The bus breaks down halfway between the airport and the hotel, the tires frozen to the street and the sputtering engine barely keeping the heater roaring. Ryan rubs his aching hands together, thinking wistfully of the handwarmers he has packed in his duffle which is in the luggage section of the bus, or even the Bengay cream he hates the minty smell of but likes the deep tingling warmth which is also in the duffle that requires someone to go outside and get.
In about three minutes people are going to be fighting over Parayko because the guy’s a oversize hot water bottle and Ryan doesn’t not want to cuddle Parayko but popping a boner wouldn’t be great for his guy-punching, lady-kissing reputation. Especially since he’d like to do a lot more than kiss Parayko who after three beers told Ryan in such an earnest tone that he fucked almost all of his college teammates, his golden-retriever smile getting bigger the more he described having a train run on him and Ryan had never wanted to go to college so much in his virgin life. God clearly hates Ryan, because Parayko sits down next to him, wearing a Blues-patterned snuggie and asking him if he wants to cuddle with him. Parayko adds, “You’re so big, Reever, you won’t be a heat vampire unlike some of the real shorties here,” with such a wholesome smile that Ryan can understand, in painful clarity, what drove most of the University of Alaska to fuck this big white boy. Ryan presses his thigh against Parayko’s underneath the snuggie, and Parayko curls an arm to pull Ryan closer, smushing his nose against the smooth skin of his neck as he tells Ryan how much he’s looking forward to the hotel hot tub now.Ryan’s boner throbs in time with the tender strokes Parayko keeps giving the back of his neck, and maybe this is the night Ryan can stop looking at gay porn while wondering what it’d be like to feel a hard body against his, a mouth on his cock, cold-chapped hands curling around his.