Ben Ryder - Noah Read online

  Callum couldn’t bring himself to look at Noah. “I haven’t really thought about it, Amy. I’ve been pretty busy.” “Oh damn. I meant to tell you, your boss was trying to get ahold of you earlier. I’m sorry, it completely slipped my mind. It sounded kind of important, whatever it was.”

  “No problem. I’ve spoken to him.”

  “His accent is stronger than yours. I could barely make out what he was saying.”

  “He was a little drunk when he called. He was in a bar in London.” “Yeah, it seemed a bit noisy. Wait, was he celebrating?” Amy teased. “Did you hear something about the Olympic bid?”

  “Yes, we won it,” Callum said with no enthusiasm in his voice. “Congratulations! So you’re off to Rio soon?”

  “In a few months.”

  “I’m so jealous!” she squealed. “Wow, the Olympics! Rio, palm trees, sunshine, beaches,” Amy listed as she gushed. “You certainly won’t be missing anything here in Toronto.”

  They sat in silence for a moment while Amy seemed to drift off to South America. Callum felt his throat swell as he tried to choke back emotion, but the dry heat of the sauna made it impossible to swallow. He looked over to Noah, who was wiping his face with his hand towel. When he lowered it, Callum saw that his eyes had suddenly become bloodshot and watery.

  “I’ve got to get out of here,” Noah said, gathering himself and wrapping his towel tightly around his waist, which now showed only the outline of a flaccid cock. “I’m getting sweat in my eyes.”

  “Are you heading home?” Amy asked, “I’ll text you later about that restaurant.” “I think I’ve had enough too,” Callum said, rising to follow Noah.

  “Actually, can I speak to you?” Amy asked.

  “Can it wait?”

  “Not really, it’s about work, actually. It’s pretty important. It’s not something I should talk about in front of Noah.”

  Callum was alarmed by the sudden look of concern on her face. He sat back down and hoped this would be quick. Noah said his good-byes and left the sauna.

  Now that she had Callum on his own, Amy’s face changed again. She drew in her bottom lip and began to go doe-eyed. He’d seen this routine before and wasn’t in the mood for it, especially now. He’d already seen through the glass door that Noah had walked past the entrance to the men’s shower area and headed straight into the locker room.

  “Amy, what is it?” “I have another problem with Arnold. He’s having difficulty setting up the software for the graphic banners for the arena. He says there’s a glitch in his system that he can’t work out and that he may have to overhaul the entire software program to fix it.”

  “What’s that got to do with me?” Callum asked, hoping for a quick answer so he could get to Noah before he left. “Well, if the advertisers catch wind that it’s not ready to go live for the grand opening of the arena, all hell is going to break loose.”

  “Sorry to hear that, Amy, but I am not too sure what you’re asking.”

  “Can you go through the program and fix it for him? I wouldn’t normally ask, but—” “You wouldn’t normally ask? That’s all you’ve done since I’ve arrived!” Callum exclaimed. “No, Amy, I have enough on my plate as it is without dealing with Arnold’s problems and mistakes.”

  “Callum, if he doesn’t get it done, I’ll lose my job.” “I’m sorry, Amy, but I’ve helped enough. If my company ever found out I’ve helped him as much as I have, they’d haul me across the coals for it. I’ve helped out where I could, but going through someone else’s entire program is beyond the limit,” Callum said sternly. “And you can stop doing that, sweetheart; it doesn’t work on me.”

  Amy let go of the wet lock she was twisting around her finger.

  “I know that I’m asking a lot, but it would get me out of a lot of trouble.” “I’ve been telling you that man is incompetent for weeks! His software should have been developed and tested before he even got here!”

  “Just this last once?” “Look at it from my point of view. If I went into his system and somehow messed it up, it would be my reputation on the line. And even worse, the company I work for would be liable. I’m sorry, but I can’t take that risk, especially now that we’ve won the Olympics bid. You need to take Arnold to task and remind him of the requirements of his company’s contract.”

  “Please, Callum.”

  “No, Amy. That’s the end of it.”

  “So that’s it, then? You’re okay with me losing my job over it? Well, thanks for nothing,” Amy said, dropping any façade.

  Callum looked at her in astonishment. “Thanks for nothing? How’s it even possible that you can cop an attitude with me over this after everything I’ve already done to help? As if this is somehow my fault? It’s your problem, Amy. You deal with it!”

  He got up and walked out, slamming the sauna door a little harder than he intended to, but he was no longer worried about Amy’s feelings. He was more concerned with Noah’s.

  Callum searched the showers and the locker room, hoping to find him, but he was already gone.

  Chapter Ten

  2:00 p.m. C ALLUM hadn’t noticed the lunchtime rush empty out of Stompers. He’d abandoned his attempts to wait patiently like an adult and now sat like a child with his head buried in his folded arms on the bar while the heel of his shoe rapidly tapped on the support bar of the stool.

  “Someone looks like they’re waiting for Christmas,” said the barman, who stood casually with a tea towel as he wiped water spots from a glass.

  “Yeah, something like that,” Callum said, drawing himself back up into a respectable seated position, slightly embarrassed. “Though, unlike my childhood, I hope I get what I want this time.”

  “You’ve barely taken your eyes off your phone since you’ve got here. I take it you’re waiting for an important call.” Callum nodded. “They should change the old saying to ‘a watched phone never rings’.”

  “Can I get you another drink?”

  “No, I’m good, thanks. In fact, I think it’s time I got out of here,” Callum said, moving off the stool. He looked out the window to make sure the rain had stopped.

  “Good luck with whatever you’re waiting for,” the barman said kindly. But Callum didn’t hear him. His phone had vibrated in his hand and he was reading the message.

  Heading into the meeting. Wish me luck. I am going to need it. Callum looked up at the bar. “Perhaps I can stay for one more.”

  “WE BOTH knew that we were going to have to talk about this eventually,” Callum said sadly. “I know. I’ve done everything I could to avoid it,” Noah said as he took a seat on the sofa. “It’s just too damn hard to think about.”

  “If you’d told me we were going to have this conversation fifteen weeks ago, I would’ve said you were insane,” Callum said, joining Noah on the sofa. “I wouldn’t have believed in a million years we would be here now.”

  “Stay,” Noah said quietly. “Don’t go home. Stay here with me. I’ll do anything. You only need to tell me.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you.”

  “I would come out for you, Callum.”

  “And be the first openly gay player in pro hockey? Are you out of your mind? Do you think I could live with the idea of your worst nightmares coming true? Noah, if things were different, I’d gladly go back into the closet if it meant that I could be with you.”

  “Then what’s the problem? Stay, Callum, please.”

  “You know I can’t. I have to go to Rio. I have no choice in the matter. There’s no one that could take my place. I was the one who designed the damn software. It’s not a simple matter of giving up my job and moving here. There are dozens of people whose livelihoods and careers rely on my work. I can’t just walk away from that. I have obligations to these people.”

  They sat in silence for a few minutes. “Noah, you know if things were different I would ask you to come back to London with me, don’t you?”

  “There’s still a chance. If they release
me from my contract, I’d be able to.”

  “I think, if we’re both honest, we know there’s little chance of that. You’re too popular.”

  “Even if they don’t release me, I could force their hand by coming out.”

  “Noah—” “I mean it. Let me be with you. I wouldn’t consider it for anyone else, but you, you—” He stammered. “Fuck it, Callum, I’m in love with you. You know I am.” It had been said: the one thing they both knew admitting to each other would make the situation even harder to bear. “And I know that you’re in love with me.”

  Callum launched himself at Noah, pinning him onto his back, kissing him more passionately than he’d ever kissed another man. He had been scared to hear him say it but still wanted to hear those words more than anything else in the world.

  The buttons flew as he tore Noah’s shirt open. Callum then ripped off his own. He needed to be next to him, to feel his weight, his pressure, his skin. They both kicked off their jeans and tore down their underwear. There was no foreplay. Callum had to feel Noah inside him, right then. They wrestled on the bed with strength and passion, but Noah seemed reluctant to remain in a position where Callum could straddle him.

  They continued to struggle until Noah forced Callum down onto the mattress on his back. Noah held both Callum’s hands above his head while he spat on his free hand, which he then wrapped around Callum’s cock.

  Pinned by the weight on his hips, Callum felt Noah lower himself down onto his cock, then move forward until their chests met. Noah wrapped his arms around Callum and held him in a still embrace, as if moving could break the fulfillment of the connection.

  “Promise me that, whatever happens, we’ll work it out,” Noah said, his head bowed into Callum’s shoulder. “I promise.”

  “Swear to me.”

  “I swear, Noah. We’ll make it work.”

  The smile Noah gave made Callum’s heart ache and his head fill with hope.

  Chapter Eleven

  2.30 p.m.

  “ANOTHER?” the barman asked. “I’d better go back to the Coke,” Callum said, feeling the effects of the wine he’d been nursing beginning to warm him over. “I need to keep a straight head.”

  The barman laughed. “You know, watching you has actually started to make me feel anxious about your call. And I don’t even know what it’s about! Whatever you’re waiting for, you must obviously want it badly. Or maybe it’s something you don’t want? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy so on edge waiting for the phone to ring.”

  Callum thought, You have no idea. C ALLUM had grown tired of Amy’s short temper and constant mood swings. With only a few days to go before the opening of the arena, her attitude continued to blow hot and cold. She went from being overly helpful and accommodating on the days when she thought there was still a chance Callum might help Arnold out of his situation, to being downright rude and abrupt on the days he made it clear it wasn’t going to happen. Each time he thought the message had gotten through, she returned hours later, sickly sweet and trying to butter him up again.

  Thankfully, as Callum wrapped up his work, Amy was out of the office and wasn’t around to bother him. After giving the system one last successful test run, he called Michael Weiss with the confirmation that all systems were go. Callum was happy he’d finished early and he had the next three days to spend with Noah before he played his first, and possibly last, game on the opening night of the new arena.

  As he gathered his belongings to make his way to the gym, his phone sounded. “Hey, handsome!” It was obvious Noah was on his own. “I’m going to be late to the gym today. I have a few things I have to get out for the Foundation.”

  “How about we skip the gym altogether and just go back to my apartment for a long afternoon fuck?”

  “I was hoping you’d say that. Yet another reason I love you.”

  Though they’d said it many times since the first, Callum’s heart still skipped. “Okay, I’ll see you at five.” Callum grinned at the thought, but stopped when he saw Arnold storming into his office. “Noah, I’ve got to go.”

  Arnold halted, hands on hips, at Callum’s work station. He was sweating and looked agitated. Callum hung up, slipped the phone into his open briefcase, and grabbed the rest of his paperwork.

  “It’s no good, Callum. You have to help me out with this,” Arnold said. This was no longer a friendly request for a favor. Callum took umbrage with his tone.

  “Actually, Arnold, no, I don’t.”

  “Yes. Yes, you do.”

  “You know what?” Callum began, tossing the paperwork back onto his desk with a thud. “You’ve got quite a nerve. I’ve helped you out a dozen times already and now you come in here and talk to me like I’m one of your subordinates?”

  “Look, if we don’t get this fixed, everything is going to come down on all of us like a ton of fucking bricks.” Callum was taken aback; he’d never heard Arnold swear before. He was also completely puzzled. “How do you work that out? Thanks to you, I’ve had to reroute the entire damn system so mine and everyone else’s software is now completely independent of yours. No bricks are coming down on me, Arnold.”

  “You’ve acted dumb long enough, Callum. We both know what’s going on. I’m telling you, if I go down, everyone else goes down with me.”

  Callum slowly sat back on his desk and let Arnold talk.

  Chapter Twelve

  2:45 p.m. C ALLUM tapped his fingers on the bar. The barman looked at him with a smile.

  “Sorry,” Callum said.

  “Hey, it’s fine. You get that frustrated energy out however you need to.”

  Callum nodded in thanks. He took a sip of his drink and stared at the phone in his hands. He flipped it over onehanded. Something caught his eye, and his heart leapt. He faced the phone in his direction, but it was still blank. The light must have glinted off the phone’s face.

  He wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

  AS SOON as Callum closed the door to the apartment, Noah fell to his knees. “Whoa, hang on there,” Callum said, but Noah ignored him. He wanted to protest further, but Noah’s hot mouth around his cock felt too good. Leaning against the wall, he unknotted his tie and unbuttoned his shirt while he felt Noah’s tight throat close around his dick.

  Naked, and with the afternoon’s conversation pushed to the back of his mind, Callum let Noah fuck him pinned against the wall, over the living room sofa, bent across the kitchen counter and, finally, in the bed.

  They lay in the bed, wrapped in a tangle of arms and legs. “I’ve worked up an appetite,” Noah said.

  “I bet you have. What do you want? I’ll call down for it.”

  “Burger and fries. I need to replace the protein and salt that just landed on you.” Callum stood, grabbed the phone, and called the order down to the hotel kitchen. Once the order was placed, he leaned over and kissed Noah’s forehead.

  “I’m going to jump in the shower. Then I really have to tell you about my afternoon.”

  “Sure thing, sweet cheeks,” Noah said as he slapped Callum’s bare ass on his way. As he waited for the water to warm, Callum grabbed his cell phone from the pocket of his jeans that Noah had pulled off at the door. He tapped out an e-mail while everything was clear in his head. He knew Ian would call him as soon as he received it, so he transferred it to the draft folder to send in the morning, when he knew he would have the time and privacy to speak freely.

  The hot water had barely washed away the cum Noah had shot across Callum’s back when there was a knock at the door. Callum jumped out of the shower, grabbed the nearest towel, and dried off as fast as he could.

  “Jesus, that was fast,” Noah said from the bed. “Do you want me to get it?”

  “No, probably safer if I do.” Callum wrapped the towel around his waist and opened the door, expecting to find the room service waiter, who’d gotten into the habit of remaining at the door at Callum’s insistence when delivering food, especially when Noah was there.

&nb
sp; Instead, he found Amy standing in front of him with her shoulders slouched and mascara running down the side of her eyes. It wasn’t smudged like he would expect of someone who’d been crying, and her eyes weren’t swollen or red. Callum looked at her and wondered whether she’d put the eye drops in outside the door or in the elevator on the way up.

  “Amy, this clearly isn’t a good time,” Callum said evenly, pointing to himself in just a towel. “I’ve just come from a meeting with my bosses. They’re furious that Arnold hasn’t got the software up and running. Please, Callum, you have to help me. They’re going to fire me,” she said quietly before forcing out a little sob.

  “It’s nothing more than you deserve. Now, if you’ll excuse me—” A spark of shock crossed her face. As he began to close the door on her, Amy’s hand pushed through the opening. “Please, Callum! I don’t know what else to do,” she cried as she rushed past him before he had the chance to stop her. “You don’t understand, this could cost the company a fortune and I’m going to get the blame for—”

  Her head was turned toward the open door of the bedroom. Callum knew what she saw: a scruffy-haired Noah Lukas, half-covered by a white sheet on a disheveled bed.

  “What?” she began, her mouth open. She looked at Callum still standing in his towel and then at Noah again. Her hand raised and she pointed a finger that swung between them both. “You mean, you two—?”

  Callum marched forward and grabbed the handle to the bedroom door. “Get dressed,” he said softly to Noah, who looked in shock. “I’ll deal with this.”

  The low volume of shock in Amy’s voice was replaced by an amplified pitch of anger. “Oh, you two must have had a great laugh at my expense, huh? All this time you two have been fucking each other?” Her voice began to shake. “You bastards, you complete and utter bastards!”

  “Sit down, Amy,” Callum said calmly. “And lower your voice.”

  She let out a maniacal laugh. “Lower my voice? Why? Are you worried someone is going to find out?” She took a deep breath and shouted at the ceiling, “Hey, everybody, Noah Lukas is a great big faggot!”