Butcher

Chapter 7

7

BUTCHER

Growing up with a father who was an NHL player, hockey was instilled in me from the time I was born. The outfit I wore home from the hospital was a Phoenix Coyotes onesie with the name Butcher on the back because that was who my dad played for at the time. It was the same for my younger brother and sister too. Dallas, my brother, had also followed in our father’s footsteps and was currently a left winger for the Florida Panthers. Paris, my sister, was an NCAA Division I field hockey player with the University of Virginia before she graduated and then became their assistant coach.

Basically, we could all handle sticks really well.

When I was eleven years old, my parents started sending me to hockey camp every summer. It was three weeks of non-stop hockey and I loved it. I got to be away from home and see my friends, who I only saw during those three weeks because we’d lived in different parts of the United States.

Every year, the camp felt like a world of its own, a place where all that mattered was the game. By the end of the three weeks, I was exhausted but eager to show off the new skills I learned to my dad, and I began counting down the days until the next summer, when I’d get to do it all over again.

When I was fifteen, I quickly realized my feelings for one of the boys at camp went beyond the standard teammate friendship. We shared a room, and I started catching glimpses of Robbie across the tiny room as he lay in his bed shirtless. My eyes would remain glued to his butt as he bent over to pick something up off the floor, and my cock reacted every time he came into the room with a towel around his waist after a shower.

The first summer I started to look at him differently, I tried to ignore the feelings running through me. Pretending they were teenage hormones and since I was at a camp with only boys, my body was just confused. It was also the year I got my first girlfriend.

But it was the following summer at camp when I realized it wasn’t confusion, rather I was attracted to both boys and girls.

By then, I was no longer dating the girl I’d been seeing and, like always, I was excited to see Robbie. Since we worked well together on the ice, the coaches always had me and him bunk together. I still checked him out at times, but I tried to keep my distance because I didn’t want to make things awkward between us and ruin our friendship.

One night, after everyone else had gone to bed, I needed some space to clear my head and to figure out what I was feeling. Eventually, I ended up at the rink. I thought I was alone, but even though I’d left him sleeping in his bed, Robbie was there too, sitting in the middle of the bleachers.

“Hey.” I walked over to him. “Thought you were sleeping?”

He looked up. “I heard you leave and tried to follow you, but I couldn’t find you.”

I blinked. “You tried to follow me?”

“Yeah. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I took a seat next to him.

“You’ve been distant lately, and it’s not like you to sneak out of the room.”

I took a deep breath, my heart pounding. “It’s just ... I’ve been trying to figure something out. About myself.”

Robbie’s gaze was intense, and for a moment, I felt like he could see right through me. “You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”

I nodded, and we sat in silence for a moment, but then I just blurted, “I’ve been feeling ... something. For a while now.” I looked across the rink, not wanting to meet his stare. “I think you’re really cute, and I know you’re probably straight, but I needed to tell you.”

“You think I’m cute?” he asked, and when I looked over at him, he was smiling.

I swallowed, meeting his eyes. “Yeah, I do. But it’s okay if you don’t?—”

Before I could finish, he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine. My eyes widened as it caught me completely off guard, but then he slipped his tongue into my mouth, so I closed my eyes and kissed him back.

When he pulled away, his eyes searched mine. “I’ve been trying to figure out my own feelings also,” he admitted quietly. “And maybe I think you’re cute too.”

Robbie’s confession left me stunned. As we sat together in the quiet rink, I felt a sense of excitement that I hadn’t known before.

“I’m glad you told me,” he said, looking out over the dimly lit ice. “I’ve been wanting to say something, but I wasn’t sure how you’d react.”

I smiled. “Well, I guess we’re both figuring things out together.”

“Yeah. Do you want to go back to our room and figure it out some more?” He smirked.

All my teenage hormones were on fire as I jumped to my feet and said, “Let’s go.”

That summer was amazing. We never had sex, but for the following two summers, we continued to figure things out .

We stayed in touch even after we aged out of camp and went off to college. I attended the University of Notre Dame for a year before I was drafted by the Calgary Flames. Robbie attended the University of Michigan, then was drafted by the Penguins during his junior year. He now played for the Seattle Kraken, after playing a few years with my brother in Florida. I saw Robbie twice a year when we faced his team, but we never talked about what happened at camp. He married a woman, had three kids, and he seemed happy. That was all that mattered.

The new situation with Kaylee and Sexton made me happy. I was never one for a relationship, but I wished I could pick up the phone and ask them both to hang out. Not necessarily to fuck—that was amazing too—but to be with each other.

Our time in LA was fun. It seemed as though Sexton was opening up more. When our cocks touched while Kaylee was on her knees, I thought he would pull back. But he didn’t and when our eyes locked, I felt as though I was somehow back at camp with Robbie as we both tried to come to terms with our attraction for one another.

That night in LA, instead of me fucking Kaylee, Sexton did while she sucked me off some more. What I really wanted to do was fuck him while he was inside her, but baby steps. Or maybe not at all. Maybe I was trying to manifest something that wasn’t there. But my mind kept jumping back to the fact he didn’t pull away when our dicks bumped heads.

We left Kaylee in her room that night a few weeks ago. Sexton wasn’t on our flight home, but I took Kaylee to her apartment and hadn’t seen her since. I hadn’t seen Sexton either since the season was over.

Driving into the parking garage of my building, I pulled into my assigned space and noticed a moving truck was parked near the service elevators. I hadn’t heard from Sexton about him moving in already, but I knew from Coop that his offer had been approved.

Getting out of my Escalade, I walked into the building and to the main elevators. When I got up to my floor, sure enough, I had a new neighbor. I walked over and knocked on the open door. Sexton turned from where he was standing across the open space, looking out at the city below.

“Hey, neighbor.” I beamed.

“Hey.” He started walking toward me.

“I didn’t know you were moving in already.”

“Just got the keys last night.”

“Damn, you should have told me. I would have offered to help.”

“Nah.” He waved me off. “I hired a company to do all that.”

“Then the least I can do is offer you a beer.”

“A beer sounds good.” He smiled.

Sexton followed me to my apartment after telling one of the movers he’d be next door if they needed him. Once inside, I beelined for the kitchen and grabbed us each a bottle of Sam Adams. I twisted off the tops and led him to my couch. We sat, and I turned on ESPN for background noise.

“So,” we both said at the same time and then chuckled.

“You go first,” he insisted.

I smiled. “All right. I was just going to ask how things were since it’s been a few weeks since LA.”

“Good, just been packing. You?”

“Been taking it easy. Thinking about going to visit my folks.”

“They live in Texas, right?” He took a sip of beer.

“Yeah, just outside of Dallas.” When my father retired from the NHL, he had been playing with the Stars and my parents decided to stay since that was where my father was originally from. Plus, they named their kids after towns in Texas, so it was only fitting.

“That’s awesome. Do you go every summer?”

“I try to.” I took a pull of my beer. “What about you? Do you go home to Tennessee?”

Sexton shook his head. “I try not to put myself through that if we aren’t playing in Nashville.”

“What do you mean?”

He took a deep breath. “Well, since you tease me about being the son of a preacher, I’m sure you can guess.”

“It’s that bad?”

“My father would never speak to me again if he found out about what happened in Vegas and LA.”

“Because of me or because you were with multiple people?” I questioned.

“Probably both.” He rolled his eyes and looked at the TV.

“But you enjoyed it?” I pressed.

Sexton glanced over at me for a second before looking back at the baseball highlights the sportscaster was talking about. “More than I thought I would.”

I arched a brow and asked again, “Because of me, or because you were with multiple people?”

I watched his Adam’s apple slide up and down as he swallowed. He blew out a breath and then said the same thing, “Probably both.”

“Probably?” I grinned.

He looked at me again. “Are you going to make me say it?”

“I want you to be honest with yourself.”

He sighed. “The truth is, I’ve enjoyed what we’ve done, but I’m also confused as fuck.”

“Is this about our dicks rubbing together?” I continued to grin.

He didn’t say anything for a few moments. “Yeah.”

“Because it felt good?”

Sexton downed his beer before replying, “Yeah.”

I set my bottle on the coffee table and turned to face my teammate. “You know, I was confused once too.”

His eyes widened. “You were?”

“When I was fifteen, I got hard when my roommate at hockey camp would pretty much do anything. He would just lay in his bed shirtless and I wanted to stroke myself as I stared at him. I had no idea why because it hadn’t been like that before and I’d known him for three years at that point.”

“So, how did you figure it out?”

“Well, the next summer I was really struggling. I’d dated a chick during the school year and that was all good, but every morning during the first week at camp, I woke up with cum in my boxers. It got to the point I was scared to sleep.”

“Really?”

“I was trying to come to terms with how my body and interests were changing. I struggled to fall asleep and one night, I got out of bed and went for a walk. I had no idea he tried to follow me until I ran into him at the rink. No one was around because everyone else was sleeping and as we sat there and talked, I admitted to him I thought he was cute. He said he thought I was too and then he kissed me.”

“Wow,” Sexton breathed.

“That night, we went back to our bunk and got each other off. It was amazing, and I knew from that moment on that I liked men and women because not only did I like his hands and mouth on me, but the thought of tits made me hard too.”

“I see.” He looked at the TV again, but if I had to guess, he wasn’t watching. He was in his head, trying to process my story.

“Can I ask you something?”

He turned his head back to me. “Sure.”

“If what we’ve done already has felt good, then why stop yourself from going further?”

Sexton blinked. “I … I don’t know.”

I scooted closer to him. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I’m not ashamed.”

“Then what’s holding you back?” I grazed my index finger across the top of his hand. He didn’t pull away.

“I’m not attracted to other guys.”

“But you’re attracted to me?” I grinned.

He looked down at where my finger was still sliding across his skin. “I think so.”

“Then can I kiss you?”

Sexton’s green eyes jumped up to mine. “Kiss me?”

I smirked. “Well, what I want to do is fuck you, but figured kissing should be the first step.”

“What about Kaylee?”

“This isn’t about her.”

“But we haven’t done anything without her.”

“Would you rather have her here for your first time?”

“You mean fucking me?” He snorted.

“Or you can fuck me. Whatever you’re comfortable with.” I winked.

He scrubbed his hands down his face. “This is all so new.”

“And exciting, right?”

“Is it?” he asked.

“I can blow your mind with the things I can do to you.”

“Aw fuck,” he whispered.

“What?” I grinned.

“You saying that made my dick respond.”

“See? He wants me.” I moved closer to him and cupped his cheek, refraining from cupping his bulge like I really wanted to do. Leaning in slowly, my lips brushed his. “It’s okay to want me too.”

When our lips finally touched, it was gentle, tentative. I felt his shaky breath against my mouth before I deepened the kiss just slightly, enough to show him how much I wanted this.

How much I wanted him.

Sexton started to kiss me back. His fingers threaded into my hair, deepening the kiss even more. I could taste the beer on his tongue as ours moved together.

When we finally pulled away, our foreheads rested against each other. I slowly opened my eyes and smiled. “How was that?”

He smiled back. “It felt … good.”

There was a knock on the door and we both turned to it. “Shit,” he exhaled and stood.

I strode to the door and opened it. It was his movers.

One guy holding a clipboard peered around me and said, “We’re all done, sir.”

“Thank you.” Sexton slipped into the hall and grabbed the clipboard from the guy. He signed his name. “Have a good rest of your day.”

“Thank you,” the one guy said. He turned to walk away, but then stopped. “Could I get both of your autographs for my son? He’s a huge fan.”

“Of course,” I responded as Sexton said, “Absolutely.”

The guy pulled a Bruins cap from his back pocket and then handed it to us with a Sharpie. He was clearly prepared. I signed first and then Sexton. The other movers just smiled, and the guys left.

Once they were in the elevator and it was descending, Sexton turned to me. “I still want Kaylee too.”

“Me too.”

“Then give me her number and I’ll text her to come over. We can christen my new place.”