LOGINTheo~I couldn't think. I grabbed Noah and headed to the one place I needed to calm down. The hotel room door slammed shut behind us as Noah’s back hit the wall before I could even think, my hands fisting in his shirt as I crowded him, mouth crashing against his in a kiss that tasted like adrenaline and barely-leashed fury. We’d barely made it inside. The drive from the venue had been silent torture—his thigh pressed against mine in the back of the car, the way his fingers had dug into my knee every time the driver took a turn too sharp. We needed to calm down. That had been the plan. Clearly, the plan was fucked.“Fuck, Theo,” Noah growled into my mouth, biting my lower lip hard enough to sting. His hands shoved under my jacket, pushing it off my shoulders. Fabric hit the floor. I didn’t care. I grabbed his hips and spun us, walking him backward toward the king bed that dominated the suite. My blood was on fire. Every inch of me ached to pin him down, to remind both of us who we we
Noah~I was so stunned at his statement and I wanted nothing but to kiss him right there but now was not the time. The room still carried the weight of everything that had just been said when Theo’s father turned fully toward us. His eyes moved from our joined hands to our faces with the same cold assessment he had used earlier, only now the mask had slipped enough to show the disgust underneath.“Look at the two of you. Standing there like it’s something to be proud of. It’s disgusting.”The word landed hard. Theo’s fingers tightened around mine, but he did not pull away. I kept my eyes on the older man, feeling the heat climb the back of my neck, ready to answer, when the front door opened and my dad walked in carrying a grocery bag. He stopped short at the sight of all three of us, the bag lowering slowly to his side. He had no idea what had already been said, no idea how close the kitchen had come to cracking open completely, but he took one look at Theo’s face and then at the ma
Noah The room went silent the second the door slammed behind me. My bag slipped off my shoulder and hit the floor with a dull thud. I stood in the doorway looking between Theo and his father, neither of them moving. The air felt thick enough to choke on. Theo’s face was pale, jaw tight, eyes still locked on the man across the kitchen like he hadn’t fully processed what he’d just heard. His father stood with that same controlled posture he always carried, the one that made every room feel like a board meeting instead of a home. Noah's mother had talked about his fucking stiff demeanor but seeing it in person was an entirely different thing. I stared right at him as I repeated myself, my voice low and calm like I was not about to fucking loose it. “What the fuck did you just say?” Theo’s father didn’t panic. He didn’t raise his voice or even look surprised. He simply studied me the way he probably studied contracts, calm and assessing, as if I were another problem that needed solv
Theo~ "Theo, I don't think there's any softer way but here it goes, it's your father." I stood frozen outside the abandoned ice rink, staring at Benito like the cold had finally cracked something in my head. His last words kept looping, heavier than anything else he’d thrown at me tonight. “…My father?” Benito nodded once. I actually laughed. Not because any of it was funny. Because it sounded completely ridiculous. “You don't mean Jeff, my step dad do you? He would fucking never. He doesn't even know.” “No, I mean your actual father. Morrison.” Either Benito was plain crazy or he just said my father, mother's ex-husband was fucking playing interference and making my life, hell. “My dad barely knows you. He wouldn’t even know your name.” Benito’s voice stayed quiet. “He knew my full name before I introduced myself.” My smile faded. He reached into his wallet and pulled out a plain business card, holding it out between us. I took it with stiff fingers. My father’s na
Theodore~I stood frozen outside the abandoned ice rink, the cold evening air biting through my hoodie and raising goosebumps along my arms. Benito’s words hung between us like smoke—“Five minutes won’t be enough to tell you who’s trying to destroy your life.” My chest tightened, every instinct screaming to bolt back to the car and pretend none of this was happening. But my feet stayed planted on the cracked pavement, arms folded tight across my chest as I stared him down.“You’ve got five minutes,” I said, voice flat.Benito let out a tired laugh that didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ll need more than that.”I didn’t smile. “Then start talking.”He took a long breath, shoulders slumping further under the weight of whatever he carried. The abandoned rink loomed behind him, its broken windows dark and empty like forgotten eyes watching us. “I never applied to Blackwood.”I frowned hard, the confusion cutting through the fear for a second. “What?”“I was transferred.” He shoved his hands deepe
Theodore~I woke up after barely sleeping and right beside me, Noah was already awake, moving quietly around the room as he prepared for the day. Everything looked... normal. Too normal. The familiar rumple of sheets, the faint scent of his cologne lingering in the air, the soft sounds of him in the kitchen. Yet none of it brought the comfort it should have. Guilt twisted sharply in my chest the moment I heard him humming softly to himself, a tuneless melody that usually made me smile.I dragged myself out of bed and joined him in the kitchen, where the aroma of fresh coffee and sizzling bacon filled the space. Noah turned as I entered, his face lighting up with that warm, easy smile that always reached his eyes. It hit me like a punch—how much I didn’t deserve this moment after agreeing to meet Benito alone.“Morning,” he said, sliding a plate toward me across the counter. “Figured you could use a good breakfast before classes. You were tossing and turning most of the night.”I force
A deep groan clawed its way out of my chest as my phone kept vibrating against my nightstand like it had a personal vendetta against me.For a split second, I considered letting it die.It didn’t.I snatched it up without checking the caller ID. “What?!” I barked, voice thick with sleep and last ni
Theodore POVYou probably think it can’t get any worse than hooking up with a random guy after a win and then seeing him the next morning as the newest member of your hockey team.Try going home that same day and finding out your mom got a ‘fiance’ over the weekend.Try watching that same guy—same
Melody~By the third week of pretending I was fine, I was ready to admit I was terrible at it.Not out loud, of course. Out loud I was doing great. I went to class. Answered questions, held conversations. I even laughed a few times when people expected me to. From the outside, I probably looked com
Noah~I’d seen a lot of people try to fake control before.Athletes, especially. Hockey guys were the worst for it. All that chest-beating, loud voices and hard eyes, like if they looked confident enough nobody would notice they were falling apart inside. I had absolutely no idea why the fuckers co







