Page 106 of Two for Roughing

“So don’t make me miss out,” Kilian suggested. “We live together and work together. You don’t have to go out clubbing with the team when you obviously hate it just to spend time with me.”

“I don’t hate it. I—”

“You feel responsible for everyone and spend all night making sure no one ends up in the tabloids or with alcohol poisoning.” Kilian traced his thumb along the base of Damir’s spine. “Maybe they deserve to fuck up enough to see the consequences.”

“And what do I do then, when you’re out having fun without me?” Damir’s words might sound as though the thought bothered him, but his tone had gone soft and teasing, and his body leaned into Kilian’s touch.

“I’m thinking spa trips,” Kilian said with a grin. “Sauna, a little mani-pedi if you’re into it, let someone pamper you for a change.”

He hadn’t noticed Damir was tense until his shoulders dropped a fraction. “Oh. That sounds…nice actually.”

“Mhm. If we’re doing the boyfriend thing, I’m gonna make it my condition.”

“The ‘boyfriend thing?’” Damir could not have sounded more scathing if he tried.

“Fine, adult relationship, whatever you wanna call it.”

“Your condition is mani-pedis.”

“No.” Kilian leaned in close and brushed a kiss across Damir’s lips. “My condition is that I get to take care of you sometimes too. Let me keep driving you around so you don’t have to do it. Let me fix your kitchen cabinets when they break. Let me find relaxing stuff for you to do when I go out with the team so you don’t have to worry about us.”

Damir cupped his hands around Kilian’s face and slid their mouths together, his lips already parted before they touched. It was deep and wet and drugging. Kilian had no idea what taking cocaine felt like, but how could it be better than this? How could it set his pulse racing and his heart thrumming and his veins fizzing with pure joy?

He didn’t know how long they stayed there, so close together their shadows melted into one, kissing furiously. It wasn’t until a long gust of warm air blew through the narrow alley between the club and the building beside it that they drew apart slowly.

“Warm wind in winter feels wrong.” Damir licked across his lips, leaving them shiny and dark in the dim light.

Kilian followed the motion with his eyes. “The Santa Anas are weird.”

“What?”

“Hm?”

“The Santa Anas?”

“Oh, it’s this wind pattern in southern California. I looked it up once after— You know what? It doesn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t?” Damir was smiling again. Kilian had no idea why people thought him grumpy or unfriendly. He smiled all the time.

“Nope.”

“What does matter?”

“Whether you’ll come back to the hotel with me.”

With a fluid motion, Damir pushed off the wall and toward the streetlight at the exit of the alleyway, pulling Kilian along behind him. Kilian laughed as he let himself be dragged away and into the balmy Los Angeles night.

The hotel wasn’t far away geographically, but LA traffic had no care for geography, not even at this time of night, so they were stuck in a cab for over twenty minutes. The entire time, Damir kept his hands folded placidly in his own lap. The driver didn’t know shit about hockey, but he instantly recognized Damir as a potential fellow Muslim based solely on his appearance. Kilian could tell by the way he asked where Damir was from and proceeded to follow it up with a billion questions about how he ended up in Chicago. The driver, a second-generation American with Pakistani roots, promised to watch their upcoming game against San Francisco.

The only way Kilian could tell Damir was less than patient about the whole ordeal was the way his knee bounced up and down throughout the whole ride. Kilian had to stuff his own hands under his thighs to keep himself from reaching out to steady him.

The cab driver bade them goodbye with, “Salaam alaikum.”

Damir returned the greeting and gave him a nod as he slid out of the back seat. Kilian opted for just the nod.

They had so much they needed to talk about.

Being boyfriends was great, awesome, amazing, but what about Damir’s religion? All his reasons for not being out? Would they have to keep it a secret forever? Something of the fizzy burble of happiness and excitement in Kilian faded at the thought. He’d only stopped keeping things secret a few days ago. Although he never wanted it to happen the way it did, he felt so much better now that everything was out in the open.