Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

LO

I've never toed the line of nearly revealing my secret quite so much. I mean, if it came out, it wouldn't be the end of the world. This is a preference I share with Caulder. Though I'm not married to it quite like he is.

I've never before thought it would be fine if people knew. Although it would be. I know that. But I would still rather keep it to myself. It's no one's business. It sure as fuck isn't the world's business who's in my bed. Who I'm fucking or who I love. No one needs to know anything about that side of my life—not even something as insignificant as the gender I'm attracted to.

Yet one night with Caulder and suddenly I'm thinking it's not a big deal?

It was one night. We didn't even fuck! But man do I love the way his cheeks heat. I love the bashful way he smiles and looks away. I really love how he constantly looks my way too. To be fair, he may just be doing so because he can feel me watching him.

However, I need to show him I respect him a little more than I've pulled off this morning. He's made it very clear he doesn't want anyone to know his sexuality, and I'm not going to be the one that outs him. It's not my place and I like Caulder Haines. I sure as fuck don't want to hurt him like that.

It's not long after we eat before we're brought to our feet and ushered toward the chute. We're introduced one by one to the packed arena and pile into the boxes. Once again, the Pacific and Atlantic are paired together for this. Right now, the teams don't truly matter because this is all an individual skills challenge. I bet if I wanted to join the other side, no one would stop me.

There's a lot of waiting around as the announcers do their thing. Talking about the participating athletes and the events. How we'll be scored. On and on. I do my best to listen their words and not stare at Caulder either. Instead, I look around the ice. It's set up for the first challenge—fastest skater. Not one I'm in, but one that Caulder is. I'm excited to watch it.

Finally, they're set to go. I shift on the bench to watch as Max Latham stands at the starting line. He's bent at the knees and watching the ref with the whistle. Ready.

It blows and he takes off, digging his skate into the ice and shooting forward. The trick is to keep momentum going around the corners. I can see his knees shake a little on the second corner, but he doesn't stumble. He really digs in and gains speed when he hits the next straight shot. Into the second set of corners, he glides, keeping as much speed as he can. Then he's upright and finishing strong.

Max stands once he hits the line again and watches the clock. He glides around to slow down for a minute before heading for the bench. 13.991 seconds. That's the time to beat.

No one does until Ji?í gets 13.591 seconds, bringing Max down to second. Leroy Wysik stumbles and falls, careening into the boards. He gets up, shaking his head as he finishes. There's not a lot of effort put into the end, since he's lost too much time during the fall.

Finally, it's Caulder's turn and I'm holding my breath as I watch him. The whistle blows and my eyes are glued on his form as he moves around the rink. I don't know if it's just me, but it feels different from the onset. He's quick, smooth, and never stops gaining speed.

Crossing the line, I twist to look at the time. 13.408. A grin spreads across my face as I turn to watch him come toward the bench. This man is humble as fuck. There's no sign of excitement in his smile. He's practically all business. There's a soft smile, and a nod of acknowledgement, but otherwise he's just a humble fucker, thanking those congratulating him.

He doesn't take a seat next to me. Not that there's a lot of room, but I could have made space. He sits with Ethan, unsurprisingly. However, my stomach jumps when his eyes meet mine. I smile, inclining my head. "Nice job," I mouth to him.

His smile climbs a little and he mouths, "Thanks."

A few more players race, but the top three do not change. Caulder, Ji?í, Max. I'm feeling good with those odds. A couple player interviews take place while they switch up the ice for the next competition. I get up, not so subtly watching Caulder talk to Avianna Zayn, the anchor from Sports Spot.

Since I can't truly hear what he's saying, I'm just watching his lips move. His sweet, sexy mouth.

After a minute, I turn away and take my seat again. I'm not staring. I'm far better than that. I continue to remind myself of this until they have the second event set up. One timers.

This is kind of an accuracy shot. We have nine pucks to shoot from three different spots, passed to us by someone on the sides. The goal is broken up into zones that have tassels hanging down. The top three or four inches is worth four points. Dropping down diagonally toward the bottom of the bars is worth three points. Anywhere in the middle outside of that, is worth two points. If the dividers that separate the sections are hit—one point. Hitting the bumper or missing the goal entirely is zero points. With one minute to take all the shots.

I'm a decent shot, top of the net usually being my preference. Hopefully that works in my favor. There's a big show of who's competing in this competition. The first out is Mattias, who scores twenty points. The first person out of the box gets somewhat of a raw deal. He's the one to beat.

Ji?í goes next and earns nineteen points. Then it's Caulder. I only root for him internally, since I'm competing here too. His first three shots are all fours. Followed by two twos. Four. Then two more twos and a one. He now leads with twenty-three. Fuck yeah, Caulder!

His eyes flicker to mine as he comes back to the bench. I try not to change my expression. Still, Caulder bows his head to break eye contact as he takes a seat.

I'm last. Taking a breath, I decide my strategy is to concentrate on fours while the angle is better. I sink all three. Then move to the center of the circle; three, four, three. Currently tied with Caulder. I'm shit at this next angle though, so there's a chance that I'll fail all three. Which I do actually miss two. But I manage a two as well, bringing me to twenty-five. Fuck yeah!

When I turn around, my eyes immediately turn to Caulder's. It's magnetic. I can't stop myself. Our eyes remain locked as I skate toward the bench. He smiles, nods his head. I take that as congratulations.

I get drawn into an interview while the ice is rearranged.

"What was your strategy going into that round?" Avianna asks me, then tilts the mic to me.

"Focusing on the angles I know I can make shots at," I say, shrugging. "I know my weaknesses and that last angle is my kryptonite. Knowing your weaknesses is as important as knowing your strengths."

"Do you feel like this particular skills event was made for you? Your sweet spot is always the top of the net."

I grin. "Kind of, yeah. When I realized as a teenager that my shots were always swinging high, I decided to concentrate on honing those skills instead of trying to change what I was naturally doing. It's worked out well for me this far."

"It certainly has. Congratulations on this round and good luck."

"Thank you," I say and turn back to the bench. Once again, my gaze is drawn to Caulder. He's not looking at me, though. He's talking to Ethan. That's fine. I take a seat with Mattias between me and Caulder.

The next challenge is passing, where we're skating from crease to crease and have forty-five seconds to shoot twelve pucks at a cluster of blocks of different sizes. Each block is worth points, the biggest worth one and the smallest worth three.

This one is more difficult than it appears to be. Mostly because the clock is working against you. Forty-five seconds isn't long, and you have to get to your target and not only get the shots off quickly, but accurately. I'm happy to be toward the end of the lineup so I can see what strategies others are taking.

I get halfway through and realize I need to pick up the pace getting between pucks. It makes my passes a little sloppy, but I manage to score enough points to put me in second. That is, until Caulder kicks me out of second. And then Link kicks me out of third, so I end up in fourth.

Hardest shot is next. We have two attempts with a puck thirty feet from the goal. There's a sensor in the puck and other sensors around the goal that read the speed. This is probably one of my favorite events. I love to sling the puck as hard as I can. The power in shooting that puck is a great feeling.

In the end, I'm not fast enough to get beyond the fourth. Which is fine. It's still good. While the standings aren't quite telling yet because we've all played between two and four skills. It won't be until the very last one that we truly know who is where.

Up next is stick handling. There are obstacles in the way that you have to go around. Tight together obstacles and wide ones where we skate around them. Bigger blocks that we have to move backwards to get around, and then two bars in an unconnected T and we have to move the puck between the broken part before shooting it into the net and stopping the clock.

I chose to sit this one out. Which means I'm going to take this opportunity to close the distance between me and Caulder until I'm sitting next to him again as those between us get to their feet and take their turns.

The one to watch is Max. The man looks like he's on rails when he moves around the ice. If there was ever someone who had ice in their blood, it's Max Latham. He's ridiculously quick to watch. It's like the difference between a border collie moving like they're made of elastic and then the husky who doesn't give a fuck.

Max is the border collie. He's just magic to watch fly through the course flawlessly. Effortlessly good. After seeing him in this event, I decide that if he can make it through the obstacle course, he's going to be the one to beat. His range in skills is intense.

"Damn," Link says next to me. "Max is a beast."

I chuckle. "Couldn't say it better myself."

He ends with a time of 25.775 seconds. Stupidly impressive.

Almost equally impressive is Noah Kain. He's almost more elegant, but just a little slower. 26.939.

"Yep, made a good decision not to participate in that one," Caulder comments.

I glance his way to see Ethan nod. "I think we should set that shit up back home, though. We need to practice those moves. We can't all be Max."

Max winks at him, giving him a hand flip and a big grin.

Ethan tosses him a teasing kiss.

I listen half-heartedly as more interviews take place while the ice is once more rearranged. My attention is, once again, on Caulder. Because why the fuck not? Apparently, he's going to be my weekend obsession. My guess is I could probably have done better at these events if I hadn't had his dick down my throat.

Those saucy memories just keep springing up.

Last event in round one is accuracy. There are four targets, one at each corner of the goal. We need to hit each. There's a player at each side of the net passing us pucks.

I anticipate I'll do okay with the top two corners. The bottoms are going to be my weakness; so my strategy is aiming for those first.

I'm about mid pack when I head out. True to form, it takes me several pucks to get the first two. Far too many attempts. Especially with the bottom right corner. However, once I actually hit that bitch, the top two are easy and I shatter the Styrofoam targets easily.

Caulder does far better than me. Naturally. I've always admired him as a hockey player. He's damn good, and his concentration is commendable. While I know my attention on him has been borderline obsessive for reasons other than hockey, he's fucking good. My admiration of his skills has also increased.

In the end, I make the top eight at number five. Not bad. Not nearly as impressive as Max in first, and fucking Caulder in second! I'm not surprised by his talent, he's just that amazing. I always knew he was.

Yet, as I listen to him talk to reporters, he's humble as fuck, claiming that the next round could very well drop him to the bottom. That there's a reason he doesn't often get called for shootouts. He's not the best one-on-one.

When asked what strategy he has going in, he kind of laughs. "My goalie will basically be picked for me by that time," he says, referring to the order of events beginning with Ivanovich in eighth with points and then moving up to first from there. "So it really depends on which goalie I get."

"Any predictions on who you'll end up facing?" Avianna asks.

Caulder laughs again, shaking his head. "Azure Dayne. He's not only a badass—can I say that? No, sorry. He's not only a beast, but his goalie stare is intense. I won't be surprised if he's picked last, and while no one likes to be picked last, in this case, it's a compliment. No one wants to face the most difficult goalie one-on-one."

I glance toward the chute and wonder if I should choose Azure. Just so Caulder has a fighting chance. Azure is scary good in a shootout. There's no way I'm going to win this thing against Max. Not after seeing the way he moved in the stick handling competition. He's the one to beat, with Caulder and Noah hot on his heels.

Caulder sits next to me and glances my way with a cute little smile. "You having fun watching me like a creep?" he murmurs.

A grin spreads across my face. "Just scoping out my competition, Haines. Don't flatter yourself."

He snorts. "Right. Forgive me for my assumption."

I'd love to keep this banter going, but I don't. The line is very close right now, so I turn my attention to the peeps putting out the new obstacles.

"Which part of this has you most worried?" I ask.

"The second to last. Lifting the puck over the barrier and shooting into the tiny ass net." He shakes his head. "I'm decent at accuracy, but that part makes me most nervous. You?"

"Moving around the little bridges and only hitting the green ones. There's a reason I didn't do stick handling."

Caulder smirks. "I don't know, Duval. I think you're pretty good at handling a stick."

The teasing way his eyes glint at me makes my stomach flip. Fuck. I'm going to show him how I can handle a stick. As soon as we're back in the room.

This better hurry the fuck up.