick throb in my hand, splatters of his passion smearing between our bodies. Day by day by day, we remembered that we were friends, too. We remembered that pleasuring each other and nurturing hopes for a life together didn’t make our friendship any less than. It was only a different sort of friendship now.

My loyalty to Sebastian had grown deeper, I thought. It felt as though I worried more when he clashed with a goddamn Blizzard Breaker or one of those vicious Vikings. My heart lurched harder when I saw Sebastian slammed against the boards or sprawled out on the ice after a particularly nasty collision. My thirst for revenge was stronger, too.

If anyone noticed how much more I tracked Sebastian’s on-ice position, they never said so. We had always been in tune with one another’s performance. We had always worked best as a defensive duo. When one of us sat through a period, the defenses were slightly weaker. Or so it seemed to me.

Truth be told, it all seemed to be going great. Something of a routine presented itself by chance. As usual, we studied together. And as usual, we worked out together. But these all felt a little different, just slightly off-center. The best I could come up with to describe the change was the magnetic aura around us that never stopped pulling my gaze toward him, never slowed our hearts orbiting one another, and never stopped whispering the dirty things I wanted from him.

In all of this, I wondered how we had never done this before. Now, it seemed so obvious. Now, it seemed like we should have started years ago. What a waste of time, I thought once, and then decided it wasn’t exactly right. We had practiced and stumbled and got it wrong so many times with other people that there was a sort of wisdom we brought into this crazy new thing.

When we first went to a gay club on the far side of the town where we were sure nobody from our real lives would know us, it was electric. We danced like we had never danced before. Both of us had some skill at that, but we had never been each other’s dance partners. It was one of the many firsts. And if someone randomly recognized us from the rink, they never said. And we never talked about those concerns.

It was good. All of it.

So long as we could keep some thoughts at a distance, things were going well. We weren’t talking about his parents or my dad’s unpredictable behavior. We weren’t talking about spring break and our return home for a week. We weren’t talking about trying anything more serious in bed either.

If these unspoken worries created any friction and frustration, we dealt with it the only way we knew how. We exercised harder and put our mouths to work in increasingly more creative ways. It turned out that sucking Sebastian’s nipples while working him with my hand was a quick way to make him come if I weren’t extra careful. It also turned out that I was incredibly easy to turn on if he touched me in public. I hadn’t known this about myself until we watched a movie at the cinema and Sebastian placed his hand on my thigh. A couple of rows in front of and behind us were empty, so I didn’t protest, and his hand rose all the way to my balls. For another two hours, I was lowkey horny for him and couldn’t get his risky behavior out of my mind. Later, when we were alone, I had the craziest orgasm of my life.

We were almost a month into our relationship when we came the closest to fooling around more seriously. We didn’t cross that big, scary bridge, but Sebastian was the big spoon, his dick pressed against my cheeks, his hand traveling up and down my torso. When I felt him getting hard, I pushed my butt gently back against his crotch and one thing led to another until he was thrusting his hard cock between my cheeks to the finish line. It was exhilarating in its own way. Knowing that this was something I had never considered doing, knowing it was Sebastian, and knowing it was leading us to more serious things felt incredible. And when he came, it only took a gentle grip of his hand around my dick to make me come.

Still, the faint undertone of anxiety remained.

It was like a big exam that was some time away. We didn’t have to hurry, but we were getting closer to it by the minute. We could wait and put it off, but that didn’t make it any less certain. The exam was coming. We had to either do it or admit defeat.

Or…

But I wasn’t sure if there were alternatives. It seemed to me that we couldn’t avoid it. And shouldn’t for that matter. Everything else we had done felt better than I could have hoped for. Perhaps that would, too, even if the thought made me equally excited and scared.