Level Hands: Bend or Break, Book 4 (22 page)

Rafi meant for it to last, wanted to draw it out as long as he possibly could. But hardly any time at all passed before Denny’s orgasm broke past his lips, his shout loud enough to wake anyone who hadn’t totally passed out. The spatter of his come hitting the sink was audible too, and Rafi groaned behind him, rocking with the motion of Denny’s thrusting into his hand. His balls pulsed, and pleasure shot down his spine and out his dick as he squeezed Denny tight with an arm around his chest.

The sound of panting breaths filled the tiny room as Rafi tried to pull himself together. After a minute, Denny reached back with a fumbling hand.

“Already done,” Rafi muttered against Denny’s neck, pushing his hips forward until wet fabric pressed against Denny’s ass. He looked up to find Denny staring at him in the shadowed mirror. “Fuck, you’re hot. Those noises.”

Denny’s smile was a ghost in the dark. “Jerking me off made you come in your pants?”

Rafi ducked his head again and nodded on Denny’s shoulder, embarrassed.

“That’s awesome.” Denny turned in his grasp and lifted his face, pulling Rafi’s mouth down to his with a sigh, kissing him slow and deep until Rafi didn’t even care that his pants were stuck to him with cooling come. The smell of sex, of their sex, filled the tiny room.

He pulled Denny’s pants up while they kissed, then stood back as Denny turned on the water and rinsed out the sink, which was a nice thing to remember to do.

They left the bathroom and walked back toward the stairs and the entrance to the living room, where they both stopped without saying a word. Rafi turned to check on the fire, which was burning lower than ever, the red coals a banked glow across the way. He turned back to say good night before he said something really stupid, and Denny was on him. He pushed Rafi up against the wall next to the door to the family room and kissed him until they both started getting too interested again.

“Come upstairs,” Denny whispered against his mouth. Rafi didn’t say anything. Denny kissed him again. “You can tell them it got too cold to sleep down here.”

Rafi hesitated, but the idea of returning alone to the couch in front of a dying fire had no power in the face of the chance to curl up in a bed with Denny. Maybe some talking would need to come into the picture, to clarify what they were going to do in the morning—go with the “too cold” story, or let everyone know the truth?—but that could wait until the morning.

Everything that wasn’t sliding under a heavy quilt with Denny and scooting up behind him, knees tucked under his knees, chest against his back, could wait until morning.

Denny took his hand and led him up the stairs.

Chapter Ten

Rafi figured he slept through half of the text messages that blew up his phone at dawn the next morning before the buzzing finally penetrated his dreams. He thumbed his passcode, surprised to see texts from Coach and his team captain.

The adrenaline rush at reading their messages had him surging out of bed like he was on springs. When his phone rang in his hand, he answered it before the second note of the ringtone, flinching at the name on the screen. By the time he hung up, he wished he could get in Denny’s car and head back to campus right then and there. But he was too far away, way too far away, for that to be remotely useful. All he could do was yell at the guy who’d gotten him into this trouble.

“Dude! What the fuck?” He yanked the covers off Denny in one fell swoop, leaving him clutching vainly at the trailing edge of the quilt and shoving his head deeper under the pillow.

“Go ’way.”

When that didn’t work, he smacked Denny on the ass, which definitely woke him up. Woke Rafi up too, with a faint burning on his hand that appealed in a surprisingly interesting way.

“Ow!”

Awake now, Denny sat up and whipped his pillow at Rafi, who stood at the edge of the bed, glowering at him. He couldn’t help wondering if his hand was outlined in pink on Denny’s butt. That was distracting. Then he remembered the texts, and smacked Denny’s ass again.

“What is your problem?” Denny scowled at him, rubbing his ass.

“I thought you told me you cleared this with Coach Lawson!” Rafi shouted, hands on his hips, eyebrows low.

Denny flopped back down on the mattress. “Jesus, what time is it?”

“What time does practice start?”

“Six? Why the hell are you up?”

“Because my phone just blew up with texts from Ted, and then Coach called me, ripping me a new one for not being at practice.”

“Why? You told her you weren’t gonna be there, right?” Denny scrunched up his face. He fumbled for his own phone on the bedside table, flipping it over to check it. “Thank God. Last thing I need is Coach on a tear when I’m hoping to get in the varsity eight in the spring.”

Rafi held on to his temper with a thin thread. “Why the hell would I tell her, Denny? You told me you were going to let her know we were taking a road trip this weekend.”

“Will you stop yelling, please? People are still sleeping here.”

“I don’t give a flying fuck who’s sleeping. I’m pissed as hell at you right now.” And he was standing there wearing only a T-shirt, feeling more and more ridiculous. He’d stripped his pants off before getting into bed hours ago, leaving them on the floor in a pile before crawling into bed with Denny.

“Hey. Whoa. Wait up. I told Coach we were going, yes. But you still have to talk to her yourself, dude.” Denny sat up again, pulling at the quilt until he had it over his lap. “You were there for that whole ‘personal responsibility and communication’ lecture too, man.”

The one that had taken place on day two of the first week of practice. Lawson had made it clear all communication was to come directly to her, not via gossip from their friends. In a life-or-death scenario, getting a message to Ted, the team captain, was an acceptable alternative.

Road trips were definitely not life or death. And Rafi hadn’t told Ted anything anyway.

Damn it. He knew what the rules were. He’d been so caught up in the excitement and anxiety about this weekend away that he’d let that all slip from his mind. It was his own fault, but the embarrassment of fucking up in front of the one person he most wanted to impress burned so hot that he needed it to be Denny’s fault. Not his.

Rafi had opened his mouth to say something he already knew he’d regret, when they were interrupted.

“Dudes.” The harsh whisper rattled from the sunken chest of Austin, who clung to the frame of the door with desperate fingers. The bleeding red eyeballs and raspy voice ranked high on the hangover of death scale. “Seriously. Stop yelling.”

Rafi whirled and took a step toward him. Austin flinched like someone had swung a baseball bat at him. “Did you tell Coach you were going away for the weekend?”

“Course. What’m I? Crazy?” Austin dragged his arm up and bent his elbow across his eyes. “Now shut up, willya? Christ, I could’ve slept with Bob. Woulda been quieter.”

“Right?” Denny groused, which might have been enough to get Rafi going again, but Austin dropped his arm.

“Dude.” He dropped his gaze to Rafi’s crotch. “Nice dick.”

Rafi threw himself like a rocket onto the bed, pulling at the quilt covering Denny as the two jackasses laughed and he tried to cover up. Not like Austin hadn’t seen him naked a hundred times in the locker room already, but that was different. He was supposed to be naked in a locker room. He was not supposed to be naked, or half-naked even, in Denny’s bedroom in Vermont. God, he hated making a fool of himself.

“You get lost on your way back from the bathroom or something?” Austin’s voice bubbled with glee. Rafi knew this teasing wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.

He shoved his face in the pillow. It was worth a shot. “It was too cold downstairs so I came up here to sleep.”

The loud bark of laughter told him what a wasted effort that was. “Sure it did. Excellent plan. Conserve body heat. Snuggle with a buddy.”

He stuck his hand up blindly, giving that whole quadrant of the room the finger.

“Just keep it off the Richter scale when you come, okay? Some of us are trying to die in peace here.”

Austin shuffled away down the hall, muttering curses under his breath. Rafi felt something nudge his hip through the quilt. He ignored it. Nudge. Nudge, nudge.

“Leave me alone. I’m still mad at you.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t remind you to call Lawson.” That was Denny being hella generous, because they both knew it was Rafi who had fucked up. But that was Denny all over, willing to take responsibility for helping Rafi out at every turn.

Time to admit it.

He rolled over, pulling his pillow down to hug between his arms and rest his cheek against. “Nah. That was my fuck-up.”

“I’m happy to help with the stress reduction,” Denny murmured, sliding closer on the mattress.

Rafi cleared his throat. Now that he knew Austin was awake, and no doubt listening for sex noises… “I don’t think I can. Not now that people are awake.”

“You sure?” Denny’s eyelids had lowered to half-mast in something that was probably supposed to look sexy, but mostly made Rafi want to ruffle his hair.

“Yeah. Later?”

“Hell yeah. Unless…” Denny’s voice trailed off as he stared past Rafi’s shoulder. A broad smile spilled over his face. “How do you feel about hiking?”

“Walking up hills? Not good.”

“Let me rephrase. How do you feel about the two of us heading out for a walk in the woods? To a remote spot, with no people around. And a blanket.”

“It isn’t too cold?”

Denny’s grin was everything. “Snuggle with a buddy, right?”

Rafi’s morning hard-on, which had vanished at the sound of Coach Lawson’s voice, returned to cast a vote in favor of this idea. “I feel very positive about that proposal.”

Denny jumped out of bed, excitement clearly firing on all pistons. He scooped Rafi’s crusty sleep pants off the floor and tossed them at him. “Go get dressed. Showered. Whatever. And meet me outside in twenty minutes.”

Rafi stared at him from the bed. Twenty minutes? “Man, it’s really early.” Was it even nine o’clock yet? Maybe. Coach had called him after practice had ended.

“Alone time. A blanket.” Denny spoke firmly.

“Moving now.”

As he left the room and headed back downstairs to where he’d left his bag last night, Rafi could have sworn he heard Denny chirp happily behind him.

“Getting spanked awake might be my new favorite way to start the day.”

Rafi was all the way awake by the time they loaded up backpacks for their hike. The other three were up and opting to spend the day on the couch, binge watching
Top Gear
, which seemed like a dumbass thing to do when they’d driven all the way here. What was the point of road tripping if they were only going to sprawl on the couches in their underwear and watch TV like they would have back in the suite?

Okay, Vinnie wouldn’t have sprawled in his underwear back home. In fact, the sight of Vinnie in boxers and a T-shirt had momentarily stunned Rafi that morning when his suitemate stumbled into the kitchen, searching for coffee for what looked like the world’s worst hangover.

When Vinnie let his hair down, he let it down hard.

Sobriety and pants both went out the window, apparently.

When Rafi found Vinnie’s sweats on the front lawn as he and Denny headed out, he learned that a night with a higher-than-a-kite Austin meant the pants-out-the-window thing was literal. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who’d gotten up to shenanigans last night.

“Which way? And why aren’t we driving?” he asked, looking at the car with longing as Denny headed down the driveway on foot.

“There’s nowhere to park a car where I’m taking you. It’s a tiny trailhead off the side of the road. Only locals know it, and you have to walk in.”

The walk to the trailhead wasn’t as bad as he feared. Hills, yes, but mostly mellow ones. At least until they finally stepped off the side of the road and started hiking up the dirt trail that Denny had spotted from the verge. When he’d pointed to it, Rafi had barely been able to pick out the dent in the tree line at the side of the road.

A couple of months of Massachusetts living had him used to walking up and down hills in a way he’d feared would never happen during those first embarrassingly painful weeks at Carlisle. Rafi wasn’t confident he’d be up to the trail, though. At least, not until Denny assured him even old people hiked this route.

Old people who’d spent their lives hiking Everest, probably. But still.

Twenty minutes in, his thighs were burning. Ten minutes after that, he had to call ahead to Denny, who was loping up the trail as if it were prairie flatland, and ask him to wait up.

Even after he’d caught up, it pained him to have to ask for a quick break.

“Easy, killer.” Denny’s hand on his wrist pulled the water bottle away from Rafi’s mouth as he chugged it. “You seriously don’t want stomach cramps on a hike.”

“Tell me the truth. Is this hard for you at all?” Rafi asked, trying not to be a shit about how much it bothered him not to be able to keep up with Denny.

“Uh, sure.” But his voice lifted like he wasn’t sure of the answer, and Rafi didn’t believe him. Denny’s cheeks, already pink with exertion, flushed further. “Okay, it’s not hard, but I can feel it in my legs, you know what I mean?”

Rafi nodded and waved at him to keep going up the trail. Sure. He knew what Denny meant. That’s how Rafi—who was fit as hell, damn it, so why was this so hard?—felt when he ran or rowed or did almost any other physical activity except walking up a freaking hill.

In short order, though, Denny was twenty yards ahead of him again, pausing from time to time to look behind him and make sure he hadn’t lost his straggler.

Concentrating on walking with an even pace and controlling his breathing—not to mention avoiding the tree roots that snaked across the dirt path at random points to trip him up—Rafi didn’t notice at first that Denny had come back down to him.

“So, you’ve never gone hiking before, huh?”

“How can you tell?” he muttered.

“Because you don’t know how to walk uphill.”

“What the fuck?” Seriously. This was bullshit. There was some secret kind of uphill walking trick? “I don’t believe you.”

Why everyone in America hadn’t ended up moving to the prairie, where you could walk without trying, was a fucking mystery to Rafi. But he was breathing too hard to bitch out loud, so he kept that gem of an historical analysis to himself.

“Listen, you wouldn’t let me go for a bike ride with you that first week because you, what? Didn’t want to let me see you struggle?” Denny asked, nailing it in one. Rafi ducked his head and mumbled something about being embarrassed. “Yeah, well, I probably could have shown you some stuff. But I know, I know. You can’t stand needing my help.”

“Sorry. It’s a habit.”

“Well, break it, dude. Because I can actually
help
you. So let me teach you how to walk uphill, okay?”

After all that, it would have taken a dumber man than Rafi not to answer with an, “Okay. I’m listening.”

“You want to let your knee lock for a split second every time you straighten your leg.” Denny took a slow step, demonstrating. “It takes your weight off your muscles and puts it all on your bones. Cuts some of the lactic acid build-up in your quads.”

Rafi tried it. The motion felt unnatural, stiff, as if he were walking like a robot. And he couldn’t really tell if it was making a difference in his already tired legs. But he kept at it.

“Better?”

“Can’t tell.” He started back up the trail. Step, lock. Step, lock. “But I figure, of the two of us, you’re the one who knows what the fuck he’s talking about. So what the hell. I’ll do it.”

“It’s not too much farther anyway. We’ll take a break at the falls.”

“A waterfall?” Rafi practically felt his ears perk up. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he’d never been hiking before. He had friends who had driven to Starved Rock Park, about two hours outside of Chicago, and they’d come back covered in mosquito bites the size of quarters, full of tales of fun hikes and waterfalls. He’d always thought it would be cool to see one. He could picture it; water roaring and crashing down on the rocks, spray filling the air like mist.

“Don’t get excited,” Denny cautioned him, a hand in the air. “It’s just a little one.”

“Lead on, Macduff.”

A real waterfall. Now that would be something to video and send to his sisters.

“Rafi in the wilderness, coming your way.”

Denny’s smile pretty much always made Rafi’s heart stutter. So he wasn’t surprised when that turned out to be the case in the middle of the woods, after a half hour of huffing and puffing and bitching up what he knew Denny would probably call a large hill.

But the light that sparked in Denny’s eyes at Rafi’s enthusiasm for the waterfall zinged over Rafi’s skin and set off firecrackers under his tailbone, until he had to wave at Denny to start walking again, hiding the hard-on that sprang up out of nowhere.