Rating:

Mature

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandoms:

Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types

Relationship:

Eric Bennett/Kyle Swift

Characters:

Eric Bennett, Kyle Swift

Additional Tags:

Post-Canon, Established Relationship, Yoga, Paris (City), Body Worship, Teasing, Fade to Black

Language:

English

Series:

Part 4 of Betting on the 2026 Stanley Cup Play-offs, Part 10 of Incremental Gains

Stats:

Published: 2026-05-21 Words: 1,574 Chapters: 1/1

A Well Deserved Vacation

Summary

And Kyle could lean forward right now, take Eric’s chin in his hand, kiss him slow and messy before ordering him to do…anything Kyle wanted him to. But there was something lazy and warm curled in Kyle’s belly, and right now the image of a strong, kind, older man leaning over him was doing all kinds of things to his blood, and Kyle didn’t feel the need to be in control of what happened next.

He just needed Eric to make it happen.

Notes

May 6, 2026: Round 2 - Game 1 - Montreal/Buffalo 2-4

The sunlight came through the window like it thought the room was a painting.  Gilding the surfaces of the furniture that was older than either of them, making the dents and scratches look antique and classy.  Sheening the hardwood floors and tangling in the intentionally tossed about area rugs.  Catching in the window panes and glancing off the hallway mirror.  Wrapping itself, enviably, around Eric’s mostly nude body.

Kyle always had to be careful not to think of it as mostly naked.

They’d come to Paris in part to celebrate Kyle’s finally getting his Master’s Degree.  It had taken more years than he wanted to admit to in an average conversation, but he’d finally finished it and was admittedly quite proud.  He’d also finished overhauling the Kingfisher into the kind of bar it deserved to be - the first thing to go had been that atrocious lighting - and with every last detail accounted for, Kip and Aram had practically forced him out his own front door for a well-deserved vacation.

Though even if his degree had gone unfinished and the bar was still in the middle of having its ceilings redone, Kyle suspected he’d still be sitting here this morning.  Lounging in an armchair that was far more comfortable than it looked, watching the man he’d fallen helplessly in love with balance on his head like it was easy.

It clearly wasn’t.  Even if Kyle hadn’t done his own short and ill-conceived stint at a yoga studio, the faintest of detectable shakes in Eric’s arms and abs would have given it away.  But of course, holding a yoga pose for more than two minutes tended to have that effect on people, and Kyle wasn’t really sure how long Eric had been upside down.  And that didn’t take into account the whole rest of the routine anyway.

It was a hard pose, at the end of a hard routine, that Eric hardly seemed to notice, and Kyle was as hard as he’d ever been in his life.

It was so tempting to walk across this beautiful room and tempt his beautiful man.  Eric’s dark eyes going wide the way they always did when Kyle smiled at him that certain way, his breath catching and one hand automatically reaching for Kyle in a way that never failed to make Kyle’s insides melt.  So very tempting to strip off his own clothes and sprawl next to Eric under the pretense of his own yoga pose, one that had very little to do with balance or chakras and a lot to do with showing off his ass.  Anything, really, so long as it got Kyle’s hands on those sweat slick muscles while Eric kissed him senseless up against the nearest wall.

But Eric had been very clear, while also being very sweet, that yoga was important to him.  He’d made a joke about it mattering more at his advanced age, but Eric was still neatly under fifty and even if he hadn’t been, what kind of lunatic retires from hockey at forty-one?  Still, he’d asked, his tone gentle but his words firm, that Kyle please not interrupt halfway through.

No matter how tempting it might be.

So Kyle stayed in his chair.  Watching as Eric balanced on his head and forearms, muscles starting to shake a little more now.  Watched as his knees bent, his legs coming down to tuck into his torso before the soft thump meant he’d unfurled and his feet had found the floor.  The muscles in his back flexing and relaxing as Eric shifted his weight, rolling into the next pose.  One Kyle recognized as being an ending one, though he could never remember the names of these things.  Eric’s arms stretched out in front of him and his legs folded underneath him as he breathed through whatever count he was keeping in his head.

Kyle tilted his head back, mindful not to let it thump against the hard wood back of the chair, and did his own breathing exercises.  Because Eric had asked that he not interrupt, even when they were on vacation, but that didn’t mean Kyle couldn’t watch.  And as magnificent as this ancient European city was with its classical architecture and manicured parks and a river running through the middle over everything, there wasn’t a power on this Earth that could tear Kyle’s eyes away from the man in front of him right now.

Eric was smart and funny and he loved art possibly more than Kyle did, but he was also hot as fuck and in better shape at not-quite-fifty than Kyle had ever been in his life.

It was very hard to stay in his chair on the mornings he watched.

But he did, distracting himself distantly with thoughts about fresh croissants from the bakery on the corner and the eighth historically relevant church they were going to see this afternoon and the way the cat in the apartment next door always looked like it wanted bite Kyle’s shoes, and sooner than it felt like, Eric sat up, taking a final deep breath before he opened his eyes.

Those beautiful, far-too-perceptive eyes.

His hair might have finally started to go grey, but there was no silver in those thick brown eyebrows as Eric lifted one.  His hands on his knees, still seated on his heels, watching Kyle in return for the first time in a good thirty minutes.  His voice the perfect kind of rough because Kyle had slept late this morning and so Eric hadn’t actually said anything yet today.  “See something you like?”

Kyle groaned, then blushed for reasons he couldn’t quite admit to, even now.  Even in this beautiful Paris apartment where he could lean out the nearby window and see a sliver of the Seine.

Eric chuckled, getting gracefully to his feet, and Kyle started to shift in his seat.  Stopping when Eric crossed the space between them in a scant few strides and rested his hands on the wooden arms of the padded chair, leaning into Kyle’s space.  Grinning in a supposedly un-Eric-Bennett like way as he held Kyle’s gaze.  “That sounded like a yes.”

“Yes,” Kyle breathed, then cleared his throat and tried again.  Eric’s eyes refusing to let him go.  “Yes, I did see something I liked.”

“Really?” Eric asked, and for a moment Kyle toyed with taking control of the situation.

They both loved it when he did, Eric eager and enthusiastic as Kyle teased him, dragging things out for as long as either of them could stand before pushing them both over the edge with the toy of his choosing.  They’d been a little limited in what Eric was comfortable packing for the trip, so Kyle had needed to get a little creative, but there certainly hadn’t been any complaints last night.

And Kyle could lean forward right now, take Eric’s chin in his hand, kiss him slow and messy before ordering him to do…anything Kyle wanted him to.  But there was something lazy and warm curled in Kyle’s belly, and right now the image of a strong, kind, older man leaning over him was doing all kinds of things to his blood, and Kyle didn’t feel the need to be in control of what happened next.

He just needed Eric to make it happen.

Tilting his chin up, Kyle closed his eyes and waited for Eric to understand.  And when he did, it was Kyle’s turn to shiver in the morning sunlight, warm, soft lips brushing against his own.  Eric’s touch was always gentle, even when he was fucking Kyle so hard into the mattress Kyle thought they’d break the bed.

“Think if I got you ready, you’d be up for a ride?”

Kyle groaned again, his arms moving to wrap around Eric’s neck as strong arms lifted Kyle to his feet. Holding him close against warm, sweaty muscles as Eric lazily explored Kyle’s mouth.  That warmth-summoning chuckle again as Kyle whimpered under the loving onslaught and rocked his hips irresistibly against Eric’s.

Kyle’s heart might explode from the moment, if his dick didn’t do it first.

“Eric…”

Then he was swept up like a bride in one of those old stories, except that the big, strong man carrying him wasn’t some horrible rapist who was only marrying him for money or power or simply because he could.  Dark eyes in a kind face looked at him with love and an absolutely acceptable amount of lustful intention.  Eric’s mouth finding his again as Kyle kissed him back, making the task of carrying him the short distance to the bedroom an absolutely acceptable level of more difficult.

And as Eric laid Kyle out on their rented apartment’s bed, strong hands making quick but loving work of buttons and zippers and elastic waistbands, Kyle settled into the moment like he was one of the few subjects of a painting where no student in an art class could argue about the expression on his face.  The intentions of his partner.  The reason why painting such a scene would have invited scandal.

Sunlight gilded itself over Eric’s naked body, Kyle’s hands sliding greedily after it over every glorious inch, and maybe they didn’t need to see eight historically relevant churches on this trip.  Maybe all Kyle really needed to see was the work of art he’d brought with him, currently smiling down at Kyle like Eric was thinking the exact same thing.