Chapter Text
Shane spent a good 30 minutes staring at the blue dot on the edge of his desktop screen. He'd sent a message that he'd hoped would be met with light teasing, but he knew sometimes his humour didn't come off well over text. Ilya had replied almost instantly, which was different from the others he had reached out to earlier in the day. It had only been about 4 hours since joining the platform and he already had 12 matches, which he counted as a win since he didn't expect any more than 3 or 4.
He wasn't able to put together a detailed profile the way others would be able to, including having to keep his actual profession and his last name hidden. There was always the looming threat of someone recognizing him - and Ilya, being a hockey player himself, was the exact type of person who could.
From what he'd seen so far, most of the men on the site were decently attractive. A lot of them had thirst trap images as their profile pictures, which Shane steered clear of outside of 2 people who happened to have dozens of other public ones to look at. He hadn't ever been on a dating website before, but he was well aware that they were wrought with romance scams and catfishes, and he wasn't really keen on becoming a victim of one. He could go to any bar and find someone to hook up with if he wanted to (which he never did), he didn't need to join a Russian dating website to do that, and definitely didn't need to pay anyone for it.
So when he saw Ilya, Shane hoped and prayed that he was real.
Immediately, Shane felt that Ilya was different. Somehow his photos managed to capture exactly what Shane was looking for. Someone who was clearly athletic and bigger than he was, but still seemed open and almost soft. There was a quality in Ilya's photos that told Shane he didn't take himself too seriously - and the taut muscles and bit of hair that ran from his naval down past the waistline of his jeans wasn't too bad either.
The thing that Shane was hooked on though, were his eyes and lips. His intense gaze and the sharp lines of his cupid's bow were equally entrancing. He was beautiful, to say the least. The rest of his profile was just as good: soft dom, top, looking for long-term, ex-KHL player. He was the whole package.
Shane had sent a message quickly without really thinking about it, making a comment on the fact that he smoked - which was a stupid thing to do. Both the smoking and the message, that is. He knew it was late in Russia and was secretly hoping that Ilya wouldn't see it until the next day. Then he'd have some time to make some predictions of what his reply would be and write out a couple of options he could send when he was back online.
Shane forgot that as a bartender, he'd definitely be awake past midnight.
There was absolutely no doubt in Shane's mind that he was getting catfished. Still, Shane had more money than he knew what to do with, so sending a small amount to Ilya - if that was even his real name - wasn't a big deal. Of course, Shane wasn't happy about being asked so soon, but none of the other matches he'd spoken to were exactly his type.
Sending Ilya some cash through the website ended up being easier than he'd initially thought it would be. It seemed like the website was set up to be closer to a sugar baby/sugar daddy site than they'd advertised when he'd found it.
At first he was concerned about it being Russian-based, since he knew what Russia was like when it came to their gay rights. He wouldn't be unsafe himself, but the idea of someone else being put at risk because of him was nauseating. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if anything happened to someone he had tried to meet because of their online relationship. But after a bit of digging, he'd found that while the site was in fact Russian, it wasn't located in Russia. It was being run out of the UK. It was a bit sketchy and a couple of matches told him they had to use VPN just in case regardless of the website's servers, but no one seemed to be overly concerned.
A lot of the matches he'd made had left their last names blank or hidden, which Shane thought was smart on their part. There were probably thousands of men with similar names as the ones he'd matched with, and many of them were probably using fake names to begin with. If push came to shove, Shane was willing to travel to meet someone and even pay for their airfare to ensure their safety. After doing his research on the site and learning about their UK headquarters, that seemed like the ideal place to meet someone if he ever found that special connection he was so desperately looking for.
Since retiring from the Metros and starting Hollander's Sporting Goods with his mother and fellow retiree Cliff Marleau, they'd managed to make enough money to purchase the Boston Raiders. Shortly after that, Shane came out.
In the 3 years they'd been running the organization, Shane had been on a total of 5 dates - all of which ended with mediocre sex. Well, 2 of them ended with mediocre sex. The others were disasters.
The thing about being an ex-hockey star and splitting his time between the USA and Canada, was that most people assumed Shane would be a dominating, controlling top in the bedroom, which was not the case.
Even with the people he'd had a decent time with, it was never mind blowing, and the conversation beforehand wasn't nearly enough to keep him interested either. He was starting to think maybe it was a problem with what men in the USA and Canada expected from him, and thought about branching out to other countries. He knew a couple Russian hockey players from his time in the league, all of which seemed to be more dominating players from what he could tell - and though he knew not to judge a book by its cover (himself being the perfect example) - joining a Russian dating website was an intriguing idea.
It couldn't hurt. If anything he'd lose a bit of money - which he wouldn't even feel - and delete his account after a few weeks. He hadn't expected to match with someone like Ilya so quickly. The other matches were also all tops, but some of them didn't even believe Shane when he said what his preference was. A few others didn't believe he was real at all - seemingly Ilya felt the same. The irony there was not lost on Shane.
He'd already reverse image searched Ilya's photos 3-4 times each, trying his best to find any matches. There weren't any, which was a good sign, but not proof enough. The fact that video chat was included in the upgrade he’d just bought was a perfect way to find out if Ilya was just some other guy using this random handsome man's pics to scam people for money, or if he was in fact real, but just wanted a green card - something Hayden had warned him about. He'd watched enough 90 Day Fiancé with Rose to have seen how that situation normally ends.
Of course, Ilya's camera was allegedly broken, so that wouldn't be an option until he got it fixed or bought a new phone.
Hopefully the money he'd sent would cover that so they could get on with it.
Ilya didn't reply until a few days later, once Shane was pretty much certain that he had been ghosted by the only match he really cared to speak to. He was ready to delete his account and go back to being set up on blind dates by J.J and Rose, neither of which were very good at finding anyone he would ever find attractive. They were nice about it at least, and trying their best which was all Shane could ask for from his friends.
Out of everyone, the only 2 people who seemed to be 100% on board with him being on the platform at all were Cliff and J.J. Even Rose had her concerns - similar to Hayden's, especially with Shane having the wealth he did.
There was also the fame concern. Shane wasn't exactly an unknown figure. With 5 Stanley Cups to his name, dozens of other awards, a spot in the MLH Hall of Fame, and the billions of dollars his sporting merchandise company was worth, there were thousands of articles and photographs of him all over the internet. It wasn't lost on him that it would be easy for anyone to find him even if they didn't know who he was right off the bat.
It didn't even cross his mind until Ilya mentioned he thought he'd seen Shane somewhere before that anyone who did recognize him might not even believe it was him to begin with. Maybe that was why he wasn't getting many matches on the site, and not that people were finding him unattractive - which was Shane's first thought.
Shane really didn't want to sext Ilya while he was sitting in a Booster Juice in between meetings. It was honestly one of the last places he would want to accidentally get hard. He could just imagine the poor guy behind the counter seeing him dart off to the washroom. Oh sorry man, your smoothies are so good I've gotta go blow a load in the back, don't let anyone else in. Embarrassing.
Ilya wasn't making it easy to resist, however. He'd sort of been hoping that after he'd seen the private album they might connect in that way, but the days of ghosting on Ilya's side made it so that Shane had to spend his nights only thinking about the possibility of it. He'd never admit it to the Russian, but he'd gotten off more than once to that album in the three days since he'd opened it - mainly dreaming about those strong hands and veiny forearms holding him down and fucking him through the mattress.
It had been way too long since the last time he'd had sex, and it was starting to get to him.
Shane had made his own private album for the site during an impromptu phone call with Rose the day he created his profile. She was the best at that sort of thing; picking out what Shane should and shouldn't wear and how he should and shouldn't pose in photos. Even though their previous relationship hadn't worked out, they'd managed to remain best friends all throughout their 20s and now into their 30s. He didn't know what he would do without her, and since she'd seen him naked multiple times, it wasn't awkward when he had questions about whether he was being too cringe or not.
Rose always made sure to remind him that what she would find hot, wouldn't be what someone like Ilya would find hot, but her objective eye still made all the difference.
Shane stared at the private album for a few moments before returning to his message screen with Ilya.
Shane's meeting went off without a hitch, a newfound bit of confidence radiating from him after he'd managed to rile Ilya up enough to put him in his place after his antics. Shane always knew he could get what he wanted if he really tried for it, but just wasn't always given the opportunity. Ilya had served it to him on a silver platter.
A few months back, Shane had made an online purchase of a bunch of different styles of lingerie to try at home and settled on a couple of sets he liked. He didn't really think he'd get much use out of them - but he enjoyed wearing it when he wanted to feel pretty and get off at home alone. He'd seen a few jeans ads where women were wearing their panties above their waistband and people seemed to really like it, and it turned out he liked it as well.
He hadn't shown anyone that photo until he'd sent it off to Rose before adding it to the album. She squealed on the line and told him he had to put it as the first one in the album. Apparently that was something that would definitely catch the eye of any men on the platform who ended up seeing it.
She was right of course. Like always.
Ilya had been practically foaming at the mouth, begging Shane to stick around and help get him off. He wasn't about to do that so soon though. He'd promised himself he would wait to indulge in that until he knew there was something there between him and Ilya. He knew there was lust - that was obvious - but their back and forth was honestly more annoying than anything. Although, Shane did find it to be pretty fun regardless.
As Shane walked out of the building and slid into the back seat of his driver's vehicle, his phone buzzed.
Shane opened the app to make sure there wasn't a glitch. He didn't even realize you could send videos through their messaging - but maybe that was just one of the upgrade perks he hadn't noticed yet.
He clicked on his chat with Ilya and almost dropped his phone.
He waited until he got home to play the video. Then he played it again, and again, and again. He didn't even really have a good view of Ilya from where he stood in the shower. Still no view of his face. His back stayed turned the entire time, but Shane could hear him loud and clear. Hearing his name on Ilya's lips was like some sort of drug. He couldn't get enough.
He had hoped he'd find some sort of connection online, but not so quickly, and definitely not like this.
Shane leaned against his kitchen counter and let his phone clatter onto the marble surface next to him, running his hands over his face. He was absolutely, totally fucked.