Page 20 of Falling for the Felid
The whining sound I make would be embarrassing, but I’m pretty much maxed out for the night already.
“Okay, we can handle this,” Eoin says, all business. “Felix, you can’t stay like this all night.” He pointedly doesn’t look at my crotch, but we know what’s happening down there. “What would you usually do in this situation?”
“Excuse myself andhandleit,” I reply, deliberately turning his own word choice back on him. “The problem with that is the twenty thousand people here right now.” Privacy is at a premium at an arena on game night.
“What are the chances we can find you an empty bathroom?” Dáithí muses.
“Not good enough for me to risk being arrested.”
“Who’s being arrested?” the king asks, and I wonder why the ground won’t open up and swallow me whole.
“Nobody,” Dáithí says brightly. “We were talking about the logistics of streaking through the arena.”
What? I shoot him an incredulous look, and he gives a little shrug.
Fortunately, Jared laughs. “On our first hockey date, when Raðulfr was trying to distract me from the stuff happening on the ice, he pretended he saw a streaker.”
“Really?” Dáithí and I ask at the same time.
“Wasn’t that one of my games?” I add, desperate to keep my attention away from the tall, dark-haired, downright beautiful elf who’s just joined us. I can actuallyfeelhis presence under my skin. How the fuck am I going to get through this?
Jared grins. “Yeah. You went after one of your teammates, and I remember wondering why you weren’t getting a penalty. Actually, I thought you should be suspended.” He shakes his head, chuckling, but he’s the only one. Eoin is looking at Ari, and the awkwardness that settles over the group is palpable.
Thankfully, it’s also enough to make my erection lose some of its vigor. Turns out it’s not easy to lust after a guy who thinks I’m deliberately, needlessly violent and reckless. Iamthose things, but it’s not deliberate. I actually can’t wait until the hormonal surges are over.
“Shall we go in?” the king suggests, and I could seriously kiss him.
“Good idea,” Eoin agrees. “We’ll need time to get some food. Ari, you’ve got the tickets, don’t you?”
“Yes,” he says, and I grit my teeth as the sound of his voice shivers down my spine. This isfine. This intense sexual attraction is going to pass. Next time I see him, he’ll be back in his business clothes, and I can put this whole night and his low-key sexy rocker look behind me. If I’m really lucky, my puberty will end soon and moments like this won’t be a problem anymore.
Not more than they are for everyone else, anyway. At least lust won’t turn me into a wreck in public.
I stick to the back of the group as we head into the arena—the same one the Warhammers play in. It’s a lot more crowdedtonight than it is when we play, since there are many more humans than community members, and it’s early enough in the season that the fans are still hopeful and enthusiastic, even though the local team is… not good. Something we have in common.
I love the vibe of a packed house, though, and I make a point of trying to attend as many games as I can. The human league is far more developed and skilled than ours, and watching them play is a learning experience. That’s what I tell myself to justify the cost of the tickets, anyway.
We stop to get food—though not anywhere near as much as I’ll need to satisfy my appetite—and then go find our seats. Which are fucking phenomenal.
“We should come to games together more often,” I mutter, staring out at center ice from a dozen rows behind the penalty box. There’s something to be said for sitting right by the boards, where you can see every drop of sweat and hear every insult, but I get enough of that when I’m actually playing. These seats give me a perfect view of the ice without having to climb to nosebleed heights.
“Totally,” Jared says. Oops. I didn’t really mean for that to be heard. “We could make it a regular thing.”
I smile at him, still disbelieving that I’ve known him less than a year. I guess friendship doesn’t need a timeline. “That would be fun.”
“Jared,” the king says, and Jared moves down the row to sit beside his boyfriend. Everyone else is settled already, so I move to the only empty—oh, motherfucker.
Dáithí winces apologetically when I glare at him. His tiny shrug conveys helplessness and sympathy at the same time, but does absolutely nothing to solve my problem.
Bracing myself, I sink into the seat next to Ari and arrange my tacos and fries on my lap, studiously avoiding looking athim. Walking through the concourse and keeping away from him helped to settle my arousal, so hopefully I’ll be able to get through the game if I ignore him. While somehow also teaching him about hockey.
He leans across Dáithí to say something to Eoin, and when he straightens, the displacement of air carries his scent to me so strongly that I can’t ignore it. My eyes drift closed as I soak it in. I’m a felid shifter, so my propensity to absorb smells is already strong, but I’m great at blocking out the awareness of those smells. I have to be, with as much time as I spend in the dressing room with sweaty hockey players and their gear. But there’s no blocking this out. My cat flexes inside me, wanting out, wanting to roll around in that delicious scent and?—
“Are you okay?”
My eyelids snap open, and I reluctantly look over at Ari. His brows are drawn together as he studies me.
“Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?”
