"Damn it," he growled at his dick, which was coming to life.
Roan needed to stop thinking about him.
Last night was fantastic. It was also in the past, where it needed to stay. Roan had to get to Cam's, pick up Liam, and do what he'd promised his sister he would do. Take care of Liam. That was the only thing he should be focused on. Definitely not some closeted hockey player who would be happy to throw him a bone from time to time but would never be able to provide anything more than that.
No, Roan definitely didn't see Seg hooking up with a single dad. No way. That would probably scare the guy to death.
"Okay, good," Roan mumbled to himself. "Next time Seg calls, I won't answer. That's the easiest thing to do. I'll put him out of my mind. If I don't hear his voice, it'll be easy."
Yeah, right.
Even he didn't believe that shit.
Didn't mean he wasn't going to take his own advice though. All in all, it really was the best thing for everyone.
Ten
Three and a half weeks later
January 5th
"FUCK!" SEG ROARED, GRIPPING HIS stick, tempted to break the fucking thing over his knee. The only reason he didn't was because that shit would get him in some serious fucking trouble.
Plus, it would hurt like fuck and he was already dealing with what was, quite possibly, a broken finger.
Rather than make matters worse, Seg exhaled roughly, skated to the sin bin, then planted his ass on the bench and grabbed a water bottle.
He was going to have to get his shit together. The ice was no place for him to be losing it. Coach wouldn't give a shit that he was stoking this fucking flame of anger that had been burning inside him since the day he'd tried to call Roan only to get his voice mail. Three fucking weeks ago. Coach wouldn't care that Seg had left at least five messages since then and not once-not one fucking time-had Roan returned his call or texted him back.
Sure, Seg had made plenty of excuses for Roan. After all, it had been the holidays. He'd figured Roan was busy celebrating Christmas and New Year's with his family. That was the reason he hadn't called him back.
Right.
Because there hadn't been seventeen other fucking days within that time frame when Roan could dial the goddamn phone.
Fuck.
It was exactly as he'd feared. Roan hadn't been interested in anything more than one night. A goddamn meaningless hookup. And though Seg had agreed to that the first time around, he damn sure hadn't signed up for it the second. If he'd known …
Fuck that. Seg knew that if he'd known he would never see or hear from Roan again, he still would've let him come inside. He wanted Roan with a passion that rivaled anything he'd ever known. Even now as he fumed after that bullshit penalty he'd received.
Glancing up at the clock, he saw there were only thirty-five seconds left on the two minutes he'd been relegated to the box.
Grabbing the bottle again, he squirted water in his mouth, swallowed, then put it back. By the time the clock was at the ten-second mark, he was on his feet, waiting for the door to open. It wasn't that he was looking forward to the ass reaming he was going to get from Coach, but sitting here thinking about Roan wasn't going to change a damn thing.
He knew-just like with everything else he'd wanted in his life-if he really wanted Roan, he had to make it happen. He couldn't sit around with his thumb up his ass and wait for shit to happen.
The door opened and Seg shot out onto the ice, heading for the bench as the Arrows crossed the blue line. Someone else would go out there this shift while he sat and fumed a little longer.
That was the way it worked.
"THAT WAS A GOOD GAME," Cam said, although he didn't sound quite so upbeat.
"Yeah, if by good you mean shitty," Roan offered, following Cam down the row of seats to the aisle.
"Yeah, they lost, but still."
"Still nothin'," Roan argued. "They looked like shit. Something's off with them."
"They look better than last season," Cam countered.
"Agree. But they aren't meshing out there. It's like their timing is off."
This was the same conversation-although it went either way-that he and Cam had after most Arrows games. Didn't matter if they were watching at home or if they'd come to the arena. They hadn't been able to go to many games this season, so when Cam called and offered to take him while Gannon and Milly babysat, Roan had been hard-pressed not to say yes.
Once they made it up the steps to the concourse, Roan fell into step beside Cam. He glanced up to realize they weren't walking toward the doors they'd come in from the parking lot.
"Where're you goin'?" he asked, feeling suddenly nervous.
"Phoenix told me to stop by after the game. Said he had something for us."
Roan narrowed his eyes. "Well, I'll wait for you outside."