All Hands on Deck

Normality for some is synonymous with a slew of practically derogatory terms: boring, mundane, ordinary, plain, uneventful. Daily life with right person, however, makes normality feel extraordinary. In the aftermath of what both of them came to think of as the Letang incident, Tessa and Sidney gleefully jumped head first back into their own blissful normality, lazy Sundays off at home being their favorite part of that.

But, for hockey players and their staff, days at home are sometimes few and far between. Soon after the break, they were in Edmonton, two games into a five game Canadian road trip. It was four in the morning on a Sunday in the middle of February and Sidney was knocking softly on Tessa’s hotel door.

Roused from bed by the faint and annoying sound, tired and confused, she looked through the peephole, before pulling the door open as soundlessly as she could manage. Whispering she said, “What the hell are you doing?”

Sidney’s smile was one that read pure trouble. He kept his voice low as well. “I wanted to have breakfast with you.”

Tessa’s head snapped back as if he had slapped her and her wide eyes told him what she thought of that stupid idea. She leaned forward and stuck her head outside the door, looking both ways up and down the hall. “Are you out of your mind? Go back to your room.”

Instead, Sidney took a step closer to her and the doorway, putting a hand on the frame. “Everyone’s asleep and won’t be up for hours. Let me in.”

She shook her head emphatically. “Uh-uh, no, you need to leave. Now.”

“Tess…”

“Do I need to remind you that one person already knows about this? We don’t need anyone else finding out. We should be being more careful than ever.”

“I already told you -”

“No.” She shook her head again. This was not how they did things, this was too much. She would risk a lot, but she had to draw the line somewhere. Right? She told him again, “Go to your room.”

Sidney pulled out the puppy-dog eyes and that infamous pouty lip. “Oh, baby, don’t be like that. Just a few hours? I hate being around you but not with you.”

“Sid…” She tried to keep her insistence forefront in her mind, but his grin had worn her down quite quickly. She smiled at him, smothering a laugh. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Sidney nearly laughed himself, thinking how good it felt to be able to get under her skin with little effort. He leaned closer, pressed a tiny kiss on the tip of her nose. He used a hand to tilt her head, bring one ear closer to his mouth. “I miss our Sundays together when we’re on the road. I won’t stay long. I’ll be gone before anyone even realizes it’s morning.” He placed another delicate kiss on her neck. “Please?”

Tessa, who was prone to weak knees at the simple sound of his voice, the feel of his hands even innocently touching her body, was utterly defenseless against this sweet proposition. She pulled her head free of his hold and stepped back, holding the door open, answering with her actions.

Sidney stepped through with a smile, locking the door securely behind him. Tessa had already crawled back into bed under the fluffy white comforter. After putting his phone on the nightstand he joined her, nudging closer as she moved forward towards the center of the mattress. Long arms enveloped her, pulling her against his warm body covered only in a t-shirt and shorts. Tessa was in her normal sleep attire of panties and a baggy t-shirt.

There were teammates in rooms on either side of them, across the hall, up and down the hall on the whole floor. They should not be doing this. Truly, a terrible, awful, no good idea. The worst. But then Sidney’s voice was rumbling, but even quieter than a whisper, murmuring against her neck. “Mmmmm. Nice, eh?”

Tessa snuggled against him, rubbed her cheek against his forearm that was nestled under her chin. “You’re a jerk and I hate you for talking me into this.”

“Hate’s a strong word.”

“Fine, I dislike you a whole lot right now.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

She felt his hips pump twice against her, his erection obvious against her back. “Then stop grinding your ass on me.”

Tessa, actually and honestly, hadn’t even noticed, that was just her body’s natural reaction to his presence. She stuck her face in the pillow, muffling a laugh. “I hate you even more now.”

“Why? I didn’t do anything.”

“You came here and started this.”

Now he used the arm under chin to turn her face back towards his. “Hey, I came here for your company, not sex.”

“Explain your boner then.”

“I’m in bed with the most beautiful in Canada, who also happens to be rubbing her glorious and scantily clad ass on my crotch…do you honestly expect me to be able to control that?”

She turned over, burying her nose in his collar bones and linking her hands together behind his back. “No, you’re right. And this is nice.”

Tessa heard him breathe in the scent of her hair, felt his wide palms on her back and ass, pulling her closer. She bent her knee and slipped her leg between his thighs. “I love it when you admit I’m right.”
Yawning, she replied, “Of course you do.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Go back to sleep. I’ll wake you for breakfast.”

“You going to sleep, too?”

“No, I just wanna hold you, Tess.”

She squeezed him. “Goddamn, I love it when you’re snuggly.”

“Shh. Sleep.”

She did, pulling him as close as she could, feeling his firm body against hers, smelling his sweaty stench that was beginning to grow on her, and feeling his hot and steady breath against her skin. It was nice, as much as it pained her to admit it. And as long as they were quiet, she rationalized, they wouldn’t draw attention to themselves.

Sidney held her, rested his chin on her head, listened for movement in the rooms next to them and in the hall. He knew it was stupid, coming to her, staying with her. Foolish, yes, but it felt so damn good. They did this for a few hours, Sidney easily changing positions as she shifted. He didn’t fall asleep, mostly because he was too worried he would wake up too late and have to try and sneak out of her room unnoticed after everyone else was up.

To pass the time, he thought about hockey…and Tessa. He made mental lists of things he wanted to work on practice, moments from the games on this trip that he wanted to address with the other guys, and then he thought about all the things he still wanted to do with Tessa, which were not hockey related at all. A little after six, he pulled his arm out from underneath her, found her room key, and snuck downstairs. When he came back, Tessa was sitting up cross-legged in bed waiting for him. They both still kept their voices to a whisper. “You came back.”

“You thought I just left?”

She shrugged one shoulder. “Thought maybe you came to your senses.”

Sidney handed her a plate as he climbed back in beside her. “Voila, breakfast in bed.”

Tessa grinned at him as she took the breakfast from his hands. “And they say romance is dead.”

“Not with us, baby.”

Before she could reply, he kissed her. Strange that he hadn’t when he first arrived in her room. It wasn’t that he had forgotten, it’s just that perhaps that they had reached a point where wrapping your arms around the other person and holding them close felt just as nice and sliding your tongue in their mouth.

That being said, their game of tongue was still very, very nice. Especially the little moans Tessa was trying to keep in, but just barely couldn’t. She broke away from him smiling. “I knew you came here for sex.”

He gave her innocent eyes. “I was just kissing you.”

“Kissing me like you want sex.”

“You say that as if you don’t want sex.”

“I can’t want it right now, because I can’t have it right now.”

Sidney smirked at her. “Ah, so you do want it, you just can’t let yourself want it.”

“Takes one to know one, Sid.”

“Why do you have to be so difficult?”

Tessa pulled the napkin off the top of the plate and side-eyed him. “People in glass houses?”

“Well, I can’t really argue with that.”

“Good.” She folded a piece of bacon up in her mouth. “How come you didn’t get yourself any food?”

“I figured we could share.”

Tessa looked at the overflowing plate. “Um, no. This looks like just enough for me.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. You know I like a big breakfast.”

Sidney gave her unbelievable look. “You’re really not gonna share that with me?”

She rolled her eyes, putting the plate in between them. “Fine, but the pineapple is mine.”

“Deal.”

They ate, Sidney hogging the toast and most of the eggs while Tessa made sure to eat all the bacon before he even had a chance to reach for some. When they were done, Sidney licked the grease from her lips before laying back on the pillows. Tessa joined him and they got down to their normal Sunday morning antics.

Shoulder to shoulder, Tessa pulled out her book and Sidney was staring hard at his phone. “What’s a five letter word for ‘tee off’?”

Tessa lowered her book and threw him an annoyed glance with her eyes. “Sid, you know I hate those damn things.”

He nudged her leg with his foot. “Come on, I’m stuck.”

“How can you be stuck, you just started?”

“Just because I like puzzles doesn’t mean I’m good at them.” Tessa didn’t respond. He continued, “You think it’s something with golf?”

Her nose was already back in the paperback. “I don’t know, you’re the one who plays golf and does crosswords. Why would I know if you don’t?”

Sidney went back to staring the puzzle, tapping a long digit on the side of the screen. “Begin?” He typed it in, but the ‘n’ didn’t fit with the clue for the last horizontal line. “Shoot.” Tessa snorted out a laugh. “What?”

“You always use such innocent non-curses when you’re doing crossword puzzles. It’s really cute.”

Sidney adjusted his back against the pillow. “I do not.”

“Do so. When you play hockey the f-bomb is flying out of your mouth every two seconds, but put a puzzle in front of you and it’s ‘shoot’ or ‘darn it’ or ‘aw man’. You’re adorable is all I’m saying.”

“I am adorable, but I swear when I do puzzles.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Whatever, Higgins.”

“Ok, Crosby.”

Sidney ignored her and refocused on the clue. He tried onset, start, leads, and opens with no luck. “Dang.” He realized what he said and looked over at Tessa’s grin and sassy eyes. “I meant ‘fuck’.”

“Yeah, sure you did.” She put her book down, rolled on her side to face him. “Why do you think that is, that you don’t think to swear when you’re doing puzzles?”

Sidney shrugged, thought about it for a second. “Well, my grandma did get me started on wordsearches when I was younger. Maybe some part of my brain associates puzzles with being polite in front of her.”

Tessa smiled wide. “That is so goddamn cute.”

“You think?”

“Yeah. Not swearing because of your grandmother is cute, but when you cuss at other players that’s just flat out sexy.”

He looked at her a moment before squeezing the bun on the top of her head. “I wish I could meet some of your old boyfriends.”

That was random. Tessa propped her head up on her bent arm. “Why?”

“You really like it when I act like an asshole so I’m wondering what kind of jerks you must’ve dated.”

“Oh, Sid, you’re missing the point. I like it when guys are assholes to other men, when they fly off the handle in a jealous rage, but you always have to be nice to me. It’s a fine line to walk.”

“How am I doing so far?”

“Passing with flying colors, but forget about my exes, tell me about your grandma. Mom’s mom?”

“Yup, good old Betty Lou. She lived with us for a while when I was younger, but she passed away a few years ago.”

Tessa wrapped her fingers around his forearm. “I’m sorry. At least she got to see you win the Cup, though.”

“Yeah, yeah that was pretty special for her. She came to all my games when I was younger, even when my mom or dad couldn’t be there, she was.”

“She sounds really great, Sid.”

“I think so. She was tough and could be pretty blunt at times, which my grandfather pretended to hate, but you could tell he respected the hell out of her.”

“Well, he was probably terrified of her. You Crosbys seem to have mastered the friendly exterior that masks the raging beast.”

Sidney laughed quietly. “True, probably where I get it from.”

“That and the puzzles.”

“Yeah, she did like puzzles and crocheting more afghans than any family could use in a lifetime.”

They exchanged smiles and she told him, “You know I crochet? That afghan in my apartment, I made that.”

“Shut up, are you serious?”

“As a heart attack. My grandma taught me. Must just be a thing that old ladies teach their daughters and granddaughters. You got puzzles, I got the gift of yarn.”

“Now that’s adorable. You gonna make me something?”

“Like what, an afghan?”

“No, I have plenty of those. How about a scarf?”

Tessa giggled. “Um, sure. What color?”

“Black…and tan.”

“You’re a huge dork.”

“I thought you liked that about me.”

“I do, but I’m still going to tease you about it.”

“Fair enough. No girl’s ever made me anything before, so you better not back out.”

Tessa had to make fun of him. “Really? All those seventy plus women you obviously had serious and meaningful relationships with never made you any crafts after you fucked them? How rude.”

Sidney rolled his eyes at her. “Here we go again. My God, you’re annoying.”

“Keep telling yourself that, Sid. And by the way, try ‘anger.’”

Sidney remembered the puzzle he had been working on and lit up his phone again. He typed it in and ‘anger’ was a perfect fit for the other clues. “Son of a bitch.”

Tessa tried to roll away and hide her smug smiled, but Sidney grabbed her chin, planting a kiss on her lips. “Annoying, but you’re a smart one, my sweet peach.”

Well, that was new. “Peach, huh?”

“I’m trying it out. Like it?”

With his hand still on her chin, she thought about it. “It’s a little southern for my taste.”

“Well, if you want me to go full-blown Canadian I can call you my little maple leaf.”

Tessa just stopped herself from bursting out in raucous laughter. “Peach is better, but I’m partial to cutie.”

He kissed her softly, cupped her face with both hands now. “It suits you, that’s why. And you’ll always be my little cutie pie.”

“No rhyming on Sundays, you know the rules.”

“My apologies.” His mouth hovered over hers. “Can I have another taste of my peach?”

She brushed her lips against his, but pulled back, her breathing slightly elevated. “I have another peach you can taste.”

Sidney let out a groan. “Don’t tempt me, I’ll do it and have you screaming so loud not even a soundproof room would keep this secret.”

Tessa bit her lip, moved in to kiss him again. “God, how I wish it didn’t matter. I’d love to see all their faces afterwards.”

He returned the kiss through smiling lips. “Poor innocent Beau would probably be horrified.”

Giggling, Tessa kissed him again. “You saying Beau doesn’t eat pussy?”

“I’m saying he’d probably be scared if he made a woman come as hard as I do to you.”

A strangled sound caught in her throat and Tessa laid back as she pulled him on top of her. “Ugh, don’t say things like that, Sid, not right now when I can’t have you.”

He settled between her legs, rested his forearms next to her head, kissed her again. “What? About how hard I make you come?”

“Yes.”

He kissed along her cheek until he reached her ear. “Can I tell you how good you taste?”

“Please don’t.”

His tongue trailed down her neck. “How fucking sexy it is when you come in the middle of it and squeeze my cock like a vise?”

“Sid…” Tessa couldn’t catch her breath and she was aching to feel him, but she knew that was a horrendous and impossible idea. She pawed at his shoulders, shifted around underneath him. “You said you didn’t want sex.”

“I don’t. I’m just kissing you. And telling you how you drive me out of my mind when you pant in my ear, just like you’re doing now.” It was too much, he needed to leave, because maybe he didn’t want sex, but she wasn’t going to survive this. Tessa dug her nails in her back to keep from crying out. Sidney jerked his hips. “Yeah, and your nails across my skin, Tess…feels so fucking good.”

“Sid -” She was about to tell him to get his cock out and fuck her. Or maybe she was going to tell him to leave. Or maybe she was just going to beg him to stop talking like that. No one really knows because just then there was heavy knocking on her door that nearly startled the life out of both of them.

Without making a sound, Sidney mouthed a curse and rolled off her as she clammered out of bed, shouting, “Just a second.” With shaking hands Tessa grabbed a pair of pants and pulled them on, grabbing her phone in the process and frantically waving her hands at Sidney as if she could abracadabra him away. The bathroom was right next to the door so for lack of a better option, he ducked between the bed and the window, lying flat on the ground.

Tessa went towards the door and started an imaginary conversation in case the person outside her room had heard voices. “Ok, sorry, yeah, I’ve seen that before, you wanna use ice, not heat.” She opened her door and saw Kunitz standing there; she held up a finger, mouthing “one minute.” Then, she continued to act her ass off. “Uh-huh, sure. Call me if it get’s worse, ok? Alright, bye, Jake.” She fake hung up and faced Kuntiz. “Sorry about that, some of the guys in Reading still call me about things. I hope I didn’t wake you talking on the phone this early.”

He waved that off. “No, no, I didn’t hear a thing. I was on my way to the gym. I thought I would take a chance and see if you were up.”

Tessa gave him her brightest smile, trying to fake a calm she didn’t feel. “I just got up when Jake called me. What’s going on? You having trouble with something?”

“Nah, personal not business, I just didn’t have your number, otherwise I would have texted. Some of the guys were gonna go to a strip club tonight and -” He stopped when Tessa started laughing.

“Please, please tell me we’ve reach the stage in our friendship where I finally get to throw money at half-naked women with you boys.”

Kunitz joined her, chuckling almost embarrassedly. He rubbed a hand across the back of his neck, looking sheepish. “Actually I came by to invite you to the poker game the rest of us putting on while the delinquents go out to party. Mostly us not so single guys. You got plans for your night off?”

“I don’t, was gonna spend it here, reading, so I’d love to come to the game. And I know you guys’ll like it, I’m terrible at poker.”

“Nice! We’ll go easy on you, don’t worry.” He started down the hall. “We’re meeting in Geno’s room at eight. Bring your game face, Nessie.”

“I’ll have to make one up before then. I’ll see you later, Chris.”

Closing the door, Tessa leaned against it with her back and let out a breath. Sidney’s head popped up over the edge of the bed, grinning at her. Tessa just shook her head and went back to whispering. “I’m going to fucking kill you.”

Laughing silently, Sidney met her in the middle of the room, pulled her against him. “I’m sorry. I’m leaving right now.”

“Good.”

“You didn’t seem so eager for me to leave when you were writhing around under me in bed.”

“I cannot stand you, Sid.”

“Keep telling yourself that, Tess.”

He leaned down to kiss her and he only planned to leave a brief lingering, whisper of a touch on her lips. However, instead he found himself pushing her towards the fall, holding her against it with his body, and thrusting his tongue between her lips with a rhythm that had Tessa delirious with arousal.

She created some distance between their hips and reached into his shorts to pull out his throbbing cock. Sidney kept the kiss going for a only a few seconds as she stroked him. When he pulled his lips from hers, he kept his forehead against hers. “I thought we weren’t having sex.”

“We’re not. I’m just gonna take care of this for you. You just need to be quiet. Ok?”

Sidney nodded. “Ok.” He reached between her thighs that spread immediately when he got close. After she hooked her leg around his waist he slipped his hand under her panties and started stroking her outer lips with his fingertips.

Tessa broke the kiss again, but their mouths stayed close, less than an inch apart. Heavy breath consumed the tiny space between them and she squeezed her eyes shut to fight off the scream that was building her throat.

When Sidney spread her lips and brought his digits to clit she bit her lip hard, almost drawing blood. Her hand wrapped tighter around his cock, jerking him faster because she was almost there already. He thrust his hips against her hand, pumped his cock against her palm as he simultaneously tried to focus on her.

Tessa tried to kiss him, but she couldn’t catch a decent breath and needed her mouth free. She ducked her head, leaning it against his chest as she looked down to watch his reddened cock twitch against her skin as his hand moved erratically inside her panties.

“Sid…are you -” As she said it, he came, releasing his creamy orgasm into her palm. She used it to slick up his cock and jerk him a few more times until he stopped shuttering. When Sidney could think straight, he quickly dipped two fingers in her cunt to slick them up before returning to her clit that he rubbed just right until she came against him, pulling him closer with her unsoiled hand and muffling her squeaking against his chest.

Pulling back from him, Tessa lifted her hand and licked his come from her palm as he watched. He pressed her harder against the wall and kissed her roughly, tasting himself in her mouth. “You’re so nasty. And I love it.”

Tessa looked up at him and smiled. “Takes one to one, Sid. Now get the hell out of here. For real this time.”

He did leave, but not before kissing her one last time and washing his hand in her bathroom. Two minutes after he shut the door, Tessa got a text from him.

“Btw, i’ll be at the poker game so dont torture me by wearing something sexy”

“Pretty sure you find me sexy no matter what I wear.”

“Tru, but try”

“Ok, but it’s cool if I don’t wear panties, right? ;)”
“I hate u so much”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

Notes

This was written mostly due to a request from a friend who asked me to write more of their banter. I hope you liked it as much as she did. <3