The Final Move

by Victoria Denault

  Ashleigh pushes me out of the doorframe and glares at Callie. “We’re in the middle of dinner, Callie. Please leave.”

  Callie ignores her completely and looks at me. “Devin, please.”

  I open my mouth but nothing comes out. Ashleigh doesn’t have that same problem. “He is my husband. Go find another man to be your bed buddy. We’re working things out here, Callie.”

  “Really, Ashleigh?” Callie shoots back suddenly, letting anger slip into her vulnerable disposition. “How, exactly, are you doing that? Are you going to unfuck the accountant?”

  “Callie…let’s not go there,” I say defensively.

  “I’m sorry, Devin,” she says, her big brown eyes wide and pleading again. “But she doesn’t deserve you.”

  “And you do?” Ashleigh snorts in disgust. “You don’t love him. You don’t know what love is.”

  Callie straightens her shoulders and gives me a strong, intense stare I don’t have time to even figure out the meaning of before she turns a hard, cold stare at Ashleigh.

  “I know that he’s the strongest, kindest, sexiest man I have ever met,” Callie tells my wife with a hard edge to her voice. “I know he’d do anything he could to help me or save me from something. Even now after I fucked it all up, I know he’d be there for me. And I know that I would rather die than watch him suffer with a woman like you who has no idea how amazing he is and doesn’t appreciate everything he does and gives to a relationship.”

  My heart is racing a mile a minute. I feel almost woozy, like I might pass out.

  “I don’t want to mess up your marriage, but I know this…” Callie smiles at me and her eyes fill with tears and then she turns back to Ashleigh. “I know I would never, ever have even thought of cheating on Devin. I know that I could spend a million nights alone while he was on the road if it meant having even one night with him when he got home. I know when I’m with him, I am everything I never thought growing up I would ever be—happy, content and loved.”

  I feel a lump start to form in my throat.

  “Callie, you don’t know anything,” Ashleigh says, her voice high and grating like nails on a chalkboard. “You haven’t lived it.”

  “I did live it,” she argues back. “I lived it when you kicked him out. I lived with him and Conner. I fed them and I cleaned the damn house and I sat home alone worrying he might get injured in away games.”

  “And you made cupcakes,” I croak out for some reason.

  Callie turns her face to mine and she grins, a tear slipping down her cheek. “And I made fucking cupcakes.”

  “He chose me to live it with him. You were just there by default,” Ashleigh says in an angry whisper. “And now I choose him too.”

  “I chose him all along.” Callie turns her eyes from Ashleigh and focuses on me again. “I’m sorry I didn’t make it seem that way. I was scared and stupid. But, Devin, I…I want to be with you.”

  I gently move Ashleigh out of the way and place my hand on the doorframe and lean toward Callie on the front stoop.

  “Do you love me?” I whisper to her, my brain still reeling from the tornado of words and emotions swarming around me.

  “Yes.” She swallows hard and I see her hands shaking a little as she pushes them back into her pockets. “I love you.”

  “Devin, I love you!” Ashleigh says as she bursts into tears beside me.

  I turn to Ashleigh and hug her. “Go inside. Go inside and wait for me.”

  “You’ll make her leave and you’ll come back, right?”

  “Yes, Ashleigh. I’ll come back. You and I have to talk,” I tell her honestly and watch as she hesitantly wanders back toward the kitchen. I close the front door behind her and turn to Callie.

  “Walk with me,” I urge in a choked-up whisper. She looks wide-eyed and terrified but she follows me down the path to the driveway.

  “Devin—”

  “I don’t want to make this any harder on Ashleigh than it has to be,” I cut her off as we walk side by side, not touching, to the sidewalk. “But please know that if I didn’t think she was watching out a window I would grab you and kiss you senseless right now.”

  “Really?” she says and her eyes fill with tears again.

  She faces me and I turn and lean against the stone ledge that borders the sidewalk. I smile at her, my back to the house and Ashleigh’s prying eyes.

  “I was going to make sure Ashleigh knew we were over before you even showed up,” I confess. “I have the divorce papers in my jacket inside.”

  “You should have said something; then I wouldn’t have had to emotionally vomit everywhere,” she jokes as tears stream down her face.

  “Are you crazy?” I almost laugh and wipe her tears with the pads of my thumbs on her cheeks. “I needed to hear that more than anything in the world. I deserved to hear it.”

  She takes a shallow breath. “You did. I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner.”

  “You said it now and that’s all that matters,” I say and smile, my own eyes brimming with tears. “Now I need to make sure Ashleigh is clear that we have nothing left. Make sure she’s okay, for Conner’s sake, and then I’ll come home to you.”

  “Tonight?” she asks meekly.

  “Tonight and every night after that,” I promise. “Let’s get you in a cab.”

  She shakes her head. “I’ll walk. I need the air.”

  “You better be in the house when I get home.”

  “I promise.”

  She steps away and the wind catches her long, crazy hair and swirls it around her pretty face. God, I wish I could kiss her right now. Kiss her and so much more.

  “Callie,” I say as she turns to walk away. “I love you too.”

  She smiles over her shoulder at me and takes a ragged breath. “You know what? I know.”

  I watch her walk away until she’s completely out of sight and then turn back to face my soon-to-be ex-wife.

  Chapter 58

  Callie

  It’s the sound of the car in the driveway that startles me back into consciousness. My eyes fly to the digital alarm clock on the bedside table.

  11:41 p.m.

  I have been waiting for him for almost five hours. I had come straight to the rented brownstone, just as he’d asked, and used the key I still had to let myself in. I’d waited patiently for half an hour downstairs perched on the edge of the living room couch. Then I’d realized when I glanced at myself in the bathroom mirror that I was a bit of a disaster. So I went into the master bedroom and dug around for a hairbrush and washed my face and combed my hair.

  Then I’d plopped down on the bed, which was unmade, and lay back in the rumpled sheets. I had turned my face to the pillow and inhaled the scent of him on it. God, I missed him. I missed this bed. I missed being in this bed with him. Naked.

  I waited and waited and, as the hours passed, I tried not to let nerves and paranoia set in. He would come. He was going to leave Ashleigh. It was just taking longer than expected. He wanted me. He loved me. He would be here. I had fallen asleep repeating those thoughts over and over in my head.

  I hear the key in the front door and sit up, my spine ramrod straight, my ears straining. I hear the door open and his keys drop onto the hall table.

  “Callie?” he calls out.

  I swing my legs off the side of the bed and walk out into the hall. As my bare feet reach the landing at the top of the stairs, I respond. “Up here.”

  His head flips up and his eyes lock with mine and then he starts up the stairs¸ taking them two at a time, and the next thing I know he’s crashing into me, pushing me back against the wall behind us. His hands push into my hair and his body presses into me, and his lips cover mine.

  I kiss him back with the same overwhelming intensity he’s kissing me with. Our tongues push forcefully against each other but there’s also an underlying tenderness in our actions, as he gingerly scrapes his fingers against my scalp and holds the sides of my head with his palms. I have my hands up u
nder his shirt and my arms wrapped around his back holding him tightly to me.

  I can feel his hardening cock against the front of his jeans, pushed up squarely against my thigh. He finally breaks the kiss, pulling his head back so he’s half an inch from me, like moving farther away would be devastating. I know it would be for me.

  “I’m sorry,” he says and his breath tickles my cheeks and the bridge of my nose. “I wanted to be here way sooner but she…It was hard. And I wanted to make sure she understood everything.”

  “Is it okay?” I ask stupidly because no, it’s not okay. It’s the end of a marriage; it will never be okay. “I mean, is she okay to be left alone? Because if you have to go back…”

  “It’s not my job to help her through this,” he responds and his big, warm caramel eyes are soft and slightly sad. “I told her to call Andrew and ask him to come over.”

  “You did?” I’m stunned.

  “She still has feelings for him.” He shrugs and I can tell it doesn’t bother him at all anymore, which is amazing. “It was guilt and fear that had her trying to get me back, not love. I think she is starting to realize that.”

  His lips brush mine again and the pads of his thumbs slide over my cheeks, tracing the line of my cheekbones. He smiles. It’s not his usual confident, almost snarky smirk. It’s boyish and shy.

  “I’m just glad you finally came to your senses,” he whispers happily. “I mean, I wasn’t going to get back together with Ash anyway but…it’s nice to know my feelings aren’t one-sided.”

  “You have Big Bird to thank for that,” I explain and lightly scratch his back with my fingernails as I let my hands fall down to his hips. “He forced me to realize my feelings.”

  “Jordy?” He looks completely stunned.

  “That giant doofus loves you more than you know. It’s rather atrocious, actually. If I hadn’t taken you back, he said he would make my life a living hell,” I say, half joking, and give Devin a small grin. “What he didn’t realize was being without you was living hell.”

  Devin smiles and kisses me again. This time it’s slow and methodical and he takes his time running his tongue over my bottom lip and slowly sliding it against mine as I open my mouth to his. He pushes his whole body against mine again, slowly and softly, and I let my hands slide down to his ass and cup it gently.

  “I love you so much, Callie,” he whispers hoarsely against my lips.

  “Prove it,” I counter hotly and move my hands to the front of his jeans, unbuckling his belt. “Please.”

  Chapter 59

  Devin

  She doesn’t have to ask me again. I let her unbutton my jeans as I slip my hands under her tank top and push it up and off her body in one fluid motion. Her bra is a bright pink cotton racerback number with white polka dots. I run my hands over the fabric and lean down and kiss the swell of her breast that pushes up from the demi-cup.

  Her hands push my jeans off my hips and they drop around my ankles. As I pull her off the wall, moving my hands behind her to undo her bra, she slips one of her delicate hands into the front of my Tommy Hilfiger boxer briefs and wraps it around the base of my cock.

  “Fuck, Callie, I have missed you so much,” I whisper as the clasp on her bra unhooks and I move my hands to her shoulders to pull down the straps. “Your fucking touch makes me insane.”

  I press my lips to the curve of her neck and suck on the flesh there. It earns me a tiny mew of pleasure from her. Her bra slides down her arms and she moves her hand from my cock long enough to let it drop to the ground. I reach up and cup her breasts, rolling her tiny pink nipples between my fingers and thumbs and tugging ever so slightly. She mews again. God, I fucking adore every sound she makes. I adore everything about her.

  I kiss her passionately again. Her hands hook the waistband of my underwear and slide them over my ass and down my thighs. And then she starts to follow our discarded clothing, dropping to the floor on her knees.

  Before I can speak she’s got my entire length in her warm, wet mouth and her left hand is tugging gently on my balls. My eyes literally roll back in my head and I place my hands on the wall above her and let my head hang down.

  “Holy fuck…” I grunt and resist the urge to push into her. I don’t want to choke her, and besides, any more friction and I will explode. I don’t want to lose it all like this. Not tonight. I have other plans. But, fuck, does she feel glorious. Her mouth starts moving quickly. Her lips tighten around me and her tongue swirls around and around the tip as she moves.

  “Callie…I’m going to lose it…” I warn but she doesn’t stop, so I use my hands to push off the wall and move my body out of her reach. My dick slips from her lips with a wet pop sound.

  She looks up at me with a disappointed stare. “But I was having fun!”

  I laugh and pull her to her feet. As I step out of my pants and underwear, I bend and push my shoulder into her abdomen, flipping her whole body up, and carry her to the master bedroom. She’s giggling the whole way and smacking my ass in mock protest.

  I flip her back onto the bed and she lands in the middle of it, her breasts bouncing and a giggle still escaping her lips. I glance at the clock. It’s exactly midnight. Her eyes follow mine and she glances at the clock as well.

  I yank my shirt up over my head and toss it on the floor as I drop down on top of her, pressing my entire naked body into her and pushing my hard-on into her leg. I kiss her wildly. She wraps her legs around my torso and pushes herself into me.

  “Happy New Year, baby,” she coos against my ear before nipping my earlobe.

  “First of many,” I promise and move my hands to her thighs, untangling her legs from my waist and then grabbing the waistband of her sweats and underwear and pushing them down her legs in a few short, erratic shoves. I get them as far as her knees before I give up and move my hand back up to her center. I skim my fingers over her opening—she’s drenched. I groan in lust and she takes my hand and pushes it into her, two of my fingers pushing straight inside her. And now she groans.

  “Everything about you makes me so fucking wet,” she whispers, her eyes closed and her head tilted back. “I’ve dreamt about your fingers, your cock, your tongue…you make me fucking insatiable.”

  “I would lick you and suck you and finger you and fuck you all day, every day, if I could,” I promise, sliding my fingers in and out of her, moving my thumb to her clit and my lips to her throat.

  Her hips tilt up into my hand. I bite down lightly on her collarbone. She grabs onto my bare ass with both hands, her longer fingers pressing hard into my flesh. She spreads her legs so they fall on either side of my hips and I glance down between us and watch my fingers slide in and out of her beautiful pussy, coated in her slick juice. My cock wants to be in there so bad it starts to ache.

  She pulls on my ass and I have no choice but to move my hand away from her core to the bed beside her hip. I kiss her, slipping my tongue into her mouth and sliding it over hers as she tilts her pelvis and pushes on my ass, and my dick slips down through her folds. I feel her wet center perched perfectly at the tip of my dick. Her hands on my ass guide me into her.

  She’s so wet and so warm and so tight and I know we can’t do this. We have to stop. She’s not on the pill and I don’t have a condom on, and holy fuck, she feels so fucking blindingly spectacular. I grit my teeth and fight like hell not to come immediately.

  “Callie…I’m not wearing…” I grunt as I move my cock deeper and deeper into her pussy. “Fuck.”

  “I know. I just…wanted to feel it…” she pants back, struggling to keep her eyes open, her eyelids fluttering. “I just…it feels so good like this…”

  I’m completely inside her now. My dick is twitching mercilessly, begging for the euphoric friction of a thrust or two or ten or a hundred. But I remain still.

  “We can’t…” I say grudgingly. “I want to. Fuck, I want to…but we can’t.”

  “I know,” she relents. “Not yet.”

  “You
mean not until you’re on the pill?” I ask, too scared to believe it means something else—what I want it to mean.

  Her eyes open a little more and she gives me a look like I’m absurd and then it softens.

  “No, I mean not until you’re officially divorced,” Callie whispers back and runs a hand over the side of my face gently. “Things are messy right now and I don’t want to risk bringing a kid into our life until it’s completely our life.”

  I blink. “But you would bring a kid into the world? You’d consider…”

  “Not any kid, no,” she explains softly, biting her lip like she’s nervous. “But your kid, yes.”

  And then she tilts her hips and grinds herself downward. My erection responds to the friction and I give her a quick, hard thrust and then use all the willpower I have to pull completely out of her and reach for the condoms in the bedside table.

  I’m sheathed in seconds, and just as urgently as before, she’s taking me into her body. The sensation isn’t as full but it’s still fabulous. Everything about Callie is fabulous.

  “Fuck me, Devin,” she begs.

  “This is more than that,” I respond and take my first soft strokes inside her.

  Epilogue

  Devin

  The NHL awards were long and although they had amusing moments I was itching for them to be over. Jordy was up for, and won, the Lady Byng Award. Our family is peppered throughout the auditorium—Luc and I are with Rosie and Callie and our team toward the middle of the auditorium. Jordan and Jessie are with the Winterhawks to the left; Cole and Leah are in the balcony with my parents. We all jump up and give Jordy a Garrison family ovation. He thanks his coach, his teammates, his family and “the love of his life and future wife, Jessie.” I’m thrilled for Jordy but for a quick second I’m also a little jealous that he can make a public declaration to Jessie like that.