Page 56 of Delay of Game
He’d tried to pick out a restaurant as smoothly as Nate had taken him out for sushi that one time in Dallas, but he’d gotten overwhelmed picking things out, got in his own head about whether or not Nate was going to like the dinner and ended up being a little too stiff and serious. It was just a regular American bar with slightly fancier food, but it wasawkward.
To the point where Nate had leaned over the table and repeated, “Dude, seriously, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Zach said, except he wasn’t fine, because trying to give Nate the kind ofromancethat he deserved was rapidly becoming a disaster.
Nate seemed equally impervious to small gifts Zach got him, or at least, he seemed pleased with the new skate sharpener and pan (“It’s a really nice pan, but don’t you need one for your house instead? Maybe you should keep it, buddy?”) but no more than he normally would have.
Zach was running rapidly through the list of things he’d made that didn’t seem completely outlandish to do for Nate. Pretty much the only thing left wasswitch up sex!
That was going to be difficult too because, he thought a little smugly, they already switched it up pretty often. Not to brag—well, kind of to brag—but usually by this time in a thing, Zach found himself getting bored fucking the same person. Every time he fucked Nate, though, it was like he was learning something new about himself. If this was what dating did for your sex life, he was kind of sorry he hadn’t done it before.
But this was about Nate, and what he deserved, not about Zach.
They were in Denver, and they’d won in overtime. The team had gone out afterward, but Zach and Nate had left early to head back to the hotel, a little drunk, buzzing on the win more than the beer.
Zach had been thinking about it, how exactly he was going to blow Nate’s mindandshow him that he was worthy ofromance. He wasn’t going to do anything like hundreds of candles, because he’d tried that once for a girl he’d been really into in juniors, but they’d just set off the hotel room sprinkler and Zach had gotten in so, so much trouble with his billet and with the league.
The thing was, he knew Nate really fucking well by this point. Nate, who by outward appearances at least assumed the authority of the captaincy like it was the most natural thing in the world to him but agonized over every word and decision he made. He was tired all of the time, because of their schedule, but also because constantly thinking that many thoughts was exhausting.
Zach had figured out pretty much the first year they’d known each other that Nate liked not having to make the decisions, liked giving up the control of a situation sometimes, which suited Zach just fine. He hadn’t really taken advantage of it before, but he thought maybe...there was something to be said for it.
Nate looked sideways at him as they walked down the hall to Zach’s hotel room.
“What?” Zach asked, completely normally.
“You’ve been acting really weird...what are you up to?”
“I can’t try to do nice things for you without having other motives, Nate? My feelings are hurt,” Zach said, turning the puppy dog eyes on him.
Nate looked down, as if he wanted to say something else, but thought better of it. “You’re just—you’re making me really nervous.”
“Yeah, but you kinda like it, don’t you?”
He was rewarded by a flush that started at the tips of Nate’s ears and worked its way down. His eyes were dark and intent. “Zach...”
“Hey,” Zach said, sliding the key card into the door, “just trust me, okay, baby? We’re gonna have fun—it’s going to be good.”
There was something complicated happening on Nate’s face that Zach couldn’t figure out. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something but choked it back instead. Finally, he swallowed hard and said, “You know I do. Trust you.”
“Okay,” Zach said, and flashed what he hoped was an encouraging smile at Nate as they went into the hotel room together. It probably had slightly too many teeth in it. “Then just let me lead.”
“Okay.” Nate swallowed again, still pretty skittish. No matter how nervous he was, though, he was still so easy for Zach.
Zach kept smiling at him and moved forward. “I’m gonna undress you. Don’t help me, you have to let me do everything.”
“Ihaveto?”
Zach placed his hand over Nate’s mouth and said, “Shh. You said you were gonna trust me, okay?”
“I said Idotrust you...not that I’m gonna...”
He could feel Nate’s lips open and close against his hand, could see Nate’s throat bob, and he couldn’t entirely keep that stupid shit-eating grin off of his face. His attempts at romance might have gone to shit, but there was one thing Zach knew how to do, and, well. He was gonna fucking do it.
Nate stood very still, except when Zach went to tug the sweater and shirt he was wearing up over his head, and then he let his arms go up with it. Zach wondered if he would ever really get tired of looking at Nate like that, even though he’d memorized every line of his body by now. It was probably because even now, even after everything, Nate flinched a little, like he was embarrassed by the way Zach was looking at him. Which was kind of too intense, probably.
And they hadn’t even gotten to his pants yet.
Nate just watched him with that same stare the whole time he did it, like he was afraid to miss any little movement Zach made. Zach was careful to touch him as he did it, just here and there, to remind him what they were doing. Some people probably would’ve been mouthing off by now, but Nate knew him, and Nate was willing to be patient.