ANMELDEN“Hayes?”Jax’s voice broke the silence like a weight.Ryder stayed where he was, kneeling with his head low, one hand still hovering uselessly where the door had been a moment ago. Then he inhaled, slowly and looked up.His gaze traveled before he could stop it.Long legs, powerful and too familiar, planted wide in the doorway. Sweatpants riding low on lean hips, the outline of a bulge beneath them, obvious. The hem of a worn T‑shirt clung where it shouldn’t, stretched across a chest that made the fabric look like it was working overtime.Ryder swallowed.Up higher, Jax’s shoulders filled the frame, relaxed in a way that felt deliberate. Not defensive. Not surprised. Like this was exactly what he’d expected to find.Ryder’s pulse kicked up, loud in his ears. From this angle, everything about Calloway felt amplified. The height, the breadth, the quiet control of him standing there while Ryder was on the floor.Fuck.“Uh,” Ryder said, forcing a casual expression. “Hey.”Jax’s mouth twit
Ryder made it through the rest of anatomy wishing he hadn't come.The lecture blurred together in clinical terms and projected diagrams, the professor’s voice steady as she talked through vertebrae and nerve pathways.He took notes he barely processed, nodded at things he already knew, kept his eyes firmly off the back of Jackson Calloway’s head. By the time class ended, Ryder’s jaw ached from clenching it.Practice that afternoon was brutal as always.If anatomy had put him on edge, the ice stripped him raw. Ryder skated like he was being hunted, every drill a chance to prove himself. Larsson barked for speed, for control, for stability, and Ryder threw his body into it like he could outrun the words themselves.He pushed hard, skating like something was on his heels. Every drill, every sprint, every collision—he went at it full tilt, lungs burning, legs screaming, refusing to ease up. Since Calloway arrived, it felt like rest was a luxury he couldn’t afford. Like if he slowed for ev
The next afternoon blurred by in the usual way.Campus was loud, voices ricocheting off concrete, backpacks slung low, shit quality music leaking from someone’s phone. He messed around with the guys outside the student center, shoulder-checking Beck just to get a rise out of him, then took off after Zach when he stole Ryder’s cap and made a break for it across the quad.“Give it back!” Ryder barked, grinning despite himself as Zach zigzagged through a cluster of freshmen.He was mid-chase, lungs burning pleasantly, when he spotted Jax.Calloway was heading toward the science building, pace easy, posture infuriatingly relaxed, like yesterday hadn’t happened at all. Like he hadn’t pressed his cock between Ryder's thighs and ruined his ability to think straight.Ryder slowed without meaning to.He told himself not to look.He looked.The line of Jax’s shoulders under a fitted hoodie. The way his stride rolled through his hips. The exact shape of his ass as he cut through the foot traffic
They stayed like that for a beat, just breathing.Jax’s chest was warm and solid against Ryder’s back, his hands still braced on Ryder’s hips like he needed the contact to steady himself. Heat lingered everywhere they touched. Shoulders, hips, thighs. Droplets clung to their skin, the small stall too close and too quiet in the aftermath.Ryder’s hands slid down from where he’d been braced against the wall, fingers trembling as they fell uselessly to his sides. His pulse was loud in his ears. He could feel Jax’s breath on the back of his neck, uneven and wrecked.“Hayes—” Jax started.“Hayes!” Connor’s voice cut in at the exact same moment, loud and abrasive, echoing off tile. “We’re leaving. Where the fuck are you?”Both of them froze.Ryder’s heart jumped straight into his throat. “I’m—” He swallowed, then yelled back, “I’m in the bathroom!”He tried to turn, panic spiking, the movement awkward and wrong with Jax still pressed between his thighs.“Back off,” Ryder hissed under his br
Jax’s mouth crushed against his, hot and unyielding. Ryder didn’t think, couldn’t think. His back hit the cold stall wall hard enough to rattle the metal, a shocked sound breaking from his throat before Jax swallowed it with another kiss.Ryder let it happen.Let Jax take his face in both hands, let him press their bodies together until steam and skin and heat blurred into one overwhelming pull. He grasped blindly for balance, one hand hitting Jax’s shoulder, fingers digging in, the other braced uselessly behind him against the wall.Jax kissed like he played; relentless, controlled, decisive.His tongue moved against Ryder’s with a hunger that made his knees soften, his breath stumble. Their chests collided with every inhale, slick skin sliding, burning, sparking everywhere they touched. Ryder’s cock throbbed against Jax’s thigh, and the low grunt Jax let out shot straight through him.Jax crowded him further, hips pinning Ryder to the wall as if there were no space in the world exce
Practice finally wrapped, whistles blowing, players dispersing in scattered groups toward the tunnel. Ryder skated off last, partly because he made sure did one more rep than everyone else, partly because his brain was still twisted up over Calloway.By the time he trudged down the hall toward the locker room, he was worked up enough to snap.The second he pushed open the door and turned toward Jax's spot, the words flew out of him, fast.“Why did you do that? I had it covered—”He stopped.Jax wasn’t changing, wasn’t moving around his stall like usual. He was sitting on the bench, elbows braced on his knees, breathing slow and controlled.The sight silenced Ryder instantly.His chest tightened with something that felt uncomfortably close to guilt.Why had Jax taken that hit for him? Why put himself in the line of fire? It wasn’t friendly. Wasn’t logical. It wasn’t rivalry.Before Ryder could make sense of the mess in his chest, heavy footsteps rounded the corner.Coach Larsson.Comin
Noah wanted to adopt. Wanted to be a parent.Sterling had practically sprung into action. Within minutes, he was coordinating with his lawyer to gather every favorable report and reference Noah might need, already drafting a letter of recommendation he could sign and have notarized. His connections
The plane touched down at Crestwick's private terminal, the hum of the engines fading as the team filed out with a kind of lazy, victorious swagger. A few players exchanged plans for late-night takeout or crash spots, but most were just ready to get home.Noah walked toward the line of parked cars,
Two days since the bath, since the confession, since everything boiled over and then… settled.Somehow, after all the heat and confusion, they had fallen into a rhythm.Sterling hadn’t left the house. Not once. Noah wasn’t sure if that was typical for him or if he was an exceptionally dedicated car
Noah rose to his feet slowly, his legs unsteady, his heart pounding for reasons that had nothing to do with sex.Sterling didn’t flinch. He didn’t look away.Their eyes locked. One steady, one searching. And for the first time, Noah saw beyond the statuesque calm.The dark circles under Sterling’s







