Trade Deadline - Avon Gale Page 0,42

at Micah, pleased. “You watch my games on television?”

“Yeah, every one since the first one. That’s the—oh, you know what I’m going to say, right?” Micah glanced at him. “I’m not that great at being subtle.”

“Maybe a little bit,” Daniel said, and his smile was different—warm, intimate, a little teasing. “But I’d hate to interrupt, so...”

Micah laughed despite his nerves. He could do this. He was thirty-three, successful, and it was sort of obvious, wasn’t it, that Daniel knew what he wanted to bring up? It was just like jumping in the ocean, or surfing. You had to take a deep breath and dive in. “The truth is, I had a raging crush on you when we were thirteen and I have a raging crush on you now, but I don’t want to ruin our friendship since I did miss you and would hate to lose you.”

Daniel didn’t look surprised. His smile got a little wider. “A crush. You have a crush on me. A crush.”

“Oh my God, don’t be a dick. You know what I mean.” Micah raised his eyebrows. “You want the dirty version? Fine, I’d love to see you in that shower of yours. How’s that?”

“Definitely better,” Daniel teased, and Micah’s mouth went dry as he moved closer. “I feel the same way, but I have to tell you... I haven’t dated anyone since Tabby. And I’ve never dated a guy before.”

Micah nodded, and despite his racing heart he managed to joke, “I’ve never dated a professional hockey player. It’s a world of firsts for both of us.”

“That seems fitting,” Daniel said, outright grinning now. “We were each other’s first kiss, after all.” He moved so he was standing directly in front of Micah, Florence crooning in the background and the sharp scent of coffee filling the air. “Wanna see if we’ve gotten any better?”

Micah swallowed thickly and nodded. “I do. Yeah. You sure about this, though? That’s the other thing, I’m not... Casual isn’t my deal. It’s great for other people if that’s their thing, but I’m the guy who likes dates and long walks on the beach, you know.” He’d long since decided that while he liked sex and missed it, without the emotional connection it was usually unsatisfying.

“Didn’t you get the memo, today? I like the beach,” Daniel said, and lowered his head.

Micah leaned up to meet him, and then they were kissing. Daniel’s mouth was warm and his hand settled immediately on Micah’s lower back. Their first kiss was awkward and this one was—well. Not awkward, but maybe a little tentative. At least until Daniel pulled him in close, and then it went from tentative to intense with a lot more ease than he’d expected. Daniel’s body felt so good against Micah’s, hard and solid, and he had to keep himself from saying fuck the long walks on the beach, the surfing counted, let’s go to my bedroom.

They broke apart after only a few seconds and stared at each other. Micah was breathing a little faster, and Daniel’s face was flushed. They weren’t really the same people they’d been as teenagers, and kissing Daniel now was nothing like their youthful first kiss. But it was amazing, and his cock was already half hard just from that.

“Okay, yeah, that was—we’re good to go, there, then,” Micah said, barely aware of himself talking.

Daniel gave a little snort of laughter. “Dork. You’re still such a dork, it’s great.”

“Hey—” Micah didn’t get any further, because Daniel leaned down to kiss him again and Micah hadn’t actually moved away from him. This kiss went on a little longer and got a little more heated, and Micah couldn’t have stopped if he wanted to. His skin felt hypersensitive and all of this was going straight to his cock, which was a lot more than half hard by now. As he pressed closer, he could tell he wasn’t the only one affected, either.

Daniel made a sound and his fingers flexed on Micah’s back, and Micah was the first one to pull back this time. He gave in to temptation and reached out, lightly running his fingers over Daniel’s firm, muscular chest. He could think of a thousand things they should talk about, but all the words seemed to have burned out of his brain. He was so happy, and when Daniel said, “Maybe let’s try one more time so we know we’re really, really into it,” he couldn’t do a thing but reach up, slide his fingers into Daniel’s gorgeous