Keep Me Close- Chapter XXIX
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. She and I are so ready for the season to start.
A/N: Prepare youself, it's a long one, kids!
Last Chapter- Chapter XXVII
-Chapter XXIX-
“See you two at my apartment tonight at seven,” Devin whispered hurriedly, bouncing to his open bag and throwing on a white t-shirt. “Because if you don’t I’ll tell everyone.”
-----
“So where’s Torrey?” were the first words out of Joe’s mouth as Devin ushered him and Evgeni into his messy apartment.
“Out,” the sophomore replied vaguely, not keeping eye contact with Joe and lingering for a second, shifting on his feet as if undecided if he should stay or not, before spinning around and jogging down the hall, leaving the two in the open foyer.
His stranger-than-normal behavior made Joe’s brow crease in concern; what could have gotten Devin of all people acting distantly?
“What’s his problem?” Evgeni asked with a huff, voicing Joe’s thoughts as they walked into the living room and fell into the couch together.
Staring blankly at the flat screen television, images of the last time he and Evgeni had come over popped into his head, and he couldn’t stop the laugh that swelled in his chest. He cocked his head back, his hands already held up defensively in preparation for the glare to come. “Ya know, Borat was a great-”
But Devin sauntered back into the room with an armful of laundry before he could finish, although Evgeni’s affronted glare still managed to make Joe laugh harder.
Without warning, the clothing was dumped into their laps, snapping both from their playful teasing. Picking distastefully at the supposedly soiled clothes, Joe wrinkled his nose in what he believed to be a very Evgeni-like way and looked up in question. “What?”
Devin’s broad smile was back, his former hesitation completely gone. “Once again, Joe, I’d think it would be obvious,” he laughed with a roll of his eyes. Said book was hidden in the far reaches of Evgeni’s closet, if Joe remembered correctly.
Holding a pair of jeans to eye level, Joe had to mask the grimace, sure that his face was twitching spastically with the supreme effort to look normal. “There’s, like, nothin’ here to wear, Seto.”
The jeans he was holding looked painfully tight, while the pair that Evgeni had in his lap had rips all over the place. The other man looked about as uncomfortable as he felt.
Devin blinked a few times before jerking forward and wrenching the pants away. “It’s ’cause you grabbed the wrong pair, dummy.” With the jeans still in hand, he crossed his arms and let them re-fall onto his teammates thighs.
If Evgeni looked pale before, he was looking as white a parchment as he examined the restricting denim now. Not that Joe was relieved to have the tattered ones though. It wasn’t exactly a win-win situation.
‘At least I’ll be able to breathe?’ the tiny voice in the back of his head offered unhelpfully. Joe was about nod in reluctance agreement before he stopped short.
Wait… why was he thinking that? He wasn’t actually going to wear this anyway.
“Thought you guys would wanna look nice for tonight,” Devin offered, not noticing the scoff that Evgeni made at ‘nice’. Yeah, this wasn’t exactly Joe’s definition of ‘nice’ either.
“Why whould I wear this?”
Joe wanted to join Evgeni in his groans of despair, but his mouth was like a desert, going completely dry at the thought of where he would be wearing this.
But their teammate did not appear deterred. In fact, he positively beamed with happiness that the question was brought up. Joe was about to agree that there was no way in hell that he was going to (attempt) to put them on, but three words sent him and Evgeni scrambling to the bedroom to change in seconds flat.
“I have blackmail!” Devin piped with a conniving grin.
His laughter echoed through the entire apartment as Joe slammed the door shut behind him. Evgeni was already halfway through grudgingly unbuttoning his shirt when Joe turned around to throw Devin’s clothes onto the bed.
“Meet you out front in ten!” the all too giddy voice rang before the front door slammed shut.
-----
“So, I rented a couple rooms.”
Evgeni and Joe had been shifting restlessly in the back seat for nearly an hour, the latter growing considerably more confused as familiar scenes of San Francisco went flashing by them.
“Thought a night on the town would do you old men some good.”
Every time he or Evgeni had dared to ask where they were headed, they were shot down with a curt “NO!” before Devin started singing along with the radio again.
“The Palace Hotel, New Montgomery Street, can’t miss it.”
The loud music proved helpful when Joe would laugh with Evgeni about Devin’s behavior, before falling into a somber silence once again.
He grew increasingly wary when they passed by a collection of rainbow flags, a sinking feeling of realization making Joe slink down in his seat. He knew exactly where they were, but something rebellious inside him still demanded proof for his assumptions.
Evgeni seemed unaware of the flags meanings, but the people roaming the streets certainly caught his attention.
The voice inside Joe’s head was silenced when the Castro street sign stood proudly outside his window. The man beside him tensed as well. At least he knew the name of San Francisco’s famous gay district; that left less explaining to do, at least.
Stopping in front of a one-story building, Devin hopped out and tossed the keys to a man who had a smile that rivaled the young right-winger’s.
Evgeni and Joe stayed rooted to the leather seats, getting out only when the valet asked them politely to leave so that he could park the car.
“Isn’t this great!” Devin chirped merrily when they were all standing outside; he hadn’t even bothered to ask, instead exclaiming his excitement for all passersby to hear. “You two, me, and Badlands-” he swung an arm out to the building in introduction, “-the club that we shall be attending tonight.”
“…In the Castro,” Joe finished with a raised eyebrow, his arms crossing self-consciously over his chest.
“Well, yeah, it is a gay club,” Devin replied, matter-of-factly.
Joe felt what was remaining of his minuscule shred of hope disappear; he had clung to the belief that he and Evgeni were being taken to a bar suspiciously near the Castro district for quite some time.
They were being pulled inside before Joe could dwell on his misfortune for much longer. But Evgeni’s whine summed up his feelings perfectly.
-----
They wandered in the large room after grabbing a table, being jostled and bumped into on all sides. Not so much unlike the usual clubs, just with much more… men.
Leading his teammates toward the bar, Devin picked up his pace to claim a patch of free floor, letting go of Evgeni’s wrist and waving to the bartender. When the man behind the counter looked over in their direction, his face fell, a pointed glare twisting his happy expression.
“Devin, you bitch, you haven’t picked up your tab! You still owe me from your last two visits!” the lanky man growled with a smirk over the sea of music, the feminine accent to his words reflecting clearly in the obvious sway of his hips.
Joe squinted through the flashing lights, straining his eyes to figure out which color the man’s hair was dyed. But with the strobe making it bright green one second and magenta pink the next, Joe just saved himself the trouble and rubbed his aching eyes with the side of his hand.
“Worry not, my lovely Justin, I have your Hamilton’s right here,” Devin smiled almost sweetly, patting one of the pockets on the seat of his pants. Joe could have sworn that he could see the outline of the bills through the exceptionally restricting denim.
“Justin” pouted his lips, crossing his spindly arms over his barely-there shirt, his low-slung leather pants shifting even lower. A suspicious glint flashed in his eyes, Devin’s seductive smirk not exactly having the desired effect of making him swoon. “How much?” he asked slowly, sending the hand on Devin’s bottom a critical, if not approving, glance.
“Hundred fifty,” came the short reply, Devin sending Joe a knowing nudge in the arm while Justin blanched in surprise at the generous tip.
Caught off balance, Joe stumbled slightly into Evgeni, who was cowering behind him, hands bunched in the shirt clinging to his skin. Squeaking with surprise, the slighter man shot a look of desperation around the crowded room, very aware of the eyes the three of them were attracting.
“Got some of it from a bet with to these two, actually,” Devin added, prying Evgeni away from Joe’s side and moving to stand between them.
He felt like he was being shown off on a pedestal from the way the flamboyant bartender was looking both him and Evgeni up and down. Nodding approvingly, Justin smiled and leaned over the counter, his chin resting neatly in his palms. “The tall one’s cute, Dev. The skinny one won’t stop covering his face though. Where’d you find them?”
Cute? The last time Joe recalled being called cute was in third grade. He didn’t know whether to feel complimented or affronted. Was it possible to feel both? If it was, he was feeling it right then.
“Evgeni? He’s just shy.”
“Oooh,” Justin exclaimed with open smile, his eyes wide with interest. “Yev-gen-ee,” he breathed slowly, rolling each syllable off his tongue, dripping from his mouth like sticky honey.
Joe’s eyes narrowed and his fists clenched, ready to throw a punch if necessary.
But the man just laughed, tilting his head toward the Russian before setting his sights on Devin again. “So exotic!” he whispered with an air of awe in his voice, but his face crumpled after a second into another pout. “You have all the luck, you bastard. First you dangle Torrey in front of me, only to tell me he’s straight. And now these two!”
Joe released the pent up breath he had been suppressing, his hands uncurling at his sides before the words hit him and he tightened up again, staring incredulously at Devin. Joe caught Evgeni doing the same on the young man’s other side. He pulled other poor people into this mess?
“Yeah, but these guys are actually gay,” Devin drawled, rolling his eyes as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Evgeni protested before Joe could even open his mouth to do so. “I’m nhot-!” the man huffed, blushing and looking away. “I’m nhot gay,” he hissed, turning back and staring pointedly at Joe, who was hit with the sense of déjà vu.
Their teammate should really stop with the names he was calling Evgeni, if he had any reason to keep all of his limbs intact. First ‘girl’, and now ‘gay’, Joe didn’t know how much more wound up Evgeni could get before he harmed the young man due to thoughtless flapping of his full lips.
“Really?” Devin and Justin gasped synchronously, both gaping at the flushing man. The bartender was the first to recover, straightening up and brushing his leather pants off of imaginary dust, scoffed knowingly.
“Could’a fooled me, honey.”
Wrenching himself out of Devin’s grasp with a glare, Evgeni stepped back, his hands flying over his body, undecided on what needed covering the most. He seemed torn between hiking the borrowed jeans up from inches below his hipbones, and crossing his arms over his chest where his stiff nipples were outlined perfectly though the paper thin shirt covering them.
It seemed like a lost cause, and Joe certainly didn’t mind seeing Evgeni’s bared midriff because of the pants or strong chest because of the skin-tight shirt. Seeing both at the same time was a plus, but he didn’t voice his opinions when the man was scowling like that.
“Excuse me,” he snapped, before turning on his heel and pushing his way through the dancing people, making a b-line for the corner of the room where Devin had saved a table.
Watching him leave with a forlorn expression, Joe sighed and shrugged Devin’s hand of his shoulder. “We’re not gay,” he confirmed, trying to stuff his hands into his pockets to stop fiddling with the hem of his shirt, but the pockets barely fit a piece of paper let alone his hands, so he let them fall limply to his sides. He gazed apologetically toward Justin, ignoring the mouthed ‘denial’ he offered Devin, before turning to his younger teammate. “We’re not gay the same way you are, Seto,” he offered quietly.
Justin squealed with a laugh, his hands flying up to cover his mouth as if he had heard the funniest thing in the world. “Devin?” he clawed at his chest to quiet his heaving breaths. “Him? Gay?”
Confusion was laid out as plainly as an open book in Devin’s face when he stared back at Joe. Blinking, he jerked himself back to awareness, chuckling along with Justin. “How’d you get that idea?”
“Um…” Joe was at a loss for words. How couldn’t he have gotten that idea?
“Joey,” Devin cooed lightly when Justin finally tore himself away and started taking orders at the bar. “I just like to keep my options open.” The firm hand in Joe’s bicep almost hurt, but the intense gaze kept him from complaining about it. Winking, Devin nodded his head in the direction of their table. “Now, go get ’im, tiger!”
He flushed brightly at the suggestively raised eyebrow that Devin shot at him; though it wasn’t as if the thought hadn’t crossed his mind already. That didn’t necessarily mean he was going to actually follow Evgeni when the man was radiating discomfort and frustration, but it was the simple option of choice when Devin shrugged and tried to drag Joe toward the group of bodies, grinding seamlessly together like a well oiled machine. Normally, Joe would have followed Devin toward the mass like a lost puppy to the dance floor, eager to pull the first scantily-clad woman up to his chest, and lose himself in the erotic sensations of someone pressed up against him.
But these were all guys. Gay guys. And Joe wasn’t gay.
Suddenly searching out for Evgeni didn’t seem like such a bad idea. Worming out of Devin’s guide, Joe smiled sympathetically and gestured behind them, hoping that his young friend wouldn’t take it the wrong way. Thankfully Devin nodded enthusiastically, his carefully gelled hair shining different colors in the neon lights with each bob of his head. Gaining his hand back and holding it to his chest, Joe stood unobtrusively for a while, watching in silence as Devin just about sprinted to the dance floor. The warm tingles of the beginning of a blush blossomed over Joe’s cheeks when he saw his teammate grab a boy out of the crowd.
His dirty blond hair was ruffled, as if a current of air had gushed through the club, only no one else was affected; although his slight face was framed by the wild hair in an abstract way, and Joe would admit that it wasn’t unattractive on him. Stubble peppered the straight line of the jaw, the beard a little shorter than his own from what Joe could tell in the poor lighting. He wasn’t very tall, nor was he significantly short; he was sort of around Evgeni’s height if one was to squint. The streamlined body was well endowed with muscles, but not overly so, just enough to tell that they were there from a simple glance.
Joe stopped criticizing the boy’s looks when he realized that said boy looked suspiciously like Torrey. Devin was staring at his catch like a starving animal eyeing its fresh meat, the gleam flashing through his eyes noticeable even from a distance.
Spinning on his heel as to not jump to conclusions (Evgeni had told him to work on that), Joe squeezed through the crowded room, pointedly ignoring the blatant brushing of bodies against his own and the not so accidental pats on his ass. It gave him something to think about when he found that he wasn’t disgusted by it, even when he thought he should have been.
Patrick most certainly would, Joe thought darkly. Protectiveness for Devin surged through him when he remembered the usually sparkling happy brown eyes masking his shattered expectations at the Christmas party; Patrick shoving the harmless affections back in the young man’s face with such disdain that it still burned in the back of Joe’s mind.
But he wasn’t Patrick, and the captain wasn’t there to analyze his every move and thought; he didn’t have to make sure it was “acceptable” by Patrick’s standards, despite how his own standards had changed. Not even a year ago, he would have been ecstatic if the people currently throwing themselves at him were women. And now it didn’t even seem to bother him when (admittedly attractive) men were doing the same.
So…no, Joe wasn’t exactly uncomfortable being bumped and jostled by a powerful sea of testosterone, he just didn’t give anyone passing glances because he had someone more urgent who required his attention.
But that still didn’t mean he was gay.
Some forceful elbowing later, Joe finally gained himself a little breathing room. Air that wasn’t heavy with musk and body heat filled his lungs and Joe drank it in with pleasure. Still, the occasional bump was there, but not as many as before. He had lost himself in the swarm, his sense of direction toward the corner of the room skewed after the trip into the dance floor. Looking around in a daze, Joe smiled when his sights focused in on the one man that he didn’t mind bumping and grinding against. A flame of arousal ignited inside him, the ever-present memories coming alive in an instant like the strike of a match. His breath grew raspy, and Joe melted quicker than the wax of a candle.
Evgeni was leaning over the waist high table, fiddling with something while his back was turned to Joe. The gossamer shirt hugging him was so tight that it was more like a second skin than an actual article of clothing; the fire in Joe’s belly flickered with hunger. The shimmer in the stitching was a magnet for the strobe light’s colors, the glistening accent was just begging for the body to be devoured. Every toned muscle of his back was defined regally beneath the material, not an ounce of fat to be found on his body. It was absolutely gorgeous.
All of that was fine, better than fine actually; Joe had no problem with Evgeni wearing the top. It was the fact that the man was slumped against the table in just a way that he was unconsciously curving his spine up and out, his perky goaltender’s ass pointing up and into the air because of the way he was standing. The light-washed jeans had molded to his behind and upper thighs, before loosening above his knee and pooling baggy around his Vans-clad feet. Joe was acutely aware of the collected stares that Evgeni was attracting. The pants weren’t the man’s problem, it was his own assets that were attracting the attention, but the jeans were certainly not helping to hide them.
‘Goddammit,’ Joe swore to himself. Everyone could clearly see where the delicious mound of flesh rounded out, the dip above his ass barely concealed under the waistband of Devin’s jeans.
Someone not a few feet away from Evgeni wasn’t even hiding the fact that he was undressing the oblivious man with his eyes, a sly smile stretching at the corners of his thin lips when his eyes traced the supple flesh. Joe’s flame fizzled and spat sparks in envy.
Seriously, the creep wasn’t even that attractive! Sure, he wasn’t fat, but he was in no means as fit as Joe. His skin was pasty… and Joe flat out denied the possibility that it might have appeared that way because of the lighting. His mop of dark tresses was gelled into a faux-hawk with not a hair out of place… but not nearly as masterful as Devin’s, Joe nodded with a knowing smirk. The man was barely taller than Evgeni’s petite six feet, maybe an inch on the goaltender or so… or four inches, whatever.
The bastard was hideous; Joe refused to believe otherwise. And the guy needed to stop staring soon or Joe was going to box him in the ear.
A sigh made Evgeni’s shoulder blades pull apart as he sat the iPhone he got for himself for Christmas on the table absentmindedly, his head lifting to stare at back wall. The fact that he was trying not to gain attention made Joe warm with relief all over, but the fact that he was doing just the opposite in spite of himself made Joe want to tear his hair out in frustration. It wasn’t fair; he was the only one allowed to stare at Evgeni’s perfect ass, not these people.
Two who were definitely not staring at Evgeni’s behind were making out right next to his table, groping each other with such vigor that Joe was blushing for the both of them. An unabashed cupping of the shorter man’s privates made the fire inside Joe burn right up to his face with embarrassment. He watched the two like a train wreck, unable to look away. Squealing, the man whose genitals were attacked jumped and hit Evgeni’s table with his arm, the iPhone sliding off and skirting into the shadows.
Joe rolled his eyes, assured in his belief that his teammate was doing the same, the man apologizing profusely taking his face-eating contest elsewhere.
Another sigh ran through Evgeni’s body, his feline grace shining through as he clawed into the edge of the table and stretched out his back like a cat, only succeeding in accentuating his prominent ass even more. Joe openly glowered at the not-fit, not-tall, and definitely not-attractive man who appeared to be drowning in the pleasure of the visual stimulation.
Stepping back, Evgeni’s head cocked to one side and then the other, trying to see as to where his phone had landed, but same as Joe from his angle, he was unsuccessful. He kicked a high-seated chair back with his foot and bent over from the hips to search blindly with his hands, his flexibility becoming extremely obvious if it wasn’t before. Joe had begun to head over to the table, but stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of Evgeni’s rear-end wiggling high in the air. It was a nice behind, really.
The guy against the wall had the same thoughts, apparently.
Joe watched in stone-still horror as the other man’s eyes bulged out of his head with surprise, before he stepped forward and swaggered closer to the unsuspecting man who picked something up from the floor and pocketed it. Before Evgeni could stand up, the dark-haired man bent down and settled his hand on the plump ass. If it was an accident, he was doing a poor job of hiding it. The goaltender froze momentarily before jerking up and hitting his head on the bottom of the table as he tried to get out of the slimy hands that started to caress him through the denim jeans. The recently sputtering fire inside Joe exploded into a full-blown inferno of rage and revenge.
Fear-filled eyes darted toward the man, and that was all Joe needed to see before he was tore from his stupor. Stalking toward the two, waves of his intention to kill poured off him; he could feel it rippling through his bones, the angry fire sinking into every pore like pools of lava. Soon, he was towering over the two bent under the table.
The swift kick wasn’t as strong as Joe had intended, but causing a scene was the last thing he wanted, so his kick may have been better described as quick jab to the leg. He wanted to kick the guy though. "Hey," he growled through clenched teeth, relaxing a bit when Evgeni’s face brightened with relief.
“Hey dude, what’s up?” the man asked, and Joe chose to ignore the kind demeanor he had when he talked. Nice or not, he was making Evgeni uncomfortable, and he wasn’t getting the hint to leave.
“He’s with me,” Joe ground out tensely. He knew treating his teammate like an object was a bad idea at any other given time, but Joe couldn’t help it, the man was coming onto Evgeni and scaring him. “He’s my… uh,” Joe faltered, blushing again as his adrenaline skipped a beat, but he licked his lips and grabbed Evgeni’s hand in his. “He’s my date.”
That, combined with the glare that Joe was giving him, got the man to back off with his tail between his legs.
Seeing Evgeni so vulnerable and scared had caused a rising of heat in Joe’s chest; he had vowed to protect the man, even when he thought he didn’t need protecting. Joe wanted Evgeni to be safe, always, and if that meant being annoying and overbearing at times, then so be it.
“Joe!” Evgeni yelped, his sweaty hand jerking this way and that in Joe’s grip like a caught fish. He nearly got away too, but with his bulkier frame, Joe pressed the squirming body up against the wall and managed to subdue the insistent struggles.
“Iya told yhou…” Evgeni gasped, before cutting himself off and looking for a reason to pull away, even as his weight was sinking forward into Joe’s larger frame. “I’m… I’m nhot gay!” he spurted out as a last attempt to get away. Though it wasn’t as convincing the second time he said it, and Joe could relate.
“Me neither,” he whispered over the beat of the music, a little concerned that he wasn’t heard, but Evgeni seemed to have processed what was said, a faraway look in his eyes as he nodded meekly. Joe was vaguely aware of how possessive his voice sounded, though he was calmer than before; it was easier to be calm when he knew Evgeni was safe.
He dragged the smaller man into the middle of the crowed room, forcing them chest the chest. Evgeni glanced around, nervous, but Joe smiled softly and quickly put the other at ease, a shy smile pulling at his lips as well. Settling his hands on each side the trim waist, Joe began to sway a little slower than the rhythm of the beat, the pulse of the other people dancing in time with the music. Evgeni followed soon after, his arms snaking around Joe’s neck with his hands tangling in the hair, thankfulness flashing across his face before it swam into hard-set determination. It was the look the goaltender got before a game; it was the Evgeni that Joe liked to see, confident and ready. What happened just a minute ago was now a million miles away, just another thing Evgeni was to overcome. And he did, like always, though Joe liked to think that he had helped this time even if Evgeni didn’t want to admit it.
The body in his hands bucked forward, catching Joe mid-step, and he looked down with confusion in his eyes, he was enjoying the song, thank you very much.
Grinding his hips in a figure-eight, Evgeni clutched the hair tighter and forced the two of them closer so that he could whisper and be heard. “Yhou’re nhot moving fast enough,” he purred close to Joe’s ear as if he was telling a dirty secret, still gyrating out of time with the sways that Joe’s hands had been trying to administer. The animalistic growl on Evgeni’s lips shot straight to Joe’s groin, the pleasure at hearing a subtle beg for more pooling in his stomach.
. If the goaltender was over being sexually harassed in a club where one was bound to be sexually harassed, then Joe was too. It wasn’t like his body wasn’t begging him to go faster anyway, and now that Evgeni had voiced the same thing, it was hard not to obey.
That was new, Evgeni taking control, and Joe could say that he liked it. He followed quickly, soon matching the pounding bass of the music and the lower body movements of Evgeni, though noticeably not as fluid or pretty. His dance partner was like a wild stallion, beautiful to look at and uncontrollably dangerous at the same time.
The thin shirt shined like a dappled bluish grey coat stretching to fit the pectorals and abdominals beneath it; they rippled with suppressed strength, anxious to show how much strain they could take. Joe knew that Evgeni shied away from showing off, but it didn’t mean that the goaltender didn’t take pride in his body. And tonight, Joe’s head was already starting to get fuzzy when he focused too much on the physical pleasure. Evgeni was twisting against him like a bronco, but instead of bucking to try and get Joe off, each thrust brought them closer and closer until the entirety of their fronts touched, the swirl of natural heat getting them inevitably more flustered.
He wasn’t blind; Joe could feel envious men eyeing his prize, bumping into him as if on accident, just trying to feel that lean body writhe up against them too. They wished that they could be the one to tame him. But they couldn’t, Joe couldn’t; not that he wanted to, not that his Evgeni could ever be tamed.
He followed Evgeni obediently, the other man’s grace putting his own dancing to shame. The sharp pelvic bones pressed into his upper thighs, sometimes clinking against his own when Joe couldn’t catch up. Their legs tangled together in meager means to take up as little space as possible, the people surrounding them collapsing in on all sides despite the attempt to avoid it. Beating like an excited heart, the dance floor matched the adrenaline pounding through Joe’s bloodstream, rushing faster with each breath he took to fuel his arousal.
Through that, it was as though drugs were seeping into his system, ecstasy-like, his senses heightened to inhuman levels. Everywhere his hands traveled, it felt as if he was feeling the best thing in the world, euphoria even. The think denim clinging at Evgeni’s hips scratched at his palms, his nerves lighting up at the rough treatment. Inching his fingers up to the waist, Joe clung for his life when the man ground even harder to the new song’s speedy tempo. The shirt slipped through his fingers like streams of water, the material-cotton? Silk? He couldn’t tell-was the complete opposite in juxtaposition to the jeans. Whatever it was, it soothed his rubbed-raw skin, almost too soft to feel.
Sliding a leg between Joe’s, Evgeni swiftly countered his misstep by dipping down, his knees brushing against Joe’s as they bent to allow the action. The man had a lusty glint in his eye as he stared the taller man down, still gripping curls of hair in one hand while trailing his other hand lightly down the chest as he went lower. A coy laugh puffed from the pink, parted lips, the corners curling upward as Joe shivered violently under the hot breath tickling his belly, Evgeni pressing his cheek against the quivering stomach, their eye contact never breaking.
His own hands had remained unmoving, latched tightly at the smaller man’s sides, even as he sunk down; they had been kept diligently near Evgeni’s waist all night, turning a deaf ear to the screams in his head telling him to explore all of his territory. Now there he was, his arms still extended fully, his hands still clutching tightly, and Evgeni’s sinfully barely-there shirt was bunched up around his torso, and it frustrated Joe that it wasn’t even really his doing.
He had been good, unbearably so, in respecting his date; but now Evgeni was doing this to him? Joe would have been all over that if he knew he had the option!
His erection throbbed painfully in his skin-tight jeans, the hardness bumping into the chest near his groin with each cock of his hip, the graze strong enough to rattle within his bones, but gentle enough to leave him wanting more. Evgeni ripped himself away from Joe’s alarmed hooded eyes to gaze longingly at the cock that was begging to be let out, his hand splaying flat on the stomach, his fingers stretching wide to cover as much area as they could, before cupping the crotch in a strong hold.
Evgeni was up and locking lips with Joe before he could so much as yelp in surprise. Now with no invisible restrictions or assumed limitations holding him back, Joe let his hands wander the expanse of revealed skin, marveling at how the sweat that beaded on the body like raindrops parted to his touch, rolling down the flat stomach and splashing to the ground, lost in the sea of people.
“Didn’t know-” Joe gasped, pulling away and thrusting back after a brutal swivel of Evgeni’s hips to punctuate the beat of the song. Licking his lips, Joe crooked his neck forward and ghosted over the open mouth with his smile. “Didn’t know ya knew how ta dance,” he rumbled throatily, his hands hiking the shirt around the man’s chest even higher, massaging between the pointed shoulder blades without the barrier of a shirt to let the heat seep into him.
Humming his acknowledgement, the smaller man dipped again, though came right back up, his arms snaking around Joe’s neck, his elbows resting on Joe’s shoulders. One hand traced the edge of his jaw, and Joe shivered at the feather-light touch, his eyes fluttering closed for a brief moment.
A flash of teeth reflected the smile that Evgeni had before he brought his lips up to where his fingers had been lingering a second ago. Under the jaw, he pressed several kisses, his hips circling with maddening fluidity. “I dhon’t,” he whispered, the words vibrating from his lips and into Joe’s jugular, sinking lower and swirling thickly deep in his belly. “Guess I’m jhust… flexible.” He hissed the last bit out through his teeth like a snake, his tongue caressing each syllable almost lovingly.
Joe clenched his eyes shut and waited, wishing for Evgeni take a bite out of him so that he could feel the dangerous poison push him over the edge. The reddened scratch of nails, the slight discoloration on his neck, they were mere reminders of fact that Joe belonged to Evgeni. The poison lingering was the loss of himself, knowing that he was in the possession of someone else, someone who did things to him, making him feel so much more alive than before.
Evgeni trailed his pointer finger over Joe’s collarbone, shooting one last half-lidded glance up with a parted lip smirk, his breaths coming in short, shuddering gasps. His eyes were swirling storm clouds, flashing with lightning and radiating such powerful thunder that Joe was rendered breathless. A flash of the strobe washed over them, and just for a second, Evgeni’s eyes were brighter than the midsummer sky, clearer than any ocean, and bluer than they had ever been before. The eyes returned to a raging sea of grey as the light passed, but the tightness in Joe’s chest did not; it took another second for him to remember to breathe again.
He gasped sharply when teeth sunk into a protruding tendon in his neck, marking him once again. “Whant me to show yhou?” his accent nearly overpowered his words, nearly slipping into his native tongue as he slurped up the sweat gathering at Joe’s hairline.
Oh. His flexibility. Right. Joe felt his tight pants grow impossibly tighter when he knew the sensually lazy voice was dripping with promises of the future.
“Iya could do things all the ghuys here only wish they could do.”
He knew that Evgeni was right. They both knew that he was the most flexible person in the club. The thought made Joe swell with pride for the man; the goaltender may not have realized it, but he acknowledged his abilities, even going as far as complimenting them. At the same time, it felt so inappropriate for Evgeni to be talking dirty in a place so public… but then again, Joe was the one who wanted to get busy in the showers.
“I’m jhust so fhucking bendy, yhou know?” Evgeni breathed through his lips, curved into a wily smirk at the word he borrowed from Joe, his lowered lashes obstructing the glinting eyes that Joe felt devour his body.
That was it. His pants were going to rip if he didn’t relieve himself soon. “Let’s go,” he breathed, pulling back once more and placing a quick kiss at the corner of Evgeni’s mouth, his hand searching for the other’s.
Without any hesitation, Evgeni stepped forward willingly when fingers tightened around his wrist, a slightly dazed expression crossing his face. “Wha-?”
“To get a cab, come on,” Joe stressed, tugging a little to get the man to follow his quick retreat. He knew Devin would understand; that’s what he dragged them here for, right?
The crowd seemed to part for the eager pair as they made their way to the plain double doors, the word “EXIT” hanging above it in soft, glowing green letters. Evgeni’s arm twisted in Joe’s grip, resisting the pull until their hands slid together, the man following giving a firm squeeze with his skilled fingers.
Before he could grasp the handle that would lead them outside and into the fresh, crisp San Francisco air, Joe found himself spinning around, pulled by a surprisingly forceful tug. Feet spreading automatically to steady his balance, Joe’s brain took a couple seconds more to react, clearing only after he was pinned against the door, the handle digging into his lower back, Evgeni cupping both sides of his face and kissing him fervently.
His mouth opened instantaneously under the abrupt attack, eyes rolling back into his head as the wet organ tangled itself with his own. Hands cupped Evgeni’s ass instinctively, kneading the supple flesh in his palms through the teasing jeans as Joe swallowed the keens and whimpers that he was eliciting, encouraging them with enthusiastic grunts that rumbled deep chest. Curving back into the touch, Evgeni pulled back far enough to breathe out a high-pitched sigh-the kind that forms at the top of the throat, simmering as a scratchy sound until the back of the tongue released the building noise, like a dam cracking under the pressure and letting an overflow of the very noise that screamed for sex-and untangled his fisted hands from Joe’s wild hair.
Evgeni leaned back in for another kiss as his hands slid down the doors on either side of Joe’s body, coming to a rest at waist height. They were in the middle of a slick-sounding fight between their tongues when Evgeni shoved hard on the door, Joe stumbling back gracelessly and pulling the other man outside with him. A solid thud shook his body as his back made impact with the building adjacent to the club, Evgeni landing with an ‘oomph’ into Joe’s chest.
“Enthusiastic, are we?” Joe prodded with a smile when his head stopped spinning.
The man hummed, nodding as he rubbed his cheek against the skin revealed at the opened collar of Joe’s shirt. “Get a cab, Iya have something to show yhou,” he mumbled as he took a step back, grabbing handfuls of Joe’s shirt and yanking him off the wall.
The rough treatment sent shivers down Joe’s spine, the heaviness settling in his balls and shooting straight up to his hardened dick; his entire groin was sweltering in the unbearable heat, his skin dampening with the beginnings of his anxious sweat.
Like a dog to its master, Joe obeyed, jerking his head toward the lit up street. His heart flipped when he saw a parked cab waiting for them at the opening of the compact alleyway. The driver’s side was next to the sidewalk, but he hadn’t taken notice to the two and their inappropriate position, as he was buried nose deep in the newspaper. Stopping himself before he jetted off to the taxi, Joe turned back to Evgeni, lapping his tongue up the sharp jawbone and sucking an earlobe between his lips to catch the bead of sweat that had been dangling there, threatening to fall. A second later, he was nearly running to the cab, leaving Evgeni stunned in the buildings’ shadows.
Double-checking to make sure the cab was on duty, Joe managed to suppress the clichéd fist pump when the light on the roof of the car was glaring brightly. He opened the door on the driver’s side and clambered in, not fully settling his weight so that he was still able to scoot to the other seat. But before he could even fully enter the car, a body hurtled into him and effectively plopped him into the seat on the left, the door slamming shut behind him.
Joe was sitting askew, his right hand still propped up on the middle seat, his only defense in keeping himself from being bowled over. Between his open thighs, something hot and hard squirmed into his immediate attention.
Evgeni had curled his lower body and seated himself on the floor of the car; fit snugly and flanked on either side by Joe’s spread legs. His chest bumped into Joe’s crotch his each breath he took, his eyes swirling in a greyish-blue cyclone of arousal.
“Where to?” a velvety smooth voice cut into Joe’s darkening thoughts before he could submit completely to that lusty look Evgeni was still sending his way.
“Uh…” The name of the hotel that Devin had booked was eluding his preoccupied mind, his main attention focusing on how Evgeni’s mouth had suddenly became very close to the zipper of his bulging pants. “Um…”
The man said something else, but Joe’s heart rate picked up and his ears started to ring with the unforgiving pound as hands parted his thighs even wider, lips grazing lightly over the strip of skin showing above his jeans. The only thing his hearing picked up was the erratic beat of the rap song playing in the background. He couldn’t pick everything up though, it was as if his ears were plugged with cotton; everything sounded fuzzy.
“The volume?” Joe asked breathily, willing himself to not look down at the evil smile hovering centimeters above his crotch, and to meet the driver’s bemused gaze in the rear-view mirror instead. “C-can ya turn it up?”
If the cab driver noticed the slight stutter, he didn’t seem concerned. But the chocolate brown eyes reflected in the mirror squinted bemusedly, the owner muttering something that was lost to Joe as he rolled the knob between his thumb and the knuckle of his finger. The car began to rattle as the bass filled up the compact space, the vibrating air a faint reminder of the club he and Evgeni left behind.
“Loud ’nuff for you?” The cabbie asked in a deep, jazzy tone over the music, finally loud enough to break the fog around Joe’s head. Resting his right arm over the seat for a moment, the man nearly made Joe wince when he turned around and gave the backseat a quizzical once over. The blood rushing through Joe’s body came to a screeching halt when the eyes met his, the music suddenly becoming much louder now that he could actually hear it. Movement in his peripheral vision caught his eye, and Joe’s stomach dropped as Evgeni craned his neck back, looking directly at the arm draped mere inches away from his head without so much as a flinch.
The unusual confidence in his abilities was undeniably sexy, Joe admitted somewhere in the depths of his brain, but he’d like too know that he wasn’t the only one freaking out at the moment. Evgeni had to know that one finger twitch and they’d be found out… not that Joe knew exactly what the other had in mind, but by from the way the goaltender had been grinding and rubbing against him in the club, he had an idea or two of what Evgeni was planning.
“S-sure!” he had to shout back with a shrug of a shoulder, not meaning for the volume to be quite that overpowering.
Joe was all for these plans that the rarely displayed dirty side of Evgeni that was being offered on a metaphorical silver platter.
He had dreamt of all sorts of things he wanted to do, some toys to try, maybe a position or two from the book Devin gave them, but they were just that: dreams. They had been memories pieced together and rendered into unlikely fantasies, seductive movies that played out in his head as he stroked himself off in the shower after waking up. The possibility that one of them could ever become a real memory, made Joe impossibly harder. Even the idea that someone could catch them, someone not even three feet away, did not detract from his arousal. It only added to the hot and sticky mood, despite his conflicted desire to shrink into himself with embarrassment.
He had sworn to himself that he wasn’t ever again going to indulge himself in sinful pleasures in indecent places; he’d learned that lesson once already. Last he needed was to once more be caught in the act; but Joe couldn’t deny that the chance of being found out was a part of the thrill.
“So where you headed to?” the driver asked, thankfully turning back around and gripping the steering wheel with his right hand, the other gripping the door as he rested his elbow out the window.
The name of the place had been at the tip of his tongue, but just as Joe was about to voice it, Evgeni raked his teeth down the front of his pants, the friction fiery enough to make Joe buck involuntarily, a quiet yelp escaping his parted lips. The name of the hotel became lost in his mind in an instant.
But luckily Evgeni seemed to remember, and he looked as if he was greatly enjoying the way he was making Joe shiver under his mouth’s teasing. So as the cabbie was waiting patiently for Joe to answer, Evgeni leaned his head over, his hands creeping up the inner thighs, and pressed his wide open mouth over the confined cock. Joe could feel the words vibrate through his very bones more than he could hear him, as Evgeni just about moaned the name into his twitching hot groin.
A screechy “Palace Hotel” was ripped from Joe’s mouth before he lost himself completely to the pleasure.
“Fifteen minutes, no problem.” And with that, the cabbie turned his complete attention to the road ahead of him.
The purr rumbling through Evgeni’s chest made Joe’s balls grow heavy with need, his dick crying for release from his already too-tight jeans. His hands fell uselessly at his sides as he inched his hips closer to the edge of the seat, guiding his heat even closer to the smiling mouth.
“Fifteen minutes,” Evgeni repeated as he nestled his lips into the curls leading up to Joe’s naval. “Iya can get yhou off by then,” he growled like a hungry lion, bending forward and lapping his tongue over the quivering abdominals.
Joe peered past his heaving chest with hooded eyes as Evgeni swirled his tongue slowly around his bellybutton, before dipping in and fucking it with the slicked organ. His cock jumped as he felt a rush of precome dribble down his aching shaft, sticking to his skin and the denim of the jeans.
That tongue had been the object of desire in a handful of Joe’s inappropriate dreams. He had seen Evgeni swipe at his lips during post-game interviews, he had stared as it darted to the corners of the mouth open so wide that it seemed it was taunting Joe with how much it could wrap its lips around.
Everything about Evgeni was long and flexible it seemed, his body and now his tongue; Jesus, it was unbelievably hot to see. Joe’s breath hit a dangerously high pitch as the pumping continued in and out of his navel, the action directly stimulating his swollen head.
The fingers drew mindless patterns into his inner thighs, until there was no thigh left between Joe’s leg and groin. Pressing a sloppy kiss to the now drenched bellybutton, Evgeni sat back on his haunches, watching his own hands as they tip-toed up the seam of the pants and over the noticeable erection that was growing more painful to keep strapped down as seconds slipped by. With the fingers of his right hand, Evgeni pushed the button through the hole, and with his left, he dragged the zipper down until the metal teeth were spread wide open, just like Joe’s thighs.
With brief eye contact and a quirk of an anxious smile, Evgeni locked his eyes back down to Joe’s lap, pulling the denim just far enough down Joe’s legs so that he could reach into the unfastened jeans and pull out the glistening cock.
Joe didn’t even have time to let out the breath of air he inhaled at the relief before Evgeni gripped the base firmly with one hand, fondled the heavy sac in the other, and ran the flat of his tongue over the purpling head, lapping up the clear fluids that were gushing out of his slit.
He did gasp then, quite loudly actually, but the fast-pace music drowned out his garbling.
Never being with a man before Joe, it was common sense to assume that Evgeni wasn’t exactly experienced in giving blowjobs. From the way he was lapping up the juices that make shiny rivets down the cock with his tongue with such mind-blowing skill, all of the times Joe had done this in the past were instantly forgotten. It was just hard for Joe to wrap his head around the fact that one could be so naturally gifted with dancing and sucking cock (realizing the gift on the same day was too good to be true). Evgeni may have never actually blown a guy before, but it didn’t mean he didn’t have some practice; after all, no one played with his tongue more than he did.
Pumping his fist shallowly, Evgeni circled around the hard, cut ridge of Joe’s cock with that expert tongue, his hot breath puffing over the spit-slicked head, not yet daring to put the organ in his mouth. Joe scrunched his eyes tight, capturing the image of the flushed cheeks, blotched with angry reds, the black, lust-filled eyes that were trained on his own, and the swollen lips, parted to pant out whines so keening and erotic that they rivaled a professional’s standards. Joe already knew would be referring back to that image from then on quite often when he needed inspiration to finish himself off in the morning.
Squeezing the balls to the point where Joe thought he might explode right in Evgeni’s face from the pressure, the hands relented, and the orgasm subsided. Though, a fraction of a second more, and Evgeni’s face would have been splattered with Joe’s come, the pink of his blushing cheeks covered with lines of the white, sticky stuff, zig-zagging across his throat from the bursts of orgasm, pooling at his collarbone as Joe was emptied completely… the flash of the image made Joe shiver. He was hard and sweaty and incoherent to the point of extremes, but that mouth was kissing the throbbing vein at the underside of his cock, so Joe could wait a little bit longer.
Refocusing his ears, Joe was relieved to hear the rhythm of the music still shaking the inside of the car as it sped down the San Francisco streets. Yellowing strips of lights flashed through the cab as they passed, from streetlights to store lights, to headlights from other cars, the city was still alive in the early hours of the morning. The lights would illuminate the back seat, as bright as if it were daytime; Joe could see Evgeni perfectly then, how the man only had eyes for him. The thought stirred at his brain.
Would Evgeni have ever done this to another man? Certainly not after what he’s been subjugated to. Could Joe have ever considered the possibility of having a relationship with someone who wasn’t a woman? For years, it had not crossed his mind that it was even a possibility.
He didn’t know if he was ready to admit that he might possibly be into men, but he was all right not delving too far into the issue if Evgeni was there to be unsure about it with him; to be there and keep giving him those looks that made Joe feel like he was the only person in the world.
Trembling lips bumped against his shaft, the car ride becoming jerkier as they began to drive on wider streets. Joe was teetering on the edge of losing it all right there; concentrating on all the feelings would have done him in for sure. Hands everywhere, making his muscles turn into Jell-o at the simple touch, yet at the same time, wound him up so tight that every whisper of a lick could easily be his last.
His stomach shivered, lost in the waves of pleasure that lapped over him, pulling him deeper and deeper. He was drowning in it when the mouth swallowed the head of his cock.
The orifice was hotter than anything Joe could have ever dreamt to compare it; even the dreams themselves failed to measure up to the pure bliss that Evgeni was sending him into. The lips tightened and the cheeks hollowed out as Evgeni sucked the head so hard that it felt it would burst. One slow lick up everything that fit in his mouth and Joe was nearly there.
The car bounced suddenly from running over one of the many potholes in the city streets, and Joe found his cock halfway down Evgeni’s throat from the unsuspected jerk. The walls tightened the intrusion, so hot and wet that Joe couldn’t take it anymore; when the teeth grazed maddeningly careful over his sensitive flesh, his balls clenched and he came with his head thrown back against the seat headrest in a silent scream.
Evgeni was far back enough to not have the spurts of come shot into the back of his throat. He kept the softening member between his lips until it was completely flaccid once more. Evgeni pulled back with his mouth still full of his seed, and Joe was thankful beyond reason that the man between his legs hadn’t gagged, even though he had every reason to do so. Instead, he looked up from his slouched position with a tight smile, taking a second to shake of the nerves before he closed his eyes and swallowed.
Joe watched through clouded eyes as the Adam’s apple bobbed to prove that Evgeni really just swallowed his come. Gazing back up to Joe with a smug, parted lip smile, Evgeni gasped for air with wheezy breaths, his hair flying about him like a tousled halo. It was possibly one of the most arousing things Joe had every seen, and if he wasn’t spent, he would have become hard just from that look.
The rest of the ride was silent, beside the obnoxiously loud music of course, but even that had served its purpose, so it wasn’t all bad. Evgeni laid his cheek on Joe’s left thigh as he cleaned himself, putting his soft penis back into his jeans, though wincing as he zipped them back up.
They pulled up to the hotel on the passenger’s side not two minutes later, Evgeni knowing to stay motionless as the cab driver turned off the music and pointed to the glowing red $18.36. Joe reached into his back pocket and handed the man a twenty, opening the door as he talked, allowing Evgeni to slip out unnoticed. When the taxi pulled away, Evgeni was already inside, Joe walking the stairs as if he wasn’t in a hurry.
There was only one woman on duty, no one but Evgeni and Joe in the lobby. They checked in quickly, finding out that Devin got them adjoining rooms, one with a single bed, and the other with two. They took the room with two for obvious reasons.
They made it to the hallway of their floor before they couldn’t keep themselves apart. They had been trading sly glances in the elevator, but knew that the hidden cameras would have captured their every move. Joe pressed Evgeni to the door of their room and kissed him fiercely, the tang of his own come still lingering on the other man’s lips. Evgeni’s untended erection brushed against his thigh, and Joe moved to unzip the pants, but the other man stopped him short.
Blinking in confusion, Joe let his hand drop off to his side, unsure of the reasoning behind Evgeni’s reluctance, but he just smiled tiredly.
“Iya just wanted to do something for yhou,” he stated simply, lifting his hands and running his fingers through Joe’s hair.
“Why?” Joe asked slowly, still not completely understanding why someone would turn down a handjob.
Licking his lips nervously and standing on his toes, Evgeni’s face broke out into a shy but genuine grin as he pressed another kiss to Joe’s lips. “Because yhou make me happy.”
-----
To be Continued
-----
See? Nabby can be a little horndog too. I wish the dance I went to yesterday could have compared to this. Sadly, goaltenders were not all over me.
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. She and I are so ready for the season to start.
A/N: Prepare youself, it's a long one, kids!
Last Chapter- Chapter XXVII
-Chapter XXIX-
“See you two at my apartment tonight at seven,” Devin whispered hurriedly, bouncing to his open bag and throwing on a white t-shirt. “Because if you don’t I’ll tell everyone.”
-----
“So where’s Torrey?” were the first words out of Joe’s mouth as Devin ushered him and Evgeni into his messy apartment.
“Out,” the sophomore replied vaguely, not keeping eye contact with Joe and lingering for a second, shifting on his feet as if undecided if he should stay or not, before spinning around and jogging down the hall, leaving the two in the open foyer.
His stranger-than-normal behavior made Joe’s brow crease in concern; what could have gotten Devin of all people acting distantly?
“What’s his problem?” Evgeni asked with a huff, voicing Joe’s thoughts as they walked into the living room and fell into the couch together.
Staring blankly at the flat screen television, images of the last time he and Evgeni had come over popped into his head, and he couldn’t stop the laugh that swelled in his chest. He cocked his head back, his hands already held up defensively in preparation for the glare to come. “Ya know, Borat was a great-”
But Devin sauntered back into the room with an armful of laundry before he could finish, although Evgeni’s affronted glare still managed to make Joe laugh harder.
Without warning, the clothing was dumped into their laps, snapping both from their playful teasing. Picking distastefully at the supposedly soiled clothes, Joe wrinkled his nose in what he believed to be a very Evgeni-like way and looked up in question. “What?”
Devin’s broad smile was back, his former hesitation completely gone. “Once again, Joe, I’d think it would be obvious,” he laughed with a roll of his eyes. Said book was hidden in the far reaches of Evgeni’s closet, if Joe remembered correctly.
Holding a pair of jeans to eye level, Joe had to mask the grimace, sure that his face was twitching spastically with the supreme effort to look normal. “There’s, like, nothin’ here to wear, Seto.”
The jeans he was holding looked painfully tight, while the pair that Evgeni had in his lap had rips all over the place. The other man looked about as uncomfortable as he felt.
Devin blinked a few times before jerking forward and wrenching the pants away. “It’s ’cause you grabbed the wrong pair, dummy.” With the jeans still in hand, he crossed his arms and let them re-fall onto his teammates thighs.
If Evgeni looked pale before, he was looking as white a parchment as he examined the restricting denim now. Not that Joe was relieved to have the tattered ones though. It wasn’t exactly a win-win situation.
‘At least I’ll be able to breathe?’ the tiny voice in the back of his head offered unhelpfully. Joe was about nod in reluctance agreement before he stopped short.
Wait… why was he thinking that? He wasn’t actually going to wear this anyway.
“Thought you guys would wanna look nice for tonight,” Devin offered, not noticing the scoff that Evgeni made at ‘nice’. Yeah, this wasn’t exactly Joe’s definition of ‘nice’ either.
“Why whould I wear this?”
Joe wanted to join Evgeni in his groans of despair, but his mouth was like a desert, going completely dry at the thought of where he would be wearing this.
But their teammate did not appear deterred. In fact, he positively beamed with happiness that the question was brought up. Joe was about to agree that there was no way in hell that he was going to (attempt) to put them on, but three words sent him and Evgeni scrambling to the bedroom to change in seconds flat.
“I have blackmail!” Devin piped with a conniving grin.
His laughter echoed through the entire apartment as Joe slammed the door shut behind him. Evgeni was already halfway through grudgingly unbuttoning his shirt when Joe turned around to throw Devin’s clothes onto the bed.
“Meet you out front in ten!” the all too giddy voice rang before the front door slammed shut.
-----
“So, I rented a couple rooms.”
Evgeni and Joe had been shifting restlessly in the back seat for nearly an hour, the latter growing considerably more confused as familiar scenes of San Francisco went flashing by them.
“Thought a night on the town would do you old men some good.”
Every time he or Evgeni had dared to ask where they were headed, they were shot down with a curt “NO!” before Devin started singing along with the radio again.
“The Palace Hotel, New Montgomery Street, can’t miss it.”
The loud music proved helpful when Joe would laugh with Evgeni about Devin’s behavior, before falling into a somber silence once again.
He grew increasingly wary when they passed by a collection of rainbow flags, a sinking feeling of realization making Joe slink down in his seat. He knew exactly where they were, but something rebellious inside him still demanded proof for his assumptions.
Evgeni seemed unaware of the flags meanings, but the people roaming the streets certainly caught his attention.
The voice inside Joe’s head was silenced when the Castro street sign stood proudly outside his window. The man beside him tensed as well. At least he knew the name of San Francisco’s famous gay district; that left less explaining to do, at least.
Stopping in front of a one-story building, Devin hopped out and tossed the keys to a man who had a smile that rivaled the young right-winger’s.
Evgeni and Joe stayed rooted to the leather seats, getting out only when the valet asked them politely to leave so that he could park the car.
“Isn’t this great!” Devin chirped merrily when they were all standing outside; he hadn’t even bothered to ask, instead exclaiming his excitement for all passersby to hear. “You two, me, and Badlands-” he swung an arm out to the building in introduction, “-the club that we shall be attending tonight.”
“…In the Castro,” Joe finished with a raised eyebrow, his arms crossing self-consciously over his chest.
“Well, yeah, it is a gay club,” Devin replied, matter-of-factly.
Joe felt what was remaining of his minuscule shred of hope disappear; he had clung to the belief that he and Evgeni were being taken to a bar suspiciously near the Castro district for quite some time.
They were being pulled inside before Joe could dwell on his misfortune for much longer. But Evgeni’s whine summed up his feelings perfectly.
-----
They wandered in the large room after grabbing a table, being jostled and bumped into on all sides. Not so much unlike the usual clubs, just with much more… men.
Leading his teammates toward the bar, Devin picked up his pace to claim a patch of free floor, letting go of Evgeni’s wrist and waving to the bartender. When the man behind the counter looked over in their direction, his face fell, a pointed glare twisting his happy expression.
“Devin, you bitch, you haven’t picked up your tab! You still owe me from your last two visits!” the lanky man growled with a smirk over the sea of music, the feminine accent to his words reflecting clearly in the obvious sway of his hips.
Joe squinted through the flashing lights, straining his eyes to figure out which color the man’s hair was dyed. But with the strobe making it bright green one second and magenta pink the next, Joe just saved himself the trouble and rubbed his aching eyes with the side of his hand.
“Worry not, my lovely Justin, I have your Hamilton’s right here,” Devin smiled almost sweetly, patting one of the pockets on the seat of his pants. Joe could have sworn that he could see the outline of the bills through the exceptionally restricting denim.
“Justin” pouted his lips, crossing his spindly arms over his barely-there shirt, his low-slung leather pants shifting even lower. A suspicious glint flashed in his eyes, Devin’s seductive smirk not exactly having the desired effect of making him swoon. “How much?” he asked slowly, sending the hand on Devin’s bottom a critical, if not approving, glance.
“Hundred fifty,” came the short reply, Devin sending Joe a knowing nudge in the arm while Justin blanched in surprise at the generous tip.
Caught off balance, Joe stumbled slightly into Evgeni, who was cowering behind him, hands bunched in the shirt clinging to his skin. Squeaking with surprise, the slighter man shot a look of desperation around the crowded room, very aware of the eyes the three of them were attracting.
“Got some of it from a bet with to these two, actually,” Devin added, prying Evgeni away from Joe’s side and moving to stand between them.
He felt like he was being shown off on a pedestal from the way the flamboyant bartender was looking both him and Evgeni up and down. Nodding approvingly, Justin smiled and leaned over the counter, his chin resting neatly in his palms. “The tall one’s cute, Dev. The skinny one won’t stop covering his face though. Where’d you find them?”
Cute? The last time Joe recalled being called cute was in third grade. He didn’t know whether to feel complimented or affronted. Was it possible to feel both? If it was, he was feeling it right then.
“Evgeni? He’s just shy.”
“Oooh,” Justin exclaimed with open smile, his eyes wide with interest. “Yev-gen-ee,” he breathed slowly, rolling each syllable off his tongue, dripping from his mouth like sticky honey.
Joe’s eyes narrowed and his fists clenched, ready to throw a punch if necessary.
But the man just laughed, tilting his head toward the Russian before setting his sights on Devin again. “So exotic!” he whispered with an air of awe in his voice, but his face crumpled after a second into another pout. “You have all the luck, you bastard. First you dangle Torrey in front of me, only to tell me he’s straight. And now these two!”
Joe released the pent up breath he had been suppressing, his hands uncurling at his sides before the words hit him and he tightened up again, staring incredulously at Devin. Joe caught Evgeni doing the same on the young man’s other side. He pulled other poor people into this mess?
“Yeah, but these guys are actually gay,” Devin drawled, rolling his eyes as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Evgeni protested before Joe could even open his mouth to do so. “I’m nhot-!” the man huffed, blushing and looking away. “I’m nhot gay,” he hissed, turning back and staring pointedly at Joe, who was hit with the sense of déjà vu.
Their teammate should really stop with the names he was calling Evgeni, if he had any reason to keep all of his limbs intact. First ‘girl’, and now ‘gay’, Joe didn’t know how much more wound up Evgeni could get before he harmed the young man due to thoughtless flapping of his full lips.
“Really?” Devin and Justin gasped synchronously, both gaping at the flushing man. The bartender was the first to recover, straightening up and brushing his leather pants off of imaginary dust, scoffed knowingly.
“Could’a fooled me, honey.”
Wrenching himself out of Devin’s grasp with a glare, Evgeni stepped back, his hands flying over his body, undecided on what needed covering the most. He seemed torn between hiking the borrowed jeans up from inches below his hipbones, and crossing his arms over his chest where his stiff nipples were outlined perfectly though the paper thin shirt covering them.
It seemed like a lost cause, and Joe certainly didn’t mind seeing Evgeni’s bared midriff because of the pants or strong chest because of the skin-tight shirt. Seeing both at the same time was a plus, but he didn’t voice his opinions when the man was scowling like that.
“Excuse me,” he snapped, before turning on his heel and pushing his way through the dancing people, making a b-line for the corner of the room where Devin had saved a table.
Watching him leave with a forlorn expression, Joe sighed and shrugged Devin’s hand of his shoulder. “We’re not gay,” he confirmed, trying to stuff his hands into his pockets to stop fiddling with the hem of his shirt, but the pockets barely fit a piece of paper let alone his hands, so he let them fall limply to his sides. He gazed apologetically toward Justin, ignoring the mouthed ‘denial’ he offered Devin, before turning to his younger teammate. “We’re not gay the same way you are, Seto,” he offered quietly.
Justin squealed with a laugh, his hands flying up to cover his mouth as if he had heard the funniest thing in the world. “Devin?” he clawed at his chest to quiet his heaving breaths. “Him? Gay?”
Confusion was laid out as plainly as an open book in Devin’s face when he stared back at Joe. Blinking, he jerked himself back to awareness, chuckling along with Justin. “How’d you get that idea?”
“Um…” Joe was at a loss for words. How couldn’t he have gotten that idea?
“Joey,” Devin cooed lightly when Justin finally tore himself away and started taking orders at the bar. “I just like to keep my options open.” The firm hand in Joe’s bicep almost hurt, but the intense gaze kept him from complaining about it. Winking, Devin nodded his head in the direction of their table. “Now, go get ’im, tiger!”
He flushed brightly at the suggestively raised eyebrow that Devin shot at him; though it wasn’t as if the thought hadn’t crossed his mind already. That didn’t necessarily mean he was going to actually follow Evgeni when the man was radiating discomfort and frustration, but it was the simple option of choice when Devin shrugged and tried to drag Joe toward the group of bodies, grinding seamlessly together like a well oiled machine. Normally, Joe would have followed Devin toward the mass like a lost puppy to the dance floor, eager to pull the first scantily-clad woman up to his chest, and lose himself in the erotic sensations of someone pressed up against him.
But these were all guys. Gay guys. And Joe wasn’t gay.
Suddenly searching out for Evgeni didn’t seem like such a bad idea. Worming out of Devin’s guide, Joe smiled sympathetically and gestured behind them, hoping that his young friend wouldn’t take it the wrong way. Thankfully Devin nodded enthusiastically, his carefully gelled hair shining different colors in the neon lights with each bob of his head. Gaining his hand back and holding it to his chest, Joe stood unobtrusively for a while, watching in silence as Devin just about sprinted to the dance floor. The warm tingles of the beginning of a blush blossomed over Joe’s cheeks when he saw his teammate grab a boy out of the crowd.
His dirty blond hair was ruffled, as if a current of air had gushed through the club, only no one else was affected; although his slight face was framed by the wild hair in an abstract way, and Joe would admit that it wasn’t unattractive on him. Stubble peppered the straight line of the jaw, the beard a little shorter than his own from what Joe could tell in the poor lighting. He wasn’t very tall, nor was he significantly short; he was sort of around Evgeni’s height if one was to squint. The streamlined body was well endowed with muscles, but not overly so, just enough to tell that they were there from a simple glance.
Joe stopped criticizing the boy’s looks when he realized that said boy looked suspiciously like Torrey. Devin was staring at his catch like a starving animal eyeing its fresh meat, the gleam flashing through his eyes noticeable even from a distance.
Spinning on his heel as to not jump to conclusions (Evgeni had told him to work on that), Joe squeezed through the crowded room, pointedly ignoring the blatant brushing of bodies against his own and the not so accidental pats on his ass. It gave him something to think about when he found that he wasn’t disgusted by it, even when he thought he should have been.
Patrick most certainly would, Joe thought darkly. Protectiveness for Devin surged through him when he remembered the usually sparkling happy brown eyes masking his shattered expectations at the Christmas party; Patrick shoving the harmless affections back in the young man’s face with such disdain that it still burned in the back of Joe’s mind.
But he wasn’t Patrick, and the captain wasn’t there to analyze his every move and thought; he didn’t have to make sure it was “acceptable” by Patrick’s standards, despite how his own standards had changed. Not even a year ago, he would have been ecstatic if the people currently throwing themselves at him were women. And now it didn’t even seem to bother him when (admittedly attractive) men were doing the same.
So…no, Joe wasn’t exactly uncomfortable being bumped and jostled by a powerful sea of testosterone, he just didn’t give anyone passing glances because he had someone more urgent who required his attention.
But that still didn’t mean he was gay.
Some forceful elbowing later, Joe finally gained himself a little breathing room. Air that wasn’t heavy with musk and body heat filled his lungs and Joe drank it in with pleasure. Still, the occasional bump was there, but not as many as before. He had lost himself in the swarm, his sense of direction toward the corner of the room skewed after the trip into the dance floor. Looking around in a daze, Joe smiled when his sights focused in on the one man that he didn’t mind bumping and grinding against. A flame of arousal ignited inside him, the ever-present memories coming alive in an instant like the strike of a match. His breath grew raspy, and Joe melted quicker than the wax of a candle.
Evgeni was leaning over the waist high table, fiddling with something while his back was turned to Joe. The gossamer shirt hugging him was so tight that it was more like a second skin than an actual article of clothing; the fire in Joe’s belly flickered with hunger. The shimmer in the stitching was a magnet for the strobe light’s colors, the glistening accent was just begging for the body to be devoured. Every toned muscle of his back was defined regally beneath the material, not an ounce of fat to be found on his body. It was absolutely gorgeous.
All of that was fine, better than fine actually; Joe had no problem with Evgeni wearing the top. It was the fact that the man was slumped against the table in just a way that he was unconsciously curving his spine up and out, his perky goaltender’s ass pointing up and into the air because of the way he was standing. The light-washed jeans had molded to his behind and upper thighs, before loosening above his knee and pooling baggy around his Vans-clad feet. Joe was acutely aware of the collected stares that Evgeni was attracting. The pants weren’t the man’s problem, it was his own assets that were attracting the attention, but the jeans were certainly not helping to hide them.
‘Goddammit,’ Joe swore to himself. Everyone could clearly see where the delicious mound of flesh rounded out, the dip above his ass barely concealed under the waistband of Devin’s jeans.
Someone not a few feet away from Evgeni wasn’t even hiding the fact that he was undressing the oblivious man with his eyes, a sly smile stretching at the corners of his thin lips when his eyes traced the supple flesh. Joe’s flame fizzled and spat sparks in envy.
Seriously, the creep wasn’t even that attractive! Sure, he wasn’t fat, but he was in no means as fit as Joe. His skin was pasty… and Joe flat out denied the possibility that it might have appeared that way because of the lighting. His mop of dark tresses was gelled into a faux-hawk with not a hair out of place… but not nearly as masterful as Devin’s, Joe nodded with a knowing smirk. The man was barely taller than Evgeni’s petite six feet, maybe an inch on the goaltender or so… or four inches, whatever.
The bastard was hideous; Joe refused to believe otherwise. And the guy needed to stop staring soon or Joe was going to box him in the ear.
A sigh made Evgeni’s shoulder blades pull apart as he sat the iPhone he got for himself for Christmas on the table absentmindedly, his head lifting to stare at back wall. The fact that he was trying not to gain attention made Joe warm with relief all over, but the fact that he was doing just the opposite in spite of himself made Joe want to tear his hair out in frustration. It wasn’t fair; he was the only one allowed to stare at Evgeni’s perfect ass, not these people.
Two who were definitely not staring at Evgeni’s behind were making out right next to his table, groping each other with such vigor that Joe was blushing for the both of them. An unabashed cupping of the shorter man’s privates made the fire inside Joe burn right up to his face with embarrassment. He watched the two like a train wreck, unable to look away. Squealing, the man whose genitals were attacked jumped and hit Evgeni’s table with his arm, the iPhone sliding off and skirting into the shadows.
Joe rolled his eyes, assured in his belief that his teammate was doing the same, the man apologizing profusely taking his face-eating contest elsewhere.
Another sigh ran through Evgeni’s body, his feline grace shining through as he clawed into the edge of the table and stretched out his back like a cat, only succeeding in accentuating his prominent ass even more. Joe openly glowered at the not-fit, not-tall, and definitely not-attractive man who appeared to be drowning in the pleasure of the visual stimulation.
Stepping back, Evgeni’s head cocked to one side and then the other, trying to see as to where his phone had landed, but same as Joe from his angle, he was unsuccessful. He kicked a high-seated chair back with his foot and bent over from the hips to search blindly with his hands, his flexibility becoming extremely obvious if it wasn’t before. Joe had begun to head over to the table, but stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of Evgeni’s rear-end wiggling high in the air. It was a nice behind, really.
The guy against the wall had the same thoughts, apparently.
Joe watched in stone-still horror as the other man’s eyes bulged out of his head with surprise, before he stepped forward and swaggered closer to the unsuspecting man who picked something up from the floor and pocketed it. Before Evgeni could stand up, the dark-haired man bent down and settled his hand on the plump ass. If it was an accident, he was doing a poor job of hiding it. The goaltender froze momentarily before jerking up and hitting his head on the bottom of the table as he tried to get out of the slimy hands that started to caress him through the denim jeans. The recently sputtering fire inside Joe exploded into a full-blown inferno of rage and revenge.
Fear-filled eyes darted toward the man, and that was all Joe needed to see before he was tore from his stupor. Stalking toward the two, waves of his intention to kill poured off him; he could feel it rippling through his bones, the angry fire sinking into every pore like pools of lava. Soon, he was towering over the two bent under the table.
The swift kick wasn’t as strong as Joe had intended, but causing a scene was the last thing he wanted, so his kick may have been better described as quick jab to the leg. He wanted to kick the guy though. "Hey," he growled through clenched teeth, relaxing a bit when Evgeni’s face brightened with relief.
“Hey dude, what’s up?” the man asked, and Joe chose to ignore the kind demeanor he had when he talked. Nice or not, he was making Evgeni uncomfortable, and he wasn’t getting the hint to leave.
“He’s with me,” Joe ground out tensely. He knew treating his teammate like an object was a bad idea at any other given time, but Joe couldn’t help it, the man was coming onto Evgeni and scaring him. “He’s my… uh,” Joe faltered, blushing again as his adrenaline skipped a beat, but he licked his lips and grabbed Evgeni’s hand in his. “He’s my date.”
That, combined with the glare that Joe was giving him, got the man to back off with his tail between his legs.
Seeing Evgeni so vulnerable and scared had caused a rising of heat in Joe’s chest; he had vowed to protect the man, even when he thought he didn’t need protecting. Joe wanted Evgeni to be safe, always, and if that meant being annoying and overbearing at times, then so be it.
“Joe!” Evgeni yelped, his sweaty hand jerking this way and that in Joe’s grip like a caught fish. He nearly got away too, but with his bulkier frame, Joe pressed the squirming body up against the wall and managed to subdue the insistent struggles.
“Iya told yhou…” Evgeni gasped, before cutting himself off and looking for a reason to pull away, even as his weight was sinking forward into Joe’s larger frame. “I’m… I’m nhot gay!” he spurted out as a last attempt to get away. Though it wasn’t as convincing the second time he said it, and Joe could relate.
“Me neither,” he whispered over the beat of the music, a little concerned that he wasn’t heard, but Evgeni seemed to have processed what was said, a faraway look in his eyes as he nodded meekly. Joe was vaguely aware of how possessive his voice sounded, though he was calmer than before; it was easier to be calm when he knew Evgeni was safe.
He dragged the smaller man into the middle of the crowed room, forcing them chest the chest. Evgeni glanced around, nervous, but Joe smiled softly and quickly put the other at ease, a shy smile pulling at his lips as well. Settling his hands on each side the trim waist, Joe began to sway a little slower than the rhythm of the beat, the pulse of the other people dancing in time with the music. Evgeni followed soon after, his arms snaking around Joe’s neck with his hands tangling in the hair, thankfulness flashing across his face before it swam into hard-set determination. It was the look the goaltender got before a game; it was the Evgeni that Joe liked to see, confident and ready. What happened just a minute ago was now a million miles away, just another thing Evgeni was to overcome. And he did, like always, though Joe liked to think that he had helped this time even if Evgeni didn’t want to admit it.
The body in his hands bucked forward, catching Joe mid-step, and he looked down with confusion in his eyes, he was enjoying the song, thank you very much.
Grinding his hips in a figure-eight, Evgeni clutched the hair tighter and forced the two of them closer so that he could whisper and be heard. “Yhou’re nhot moving fast enough,” he purred close to Joe’s ear as if he was telling a dirty secret, still gyrating out of time with the sways that Joe’s hands had been trying to administer. The animalistic growl on Evgeni’s lips shot straight to Joe’s groin, the pleasure at hearing a subtle beg for more pooling in his stomach.
. If the goaltender was over being sexually harassed in a club where one was bound to be sexually harassed, then Joe was too. It wasn’t like his body wasn’t begging him to go faster anyway, and now that Evgeni had voiced the same thing, it was hard not to obey.
That was new, Evgeni taking control, and Joe could say that he liked it. He followed quickly, soon matching the pounding bass of the music and the lower body movements of Evgeni, though noticeably not as fluid or pretty. His dance partner was like a wild stallion, beautiful to look at and uncontrollably dangerous at the same time.
The thin shirt shined like a dappled bluish grey coat stretching to fit the pectorals and abdominals beneath it; they rippled with suppressed strength, anxious to show how much strain they could take. Joe knew that Evgeni shied away from showing off, but it didn’t mean that the goaltender didn’t take pride in his body. And tonight, Joe’s head was already starting to get fuzzy when he focused too much on the physical pleasure. Evgeni was twisting against him like a bronco, but instead of bucking to try and get Joe off, each thrust brought them closer and closer until the entirety of their fronts touched, the swirl of natural heat getting them inevitably more flustered.
He wasn’t blind; Joe could feel envious men eyeing his prize, bumping into him as if on accident, just trying to feel that lean body writhe up against them too. They wished that they could be the one to tame him. But they couldn’t, Joe couldn’t; not that he wanted to, not that his Evgeni could ever be tamed.
He followed Evgeni obediently, the other man’s grace putting his own dancing to shame. The sharp pelvic bones pressed into his upper thighs, sometimes clinking against his own when Joe couldn’t catch up. Their legs tangled together in meager means to take up as little space as possible, the people surrounding them collapsing in on all sides despite the attempt to avoid it. Beating like an excited heart, the dance floor matched the adrenaline pounding through Joe’s bloodstream, rushing faster with each breath he took to fuel his arousal.
Through that, it was as though drugs were seeping into his system, ecstasy-like, his senses heightened to inhuman levels. Everywhere his hands traveled, it felt as if he was feeling the best thing in the world, euphoria even. The think denim clinging at Evgeni’s hips scratched at his palms, his nerves lighting up at the rough treatment. Inching his fingers up to the waist, Joe clung for his life when the man ground even harder to the new song’s speedy tempo. The shirt slipped through his fingers like streams of water, the material-cotton? Silk? He couldn’t tell-was the complete opposite in juxtaposition to the jeans. Whatever it was, it soothed his rubbed-raw skin, almost too soft to feel.
Sliding a leg between Joe’s, Evgeni swiftly countered his misstep by dipping down, his knees brushing against Joe’s as they bent to allow the action. The man had a lusty glint in his eye as he stared the taller man down, still gripping curls of hair in one hand while trailing his other hand lightly down the chest as he went lower. A coy laugh puffed from the pink, parted lips, the corners curling upward as Joe shivered violently under the hot breath tickling his belly, Evgeni pressing his cheek against the quivering stomach, their eye contact never breaking.
His own hands had remained unmoving, latched tightly at the smaller man’s sides, even as he sunk down; they had been kept diligently near Evgeni’s waist all night, turning a deaf ear to the screams in his head telling him to explore all of his territory. Now there he was, his arms still extended fully, his hands still clutching tightly, and Evgeni’s sinfully barely-there shirt was bunched up around his torso, and it frustrated Joe that it wasn’t even really his doing.
He had been good, unbearably so, in respecting his date; but now Evgeni was doing this to him? Joe would have been all over that if he knew he had the option!
His erection throbbed painfully in his skin-tight jeans, the hardness bumping into the chest near his groin with each cock of his hip, the graze strong enough to rattle within his bones, but gentle enough to leave him wanting more. Evgeni ripped himself away from Joe’s alarmed hooded eyes to gaze longingly at the cock that was begging to be let out, his hand splaying flat on the stomach, his fingers stretching wide to cover as much area as they could, before cupping the crotch in a strong hold.
Evgeni was up and locking lips with Joe before he could so much as yelp in surprise. Now with no invisible restrictions or assumed limitations holding him back, Joe let his hands wander the expanse of revealed skin, marveling at how the sweat that beaded on the body like raindrops parted to his touch, rolling down the flat stomach and splashing to the ground, lost in the sea of people.
“Didn’t know-” Joe gasped, pulling away and thrusting back after a brutal swivel of Evgeni’s hips to punctuate the beat of the song. Licking his lips, Joe crooked his neck forward and ghosted over the open mouth with his smile. “Didn’t know ya knew how ta dance,” he rumbled throatily, his hands hiking the shirt around the man’s chest even higher, massaging between the pointed shoulder blades without the barrier of a shirt to let the heat seep into him.
Humming his acknowledgement, the smaller man dipped again, though came right back up, his arms snaking around Joe’s neck, his elbows resting on Joe’s shoulders. One hand traced the edge of his jaw, and Joe shivered at the feather-light touch, his eyes fluttering closed for a brief moment.
A flash of teeth reflected the smile that Evgeni had before he brought his lips up to where his fingers had been lingering a second ago. Under the jaw, he pressed several kisses, his hips circling with maddening fluidity. “I dhon’t,” he whispered, the words vibrating from his lips and into Joe’s jugular, sinking lower and swirling thickly deep in his belly. “Guess I’m jhust… flexible.” He hissed the last bit out through his teeth like a snake, his tongue caressing each syllable almost lovingly.
Joe clenched his eyes shut and waited, wishing for Evgeni take a bite out of him so that he could feel the dangerous poison push him over the edge. The reddened scratch of nails, the slight discoloration on his neck, they were mere reminders of fact that Joe belonged to Evgeni. The poison lingering was the loss of himself, knowing that he was in the possession of someone else, someone who did things to him, making him feel so much more alive than before.
Evgeni trailed his pointer finger over Joe’s collarbone, shooting one last half-lidded glance up with a parted lip smirk, his breaths coming in short, shuddering gasps. His eyes were swirling storm clouds, flashing with lightning and radiating such powerful thunder that Joe was rendered breathless. A flash of the strobe washed over them, and just for a second, Evgeni’s eyes were brighter than the midsummer sky, clearer than any ocean, and bluer than they had ever been before. The eyes returned to a raging sea of grey as the light passed, but the tightness in Joe’s chest did not; it took another second for him to remember to breathe again.
He gasped sharply when teeth sunk into a protruding tendon in his neck, marking him once again. “Whant me to show yhou?” his accent nearly overpowered his words, nearly slipping into his native tongue as he slurped up the sweat gathering at Joe’s hairline.
Oh. His flexibility. Right. Joe felt his tight pants grow impossibly tighter when he knew the sensually lazy voice was dripping with promises of the future.
“Iya could do things all the ghuys here only wish they could do.”
He knew that Evgeni was right. They both knew that he was the most flexible person in the club. The thought made Joe swell with pride for the man; the goaltender may not have realized it, but he acknowledged his abilities, even going as far as complimenting them. At the same time, it felt so inappropriate for Evgeni to be talking dirty in a place so public… but then again, Joe was the one who wanted to get busy in the showers.
“I’m jhust so fhucking bendy, yhou know?” Evgeni breathed through his lips, curved into a wily smirk at the word he borrowed from Joe, his lowered lashes obstructing the glinting eyes that Joe felt devour his body.
That was it. His pants were going to rip if he didn’t relieve himself soon. “Let’s go,” he breathed, pulling back once more and placing a quick kiss at the corner of Evgeni’s mouth, his hand searching for the other’s.
Without any hesitation, Evgeni stepped forward willingly when fingers tightened around his wrist, a slightly dazed expression crossing his face. “Wha-?”
“To get a cab, come on,” Joe stressed, tugging a little to get the man to follow his quick retreat. He knew Devin would understand; that’s what he dragged them here for, right?
The crowd seemed to part for the eager pair as they made their way to the plain double doors, the word “EXIT” hanging above it in soft, glowing green letters. Evgeni’s arm twisted in Joe’s grip, resisting the pull until their hands slid together, the man following giving a firm squeeze with his skilled fingers.
Before he could grasp the handle that would lead them outside and into the fresh, crisp San Francisco air, Joe found himself spinning around, pulled by a surprisingly forceful tug. Feet spreading automatically to steady his balance, Joe’s brain took a couple seconds more to react, clearing only after he was pinned against the door, the handle digging into his lower back, Evgeni cupping both sides of his face and kissing him fervently.
His mouth opened instantaneously under the abrupt attack, eyes rolling back into his head as the wet organ tangled itself with his own. Hands cupped Evgeni’s ass instinctively, kneading the supple flesh in his palms through the teasing jeans as Joe swallowed the keens and whimpers that he was eliciting, encouraging them with enthusiastic grunts that rumbled deep chest. Curving back into the touch, Evgeni pulled back far enough to breathe out a high-pitched sigh-the kind that forms at the top of the throat, simmering as a scratchy sound until the back of the tongue released the building noise, like a dam cracking under the pressure and letting an overflow of the very noise that screamed for sex-and untangled his fisted hands from Joe’s wild hair.
Evgeni leaned back in for another kiss as his hands slid down the doors on either side of Joe’s body, coming to a rest at waist height. They were in the middle of a slick-sounding fight between their tongues when Evgeni shoved hard on the door, Joe stumbling back gracelessly and pulling the other man outside with him. A solid thud shook his body as his back made impact with the building adjacent to the club, Evgeni landing with an ‘oomph’ into Joe’s chest.
“Enthusiastic, are we?” Joe prodded with a smile when his head stopped spinning.
The man hummed, nodding as he rubbed his cheek against the skin revealed at the opened collar of Joe’s shirt. “Get a cab, Iya have something to show yhou,” he mumbled as he took a step back, grabbing handfuls of Joe’s shirt and yanking him off the wall.
The rough treatment sent shivers down Joe’s spine, the heaviness settling in his balls and shooting straight up to his hardened dick; his entire groin was sweltering in the unbearable heat, his skin dampening with the beginnings of his anxious sweat.
Like a dog to its master, Joe obeyed, jerking his head toward the lit up street. His heart flipped when he saw a parked cab waiting for them at the opening of the compact alleyway. The driver’s side was next to the sidewalk, but he hadn’t taken notice to the two and their inappropriate position, as he was buried nose deep in the newspaper. Stopping himself before he jetted off to the taxi, Joe turned back to Evgeni, lapping his tongue up the sharp jawbone and sucking an earlobe between his lips to catch the bead of sweat that had been dangling there, threatening to fall. A second later, he was nearly running to the cab, leaving Evgeni stunned in the buildings’ shadows.
Double-checking to make sure the cab was on duty, Joe managed to suppress the clichéd fist pump when the light on the roof of the car was glaring brightly. He opened the door on the driver’s side and clambered in, not fully settling his weight so that he was still able to scoot to the other seat. But before he could even fully enter the car, a body hurtled into him and effectively plopped him into the seat on the left, the door slamming shut behind him.
Joe was sitting askew, his right hand still propped up on the middle seat, his only defense in keeping himself from being bowled over. Between his open thighs, something hot and hard squirmed into his immediate attention.
Evgeni had curled his lower body and seated himself on the floor of the car; fit snugly and flanked on either side by Joe’s spread legs. His chest bumped into Joe’s crotch his each breath he took, his eyes swirling in a greyish-blue cyclone of arousal.
“Where to?” a velvety smooth voice cut into Joe’s darkening thoughts before he could submit completely to that lusty look Evgeni was still sending his way.
“Uh…” The name of the hotel that Devin had booked was eluding his preoccupied mind, his main attention focusing on how Evgeni’s mouth had suddenly became very close to the zipper of his bulging pants. “Um…”
The man said something else, but Joe’s heart rate picked up and his ears started to ring with the unforgiving pound as hands parted his thighs even wider, lips grazing lightly over the strip of skin showing above his jeans. The only thing his hearing picked up was the erratic beat of the rap song playing in the background. He couldn’t pick everything up though, it was as if his ears were plugged with cotton; everything sounded fuzzy.
“The volume?” Joe asked breathily, willing himself to not look down at the evil smile hovering centimeters above his crotch, and to meet the driver’s bemused gaze in the rear-view mirror instead. “C-can ya turn it up?”
If the cab driver noticed the slight stutter, he didn’t seem concerned. But the chocolate brown eyes reflected in the mirror squinted bemusedly, the owner muttering something that was lost to Joe as he rolled the knob between his thumb and the knuckle of his finger. The car began to rattle as the bass filled up the compact space, the vibrating air a faint reminder of the club he and Evgeni left behind.
“Loud ’nuff for you?” The cabbie asked in a deep, jazzy tone over the music, finally loud enough to break the fog around Joe’s head. Resting his right arm over the seat for a moment, the man nearly made Joe wince when he turned around and gave the backseat a quizzical once over. The blood rushing through Joe’s body came to a screeching halt when the eyes met his, the music suddenly becoming much louder now that he could actually hear it. Movement in his peripheral vision caught his eye, and Joe’s stomach dropped as Evgeni craned his neck back, looking directly at the arm draped mere inches away from his head without so much as a flinch.
The unusual confidence in his abilities was undeniably sexy, Joe admitted somewhere in the depths of his brain, but he’d like too know that he wasn’t the only one freaking out at the moment. Evgeni had to know that one finger twitch and they’d be found out… not that Joe knew exactly what the other had in mind, but by from the way the goaltender had been grinding and rubbing against him in the club, he had an idea or two of what Evgeni was planning.
“S-sure!” he had to shout back with a shrug of a shoulder, not meaning for the volume to be quite that overpowering.
Joe was all for these plans that the rarely displayed dirty side of Evgeni that was being offered on a metaphorical silver platter.
He had dreamt of all sorts of things he wanted to do, some toys to try, maybe a position or two from the book Devin gave them, but they were just that: dreams. They had been memories pieced together and rendered into unlikely fantasies, seductive movies that played out in his head as he stroked himself off in the shower after waking up. The possibility that one of them could ever become a real memory, made Joe impossibly harder. Even the idea that someone could catch them, someone not even three feet away, did not detract from his arousal. It only added to the hot and sticky mood, despite his conflicted desire to shrink into himself with embarrassment.
He had sworn to himself that he wasn’t ever again going to indulge himself in sinful pleasures in indecent places; he’d learned that lesson once already. Last he needed was to once more be caught in the act; but Joe couldn’t deny that the chance of being found out was a part of the thrill.
“So where you headed to?” the driver asked, thankfully turning back around and gripping the steering wheel with his right hand, the other gripping the door as he rested his elbow out the window.
The name of the place had been at the tip of his tongue, but just as Joe was about to voice it, Evgeni raked his teeth down the front of his pants, the friction fiery enough to make Joe buck involuntarily, a quiet yelp escaping his parted lips. The name of the hotel became lost in his mind in an instant.
But luckily Evgeni seemed to remember, and he looked as if he was greatly enjoying the way he was making Joe shiver under his mouth’s teasing. So as the cabbie was waiting patiently for Joe to answer, Evgeni leaned his head over, his hands creeping up the inner thighs, and pressed his wide open mouth over the confined cock. Joe could feel the words vibrate through his very bones more than he could hear him, as Evgeni just about moaned the name into his twitching hot groin.
A screechy “Palace Hotel” was ripped from Joe’s mouth before he lost himself completely to the pleasure.
“Fifteen minutes, no problem.” And with that, the cabbie turned his complete attention to the road ahead of him.
The purr rumbling through Evgeni’s chest made Joe’s balls grow heavy with need, his dick crying for release from his already too-tight jeans. His hands fell uselessly at his sides as he inched his hips closer to the edge of the seat, guiding his heat even closer to the smiling mouth.
“Fifteen minutes,” Evgeni repeated as he nestled his lips into the curls leading up to Joe’s naval. “Iya can get yhou off by then,” he growled like a hungry lion, bending forward and lapping his tongue over the quivering abdominals.
Joe peered past his heaving chest with hooded eyes as Evgeni swirled his tongue slowly around his bellybutton, before dipping in and fucking it with the slicked organ. His cock jumped as he felt a rush of precome dribble down his aching shaft, sticking to his skin and the denim of the jeans.
That tongue had been the object of desire in a handful of Joe’s inappropriate dreams. He had seen Evgeni swipe at his lips during post-game interviews, he had stared as it darted to the corners of the mouth open so wide that it seemed it was taunting Joe with how much it could wrap its lips around.
Everything about Evgeni was long and flexible it seemed, his body and now his tongue; Jesus, it was unbelievably hot to see. Joe’s breath hit a dangerously high pitch as the pumping continued in and out of his navel, the action directly stimulating his swollen head.
The fingers drew mindless patterns into his inner thighs, until there was no thigh left between Joe’s leg and groin. Pressing a sloppy kiss to the now drenched bellybutton, Evgeni sat back on his haunches, watching his own hands as they tip-toed up the seam of the pants and over the noticeable erection that was growing more painful to keep strapped down as seconds slipped by. With the fingers of his right hand, Evgeni pushed the button through the hole, and with his left, he dragged the zipper down until the metal teeth were spread wide open, just like Joe’s thighs.
With brief eye contact and a quirk of an anxious smile, Evgeni locked his eyes back down to Joe’s lap, pulling the denim just far enough down Joe’s legs so that he could reach into the unfastened jeans and pull out the glistening cock.
Joe didn’t even have time to let out the breath of air he inhaled at the relief before Evgeni gripped the base firmly with one hand, fondled the heavy sac in the other, and ran the flat of his tongue over the purpling head, lapping up the clear fluids that were gushing out of his slit.
He did gasp then, quite loudly actually, but the fast-pace music drowned out his garbling.
Never being with a man before Joe, it was common sense to assume that Evgeni wasn’t exactly experienced in giving blowjobs. From the way he was lapping up the juices that make shiny rivets down the cock with his tongue with such mind-blowing skill, all of the times Joe had done this in the past were instantly forgotten. It was just hard for Joe to wrap his head around the fact that one could be so naturally gifted with dancing and sucking cock (realizing the gift on the same day was too good to be true). Evgeni may have never actually blown a guy before, but it didn’t mean he didn’t have some practice; after all, no one played with his tongue more than he did.
Pumping his fist shallowly, Evgeni circled around the hard, cut ridge of Joe’s cock with that expert tongue, his hot breath puffing over the spit-slicked head, not yet daring to put the organ in his mouth. Joe scrunched his eyes tight, capturing the image of the flushed cheeks, blotched with angry reds, the black, lust-filled eyes that were trained on his own, and the swollen lips, parted to pant out whines so keening and erotic that they rivaled a professional’s standards. Joe already knew would be referring back to that image from then on quite often when he needed inspiration to finish himself off in the morning.
Squeezing the balls to the point where Joe thought he might explode right in Evgeni’s face from the pressure, the hands relented, and the orgasm subsided. Though, a fraction of a second more, and Evgeni’s face would have been splattered with Joe’s come, the pink of his blushing cheeks covered with lines of the white, sticky stuff, zig-zagging across his throat from the bursts of orgasm, pooling at his collarbone as Joe was emptied completely… the flash of the image made Joe shiver. He was hard and sweaty and incoherent to the point of extremes, but that mouth was kissing the throbbing vein at the underside of his cock, so Joe could wait a little bit longer.
Refocusing his ears, Joe was relieved to hear the rhythm of the music still shaking the inside of the car as it sped down the San Francisco streets. Yellowing strips of lights flashed through the cab as they passed, from streetlights to store lights, to headlights from other cars, the city was still alive in the early hours of the morning. The lights would illuminate the back seat, as bright as if it were daytime; Joe could see Evgeni perfectly then, how the man only had eyes for him. The thought stirred at his brain.
Would Evgeni have ever done this to another man? Certainly not after what he’s been subjugated to. Could Joe have ever considered the possibility of having a relationship with someone who wasn’t a woman? For years, it had not crossed his mind that it was even a possibility.
He didn’t know if he was ready to admit that he might possibly be into men, but he was all right not delving too far into the issue if Evgeni was there to be unsure about it with him; to be there and keep giving him those looks that made Joe feel like he was the only person in the world.
Trembling lips bumped against his shaft, the car ride becoming jerkier as they began to drive on wider streets. Joe was teetering on the edge of losing it all right there; concentrating on all the feelings would have done him in for sure. Hands everywhere, making his muscles turn into Jell-o at the simple touch, yet at the same time, wound him up so tight that every whisper of a lick could easily be his last.
His stomach shivered, lost in the waves of pleasure that lapped over him, pulling him deeper and deeper. He was drowning in it when the mouth swallowed the head of his cock.
The orifice was hotter than anything Joe could have ever dreamt to compare it; even the dreams themselves failed to measure up to the pure bliss that Evgeni was sending him into. The lips tightened and the cheeks hollowed out as Evgeni sucked the head so hard that it felt it would burst. One slow lick up everything that fit in his mouth and Joe was nearly there.
The car bounced suddenly from running over one of the many potholes in the city streets, and Joe found his cock halfway down Evgeni’s throat from the unsuspected jerk. The walls tightened the intrusion, so hot and wet that Joe couldn’t take it anymore; when the teeth grazed maddeningly careful over his sensitive flesh, his balls clenched and he came with his head thrown back against the seat headrest in a silent scream.
Evgeni was far back enough to not have the spurts of come shot into the back of his throat. He kept the softening member between his lips until it was completely flaccid once more. Evgeni pulled back with his mouth still full of his seed, and Joe was thankful beyond reason that the man between his legs hadn’t gagged, even though he had every reason to do so. Instead, he looked up from his slouched position with a tight smile, taking a second to shake of the nerves before he closed his eyes and swallowed.
Joe watched through clouded eyes as the Adam’s apple bobbed to prove that Evgeni really just swallowed his come. Gazing back up to Joe with a smug, parted lip smile, Evgeni gasped for air with wheezy breaths, his hair flying about him like a tousled halo. It was possibly one of the most arousing things Joe had every seen, and if he wasn’t spent, he would have become hard just from that look.
The rest of the ride was silent, beside the obnoxiously loud music of course, but even that had served its purpose, so it wasn’t all bad. Evgeni laid his cheek on Joe’s left thigh as he cleaned himself, putting his soft penis back into his jeans, though wincing as he zipped them back up.
They pulled up to the hotel on the passenger’s side not two minutes later, Evgeni knowing to stay motionless as the cab driver turned off the music and pointed to the glowing red $18.36. Joe reached into his back pocket and handed the man a twenty, opening the door as he talked, allowing Evgeni to slip out unnoticed. When the taxi pulled away, Evgeni was already inside, Joe walking the stairs as if he wasn’t in a hurry.
There was only one woman on duty, no one but Evgeni and Joe in the lobby. They checked in quickly, finding out that Devin got them adjoining rooms, one with a single bed, and the other with two. They took the room with two for obvious reasons.
They made it to the hallway of their floor before they couldn’t keep themselves apart. They had been trading sly glances in the elevator, but knew that the hidden cameras would have captured their every move. Joe pressed Evgeni to the door of their room and kissed him fiercely, the tang of his own come still lingering on the other man’s lips. Evgeni’s untended erection brushed against his thigh, and Joe moved to unzip the pants, but the other man stopped him short.
Blinking in confusion, Joe let his hand drop off to his side, unsure of the reasoning behind Evgeni’s reluctance, but he just smiled tiredly.
“Iya just wanted to do something for yhou,” he stated simply, lifting his hands and running his fingers through Joe’s hair.
“Why?” Joe asked slowly, still not completely understanding why someone would turn down a handjob.
Licking his lips nervously and standing on his toes, Evgeni’s face broke out into a shy but genuine grin as he pressed another kiss to Joe’s lips. “Because yhou make me happy.”
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To be Continued
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See? Nabby can be a little horndog too. I wish the dance I went to yesterday could have compared to this. Sadly, goaltenders were not all over me.