Picks & Pucks (6 page)

I laughed and a few of the guys on my team tapped me on the shins with their sticks, nodding as they skated by me. The puck dropped again, and once more I faked out the D-man, easily breezing by him before I sidestepped two other players, who crashed into each other. They ended up sprawled on the ice in a tangle of limbs. I let go of a wrist shot that ended up in the back of the net before The Wall blinked. I even amazed myself. I hadn’t picked up a stick in the last two months, but I still had the snap in my wrist shot.

Things settled down with the third drop of the puck, but Danny’s team couldn’t get the puck out of the neutral zone. After fifteen minutes of dazzling skating skills and flawless stick handling, Craig blew the whistle. The score stood at five to zero. Danny’s team didn’t even get a shot on net.

“Who the hell are you?” Danny shouted at me as I skated toward the bench.

“Who the fuck do you think it is?” I yelled back at him. I undid my chinstrap and raised my helmet to the top of my head. He got a funny look on his face, like he’d swallowed rancid booze.

I couldn’t resist taking off my glove and kissing my middle finger. “You all just got your asses handed to you by a fucking fairy.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rusty chuckle into his glove. The tall guy I’d faked out several times skated toward me, took off his glove, and offered me his hand. I shook it. The rest of the team soon followed suit, shaking my hand and telling me I should have played hockey.

Danny was the final player in line. He gripped my hand but refused to look me in the eye.

The whistle blew again, and Coach Staylen, Coach Strom, and my dad all came out on the ice. My dad cleared his throat. “Since you little girls think you’re better than my son, I am handing you all over to him. You will follow his workout, which has been adapted for hockey players by his coach, Marina Kirolova. If you think I’m a prick, you haven’t met her. You will be allowed to wear hockey skates when you are on the ice, but you will also be required to do all the things on Justin’s training schedule. I doubt any of you will be able to keep up with him. You have fifteen minutes to change into shorts and T-shirts. You will be hitting the stairs.”

A few of them grumbled, but most of the guys were too awestruck to say much. Nice to know my hockey skills were still intact. The players took off, leaving me on the ice. I did a few more laps, slapping the pucks at the net and doing a little bit of fancy stick handling.

Coach Staylen and Coach Strom didn’t know what to say to me. They shook their heads and patted me on the shoulders.

“You’ve got great hands, kid,” my dad said. “That was absolutely astounding what you did to my guys. I wish….” He took a deep breath and shut his mouth.

“I know, Dad,” I said as I stepped off the ice. “But I wouldn’t have played on your team.” I winked at him, and he grinned at me. For the first time in a very long time, I could see the pride in my old man’s eyes. The moment was nice.

At the end of the day, Rusty was the only hockey player left standing, and even he needed to lean on the wall when he completed the workout. Most of the guys survived the stairs, but they began dropping like flies the further we got into Marina’s workout. Danny made it through the stairs and five-mile run with no trouble, but puked over the boards after two hours of skating drills constructed by Marina. They expended the same amount of energy as I used during my long program run-throughs.

I learned the nicknames of some of the players as we went through the workout. Captain Kirk, Bones, and Spock crash-landed on an alien planet after they tripped over several cones during a skating drill. Each had to be hauled off the ice by two student trainers. Kirk dry-heaved all the way down the tunnel. I think he finally barfed for real in the locker room.

Cory Walsh’s wall crumbled into dust during the five-mile run. Most of the other hockey players dropped out in the middle of the skating drills. I shook my head and laughed at them.

When the ice cleared, I sighed and put some random music on, then slowly did a couple of laps.

“Hey, Justin,” Eli shouted over the music. “I hear we missed the show.” I stopped, spraying him with snow.

“Dad is bragging to anyone who will listen, but he’s also pissed that he has a bunch of elite college hockey players who just got upstaged by someone who hasn’t seriously played the game for three years,” Janae said.

“I couldn’t take it anymore. Danny kept scheduling practices during my time on the ice. I probably shouldn’t have let it get to me, but fuck, I feel awesome now. And hopefully all the little hockey pricks will leave me the fuck alone now.”

Danny didn’t show up for dinner, so we spent the evening giggling about my slow decimation of the team. When Danny crawled into the house, Eli asked him if he needed to sleep on the couch, since he doubted he could make it up the stairs. Danny sneered and dragged his body up to his room.

A
FTER
THE
game and workout whipping, the hockey players and I came to an unspoken agreement. They left me alone, only nodding at me if we passed in the tunnels. We had no more mix-ups with ice time and no more degrading words when they saw me.

Danny stayed clear of me, only gracing me with his presence when he showed up for dinner or if we happened to cross paths on the way to or from the bathroom. The uneasy truce didn’t help the demons. They roared and squealed whenever Danny was near.

My dad came to my practices more. Seeing him sitting in the stands, watching Janae coach me through my programs, was weird. We still had a lot we needed to talk about, but being around him was getting easier. The demons lurked in the background, whispering about the past. I told them to shut up. I would talk to my dad when I was ready.

Our frantic schedules were screwing up the evening meals, and Janae finally snapped. She drew up a master calendar and tacked it on the fridge, assigning each of us nights to cook.

“I can’t do all this,” I whined.

“Me neither,” Danny agreed.

“Well, either you guys pitch in, or we eat nothing,” Janae snapped.

“Hello, fine people,” Eli said when he came through the front door. “Were you talking about meals?”

“Yeah,” we all said.

Eli floored us by volunteering to pick up extra nights. He said he actually enjoyed cooking as long as someone else did the grocery shopping. I still didn’t get why Eli liked to be around my dysfunctional family. I brought it up a few times, but he brushed me off by quickly changing the subject.

The days passed, and it got closer to the start of the hockey season, along with my competitive season. Marina would be here soon, and I knew I needed to settle some of the stuff with my demons.

Practice today had exhausted me, and I forgot it was Danny’s turn to cook. I rushed into the kitchen and slid to a stop when I spotted him. The demons danced around the kitchen, tossing food at me and drawing my gaze to his body. He had his headphones on as he chopped vegetables to the rhythm that played in his ears. I found it hard not to admire his tight ass, especially since he was shaking it. He was still fucking hot. A flash of the past zipped through my head, and the demons snickered and whispered about frantic blowjobs and a few all-night marathons.

Back when he was a freshman with the team, and I was still at home, training for the US Junior Nationals, we met by accident. He crashed into me as he raced through the tunnels in the arena during a water fight. I was coming off a long practice, and some stupid senior soaked me. Danny thought it was hilarious until I stripped in the hallway. I can still remember his reaction to my naked torso. I’d seen the look from many boys before. About fifteen minutes later, he found me in the bathroom, where our secret affair started.

F
OR
SEVERAL
seconds, neither of us moved. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do, when a few guys raced by us, squirting more water. He chased after them, leaving me standing, shivering in the hall. I frowned and headed toward the bathroom to calm down and dry off.

Splashing water on my face helped, but my dick still screamed for attention. It was going to be an uncomfortable ride home. When the door opened, I closed my eyes, hoping it was the blond guy, but not daring to look.

He cleared his throat, and I turned and met the dark stare of his blue eyes.

“Is anyone in here?” he whispered.

I shook my head. He reached behind, and I heard the click of the lock. It echoed through the small room, and every ounce of my blood raced to my cock.

“I’m Danny,” he said as he slowly closed the space between us.

“Justin,” I squeaked.

“Nobody can know,” he whispered.

“Okay,” I answered quickly.

His lips drifted across mine, and I opened my mouth and let his tongue slide inside. He groaned and shoved me against the door, pressing his hips into mine.

I snuck my hands up the back of his shirt and dragged him closer to me. It suddenly occurred to me that if this was going to be a dirty one-off, I wanted to suck him.

I shoved him away from me. He stumbled back and frowned until I grabbed his sweatpants and ripped them down his legs. His cock bobbed free, and I dropped to my knees and took him into my mouth before he could draw his next breath.

“Holy shit,” he groaned and grabbed my hair. I let him set the pace, but when he yanked my hair so hard it made my eyes water, his cock slipped out of my mouth and I grimaced.

“Sorry,” he said, pulling me to my feet. In one swift movement, my pants were around my ankles and he had our cocks in his hand, pumping wildly.

I came embarrassingly quickly, but he soon followed, letting loose a low growl that echoed through the bathroom. He bit my neck so hard, I knew I would be covering a dark bruise the next day.

“I’ll talk to you soon,” he said. He kissed me hard before he slipped out of the bathroom, leaving me a disheveled mess.

I
NEVER
thought I’d hear from him again, but later that same night, he sent me a text. Things heated up quickly between us. He used to sneak up on me in the locker room after our practices and press against me, rutting until my dick was so hard I could hardly breathe. My phone rang at all hours. We met in cars and dark bathrooms, and once, he dragged me into a cubicle in the library.

A flash of desire ran up my spine and chased away the memories, bringing me back to the present. My cock twitched and rose to half-mast. I was horrified with my body’s physical reaction, but I was pretty sure anyone would have to be dead not to appreciate him. The real question was what the fuck was I doing standing there drooling over him? I swallowed and started to back out of the room, but I ran into a chair. Danny turned and stared at me, a slow smile spreading across his face. He made me feel like I was going to be the main course.

“Hey, princess,” he said smugly. His gaze dipped to my crotch, and the heat crept up my neck and started my face on fire. “See something you like?”

“Nope,” I said.

“Whatever you say, baby.”

“Cocky dickhead,” I mumbled.

“Hey, how about you give me a hand with these vegetables?” He fondled the carrot he was peeling.

“How about no,” I choked out.

“Oh, come on, Justin, I promise I won’t bite you, touch you, or even look at you.”

“Why should I? You’ve been nothing but a prick to me whenever people are around, but if you need something from me, you turn into a halfway decent guy.”

“Did you just compliment me?”

“Not on purpose.”

“Look, Justin, I’m sorry,” he said, then bit his lip.

“Do you even know what you’re apologizing for or is this to get me to help you with dinner?”

He set down the knife and touched my arm. I jerked away from him.

“I am sorry,” he said again.

The front door opened, and Eli shouted my name. I stepped away from Danny and shook my head. “Eli can help you.”

In my haste to get away from Danny, I almost knocked Eli on his ass. He gave me a weird look, but I waved him off, went upstairs, and quietly closed my door. The demons tried to bother me, but I wouldn’t let them today. I didn’t give a shit what they threw at me anymore. The memories were bad, but real life was worse. The demons gasped and slid under my door, leaving me in peace.

It was three more days before I talked to Danny again. I should have stayed the hell away from him and never spoken to him.

Two weeks before the official opening day of practice, Danny bumped into me in the hall when I came out of the bathroom. I tried to make a run for it, but he stepped in front of me, blocking my escape route.

“Hey, princess.” I scowled at him, and he rolled his eyes. “I meant Justin. I need a favor.”

“Fuck you,” I grumbled and tried to shove past him to get to my room.

“Oh, come on, Justin, I thought we were past all the drama,” Danny said. “I know I’ve been a fucking prick, but it hasn’t been easy for me. I don’t know how to act around you.”

“Don’t act around me at all. Just leave me the fuck alone.”

He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say to you.”

“Nothing. You don’t have to say anything.”

“You’re a really good hockey player. Impressed the shit out of me. The guys haven’t stopped talking about you.”

“I don’t care. I only did it so you assholes would leave me the hell alone. What do you want, Danny?”

“I need a ride home after the rookie party tonight.”

I rolled my eyes. The infamous “welcome to the team” party meant the freshmen were going to have to do stupid things involving vast quantities of alcohol.

“I have plans,” I said quickly.

“You do not,” he said. “Eli told me you blew him off so you could sleep tonight.”

“Fuck, I really hate that you guys
talk
to each other
.
But since you are such good friends, he can pick you up.”