Page 52 of Game Misconduct

“No, definitely not. You might see him more, actually. He’d probably do a lot of games along the eastern seaboard.”

Tanner nodded and pretended he knew what that was. “Cool.”

The ceremony to open the tournament started a few moments later and Tanner wiggled happily in his seat as he listened to the speeches, national anthems, and finally,finallythe puck dropped.

Tanner had watched quite a bit of Leif’s hockey over the years. He’d seen him play from the bench when they were both on the Belmont Furies. He’d also watched tons of video review when he played with the Concord Night Hawks and Leif played for New York’s AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Missiles. He’d seen a ton of game tape since he’d been up with the Boston Harriers too and listened to their video coach break down all of Leif’s plays.

But watching him play live in a game from puck drop to final goal horn, it was even more electric.

Tanner’s mouth went dry watching Leif deke around players, split the D and go barreling toward the goal. He couldn’t take his eyes off Leif whenever he was on the ice.

Tanner was fast, but Leif was faster. Smoother. His stickhandling made Tanner flush and unzip his coat. His goal scoring left Tanner breathless.

Tanner might hate him when they were opponents, but he was a fucking incredible player to watch.

After the preliminary round of games, the tournament moved from Toronto to Chicago.

At the new hotel, Leif was on a different floor from Tanner. It required a little more careful sneaking around so they didn’t get caught.

Despite that, the second half of the tournament passed in a blur of games, sex, practice, hanging out with his team, sex, practice, game … and Leif felt weirdly buoyant through it all.

He told himself it was just the hockey and the thrill of playing in this international tournament but every time he was in bed with Tanner and Tanner made him laugh, Leif got this oddly dizzy feeling.

His teammates kept chirping him about the marks Tanner left on him and, mortifyingly, hisfatherhad been there in the locker room one of the times they’d been ribbing him.

He didn’t really feel nervous about going up against Tanner until it hit him that the Nordic Team would play Team USA in the semifinals. Due to the round-robin format of the tournament, it would be the first time they went up against each other.

The night before the semifinal, when Leif and Tanner were sprawled on Leif’s bed, sweaty and all tangled up together, Tanner brought up tomorrow’s game. “It’s gonna be sick, no?”

Leif muttered his agreement against Tanner’s throat.

“It’ll be weird going back to hating each other on the ice, huh?”

Leif blinked and pulled away. “What?”

“Well, I mean, going back to being rivals, yeah?” Tanner rose up on one elbow.

His hair was a fucking mess. All sweaty and tangled from Leif’s hands earlier.

Leif shivered at the memory of Tanner’s mouth on his cock but then he thought about what Tanner had said and shivered again. Only this time, it wasn’t pleasant.

“Yeah, I suppose so,” Leif said slowly.

Tanner smirked, reaching for the covers and pulling them up over their bodies. “What? Did you forget?”

“No, of course not,” Leif said. Only, maybe he’d been deliberately trying not to think too hard about it.

Tanner frowned. “You’re being weird. Why are you being weird about this?”

“I’m not being weird!” Leif protested, shifting so he leaned against the headboard. He wasn’t touching Tanner anymore, which made it easier to think.

“Sure, Princess,” Tanner scoffed.

“I just …” Leif ran a hand through his hair. “This isn’t something I’ve ever done.”

“What? Fucked a rival player?”

“Yeah.”