Page 96 of Two for Charging

(From “Top Ten D-men of the 25/26 Season (So Far),” posted on NHL.com on 11/15/2025)

The back of Chris’s neck was cold. His fingertips, clenched tight around Luca’s waist, were going numb, and his toes curled up in his dress shoes to preserve some body heat.

He did not care the slightest bit. He had Luca here, in his arms, kissing him desperately, and Luca loved him. Luca loved him so much it made him cry, which was terrible, but Chris had fixed it, and now it was wonderful.

He kissed down the side of Luca’s neck in the way he remembered doing in Tom and Jax’s guest room right before Luca begged him for more, and Luca sighed. Chris wondered what else he could do to make Luca sigh.

“We should go somewhere else,” Luca said, all breathless and turned on.

Chris loved to make him sound like that.

“Unless you want to see the rest of the garden,” Luca added, pulling out of reach of Chris’s mouth. “We can, if you—”

“Are you kidding?” Chris demanded. “I want to have sex. Like, ten minutes ago, but I guess whenever we can get to the hotel is okay too.”

“Are you sure?” Luca asked. “I don’t want to push you. It’s all right if you are not interested in sex—”

“I wasn’t until Halloween, but you’ve been driving me crazy ever since.”

“I have?”

Chris licked his lips. “You bought me a smoothie, and then you sat in the kitchen with your lips wrapped around the straw, and I thought I was going to pass out, I got hard so fast.”

“You did?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how hot you are.”

Luca reached up to trace the line of Chris’s jaw with icy-cold fingertips. “I have wanted you for so long,” he said. “Since the day we met. I suppose I got used to wanting you and not being wanted in return.”

Shock rendered Chris momentarily speechless. He caught Luca’s hand as it drifted past his jawline and held those cold fingers between his own to warm them up. “Since the day we met?”

“Yes. Perhaps not always as much as I do now, but it’s always…I’ve always…”

Chris wrenched him close in a tight hug. “I’m so sorry.”

Luca laughed into his chest. “What for? If you love me too—”

“You’ve felt this way for a year!” Chris couldn’t even imagine. “I thought you didn’t love me back for a day, and I was miserable. It must have been awful.”

Tilting his chin up to look at Chris, Luca said, “It did hurt sometimes, yes, but I was never sorry for it. Knowing you, being your friend, loving you, it’s made me better as a person. I like who I am when I am around you.”

How could Chris not kiss him then?

He got lost in it, Luca’s body pressed against his, their mouths fused together. Luca clung to him, the little sounds he made when Chris kissed him just right lost between their mouths. Chris wanted to hear every sound he could make. He wanted everything with Luca. He wanted Luca.

Slipping his thigh between Luca’s legs, he pressed closer. He was taller, so much so his hips were in line with Luca’s belly button, but he could still feel the hard line of Luca’s erection pulsing against his thigh. His own cock thickened in answer. Leonora had understated her mastery at her craft; any other pair of pants he’d owned would have strangled his cock into submission. In these, he had room to breathe and room to let himself feel how excited being close to Luca made him.

“We need to go,” Luca said unsteadily between kisses.

“Mm-hm,” Chris said. Luca was right. This would be much more comfortable somewhere warm and indoors, where they could lie down together, and he could get at Luca’s neck without straining his own. But he needed another taste first.

Luca pinched his side—hard.

“Ow!”

“We need to go now, before we get photographed or arrested for public indecency.”

Oh. Right. People didn’t do this outdoors for reasons.