Traded (Nashville Grizzlies, #1)

by Carly Marie

The conversation with Blaise had reality smacking into me, my erection from a few minutes earlier totally forgotten. I was about to pack up and head to a brand-new team in a new state, to effectively start over again.

“Wait, that kid that lived here with us for a few years, Trevor, doesn’t he play for the Grizzlies now?” Leo asked.

Seth elbowed me, reminding me to hear Coach out but keeping his words cautious. “Who’d we get?” Even Seth held his breath when Coach opened his mouth. “Braxlyn Cernak.” “Brax?” The way my jaw dropped open and my voice rose a few octaves, it was impossible for me to hide my shock.

“I know it’s a small world, but I lived with Tom Cernak my first two years with the Mustangs.”

“But it makes no sense for Brax to be in a hotel all alone when Trevor lives right there!” “What if Trevor has a boyfriend or girlfriend? What if he’s happy living alone? What if he doesn’t want a houseguest for an indeterminate length of time? Just because you have less than zero problems opening the house to people doesn’t mean that Trevor will feel the same.”

“Trev, listen to me. Whatever’s in your bag isn’t going to freak me out. I’m a gay man. My dad owns a BDSM club. Do you really think that there is anything you could say or do, shy of committing a crime, that would surprise me?”

“My dad owns DASH. My entire family is kinky. If you think your being a little is going to surprise me, you’re wrong. Littles are nearly vanilla compared to some of the things my family is involved in.”

I growled into the pillow and felt the bed dip. The pillow was pulled from my face and Easton’s face was way too close to mine as he spoke. “Doms do not pout.”

“No, it’s my well-intentioned dad overstepping. Besides, I’m not looking for a boyfriend.” “You’re looking for a boy. Yada yada yada. I know, I know, I know. Gah, how many times do I have to hear that?”

“Littles?” I knew about littles but I didn’t know any myself. In all my trips to the kink club here in Boston, I’d never come across one. Hell, I hadn’t come across a boy who would take me seriously. I wasn’t a hairy, muscled-up Dom who wore leather and boots. I was a lean, tall guy who wore comfortable jeans, button-downs, and tennis shoes. I was more often than not mistaken for a sub than a Daddy, despite my badge clearly spelling out my status. I couldn’t count on one hand the number of times I’d had someone tell me I’d grabbed the wrong badge. If a boy couldn’t believe I was a Daddy and didn’t take a younger Daddy seriously, I couldn’t imagine a little wanting anything to do with someone who was likely younger than them.

was beginning to think there wasn’t a boy in the world looking for a teddy bear Daddy who would rather spoil their boy than punish them.

“I like sweet boys, but you’ve seen how they don’t take me seriously.” “So maybe you need a little. Look how cute this one is.” He flipped his phone around to show me a picture of a boy in a thick diaper and a T-shirt with little lions on it. He was holding a small lion in one hand and a chunky building block in the other. A pacifier was clipped to his shirt by a ribbon and I was pretty sure the thing out of focus beside him was a bottle.

Do you think the rumors are true?” Easton had bounced topics at least twelve times since we’d placed our orders, so I wasn’t going to pretend to follow his train of thought. “What rumors?” “About all the crazy traditions the Grizzlies have. Oh, I want to see a picture of the bear you get!”

Their teddy bears were things of legend. Every single player had one. They showed up in team photos all the time. I wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up with trading cards of their own at some point. Grizzlies, teddy bears, it made sense if I turned my head to the side and really squinted. It was hard to believe the rumors that games of kickball and tag actually happened at practice, though.

I lamented in my thoughts about the trade, the move, and now moving in with the man I’d had a crush on for a decade until I eventually fell asleep, only waking up when I heard the landing announcement.

The hoodie swallowed his top half and the sweatpants he was wearing were no better. They each had to be at least two sizes bigger than he was, but he looked like he was ready to curl up with a blanket and a story for bedtime. And I was officially going to kill Easton when I met him on ice the next time. I wasn’t going to give him a warning either. He’d planted the idea of littles in my head and now I was thinking about Trevor as a little. Easton deserved a friendly check into the boards.

I already knew that I preferred cuddles and quiet nights to punishments and chaotic clubs. Being a Daddy to a little would take that need to care for my partner in a different direction, but I was pretty sure it would be the perfect fit for me.

As I clicked off my phone, I was cursing my best friend for putting the idea of being a Daddy to a little in my head. I doubted I’d find a little who wanted a Daddy with a crazy schedule, one who ate, breathed, and slept hockey for eight or more months a year, and one that should have just graduated college had I gone that route.

“What?” He waved his hand around. “You look like you need to poop.” My blank stare made Yuri huff and call over to Seth, who quickly excused himself and jogged toward us. When he was near, Yuri pointed to me. “Brax does not understand. I ask, money for thoughts.” Seth snorted a laugh. “Yuri, bud, that isn’t Brax, that’s your butchering of American sayings. It’s a penny for your thoughts.” Yuri pursed his lips. “That saying is stupid. Penny is cheap. Thoughts worth more.”

Tom was famous in his own right and always the doting dad. Leo was loud and proud and downright clueless. I’d never understand how a man who had lived with a hockey player for twenty or more years didn’t know the game backward and forward.

I had wanted to curse the slip-up from Brax in the car. Not only was my new roommate sexy, he was kinky to boot. That left questions about what type of Dom he was, which were very dangerous thoughts in a locker room before a game, surrounded by friends and family.

As the second shortest player to ever play professional hockey, I’d learned to not only play hockey, but play aggressive hockey. It meant I had a lot of penalty minutes and got into more fights than most centers did, but it also kept me out of trouble more often than not. I’d earned the respect of players on my team and others and they knew that I wouldn’t hesitate to retaliate.

“Triage room. Why is this so hard? Every time one of you gets hurt, the rest of you act like you’ve never seen this room before.”

“How much do you think Coach’s screaming match is going to cost him?” Jean-Luc asked as he peeled his jersey over his head. Seth laughed. “Not as much as it will cost Gatzenfuck. That was a suspendible hit, and he’s been in trouble for shit like that in the past. Last season he got a four-game suspension for a near-identical hit. The guy’s a loose cannon.”

This group of men was the most unique I’d ever been around and for the first time since I’d been picked up by Boston, I felt like I fit in. There were no cliques or impossible bars to cross to be considered a member of the team. We played together, we fought together, we laughed together. It was refreshing after the last few years of feeling like I was on the outside of an organization that had, in theory, wanted me.

“Shit, my dad and Leo are here.” “I saw them on the screen a few times. They were hysterical. I’m pretty sure your dad was yelling for you to hit him harder next time.” “Knowing my dad, he probably was.”

Hey, Brax, you’re really hot and I think I’m attracted to you. Yeah, I know you’re the newest player on the team and I’m the captain. And yeah, I know that I’ve technically known you since you were a kid and not only do I know your dad but played on the same team with him. Oh, and did I mention that I’m a little looking for a Daddy? Nope. Wasn’t happening. I was locking that shit up in a box and throwing away the key.

Perving, I was totally perving on Brax as he made us breakfast.

The only way it could have been better would have been if Derek and his Daddy had come over for the afternoon, but playdates between a professional hockey player and a country musician with three kids who was married to the sheriff of Williamson County were not as easy as a pick up the phone that morning type of thing. They required planning and timing, and sometimes replanning.

I don’t know if you should be more afraid of Seth, or his siblings, or upsetting Seth and having his siblings come after you.” “Johnson family is scary, got it.” They weren’t scary. They just loved fiercely and had more passion than any other family I’d ever met.

“Seeeeeetttth,” Maz all but growled out, elongating Seth’s name to an impressive length. He rolled his eyes before huffing. “Fine. I’ll behave.” Maz was the one to roll his eyes that time, and he opened his mouth to say something else when the oven timer went off. “Behave has never been in a single Johnson family member’s vocabulary.”

“Easton. I’m going to kill him. He’s been pushing me to find a little since I got traded. He’s the one who found this place and told me to get a membership. He’s been on me to find a boy for a year and now he’s got it in his head that I need a little, but he won’t listen to me when I tell him that no little is going to want a younger Daddy, and I’m not looking for a boy that’s not going to understand that I’m basically married to hockey three-quarters of my life.”

“What if I had a boy I thought you might like to meet?” Seth’s question surprised me. It sounded nice, but I found myself being more honest with him than I had been with Easton—at least as honest as I could be without outing Trevor. “I’d tell you thanks, but no thanks. I already found myself a boy who wants nothing to do with me.”

“It’s better than I ever imagined.” The lust in my brain cleared long enough for his words to fully settle in. “Wait, what?”

“I might have a crush on you.” His chuckle was uncomfortable and I knew he couldn’t believe he was putting voice to his thoughts. “You what?” How could this man have a crush on me? That just complicated my already complicated feelings. He was supposed to be my teammate. Lines weren’t supposed to get crossed, not like this. If my crush was reciprocated, the odds were that I’d end up telling him things I didn’t want to tell him.

“I’ve had a crush on you for years. But please don’t mistake right now as an ill-advised opportunity. I had a crush on you before I really knew you. Now I know you better and that crush has turned from a farfetched fantasy to very real feelings.” He’d once again rendered me speechless.

“You’re making a lot of assumptions. I might be younger than you but I know what I’m looking for. I know what I want. And I can assure you that when I said your needs aren’t going to surprise me, that’s exactly what I meant.” I opened my mouth to refute that, but he held up a hand to stop me. “No, do not dismiss me as a kid or just Tom’s son. I’m a professional hockey player, just like you. I didn’t earn my spot on the Grizzlies or in the NHL because of who my dad is. If anything, it made me have to work harder. I know what I gave up when I decided to make the NHL my life. I gave up any semblance of normalcy. I gave up ever being able to find a boyfriend—a boy—who would understand me and my needs.”

“Yeah. I’ve known for years that I’m a Dom, a Daddy. The boys I’ve met in the past haven’t been interested in a younger Daddy, every single one of them assuming I’m too young to know how to be a Daddy for them.

I wanted to tell Easton that I’d found a boy, but I wasn’t sure that Trevor had actually agreed to be my boy. He’d basically agreed to show me why I wasn’t prepared to be his Daddy. What he hadn’t figured out yet was that I didn’t care about what he liked to play with when he was little, or what being little meant to him. I was attracted to him, little side and all.

“Be nice to my boy. You can’t go asking him stuff like that when he isn’t ready.” Maz chuckled. “Get used to it. Seth hasn’t learned about privacy yet. We’re still working on it.”

If Brax was going to be my Daddy, I’d have to tell him at some point, but the first eighteen hours after deciding to date wasn’t the best time to drop a bombshell like “my best friend is a country music sensation and little.” That was better third date material.

He crossed his large arms over his chest and gave me a chuckle. “Do you really think you and Cernak got anything by me? You two have been shooting each other heart-filled glances since he showed up.” My look of shock must have been obvious because he shook his head in amusement. “You had no clue, did you? Please tell me I haven’t made that attraction up.”

Words weren’t enough, so I pulled him toward me to kiss him firmly. When we finally pulled back, Trevor was flushed, though I didn’t get the impression it was from embarrassment. “What was that for?” “For telling me that you feel safe with me. That’s a huge honor. Come on, let’s go to the shower and we can talk more.”

He was just a man who happened to be a knowledgeable Daddy trying to care for me. Care for me while also seeing just how embarrassed he could make me by discussing expectations. Spoiler alert: very.

“Let him pick out what he wants. Then I’m sure we can find some to share.” Trevor picked out a book filled with sea creatures and then looked over to everyone else. And by everyone, I meant at least half the team that had crowded around our seats. “They’re coloring books, not free dirty mags. Good lord, you all are like vultures,” I said to the group, a smile on my face and in my voice.

“So imagine my surprise when I discovered that you were the boy I’d always wanted and the little I’d only just been figuring out I needed. There will never be another man or boy more perfect for me than you are.”

“They aren’t going to bite.” “I’ve been checked into the boards by your dad before. It’s not his bite I’m worried about.”