Come Undone: A Hockey Romance

by Penny Dee

  We sat at the table with the Redwing children. Their ages ranged from three to seventeen, including the twins who were ten. The oldest was Charlie, a very handsome young man who had his father’s size but his mother’s beauty.

  Straight away, Jake was the center of their universe. They threw their excited chatter at him, teased him about his absent beard, and in true Jake form he was charming and comfortable, easily engaging with them, easily laughing with them. He was loved by so many and for good reason.

  At one stage he looked up and caught me staring, and the laughter on his face faded. His eyes twinkled across at me and he gave me a gentle smile, which I matched with my own. Warmth spread through my chest as my heart bloomed with affection.

  I couldn’t wait to get back to the cabin and explore what that was.

  Alice leaned over to me. “I can see what you two are up to,” she whispered conspiratorially, and then winked at me.

  “What do you mean?” I whispered back.

  She nodded toward Jake who was deep in conversation with Billy and Charlie.

  “That boy is crazy about you,” Alice said with a knowing glint in her eyes. “And if I’m right, he can’t wait to get you back to that cabin tonight.”

  I looked at her with feigned surprise. “Oh, no. We’re not . . . I mean, we aren’t…”

  But Alice just waved me off. “Oh, please. I’ve known Jake for a lifetime. And I’ve never seen him ever look at another woman the way he looks at you.”

  I didn’t know what to make of that, as I chewed my homemade garlic bread, but it felt nice and warm, and precious. More precious than anything.

  Dinner was raucous and fun, and rowdy. Noodles were spooned and slurped, and homemade garlic bread was pulled apart and dunked in rich spaghetti sauce. Laughter rippled across the table and conversation was as lush and delicious as the meat sauce. Billy and Alice were warm and welcoming, and their family drew us in and embraced us as if we were one of them.

  And then Alice really upped the stakes when she brought out her famed maple syrup pie. One mouthful and I was in love.

  “So what do you think?” Jake asked me.

  “This is the most amazing thing I have ever had in my mouth!”

  He cocked an eyebrow at me and leaned closer so only I could hear. “For now.”

  Heat coursed through me and I had to look away before I cleared the table with my arm and took him right there on the Redwing’s table. I shuffled in my seat and sat on my hands. Tiny pulses throbbed between my thighs. I needed him.

  After the dinner dishes were cleared, the kids gathered around the fire and the massive sixty-inch TV screen in the lounge room after a DVD was put in. Jake and I drank coffee at the table while Alice, Billy, and Charlie washed up. We had offered to help but Alice said guests to her home were never going to do dishes.

  Jake and I watched the TV screen from where we sat. Tonight’s movie choice was eight-year-old Emma’s, so we were watching Sweet Home Alabama. When she had announced her choice, there had been groans all round because according to Charlie, she was obsessed with it.

  Just as Reese Witherspoon’s character punched Candice Bergen’s character in the nose, I looked over and saw Jake looking at me.

  “What?” I asked, taken back by how deep in thought he looked.

  His eyes twinkled in the soft glow of the Redwings’ logged-home. “I’m ready,” he said, his voice calm and steady. “Set up the Galveston Fury deal.”

  His words took me by surprise and I mentally took a step back.

  “Are you sure?”

  Jake had a way of looking at you that made you feel like you were the only thing in the entire world. His focus was completely on you.

  A smile tugged at his lips. “No. But I have a feeling you’re not going to let up until I agree.”

  “Jake, I—”

  “I’m kidding.” He grinned. “I want you to set it up.”

  I thought for a moment, suddenly feeling protective of him.

  “I don’t want you to do something you’re not ready to do.” And I didn’t. I had come to Moose Lake with the sole intention of getting Jake back on the ice and into the pros. But that was before I knew him. Things were different now. His fears were real. His pain was real. He was real. The business side of things, the plan to get him back in the pros, the bet—they all seemed so unimportant to me now.

  My concerns were with Jake the person, not Jake the hockey player.

  “You’re right,” he said. “It will be good for me to get back to hockey.” When I didn’t look convinced, he leaned forward and put his hands on my knees. “I need this. If I want to get my life back then I need to do this.”

  The fact he wanted to re-join the world and move on filled me with relief and optimism, and happiness.

  My hand slid over his. “If you’re sure then I will make it happen.”

  He grinned again. “Baby, I don’t doubt that for a second.”

  We just stared at each other and I saw something in his eyes that I’d never seen there before.

  Hope.

  * * *

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Mackenzie

  We drove back to the cabin in Jake’s big truck. Like everything with Jake, his truck was huge. And watching him expertly maneuver the impressive vehicle with such skill was kind of a turn on.

  Sitting beside him, my stomach was a powder keg of anticipation for what was about to happen. All day the memory of his touch had lingered on my skin, filling my pores with a raw need, so much that sometimes I felt I needed to sit on my hands to keep them from grabbing him and getting him naked.

  He parked the truck in the small, snow-laden garage and when we stepped out into the cold night he took my hand and held it tightly in his as he led me toward the cabin. At the touch of his hand on mine my nerves began to spin and cartwheeled like a firecracker.

  I followed him up the small porch steps but he paused at the top and pulled me to him, and then under a magical starlit sky and the magnetic swirling lights of Aurora Borealis, Jake bent his head and kissed me.

  The moment his lips touched mine my body took over and my mind was lost in a sea of pleasure and sensation. His lips were soft but commanding and moved in perfect synchronicity with mine. A low, anguished moan fell between us as he reached up and cupped my face instantly making my body want more, and without thinking I entwined my legs with his in an attempt to be closer.

  Something crazy was happening inside me. Something insistent and urgent, and way more powerful than my common sense. It said to hell with the rules. Not tonight. Not beneath the magic of the aurora.

  My hands slid between us and found the growing swell in the front of his jeans. Jake groaned as I touched him, and feeling the sheer size of him against my palm, my pelvic muscles tightened and throbbed, desperate to feel what was in my hand.

  “We need to get inside,” I moaned into his mouth.

  But he pulled away to look at me and the light of the Aurora Borealis cast a strange light across our faces. Curtains of almost phosphorous greens, reds and blues glowed in the sky above us like neon swirls of magical light.

  “Mackenzie . . .” he whispered my name and his voice had such a sense of desperation to it. “Tell me this is real.”

  Standing there on the little, snow-laden porch with the Northern Lights swirling in the sky above us I felt swept up in the magic.

  I nodded. “This is real.” And boy, I couldn’t explain it. But in that moment what was happening between us was the most real, most incredible feeling in the world and everything before, and everything after, was of no consequence to me.

  Jake’s eyes gleamed in the strange light. And then he smiled and the white glow of his teeth and the dimples on either side of his glorious smile made me fall into a deep well of love for him.

  Oh, hell.

  I kissed him then, deep and hard, and he walked me backwards until my shoulder blades touched the rough timber of the cabin. My eyes opened. Slowly. And as
his tongue filled my mouth, and his hands slid up from my hips and his moan rumbled between us, I took in the glorious sky behind him where the stars glittered amongst the glow of the aurora. Frosty air swirled around us like puffs of cold smoke and I closed my eyes, turning away from the beauty of Mother Nature to succumb to the magic of his kiss.

  “Take me inside,” I breathed. I couldn’t stand one more moment without him inside me.

  But Jake paused, his thumb running over my chin. “Z . . .” His breath propelled cold puffs of air against the night. “I want this to be something special.”

  The need in his voice startled me. But his eyes were like magnets and I couldn’t look away.

  Slowly, I nodded. “It already is.”

  * * *

  Jake

  After the kiss on the porch I scooped Mackenzie up in my arms and carried her inside. Tonight the aurora was bright and we didn’t need any lights inside the cabin to see. When I set her down she took a step away from me and undid the buttons to her coat, letting it slip to the floor. Without a word she lifted her shirt over her head and then pushed off her jeans, kicking them away and standing before me in nothing but her bra and panties. All I could do was stand there and watch, rooted to the spot like a thousand-year-old oak, because, in the magical light she was simply breathtaking.

  Her name was a whisper on my lips as my wildly thumping heart pulsed loudly in my ears. There was so much to say to her. So much I wanted her to know. But in that moment all I could do was take in the potent beauty of her.

  She crossed the distance between us to place a finger across my lips. She had to stand on tippy-toes to kiss me, and her lips brushed gently across mine. Her touch was gentle but it conjured a tsunami of pleasure throughout every cell of my body.

  “Touch me,” she whispered against my lips.

  I looked deep into her eyes as the tips of my fingers found the smooth plane of her collarbone and trailed across her warm skin. I swallowed deep as they slid slowly down the length of her arm and tangled with her fingers. I pushed back the deep throb of need pulsing through my veins as they worked their way back up again and across her chest, brushing over the hardened peak of her nipple. She sucked in a deep breath and flinched, and I had to fight off every male urge in me as her tongue flicked across her lower lip and she shivered.

  “I like it when you touch me,” she said softly.

  My fingers slid lower, down to her waist and across her flat belly, brushing the tip of her thong as they found the top of her thigh. When they found the soft dampness of her panties, she bit down on her lip this time and I wondered just how much more I could take.

  Lace brushed my fingers as I slid between her thong and her body, and dear God, I was about to explode with need when they found her slick skin. She shivered and her lips parted with a moan as I gently pushed into her. My cock was hard and it was all I could do to stay standing as she tightened around me, her slick muscles welcoming me deeper into her.

  Her head fell back. “I need you in me,” she breathed.

  I didn’t need asking twice. My mouth sought out hers as I pulled her into my arms. And as I lifted her up, she wound her legs tight around my waist, moaning as our kiss deepened and ignited into so much more. I groaned at the touch of her against the hardness in my jeans, where my cock strained and begged for me to hurry this up. I walked us across the room to the bed and gently laid her down amongst the pillows and sheets where she stretched out before me, all creamy and smooth, and my heart opened just a little bit more.

  Kicking off my jeans I joined her on the bed. She twisted onto her side and her fingers brushed over my chest and down my stomach, sweeping across my pelvis to the top of my thighs. I flinched and shivered as her fingers made their way across my groin to finally curl around the hardness of my erection. Pleasure flared across my body as she slowly and skilfully began to stroke me.

  “You’re so beautiful,” she murmured, her fingers tightening and her palm sliding along the length of me. “I want to feel all of you inside of me.”

  We had discussed protection on the drive to the Redwings. I had been tested a month following Tyler’s death, and I hadn’t been with a woman since. Mackenzie had been tested more recently because of some insurance criteria at the agency. She was also on the pill to help with cramps, she said, so we were free to explore one another with freedom.

  Her hand continued to pump slowly up and down. “I want to taste you.”

  I didn’t have a chance to reply before her lips sank down onto the head of my cock and sucked me deep into her gloriously wet mouth. The sudden sensation rocked me, making me jolt and jerk, and I pressed my head back into the pillow, tangling my fingers in her hair as she licked and sucked me. Jesus Christ.

  Her tongue teased and tormented me while her mouth slowly and torturously milked me.

  I had to stop her when it became too much, when my balls tightened and I felt the tight coil of pleasure begin to heighten. I was going to come in her mouth and while I wanted that, fuck, how I wanted that, tonight I wanted to spend time pleasuring her. I wanted to feel her warmth tighten and pulse around me when I made her come.

  “Baby, you’re going to make me come doing that,” I moaned out, my voice thick and hoarse.

  When she pulled back to look up at me, I flipped her onto her back and nestled between her creamy thighs. Every inch of me was desperate to be inside her. But I was going to make this last. I was going to show her what she did to me. How she made me feel.

  I gazed down at her, filled with an emotion that was as foreign to me as all of this was. I grazed my thumb across her cheek.

  “You make me feel things I have never known,” I said, honestly, not knowing where the words came from but knowing that they needed to be said. “I don’t know what to do with them.” And I didn’t. I felt completely at the mercy of the feelings that were so alien to me.

  Beautiful brown eyes stared straight into mine. “We’ll work that out together.”

  I shifted slightly and she bit her lower lip when she felt the pressure of my cock against the sensitive softness of her pussy.

  When I sank into her, she gasped and dug her fingers into my shoulders. And, God, it felt amazing being inside her. It was like plunging head first into a deep well of pleasure and being sucked deeper into an unfathomable bliss. It tore through me. Making me harder, making me pulse and throb inside of her. But there was something else. Something I was striving to reach with every deep stroke into her warm and welcoming body. I didn’t know what it was. Couldn’t put a finger on it. But whatever it was, it was like nothing I had ever known. Everything was heightened. Every touch. Every emotion. Every vibrant sensation coursing through my body felt new and vivid, and so goddamn incredible.

  Mackenzie whimpered as her climax swelled in her. She was close, so I slowed my pace and pushed deeper into her, inch by inch, pressing hard against that swollen bud of nerves that was tight and bound with unreleased ecstasy. With one hard grind against her, her eyes opened wide with surprise and her muscles squeezed and clenched tight around my cock. Oh, God . . . Beneath me her body detonated with a powerful climax and my name fell from her lips in a breathless, desperate cry as her orgasm consumed her.

  I gave into my own climax then, shuddering into her with a long, unbridled moan. My head dropped as if it was too heavy with euphoria. Nothing felt as good as this. Nothing in the entire universe could compare to how it felt making love to Mackenzie and then coming inside of her. And as my orgasm cartwheeled across my brain, that’s when it hit me. I didn’t just need this woman. I was falling in love with her.

  * * *

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Mackenzie

  I woke up with a sudden need to run from the cabin.

  Entangled in Jake’s arms I was struck with a sudden paralyzing surge of panic that tore up my spine and prickled at the base of my skull. I lay rigid and still, crippled by the storm of anxiety taking place inside of me.

  But then my
phone started to buzz with all the messages from the past three days and my arm shot out to retrieve it from the small bedside table beside me. Thirty-seven messages. Most of them about Daisy and her latest drama, which involved her being thrown off a flight to Vegas for bad behavior. Now the CEO of the fashion label that paid her a truckload of money to lend her pure, innocent face to their latest perfume release, wanted to talk. It was bad news when they wanted to talk.

  The last message I received was from Garrick and it had been sent the night before. It was a picture of him and my father with Purgatory, out to dinner and smiling, and it was like a giant vat of ice-cold water being thrown over me.

  What was I doing? I needed to get out of there.

  With my anxiety attack in full flight, I rolled out of bed, desperately trying not to wake Jake as I untangled myself from his embrace and searched for my clothes scattered on the floor. It took me a few minutes but I eventually managed to get into my jeans and shirt.

  I had to go. I had to get as far away from here as possible. For Jake.

  And because my cousin was stealing Purgatory right out from under my nose because I had let myself be so distracted by the glorious man lying amongst the sheets in front of me.

  I stopped for a moment to draw in a deep breath and to calm my wild nerves. I had broken every rule I had about getting involved with clients and I didn’t want Jake to be the one who paid for it. He deserved better. He deserved to have his career back. Not get caught up with some mental case like me.

  I grabbed my hairband from the little table by the fireplace and began to pull my hair back. When Jake moved and moaned in his sleep I jerked to a pause and waited for him to resume his deep slumber.

  I didn’t want him to wake up. I sucked at goodbyes and I had a feeling that this one was going to hurt.

  As I hunted for my boots I pushed back the memory of the kiss on the porch and what we had said afterwards. That this was something. That this was real. Because it wasn’t. Even though it was delicious and he had given me multiple orgasms, and it was the best sex I had ever experienced, Jake was my client—not my boyfriend. Christ, where the fuck were my boots? I whirled around looking for them. I had to get out of here. I had to get out of here now.