Do you really think I’m going to go around announcing what my brother does in his bedroom?” He wrinkled his nose and shuddered. “Dude. No.”
“To be fair, you brought it up.”
“Only because—oof!” He doubled over a little dramatically when I smacked him in the gut. “I’m telling Mom.”
“Go for it.”
We both laughed, and Eric mercifully let the subject drop as we continued watching the game.
And oh, I was definitely fixating on one player in particular tonight. I’d done that a lot anyway, but now Jase was more than just a crush on skates. Now that I’d been in bed with him? Oh Lord. Watching him on the ice was definitely putting my heart through its paces.
I’d been a little worried—a little, like way in the back of my mind—that going multiple rounds with Jase last night might hurt his game today. That was kind of ridiculous, though. I mean, he was a professional athlete. There was nothing I could do with him in bed that would hamper his hockey game. Not without killing me first, anyway.
But worrying was what I did, so yeah, I’d wondered. Especially when he’d gotten out of bed this morning and rubbed his hips like maybe he’d spent part of the night moving them in a way they weren’t accustomed to.
If he could still feel last night at all, he sure as hell didn’t let it show now. There were cartoons of him with flames shooting out of his skates, and anyone who’d ever watched him understood exactly why. He was fast. He, Kuznetsov, and Maddox were practically unstoppable as an offensive line because of their speed, precision, and aggression. They were thrilling to watch even when I didn’t know one of them in the Biblical sense.
Around the middle of the period, a forward from the other team did…something. I couldn’t actually tell from where I was sitting. All I knew was both he and Jase were skating after the puck, and then the puck had gone to someone else, along with my attention. A second later, someone had slammed into the glass like they often did, but then shouts of “Fight! Fight! Fight!” had erupted from the crowd. Naturally, I’d looked around in search of the action, and I’d found Jase and the other forward in each other’s faces, visors off as they shouted at each other. The forward shoved Jase. He shoved back. Their gloves were still on, but that probably wasn’t going to last long.
I laughed, shaking my head. I’d always known Jase was scrappy on the ice. He’d been in his share of fights just like any player, and he’d had his nose broken twice because of it.
But this was the first time I’d watched him fight since I’d found out what a soft touch he had when the lights went down. There he was, in the middle of the ice in pads and a sweaty jersey, eyes flashing with fury as he dared the other forward to take a swing at him, and all I could think was how nervous and gentle and hungry and attentive he’d been last night. Not a single other person in this arena knew what that hot-tempered forward sounded like when he was pleading for release.
Watching him now was both amusing because of our shared secret, and fucking hot for the same reason.
I know a way you can blow off that steam, Jase…
I suppressed a shiver.
Right then, the forward yanked off his glove, and Jase lunged at him, pulling off his own glove as he did. Fists flew and the crowd roared, but the cheers quickly shifted to boos when the refs stepped in and broke it up.
Jase and the forward continued shouting at each other even as their teammates helped separate them. Someone said something to Jase, and he shook his head and turned around, skating away from the fight, the refs, and his teammates. Maddox fell in beside him, and they exchanged a few words and nods. Jase was obviously not happy, but he wasn’t quite so volatile now.
A ref joined them, and when he gestured toward the penalty box, Jase scowled, but he nodded. The crowd booed as he did his skate of shame across the ice, and when I caught a glimpse of his face on the Jumbotron, Jase still looked pissed as he dropped onto the bench in the penalty box to cool his heels for two minutes.
Leaning in and lowering his voice again, my brother asked, “Since when do you