by Rebel Hart
We rode the elevator up to the penthouse suite. I had my own button on the elevator that only worked if I swiped my residency card. The doors opened up in what could be considered the foyer of my penthouse.
Kim moved slowly out into the open space and then looked down the steps at the penthouse, which opened up six feet below.
“Wow,” she breathed. “William… this is really, really nice.”
I shrugged out of my jacket and then helped Kim out of hers. I set them on the bench against the wall near the elevator and rolled the sleeves of my Henley up. “Not bad, right?”
She moved slowly down the stairs. “Not bad? William. This is insane! It’s like… straight out of a magazine!”
I chuckled and followed as she began to explore.
She gushed over the gourmet kitchen and open concept layout of the unit. When I turned the outside lights on to show her the outdoor patio, her eyes nearly popped out of her skull. We moved through the dining room and then into the living room, where she walked the perimeter, pausing to read the spines of books tucked into shelves or look at picture frames.
When she happened upon one of me and Roger from my high school graduation, she picked it up and ran her thumb along the glass. “I remember when this was taken,” she said softly. Then she looked up at me. “He was very proud that day. Of both you and Keith. He wouldn’t put the camera away. Or stop smiling.”
“Nobody ever believed in me the way your dad did back then. Even before my old man…you know,” I said, choosing to avoid saying the words killed himself by driving drunk. “I doubt anything has changed even now.”
Kim set the picture down and turned to me. “Nobody has ever believed in me the way he does either.”
“I believe in you.”
Her lips parted. She looked down at the floor. “Thank you.”
“I mean it.” I stepped toward her, closing the space between us, and took her hands in mine. “I know you don’t believe it right now, but there’s more for you than just hockey, Kim.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying. You have it. You have more than I could ever dream of.”
I released her hands to reach up and stroke her cheek. She pressed into the warmth of my palm and closed her eyes. When I spoke they fluttered open. “I know. But there is happiness in all kinds of things. You just have to find yours. And, I don’t want to overstep, but maybe it’s time to accept that your happiness isn’t at an ice rink anymore.”
She looked up at me. “I can’t give it up.”
“I’m not saying you should. I’m just saying maybe you should consider stepping away from it for a little while. Finding your place somewhere else. Somewhere that’s waiting for you to walk in the door.”
“Nothing is waiting for me.”
“Silly girl. I was waiting for you, Kim. I just didn’t realize it right away. But I do now.”
Her eyes flicked back and forth between mine. “Is that the line you use on all the pretty girls?”
I shook my head and smiled. “No. There aren’t any other pretty girls.”
“Is this real?” she whispered.
I could only assume she was talking about us. About the feeling in my chest that I hoped she felt, too. Warmth. Safety. Rightness.
“Yes,” I said.
She closed her eyes. “Will you help me?”
“Yes,” I said again.
“I’m lost, William. I don’t know where to go from here. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be or what I’m supposed to do with my life. My dad said the same thing to me tonight. He said it was time to try something new. But…it scares me.”
“That’s okay. You’re allowed to be scared.”
When she opened her eyes again they were full of tears. My heart ached. She swallowed hard past her emotions and when she spoke her voice was weak. “I’m afraid if I leave the ice I’ll never go back to it and I’ll be left with this gaping hole in my life that nothing else can fill.”
As someone who knew what it was like to live with a gaping hole in their chest, I nodded. “You may feel empty for a little while. But you won’t be alone. I promise.”
She turned ever so slightly to kiss my palm. “Where have you been all these years, Hughes?”
I flashed her a smile. “Practicing my lines on all the pretty girls.”
She laughed.
Victory, I thought as the sound filled me up.
She wiped at her tears and shook her head at herself. “I’m sorry. I feel so silly crying about this in front of you.”
“Why?”
She shrugged weakly and sniffled. “I’m crying about losing a sport. You lost a lot more than that when we were growing up and I feel like a spoiled little girl throwing a pity party. While I was grieving the loss of hockey in my life you were grieving the loss of your dad.” She swallowed and shook her head. “Somehow you never made me feel like I was grieving in a bad way. You were going through something really hard, William. And you still made room for me to cry about my knee back then. You’re… you’re a special man. I mean that.”
“Maybe I learned that from your father. He saved me from my grief. And he saved me from my old man when he was still alive. You know what he was like. He wasn’t a good person or a good father. He was cruel.”
“But he was still your dad,” Kim said softly.
I nodded but didn’t say anything.
Sure. Walter Finnigan Hughes was my father. Biologically. But he wasn’t my dad. That title belonged to Roger and it had since I was fourteen years old.
And it always would, even if I never uttered it out loud.
“William?”
I looked down at the beautiful raven haired girl in front of me. She took my hands in hers and lifted them between us.
“Did you mean what you said before?” she asked.
“What?”
“That you were waiting for me, you just didn’t know it?”
“Yes,” I said without hesitation.
Kim stretched to the tips of her toes. Her eyes closed. And suddenly our lips were pressed together. She released my hands to grip my shoulders. I reached down to cup her ass and dragged her in close, holding her to my body like we could become one if we were desperate enough. Her fingers pressed into my shoulders as the kiss deepened.
When she pulled away, her eyes were still glassy and her cheeks were flushed. “Are you going to show me your bedroom, or what?”
29
Kimberly
William nipped at my bottom lip. I ran my hands up his back and plunged them into his thick hair, where I curled my fingers into fists. He smiled against our kiss and then leaned back, lifting me clean off the ground. I wrapped my legs around his hips in response and he held me up with his hands under my ass and proceeded to carry me down the hall toward his bedroom.
The lights were out but the curtains were open. The light of the moon and the stars lit the room with cool, dim light. It was a simple space. His king-sized bed was covered in dark gray sheets. The walls were a very dark shade of blue with crisp white baseboards and gray furniture.
He threw me down on the bed.
I let out a surprised gasp but he silenced me by coming down on top of me and caging me in beneath his body. I didn’t mind. I wanted to feel him all over me again. Even though I’d been angry at him these past two weeks for falling off the face of the earth, I couldn’t deny our night together had been playing over and over again on my mind on repeat.
William began making his way down the length of my body, pausing to roll up my sweater and pepper my stomach and hips with kisses. As he kissed my bare skin, he pulled my leggings down, exposing panties and bare hips and thighs as he went. His lips grazed all my flesh, making it a challenge for me to keep quiet as he finished pulling my leggings off. They hit the floor and so did he. Then he slid his hands under my hips and pulled me effortlessly to the edge of the bed.
I propped myself up on my elbows as he pushed my thighs apart.
Then
he tugged the strip of my panties aside.
He looked up at me from between my legs. His eyes were full of lust and his stare held me in place.
“You’d better not be waiting for me to give you consent again,” I breathed.
His lips curled in a smile. Then his smile vanished and his tongue rolled over my clit. He won the first round as I melted into the mattress and closed my eyes, reveling in the sensation of his tongue stroking my folds and swirling over my sensitive spots. He found an especially delicious rhythm with his tongue and gently sucked at my clit, drawing it between his lips so he could flick his tongue over it in quick, soft flourishes.
My insides felt like they were melting.
I moaned as the world began to burn.
“Yes.” My back arched. The word was nothing but a soft sigh, but William took the hint, knowing he was hitting all the right places. He rewarded me by running a finger up and down my slit and then easing it inside me. I groaned. So did he. The vibration of the sound between my thighs pushed me over the edge.
I cried out as my muscles seized. My thighs quivered and my hips bucked as my orgasm exploded out of me. William smiled into my pussy and gripped my hips, holding me in place as he continued sucking me and fucking me with his finger until I was reduced to a puddle of delirious pleasure on his bed.
He left me empty and patted my pussy with a flat hand. I flinched under his touch and then looked down when he sat back on his heels and undid his belt and jeans. As he stood and began stripping I scrambled onto my hands and knees and turned around so I could lie on my stomach, propped up on my elbows facing him.
He watched me curiously as he stepped out of his jeans and then pulled his shirt off over his head. In nothing but his boxers, he cocked his head to the side. “What are you doing?”
“Take them off,” I pleaded.
He pulled his boxers down.
I reached for him. He stepped in close. His cock hovered inches from my face, hard and needy, and I looked up at him imploringly. When I licked my lips and opened my mouth for him, he got the message.
William leaned his hips toward me.
I ran my lips across the tip of his cock, tasting him, and he reached down to run his fingers through my hair, gathering it away from my cheeks and eyes and holding it back in one hand. His grip tightened. The hair on my scalp was pulled tight and I took the first couple inches of his dick into my mouth, following the vein with my tongue as far as I could.
He groaned above me. The sound was primal and wild and it set my veins on fire. I shifted, slid my hand under my hips, and began rubbing myself as I took more of him into my mouth. I felt him slide against the back of my throat, blocking my airways.
“Fuck, Kim,” he breathed.
I moaned in response, the sound muffled by his cock.
I began working him over, bobbing on his dick, taking as much as I could with every stroke. It got sloppier by the second and I held him deep in my throat as I played with myself. William released my hair and reached forward. His dick slid even deeper into my throat. My eyes widened. He slapped my ass.
Hard.
Had I been able to, I would have yelped.
He squeezed the muscle on my ass and slapped me again. I lifted my hips off the bed and wiggled my hips for him. He lifted me up onto my hands and knees and kept himself buried deep in my mouth. Soon I was going to need air.
Soon. But not yet.
He spread my ass cheeks with both hands. Then he ran a hand between my thighs down to my pussy. He patted me a couple times. I flinched. Then he gave me what I wanted and eased two fingers inside me. I moaned around his thickness. He pushed in deeper. I gripped his thighs. William responded by fucking me harder and didn’t relent until the inside of my thighs were slick with my own juices.
He stepped back. I sucked in a great gulp of air. Then he was there again, sliding between my lips, easing into my throat. This time he did the work. He rocked his hips slow and fucked my mouth and throat. I gazed up at him and worshipped his cock like he deserved until he’d had his full. Then he stepped back, turned me around, and flipped me onto my back.
“Stay there,” he ordered before going to his dresser and fetching a condom from the drawer.
I didn’t dare move. I was too needy for his cock inside me to do anything that might result in him making me wait longer. I couldn’t take another minute.
I needed him now.
William tore open the condom wrapper and rolled it on. I watched, transfixed by every mood he made. The man was pure sex. His hips were cut, his stomach a map of muscles and masculinity. Dark hair covered his chest and followed a line down to his navel and farther still. He was sheer perfection.
William stepped forward and ran his cock across my pussy. I moaned softly and silently pleaded for him not to tease me too long. I got lucky. He eased his way inside me. The pressure was incredible, just like the last time we’d had sex. He was thick and long and my body wasn’t used to a man of his size. Or any men, for that matter. I hadn’t been with someone since before my last surgery over six months ago, and even then it hadn’t been much of anything, just a random hookup.
William rocked his hips and rubbed my clit with his thumb. I fought against the overwhelming urge to lose control and come again. I didn’t want to give him all the power. But his strokes grew deeper. He pushed into all the right places. My mind became muddled and dazed and I forgot why I was trying to keep it together at all when the pleasure became too much.
I came hard and fast.
William dropped low and cupped the back of my neck to kiss me as I came. I whimpered against the kiss and he held me tighter. His hips moved in fluid grinding motions. I trembled beneath him. He pressed his forehead to mine as I gasped for breath and squeezed my eyes closed.
Once I’d recovered, he returned for more, gentler kisses. I stroked his cheeks and followed the lines of his jaw with my shaking fingers. I ran my hands down his back, caressing all the muscles that rolled beneath his taut skin. I savored the power I felt in him and pressed my heels into the back of his thighs, encouraging him to stay like this—close.
For the first time in months—years even—I felt like I was right where I was supposed to be. William’s powerful body felt like home to me; it felt safe and it felt like it was mine. I explored his chest with my hands and carved the lines of his abs as he rocked against me. His tongue slipped between my teeth for needy kisses that I returned in full, moaning against his mouth and suckling gently at his lower lip.
William straightened and flipped me over onto my stomach. I looked back over my shoulder at him and made to get onto my hands and knees, but he held me down with a hand on the small of my back. I watched as he lowered his hips and slid his cock between my thighs and then up into my pussy. I groaned and hung my head back, eyes closing as I faced the ceiling.
His fingers knitted in my hair once more and he craned my head back further. My eyes fluttered open and I found him looking down at me, eyes burning with the same passion I felt in my soul. He descended upon me for upside down kisses. He held my throat with his free hand, applying gentle pressure that reminded me once more how strong he was.
His hand fell from my throat and trailed across my shoulders. As his touch wandered down my spine, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake, I lifted my hips from the bed, inviting him deeper inside me. He worked himself in and out of me as he positioned his thumb on my ass, applying pressure.
“Oh,” I breathed as new pleasure bloomed to life.
He smiled down at me.
Then his thumb eased into my ass.
I gripped the bed sheets, pulling them toward me and untucking them from beneath his pillows. “Oh God,” I moaned.
“You like that, baby?”
I tried to nod, but he had too strong a grip in my hair. So I breathed, “Yes.”
“Yes,” he echoed.
I could tell his own orgasm was gathering. His cock felt bigger inside me. I pushed back, silently beg
ging for more, and he responded by filling me up. I moaned. He jerked my head back harder and kissed me deeply. His tongue explored my mouth and I yielded to him, giving him everything: my ass, pussy, and mouth. He fucked all of me. I broke beneath him and cried out. He smothered me with more kisses, drinking in my pleasure and fucking me harder and deeper as I came all over his cock.
Then he came undone, too. His movements were less controlled as he gave in to his own orgasm. He growled my name when he came. I let the sound of his pleasure fill me up, and I immediately missed the feeling of him inside me when he fell onto his back beside me on the bed.
His chest rose and fell with labored breaths and he closed his eyes, lending me a moment to admire him.
When he cracked one eye open and smiled at me, I smiled back.
Then I patted him on the chest. “At least you won something tonight.”
William’s laugh filled the room and I grinned at the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes.
Yes. Sheer perfection indeed.
30
William
I didn’t realize the ringing phone was not part of my dream until Kim reached over and gave me a sharp prod in the ribs.
“Answer it,” she muttered, her words muffled by her pillow. Within seconds of speaking she promptly fell back asleep, the sound of her soft snoring filling the room and tempting me to fall back asleep as well.
But the phone just kept on ringing.
Groaning, I rolled toward my nightstand, where I reached over and fumbled blindly for my phone. I found it plugged into its charger and gave it a tug. The cord dropped to the floor and I answered the call out of muscle memory. My eyes were still closed when I held the phone to my ear and mumbled a very thick, very irritated, “Hello?”
“Hey man. It’s me.”
I rubbed at my tired eyes. “Keith?”
“Yeah.”
“What fucking time is it?”
