Overtime (Alpha Omega Hockey Book 3) by Marina Vivancos

Author:Marina Vivancos [Vivancos, Marina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-17T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Ishir woke up locked in Zee’s arms. Everything was warm, the foreign hotel bed made familiar by the scent of Zee everywhere.

He closed his eyes. His body ached, and so did his soul. He felt as if he’d run an emotional marathon, left depleted and hungover with exhaustion.

“Hey,” Zee murmured from behind him. It was soft. Tentative. His large hands were splayed on Ishir’s hip, his stomach.

Ishir wanted to stay there forever, and it hurt to know that would never be possible. “Hey.”

They were silent for a while. Ishir tried to recapture some of the acceptance he’d felt the previous night—the ability to appreciate the simple act of having without it being tarred by keeping.

They lay there until Ishir’s phone went off, signalling they had to get up for team breakfast. Ishir leaned over to the bedside table and turned it off. Zee had plugged in both their phones the previous night, each on their own nightstand like this was routine.

Ishir tried to untangle himself, but Zee didn’t let him get far, rolling him onto his back.

“You okay?” Zee asked, brown eyes piercing.

“Yeah. I’m okay.”

Zee nodded, still searching his face.

“You?”

“Yeah. Just. I meant to talk about it before, you know? About, like…helping you out myself instead of choosing some random Alpha.” He said the last words derisively. No one but me is good enough for you, they implied.

Ishir wanted to laugh—that sentiment hit closer to home than Ishir wanted to admit. “I mean, I didn’t ask what was going to happen, either. Guess I was scared to.”

Zee winced. “Right. I, uh…that’s probably my bad.”

Ishir swallowed. “Why don’t we talk about it?” The question was soft, almost inaudible.

Zee’s gaze flickered away. “Do you want to stop?”

Ishir had to take a few beats to process that. “What does that have to do with talking about it?” He could see the struggle on Zee’s face. The fear.

“I just…can’t we just keep doing this? Does it have to have a name?” As if talking about it and defining it were the exact same thing.

Maybe if Ishir were older and more mature. If he hadn’t loved Zee desperately for so long. If he wasn’t so used to hiding pieces of himself. Maybe then, he’d have had the capacity to say, ‘No, let’s talk about it. I can’t live like this.’

Instead, Ishir let it go.

“Okay,” he said and meant it. He rolled off the bed, away from the nest of their combined scents. “I take first shower, though.”

“Deal.”

And that was that.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.