Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79621 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79621 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Sure, we had a long way to go, but we’d proved something to ourselves. We could build on this one win and become contenders.
I slapped high fives, fist bumps, and praised them for their efforts. Before I gave my final rah-rah speech of the evening, Denny pulled me aside and said three fabulous words: “I’ll do it.”
Yep, the Hawks had their first win, an official team captain, and one very happy coach.
A large group, including coaches, hockey players, families, and friends met at the diner afterward to celebrate the win. It was pure bedlam. JC and Nolan both had to roll up their sleeves and help serve burgers, fries, and endless rounds of milkshakes. I shook hands and chatted with proud moms and dads, grandparents, and cousins visiting for the holidays, recapping the highlight reel moments while nursing a beer. I’d been too jacked up with adrenaline to think about food and now, I was drunk on good vibes and pride.
The diner was decked in holiday cheer with garlands draped over the windows, tied with red velvet bows, and filled to capacity with good people and a lot of goodwill. Holiday music filtered through the overhead speakers, but it was barely a hum under the static of conversation and laughter. Everyone was smiling—even Crabby Annie, beaming a megawatt grin at her grandson, who was currently surrounded by his teammates.
She caught my eye and raised her glass in a toast. I returned the gesture and nodded along to whatever Micah’s dad was saying. Of course, my real focus was on the sexy real estate agent three feet away chatting with Tracy and Ronnie Moore. Those three feet might as well have been an ocean.
I didn’t have a reason to seek Bryson out in a crowd like this. He didn’t have a kid in the program or an obvious connection to high school sports. I supposed I could have pretended to be interested in buying a house, but this wasn’t the time or place to talk business. This was a celebration, and I would have given my left nut to celebrate with that man at my side.
Bryson left the diner an hour or so before I did. I said my final good-byes around ten o’clock and walked home alone, tipping my chin to the sky as snowflakes drifted lazily to Earth. I admired the lights on Main Street and the festive storefronts with wreaths on almost every door, the charming houses and pervasive sense of peace. I walked faster as I turned onto Walnut.
I clung to the shadows, slipping behind his car to the side door off the kitchen. I knocked once and he was there, pulling me inside.
We undressed each other in between soul-stealing, passionate kisses and made our way upstairs to his semidark room where we fell naked into bed, writhing and grinding as if in a quest to somehow share skin. Bryson pushed me to my back and kneeled between my legs, sucking and licking till I was practically feral with desire. When I couldn’t take any more, I tugged at his hair and motioned for him to straddle my chest.
It was my turn to suck him, and because I was a master at doing two things at once, I also fingered his hole. He lubed us both up, and slowly lowered himself onto my cock, emitting a low, sexy groan.
I closed my eyes for a moment and reached for his hands. And suddenly, time froze.
We stared into each other’s eyes with our fingers entwined, hard and hungry, the way we always were, but the air was crackling with something new. I couldn’t explain it if I tried. It was…more. Some kind of spiritual, hyper bond that had nothing to do with sex tied us together. In that second, I lost my last shred of pretense. I was exposed. I couldn’t hide with him. He’d already seen me in all shades of good, bad, and in between, so what was the point?
The wave of intense emotion took me by surprise. I kissed his knuckles and smiled up at him. I was afraid I’d already given too much away, so I rolled us over, and began to move.
We kissed languidly, sighing and moaning into that gorgeous, fucking push and pull, give and take. I combed my fingers through his hair, moving my hips…slow and steady while he hummed my name, arching to meet each thrust.
The fall was inevitable…it always was. But this time, I wasn’t prepared for the dizzying height and breadth of it. I was used to being a lone skater on thin ice. I wasn’t alone now. He tripped and fell with me, gasping for air, holding on to me as if I were the one with the answers.
And you know, I really fucking wanted to be.
It took ages to come down from the high in the aftermath. We didn’t speak for a while—we lay face-to-face, studying each other as if noticing twenty new things all at once. Had his eyes always been that exact shade of blue? Were his lips always that soft?