Body Checked by My Straight Captain novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Last Row
On the overnight bus home, Ty sits alone in the last row until the captain takes the seat beside him, sleeps against him, and Ty finds out Lars is as hard as he is; Lars says in the dark: Don't move.
Nobody on the college hockey team knew that Ty Ingram liked men.
He had never lied about it. Nobody had asked, and Ty didn't hand out his business to people who already had him figured wrong.
Least of all the captain. Lars Holmgren was straight. Everybody knew that.
So when Lars fell asleep against him on the overnight bus and said his name in the dark, Ty told himself it meant nothing.
Then Lars opened his eyes.
He had been awake the whole time.
An hour earlier, the team had piled onto the bus outside the visitors' rink, still loud from the win over St. Anselm.
Ty went straight to the last row, the window seat beside the lavatory.
The travel sheet taped inside the door had put him there again.
Lars made the sheet every trip, in square block letters. Row twelve, window, said INGRAM. It always did.
Ty sat alone with his hood up and watched the lights of the parking lot slide away.
Brody Hanratty leaned over a seat back two rows up and tossed him a bag of pretzels. "Private suite again, Prince? Save me a pillow."
A few guys laughed, and Brody grinned.
He looked at the empty seat beside Ty a beat longer than the joke needed.
Ty's father had paid for the arena where Lakemont played at home. The name INGRAM was painted over the north goal in letters four feet tall.
In two seasons Ty had not found a way to make anyone forget it.
He was also the fastest winger on the roster. He had won his spot in a blind skate-off, and nobody believed that either.
He kept his eyes on the window.
Then the aisle went quiet, and a big shape stopped beside his row.
Lars Holmgren stood there with his duffel on one shoulder.
There were empty seats all the way up the bus. Ty could see at least six.
Lars dropped into the seat next to him and stretched his legs into the aisle.
Ty's stomach tightened.
"Taking one for the team, Cap?" Brody called.
Lars's jaw shifted. "Knock it off."
Nobody said another word. When the captain spoke, the bus listened.
Lars tipped his head back against the seat and shut his eyes.
Ty stared at the fogged glass and did not breathe much for the next twenty minutes.
At some point he fell asleep.
He woke sometime after midnight, curled toward the window, and Lars was behind him.
All of Lars. His chest was flat against Ty's back and one thigh lay wedged against Ty's thigh. Warm breath moved on the back of Ty's neck.
Every time the bus rattled over a seam in the highway, the pressure came again.
Ty pressed his forehead to the cold window and bit down on his lip.
He could not let Lars wake up and find this.
He could not let Lars find out how his body was answering it.
Lars Holmgren had dated one girl freshman year, and the team still talked about her.
And Ty had been staring at the back of his neck in the locker room for two years.
The bus took a long turn. Lars's weight slid harder against him.
Ty pushed himself closer to the window.
There was nowhere left to go.
The road dipped. Another bump.
Something hard pressed against him, low on his back.
Ty went still.
It took him a moment to understand what it was.
Then he understood, and his pulse slammed in his ears.
Lars Holmgren was just as turned on as he was.
Ty lay with his face to the glass and his hands locked in the front of his hoodie.
Maybe Lars was dreaming. Maybe he'd wake up in a second, swear, and slide across the aisle, and that would be the end of it.
Behind him, Lars shifted. His mouth came close to Ty's ear.
"Ty," he said, low and rough.
It was not a sleeper's voice.
Ty looked up at the black window and found Lars's reflection in the glass above his own.
Lars's eyes were open. They were fixed on him.
"Don't move," Lars said.
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