Keep Me Close- Chapter XXVI
Team: San Jose Sharks
Pairing: Joe Thornton/Evgeni Nabokov
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Not all in San Jose is sunny as the path to the Stanley Cup proves to be as difficult as ever; falling in love might be the simplest task on this year’s agenda.
Editor: sherlockelly! Thank you as always, missy!
| Previous Chapter- Chapter XXV |
Disclaimer: None of the San Jose Shark franchise belongs to me (neither does Borat, who belongs to the genius of Sasha Baron Cohen), and each individual involved in the story besides my own original characters are their own person and I am not assuming their sexual orientation, personalities or beliefs in real life, but am only twisting them for each to be beneficial to the plot.
-Chapter XXVI-
“Jhust keep me close.” It came out as a raspy whisper, even though he was sure of words he had uttered; Evgeni winced at the grating sound his voice made, rough to his own ears.
But Joe paid no mind. He just quirked the side of his lips into a half-smile, nodding and wrapping his long arms around Evgeni’s smaller body. “I can do that.” That was all he said.
The arm around his shoulders was a welcomed weight, much unlike the burden that had been there for quite some time. As Evgeni drifted to sleep a second time, he couldn’t help but notice how incredibly relieving it was not to bear the unforgiving truth by himself any longer, as well as the throbbing warmth that bled through his body, thick and heavy, wherever the two of their body’s touched. Legs tangled with legs, groins brushing together, chests bumping with each clumsy movement. Hands on a waist and intertwined in hair, their noses brushing as their exhausted smiles mirrored each other’s.
The heat that grew in his chest rose like lava, bubbling with pent up energy until it felt as though he would burst. The only way he could describe it was that it was unexplainable, as simple as that. It was too new to explain, too good to deny, and too frightening to admit. But it was something that wasn’t there before, and Evgeni clung to it desperately. Whatever it was, at least Joe would be there with him, the firm grip on his back and gentle cup at his jaw told him as much.
-----
“So… I guess it’s a new start, again, huh?” Joe asked with a grin when Evgeni stirred awake in his arms. He had woken up early, easily half an hour before the other man began to pull himself from the realm of sleep.
“Hmm?" The man mumbled in return, a questioning curve to his brow as his eyes remained unopened.
“I hung up on Seto last night,” Joe suddenly remembered, his thoughts escaped him as words that tumbled from his mouth before he could stop himself.
Confused at the topic change, if not a little miffed, Evgeni bit his bottom lip and gave a one shouldered shrug. “…Yeah? Iya think that’s right,” he mumbled, propping his head in his hand and checking the nails of his other hand in a poor attempt to appear uninterested.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” Joe sighed with a pout forming on his lips.
“Well, it’s nhot like we weren’t, ah well, yhou know, busy at the time,” Evgen replied with emphasis by rolling his wrist in Joe’s direction with a dusty pink coloring his cheeks.
Clicking his tongue, Joe swatted the hand away and chuckled. “Aww, you’re blushing,” he pointed out, ignoring the halfhearted ‘stop it’ of protest from the other when he patted the flushed skin, though his thoughts were focused elsewhere. Sighing, Joe fished for the phone wedged between the couch’s seat cushions. “I should call him.”
Blush subsiding, Evgeni gave Joe a mixed look of disbelief and distress. “What?” The word was nothing short of a whine. “Yhou’re kidding, right?”
“Well no, but, ugh! I just feel bad about it.” Joe admitted with a slight grimace gracing his lips, his fingers tapping the floor apprehensively , caught in between what he wanted to do and what was right. Damn, stupid conscience. “I’m calling him,” he stated with a tone of finality to his voice.
Evgeni huffed with annoyance, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to talk Joe out of it, but his mouth quirked with a slight smile all the same.
-----
“What do you want?”
Laughing at the new greeting, Joe caught the growing good-natured grin on Evgeni’s face when the other picked up on the conversation. “Hey Devin, what’s with that?”
“Oh I don’t know, maybe you’re a crappy friend slash teammate!” he snapped. Joe flinched back at the sharp tone that his young teammate had taken on. He pulled the phone away from his ear just in case Devin decided to rant and rave some more, shaking his head in Evgeni’s direction with an exaggerated sigh.
A voice-presumably Torrey’s-was heard on the other end, muffled through the line. “Shut up Devin, he’s calling you isn’t he?” One of the two boys seemed to be sympathetic enough at least.
There was a rustle, and then Devin started hissing back “You shut up, asshole!” He paused when there was a distinctive whack, hopefully not due to his roughhousing, as Torrey’s physical health still needed to be considered. “You’re not the one who was rudely hung up on.”
“Devin?” Joe tried hesitantly after receiving a hand waving in his direction by Evgeni. “Devin, hey, I can still-”
But Devin seemed to be entranced with his argument with Torrey, rather than Joe. “Thanks a lot, just fucking take his side, whatever, I don’t care!”
“At least Torrey seems… forgiving,” Joe offered lightly to the man lying at his side, who couldn’t hear the bickering in the background.
“Fine, whatever.” the boy on the other end huffed, probably disgruntled with his friend’s triumph in the lesson in forgiveness. “I guess you’re right. But only this once.” More rustling, and Devin’s voice was devoid of the static film that was there when he wasn’t speaking to Joe directly. “Joe! Hey buddy, what’s up?”
“Devin, I could still hear you,” Joe spoke slowly, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.
“Whaaaat? Pffft, I don’t know what the hell you’re talkin’ about. Hey, you like dumb movies, right?” And so mature about it too.
“Um, actually,” Joe spotted Evgeni perk with interest in his peripheral vision. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen a dumb movie for a long time, especially not one with Evgeni. “Yeah, sure?”
“Cool, ’cause Torr-the-whore-”
“Excuse me?!” Torrey hissed from the other end, indignity and embarrassment cracking in his voice at the same time from the… clever little nickname.
He continued as if Torrey never interrupted him. “-actually got me somethin’ for Christmas this year and I wanna watch one. Wanna come over?”
“Sure?” Joe wasn’t so sure why he was agreeing to this. Evgeni appeared to side with Joe’s silent thoughts as he groaned and covered his face with his hands. “Wait, Dev, s’alright if I bring someone?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, sure! Call Nabby up! That’d be even better.” Some shuffling and a happy snigger, “Dude, I totally know what movie we’re gonna watch.”
Surprised at Devin’s correct guess-‘Was it a guess?’-Joe pursed his lips before finally pressing the end call button with his thumb.
“How’d he know it was me?” Evgeni asked, intrigued, as he rolled back over and set his chin in his open palms.
“Dunno. Wanna go watch a movie?”
-----
Apparently Devin’s idea of a perfect movie had to at least make fun of at least one person watching it. Today, it meant watching Borat, which would have been fine if Evgeni was indeed from Russia like he always claimed. Well, it was funny for everyone in the room excluding the native, secret Kazakhstanian-turned-Russian.
Joe, Evgeni, Devin, and Torrey were had all squeezed onto the beat up couch to watch the movie. With each minute that passed, Evgeni sunk deeper into the raggedy cushions with embarrassment or fury, Joe couldn’t tell. By the end, Evgeni was covering his face with his hands, hiding himself from the constant prodding from the two sophomores.
“Nabs! No wonder you’re good at ping-pong! It must be like, some super human gene thing that all of you guys have. Like, Asians are good at math, thus Kazakhstans are good at ping-pong.”
“Dude, that’s like, racist or something. I was wondering if he had one of those full swimsuit thongs… and aren’t you Asian or something, Dev? ’Cause you like, really suck at math.”
“Fuck you. And wow Mitchie, that’s fuckin’ gross, and no one needs to hear that.”
“Shut up! You were thinking it too. You said so during the movie.”
“Hey, Nabby, do you have one of those thong things?”
The two kept at it until Joe and Evgeni finally left, the latter scowling when the former couldn’t hide his mirthful chuckles.
“Shut up! That movie whas insulting to my culture-”
“Which you disregard so you can be ‘Russian’,” Joe poked back, with air quotes and everything.
Evgeni huffed and crossed his arms. “That whas horrible. I don’t think yhou’d understand.”
“Yevi, seriously. I’m a Canadian living in America, I’m pretty sure I know what yer talking about… eh,” he added for good measure, laughing heartily when Evgeni rolled his eyes and pivoted on his heel, unable to admit defeat.
-----
The first game after the holiday break proved to be uneventful, with a loss to the Blues in a shootout. The only funny thing that Joe could pull from the game was the fact that his team had the worst luck with the Blues and overtime. At least Evgeni didn’t overextend something this time.
Joe had a good feeling about the next game, until he realized where it was.
When he remembered that they were headed to Dallas, Joe was next to Evgeni in a heartbeat. The other man seemed more accepting of the fact than Joe was, but that flustered Joe nonetheless.
“But-ugh! Evgeni! Do you remember what happened here?”
He earned a well deserved glare at that.
“Of course Iya remember what happened, bhut what do yhou want me to do? I can’t not play because of someone who isn’t on the team anymore.”
He had a point, but it didn’t mean that Joe couldn’t feel the tiniest bit protective over Evgeni. He was rightfully put in his place when the Sharks won 3-1, Evgeni rubbing it in his face even more when he was the number one star of the game.
-----
They had reason to celebrate, and the two of them had been swapping hooded glances all night.
Stepping up on his tiptoes when he was sure no one else was looking, Evgeni ghosted his nose along the curls of hair tucked behind Joe’s ear. When he spoke, his words were teasing and airy, the meaning behind them making Joe’s insides curl hotly with anticipation. “I’ll leave my door unlocked,” the Russian muttered, his words laden heavily with his accent, nearly a growl of foreign whispers lost to Joe, but the intent was unmistakable.
It was an offer that Joe wasn’t going to pass up.
Evgeni left him with a coy smirk that everyone else somehow seemed to miss, and headed up to his hotel room. When he left, he waved a goodnight to his remaining teammates, who were celebrating the win at the lobby’s bar.
Joe’s gaze lingered on the other man as he headed up the stairs; his burgeoning erection brushed stiffly against his thigh as he was captivated by the sensual sway of Evgeni’s hips as he gained the steps up on by one. He couldn’t decide if the frustrating swagger was purposely trying to capture his attention or not, but he must have been caught staring too long as Dan’s hand clapped on his shoulder heavily, his teammate’s booming laughter shaking him from his trance.
…If Evgeni just looked over his shoulder and winked, Joe was going to strangle him. How he was getting away with these things, Joe would never know.
-----
He waited until Patrick fell asleep, and when the captain did, he begged for the minutes to pass by quicker. Beads of sweat rolled down his hot skin and sunk into the mattress, making his body itch all over. It was the almost unbearable heat from the comforter thrown over him to mask his raging hard-on, and his arousal seeming to exert fire from every pore.
Try as he might, Joe’s eager mind exploded with ideas, and much to his dismay, his erection became more and more attentive with each detail his brain laid out. He couldn’t help it, Joe had been waiting for this moment for a long, long time.
His breathing grew huskier as flashes of images returned to him from their last night in Dallas. He had been buzzed at the time, but bits and pieces of their rendezvous remained fresh in the forefront of his head. As he waited impatiently for Patrick to fall asleep, Joe allowed himself to relapse into his persistent memories.
The subtle curve of Evgeni’s waist as it fit into Joe’s wandering palms, slightly emasculate in the way the hips jutted out with paper thin skin stretched over the gyrating bones, but in no means feminine. The fine hairs that rose under Joe’s curious touches, the goosepimpled skin a silent invitation for more, and the pride bubbling in his chest for making Evgeni feel that way.
And the broken words that made his resolve shatter; he remembered them clearly even now, through the haze of alcohol and the month of new memories, he remembered the request.
”I whant you to help me, to know that I can ghet through this. I whant to not lhook at myself with disgust. I whant you to make me fheel beautiful.”
How simple would it have been for Joe if he just said no? Not taking up the challenge of granting the wishes would have been immature and terrible, sure, but so much simpler. Now, he was lying on a hotel bed in Dallas, a sweat of unfulfilled desires, shivering with want and need until the two became one delicious dream that was so close to becoming true. He wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
If things went as planned, Joe desperately wanted to tell Evgeni something later that night. He was assuming that Evgeni’s flirtatious whispers were an invitation for, well, sex. If that wasn’t actually what Evgeni was implying-who knew, maybe he just wanted to talk-he could still hold the shorter man close, his hands roaming the expanse of the back as the heavy head rested just over his heart. He would tell Evgeni that he would take up that request, offered to him so long ago.
He would help the other get through the pains, extend his hand when needed, but to be there always, just in case. He would work with Evgeni on building his self confidence back to its previous sturdy glory, once seemingly indestructible on the ice, unwavering in the face of the opposing team.
Joe knew that this would take time, healing isn’t often done overnight after all, and neither did he expect it to be easy, but nothing involving the other man usually was.
There was one thing he could do tonight, and he hoped to get the chance to accomplish it.
Finally, when the captain’s breathing shifted into heavy snores, Joe threw the blankets off his body and hurried out the door, the lock clicking soundlessly behind him. He stuffed the room key into the pocket of his flannel pajama bottoms as he scurried down the hall, devoid of any late night wanderers to his great relief. The last thing he needed was to run into Todd as he roamed the halls after the team’s strictly enforced curfew.
Thoughts of what would happen behind the enclosed door sparked life back into Joe’s softening member. As he approached the goaltender’s specified room, he noticed the metal door guard keeping the entryway just barely open-only noticeable if one was looking for it.
He pressed forward, his rapidly heated palm sticking to the cool plane of wood as he pushed it open. He flicked the door guard back into place and shut the door with his shoulder, the muted clack echoing in the dark room. As he stepped past the foyer, a light flooded the small bedroom with a yellow shine. Turning the corner, Joe smiled as the scene folded out before him.
Lying with his bare back to the covers of the bed, Evgeni’s long fingers curled around the metal chain of the lamp beside him for a moment as they captured each other’s stares, the rise and fall of his chest growing as Joe stepped closer. The larger man padded over towards the bed, stopping when he reached the foot of it, and raked his eyes up the lithe body, stretched out before him.
Clad in only his currently tented boxers, Evgeni appeared to be as excited as Joe felt. The light bathed the pale skin incandescently, shimmering on his skin as he moved like a cat onto his hands and knees from his lying position. He slunk slowly up to the man standing, the same rock to his hips that he had when he walked up the stairs earlier. And then his face was inches away from Joe’s bellybutton, his shallow breaths tickling the line of hairs leading up from the waistline of Joe’s tightening pants.
He hummed in approval when the hot breathing made his toned stomach muscles constrict, rippling down to his inner thighs, his legs weakening as a wave of heat ripped through his body. And Evgeni hadn’t even touched him yet. The power he had over the grizzled hockey forward was startling at best.
Joe wove his shaky fingers through the wild tresses of dirty blond hair to steady himself, locking his knees against another tremor that ran through him. Though he wasn’t prepared for the slick tongue to swirl around his bellybutton before dipping in entirely, allowing the lips to place a sloppy kiss on the skin as the muscle continued its painfully slow lapping.
Hands flying from Evgeni’s hair to his biceps, Joe forced the slighter man onto his knees, the slick palms catching themselves on his heaving chest. Still shorter than Joe by at least a head, Evgeni gazed up hazily, a veil of lust clouding over his swirling storm-like eyes.
“S’good game ya had,” Joe slurred, the words tumbling out of his mouth like cotton, his tongue lolling around uselessly before the jumble of sound could make sense.
Evgeni’s hands trailed up from the flexing pectorals and traced circles over the bulging shoulders before grabbing fistfuls of auburn locks, a commanding hold contrast to the shy smile budding on the man’s face. “Shut up,” he laughed breathlessly before smashing their lips together.
They fell back onto the bed together, their bodies a flurry as they fought to gain more purchase. Positions swapped and flipped as they attacked each other with frenzied motions, animal-like in the way they devoured one another with their mouths, their hands, and their eyes. They ripped the sparse clothing that was clinging to their bodies, the obstructive barrier between them falling useless to the floor.
When the fog lifted, they were crouched on the bed together; Joe draped over Evgeni while the other was sinking onto his stomach under their combined weight. Angry scratches littered their skin, traces of bites as marks of territory scattered among the memories of clawed fingers.
“Scoot back,” Joe gasped. All air had escaped him, his head abuzz with the lack of blood flow as it all was redirected to his cock. He massaged the mound of ass with his left hand, his nails igniting red marks when they raked down the supple flesh, and then moving to cup Evgeni’s balls from behind. He eased the man up with his free hand by the shoulder, until the back was flush against his torso as they sat, Evgeni’s athletic thighs straddling Joe’s own legs. The larger man shuddered and moaned at the contact, dropping his head onto Evgeni’s pallid shoulder and lolling it to the side, sucking the flushed neck with his outstretched lips, Evgeni whimpering with carnal desire.
Joe’s wide hands hand carved through the beads of sweat, intricate lines of feather-light touches driving Evgeni crazy, squirming in Joe’s lap until a firm hold was gripping his hipbones to calm him.
Grinding his hips down, Evgeni’s spine curved like a snake’s, side to side, much to the other’s enjoyment. The bare skin glistened with a new layer of sweat, a thin sheen plastering Evgeni’s body as a liquid illusion. He was boneless to the touch, bending to Joe’s hands on his hips, every push met with no resistance, although every caress was returned with fervor.
Joe gripped the protruding bones with white knuckles, but the smaller man entangled their fingers, encouraging them to move by guiding Joe’s slicked hands in his. With Evgeni directing his movements, Joe’s fingertips grazed the beginnings of coarse hair on the stomach, the tight muscles shuddering under the barely-there stroking. Together, they roamed over the stretch of chest as Evgeni brought their hands higher, his body curling into Joe’s when the pleasure became too concentrated, and arching out like a bow so taut it was ready to snap when he couldn’t get enough friction of the rough hands fondling his heated flesh.
Joe placed delicate kisses at the base of Evgeni’s hairline, inhaling the thick, musky scent mixed with crisp shampoo, his head swimming with the influx of clashing aromas. The drops dewing on Evgeni’s body splattered over the starched linen sheets as Joe’s hands raked through the sweat coating the strong body, his palms gliding easily over the skin as he strayed away from the other man’s lead. He wanted to find the spot that made the trembling man moan; he wanted to lick the blistering skin all over until Evgeni screamed and begged for Joe to relent. He wanted the crushing pressure of Evgeni’s insides to encase him in bone-tingling bliss, so pleasurable that his jaw would slacken and his eyes would roll back from the sheer intensity of it all. Just like it had been when they had first been in this position. The very thought of feeling that way once more-the pleasure, the serenity, the thought that he would be willing to die at that very moment if it meant that he could feel that way forever-made him pick up his pace, grunting when he pulled Evgeni’s behind to bump against his weeping erection.
Pulling from Evgeni’s hands completely, Joe ran his fingers over the muscular chest, his thumbs flicking over the rosy nipples over and over until they both became hardened nubs. Evgeni’s wheezy panting escalated as did his body’s frantic twisting and jerking; he danced in place on Joe’s lap, his lower back slipping over the stomach behind him and grinding his ass down with renewed vigor. Joe had to sink his teeth into the cord of Evgeni’s neck to control himself as the length of his cock slid between the parted cheeks, the ridge of his swollen head just brushing against the puckered opening before grazing over it again and again with each upward thrust of his angled hips. The other threw his head back and reached his hands over his shoulders. He grasped Joe by the hair with clawed hands, pawing the tousled mane of curls, forcing Joe’s teeth in deeper and his own bottom lower.
A surge of possessiveness rung through Joe’s clouded head, and he withdrew his bared teeth from Evgeni’s purpling neck to claim the lips of the man who had pushed his head back onto Joe’s shoulder. He had became the pillar that supported the other from the sinfully teasing touches to the body, keeping in check that he made it good, but not enough to make it perfect.
The groans that hitched in the back of Evgeni’s throat every time Joe pulled away for the troubling breath of oxygen and his own lascivious growls filled the air with a chorus of their craving, long repressed by fear and confusion. But there, in that room, the two met in the eye of the storm.
In that room, Joe was with Evgeni, and that was all he needed. He was being touched in places he had never been touched, caressed in ways he had never even dreamt of being caressed. He felt raw emotions that he had never felt before.
It was hot, like the furious sun beating on his peeling back, skin boiling with burns that wouldn’t ever heal. It was the state between dream and reality, like listening to the pitter-patter of raindrops, the world gloomy and grey while he was dry and warm inside, curled up ready to fall asleep. It was humbling, like the roars of the crowd when his name was boomed through the loudspeaker, making him feel so small. It was heartstopping, like the last seconds ticking off the clock, a goaltender pulled so one team could force the extra five minutes, either pleading for time to speed up or for it to stop completely.
But there was one thing it was not, and because of that, the feeling became so much more complicated.
It was not the thrill and the joy and the fullness so great you think you could cry that came with winning the game… because it was more than that. So much more than that.
Evgeni twisted his neck to lock his lips with Joe’s once more, startling the larger man from his overshadowing thoughts. He stopped gouging his fingers into the pectoral and entangled the same fingers into the untamed tresses at the back of Evgeni’s scalp. His pained yelp melted to a hungry purr when he was wrenched into the contorted position so that his mouth could be devoured more thoroughly.
“’M nhot gonna lhast much longer,” Evgeni hissed when he pulled back from the searing kiss to breathe, twisting his neck even more to nip at the underside of Joe’s jaw.
A gasp ripped from Joe’s throat when the flat of the tongue lapped at the drips threatening to fall from his stubbled chin, his hands unclenching so that they could run down the front of the tempting body once more. A gratifying shaky moan was muffled onto his collar from Evgeni’s wide open mouth when Joe palmed the man’s erection into full hardness once again.
“Don’t need to,” Joe grunted back, fingering the slit and allowing his hand to be soaked in Evgeni’s generous precum as the other continued to attack his neck with ravenous bites and nibbles. “I need you, now.”
Evgeni groaned wantonly, nodding his head vigorously and scrunching his eyes shut, a look of concentration falling over his youthful features.
“Dun’ think I can wait,” he continued, encouraging Evgeni’s alternative bucks into his hand to relieve the straining dick, and then into his lap to rub the eager entrance against the slicked head of Joe’s cock, the moans growing louder and more impatient. “I wanna feel you all over me, wanna be inside you when I come,” he whispered into Evgeni’s hair when the other turned back around, the suggestive words making him shudder with the thoughts of what was to come. “Please, I need you, Yevi.”
“F-fhuck, yes, please,” He wasn’t normally one to beg, Joe knew, but he could tell that the man was shaking with need, nearly sobbing with the amount of pleasure that he was receiving. He made sure that Evgeni was centimeters away from full satisfaction, just not enough to push him the extra inch.
Nodding with a smirk twisting on his lips, Joe buried his forehead between Evgeni’s sharp shoulder blades, tasting the salty skin as his tongue flicked out from his parted lips to slurp up the perspiration gathering in the dips of the spine. One hand slipped behind Evgeni’s body, his middle finger prodding against the resisting hole, while the other hand cupped Evgeni’s pectoral to rub the reddened nipple with leisurely strokes of his fingers. Joe opened his mouth to ask permission, but Evgeni whined deep in his chest, a lone, drawn out “yes” answering the question before it was even asked. Smiling, Joe teased the entrance by circling the velvety skin until Evgeni relaxed to his touch, his muscles jumping only slightly when Joe found a sensitive spot. He kissed Evgeni’s left shoulder blade as he pressed in.
They both gasped at the indescribable sensation. Worming the finger in deeper, Joe waited until the inner muscles unclenched while Evgeni attempted to calm himself with deep breaths hitching in his chest, heaving through his flared nostrils. Joe grew worried the more Evgeni shuddered against him, his body taut as if in pain, but soon the man relaxed around him, and Evgeni was swiveling his hips in a circle, driving the finger to reach more untouched places.
They moved fluidly, taking in the details of their intricate dance, each nerve responding to every motion. With every touch between them, a spark ignited something wilder in Joe’s head, sending waves of arousal down to his cock in turn. Evgeni snaked his way behind himself between Joe’s arms and planted his hands into the mattress on either side of Joe’s waist, his knees propping himself higher as he leaned back into the bigger body. The static attraction clung to him as he moved away from Joe, as the other could feel the residue of Evgeni’s overpowering influence on him tingling just beneath his skin, craving for the hot body to draw back into his. The pull was strong, like a magnet, and soon Evgeni was flush against Joe again, the globes of his ass rubbing against the flat stomach as he bounced on his hands and knees for more friction, for which Joe was only happy to oblige.
Evgeni’s hips still curved out, giving Joe easier access to add another finger to the reluctantly stretching hole, pausing when a hiss reached his ears from above him.
“It’s fine, come on,” Evgeni urged through gritted teeth from the sound of it, his tone nearly a whine of desperation. He needed this, they both did.
Though he was unsure, Joe spread his fingers in the tight channel, his head spinning with the thought of the delicious, contracting insides that would soon swallow his cock whole.
Evgeni choked on his panting half-way through, freezing with his head thrown back and joints locked. Peering over the stone-stiff shoulder, Joe could see their reflection in the grandiose mirror hanging adjacent to the television, which he had failed to notice until that moment. The thought that ‘Patty and I don’t have that in our hotel room’ briefly crossed his mind, before he realized that he truly didn’t care whether or not he had one in his room, but rather that Evgeni had one, and he was going to take full advantage of it.
“Come on, Joe,” Evgeni repeated, sounding more strained than before; his movements picked up again, his ass grinding hard onto the two fingers which had ceased their stretching during Joe’s untimely thoughts. A frustrated grunt and a forceful shove shook Joe into the present.
He shushed a string of calming nonsense into the back of Evgeni’s neck, tracing the tip of his nose along the dripping hairline and rubbing the flat of his calloused hand over the heaving chest. When the man on his lap quieted his whimpering and stilled his frantically bucking hips, Joe slipped in a third finger to join his two. Body tensing, Joe could tell that Evgeni was visibly straining himself not to move, his eyes bolted shut from the look of the mirror; he had yet to open his eyes since before his fingers had invaded his entrance.
Joe stared, fascinated, his brown eyes sparkling as he watched his hands bring Evgeni to the very edge with his continuous rubbing, caressing, and groping, only to pull away at the last moment to drag the teasing on longer, much to the other’s dissatisfaction. A part of him felt bad for pushing Evgeni to these lengths, for shoving him to the very brink of his limit, and then halting his clumsy fingers’ dance to bring the man crashing back down again. Another part of him was filled to the brim with accomplishment, knowing full well that he was the one to make the usual stoic and smug goaltender feel this way; the only one who had finally taken down all of the barriers that the other had built up to protect himself from the world. After so many times of trying, so many times of failures, Joe had finally gotten through. Now Evgeni only writhed with pleasure under his hands, moaned at Joe’s words, and stripped himself of all false masks until he was bared completely, for only Joe to see.
Fingers spread apart inside him, Evgeni flexed his arms, his shoulders squaring in their reflection, and replaced his hands onto Joe’s hips, his blunt nails biting into the freckled skin. Tiny gasps escaped him as the digits probed and massaged his insides, delicately at first, but Evgeni couldn’t take it much longer and he was soon riding the fingers with rough bounces, his hips meeting Joe’s hand thrust for thrust. As gorgeous a picture that the scene created in the mirror was, it wasn’t enough.
Joe ripped his fingers away and gripped Evgeni’s waist, his other hand wrapping around Evgeni’s throat. Guiding the hips, Joe soon felt the unmistakable brush of the loosened hole against engorged cock. The lone touch made both moan and the grips slacken, but Joe pried open his eyes to see their actions from the front through the mirror before moving the extra inch.
Evgeni was stretched across him, head thrown back, bearing the column of pale neck through the slivers of space left from Joe’s hold. Tensed cords led to the dramatic dip of his collar bone, which pointed down to his rapidly growing and shrinking chest, covered with a light dusting of blond hairs. Pink scratch marks littered his rib cage, Joe’s enthusiastic marks scraping over the rock-hard nubs, the man’s nipples red with abuse. Jutting out were the hipbones, sharp enough to cut glass, the white skin stretched so tightly that it appeared as though the bone itself was shining through. Strong thighs were spread wide apart to accommodate Joe’s own between them, pale and glossy with both of their sweat, beads rolling down the stretch of unmarred skin and into the rumbled comforter in which his knees were embedded, his feet twisting and wrapping around Joe’s behind them.
And laying flat on his tight stomach was the pulsing cock, glistening in the yellowish light with precum, so wet that the dip of his bellybutton was overflowing with the clear, sticky fluid and creating shining rivets down his sides as they dripped onto Joe’s skin with a blip. His balls, covered in soft, dark peach flesh, lied limply to his body, shuddering when Evgeni shook with compressed excitement. Joe strained his neck higher, his chin poking just above Evgeni’s shoulder to see where the two of them were so close to being one.
When he saw it, he nearly finished the connection with the overwhelming heat of the visual.
His head, pink and throbbing in time with his thundering heartbeat, was poised to enter the man. So close, that he couldn’t see from his position how he wasn’t already buried in the sweet bundle of heat. But he knew this wasn’t the case, not yet anyway. Angry veins sprouted down from the tip, spiraling down and around the thick shaft, each inch of bare skin making him all the more hot, until he finally couldn’t take it anymore. With a growl and pinching fingers, he jerked his hips up, burying his cock in the snug confines of Evgeni’s ass.
Shrieking a little at the not quite unwelcome intrusion, Evgeni shifted around on Joe’s lap, his body peeling away from the other’s with a wet rip as he tried to get comfortable. Joe was completely still while the inner muscles rippled around him, he had forgotten to thoroughly prepare himself, other than the spurts of his own precum and one or two pumps of his fist. But watching Evgeni flustered on top of him, usual pale skin flushed a rosy pink, Joe knew that it wouldn’t be long until more of his natural lubricant would force its way out of his slit to lather the walls of the wriggling ass.
The grip on his hips grew painful while Evgeni had taken to breathing raggedly through bared teeth. Working his hands around the clutched body, Joe pressed a kiss of apology to the soft flesh behind Evgeni’s ear and wrapped his fingers around the dripping length.
It was heavy in his hand, the blood racing under his thin fingertips. Paying special attention to the purpled head, Joe tried to coax the man back into stimulation. Evgeni’s whimpers of pain soon gave way to a sigh of delight. He was still clamped around Joe’s cock, shuddering once, then locking up seconds later, the throbbing muscles trying to force out the foreign object, despite Evgeni’s attempts to calm himself.
Twirling his pointer finger around the ridge of the head, Joe eased his hips upward, only to be met with a wall of unrelenting insides, and Evgeni shaking with discomfort, a noticeable twitch to his jaw from the way he was grinding his teeth to powder.
Joe mumbled a sincere “sorry” and reached his other hand lower to cup Evgeni’s balls, as if the action would heal the distress he was giving unintentionally. Fuck… they were bad at this.
So far, Joe couldn’t complain about his cock being trapped by the tight tunnel; it felt so good that he felt himself grew even harder at the constricted feeling. It was not him whom he was worried about though. Evgeni hadn’t seemed to be in this much pain the first time, but then again, Evgeni had been drunk and hysterical. It was a good ice breaker, but Joe didn’t want to rely on those factors now. What happened to his ability to make Evgeni dance for him in that sexy way? The guilt coiled around his intestines like a serpent, its fangs sinking into his heart and making it feel so heavy.
“Lhooks like we nheed practice, yeah?” Evgeni managed to laugh, his eyes finally peeling open to peer down at Joe’s worry stricken face. His wince eased when he saw Joe’s expression, a crease forming between his furrowed brows. “Iya didn’t expect this to bhe fun at first, yhou know,” he reassured with an airy voice, the back of his knuckles ghosting over Joe’s cheek after letting go of the vice-like grip at the waist.
Joe forced a slight smile, before it grew genuine. Leave it to the melancholy goaltender to lighten the mood. He faltered after a moment of staring into the swirling pools like storm clouds, hues of grey and blue never settling for a second, and a frown twitched at his lips. “I said I’d never hurt you, and now, I…” he glanced away, toward the drawn curtains. “’M sorry.”
“Yhou said that already,” Evgeni huffed out, his eyes shuttering closed once again. If Joe wasn’t mistaken, the baritone voice was holding back a laugh. That made Joe smile again. “’Nd I’m nhot mad anyway, so stop yhour worrying,” he finished with a sigh, traces of a pout lingering on his blushing face.
He began to feel it, the rings of muscle hesitantly relaxing around him, his cock easing its way higher into Evgeni’s opening hole. He would pause when the man would flinch suddenly, but Evgeni would swat his request for forgiveness away and pull his legs further apart, so that Joe could sink deeper onto the pulsing organ.
After thinking that it may never come, Joe was pushed up to the hilt in Evgeni’s heat. A moan escaped him before he even knew that he had uttered it, but Evgeni’s laugh cut through the embarrassing noise like a knife, the joyous spark returning to his eye when he caught Joe’s bashful gaze once more.
And then their tongues found each other’s after mere moments of lustful staring. Lips parting under questioning prods, they were soon locked in a heated flurry. Joe brought his hand up to cup Evgeni’s cheek, pulling the man into a position for easier access to the sinful mouth. Their teeth scraped together with frazzled actions, uncouth compared to the way their hands were practically idolizing the other’s body earlier.
A gentle touch to the skin never lasted long before it roamed somewhere else, paying each new spot equal admiration. Up from mountain crest-like hips, and dipping into the valley of a flexed stomach, the planes of flat chest that stretched on forever… Joe couldn’t get enough.
Murmuring his encouragement into Joe’s open mouth, Evgeni pushed his hips half-way up Joe’s cock, only to come crashing down again in one swift motion. Gasping at the sudden rush of pleasure, Joe had to squeeze his eyes shut to stop the white dots from dancing over his already clouded vision. Breathing hard, Evgeni did it again, this time angling his hips in a new direction, the head of Joe’s cock ramming into new slippery walls. He had been right earlier, his precum was now seeping out of him, as if in mighty waves.
Flexing his ass, Joe added to the wild thrusts with some thoughtless bucks of his own. He didn’t know how to do this correctly-so far, he thought he was pretty terrible at it with another guy-but Evgeni’s expression had finally given way to something more pleased than his initial anguish. Curious to what the man was feeling, Joe turned toward the mirror once again. The gaudy thing proved to be quite handy.
With his head limply thrashing around with their combined movements, Evgeni’s face twisted with pleasure. Sweat dripped down from where it beaded on his brow, creating long tracks down his cheeks, falling from his nose, chin, and strands of hair. Pink lips, swollen from furious kisses, were parted ever so slightly; a quick dart of the tongue swept the shiny upper lip only to return back so that the white teeth could sink into the bottom lip, tearing at it with angry bites.
Even though the image was one of the most seductive things he had ever seen, and Joe couldn’t have ever imagined it in his lifetime, he was glad that he hadn’t. Nothing could have compared to real thing. A giddy bubble of excitement grew in his chest, and his hips lifted off the bed with eager enthusiasm. The other groaned with appreciation, a quiet uncomfortable hiss here and there, but they all were quickly drowned out by the squeaking of the spring bed as a new thrust was delivered, wiping out the pain before it had fully even registered.
Grunting and panting, Joe was lost. The bliss had engulfed him and it wasn’t letting him go. In and out, never all the way, but sometimes close. His balls slapped against the bare ass when Evgeni came crashing down, the constant stream of fwap, fwap, fwaping filling the stuffy room. It was all too much. Evgeni was smothering him with such a heat that he could hardly stand it. The same man’s breath tingled over his shoulder, the hands trailing over his ribs. Garbled Russian going in one ear and flying out the other, none making sense, but somehow Joe knew exactly what Evgeni meant. He obliged in a heartbeat.
Each jab upward brought a new slippery muscle in contact with Joe’s weeping cock, always close, but never the right spot.
He mapped out the foreign body with his hands, so different when compared to his usually experienced movements. There were no supple curves to fondle, only straight lines. Muscles hardened from thousands of drills-just like his-flexed just beneath the layers of skin. The fibers in the thighs contracted when Joe ran his fingers down the legs that were draped over his sides. He was surprised to find the seemingly lanky things to be even more weathered beyond his own; he glanced down, never once reducing his desperate drives, entranced by the way his hands worshipped the legs. The dips that his fingers created were shallow, cushioned by little or no fat before he was met with stone-like quadriceps. He hid a laugh, silently thanking the butterfly position and its use of squats for the technique.
Gripping the backs of the upper thighs to lift Evgeni higher, Joe thrust up with new found strength. Evgeni whined when the brunt of impales were lifted from him, instead given to the will of the other man to do with it what he pleased. Joe pressed his cheek into Evgeni’s neck, feeling the rumble of high-pitched panting from the throat through his ear. The wheezing mouthfuls of air peaked in time with the cock sliding now effortlessly in and out of his loosened hole. Slowing his pace to lazy pumping, Joe watched their leisurely fucking intently in the mirror. A sly grin stretched over his lips when the other man’s brow crinkled with confusion.
“What… what are yhou dhoing?” he gasped, eyes still shut when he turned to Joe, his breaths puffing hotly from deep in his chest. Hands fumbled clumsily as Evgeni searched for Joe’s neck. He found the sturdy column and hesitantly laced his fingers at the base of the skull behind himself.
“Ya want this t’be good, right?” Joe asked lightly, his open mouth tracing the artful line from one shoulder to another. Glancing toward their reflection, his smile grew as he watched the blotchy pink which mottled the man’s chest grow from more than just arousal.
“Yeah?” he whispered back, still a little uncertain.
He couldn’t wait to see Evgeni’s face when he said it. Joe licked the still sparkling trail of sweat up behind the jaw and nuzzled his nose in the musky smelling hair when he leaned in close. “Then we’re doin’ this my way. I wanna find that spot deep inside you, feel you all ’round me, so hot and tight when I fuck you. And when I find that spot, I’m gonna pound it ’til you scream, making you cum all over. I bet ya can, I bet I can make you. You’d look so pretty when you do it too,” he finished, mumbling the last bit of his dirty thoughts into the tufts of hair, while he enjoyed the nervous squirming that rubbed against his body and the tensing around his dick with every word he said.
“O-oh.” It was all Evgeni could stutter out in response, his body shrinking back into Joe’s from embarrassment.
Joe shifted his hips to the left after he pulled out and sank back in, but he didn’t get the reaction he was searching for. Leaning to his right, he put all his weight onto his knee for leverage, but Evgeni’s groans remained the same. Good, but not quite enough.
His dick was screaming at him to move faster, to lose himself in the pleasure of friction so fast that it felt like it was everywhere, drenching him with a sweet relief from the stress of his life, to let it all out, finish himself off… but he schooled himself, reminding his body to take it slow. It was frustrating, holding himself back, but at the same time, the new feelings engulfing him made his plunging all the more gratifying. Each shove was like pushing through a snug ring, squeezing him with an unrelenting grip; so tight that he could feel his blood pounding in his balls, unable to pump through the clenched off veins on the other side. Inching in, he could feel the separate segments of muscle prod into him from all sides, wet from his precum, smothering him back with his own fluids. The whole time Joe kept his gaze locked on Evgeni’s face, watching for every twitch so that he could take it all in.
He hissed out with strangled relief, Evgeni purring like a cat when the man impaled him up to the hilt, Joe’s nest of curls tickling over his bare ass. Wiggling a bit, Evgeni tried to find that bundle of nerves on his own, but stopped trying when Joe gripped his hips and silenced his whimpers with another kiss to the lips. Joe pulled out just as slowly, the tight hole trapping his skin, and pulling until it felt as though it would rip completely before he finally pinched though. The charge of blood flow back into his sensitive dick made his vision swim, but he barely had time to compute the head rush before he sunk back into Evgeni’s waiting ass.
Pulling away with a soft moan lingering from the kiss, Evgeni whispered against Joe’s bitten lips, “But why?” he asked, sounding so meager compared to his forward actions earlier. Then it occurred to Joe.
“Because I think yer beautiful.” Evgeni’s eyes wrenched open at that.
Rough touches and exploring hands Evgeni could handle, but compliments? Flattery? He shied away from it, even in hockey. He could have been the only one left on the ice with a shutout, and he would still credit someone else for the win. His humble nature floored Joe, especially when Joe knew that Evgeni believed that he could have done better, that he could have been more; even when he tried his best, even when everyone else saw how great he was, it was never enough.
Joe knew that Evgeni didn’t believe him now either.
“Look in the mirror, Yev,” he prompted, nodding ahead of them while Evgeni stared wide-eyed from mere inches away.
Doing as he was told, the man forced himself to tear his stare from Joe, but shied away when he met himself in the mirror.
“Dhidn’t realize that was there…” he croaked out, choking back a bit as if in apology, turning his head to the side to avert his gaze. Evgeni was flustered, a blotchy red beginning to cover his cheeks; he paused after sinking fully onto Joe’s cock, burying himself to the hilt, only letting out a tiny squeak at the fullness that penetrated him. He finally struck Joe’s last nerve when he slung an arm over his blushing chest and the other across his waist in an attempt to cover his exposed body from himself.
That motion stung Joe in the sharpest of ways; it was as if a rose pricked him as he tried to gently handle the delicate flower, but the thorn nicked him despite his best efforts, right in the heart.
“Oh, Yevi…” Words died on his lips after the utterance of the name made his heart ache for the man even more. He watched with saddened eyes as Evgeni’s arousal began to subside with his embarrassment, his erection softening against his belly. Seeing the reaction to his words transpire, Joe knew it was probably not the smartest thing for him to do in the budding stages of their relationship, but he had to say it, or else Evgeni may never know. Maybe for once Joe’s words could be a double-edged sword. “You need to see yerself how I see you.”
“Why?” he whispered despondently, his dilated eyes still locked on the beige wall to his left.
“So you can finally get better.”
“Joe, I’m fine,” Evgeni stressed, but from the way he flinched at the words, Joe knew he was lying.
“I don’t believe you.”
Shifting on the lap, Evgeni turned from the mirror and peered into Joe’s eyes directly, leaning back some to focus his skeptical gaze. “Well, what do yhou want me to say? That I’m a mess? ’Cause I’m nhot,” he hissed the last bit with a hint of a scowl on his face, his defenses building back up around him, a barrier of the attack he was expecting to come.
Joe stroked the tension away with his large hands, undeterred by the hostile glares sent in his direction. “But yer not completely fine, either,” he muttered into Evgeni’s shoulder, his eyes unwavering from the stormy greys of his partner.
The man deflated, his bravado slipping away through his shaky grasp and cowering in the shadows of his mind once more. What was left was for only Joe to see, the shattered remains of what Evgeni once was, self-doubt and self-loathing settling over his features in the form of a crinkled brow, a bitten lip, a dulling gaze. He sighed heavily, his chest shuddering; his lungs, pregnant with oxygen, forcing the air to circulate until it was expelled with one slow breath, as if the weight of the world was forcing itself onto his shoulders. “Yhour’e right,” he admitted after his sigh, “I’m nhot.” But what do you want me to do about it?
“This is a two way thing, ya know,” Joe pressed, his lips forming into delicate kisses between words, coaxing Evgeni at a slow pace. He was mindful to keep a patronizing tone from his voice, as Evgeni would have been offended of anything of the sort. So he kept the talk to a minimum, instead letting the name he knew so well fall from his lips, joined with illogical mutterings of encouragement, mingled together until it was one giant mess of nonsense. But to Joe, it made all the sense in the world. ‘Just make Evgeni better.’
Finally, Evgeni nodded in agreement, albeit reluctantly, and ripped his inquiring eyes away from Joe’s hopeful face. He glanced toward the mirror briefly, but the image of the two of them, entangled as one in the most intimate of ways, made a powerful blush bloom over his chest, and he forced himself to look away again.
“I like this,” Joe began softly, propping his chin on Evgeni’s shoulder to see as he traced the line that the prominent collarbone created from one side to the other with his middle finger. “Looks so delicate.”
Evgeni ruffled, somewhat confused; Joe could see the straining of the cords in his neck when the man forced himself not to look in the mirror.
“But I like this, too.” Using the same finger, Joe draped it across the body before him, playing with the wisps of hair that dusted the broad chest before settling his palm on the flat expanse of a pectoral. “How strong you are.”
The hand traveled back up the length of the quivering body, flushed again with the concentrated attention. Joe cupped Evgeni’s tight jaw, sitting up higher to press his mouth to the high cheekbone on the other side, the barely-there stubble tickling at his lips. His eyes fluttered closed when the muscles surrounding his cock revived their pulsing, remembering the thick intrusion after so long.
“I like that,” he choked, pumping his hips in a cautious rhythm to continue the ripple of please that shot through his body. “Fuck, Yev, I like that so much, what you do to me, it’s so good. I wish you could see it, see you, like I do.”
With his other hand, Joe inched his way down the trembling abdominal muscles, and raked through the curls leading from Evgeni’s navel, until he wrapped his fingers around the half-mast dick. At the contact, the cock perked to full attention once more from the combined stokes of the hand around him and the strokes inside him.
Joe smiled through the haze of pleasure and guided Evgeni’s face to his with a gentle push of his hand on the cheek. He captured the parted lips and slipped his tongue through the slight opening.
Evgeni’s tongue was limp for a few seconds as Joe massaged the slick muscle with his own, the fear of rejection long gone from his thoughts. His words slid off of the man like water on oil, beading away and separating, no hint of recognition in his words. If this was the only way to get through Evgeni’s thick head, then so be it, Joe liked this way just fine. Deepening the kiss, Joe continued his hand’s ministrations to the shaft as he picked up his thrusting, desperate to find that place where Evgeni would have to realize how perfect they were together.
After what felt like hours of unreciprocated caresses, Evgeni finally kissed back. His tongue slid sweetly over the roof of Joe’s mouth at first, asked permission for more, before he plunged in to tangle with the other. And then deeper and deeper, as if he was delving for the reason behind Joe’s declarations, hidden somewhere in the back of his mouth.
They found solace in each other, the harmony of them, together; maybe unnatural as teammates, but so, so right as just them. The titles were stripped away to nothing, because they weren’t important, not now; not in the ideal that this could be so much more, that it could bring so much more than any association could.
The ebb and flow of their movements were too good to be accidental, always swirling closer, but never pushing away. The waves grew in a flurry on motion, everywhere at once, hands pushing them closer and closer. And then they were at their peak, a spring tide within them, where the pent up desire was stretched to its extreme, the highest highs and the lowest lows. A hurricane brewing deep in their bellies until it threatened to overtake them completely, lapping at the sides of their control, spinning faster and faster until the storm finally hit, and it hit hard.
Their mouths were still searching each other’s after the release. Reluctant to let go, but both knew that their time would be short, never long enough.
Joe’s elbows were pressed into the mattress, his head bowed as he kissed a path down Evgeni’s neck when he was unfortunately shaken back to reality; a reality that didn’t know the needs of the two men wrapped around each other under the guise of teammates turned friends, when they both wanted it to be so much more.
Making reality mesh with their reality would take some time, and they knew this. But when Evgeni placed a chaste kiss to Joe’s temple and said that he loved watching Joe in the mirror, they knew that their reality was good enough for that night.
A reminder of a worried captain in the morning was the reluctant truth that sent Joe on his way. But it was Evgeni’s hold on his hand that was a moment longer than normal, and the extra touch of their lips which cemented the promise for more, and that maybe one day, they didn’t have to leave each other to bury the past afterward.
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To Be Continued
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Yay sober sex, these two finally did it!
So everyone, I don’t want to sound… stingy, or anything, but I have noticed that reviews have dropped lately. Now I’m only bringing this up because I want to know if this still has the same amount of readers or not! I’d like to know if this isn’t up to par with the past chapters, so that I can revert to how the story once was.
OR if it is actually that fact that so many people are now updating on 2M4S that this story gets lost among the many new stories! If that’s the case, I have no qualms about sending people personal updates when new chapters of this story are added! It would be my pleasure to do this actually, as I would hate it for people to get caught behind in the updates, and in the end confusing everybody.
So please, if you would be so kind, review, even if it’s just a word or two, as I would like to know if you guys are still reading the story. And if you would like for me to send you messages for the updates, tell me in the review as well!
Thanks everyone, as always, for reading, and please, review! :)
Pairing: Joe Thornton/Evgeni Nabokov
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Not all in San Jose is sunny as the path to the Stanley Cup proves to be as difficult as ever; falling in love might be the simplest task on this year’s agenda.
Editor: sherlockelly! Thank you as always, missy!
| Previous Chapter- Chapter XXV |
Disclaimer: None of the San Jose Shark franchise belongs to me (neither does Borat, who belongs to the genius of Sasha Baron Cohen), and each individual involved in the story besides my own original characters are their own person and I am not assuming their sexual orientation, personalities or beliefs in real life, but am only twisting them for each to be beneficial to the plot.
-Chapter XXVI-
“Jhust keep me close.” It came out as a raspy whisper, even though he was sure of words he had uttered; Evgeni winced at the grating sound his voice made, rough to his own ears.
But Joe paid no mind. He just quirked the side of his lips into a half-smile, nodding and wrapping his long arms around Evgeni’s smaller body. “I can do that.” That was all he said.
The arm around his shoulders was a welcomed weight, much unlike the burden that had been there for quite some time. As Evgeni drifted to sleep a second time, he couldn’t help but notice how incredibly relieving it was not to bear the unforgiving truth by himself any longer, as well as the throbbing warmth that bled through his body, thick and heavy, wherever the two of their body’s touched. Legs tangled with legs, groins brushing together, chests bumping with each clumsy movement. Hands on a waist and intertwined in hair, their noses brushing as their exhausted smiles mirrored each other’s.
The heat that grew in his chest rose like lava, bubbling with pent up energy until it felt as though he would burst. The only way he could describe it was that it was unexplainable, as simple as that. It was too new to explain, too good to deny, and too frightening to admit. But it was something that wasn’t there before, and Evgeni clung to it desperately. Whatever it was, at least Joe would be there with him, the firm grip on his back and gentle cup at his jaw told him as much.
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“So… I guess it’s a new start, again, huh?” Joe asked with a grin when Evgeni stirred awake in his arms. He had woken up early, easily half an hour before the other man began to pull himself from the realm of sleep.
“Hmm?" The man mumbled in return, a questioning curve to his brow as his eyes remained unopened.
“I hung up on Seto last night,” Joe suddenly remembered, his thoughts escaped him as words that tumbled from his mouth before he could stop himself.
Confused at the topic change, if not a little miffed, Evgeni bit his bottom lip and gave a one shouldered shrug. “…Yeah? Iya think that’s right,” he mumbled, propping his head in his hand and checking the nails of his other hand in a poor attempt to appear uninterested.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” Joe sighed with a pout forming on his lips.
“Well, it’s nhot like we weren’t, ah well, yhou know, busy at the time,” Evgen replied with emphasis by rolling his wrist in Joe’s direction with a dusty pink coloring his cheeks.
Clicking his tongue, Joe swatted the hand away and chuckled. “Aww, you’re blushing,” he pointed out, ignoring the halfhearted ‘stop it’ of protest from the other when he patted the flushed skin, though his thoughts were focused elsewhere. Sighing, Joe fished for the phone wedged between the couch’s seat cushions. “I should call him.”
Blush subsiding, Evgeni gave Joe a mixed look of disbelief and distress. “What?” The word was nothing short of a whine. “Yhou’re kidding, right?”
“Well no, but, ugh! I just feel bad about it.” Joe admitted with a slight grimace gracing his lips, his fingers tapping the floor apprehensively , caught in between what he wanted to do and what was right. Damn, stupid conscience. “I’m calling him,” he stated with a tone of finality to his voice.
Evgeni huffed with annoyance, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to talk Joe out of it, but his mouth quirked with a slight smile all the same.
-----
“What do you want?”
Laughing at the new greeting, Joe caught the growing good-natured grin on Evgeni’s face when the other picked up on the conversation. “Hey Devin, what’s with that?”
“Oh I don’t know, maybe you’re a crappy friend slash teammate!” he snapped. Joe flinched back at the sharp tone that his young teammate had taken on. He pulled the phone away from his ear just in case Devin decided to rant and rave some more, shaking his head in Evgeni’s direction with an exaggerated sigh.
A voice-presumably Torrey’s-was heard on the other end, muffled through the line. “Shut up Devin, he’s calling you isn’t he?” One of the two boys seemed to be sympathetic enough at least.
There was a rustle, and then Devin started hissing back “You shut up, asshole!” He paused when there was a distinctive whack, hopefully not due to his roughhousing, as Torrey’s physical health still needed to be considered. “You’re not the one who was rudely hung up on.”
“Devin?” Joe tried hesitantly after receiving a hand waving in his direction by Evgeni. “Devin, hey, I can still-”
But Devin seemed to be entranced with his argument with Torrey, rather than Joe. “Thanks a lot, just fucking take his side, whatever, I don’t care!”
“At least Torrey seems… forgiving,” Joe offered lightly to the man lying at his side, who couldn’t hear the bickering in the background.
“Fine, whatever.” the boy on the other end huffed, probably disgruntled with his friend’s triumph in the lesson in forgiveness. “I guess you’re right. But only this once.” More rustling, and Devin’s voice was devoid of the static film that was there when he wasn’t speaking to Joe directly. “Joe! Hey buddy, what’s up?”
“Devin, I could still hear you,” Joe spoke slowly, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.
“Whaaaat? Pffft, I don’t know what the hell you’re talkin’ about. Hey, you like dumb movies, right?” And so mature about it too.
“Um, actually,” Joe spotted Evgeni perk with interest in his peripheral vision. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen a dumb movie for a long time, especially not one with Evgeni. “Yeah, sure?”
“Cool, ’cause Torr-the-whore-”
“Excuse me?!” Torrey hissed from the other end, indignity and embarrassment cracking in his voice at the same time from the… clever little nickname.
He continued as if Torrey never interrupted him. “-actually got me somethin’ for Christmas this year and I wanna watch one. Wanna come over?”
“Sure?” Joe wasn’t so sure why he was agreeing to this. Evgeni appeared to side with Joe’s silent thoughts as he groaned and covered his face with his hands. “Wait, Dev, s’alright if I bring someone?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, sure! Call Nabby up! That’d be even better.” Some shuffling and a happy snigger, “Dude, I totally know what movie we’re gonna watch.”
Surprised at Devin’s correct guess-‘Was it a guess?’-Joe pursed his lips before finally pressing the end call button with his thumb.
“How’d he know it was me?” Evgeni asked, intrigued, as he rolled back over and set his chin in his open palms.
“Dunno. Wanna go watch a movie?”
-----
Apparently Devin’s idea of a perfect movie had to at least make fun of at least one person watching it. Today, it meant watching Borat, which would have been fine if Evgeni was indeed from Russia like he always claimed. Well, it was funny for everyone in the room excluding the native, secret Kazakhstanian-turned-Russian.
Joe, Evgeni, Devin, and Torrey were had all squeezed onto the beat up couch to watch the movie. With each minute that passed, Evgeni sunk deeper into the raggedy cushions with embarrassment or fury, Joe couldn’t tell. By the end, Evgeni was covering his face with his hands, hiding himself from the constant prodding from the two sophomores.
“Nabs! No wonder you’re good at ping-pong! It must be like, some super human gene thing that all of you guys have. Like, Asians are good at math, thus Kazakhstans are good at ping-pong.”
“Dude, that’s like, racist or something. I was wondering if he had one of those full swimsuit thongs… and aren’t you Asian or something, Dev? ’Cause you like, really suck at math.”
“Fuck you. And wow Mitchie, that’s fuckin’ gross, and no one needs to hear that.”
“Shut up! You were thinking it too. You said so during the movie.”
“Hey, Nabby, do you have one of those thong things?”
The two kept at it until Joe and Evgeni finally left, the latter scowling when the former couldn’t hide his mirthful chuckles.
“Shut up! That movie whas insulting to my culture-”
“Which you disregard so you can be ‘Russian’,” Joe poked back, with air quotes and everything.
Evgeni huffed and crossed his arms. “That whas horrible. I don’t think yhou’d understand.”
“Yevi, seriously. I’m a Canadian living in America, I’m pretty sure I know what yer talking about… eh,” he added for good measure, laughing heartily when Evgeni rolled his eyes and pivoted on his heel, unable to admit defeat.
-----
The first game after the holiday break proved to be uneventful, with a loss to the Blues in a shootout. The only funny thing that Joe could pull from the game was the fact that his team had the worst luck with the Blues and overtime. At least Evgeni didn’t overextend something this time.
Joe had a good feeling about the next game, until he realized where it was.
When he remembered that they were headed to Dallas, Joe was next to Evgeni in a heartbeat. The other man seemed more accepting of the fact than Joe was, but that flustered Joe nonetheless.
“But-ugh! Evgeni! Do you remember what happened here?”
He earned a well deserved glare at that.
“Of course Iya remember what happened, bhut what do yhou want me to do? I can’t not play because of someone who isn’t on the team anymore.”
He had a point, but it didn’t mean that Joe couldn’t feel the tiniest bit protective over Evgeni. He was rightfully put in his place when the Sharks won 3-1, Evgeni rubbing it in his face even more when he was the number one star of the game.
-----
They had reason to celebrate, and the two of them had been swapping hooded glances all night.
Stepping up on his tiptoes when he was sure no one else was looking, Evgeni ghosted his nose along the curls of hair tucked behind Joe’s ear. When he spoke, his words were teasing and airy, the meaning behind them making Joe’s insides curl hotly with anticipation. “I’ll leave my door unlocked,” the Russian muttered, his words laden heavily with his accent, nearly a growl of foreign whispers lost to Joe, but the intent was unmistakable.
It was an offer that Joe wasn’t going to pass up.
Evgeni left him with a coy smirk that everyone else somehow seemed to miss, and headed up to his hotel room. When he left, he waved a goodnight to his remaining teammates, who were celebrating the win at the lobby’s bar.
Joe’s gaze lingered on the other man as he headed up the stairs; his burgeoning erection brushed stiffly against his thigh as he was captivated by the sensual sway of Evgeni’s hips as he gained the steps up on by one. He couldn’t decide if the frustrating swagger was purposely trying to capture his attention or not, but he must have been caught staring too long as Dan’s hand clapped on his shoulder heavily, his teammate’s booming laughter shaking him from his trance.
…If Evgeni just looked over his shoulder and winked, Joe was going to strangle him. How he was getting away with these things, Joe would never know.
-----
He waited until Patrick fell asleep, and when the captain did, he begged for the minutes to pass by quicker. Beads of sweat rolled down his hot skin and sunk into the mattress, making his body itch all over. It was the almost unbearable heat from the comforter thrown over him to mask his raging hard-on, and his arousal seeming to exert fire from every pore.
Try as he might, Joe’s eager mind exploded with ideas, and much to his dismay, his erection became more and more attentive with each detail his brain laid out. He couldn’t help it, Joe had been waiting for this moment for a long, long time.
His breathing grew huskier as flashes of images returned to him from their last night in Dallas. He had been buzzed at the time, but bits and pieces of their rendezvous remained fresh in the forefront of his head. As he waited impatiently for Patrick to fall asleep, Joe allowed himself to relapse into his persistent memories.
The subtle curve of Evgeni’s waist as it fit into Joe’s wandering palms, slightly emasculate in the way the hips jutted out with paper thin skin stretched over the gyrating bones, but in no means feminine. The fine hairs that rose under Joe’s curious touches, the goosepimpled skin a silent invitation for more, and the pride bubbling in his chest for making Evgeni feel that way.
And the broken words that made his resolve shatter; he remembered them clearly even now, through the haze of alcohol and the month of new memories, he remembered the request.
”I whant you to help me, to know that I can ghet through this. I whant to not lhook at myself with disgust. I whant you to make me fheel beautiful.”
How simple would it have been for Joe if he just said no? Not taking up the challenge of granting the wishes would have been immature and terrible, sure, but so much simpler. Now, he was lying on a hotel bed in Dallas, a sweat of unfulfilled desires, shivering with want and need until the two became one delicious dream that was so close to becoming true. He wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
If things went as planned, Joe desperately wanted to tell Evgeni something later that night. He was assuming that Evgeni’s flirtatious whispers were an invitation for, well, sex. If that wasn’t actually what Evgeni was implying-who knew, maybe he just wanted to talk-he could still hold the shorter man close, his hands roaming the expanse of the back as the heavy head rested just over his heart. He would tell Evgeni that he would take up that request, offered to him so long ago.
He would help the other get through the pains, extend his hand when needed, but to be there always, just in case. He would work with Evgeni on building his self confidence back to its previous sturdy glory, once seemingly indestructible on the ice, unwavering in the face of the opposing team.
Joe knew that this would take time, healing isn’t often done overnight after all, and neither did he expect it to be easy, but nothing involving the other man usually was.
There was one thing he could do tonight, and he hoped to get the chance to accomplish it.
Finally, when the captain’s breathing shifted into heavy snores, Joe threw the blankets off his body and hurried out the door, the lock clicking soundlessly behind him. He stuffed the room key into the pocket of his flannel pajama bottoms as he scurried down the hall, devoid of any late night wanderers to his great relief. The last thing he needed was to run into Todd as he roamed the halls after the team’s strictly enforced curfew.
Thoughts of what would happen behind the enclosed door sparked life back into Joe’s softening member. As he approached the goaltender’s specified room, he noticed the metal door guard keeping the entryway just barely open-only noticeable if one was looking for it.
He pressed forward, his rapidly heated palm sticking to the cool plane of wood as he pushed it open. He flicked the door guard back into place and shut the door with his shoulder, the muted clack echoing in the dark room. As he stepped past the foyer, a light flooded the small bedroom with a yellow shine. Turning the corner, Joe smiled as the scene folded out before him.
Lying with his bare back to the covers of the bed, Evgeni’s long fingers curled around the metal chain of the lamp beside him for a moment as they captured each other’s stares, the rise and fall of his chest growing as Joe stepped closer. The larger man padded over towards the bed, stopping when he reached the foot of it, and raked his eyes up the lithe body, stretched out before him.
Clad in only his currently tented boxers, Evgeni appeared to be as excited as Joe felt. The light bathed the pale skin incandescently, shimmering on his skin as he moved like a cat onto his hands and knees from his lying position. He slunk slowly up to the man standing, the same rock to his hips that he had when he walked up the stairs earlier. And then his face was inches away from Joe’s bellybutton, his shallow breaths tickling the line of hairs leading up from the waistline of Joe’s tightening pants.
He hummed in approval when the hot breathing made his toned stomach muscles constrict, rippling down to his inner thighs, his legs weakening as a wave of heat ripped through his body. And Evgeni hadn’t even touched him yet. The power he had over the grizzled hockey forward was startling at best.
Joe wove his shaky fingers through the wild tresses of dirty blond hair to steady himself, locking his knees against another tremor that ran through him. Though he wasn’t prepared for the slick tongue to swirl around his bellybutton before dipping in entirely, allowing the lips to place a sloppy kiss on the skin as the muscle continued its painfully slow lapping.
Hands flying from Evgeni’s hair to his biceps, Joe forced the slighter man onto his knees, the slick palms catching themselves on his heaving chest. Still shorter than Joe by at least a head, Evgeni gazed up hazily, a veil of lust clouding over his swirling storm-like eyes.
“S’good game ya had,” Joe slurred, the words tumbling out of his mouth like cotton, his tongue lolling around uselessly before the jumble of sound could make sense.
Evgeni’s hands trailed up from the flexing pectorals and traced circles over the bulging shoulders before grabbing fistfuls of auburn locks, a commanding hold contrast to the shy smile budding on the man’s face. “Shut up,” he laughed breathlessly before smashing their lips together.
They fell back onto the bed together, their bodies a flurry as they fought to gain more purchase. Positions swapped and flipped as they attacked each other with frenzied motions, animal-like in the way they devoured one another with their mouths, their hands, and their eyes. They ripped the sparse clothing that was clinging to their bodies, the obstructive barrier between them falling useless to the floor.
When the fog lifted, they were crouched on the bed together; Joe draped over Evgeni while the other was sinking onto his stomach under their combined weight. Angry scratches littered their skin, traces of bites as marks of territory scattered among the memories of clawed fingers.
“Scoot back,” Joe gasped. All air had escaped him, his head abuzz with the lack of blood flow as it all was redirected to his cock. He massaged the mound of ass with his left hand, his nails igniting red marks when they raked down the supple flesh, and then moving to cup Evgeni’s balls from behind. He eased the man up with his free hand by the shoulder, until the back was flush against his torso as they sat, Evgeni’s athletic thighs straddling Joe’s own legs. The larger man shuddered and moaned at the contact, dropping his head onto Evgeni’s pallid shoulder and lolling it to the side, sucking the flushed neck with his outstretched lips, Evgeni whimpering with carnal desire.
Joe’s wide hands hand carved through the beads of sweat, intricate lines of feather-light touches driving Evgeni crazy, squirming in Joe’s lap until a firm hold was gripping his hipbones to calm him.
Grinding his hips down, Evgeni’s spine curved like a snake’s, side to side, much to the other’s enjoyment. The bare skin glistened with a new layer of sweat, a thin sheen plastering Evgeni’s body as a liquid illusion. He was boneless to the touch, bending to Joe’s hands on his hips, every push met with no resistance, although every caress was returned with fervor.
Joe gripped the protruding bones with white knuckles, but the smaller man entangled their fingers, encouraging them to move by guiding Joe’s slicked hands in his. With Evgeni directing his movements, Joe’s fingertips grazed the beginnings of coarse hair on the stomach, the tight muscles shuddering under the barely-there stroking. Together, they roamed over the stretch of chest as Evgeni brought their hands higher, his body curling into Joe’s when the pleasure became too concentrated, and arching out like a bow so taut it was ready to snap when he couldn’t get enough friction of the rough hands fondling his heated flesh.
Joe placed delicate kisses at the base of Evgeni’s hairline, inhaling the thick, musky scent mixed with crisp shampoo, his head swimming with the influx of clashing aromas. The drops dewing on Evgeni’s body splattered over the starched linen sheets as Joe’s hands raked through the sweat coating the strong body, his palms gliding easily over the skin as he strayed away from the other man’s lead. He wanted to find the spot that made the trembling man moan; he wanted to lick the blistering skin all over until Evgeni screamed and begged for Joe to relent. He wanted the crushing pressure of Evgeni’s insides to encase him in bone-tingling bliss, so pleasurable that his jaw would slacken and his eyes would roll back from the sheer intensity of it all. Just like it had been when they had first been in this position. The very thought of feeling that way once more-the pleasure, the serenity, the thought that he would be willing to die at that very moment if it meant that he could feel that way forever-made him pick up his pace, grunting when he pulled Evgeni’s behind to bump against his weeping erection.
Pulling from Evgeni’s hands completely, Joe ran his fingers over the muscular chest, his thumbs flicking over the rosy nipples over and over until they both became hardened nubs. Evgeni’s wheezy panting escalated as did his body’s frantic twisting and jerking; he danced in place on Joe’s lap, his lower back slipping over the stomach behind him and grinding his ass down with renewed vigor. Joe had to sink his teeth into the cord of Evgeni’s neck to control himself as the length of his cock slid between the parted cheeks, the ridge of his swollen head just brushing against the puckered opening before grazing over it again and again with each upward thrust of his angled hips. The other threw his head back and reached his hands over his shoulders. He grasped Joe by the hair with clawed hands, pawing the tousled mane of curls, forcing Joe’s teeth in deeper and his own bottom lower.
A surge of possessiveness rung through Joe’s clouded head, and he withdrew his bared teeth from Evgeni’s purpling neck to claim the lips of the man who had pushed his head back onto Joe’s shoulder. He had became the pillar that supported the other from the sinfully teasing touches to the body, keeping in check that he made it good, but not enough to make it perfect.
The groans that hitched in the back of Evgeni’s throat every time Joe pulled away for the troubling breath of oxygen and his own lascivious growls filled the air with a chorus of their craving, long repressed by fear and confusion. But there, in that room, the two met in the eye of the storm.
In that room, Joe was with Evgeni, and that was all he needed. He was being touched in places he had never been touched, caressed in ways he had never even dreamt of being caressed. He felt raw emotions that he had never felt before.
It was hot, like the furious sun beating on his peeling back, skin boiling with burns that wouldn’t ever heal. It was the state between dream and reality, like listening to the pitter-patter of raindrops, the world gloomy and grey while he was dry and warm inside, curled up ready to fall asleep. It was humbling, like the roars of the crowd when his name was boomed through the loudspeaker, making him feel so small. It was heartstopping, like the last seconds ticking off the clock, a goaltender pulled so one team could force the extra five minutes, either pleading for time to speed up or for it to stop completely.
But there was one thing it was not, and because of that, the feeling became so much more complicated.
It was not the thrill and the joy and the fullness so great you think you could cry that came with winning the game… because it was more than that. So much more than that.
Evgeni twisted his neck to lock his lips with Joe’s once more, startling the larger man from his overshadowing thoughts. He stopped gouging his fingers into the pectoral and entangled the same fingers into the untamed tresses at the back of Evgeni’s scalp. His pained yelp melted to a hungry purr when he was wrenched into the contorted position so that his mouth could be devoured more thoroughly.
“’M nhot gonna lhast much longer,” Evgeni hissed when he pulled back from the searing kiss to breathe, twisting his neck even more to nip at the underside of Joe’s jaw.
A gasp ripped from Joe’s throat when the flat of the tongue lapped at the drips threatening to fall from his stubbled chin, his hands unclenching so that they could run down the front of the tempting body once more. A gratifying shaky moan was muffled onto his collar from Evgeni’s wide open mouth when Joe palmed the man’s erection into full hardness once again.
“Don’t need to,” Joe grunted back, fingering the slit and allowing his hand to be soaked in Evgeni’s generous precum as the other continued to attack his neck with ravenous bites and nibbles. “I need you, now.”
Evgeni groaned wantonly, nodding his head vigorously and scrunching his eyes shut, a look of concentration falling over his youthful features.
“Dun’ think I can wait,” he continued, encouraging Evgeni’s alternative bucks into his hand to relieve the straining dick, and then into his lap to rub the eager entrance against the slicked head of Joe’s cock, the moans growing louder and more impatient. “I wanna feel you all over me, wanna be inside you when I come,” he whispered into Evgeni’s hair when the other turned back around, the suggestive words making him shudder with the thoughts of what was to come. “Please, I need you, Yevi.”
“F-fhuck, yes, please,” He wasn’t normally one to beg, Joe knew, but he could tell that the man was shaking with need, nearly sobbing with the amount of pleasure that he was receiving. He made sure that Evgeni was centimeters away from full satisfaction, just not enough to push him the extra inch.
Nodding with a smirk twisting on his lips, Joe buried his forehead between Evgeni’s sharp shoulder blades, tasting the salty skin as his tongue flicked out from his parted lips to slurp up the perspiration gathering in the dips of the spine. One hand slipped behind Evgeni’s body, his middle finger prodding against the resisting hole, while the other hand cupped Evgeni’s pectoral to rub the reddened nipple with leisurely strokes of his fingers. Joe opened his mouth to ask permission, but Evgeni whined deep in his chest, a lone, drawn out “yes” answering the question before it was even asked. Smiling, Joe teased the entrance by circling the velvety skin until Evgeni relaxed to his touch, his muscles jumping only slightly when Joe found a sensitive spot. He kissed Evgeni’s left shoulder blade as he pressed in.
They both gasped at the indescribable sensation. Worming the finger in deeper, Joe waited until the inner muscles unclenched while Evgeni attempted to calm himself with deep breaths hitching in his chest, heaving through his flared nostrils. Joe grew worried the more Evgeni shuddered against him, his body taut as if in pain, but soon the man relaxed around him, and Evgeni was swiveling his hips in a circle, driving the finger to reach more untouched places.
They moved fluidly, taking in the details of their intricate dance, each nerve responding to every motion. With every touch between them, a spark ignited something wilder in Joe’s head, sending waves of arousal down to his cock in turn. Evgeni snaked his way behind himself between Joe’s arms and planted his hands into the mattress on either side of Joe’s waist, his knees propping himself higher as he leaned back into the bigger body. The static attraction clung to him as he moved away from Joe, as the other could feel the residue of Evgeni’s overpowering influence on him tingling just beneath his skin, craving for the hot body to draw back into his. The pull was strong, like a magnet, and soon Evgeni was flush against Joe again, the globes of his ass rubbing against the flat stomach as he bounced on his hands and knees for more friction, for which Joe was only happy to oblige.
Evgeni’s hips still curved out, giving Joe easier access to add another finger to the reluctantly stretching hole, pausing when a hiss reached his ears from above him.
“It’s fine, come on,” Evgeni urged through gritted teeth from the sound of it, his tone nearly a whine of desperation. He needed this, they both did.
Though he was unsure, Joe spread his fingers in the tight channel, his head spinning with the thought of the delicious, contracting insides that would soon swallow his cock whole.
Evgeni choked on his panting half-way through, freezing with his head thrown back and joints locked. Peering over the stone-stiff shoulder, Joe could see their reflection in the grandiose mirror hanging adjacent to the television, which he had failed to notice until that moment. The thought that ‘Patty and I don’t have that in our hotel room’ briefly crossed his mind, before he realized that he truly didn’t care whether or not he had one in his room, but rather that Evgeni had one, and he was going to take full advantage of it.
“Come on, Joe,” Evgeni repeated, sounding more strained than before; his movements picked up again, his ass grinding hard onto the two fingers which had ceased their stretching during Joe’s untimely thoughts. A frustrated grunt and a forceful shove shook Joe into the present.
He shushed a string of calming nonsense into the back of Evgeni’s neck, tracing the tip of his nose along the dripping hairline and rubbing the flat of his calloused hand over the heaving chest. When the man on his lap quieted his whimpering and stilled his frantically bucking hips, Joe slipped in a third finger to join his two. Body tensing, Joe could tell that Evgeni was visibly straining himself not to move, his eyes bolted shut from the look of the mirror; he had yet to open his eyes since before his fingers had invaded his entrance.
Joe stared, fascinated, his brown eyes sparkling as he watched his hands bring Evgeni to the very edge with his continuous rubbing, caressing, and groping, only to pull away at the last moment to drag the teasing on longer, much to the other’s dissatisfaction. A part of him felt bad for pushing Evgeni to these lengths, for shoving him to the very brink of his limit, and then halting his clumsy fingers’ dance to bring the man crashing back down again. Another part of him was filled to the brim with accomplishment, knowing full well that he was the one to make the usual stoic and smug goaltender feel this way; the only one who had finally taken down all of the barriers that the other had built up to protect himself from the world. After so many times of trying, so many times of failures, Joe had finally gotten through. Now Evgeni only writhed with pleasure under his hands, moaned at Joe’s words, and stripped himself of all false masks until he was bared completely, for only Joe to see.
Fingers spread apart inside him, Evgeni flexed his arms, his shoulders squaring in their reflection, and replaced his hands onto Joe’s hips, his blunt nails biting into the freckled skin. Tiny gasps escaped him as the digits probed and massaged his insides, delicately at first, but Evgeni couldn’t take it much longer and he was soon riding the fingers with rough bounces, his hips meeting Joe’s hand thrust for thrust. As gorgeous a picture that the scene created in the mirror was, it wasn’t enough.
Joe ripped his fingers away and gripped Evgeni’s waist, his other hand wrapping around Evgeni’s throat. Guiding the hips, Joe soon felt the unmistakable brush of the loosened hole against engorged cock. The lone touch made both moan and the grips slacken, but Joe pried open his eyes to see their actions from the front through the mirror before moving the extra inch.
Evgeni was stretched across him, head thrown back, bearing the column of pale neck through the slivers of space left from Joe’s hold. Tensed cords led to the dramatic dip of his collar bone, which pointed down to his rapidly growing and shrinking chest, covered with a light dusting of blond hairs. Pink scratch marks littered his rib cage, Joe’s enthusiastic marks scraping over the rock-hard nubs, the man’s nipples red with abuse. Jutting out were the hipbones, sharp enough to cut glass, the white skin stretched so tightly that it appeared as though the bone itself was shining through. Strong thighs were spread wide apart to accommodate Joe’s own between them, pale and glossy with both of their sweat, beads rolling down the stretch of unmarred skin and into the rumbled comforter in which his knees were embedded, his feet twisting and wrapping around Joe’s behind them.
And laying flat on his tight stomach was the pulsing cock, glistening in the yellowish light with precum, so wet that the dip of his bellybutton was overflowing with the clear, sticky fluid and creating shining rivets down his sides as they dripped onto Joe’s skin with a blip. His balls, covered in soft, dark peach flesh, lied limply to his body, shuddering when Evgeni shook with compressed excitement. Joe strained his neck higher, his chin poking just above Evgeni’s shoulder to see where the two of them were so close to being one.
When he saw it, he nearly finished the connection with the overwhelming heat of the visual.
His head, pink and throbbing in time with his thundering heartbeat, was poised to enter the man. So close, that he couldn’t see from his position how he wasn’t already buried in the sweet bundle of heat. But he knew this wasn’t the case, not yet anyway. Angry veins sprouted down from the tip, spiraling down and around the thick shaft, each inch of bare skin making him all the more hot, until he finally couldn’t take it anymore. With a growl and pinching fingers, he jerked his hips up, burying his cock in the snug confines of Evgeni’s ass.
Shrieking a little at the not quite unwelcome intrusion, Evgeni shifted around on Joe’s lap, his body peeling away from the other’s with a wet rip as he tried to get comfortable. Joe was completely still while the inner muscles rippled around him, he had forgotten to thoroughly prepare himself, other than the spurts of his own precum and one or two pumps of his fist. But watching Evgeni flustered on top of him, usual pale skin flushed a rosy pink, Joe knew that it wouldn’t be long until more of his natural lubricant would force its way out of his slit to lather the walls of the wriggling ass.
The grip on his hips grew painful while Evgeni had taken to breathing raggedly through bared teeth. Working his hands around the clutched body, Joe pressed a kiss of apology to the soft flesh behind Evgeni’s ear and wrapped his fingers around the dripping length.
It was heavy in his hand, the blood racing under his thin fingertips. Paying special attention to the purpled head, Joe tried to coax the man back into stimulation. Evgeni’s whimpers of pain soon gave way to a sigh of delight. He was still clamped around Joe’s cock, shuddering once, then locking up seconds later, the throbbing muscles trying to force out the foreign object, despite Evgeni’s attempts to calm himself.
Twirling his pointer finger around the ridge of the head, Joe eased his hips upward, only to be met with a wall of unrelenting insides, and Evgeni shaking with discomfort, a noticeable twitch to his jaw from the way he was grinding his teeth to powder.
Joe mumbled a sincere “sorry” and reached his other hand lower to cup Evgeni’s balls, as if the action would heal the distress he was giving unintentionally. Fuck… they were bad at this.
So far, Joe couldn’t complain about his cock being trapped by the tight tunnel; it felt so good that he felt himself grew even harder at the constricted feeling. It was not him whom he was worried about though. Evgeni hadn’t seemed to be in this much pain the first time, but then again, Evgeni had been drunk and hysterical. It was a good ice breaker, but Joe didn’t want to rely on those factors now. What happened to his ability to make Evgeni dance for him in that sexy way? The guilt coiled around his intestines like a serpent, its fangs sinking into his heart and making it feel so heavy.
“Lhooks like we nheed practice, yeah?” Evgeni managed to laugh, his eyes finally peeling open to peer down at Joe’s worry stricken face. His wince eased when he saw Joe’s expression, a crease forming between his furrowed brows. “Iya didn’t expect this to bhe fun at first, yhou know,” he reassured with an airy voice, the back of his knuckles ghosting over Joe’s cheek after letting go of the vice-like grip at the waist.
Joe forced a slight smile, before it grew genuine. Leave it to the melancholy goaltender to lighten the mood. He faltered after a moment of staring into the swirling pools like storm clouds, hues of grey and blue never settling for a second, and a frown twitched at his lips. “I said I’d never hurt you, and now, I…” he glanced away, toward the drawn curtains. “’M sorry.”
“Yhou said that already,” Evgeni huffed out, his eyes shuttering closed once again. If Joe wasn’t mistaken, the baritone voice was holding back a laugh. That made Joe smile again. “’Nd I’m nhot mad anyway, so stop yhour worrying,” he finished with a sigh, traces of a pout lingering on his blushing face.
He began to feel it, the rings of muscle hesitantly relaxing around him, his cock easing its way higher into Evgeni’s opening hole. He would pause when the man would flinch suddenly, but Evgeni would swat his request for forgiveness away and pull his legs further apart, so that Joe could sink deeper onto the pulsing organ.
After thinking that it may never come, Joe was pushed up to the hilt in Evgeni’s heat. A moan escaped him before he even knew that he had uttered it, but Evgeni’s laugh cut through the embarrassing noise like a knife, the joyous spark returning to his eye when he caught Joe’s bashful gaze once more.
And then their tongues found each other’s after mere moments of lustful staring. Lips parting under questioning prods, they were soon locked in a heated flurry. Joe brought his hand up to cup Evgeni’s cheek, pulling the man into a position for easier access to the sinful mouth. Their teeth scraped together with frazzled actions, uncouth compared to the way their hands were practically idolizing the other’s body earlier.
A gentle touch to the skin never lasted long before it roamed somewhere else, paying each new spot equal admiration. Up from mountain crest-like hips, and dipping into the valley of a flexed stomach, the planes of flat chest that stretched on forever… Joe couldn’t get enough.
Murmuring his encouragement into Joe’s open mouth, Evgeni pushed his hips half-way up Joe’s cock, only to come crashing down again in one swift motion. Gasping at the sudden rush of pleasure, Joe had to squeeze his eyes shut to stop the white dots from dancing over his already clouded vision. Breathing hard, Evgeni did it again, this time angling his hips in a new direction, the head of Joe’s cock ramming into new slippery walls. He had been right earlier, his precum was now seeping out of him, as if in mighty waves.
Flexing his ass, Joe added to the wild thrusts with some thoughtless bucks of his own. He didn’t know how to do this correctly-so far, he thought he was pretty terrible at it with another guy-but Evgeni’s expression had finally given way to something more pleased than his initial anguish. Curious to what the man was feeling, Joe turned toward the mirror once again. The gaudy thing proved to be quite handy.
With his head limply thrashing around with their combined movements, Evgeni’s face twisted with pleasure. Sweat dripped down from where it beaded on his brow, creating long tracks down his cheeks, falling from his nose, chin, and strands of hair. Pink lips, swollen from furious kisses, were parted ever so slightly; a quick dart of the tongue swept the shiny upper lip only to return back so that the white teeth could sink into the bottom lip, tearing at it with angry bites.
Even though the image was one of the most seductive things he had ever seen, and Joe couldn’t have ever imagined it in his lifetime, he was glad that he hadn’t. Nothing could have compared to real thing. A giddy bubble of excitement grew in his chest, and his hips lifted off the bed with eager enthusiasm. The other groaned with appreciation, a quiet uncomfortable hiss here and there, but they all were quickly drowned out by the squeaking of the spring bed as a new thrust was delivered, wiping out the pain before it had fully even registered.
Grunting and panting, Joe was lost. The bliss had engulfed him and it wasn’t letting him go. In and out, never all the way, but sometimes close. His balls slapped against the bare ass when Evgeni came crashing down, the constant stream of fwap, fwap, fwaping filling the stuffy room. It was all too much. Evgeni was smothering him with such a heat that he could hardly stand it. The same man’s breath tingled over his shoulder, the hands trailing over his ribs. Garbled Russian going in one ear and flying out the other, none making sense, but somehow Joe knew exactly what Evgeni meant. He obliged in a heartbeat.
Each jab upward brought a new slippery muscle in contact with Joe’s weeping cock, always close, but never the right spot.
He mapped out the foreign body with his hands, so different when compared to his usually experienced movements. There were no supple curves to fondle, only straight lines. Muscles hardened from thousands of drills-just like his-flexed just beneath the layers of skin. The fibers in the thighs contracted when Joe ran his fingers down the legs that were draped over his sides. He was surprised to find the seemingly lanky things to be even more weathered beyond his own; he glanced down, never once reducing his desperate drives, entranced by the way his hands worshipped the legs. The dips that his fingers created were shallow, cushioned by little or no fat before he was met with stone-like quadriceps. He hid a laugh, silently thanking the butterfly position and its use of squats for the technique.
Gripping the backs of the upper thighs to lift Evgeni higher, Joe thrust up with new found strength. Evgeni whined when the brunt of impales were lifted from him, instead given to the will of the other man to do with it what he pleased. Joe pressed his cheek into Evgeni’s neck, feeling the rumble of high-pitched panting from the throat through his ear. The wheezing mouthfuls of air peaked in time with the cock sliding now effortlessly in and out of his loosened hole. Slowing his pace to lazy pumping, Joe watched their leisurely fucking intently in the mirror. A sly grin stretched over his lips when the other man’s brow crinkled with confusion.
“What… what are yhou dhoing?” he gasped, eyes still shut when he turned to Joe, his breaths puffing hotly from deep in his chest. Hands fumbled clumsily as Evgeni searched for Joe’s neck. He found the sturdy column and hesitantly laced his fingers at the base of the skull behind himself.
“Ya want this t’be good, right?” Joe asked lightly, his open mouth tracing the artful line from one shoulder to another. Glancing toward their reflection, his smile grew as he watched the blotchy pink which mottled the man’s chest grow from more than just arousal.
“Yeah?” he whispered back, still a little uncertain.
He couldn’t wait to see Evgeni’s face when he said it. Joe licked the still sparkling trail of sweat up behind the jaw and nuzzled his nose in the musky smelling hair when he leaned in close. “Then we’re doin’ this my way. I wanna find that spot deep inside you, feel you all ’round me, so hot and tight when I fuck you. And when I find that spot, I’m gonna pound it ’til you scream, making you cum all over. I bet ya can, I bet I can make you. You’d look so pretty when you do it too,” he finished, mumbling the last bit of his dirty thoughts into the tufts of hair, while he enjoyed the nervous squirming that rubbed against his body and the tensing around his dick with every word he said.
“O-oh.” It was all Evgeni could stutter out in response, his body shrinking back into Joe’s from embarrassment.
Joe shifted his hips to the left after he pulled out and sank back in, but he didn’t get the reaction he was searching for. Leaning to his right, he put all his weight onto his knee for leverage, but Evgeni’s groans remained the same. Good, but not quite enough.
His dick was screaming at him to move faster, to lose himself in the pleasure of friction so fast that it felt like it was everywhere, drenching him with a sweet relief from the stress of his life, to let it all out, finish himself off… but he schooled himself, reminding his body to take it slow. It was frustrating, holding himself back, but at the same time, the new feelings engulfing him made his plunging all the more gratifying. Each shove was like pushing through a snug ring, squeezing him with an unrelenting grip; so tight that he could feel his blood pounding in his balls, unable to pump through the clenched off veins on the other side. Inching in, he could feel the separate segments of muscle prod into him from all sides, wet from his precum, smothering him back with his own fluids. The whole time Joe kept his gaze locked on Evgeni’s face, watching for every twitch so that he could take it all in.
He hissed out with strangled relief, Evgeni purring like a cat when the man impaled him up to the hilt, Joe’s nest of curls tickling over his bare ass. Wiggling a bit, Evgeni tried to find that bundle of nerves on his own, but stopped trying when Joe gripped his hips and silenced his whimpers with another kiss to the lips. Joe pulled out just as slowly, the tight hole trapping his skin, and pulling until it felt as though it would rip completely before he finally pinched though. The charge of blood flow back into his sensitive dick made his vision swim, but he barely had time to compute the head rush before he sunk back into Evgeni’s waiting ass.
Pulling away with a soft moan lingering from the kiss, Evgeni whispered against Joe’s bitten lips, “But why?” he asked, sounding so meager compared to his forward actions earlier. Then it occurred to Joe.
“Because I think yer beautiful.” Evgeni’s eyes wrenched open at that.
Rough touches and exploring hands Evgeni could handle, but compliments? Flattery? He shied away from it, even in hockey. He could have been the only one left on the ice with a shutout, and he would still credit someone else for the win. His humble nature floored Joe, especially when Joe knew that Evgeni believed that he could have done better, that he could have been more; even when he tried his best, even when everyone else saw how great he was, it was never enough.
Joe knew that Evgeni didn’t believe him now either.
“Look in the mirror, Yev,” he prompted, nodding ahead of them while Evgeni stared wide-eyed from mere inches away.
Doing as he was told, the man forced himself to tear his stare from Joe, but shied away when he met himself in the mirror.
“Dhidn’t realize that was there…” he croaked out, choking back a bit as if in apology, turning his head to the side to avert his gaze. Evgeni was flustered, a blotchy red beginning to cover his cheeks; he paused after sinking fully onto Joe’s cock, burying himself to the hilt, only letting out a tiny squeak at the fullness that penetrated him. He finally struck Joe’s last nerve when he slung an arm over his blushing chest and the other across his waist in an attempt to cover his exposed body from himself.
That motion stung Joe in the sharpest of ways; it was as if a rose pricked him as he tried to gently handle the delicate flower, but the thorn nicked him despite his best efforts, right in the heart.
“Oh, Yevi…” Words died on his lips after the utterance of the name made his heart ache for the man even more. He watched with saddened eyes as Evgeni’s arousal began to subside with his embarrassment, his erection softening against his belly. Seeing the reaction to his words transpire, Joe knew it was probably not the smartest thing for him to do in the budding stages of their relationship, but he had to say it, or else Evgeni may never know. Maybe for once Joe’s words could be a double-edged sword. “You need to see yerself how I see you.”
“Why?” he whispered despondently, his dilated eyes still locked on the beige wall to his left.
“So you can finally get better.”
“Joe, I’m fine,” Evgeni stressed, but from the way he flinched at the words, Joe knew he was lying.
“I don’t believe you.”
Shifting on the lap, Evgeni turned from the mirror and peered into Joe’s eyes directly, leaning back some to focus his skeptical gaze. “Well, what do yhou want me to say? That I’m a mess? ’Cause I’m nhot,” he hissed the last bit with a hint of a scowl on his face, his defenses building back up around him, a barrier of the attack he was expecting to come.
Joe stroked the tension away with his large hands, undeterred by the hostile glares sent in his direction. “But yer not completely fine, either,” he muttered into Evgeni’s shoulder, his eyes unwavering from the stormy greys of his partner.
The man deflated, his bravado slipping away through his shaky grasp and cowering in the shadows of his mind once more. What was left was for only Joe to see, the shattered remains of what Evgeni once was, self-doubt and self-loathing settling over his features in the form of a crinkled brow, a bitten lip, a dulling gaze. He sighed heavily, his chest shuddering; his lungs, pregnant with oxygen, forcing the air to circulate until it was expelled with one slow breath, as if the weight of the world was forcing itself onto his shoulders. “Yhour’e right,” he admitted after his sigh, “I’m nhot.” But what do you want me to do about it?
“This is a two way thing, ya know,” Joe pressed, his lips forming into delicate kisses between words, coaxing Evgeni at a slow pace. He was mindful to keep a patronizing tone from his voice, as Evgeni would have been offended of anything of the sort. So he kept the talk to a minimum, instead letting the name he knew so well fall from his lips, joined with illogical mutterings of encouragement, mingled together until it was one giant mess of nonsense. But to Joe, it made all the sense in the world. ‘Just make Evgeni better.’
Finally, Evgeni nodded in agreement, albeit reluctantly, and ripped his inquiring eyes away from Joe’s hopeful face. He glanced toward the mirror briefly, but the image of the two of them, entangled as one in the most intimate of ways, made a powerful blush bloom over his chest, and he forced himself to look away again.
“I like this,” Joe began softly, propping his chin on Evgeni’s shoulder to see as he traced the line that the prominent collarbone created from one side to the other with his middle finger. “Looks so delicate.”
Evgeni ruffled, somewhat confused; Joe could see the straining of the cords in his neck when the man forced himself not to look in the mirror.
“But I like this, too.” Using the same finger, Joe draped it across the body before him, playing with the wisps of hair that dusted the broad chest before settling his palm on the flat expanse of a pectoral. “How strong you are.”
The hand traveled back up the length of the quivering body, flushed again with the concentrated attention. Joe cupped Evgeni’s tight jaw, sitting up higher to press his mouth to the high cheekbone on the other side, the barely-there stubble tickling at his lips. His eyes fluttered closed when the muscles surrounding his cock revived their pulsing, remembering the thick intrusion after so long.
“I like that,” he choked, pumping his hips in a cautious rhythm to continue the ripple of please that shot through his body. “Fuck, Yev, I like that so much, what you do to me, it’s so good. I wish you could see it, see you, like I do.”
With his other hand, Joe inched his way down the trembling abdominal muscles, and raked through the curls leading from Evgeni’s navel, until he wrapped his fingers around the half-mast dick. At the contact, the cock perked to full attention once more from the combined stokes of the hand around him and the strokes inside him.
Joe smiled through the haze of pleasure and guided Evgeni’s face to his with a gentle push of his hand on the cheek. He captured the parted lips and slipped his tongue through the slight opening.
Evgeni’s tongue was limp for a few seconds as Joe massaged the slick muscle with his own, the fear of rejection long gone from his thoughts. His words slid off of the man like water on oil, beading away and separating, no hint of recognition in his words. If this was the only way to get through Evgeni’s thick head, then so be it, Joe liked this way just fine. Deepening the kiss, Joe continued his hand’s ministrations to the shaft as he picked up his thrusting, desperate to find that place where Evgeni would have to realize how perfect they were together.
After what felt like hours of unreciprocated caresses, Evgeni finally kissed back. His tongue slid sweetly over the roof of Joe’s mouth at first, asked permission for more, before he plunged in to tangle with the other. And then deeper and deeper, as if he was delving for the reason behind Joe’s declarations, hidden somewhere in the back of his mouth.
They found solace in each other, the harmony of them, together; maybe unnatural as teammates, but so, so right as just them. The titles were stripped away to nothing, because they weren’t important, not now; not in the ideal that this could be so much more, that it could bring so much more than any association could.
The ebb and flow of their movements were too good to be accidental, always swirling closer, but never pushing away. The waves grew in a flurry on motion, everywhere at once, hands pushing them closer and closer. And then they were at their peak, a spring tide within them, where the pent up desire was stretched to its extreme, the highest highs and the lowest lows. A hurricane brewing deep in their bellies until it threatened to overtake them completely, lapping at the sides of their control, spinning faster and faster until the storm finally hit, and it hit hard.
Their mouths were still searching each other’s after the release. Reluctant to let go, but both knew that their time would be short, never long enough.
Joe’s elbows were pressed into the mattress, his head bowed as he kissed a path down Evgeni’s neck when he was unfortunately shaken back to reality; a reality that didn’t know the needs of the two men wrapped around each other under the guise of teammates turned friends, when they both wanted it to be so much more.
Making reality mesh with their reality would take some time, and they knew this. But when Evgeni placed a chaste kiss to Joe’s temple and said that he loved watching Joe in the mirror, they knew that their reality was good enough for that night.
A reminder of a worried captain in the morning was the reluctant truth that sent Joe on his way. But it was Evgeni’s hold on his hand that was a moment longer than normal, and the extra touch of their lips which cemented the promise for more, and that maybe one day, they didn’t have to leave each other to bury the past afterward.
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To Be Continued
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Yay sober sex, these two finally did it!
So everyone, I don’t want to sound… stingy, or anything, but I have noticed that reviews have dropped lately. Now I’m only bringing this up because I want to know if this still has the same amount of readers or not! I’d like to know if this isn’t up to par with the past chapters, so that I can revert to how the story once was.
OR if it is actually that fact that so many people are now updating on 2M4S that this story gets lost among the many new stories! If that’s the case, I have no qualms about sending people personal updates when new chapters of this story are added! It would be my pleasure to do this actually, as I would hate it for people to get caught behind in the updates, and in the end confusing everybody.
So please, if you would be so kind, review, even if it’s just a word or two, as I would like to know if you guys are still reading the story. And if you would like for me to send you messages for the updates, tell me in the review as well!
Thanks everyone, as always, for reading, and please, review! :)