behind your back ~ andrei svechnikov

Chapter Two

"Cannonball!!!" yelled Jordan Staal before he made a huge splash into the pool, nearly getting me and my brother wet.

"Hey, Staal! Watch where you're splashin' there, buddy!" Jaccob exclaimed before he turned his head toward me. "Sorry about my teammates. They're kind of small-brained," he chuckled, taking a sip out of his glass bottle of beer.

I chuckled. "It's all of that hockey you guys have been playing!" I exclaimed, lightly punching him in the bicep.

My brother laughed. "Maybe," he responded.

I glanced up and tried to scout where Andrei was. Typically Andrei would be hanging out with my brother the whole time, but I couldn't find the Russian anywhere.

"Hey, do you know where Andrei went?" I asked as I glanced back at Jaccob in confusion.

He shrugged before looking over both of his shoulders and scanning the deck to see if he could find his missing teammate. "Good question. Where did Svech go?" he questioned.

I stood up from the couch that my brother and I were relaxing on. "I'll go find him. Make sure he's okay and not dying," I chuckled before walking back to the sliding door separating the deck from the interior of the dining room.

"Andrei?" I called out, but I heard no response.

"Andrei?" I repeated as I started walking down the hallway and to find that my door had been opened. I'm pretty sure I closed it before helping my brother set up the party, but maybe I didn't. That could be very possible.

I peeked into my room and found nothing. Maybe I didn't close my door.

I gently put my hand on the black door handle and closed my door.

Without looking up, I started walking back down the hallway to continue looking for Andrei.

"Ugh!" I grunted as I ran into someone, and unfortunately, I had spilled my soda that I had in my hand all over my dress.

I glanced up to see who I was trying to find for the last few minutes.

"You called for my name?" Andrei asked me as I stared at my soaked dress in dripping, fizzy soda. He frowned as our eyes met again, a faint sparkle glistening in his muddy brown eyes.

I started to blush, but I wasn't sure if it was the embarrassment from running into Andrei or the fact that Andrei was so smoking hot that I wanted to take him back into my room, away from everyone else as he took control over my body—

"I'm so, so, sorry," Andrei stammered. "Here, have this for the time being," he said as he took off his sweatshirt and offered it to me. Of course he was shirtless underneath, he was probably going to jump into the pool with his teammates, which was why he was probably in the house.

At this point I was already fed up with how today went. I took Andrei's red Hurricanes sweatshirt with frustration and held a tight grip on it so it looked like I had accepted his apology.

Andrei and I looked into each other's eyes for a brief moment, a moment that felt like an eternity. It wasn't awkward, but I swear I could see a spark fly inside of Andrei's brown eyes.

I sighed, exhaling the frustration from Andrei out of my lungs. "You don't need to say yes to this, but I was wondering if you wanted to just stay in here...you know? Away from everyone else?" I asked, which honestly took a lot out of me.

He chuckled. "I'd love to, but I gotta go see what Jaccob wants. Maybe we could take a swim together? I mean, I'm sure you're a fantastic swimmer with that body of yours," he said, which made my face redden even more. I wasn't sure how to take that; was it a compliment, his way of flirting, or was he pointing out a possible insecurity and playing it off jokingly?