And then I moved on him. Slow, torturous, wild.
I rocked and writhed atop him, relishing his length deep inside me, until we were both peppered with sweat. Until our breaths were one, and he looked up at me with blazing blue eyes that burned every inch of my soul. And I made sure he watched me as I rode him, made sure he saw the depth of what I felt for him.
Because it was endless.
He was endless.
And I was just the lucky woman he’d allowed inside.
I upped my pace when he thrust upward over and over, seeking me as hungrily as I was him. And the words built inside me, almost as strong and fierce as my orgasm, stronger even…but all that escaped my lips was his name as we fell over that blissful edge together.
After we’d cleaned up, I settled him against my chest, slowly smoothing my fingers through his hair, relishing the soothing feeling of his weight next to me. This strong, confident, incredible man. Capable of rendering me speechless with his mouth, and yet he could do so just as easily by just holding me this tenderly.
We held each other the rest of the night, content to lazily touch and tease and soothe. I stared into his eyes, the silent intimacy more than anything I’d every experience before.
And I knew without any further doubt that I wholly belonged to him and him to me.
Everything.
Jansen was everything.
I just hoped I could prove it to him.
13
Sterling
I loosened my tie as I rode the elevator to London’s floor. It had been three long days without seeing her while we’d played in Vegas, and I wasn’t willing to wait another minute.
ME: In the elevator.
LONDON: In the kitchen!
I grinned at her response as a pop star sang that it was lovely weather for a sleigh ride. Christmas would be here in a few weeks, which meant we’d be separated again, seeing that she and Caspian were headed home to their parents’ and Mom was coming to visit.
It would have been so much easier to go public, but she still didn’t want that. I got it—she felt like she had something to prove, and if it was between Sean and London to get a permanent place on the Reaper staff, then I wanted her to have every advantage…or maybe I just didn’t want to be her disadvantage.
The elevator dinged, and the doors opened on her floor. The hallway was empty, and I’d heard Caspian make plans with Maxim on the plane, so the coast was clear. It took all of twenty seconds to unlock her door and step inside. Man, that key sure was convenient.
But did it mean something? Did she get the same achy, sweet feeling in her chest that I did right before we saw each other? Had she spent the last three days tying herself into knots because we’d been a thousand miles apart?
I shucked my suit jacket and tossed it over the back of her couch as I made a beeline for the kitchen. She met me halfway, wearing pajama bottoms, a Reaper hoodie, and a huge grin.
No one had ever looked so good.
She flew into my arms, and just like that, I could breathe again. My chest loosened and my dick went hard.
“Fuck, I missed you, baby,” I muttered into her hair, holding her off the ground in a tight embrace. It wasn’t just the sex with her—though that was pretty damned phenomenal. She had a way of cutting through the bullshit and seeing me. I didn’t have to fake it with her, and even trying to impress her was pointless. She’d been around it all.
She was completely, openly honest with me, and I couldn’t get enough of her.
“I missed you,” she murmured in my neck, breathing deep. “I watched the game, though. You had some spectacular saves.”
“I hate when you don’t travel with us.” I adjusted my grip, and she wrapped her legs around my waist. Everywhere she touched warmed, sending a jolt of need sprinting down my spine.
“Me, too, but there are two coordinators for now.” She ran her fingers through my hair, eliciting a low groan from me.
“For now. It’ll be you. I know it.” My stomach…or maybe it was my heart, couldn’t even fathom any other result. Not just because I wouldn’t see her, but because it was all she wanted.
And it was the entire reason I couldn’t so much as touch her in public.
“I think you got better looking while you were gone,” she whispered, then kissed me softly.
After being away from her for days, the contact sent me over the edge. I walked forward, bracing her weight on the wall, then kissed exactly how I’d wanted to while I was gone. Deep strokes. Light flicks. I used my tongue like a branding iron to claim her as mine and didn’t let up until she was arching against me, her breaths unsteady and her eyes glazed.
“Jansen,” she whimpered, tugging my head back to hers.
I leaned into her, grinding my hard cock against her hot center as I lost my head in the kiss. Nothing existed beyond this wall and this woman. Nothing that mattered, anyway.
She tugged at my tie, and I broke our kiss long enough for her to slip it over my head. Her tank top went next. Her bra was pale blue and cupped her breasts like a lover. I had it off with a snap of my fingers behind her back.
Getting my shirt off took a hot minute since I wouldn’t stop kissing her long enough to help out. Her lips were so fucking sweet, and I couldn’t help but suck her tongue into my mouth.
She moaned, licking the line just behind my teeth as she shoved my shirt off my shoulders. Then her hands were on my skin, stroking my arms, my chest, my back with feather-light touches that felt like little flutters of painless flame.
“I need you,” I growled against her mouth, my hands already working at her shorts.
“Good, because I’m going to die if you don’t get inside me.” She unhooked her legs, and I hit my knees, dragging the little silk shorts and her underwear down the length of her legs at the same time.
She was completely, utterly bare.
My gaze flew to hers as my cock threatened to shred my pants to get at her.
“Surprise,” she said with a grin. “I got waxed.”
“I see that.” Holy fucking shit, I was going to devour all that silky skin. My hands gripped her thighs.
She tugged her lower lip between her teeth. “You like?”
I answered her with my mouth, diving into her pussy like a starving man, spreading her thighs wide with my hands and spearing my tongue into her.
“Jansen!” she shouted, falling back against the wall.
I licked her from opening to clit, then tongue fucked her.
Her knees buckled.
I shifted my grip and supported her, keeping her right where she was as I ate her. She was more succulent than a peach, and I groaned at the taste of her on my tongue, sliding down the back of my throat. Her cries came faster, and I knew she was close, so sucked her clit and dragged my tongue over the bud.
She came. Hard.
Was I ever going to tire of hearing my name on her lips? Nope. Never.
“You taste so fucking good, London,” I said against her core, going for seconds.
“God…Jansen,” she moaned, then tugged at my hair. “I want you inside me.”
I would have been content to do nothing but dine on her for the next few hours, but who the fuck was I to deny the woman I lo—
My heart stammered, then thudded even stronger.
Love.
I loved the way she’d listen without judgment. I loved how hard she fought to overcome her fear of small spaces. I loved how driven she was at work, and how effortlessly she kept every ball in the air. I loved the way her eyes lit up just for me, and the way she made me feel like the center of her world.
I just loved her.
“Baby, please,” she begged, rocking her hips against my mouth.
I got to my feet, then unbuckled my pants and dropped my boxer briefs just low enough for my cock to spring free. The rest could come off later.
She scrambled up me, locking her ankles around my back as I lined up with her entrance. Then I drove home, filling her in o
ne long thrust.
“London,” I groaned as her pussy surrounded me, gripping me tight. This woman was made for me. We fit perfectly. Our chemistry was off the charts. This was it. She was it, the one.
She gasped, then let out the sweetest moan I’d ever heard. “I love the way you feel inside me.” Her hips swiveled, and the friction nearly sent me over the edge.
“I love you,” I said, locking my gaze on hers.
Her eyes flared, and her body tensed. Before I could ask if I’d just made a colossal misstep, she grabbed the sides of my face and pulled me into a hard kiss, and damn, I could feel it with every flick of her tongue—she was just as lost for me as I was for her.
She rocked her hips again, and I snapped, pinning her against the wall as I fucked her with long, hard, deep strokes. Later, I’d take it slowly. I’d make love to her with all the care and consideration we both deserved, but I knew how we both needed it this first time.
Our kiss was all tongues and teeth, her nails sharp across my shoulders as I plunged into her again and again, driving us both toward completion. Something fell to the left. We kept going.
Her cries filled my ears, her body locking around mine like a vise as she came again, and the ripples of her muscles pulled me over with her. I emptied into her with one last, deep thrust, locking my knees so I didn’t pull us both to the floor.
Our breathing was ragged, our bodies sweat-slick as I rested my head against the wall beside hers, trying to get my body back under some form of control.
“So I guess you like the wax?” she asked, running her fingers through my hair gently.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, London. I fucking love the wax.”
The next day, we were just finishing up practice when I saw London against the wall again, but this time, Maxim was hovering over her.
The hallway was crowded and smelled like sweat as we walked off the ice, heading toward the locker room. I saw Maxim’s back first, the Zolotov name standing out against the black jersey like a fucking warning. Then I noted those little black heels with the red bottoms, and spotted London, leaned up against the wall.
I knew it was harmless, that there was at least a good foot of space between them, but it didn’t stop the ugly churn of jealousy in my gut.
“We have an extra seat if you want to join us at dinner,” he offered, reaching to tuck a loose strand of her hair back.
She got there first, thank God, or I would have had to spend my night burying a body instead of making love to London. She stepped away, putting a little more distance between them, but I was still seeing red as I approached.
“I think I’m busy this weekend,” she said, her gaze flickering toward me. The color fell out of her cheeks at whatever she saw on my face, but she quickly recovered and offered Maxim a shaky smile. “It was sweet of you to ask, though.”
He nodded and took off with the rest of the team into the locker room, and I slowed so that only London and I were left in the hallway.
I looked both ways, then tugged her into the nearest office, pads and all. “Seriously?”
“He’s Caspian’s best friend, Jansen. There’s nothing going on.” She sighed, not that I could blame her. We were both tired of the same damned argument.
“He flirts with you at every possible opportunity, London, which he might not do if he knew we were together,” I snapped. Then again, knowing Maxim, he’d just try harder. From what I’d seen, he thrived on a challenge.
“He doesn’t flirt. He’s just so mean to everyone else that it looks like flirting when he’s nice to me.” She set her clipboard on the desk and folded her arms under her breasts.
“This is really starting to get to me.” I put my helmet under my arm. “I know you love this job, and you think that I’m some kind of—”
“We agreed not to tell anyone,” she reminded me, worry consuming her eyes.
“How the hell would you feel if that was another woman out there, asking me to dinner and trying to touch me?”
Her mouth opened and shut a couple of times. “You mean like every single damned meet and greet that I have to coordinate and facilitate? At least you don’t have to smile at Maxim and offer to take a fucking picture. Do you know how many phone numbers women shoved into my hands at the last game, just hoping I’d give them to you? Seventeen, Sterling.”
I raised my eyebrows. Sterling. She was pissed. Good, because so was I. “You’re the only woman I call, London. The only woman I sleep with. The only woman I kiss.”
“And that goes both ways.” She ran her hands over her face. “Why are we fighting about this? We’re together. We’re committed. We’re just not shoving it in everyone’s face.”
“There’s a difference between flaunting a relationship and hiding one, London.” I shook my head. “I have to get in there before someone gets suspicious and starts looking for me. Heaven forbid they find us alone together.”
I yanked open the door and marched into the hallway.
“Wait, I need to tell you something!” she called after me.
I turned around at the locker room doors. “Tell me tonight. Yours or mine?” The hallway was empty, but anyone could be listening, and I knew it. I just wasn’t sure I cared anymore.
“Yours,” she whispered.
I nodded and pushed my way into the locker room, leaving her in the hallway. Fuck, I needed to get a grip. Jealousy wasn’t going to get us anywhere, and if London lost her position on the Reapers, she’d have to find another job…in another city.
Pull your shit together.
“She didn’t want to go?” Caspian asked Maxim, his voice carrying across to me as I sat on my section of the bench.
“Said she had plans.” Maxim shrugged, then turned toward me with a calculating gleam in his eyes. “Doesn’t mean she won’t change her mind. After all, we eat dinner together what? Twice a week?”
“Something like that,” Caspian answered, his back turned as he took off his gear, so he didn’t see the stare-down going on between Maxim and me.
I wasn’t about to tell him that I was well-fucking-aware of how many times they ate dinner together every week or that she ended up in my bed every night. Instead of rising to whatever Maxim wanted out of me, I just threw back a bottle of water, then shook my head.
London was mine. The fact that he didn’t know that didn’t change the fact.
“I’m surprised, though,” Maxim said, keeping his eyes narrowed on mine as he unlaced his skates. “She’s all about family, so I figured she’d want to meet my dad.”
I froze. My heart stopped. My lungs crystalized. My muscles turned to stone.
“Fuck,” Briggs muttered at my side.
“After all, she was the one who just handed me his VIP passes for next weekend’s game.” He lifted his dark brows.
I couldn’t fucking breathe. Seeing Sergei Zolotov after a game a couple seasons ago was one thing, but knowing he was coming ahead of time? Impossible. That’s what she wanted to tell you in the hallway, I told myself. There was no way London knew and had kept it from me on purpose. This wasn’t some kind of teen drama. She cared about me more than that.
But does she love you?
“Take a breath,” Briggs muttered under his breath. “Sterling. Breathe.”
I filled my lungs with air, and it took everything I had not to fly across the room and punch that smug little smirk right off Maxim’s face.
As if satisfied with my level of shock, Maxim nodded, then went back to stripping off his gear like he hadn’t just shaken up my entire fucking world.
Sergei Zolotov was going to be in my arena, watching my game, but we both knew it wasn’t for me.
It never was.
14
London
“Are you sure I’m ready for this?” I asked, squeezing Jansen’s hand as we walked along the sidewalk in downtown Charleston.
“Only you can answer that, London,” he said, slowing us to a stop outside the small brick building. An old,
giant clock hung above the double glass doors, and I gripped his arm with my other hand. He turned to face me, pulling us out of the way of foot traffic. “I have complete faith in you,” he said, planting a quick kiss on my lips. “You’ve come so far from that night in the elevator.”
I nodded. Even my therapist was shocked by the results of our little experiment. She’d conducted a series of her own small tests, pushing boundaries in a safe environment much like we’d been doing, just on a smaller scale. She said I’d made huge advances, quite possibly excelling to as far as humanly possible to manage this fear—but that didn’t mean I wasn’t nervous now.
“It’s your choice,” he said, cupping my cheeks. “I’ll never force you to do anything you don’t want to do, that you aren’t comfortable with.” A smirk shaped his lips. “But you know I’ll give you a little push whenever you need me to.”
And he had. He totally, always had. Even when we’d had arguments—like our most recent one about keeping us a secret. And then after, about his biological father coming to a game at Maxim’s request. I’d had to hand him those VIP passes and keep my mouth shut. It had stung every inch of my soul to do, but I couldn’t lay into Maxim about his father when I wasn’t even supposed to know Jansen’s side of the story in the first place.
Even with that. Even with all those heated discussions in the beginning of our relationship when we were tiptoeing around our feelings for each other so much it drove us crazy. Even then, during those moments, he knew when to push me, ignite me, and when to soothe me.
I melted a little more for the man before me. “How are you so damn amazing?”
Seriously, where the hell did he come from? It had been six weeks of fire and heat and mind-blowing bliss with him, and I still couldn’t understand why someone like him had chosen someone like me. Not that I was inferior—I loved who I was and how I looked. But I was proudly awkward, inherently flawed, and tragically driven. And him being him he could have anyone he wanted.
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