Chapter 8: Ice, Ice, Baby

"You're kidding, right?" Sydney balked, her wide brown eyes jumping to Vaughn's ecstatic, unshaven face.

"Nope," he grinned, sliding his hands into his pockets as his eyes flashed down to his shoes in a brief moment of embarrassment at her sudden attention.

"You did all of this for me?"

"It's your birthday, Sydney, I wanted it to be special."

"So you rented the entire ice-skating rink just for us?"

"Yep."

"Just us two?"

"Yep," he pulled out the keys with a wink. "I know a guy, pulled a favor, and he agreed. It's just you and me."

A giddy feeling began like butterflies in her stomach at the prospect of having the entire day off to spend with Vaughn at the rink. An entire day of goofing off like kids on the ice sounded like a pleasant reprieve from the harsh reality of their lives. Leaning up on her toes, one hand tickling the hair at the back of his neck to pull him toward her, she pressed a sweet kiss to his lips as Michael grabbed their hockey stuff off of the counter, seeing the bill resting underneath the gym bag.

Snagging it before she could see the ridiculous amount of money he's spent in order to reserve the arena for their own personal use, he shoved it into his back pocket as they walked toward the family locker rooms to store their gear and put their skates on.

An hour later, her cheeks rosy and nose runny due to the cold temperature, she conned Vaughn into a one on one hockey game.

"I know you'll kick my ass, but humor me. I've been getting better!"

His response was just to laugh and skate away from her toddling stance on the slick surface. "Whatever you say, Syd," he grinned, elegantly making his way to the bench and grabbing his stick, as well as a somewhat smaller stick wrapped in bright pink and purple wrapping paper. "Time for present number one."

She laughed when he presented it to her, the dimples caving her cheeks in a way that made his heart speed up. "I wonder what it is?"

The small, lighter – and in general – more feminine hockey stick was the perfect size for her as she tested its weight in her gloved hands. Her eyes caught the large bold letters from the top to the bottom reading SYDNEY. "Are you sure this isn't a gift for you that just has my name written on it?"

"Hah. Hardly. I just figured that with all the time we've spent here over the last year or so, you know – you might want your own."

"Thank you, it's a great gift." She leaned up to kiss him once more, momentarily forgetting that she was in skates rather than shoes. Her feet slid back, Michael's arms wrapping around her torso before she had a chance to smash into the ice. "My hero."

"You're lucky I was here ma'am. That would have been a nasty fall." Sliding into a deep voice and cocking his eyebrow in an imitation of a superhero, she pushed him away with a giggle.

After a brief kiss, the game started. To Vaughn's surprise, she was holding her own on the ice. He wasn't keeping score, of course, but she was doing remarkably better than in their previous solo hockey matches. After a half hour or so, she begged for a break.

"I don't do this all the time! Look, you practice, and I'll be back for round two. I'm gonna go get a drink." He agreed, watching her skate on wobbly legs to the opening and climbing out before disappearing into the locker rooms entrance.

What started out as just a few shots into the net became an all out hockey practice for him. His mind focused completely solely on the puck and his footwork, gliding from one end of the rink and firing at the net – missing rarely. After twenty minutes and one missed shot later, he stopped. His breathing was ragged and sweat had coated his entire body, most only showing on his face, neck and now damp hair. Pulling his hand out of a large glove, he ran it through his hair, frowning as the chilled sweat covered his fingers.

The sudden thought of Sydney popped into his head, and he looked up from the ice for the first time since she'd left. She wasn't anywhere on the chilled surface, but he finally spotted her sitting on the edge with a warm smile on her face. A blush tinted his cheeks as he skated over to where her dangling legs were swaying back and forth, opening to accommodate his warm body before closing around the small of his back.

"I love watching you play," she murmured, eyes taking in his sweaty, breathless appearance with a grin, noticing for the first time that he looked almost the exact way after sex – only with less attire.

"Sorry I forgot about you, I got in the zone."

"Well, I don't mind at all. It totally turns me on watching you do something you love."

"Does that mean we should put up a mirror on the ceiling?"

Her only answer was a patented eye-roll and the lowering of her mouth to his. What started as a brief, almost chaste, kiss, escalated into something more urgent. Sydney's mouth opened up to his insistent tongue, the flavor uniquely Vaughn as well as the spearmint gum he'd been chewing causing small sparks of electricity to shoot from her sensitive lips to her brain, and finally out to other areas.

Pulling his gloves off behind her back, his hands wormed their way underneath her layers to find the warm skin waiting for him. She gasped slightly at the mixing of her heated skin and his cool fingertips, their lips popping apart. Sucking in a lungful of air, Vaughn was the first to open his eyes. The lovely flush to her cheeks – he thought – was something other than the chilled air of the arena, though his second thought send blood directly to his groin.

'Could we get away with having sex at the ice rink?'

"We could get away with it you know…there's no one here," Sydney's answer made his attention snap back to the willing young woman in his arms.

"How'd you know that's what I was thinking?" His words were muffled by her skin as he dove in to trace the column of her throat, his tongue lashing at the sensitive spot below her earlobe.

She moaned, her gloved hands digging into his shoulders through his thick sweatshirt as his own hands moved up, unclasping her bra without her really noticing. "because I know how you think, most of the time."

"Is it because I'm a guy?"

"Because you're too much like me."

He nodded, pulling her back onto the ice as she hesitated. "You're kidding right? I'm not gonna do it with you on the ice. I was hoping for somewhere a little…less cold?"

He just laughed, tugging her closer to the edge, pushing his hips up against hers. "Scared?"

"Of you or getting frostbite on my ass?"

"Both,"

"Well, I know how to handle you, but the moment they have to amputate my cheeks because of gangrene I'll ban you from sex for the rest of your life." Her voice was a sexy whisper against the column of his throat, the shudder wracking his body having nothing to do with the chill of the rink.

He compromised. "Well…who said anyone had to be on the bottom?" he asked before sucking a mark to her neck.

She pulled her head back, her eyes questioning as he pulled her smaller gloves from the inside of his jacket, slipping them over her frozen fingers before lifting her off of the wall and skating awkwardly toward the benches where the players usually sat.

"Vaughn…what are you doing?"

"Hush."

His order was playful yet serious, and she somewhat obeyed, though it was never something she'd been used to doing willingly. Still, she had no way to object after he'd fastened his mouth over hers, his tongue commandeering her mouth before she could react.

Nimble fingers unbuttoned buttons, unzipped zippers, but leaving most of the clothes on to keep out the cold, despite the fact that neither party was chilled. With pants and underwear pushed down around their hips, the gloves were abandoned as fingers and hands went to work to finish stimulating their already sensitive bodies.

Sydney groaned against the corner of Michael's mouth as he inserted a finger to the knuckle inside her wet warmth, her hand gripping his hardness with a tight squeeze as Vaughn's moan echoed hers before he pushed her away momentarily. Turning her away from him before pushing her to her knees on the players bench and walking up behind her.

"You're loving this aren't you?" she asked with a pant as he crawled up behind her, lowering his chest to her back as his arms wrapped around her torso to prop himself up with the heels of his hands resting against the cold steel of the bench.

"Loving what? Having you bent over the benches I sit on each Sunday during my games?"

"Maybe…"

"Don't know what you're talkin' about," he muttered before pushing his engorged shaft completely into her body, her shocked expression and reaction making him laugh before pushing aside the hair at the nape of her neck to press a kiss against her soft skin.

Sydney turned her head finding his mouth as his hips pulled back slowly, though he couldn't make it a full thrust and settled by pressing back in just as slow. A moan moved passed his lips as his tongue shot out to duel with hers, his hands propped just behind hers on the less than wide bench below them. Their stance, with him over her back, kept his thrusts short and sweet as his hips did all the work, though she couldn't help but rock her body back to meet his.

Michael pushed off of the bench and sat up, their lips smacking as they separated. He set his hands on her hips to aide in pulling her back to meet his thrusts, a groan bubbling up from his chest as he bottomed out inside her.

"This angle is amazing, we should do this more often," his exclamation was a harsh whisper, her nod from below her agreement as she panted and pressed her hot forehead into the cool metal. The deep bend raised her back end higher, the unusual position forcing the blunt head of his erection to collide with her g-spot.

The churn and fire grew in her stomach quickly as her fingers wrapped around the edge of the bench, knuckles turning white as her climax loomed on the horizon. Michael's grip tightened as his hands slid down from her hips to the top of her thighs, his arms straining to pull her back with each forward push of his waist. Skipping the long slide in and out he transitioned to quick and hard half thrusts, but he found that he was missing the slapping sound of their flesh as their clothes muffled the usual noises from their lovemaking.

"Michael, I-" she whined, his first name tumbling from her lips making him smile as he knew that only in this moment when the sex was really good did she not call him Vaughn. Crying out her muscles convulsed, and she came hard around his thrusting member. The tremors and contractions around him proved to be too much as he exploded with a hoarse shout, his seed spurting in pulses before he collapsed in a clothed yet sweaty heap against her back.

Unfortunately, her arms gave way from their shaky position on the bench. His forced weight made Sydney fall to her chest and stomach, her chin hitting with a pang against the metal.

"Oh, shit - baby, I'm sorry," he muttered, pushing off of her quickly as she chuckled from below him slightly out of breath. He helped her up, a drop of blood landing below them. "You're bleeding."

She couldn't help but laugh as he grabbed her glove from the floor and setting it gently against her chin before zipping his pants back up and zooming across the ice to grab his gym bag.

"It's okay, I've got a first aid kit in here," he explained as she stood up and put her clothes back together as he took out the kit and the parts he'd need to bandage up her wound. "Doesn't look like this is gonna stop hon, you might need stitches."

"Really? That's exciting!" she exclaimed, Vaughn rolling his eyes. "What? I mean, c'mon! It's our first sex related injury! And on my birthday no less."

"Not including the time that I left the hickie on your neck the day after we started dating resulting in your father slamming me up against the wall and giving me a concussion?"

"Didn't count. Wasn't during sex,"

Vaughn countered with a grin, wadding up a piece of gauze and pressing it to her bloody chin. "C'mon, we'll have to get to the doctor."

A short drive to the urgent care, and nearly a half hour after they called her back, Sydney walked from the hallway to see her boyfriend crouched on the floor with a toddler building a tower out of blocks in the small, family waiting room. She thanked the doctor as Michael excused himself from the giggly toddler and moved to her side.

"How bad?"

"Four stitches. Quite possibly the most pleasurable wound I've ever gotten." Sydney leaned up on her tiptoes to press a kiss against his mouth as they walked back to the car.

"Weiss is gonna laugh his ass of at this one."

"Oh no he is not Michael Vaughn, because you are not going to tell him a thing. You and I made a deal."

"I had my fingers crossed."

"You want to have kids some day?"

"You offering?" he countered with a restrained chuckle, Sydney tossing him a glare as her retort was cut off by the ring of her cell phone.

"Bristow," she grumbled, though her dimples were out in full force.

"Hey chinless!" Eric's cheery voice burst through the phone as she reached over and punched Michael's shoulder, hanging up on the laughing cohort.

"Oh you're gonna get it, Vaughn. Gonna get it gooooood," she warned, her mind thinking up several delicious scenarios for her smug faced significant other.

…