Chapter Ten

 

Fiona and Raven bid us farewell at midnight and headed to their hotel, Raven making a fuss about Fiona keeping warm in the cool of New York after the humidity of Florida. He didn’t want her getting a chill.

Todd and I lingered over another coffee and munched through a plate of mint chocolates, enjoying being together.

“I feel like a weight’s off my shoulders,” Todd said when we stepped out onto the sidewalk. “Now Raven knows.”

“I can tell he’s a good friend.”

“He is, one of the best. I would have hated to lose him, but I would have, for you.”

I touched his cheek with the backs of my fingers. “You’re being very strong. You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah. Life’s just getting real good.” He leaned forward and touched his lips to mine. “And it’s ’cause of you.”

I melted toward him and opened up for his deeper kiss, spreading my fingers on his cheeks and drinking up the chocolate and coffee taste of him. A delicious combination of want and need, spicy and sweet, I could have happily drowned in.

A sudden flash of light penetrated my closed eyes. We snapped apart.

“What the—?” Todd said, whipping his head to the left. “Fuck off.”

He raised his arm at a guy dressed from head to foot in black and holding a Canon 600D.

“Get the hell outta here.” Todd stepped toward him with his shoulders rounded and his fists clenched.

But the guy was gone. Like a shadow, he’d slunk beneath scaffolding and was eaten by the darkness.

“Bastard,” Todd yelled, running several steps forward but then halting when he realized he’d lost his target. “Shit.”

I spotted a cab and waved it to the curb. Opened the door and ushered Todd in. He sat down heavily and I followed, leaning forward to give my address to the driver.

“You okay?” I asked, the lovely meal flipping in my belly and making me feel sick. That had been my fault. I’d touched him first.

“Yeah,” he said tightly. “Just can’t fucking stand people who think they can take a shot of me anytime they want. It was going to happen sooner or later, a photo of us together, but I wanted to control the when and where.”

“I know you did. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” He reached for my hand and sighed. “I should go see Dad in the morning, though. Before he gets a look at whatever paper that asshole’s working for.”

“You want me to come with you?”

He shook his head. “Nah, I gotta do this on my own. I knew the day was coming and now it has, but like telling Raven, hopefully it will go well. It has to. This secret is eating me alive.”

Within a few minutes we were striding across the mosaic floor of my lobby. The elevator arrived and we stepped in. Finally, we were absolutely, completely alone, no friends, no paparazzi, just us.

“I’ve missed you,” I said as the doors slid shut. “It’s been a long week.” I sent a quick thanks heavenward that when the security camera in the corner had broken, the super, Bret, had never got around to replacing it.

Todd wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me close, touched his lips to my temple. “I’ve missed you, too. But we have all night and all tomorrow when I get back from Dad’s.”

I drew in his lovely scent and slanted my head against his. “Yeah, good.”

There was a sudden loud creak, a jarring clunk and an ominous rattle. The elevator came to a sharp halt.

I grabbled for the brass bar that circled the elevator at waist height. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Why now?” I lurched forward and jabbed at the assistance button.

Todd started to laugh.

“It’s not funny,” I said.

“No, no, I know it isn’t.”

“So why are you laughing?”

“I don’t know, I guess it just tops this whole fucking day off. Being stuck in an elevator when all I wanna do is get naked and into a damn bed with you.”

I watched his mouth move as he spoke and damn if my dick didn’t swell. Despite the fact that I was mad as hell at this damn wonky elevator that like everything else here never got properly fixed, just the thought of Todd naked was enough to get me going.

“Who’s stuck in there?” It was Bret, his voice tinny through the speaker.

“It’s me, Matthew. This damn elevator is a joke.”

“Yeah, I know. Sorry, buddy. The engineers were out earlier, they obviously didn’t fix the problem. I’ll give ’em a call, but I you’re looking at a thirty-minute wait before they get you out.”

“Well, just make sure they don’t fob you off ’til morning.”

He laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ll kick their pansy asses into gear right now.” The faint buzzing clicked off and he was gone.

Todd stood with his back against the wall, his arms out to the sides as he gripped the rail. The smile had slipped from his face. Now his mouth looked slack and his eyes heavy. “Thirty minutes,” he said.

“Yeah. That a problem?”

“Not if you’re here.”

I stepped up to him so we were eye to eye. “You’re not scared, are you?”

“Of being stuck in an elevator? I’m gay, not a girl.”

I smiled and nipped his chin with my thumb and index finger. “The bulge going on in your pants tells me you’re no girl.”

“You got damn X-ray vision or something?” His voice was deep, breathy.

“No, I can just tell.” I slid my hand down his chest, unbuttoned the navy blazer he wore and pressed my palm against the solid wedge of his cock.

He groaned. “Ah, fuck, Matthew, you make me harder than anyone has before.”

“Good.” I gave a few firm strokes, loving how it made his eyes flutter shut and his lips part even more.

Heat from his cock burned through his pants and radiated onto my hand. My heart rate shot up and my own cock reached a full-on erection.

“Matthew,” he said on an expired breath. “Oh fuck.”

“What?”

“I can smell you, taste you, and your body against mine makes me want to come in my pants again.”

“I have a better idea.” My mouth was watering to taste him. I dropped to my knees, began to unbuckle his belt.

“Oh God,” he groaned, resting his hand on my head. “Really? Here?”

“Yeah, really. What else we going to do while we wait?”

“I’m guessing playing I Spy isn’t going to work for you?”

“Too right it’s not, plus it would be sinful to waste this damn fine hard-on.” With a quick flick of my wrist, I dropped his zipper, shoved at his underwear and tugged his cock free.

For a moment I just stared. This was my first look at his cock. In the muted glow of the elevator lights it looked so beautiful. A deep red shaft, twisted with veins that sprang from a nest of dark-golden pubic hair. The head was wide and domed, flushed with arousal, and the flare of the glans a smooth downward slide from his slit.

I wrapped my fist around his shaft and gave a firm tug upward then a push down.

“Ah, ah,” he panted. “Be careful.”

I tapped my tongue over his glans then poked into his slit.
“Jesus, Matthew,” he said, tensing.

His slit tasted of salt and sweat and a rawness I adored. I began to lave around his flare, tickling the thin strand of his frenulum, all the time working his shaft in firm strokes.

He released a string of expletives.

Pursing my lips, I formed an O around his crown, created a hard suction and pulled him into my mouth as opposed to sinking onto him.

“Oh my God, fucking hell, that’s awesome.”

I was aware of his body sinking, so I rammed my left hand onto his hip, pushing him against the wall and keeping him just where I wanted him. My head was dizzy, my body alive with the desire to make him feel good, so damn good.

Giving head was one of my specialties and I enlisted every trick I knew. Playing the tip of my tongue around his glans as I sank farther and farther onto his shaft. Keeping up a relentless suction that tugged at his flesh, pulled at his engorged veins.

He was panting hard above me, his hands alternating from my head to my shoulders.

“Fuck, I’m gonna come too damn soon,” he groaned.

I was aware of pre-cum dampening the end of my cock as I lodged him in the very depths of my throat. The head of his dick felt divine there, hard and glossy, the slit oozing his nectar.

Quickly I pulled off him, then swallowed him whole again, making sure I kept my fist around his shaft if it wasn’t in my mouth. Over and over I devoured him, adoring the keening, grunting noises he was making and the clawing of his fingertips on my scalp and against my jacket.

“Fuck, here it is,” he shouted hoarsely.

I was already swallowing. Drinking down his spurting semen. It was thick and hot and flowed in waves from him with each almighty pulse of his cock.

“Yes, yes, yes,” he hissed, sinking to the floor.

I stayed with him, kept drawing him into my mouth, making sure he didn’t dislodge from my throat.

He wailed and dropped over me, a heavy weight of orgasmic pleasure. “Matthew, Matthew,” he gasped.

I lifted from him, caught his spent cock in my hand and cupped the nape of his neck. I was breathless, hot and massively turned-on.

His eyes were watery, his cheeks bright-red.

“That was,” he panted, “so fucking intense. I’m sorry I didn’t last long.”

“I love that I can make you come so quickly,” I said, kissing him. Not gently but firmly, passionately, letting him know how much I adored sucking him off.

“But you,” he said, roaming his hands down to my cock.

I moaned as he pressed against the aroused flesh. “Let’s wait ’til we get to bed, then you can return the favor. Right now you need to get your breath back before the engineers open the door and find us flushed and stinking of cum.”

 

*****

 

While Todd visited his father the next morning, I paced the floor. Drank mug after mug of hot black coffee and stared out the window at the busy street below. But I hardly saw the hustle and bustle of vehicles and people, my mind was too busy.

Every time I thought of Todd returning the blowjob favor my cock hardened. It had been beyond every wild, sexy fantasy I’d ever had. Not only had he sucked me as though his life depended upon it when we’d gotten into bed, swallowing my dick until I’d begged for mercy and rammed down his throat at the same instant. He’d also woken me up with the same delicious treat. At first I’d thought I was dreaming—a wonderful sexy dream about a drop-dead-gorgeous hockey player laving at my dick, fondling my balls and smoothing his fingertip over the section of skin between my sac and my anus. But then, in a sudden flurry, I’d realized it wasn’t a dream and I’d cried out and come before I’d even opened my eyes. It was the most erotic way I’d ever been woken up. A moment of suspended bliss, dream versus reality, that I would remember always.

But now, on top of sexy memories were also worries. What if Todd’s father really couldn’t cope with his confession? What if he gave Todd an ultimatum—him or me? I couldn’t compete, wouldn’t compete with his family, at least not for a while. We’d have to have a cooling-off period, a good few weeks, months even, where we didn’t see each other or communicate, so Todd could get his head together without my influence.

I knotted my fingers around my now-empty mug and stared at a jet leaving a white, fluffy trail in the sky. The thought of a single day without Todd gave me an ugly, empty feeling. Separation becoming an actual option didn’t bear thinking about.

My cell rang a little after two. “Hey, it’s me,” Todd said.

“How’s it going?”

“Not good.”

“Why, what’s happened?”  My heart sank.

“He’s sick, which I think has made him over-emotional. But he started crying, said now he’d never have grandchildren, someone to carry on the Carty name and all that.”

There was a pause, then I said, “It may be a little premature to say it, but I’m not opposed to kids in the future.”

“Me neither.”

I swiped my finger along the windowsill, watched a whisper of dust appear on the tip. “What else did he say?”

“Well, then he started shouting and said that I’d be the laughingstock of the NHL. No one would want to sign me again.”

“Well, you know that’s a crock of bullshit.”

“Yeah, but like I say, he’s not well. Can’t stop coughing and he’s lost a ton of weight.”

“Anything I can do?”

“Nah, but I’m going to have to hang here. I’ve called the doctor again. But Dad’s being stubborn and I’m not sure he’ll let him in when he arrives.”

My heart sagged at the thought of not spending the day with Todd. I had an evening flight to Vegas. I needed to be there so I was ready for a shoot at nine in the morning.

“I won’t be back until late,” he said.

“I’ve got that Vegas thing, remember?”

“Damn, I’d forgotten about that. But you’ll be back tomorrow night, won’t you?”

“No, it’s a two-day shoot. Won’t be back ’til Wednesday.”

Todd groaned. “I fly to Pittsburgh for our meeting with the Penguins Wednesday afternoon.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and rubbed my fingers over my forehead. “When will you be back in New York?”

“The game is Thursday evening so late that night.”

I sighed. “Guess I’ll see you Friday then.”

“Matthew, I’m sorry. I just can’t leave him.”

Instantly I felt terrible for making him feel as though he was choosing between us. “Of course not, and I wouldn’t want you to. God, I’d feel crap if you were here with me when your father needs you.”

“Thanks. I have to do this.”

“Yeah, it’s important. And I’ve got stuff to organize anyway, ready for the shoot. We’ll have lunch Friday?”

“Yeah, cool. But call each day, like we did last time.”

“Yeah, I’ll call you later, when I get to Vegas.”

I’d just put my cell down when it rang again. It was Raymond this time.

“Sweet, sexy, Matthew,” he sang down the line. “Are you having a lazy Sunday sex session with your lover?”

“No, Raymond. What’s up?”

“What’s up? I’ll tell you what’s up.” His tone changed. “You better get your mysterious ass down to Rizzles ASAP and see what we’re all looking at. I told the guys you took no notice of Twitter and Facebook, like, never, and it seems that’s so true.”

“What the fuck are you on about?”

“Hah, so you haven’t seen it, not anywhere?”

“Seen what?”

“Get down here, stat.”
He was gone.

I grabbed my jacket, wallet and keys and headed out. I had an idea what Raymond was referring to, and by the time I pushed through the door to Rizzles, I was convinced I was right.

“On the house,” Joel said, sliding a glass containing a large measure of bourbon along the bar—my drink of choice in an emergency.

I sat on my stool and looked at three anxious faces, though Raymond looked as though he was enjoying the drama—his mouth was twitching and his eyes flashing.

“So where is it?” I asked.

“You knew this was going to happen,” Gareth said, placing a copy of the New York Post in front of me. “It’s all over the net, but this is the source.”

The headline read Rangers’ Pretty Boy Finds Himself a Mystery Guy. Beneath the stark black headline was a photograph. It was a close-up of Todd and me kissing. My hand was on his cheek but it was still obvious it was Todd. It was also incredibly obvious that it was a kiss infused with passion, promise and intimacy.

“Oh fuck,” I said, knocking back the bourbon in one gulp.

“I take it this isn’t part of his coming out schedule,” Joel said.

“No. But we knew the shot had been taken. Todd was going to chase the bloke but he fucked off pretty sharpish.”

“Bastard,” Gareth said, shaking his head.

“So where’s Todd now?” Raymond asked, glancing at the door as though hoping he was right behind me.

“With his father. He went to tell him about me but he’s had to stay because his dad is sick.”

“Do you think he’s seen this?” Gareth asked, jabbing at the paper with his index finger.

“Probably. His agent will be all over it.”

“Read it, though,” Raymond said, rubbing his hands together, “they have no idea who you are.”

After dining at an exclusive midtown restaurant last night, the hottest forward the Rangers have ever signed, Todd “Pretty” Carty, left with his boyfriend. Yes, you read correct, boyfriend. So all you ladies out there will be nursing broken hearts because it’s clear these two boys are very much in love. Sharing tender whispers and touches and a soul-deep kiss as they waited for a cab.

But who is Todd Carty’s new lover? How long has the Rangers’ star player been batting for the other team? And what the hell are the Penguins going to make of it when they clash on the ice on Thursday?

“See, not a clue,” Raymond said. “You’re a mystery, dear friend, and everyone walking the streets out there would love to know it’s you who’s stolen Todd Pretty Carty’s heart.”

“Don’t call him that.”

Raymond pouted. “But he’s so pretty.”

“He’d deck you if he heard you say it,” I said. “You wouldn’t think he was so pretty then.”

Raymond huffed.

“What are you going to do?” Gareth asked. “This will be the start of the media circus we talked about.”

I signaled Joel to top up my glass. “Nothing I can do. It’s up to Todd. He’s the one this affects the most.”

“But does it really? What about your exhibition launch on Saturday night? This has been a big deal for so long, Matthew. You’ve thrown nearly a year of your life into this project.”

“What do you mean?”

“It could be good…great for you. No publicity is bad publicity.”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t want to use our relationship to benefit my career.”

He shrugged. “You wouldn’t be.”

“Yeah, I would. If I jump up and say I’m the mystery guy, it’s obvious there will be more interest in the exhibition, more sales even. So it would be using Todd to benefit me. I won’t go down that road.”

Gareth nodded. “Yes, but I’m sure you being you, Matthew, you’re a great support to him.”

“Because I’m worried how this will affect him.”

“But it’s going to affect you, too,” Gareth said, resting his hand on my arm. “You don’t date one of sports’ hottest athletes without it having repercussions. We’re just saying take the good with the bad. We’re thinking of you.”

“When Todd is ready to tell the world that it’s me he’s dating then that’s when it will happen. Not before.”