Page 103 of Two for Roughing

As if drawn by magnetism, Kilian’s eyes found Damir, easily spotted in a crowd thanks to his height. He loitered by the bar, still sipping his mineral water with lemon, watching Rocky strike out with a long-suffering look. The big softie was probably about to go and wingman for Rocky, something he had definitely done before judging by the way Rocky hero-worshiped him.

Kilian forced himself to look away.

A group of girls danced barely a foot away, shuffling closer every time the crowd pushed them. One of them, a brunette with a button nose and an intricate, braided hairstyle, kept eyeing Fulls.

He continued attempting to outdo the bus driver bit with his own much less funny chef-pulling-ingredients-from-a-cupboard bit. Kilian elbowed him.

Fulls cocked his head.

“The girl on your left,” Kilian whispered-roared into his ear.

Fulls’s eyes went wide. “What do I do?”

Wow. Between this and Rocky, it was a wonder the human species continued to procreate. Kilian turned to the girl.

“Hey, my buddy wants to dance with you. You wanna?”

She beamed and stepped right up to Fulls, who managed to open his arms just in time to let her wrap hers around his neck.

At least it didn’t take long for him to seal the deal and move on to making out. He needed technique pointers on that as well. Kilian should not be seeing so much of his tongue from the outside.

Matheson watched on enviously.

“Bet one of her friends would dance with you,” Kilian told him.

“You think?”

“Sure.”

Though kind of scrawny, Matheson wasn’t bad-looking. Kilian’s body shape had looked similar last year. He’d begun to fill out, though; the tighter fit of his suit jacket proved it. And it wasn’t down to Damir feeding him and making it impossible to skip his weight routine since they carpooled, damn it. There had to be a less infuriating answer.

Matheson glanced at the group of girls. “What about you, bro?”

Kilian clapped him on the shoulder. “Not tonight, dude.”

It would be a bad idea to hook up in front of the team. So far, they’d been chill with him being gay, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that could change any second. Being queer allowed him to give them funny search terms for porn sites and quippy one-liners about how repulsive they all were. If they knew how he acted with guys, submissive and slutty, or pieced together how similar in build to hockey players the guys he hooked up with were, he doubted it would stay as chill as it had been so far. It would be too real.

Adding to which, he had yet to find a guy who could live up to Damir, and settling for less when Damir was right there…no, not yet.

He pushed Matheson none too gently toward the girls and watched as he sidled in awkwardly next to a dark-haired girl way out of his league. Hopefully she was into athletes.

Kilian saluted him behind the girl’s back and made his way over to the bar.

He had finally gotten the bartender’s attention, intending on getting a water or some soda to hydrate, when Damir said, “Are you sure you should keep going?” His voice rolled across Kilian’s ear, low and perfect, and Kilian wanted him so badly, but not like this. Not with Damir acting as though he was Kilian’s keeper, not with Kilian always feeling inferior.

He rounded on Damir, fully prepared to inform him that he’d had only two drinks and could do what he wanted anyway, thanks ever so, when Ketchup and Lissy appeared out of nowhere.

“Howie!” Ketchup threw his arm around Kilian’s neck. “There you are! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

“Alas,” Lissy chimed in, “this establishment frowns on champagne showers. But, if you are willing to accompany us to the gentlemen’s boudoir, you can—”

“No,” Damir said harshly.

Kilian whirled on him. “Enough! I know you think I’m incompetent, but I don’t need you telling me what to do!”

Damir’s eyebrows drew down. “So you want to go snort coke in the bathroom? Great decision, Kilian.”

Kilian blinked. Snort what in the where now? He thought they’d sweet-talked a bartender into giving them a champagne bottle so long as they didn’t open it on the floor. Of course, the real answer was something much more adult and illicit, and embarrassment at being too naïve to even think of it stoked Kilian’s anger further.