by Anya Nowlan
He chuckled in response and it sent a rumble coursing through her, deep and primal, only adding to her excitement. Her thighs were almost cramping now, trying to lock around him, but he played her so easily. Her breath came in quick, fluttery little bursts as she opened her eyes and watched him now, eating her out like she was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted.
His blue eyes met hers and the look in them was demonic. Smug, impossible, and yet at the same time completely taken with her. It was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen, and it wasn’t even because he had two fingers up her pussy and she was grinding down around them.
Though it certainly didn’t hurt.
“Cum for me, baby,” he commanded in a growl, an involuntary shiver passing through her at that voice.
He didn’t use it often, but when he did, she always turned into mush. She remembered the exact pitch of it and now it was there again. She’d come to Idaho looking for a good conversation and maybe a hot make-out session, and she’d found the one man who could twist her up with need like a damn pretzel and leave her screaming for more.
“Will you do that for me, Kimmy?” Cannon asked, one hand coming off her hip now and trailing slowly along her inner thigh, tracing her shudders with a grin.
“Yes,” she mewled and when she saw his grin, she knew that was the only thing he’d been waiting to hear since they came into the bedroom.
He didn’t say another word, just bowed his head, closing his eyes as he pressed his tongue against her clit and flicked over it in quick bursts that left her reeling, trying to hold onto her sanity and failing completely.
The first screams out of her mouth were so loud that she thought the roof had to be shaking above her, but she only got louder as Cannon thrust his fingers deeper in her, moving up her body with his mouth and lips as he grazed his thumb over her clit instead.
By the time he’d made it up to her lips, unclasping the bra with a deft hand slid between the mattress and her back, Kimberley was a shuddering mess, latching onto Cannon and practically purring. Hot and cold flashes ran through her and it felt like every muscle in her body was at the same time inexplicably tight and relaxed.
He kissed her and she drank him in, shaky hands clutching his shoulders as Cannon pulled his fingers out of her pussy. He trailed his fingertips up the length of her body, making her squirm a little, before pulling away from the kiss and sucking the fingers into his mouth, enjoying one more taste of her.
Kimberley’s lips parted in breathless want as she watched him, so enraptured with her body and her taste. He never made her doubt for a second that she was everything he wanted.
“Take your jeans off,” she said, every bit as much of a command as when he’d told her to cum.
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied with a grin, though he pulled off her panties first before shucking off his own.
Kimberley got up on her knees, shaky as they were, her gaze drawn to Cannon’s cock, fully erect now with a tiny bead of precum at the tip. She reached out, running a finger up from the sac to the very tip, gathering the precum on her finger and bringing it to her mouth, making sure to have eye-contact with Cannon when she licked it up. She could see the moment he let out a shaky breath, his blue eyes wide with amazement and need.
It was her turn now. She pushed him back gently until he was lying on the covers and then straddled him, letting her slit rub up and down the length of his cock as she kissed his neck several times over. His skin tasted salty, beads of sweat forming, and his body was solid as a rock below her. His warm, rough hands clutched her hips again, grinding into her slowly, but not penetrating, letting her rock back and forth on him until she was tight with need again.
He was so damn big. She wanted him wet with her juices, and frankly kissing his chest and neck and cheeks was something she could never get tired of. Finally, when his fingers started gripping her harder and she could feel the need pulse through him, she maneuvered the head of his cock to her entrance and pushed down oh so slowly, both of them clinging to one another as she did so.
“Fucking hell,” he growled, the muscles of his chest contracting. “I forgot how damn tight you are.”
Kimberley couldn’t reply. She was too busy trying to keep her sanity in check while her eyes rolled back, taking him inch by inch until she had to buck forward a little and then sink lower again. He filled her beautifully, girthy and long and utterly delicious as he was. When she could finally sit up on him, gasping for air because of how full she felt, he was practically vibrating underneath her.
“Is this what you want?” she asked with a delicately arched brow, grinding on him with the tiniest of movements, teasing and tormenting.
“Yessss,” he hissed, slipping his hands lower on her thighs to clutch them as she rolled her body forward a little again.
“Are you sure?” she asked, a tiny giggle in her voice.
It was then that she knew that she couldn’t toy with him for too long. Too many years had passed and they both wanted it far too much. While he’d given her a small bit of relief, the man she loved and wanted watched her with burning eyes, still teetering on that edge that she’d been allowed over.
Cannon shot up to sit, grabbing her by the back of her head and kissing her deeply as he lifted her by the hip slightly. Pulling back with a rumbling snarl as he thrust his tongue into her mouth, he plowed upward into her so hard and deep that she thought she’d lose her capability to breathe completely.
All she could do was hold on. Her arms went around his neck as he pumped into her, soon rolling them both over and flipping her down so he was on top of her, each stroke filling her completely before he would pull out almost all the way. Kimberley could faintly tell that she was screaming again, clutching the sheets and him with her pussy clenching around him, milking him, wanting all he had.
His motions turned jagged after a time that seemed like an eternity and yet not nearly enough; the desire she’d managed to ignore for him for years was now back in full flame. Her eyes fluttered open just as she exploded under his touch again, pleasure thrumming through her at the very same moment that he came, Cannon finishing with a roar.
Kimberley whimpered as she felt him empty into her, his seed white and thick and he collapsed on top of her, hovering on his elbows so he wouldn’t crush her underneath his massive body. She squirmed around his cock, riding her own wave of pleasure until she was completely spent, a wheezing, wet, sweaty mess.
She wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Cannon pulled out slowly, gingerly, and by the time he’d lowered himself to the sheets beside her, one strong arm had immediately scooped her closer to him. She laughed as he dotted kisses on the back of her neck, nuzzling her from behind and that rasp of his beard now scratching slightly against the delicate skin.
“So, this is the bedroom,” he said, his voice warm and bemused.
“I figured that much.”
“I thought I should show it to you from several angles.”
She put one hand on top of his, their fingers lacing. There was no doubt in her mind that she’d be kicking herself for all of this in the morning, but right now? It felt fucking amazing.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Cannon
Morning came too soon as far as Cannon was concerned. He would have been completely at ease if the night had just stretched on and on without an end in sight, his arms around Kimberley and her soft lips on his. But dawn broke eventually and even the baddest hockey bad boys needed their slumber, so sometime after the third round, Cannon had dozed off, with Kimberley tight in his arms.
He was intent on not letting her sneak off anywhere without him knowing in advance.
The werebear was woken up with a start as Kimberley wriggled from his grasp, lunging for her phone that was buzzing somewhere in the mass of clothes down on the floor. He got one good look at her scrumptious bare ass before she threw on his shirt, which looked infinitely better on her than it ever did on him even if it hid her body from his sleepy gaze.
> “What’s going on?” he mumbled, hiking himself up on one elbow as Kimberley hushed him with an idle hand wave and a much more pointed balled-up pair of jeans flying in the general direction of his head.
“Stella? Yes, I hear you! No, I’m fine! Yes, I’m in Shifter Grove. How did you—”
Cannon watched as Kimberley’s expression went from mildly annoyed to surprised to completely blank, nodding her head as she listened to what sounded like a stream of screeching jabber coming from whoever was at the other end of the line.
“Yes, it is the Chicago Bluehawks. Yes, the rumors are true. How did I know? Um, I—”
“You’ve got friends in high places,” Cannon offered with a grin, tossing the covers off and fishing around for a new pair of underwear, perfectly aware that Kimberley was staring at him as he did so.
He hoped she liked what she saw now as much as she had the evening before.
“Someone gave me a call but I wanted to check it out myself. I’m coming back today. What? Stella, no, I’m coming back! You can’t... no, I mean okay, I get it,” Kimberley said, her tone flabbergasted now, sounding placating at best. “I’ll do it. Yeah, sure. Yes, two thousand words. Fine. Bye.”
Cannon looked at her with a flicker of questioning in his bright blue eyes as Kimberley closed the call and sent her phone bouncing over the bed with a dull thud as it finally stopped on one of the messed-up pillows. Her brows were knit together now and she looked as far as she possibly could from the smiling, beaming beauty he’d made purr in his arms last night.
“What’s going on, baby?” Cannon asked, stepping up to her and stringing his arms around her waist before she could bat him away.
“I’m not your baby,” she said with a frustrated sigh, though she dropped her forehead against his shoulder and he tightened his grip around her as she seemed to contemplate her fantastically questionable luck lately.
“I didn’t hear any objections last night,” he said with a chuckle.
“Well, drunk Kimberley doesn’t know what she’s talking or not talking about,” she grumbled softly, banging her head repeatedly against his shoulder until he put a hand to her chin and tilted it to look up at him.
“You weren’t drunk and neither was I. No excuses, Kimberley. Now, what’s going on?”
Kimberley gave him a look that could end up with him getting smacked across the face, pushed back on the bed and straddled, or simply ignored—he could never tell with that woman and the unpredictable nature he had seen far more than he cared to admit. This time, she simply softly slid out of their embrace, grabbing for her panties and pulling them on as she shook her head again.
“So apparently, everyone knows that you guys are in Shifter Grove now. And just my luck, this is big news. The Shifter Grove Shovelers… I swear, you might as well have called yourselves the Shifter Grove Shifters if you wanted to be ridiculous.”
“Maybe we will,” he offered with a toothy grin, garnering him another half-hearted glare, along with a twitch of her lips. “You’re the PR expert here, I’m at your mercy. But if we’re big news, does that mean you’re staying?”
He watched her straighten up again, loving the way the shirt draped over her body and even more the quirky, snarly look she gave. It made him want to toss her down on the bed again, but he refrained from letting himself get swept away like that again. He’d have to make up for lost time in other ways now too, not just by reminding both of them how good they were together in bed.
Good? Try mind-blowing, he corrected himself silently.
“Looks like it,” Kimberley finally admitted, tossing her hands to the sky as she stomped out of the bedroom. “Because apparently this trip couldn’t get screwed up enough already!”
“Oh, there’s definitely been some screwing,” Cannon muttered, stalking out after her, not bothering to find another shirt.
They looked far better on Kimberley anyway. She disappeared into one of the two bathrooms with a toothbrush before he could catch her again, and with a shrug, he followed her lead. Five minutes later, he was in the kitchen, making coffee and toast while gnawing on an apple, the early-morning sun shimmering through the windows.
Cannon cracked a couple of eggs in the pan, letting them sizzle and fry along with some bacon while he prepared the coffee, waiting for Kimberley to make another appearance. There was no practice that day to give the guys some time to rest up, because their next game was in a couple of days against the Timberwolves.
As much as they’d wiped the floor with the Grizzlies, mostly thanks to their rather unique home court advantage, Cannon knew that the Timberwolves would hear about their antics and come prepared. He was sort of wishing he could see the way the Seattle team was training right now, because he was damn sure their coach was dragging them on some godforsaken lake just like Coach Wiley had.
But his musings were cut short quickly as Kimmy pattered into the room, still barefoot and a little bit tousled from their long night and the “unfortunate” news she’d received. He couldn’t be surprised about her reluctance to stay. He hadn’t done anything aside from fuck her brains out to show her that he was any better than he used to be, and the sex had never been the problem.
He pushed one of the cups of coffee her way, black just the way she drank it, and took a sip of his own. She accepted it gratefully and sunk down behind the counter, long legs dangling around the bar stool. As usual, he had a hard time keeping his eyes off of her and it still amazed him that she was there at all, that she’d come. And that she’d stayed.
“Your eggs are burning, lover boy,” Kimberley finally said with a smirk, making Cannon snap out of his self-imposed daydreaming.
“Shit,” he hissed, taking the pan off the heat and scooping the eggs and bacon onto two plates.
It wasn’t too bad, just a little crispy. But that’s how he preferred his bacon anyway. He took his plate and went to sit at the other side of the counter as well, hopping up on a seat next to her and grabbing her chair with one hand, yanking it closer to him.
“Wouldn’t want you to get lost in my big house. Better keep you close,” he remarked lightly, avoiding her gaze as he speared some eggs and bacon on his fork and dug in.
She snorted next to him, but he could feel the smile on her lips as she started eating as well. The air was a bit tense, true, because now they didn’t have hurried kisses to fill the silences or the excuse of groping one another when talking was too hard. And it was still far too fucking difficult.
Cannon gave Kimberley a sideways glance, feeling inexplicably silly around her. He was a grown-ass man, one of the best playmakers in the league, lauded and desired for a hell of a lot more than just the way he looked. And yet this sharp, beautiful woman could reduce him to a stuttering mess with the tiniest look. He knew exactly why that was.
A bear always melted in front of his mate, after all. And that was what she was, even if she didn’t believe it anymore.
You fucked up big time, he reminded himself, his mood souring slightly.
The events that had taken place between them all those years ago still hung over his head like an axe. As far as the tabloids knew, he’d had plenty of women since that, but that wasn’t the whole truth. Cannon had been doing anything to fill the void that Kimberley had left. One that seemed to be growing bigger with every day, until winning, succeeding, and being the best at everything else in his life wasn’t enough anymore.
He’d promised her he’d keep away, so he wouldn’t hurt her again. But here he was, practically wrestling her into giving him another chance. Or, well, stumbling through an attempt at getting her to consider it. But just getting her there wouldn’t be good enough, this much he knew. He’d actually have to be able to talk about it.
Every time he looked at her though, his words seemed to shrivel up in his throat and clutch at him with iron talons. The thought of messing up again around her left him petrified with fear, and he reverted back to the same smug, joking guy he was usually, the one she knew and probabl
y loathed as much as she loved it. He couldn’t help it though. Not yet.
“How’s the food?” he asked. “I bet I make a better breakfast than those Montreal jokesters,” he said with a derisive huff.
There was nothing wrong with the Sabres, other than the fact that they’d taken his girl away from him. At least that’s how he chose to see it for the time being. It was far easier than admitting that he’d fucked up royally, a fact he was already keenly aware of though intermittently happily in denial of.
“Would be better if the eggs weren’t burnt,” she said with a shrug, breaking out in a giggle as Cannon gave her his best puppy dog look.
“You’re a cruel woman, Kimberley Thomas,” he sighed.
“Life’s made me that,” she quipped back.
“Listen, Kimmy, I think we need to talk,” Cannon began, seizing the moment when his brain wasn’t working at full function yet and thus less capable of fucking with his resolve of talking about the elephant, or the bear in the room, as it were.
She looked up at him, curiosity and worry in her eyes, but before she could say anything, Cannon heard a key being shoved into a lock and Heath storming in like it was D-Day and the cabin represented the beaches of Normandy. He arrived in the living room–kitchen with a flourish, breathing heavily and stinking of a heavy run, grinning wide.
“Cannon! Cannon’s glaring female friend! How nice to see you both in my house!” he said with a flourish, rounding into the kitchen side and yanking a mug off the tray by the sink, and pouring himself a big cup of coffee.
“I think you mean our house,” Cannon said with a grumble, mildly irritated as well as completely relieved that Heath had staved off his misery for later.
“If you keep kicking me outta here it’s going to be my house soon enough.”
“Point taken. Cannon, Kimberley. Kimberley, Cannon. We go way back with Kimmy here. She’s on the Sabres press team.”
Heath wiped his hand against his pants and thrust it out, Kimberley shaking it firmly.
“Are you the girl who keeps writing all of those scathing articles about us? ‘Heath Locklear, Manwhore Extraordinaire’ is by far my favorite title I’ve been graced with so far, and I think that came from you, right?”
