I risked another kiss, this time on her cheek. “Me too, baby.”
This place, I’d thought, had always held the future I wanted, but it wasn’t until I’d watched Stevie take the ice, watched as she left her burdens behind her and fell in love with these kids, that I realized something very important had always been missing. I turned to look at her and she waved her hockey glove-clad fist and I smiled. It was her… always her.
My fingers ran through his hair as he rested his cheek on my belly. The heat of his breath bathed my bare skin. We were lying naked on the world’s smallest full-size mattress, in a bedroom that smelled more like a locker room than I would’ve preferred, and I couldn’t have been any happier. I was here with him, and after spending the last two weeks witnessing my husband do what he loved best, I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to fall in love with him anymore than I already had. Mark the NHL hockey player, was something to behold, but Mark the coach, it was otherworldly, next-level kind of sexy. His patience with the kids, his love for the game, the way he encouraged and loved these kids like they were his own, my heart was bursting. Having a child wasn’t something either of us wanted right now, or if ever, but in this moment, if he’d asked it of me, I’d say yes. I blamed the past two weeks. Watching Mark with Poppy, with all thirty of these kids, a woman’s ovaries could only handle so much.
The thought made me laugh softly and he lifted his head. His dark eyes smiling, he raised himself onto his elbows, framing my hips with his arms.
“What?” he asked.
“I was thinking about how hot it is watching you coach these kids.” He raised one brow with a chuckle and I playfully swatted his shoulder. “I’m serious, you’re great with them.”
“I know.” His voice was a combination of sleep and sex.
“So humble.”
He laughed and the carefree sound of it squeezed my heart. We’d worked hard to get here. Our relationship was defined by miles and minutes, Skype and hotel rooms, adoration and honesty. Even the strongest of couples would have struggled to survive his schedule, but after our first real fight, back when we’d been barely five months into this journey, we’d gotten a taste of what life was like without the other in it. And it was in that short break, we both recognized being apart was the only un-survivable condition.
“You like my confidence…” He gripped my hips, pressing a kiss to the arch of my pubic bone.
The ache between my legs began to pulse for him. My fingers twisted through the locks of his hair as he lowered his mouth to my belly, licking and kissing and teasing. His teeth pinched the flesh of my inner thighs, and I let my head fall back onto the pillow. I moaned as he left wet kisses along the sensitive skin of my legs and stomach, following a path up to my mouth. Every kiss we shared was like our first, hungry and desperate. He held my face between his palms, capturing me in his gaze as he entered me with a long, slow stroke of his hips. His eyes fluttered closed for the briefest of seconds as he seated himself all the way inside of me. Neither of us moved, and when his eyes opened, he smiled. His nose was almost touching mine, and as the pad of his thumbs caressed the curve of my cheek, he cut the distance between our mouths. His tongue swept into my mouth, and I was flooded with his taste, his heat, and the anticipation of his movement made me moan.
One agonizingly slow thrust of his hips had my fingers knotting in his hair. His lips found the crook of my neck, his nose tickling my skin as he whispered, “Love you.”
Mark’s eyes burned through mine, and it was the reflection I saw in his irises, my reflection, that always took my breath away. It was in him I was able to find myself again. Every road game, every hour we had to spend apart, made each heartbeat, each minute of this, of him, of our time wrapped up in one another, so much better.
This was us.
Together…
This was love…
THE END
To my Husband, Family and Friends, without you I would never have been able to finish this book. You were there for me, you supported me when I was sick, and when I needed to write you let me disappear into the words, you helped me get myself up and dust myself off.
To K & M, Go STANGS!!
To my editing teams, Kathleen and Elaine, as always you keep Team Johnson afloat.
To everyone who helped, had their hands on, beta read, edited, proofed, or listened to me whine and ask: is this dumb? cheesy? cliché? five hundred times, this book exists because of you.
To Bex Harper, your cover gives me life.
To Becca Z., my friend and PA, thank you for helping navigate the shit storm of my life and this book world, you are an anchor in the current, my love.
To Aaron and Tracy (in advance), you’re going to make Stevie and Mark real, and I can’t fucking wait!!!!
To AJ’s Crew, everyone on this ship is a bad ass.
As always, if you are in my life, you know I love you.
Much love and side hugs,
Amanda~
Click here to listen to the Breakaway playlist.
Amanda lives in Utah with her family where she moonlights as a nurse on the weekends. If she’s not busy with her three munchkins, you’ll find her buried in a book or behind the keyboard where she explores the human experience through the written word. She's obsessed with all things Austen, hockey, and Oreos, and loves to connect with readers!
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Forever Still Series:
Still Life
Still Water
Still Surviving
Avenues Ink Series:
Possession
Kingdom
Poet
Stand Alone Novels:
Scared Hart
Erotica:
Beneath the Vine
Breakaway (The Rule Book Collection) Page 28
