The Magic Broom (5 page)

“Okay,” Shane said quietly as he quickly handed Cody his phone. He pretended to bang out a few notes, but really he was texting Kira to come save his stupid ass.
The phone buzzed, and Cody stared at the words plastered across his screen.
Take the chance
the text said.
Cody frowned and jammed the phone into his pocket. He wasn’t going to take a chance. Taking chances never worked for him. Kira could fuck off.
It wasn’t easy, but Cody clenched his fist and let his reporter face slide firmly into place. “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to curl with you and your team. It was an experience I’ll never forget. I’m sure Derek will have a great time with the photos,” he said politely.
“Cody,” Shane said with a husky voice that sent a shiver down Cody’s spine. His hand fell to his side and his professional face disappeared when Shane twisted his fingers in the fabric of his sleeve and stepped into his personal space. His back bumped against the lockers.
“I’ve wanted to do this since the moment you appeared in my doorway holding that stupid pizza,” Shane whispered against his lips. “Is this okay?”
“Yeah,” Cody breathed. In the next second, Shane grabbed him and wrapped him in a tight hug, smashing their lips together. Cody’s knees almost buckled.
“Holy shit.” Cody whimpered and parted his lips, letting Shane lick into his mouth.
The kissing paused when a loud ruckus came from outside the locker room. “Cody, you stupid shit. Where are you hiding?” Kira shouted. “Cody!”
“Oh fuck,” Cody groaned and buried his face in Shane’s neck.
The door swung open, and Kira stormed into the locker room, stopped abruptly, and stared at Cody pinned against the lockers.
“You’re supposed to knock before you come in,” Shane said calmly. “In case someone is dressing or something.”
“Or something,” Kira muttered, backing out of the room. “Right, sorry. Carry on.” The door clicked shut, and Cody heard Kira squeal.
“Sorry about her.”
“Don’t be,” Shane said. “She stopped by the apartment before we came over here and told me I should ask you out.”
“She? What?”
“Should I ask you out?”
“Yes—” He didn’t get a chance to say anything else, because he was silenced when Shane placed his lips over his mouth and sucked on his tongue.
“Stay and watch the rest of the game,” Shane whispered. “I think you’re our good luck charm. We’re all curling great.”
“Okay,” Cody said.
He was a bit dazed when they came out of the locker room. He didn’t even notice that Shane kept hold of his hand all the way from the door to the ice, where he gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
Cody pressed his face against the glass and watched Shane stride out to the ice.
“Fuck,” he whispered.
“Indeed,” Kira said and wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her cheek against his shoulder blade. “You could have told me,” he said.
“No, because it would have given you the opportunity to overthink everything and get all goofy, convincing yourself there was no way Shane was interested in you.”
Sometimes it scared him that she knew him so well.
“Besides, it worked out okay. Right?” She poked him in the ribs, making him squirm.
“I’m not going to get ahead of myself this time,” Cody said. “We kissed.”
“And from the looks of it, it was a great kiss.”
Cody clenched his jaw. He didn’t want to jinx anything by reading too much into the kiss, but fuck, it had been awesome, and it made him want to twirl around the room like one of those crazy ice skaters.
“Yes,” he hissed and sagged against her. She steered him to a chair and let him sit down. Muffled shouts from the ice found his ears and made his face flush when he heard Shane shouting “harder, harder” again.
“This sport could possibly kill me,” Cody said, resting his chin in his hands and watching as Shane yelled at his teammates.
Kira giggled, but she left it alone and didn’t ask any more questions. He was already in deep enough with her. There were certain things they didn’t need to discuss in public.
The guys ended up winning after just seven ends. Usually ten ends were played, but Shane explained they were so far ahead that the other team thought it was pointless to continue. He didn’t understand this sport at all. Coaches always preached never give up and all that shit.
He also learned it was customary for the winning team to buy a round of drinks for the losing team. Cody was pretty sure most losing teams didn’t hang out with their opponents and talk over drinks after getting the shit beat out of them.
Shane cracked a beer and dragged Cody’s chair next to his, letting their knees touch. It made Cody sweat. His mind was heading down dangerous territory when he was knocked out of his dream by a vibrating phone. He stared at the screen and sighed.
“What is it?” Shane asked, hooking his ankle around Cody’s. It made it difficult for him to think straight.
“I thought I was finished with this assignment and could write the story tonight, but apparently, I’m not.”
“What do you have to do?” Shane asked.
“Snowboarding and short track speed skating.” Cody sagged into his chair. “My editor is trying to kill me.”
“You look exhausted. Let me take you home,” Shane said softly. His breath tickled Cody’s neck and made him wiggle in his seat.
“Go,” Kira said. “I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
“Are you coming with me again?” Cody asked Kira.
“I’m all yours,” she said.
Cody couldn’t help notice the frown on Pete’s face. He patted the guy on the shoulder and rolled his eyes. Pete cocked on eyebrow and glanced down where Shane had his hand on Cody’s arm.
They exchanged the “if you hurt my friend, I will maim you” look and nodded. Not that Cody could physically hurt Pete, but he could shout loudly.
Shane was busy packing his bag and saying good-bye to everyone. Cody stood next to him and tried not to look like he was lovesick or anything. From the smug smile on Kira’s face, he could tell he was failing. This was all happening rather quickly, and it made Cody’s head spin.
The car was already warm and toasty when he climbed inside. Even his seat was warm, and the heat felt wonderful on his abused body.
Shane reached across the seat and ruffled Cody’s hair. The seat was so warm and comfortable that Cody nodded off before they got back to the apartment complex. He vaguely remembered Shane ushering him to his apartment and helping him undress. There was a terribly sweet kiss that made his cock stir, but Cody was too tired and sore to do anything about it.
“Stay,” he murmured against Shane’s bare chest.

A
PHONE
blaring in his ear woke him up again. Only it wasn’t his phone. It was Shane’s phone. And then his joined the party. They both answered and heard people shouting about being late. They barely had time for a short make-out session before Kira was dragging Cody away and Shane was off to practice.

“He stayed,” Cody said and grinned like a goofy, lovesick girl.
“And?”
“And nothing. We were both exhausted.”
He knew she wanted to ask him tons of questions, but they were at the hill again.
The only good thing about snowboarding was he was bundled in a coat, snow pants, and a hat and gloves, normal gear for a winter day. He was also incredibly thankful to be on a small hill instead of a real half-pipe. Stefan, the snowboard athlete, showed him some clips on his phone of a real snowboarding event, and Cody silently thanked the newspaper for not having the budget. Stefan just happened to be in town visiting his cousins before heading to Olympic qualifying.
Poor Derek was visibly disappointed he didn’t get any pictures of Cody lying facedown in a snowbank. The morning was actually okay. He managed to make it to the bottom of the hill several times. Stefan did some incredible tricks and talked about all the bones he’d broken learning them. Cody told him he was perfectly fine keeping the snowboard on the snow. He didn’t need to learn how to fly. He’d done that when he tried luge.
In between interviews, Cody and Kira raced over to the curling club. The boys were working on throwing take-outs, which meant exactly what it sounded like. If there was a rock in play, they wanted to take it out of play. Sometimes, they took out more than one rock at a time. Shane did something called a triple take-out and all the boys whooped and hollered for several minutes. They soon called it an afternoon and Pete rushed off the ice, sweeping Kira off her feet and spinning her around until she screamed that she was going to hurl on his chest. Pete immediately set her down.
“So,” Shane said. “You look like you’re still in one piece. How was snowboarding?”
“The trick is to keep the board on the snow,” Cody said. “Derek was not pleased that I didn’t face-plant into a snowbank, but he is looking forward to this evening when I try my hand at short track speed skating. Any sort of sport that involves skates usually means my ass ends up on the ice.”
“Don’t be hurting that cute little ass of yours,” Shane said, swatting him on the butt.
“I wish we could hang around,” Kira said. “But Cody has a date with a speed skater.”
They all wished him luck before Kira whisked him off to another ice rink where he was stuffed into another skintight suit and made to wear the worst skates ever invented. The blades were long, and every time Cody tried to move, they got tangled and sent him sprawling to the ice. Derek was grinning like it was Christmas. Cody flipped him off and promptly fell down again.
Svetlana did everything in her power to keep him on his feet, but she finally dragged him over to the boards and let him watch her skate. It was amazing. He couldn’t believe she could get so close to the ice without wiping out.
She explained skating singles and the team stuff. When he asked her about medals, she said she was in the running for the bronze, but anything could happen.
“How do you deal with the nerves?” Cody asked. “All I would be thinking about was wiping out.”
“I do get nervous, but it’s a nervous excitement. I love to compete.”
They talked until Cody’s feet felt like blocks of ice and his balls were starting to itch in the confines of his suit. Svetlana giggled when Cody complained about the tightness of his suit. She gave him a hug, patted him on the ass, and helped him down the tunnel to the locker room where Kira was waiting for him.
“Get me out of this shit. I’m exhausted,” Cody complained.
When Cody finally got back to his apartment, there was a note tacked on his door from Shane telling him to text the moment he found the note. Cody followed the directions, and in a few seconds, Shane poked his head out of his apartment and smiled sleepily at him.
“Sleep with me,” Shane said.
“Be right there,” Cody said as he dragged his tired and bruised body into his apartment and got ready for bed. He staggered down the hall and followed Shane to his bed. They barely had enough energy to kiss. Cody fell asleep with his lips pressed against Shane’s neck and woke up with Robbie holding his ringing phone next to his ear.
His evil editor had found a ski jumper for him to interview. Cody shouted into the phone and said under no circumstance was he going anywhere near ski jumping. His editor actually agreed with him, but said he had one hour to get his scrawny ass out to some restaurant by the airport. The ski jumper was leaving for the Olympic trials in a few hours.
Shane rolled over and pressed his lips to Cody’s bare shoulder. It sent a shiver down his spine and woke up his cock.
“Fuck,” Cody moaned. “I have to go.”
Shane rolled over, pinning him to the bed. “I should call your editor and tell him to fuck off.” Cody almost agreed when he felt Shane’s morning wood digging into his thigh.
“I have a few minutes.” Cody gasped when Shane wrapped his hand around his cock. He quickly shoved his hand down Shane’s shorts. Not exactly the most romantic moment, but right now, Cody would take anything.
“Hurry,” Shane panted.
They stroked each other furiously, coming at almost the same moment.
“Fuck,” Cody said.
Shane grabbed his come-covered hand and wiped it with a T-shirt. “Go,” Shane said. “Before I keep you here all day.”
“I’ll text you later,” Cody said and smiled.
It went on like that for the next few days. Cody was so frustrated he could hardly stand it. A couple hand jobs and a quick blow job were not exactly what Cody had in mind. Between his work and Shane’s practices, they hardly saw each other.
The day before Shane and the boys were leaving, Cody was stuck at work. He had hoped to spend the day with Shane, but his editor had other ideas. It took three hours to go through all the photographs with his editor and Derek. Cody didn’t understand why he needed to be involved with the pictures. There was a lot of snickering at Cody’s expense.
After the photos were chosen, he had to fact-check his notes. The calls took forever. It was late when Cody finally left the newspaper. He fired off a quick text to Shane and found out he was still at the club. He raced across town and ran inside. The club was filled with people wishing the boys good luck for a successful playdown. Shane came up behind him.
“Can I talk to you?” Shane whispered.
The strained look on Shane’s face made Cody’s stomach drop to his knees, but he managed a weak nod. He glanced at Kira before Shane dragged him into the locker room, pushing him down on the bench.
The nervous energy in the room made Cody’s head hurt. And Shane pacing in circles in the confined area didn’t help his mood.
“I leave for playdowns tomorrow,” Shane said.
Cody filled in the words to the next sentence with lines like, “I need to focus on my sport” or “I can’t be tied down” and finally “I don’t want a relationship.”
“I would really like it if you would come with me. I want you to come with me. I know this is moving really fast, but I think we’ve got something here. My family will be there, and I really want you to meet them.”
It took a few minutes for Cody’s brain to toss out what he thought Shane was going to say and replace it with what he actually said.
“Um, what?” Cody stammered.
“Too much? Too soon?” Shane asked. He looked upset and took a step away from Cody.
“No,” Cody said, grabbing Shane’s jacket. “I thought you were going to dump me.”
“We’re only starting,” Shane said.
Cody curled his fingers into Shane’s jacket, pulling the man closer. “I want that. I want it all, and after everything my editor put me through this week, he’ll have to give me time off.”
“You mean it?” Shane asked, his face brightening.
“Yeah, but if you want me to come along, I’m going to have to work all night to finish the fucking story,” Cody said.
“You’d do that for me?” Shane asked.
“Absolutely.”