Page 85 of Goalie Interference
“Let’s be fair, we’re not the only team standing between you and the cup.” I smirk at him. The playoffs are long and hard. An arduous task. “You still have to make it to the playoffs—”
“We are a lock.”
“Okay, that’s true,” I say. Because it is. They’re still the number one team in the west. “But there is plenty that can happen between now and the finals that has nothing to do with us. You could go on a skid. Winnipeg could go on a heater. Someone could get—”
He practically lunges across the counter and places his first finger over my lips. “Stop.”
“You’re right.” Shutouts and injuries. The two topics no one in hockey is allowed to talk about until after they happen.
“I get it,” he says. “There is too much on the line.”
“Exactly. And unlike my brother and Ryan, we don’t play on the same team.”
“And unlike Gavin and Connor,” he says, “there is no way we ever could.”
“Not if we want to keep our jobs as starting goalies.” I take a deep sip of my drink, then reach across the counter to grab his hands. “I heard about your contract. I am so happy for you. It’s exactly what you wanted. And I’d be an asshole if I asked you to give it up.”
“Is too late anyway,” he says. “I already signed it.”
“Which I would have done as well. You deserve it.”
He looks up at the ceiling and takes a deep breath. When he looks back at me, his expression is resigned, and there’s sadness in his eyes. I hate it. I hate it more than I’ve ever hated anything.
“When we first talked, that contract was all I wanted. My entire career, it is all I wanted…”
He pauses and looks up, like he’s searching above him for what he wants to say. Nikolai has always been a man of few words. Unlike me, he’s able to get his point across efficiently. But that doesn’t seem to be the case right now.
He takes a deep breath, then continues, “I have never fit in. I have never had team where I felt accepted. Not until Mules. They are my home. My family.”
“I know,” I say, because I do know. “The Blizzards are my family too.”
“But now there is something missing. Something that Mules cannot give me.” He looks right at me with intensity.
My eyes begin to burn. “The Blizzards can’t give me what I want either.”
He walks to my side of the kitchen island and brings one of his hands to my face. He guides me to look at him. “And what is it that you want?”
“You. I want you.”
Before I can even register that those words came out of my mouth, he’s grabbing me with both hands. He kisses me hard. Harder than we’ve ever kissed before. I should stop this. I should pull away. But dammit, that’s the last thing I want to do. I want this. I want him. I want to be like everyone else in my life and have a partner to go through life’s mostly ups and occasional downs with. And I want it to be him who experiences those things with me.
When he breaks our kiss to take a breath, he presses our foreheads together. “Talking was dumb idea. This is much better.”
“Much better indeed,” I say, winding my arms around him as I kiss him again.
We can talk later. Because right now, him and I together is making a whole lot more sense.
Nikolai
Usually, I love listening to Ander speak. I can sit with him and let him talk my ear off for hours. His rambles. His need to over-explain. The way he never seems to know when he’s said too much. All of it. I love it.
Except when what he’s saying goes against everything we both know we want. Each other.
So yeah. Right now, I’m happy to shut him up with an intense kiss. My actions have always spoken louder than my words anyway.
With our lips locked, I pull him off his seat and start to walk him towards my bedroom. I pull our lips mere millimeters apart before we cross through the threshold. “Is this alright?”
“Fuck, yeah, it’s alright!” he says, flipping our position. With urgency, he pushes me into my bedroom and keeps our momentum going until I feel the backs of my knees hit my bed.
