Outside the Box

by Rochelle Paige

  “Why exactly did I make us wait this long for that?” she asked.

  “I have no idea, but had I known it would be like that, I’m not sure I would have been able to stop myself from pressuring you,” I admitted, giving her a kiss before I levered myself off her body and dropped onto the bed beside her.

  “You marked me again,” Aubrey groaned as she looked down at her boobs. “Are you going to do that every single time a guy does something around me to piss you off?”

  I thought about it for a second and figured I might as well be honest even if it pissed her off. “Yeah, probably.”

  “Luka,” she sighed. “Why?”

  I traced the marks I had left on her skin and struggled to find the right words. “It satisfies something inside me to see my brand on you.”

  “Your brand?” she questioned with an evil glint in her eye.

  “That sounded bad, didn’t it?” I asked huskily, not feeling too bad about it because that’s how I felt. She was mine, and I liked when she had the marks to prove it.

  “This relationship is a two-way street, right” she asked as she moved to straddle my hips.

  I nodded my head in agreement, pleased with the way her mouth tilted up in a grin in response but a little worried about what was going on inside that head of hers. She lightly raked her fingernails down my chest before she leaned forward to place gentle kisses on my nipple. She murmured something so softly against my skin that I couldn’t quite catch the words before she moved her mouth up a little and then bit down hard and sucked deep.

  “Fuck,” I hissed out at the sting of her teeth against my skin.

  “Then I get to mark you as mine too,” she said triumphantly.

  I couldn’t really argue with her logic when she put it that way. “You know I’m going to catch shit from the guys in the locker room this weekend, right?”

  “You didn’t seem to mind when Lexi was the one teasing me because of the hickey you left on my thigh when we went swimming,” she reminded me. “Besides which—you started it. I just ended it.”

  “You do know that this isn’t going to deter me from wanting do it again. If anything, I think it has the opposite effect on me,” I warned her.

  “As long as I get to return the favor, I guess I can live with it,” she begrudgingly agreed. “Now shut up and rest a little before you have to leave for practice. It’s going to be a long weekend for both of us, especially you.”

  ****

  I’d been right about the talk in the locker room at yesterday’s practice. The guys all thought it was hilarious that Aubrey had left a big bite mark on my pectoral muscle. Jason even asked Coach later if we could change our warm-up music and have “Another One Bites the Dust” added to the playlist. Coach didn’t understand why everyone was laughing their asses off at this request and just walked away shaking his head.

  I didn’t let it get to me though because I knew I’d left a hell of a lot more marks on her than she had on me. Just knowing that she was going to walk around the tournament this weekend with them all over her chest settled something deep inside me.

  Then, when I got on the bus with the team, one of those jackasses started playing an old Salt-N-Pepa song and everybody yelled out loud, “When you put hickeys on my chest,” along with the song. How the hell they’d found the song and got the guys in on it since last night, I had no idea. But I had to admit that it was fucking hilarious.

  I ran my finger lightly over my heart, knowing that Aubrey’s mark rested over it. I couldn’t help but think that I was a lucky motherfucker because she put up with the shit I pulled from time to time.

  chapter 11

  aubrey

  It turned out that road-tripping with Lucy was loads of fun. She took one look at my Volkswagen Jetta, ordered me to open the sunroof, and told me that she was driving. The girl certainly wasn’t very big on boundaries. Sharing a room with her was bound to be interesting, but at least I had a friend to keep me company at the hockey tournament while Luka was busy.

  “Hey, do you mind if we stop at a store when we get closer to the hotel?” Lucy asked.

  “Sure. No problem,” I replied. “Did you forget to pack something? Maybe you can just borrow from me?”

  “You don’t happen to have any grapefruit with you, do you?” “Ummm, no. I didn’t pack any grapefruit,” I answered, feeling confused.

  “Or a knife?” she continued.

  A knife? She just asked me if I’d packed a knife for our trip? “Okay, should I be freaked out right about now?” I half-joked, holding my breath while I waited for her answer. I thought I’d gotten to know Lucy fairly well after spending time with her at every home game so far this season, but I couldn’t come up with a single reason why she’d just asked that.

  “Ohmigod, you should see the look on your face right now, Aubrey,” she sputtered out while laughing. “Grab the Cosmo magazine out of my bag and you’ll see why I want a grapefruit and knife. It’s perfectly innocent. Well, okay, maybe innocent isn’t the right word, but I’m not going to do anything too bad with it.”

  I twisted around to pull her purse open from where it sat on the back seat. The magazine lay right inside, so I was able to snag it pretty easily.

  “Look for the article on sex tips,” she urged me.

  I thumbed through, trying to find what she was talking about, and stumbled across the story quickly. It was about a self-declared sexpert who did online tutorials about all things sexual who had invented something called the ‘grapefruit job.’

  “No fucking way,” I whispered as I read the detailed instructions on slicing the ends of a grapefruit off, hollowing out a hole in the middle, and then using it to blow your boyfriend’s mind—literally and figuratively—with the best blowjob of his life. “Is this shit for real?”

  Lucy was giggling so hard that tears were streaming down her face now. “I have no idea, but I really want to know, so I figured a hotel was the best place to try it out because it’s bound to be very, very messy.”

  “Crap. Turn right!” I yelled as I spotted a grocery store. “We are so going to get a bag of these fuckers because this is too good to pass up.”

  Lucy parked the car and we wandered inside. She pulling me along while I Googled the sexpert from the article to find the YouTube video that was mentioned in the article. I was stunned to see that there were a ton of references for this chick when I had never heard of her before. But everyone had picked up the grapefruit job story and run with it after Cosmo’s article came out.

  “I had no idea there were so many different kinds,” Lucy whispered to me, pointing at all the grapefruits lined up. “I wonder which one would work best?”

  I eyed them all and thought about it for a second. “I think the sweeter the better. The last thing I want is to suck on a bunch of sourness while I’m doing this.”

  “Ruby Red it is, I guess,” Lucy said as she grabbed a big bag of them.

  “Do they even carry knives here?” I wondered aloud.

  Lucy pushed me out of the produce section and towards the aisle that carried baking goods. “I’m sure they do. It might not be a great variety, but it just needs to get the job done.”

  As the word job left her mouth, I cracked up laughing again. “That’s what she said,” I spit out while gasping for breath.

  Luckily, we found a couple of knives and made it out of the store and to the hotel before either of us died of laughter. We’d made good time getting there, so we still had enough time to check in and change before the boys’ first game. By the time we made it up to our room, I remembered that I hadn’t played the video I’d found since I wasn’t sure how embarrassing it might have been in the middle of the store, and then I’d forgotten since we’d been too busy laughing.

  I hit play on my phone and watched in wonder as she went into great detail about how to properly cut and hollow out the grapefruit, but I was intrigued by her description of how it would feel for the guy since she related it to giving him head a
nd fucking him at the same time. I was about to turn it off when my jaw dropped in amazement because she pulled out a dildo and really seemed to enjoy showing the world her blowjob skills. But the noise—ohmigod, I would never be able to get the weird sounds she made while doing it out of my head. It was the exact opposite of sexy.

  “What the hell is that noise?” Lucy asked as I lay on the bed, laughing my ass off at my phone.

  I tossed it over to her. “Please tell me you don’t sound like that when you’re giving Alex head.”

  “Holy shit, Aubrey,” Lucy whispered as she watched. “She sounds like Darth Vader. Giving head.”

  “How is it possible that we’ve only been here for, like, five minutes and already this is the most epic trip ever?” I asked.

  She flashed me a grin as she handed my phone back to me. “Because you’ve got me as your partner in crime, baby.”

  ****

  The team was scheduled to play three games—one tonight and two on Saturday. Luka had already warned me that he wouldn’t be able to spend too much time with me until all the games were over since their coach gave them a curfew for Friday night to make sure they were rested for the next day. Throw in the games themselves, warm-ups, and team meals and that didn’t leave a lot of free time. The only reason they were even staying over on Saturday night was that their game wouldn’t end until after eleven at night.

  “Are you cool with a room swap tomorrow night?” Lucy asked, drawing me out of my thoughts as we sat in the stands, waiting for the game to begin.

  “Room swap?” I repeated, confused by what she meant.

  “Luka and Alex are rooming together and you and I are rooming together. The guys don’t have a curfew once the games are all done, so we should be able to have Luka switch with me so we each get some private time with our boyfriends,” she explained.

  “Great idea,” I complimented her.

  “Yeah. It’s just too bad we don’t have king beds in either of the rooms,” she complained.

  “Although it might come in handy for the grapefruit job,” I whispered to her.

  “Why would a smaller bed help with that?” she asked, looking at me like I was crazy.

  “Not because it’s smaller,” I corrected her. “Because we have two beds in each room. One to get messy in and one to sleep in. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to sleep in a grapefruit juice and pulp wet spot.”

  “I knew it,” she hissed back at me. “I fucking knew it when we first met.”

  And now I had no idea what she was talking about. “Knew what?”

  “That you were brilliant,” she crowed. “I was so damn excited to try it out with Alex at the hotel so I wouldn’t have to clean up the mess, but I never even thought about having to sleep in it.”

  “Well, there you go. Problem solved,” I said, laughing at how overly dramatic she could be sometimes.

  Luckily, the game started and that conversation ended so we could focus on cheering for our guys. Since Alex was only in net for the middle game, Lucy was a lot more relaxed. She hadn’t been joking when she’d said that she was a nervous wreck when he was playing. It was nice that she was able to enjoy the trip more than she would have been if the rotation had put him in net for two of the games instead.

  Luka played very well, and the team won their first game with a two-to-zero shutout. Unfortunately, I only got a few moments alone with him before he had to go, so Lucy and I grabbed dinner and headed back to the room for an early night. It was weird to have traveled all this way to support Luka without even getting a chance to see him except on the ice for the most part.

  The team didn’t fare as well in their second game. I sat through it while Lucy fidgeted at my side, getting more and more anxious because their opponent had already scored three goals while we’d only gotten one in net. The third period was about to begin, and it didn’t look great for the team.

  “Shit. He’s going to be in a horrible mood,” she whispered.

  “It’s okay, Luce,” I consoled her. “Even if they don’t win this one, you’ll lift his spirits tonight. I have no doubt about that.”

  “True, but it’s always so much more fun when he feels like the conquering hero,” she grumbled.

  “I’m sure it is,” I agreed. “But just imagine how grateful he will be for you cheering him up. Either because the grapefruit job is as good as they said it was online or because you guys are laughing too hard if it’s horrible.”

  “True. And I can always pull up the video for shits and giggles if I need to,” she added. “Can you imagine what the guys would think about those noises she made?”

  I laughed hard at the thought of showing it to Luka as I imagined his horrified expression. “Hey, you never know. Maybe there are guys out there who have a Star Wars fetish and would love it.”

  Lucy and I looked at each other for a moment before we both started to hum the theme song from the movie. “Can you just imagine if a guy asked you to wear a Stormtroopers costume or something to bed?”

  “Um, no. I’d rather not,” I said, shaking my head to try to get the image out of my mind as the buzzer sounded for the start of the period.

  Lucy leaned closer towards me. “Thanks for taking my mind off the game,” she whispered in my ear.

  “No problem,” I replied while the ref dropped the puck.

  The team looked more energized, like their coach had gotten them motivated to come back hard to fight and turn the game around. They quickly scored another goal, putting them only one more away from a tie. I thought the momentum had changed in their favor until their opponent managed to score again less than a minute later, and things went downhill from there. They just couldn’t seem to catch a break this game between unlucky puck bounces and penalties. By the end of the period, the final score was five to two, and Alex really did look defeated as they skated off the ice.

  “Do you mind if we wait to see if we can catch them before we get lunch?” Lucy asked me.

  The guys had a team lunch and then some free time before they had to come back to the rink for their last game. We’d planned to meet up with them after everyone had eaten, but I understood why she wanted to see Alex now if she could.

  “Not at all,” I replied.

  We walked down the stands and headed to the lobby, where a lot of family and friends were already waiting. I recognized most of them now since I’d been to so many games, but I was happy to see that there were a lot more people here to cheer the team on since it was right after the holiday. Luka’s family hadn’t been able to come because his younger brother also had a tournament closer to home, so he was really appreciative that I’d decided to make the road trip.

  We didn’t have long to wait before Luka came out to find me.

  “Tough game,” I said as I gave him a big hug.

  “Hopefully we can pull a win out for the next one,” he replied, squeezing me tight.

  When he stepped away from me, I noticed a wince cross his face before he shifted his stance.

  “Hey, you okay?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I just tweaked my knee a little,” he assured me. “It’s an old injury that’s flaring up. I’m going to grab an ice bag, and I’m sure it will feel better later.”

  “Go do that now and I’ll just see you later tonight,” I urged him. “I know how tough it was for you to recover from your injury this summer.”

  “Such a little worrier, you are,” he teased as he kissed my nose.

  “That’s what good girlfriends do,” I reminded him.

  Luka smiled and gave me another hug. “And you’re the very best.”

  I nudged him back in the direction of the locker room. The last thing I wanted was for him to ignore an injury because he was hanging out with me. I’d get my time with him tonight.

  I turned back to where I had left Lucy standing and saw her talking to Alex. He was slumped over, looking defeated as she whispered in his ear. I pointed to the door to let her know I’d be waiting outside for her
and walked out to the car. By the time she joined me, it was warmed up and ready to go.

  Lucy was pretty quiet at lunch, and I was still worrying about Luka’s knee. We decided to head back to the hotel to rest a little before the next game. Lucy went down to the hot tub while I hung out in the room and watched a movie. Since I was on my own, I picked out a chick flick I hadn’t had the chance to see yet and it lifted my spirits a bit.

  I must have drifted off towards the end of the movie, though, because I woke up when Lucy shook my shoulder.

  “Hey, sleepyhead. We better get going if we’re going to make it back to the rink before the game starts.”

  I glanced at the clock and was surprised to see a couple of hours had passed. “Shit,” I muttered.

  “Yeah, you were sound asleep,” Lucy said. “I tried waking you up a bunch of times but you just kept rolling back over. I think you were even drooling.”

  Sure enough, there was a wet spot on my pillow. “Damn, I was tired.”

  “Then it’s a good thing you got a nap in because I’m pretty sure you won’t get much sleep tonight,” she replied, wagging her eyebrows at me and pointing to the bag of grapefruit on the dresser.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I mumbled as I walked into the bathroom to fix my hair and makeup since I was sure I had a bad case of bed head from sleeping so soundly.

  By the time I was ready to go, we had to rush back to the rink. I’d missed dinner, so I grabbed a hot dog as we headed to our seats. I wolfed it down as we watched the start of the game, thinking that there was something about concession stand dogs that made them taste better than anywhere else.

  “How can you eat junk like that and still look so good?” Lucy grumbled.

  “Just lucky I guess,” I answered.

  “You know that means I should hate you, right?” she said.

  “Nah. You know you love me,” I disagreed. “Besides, you’re gorgeous, so you don’t have anything to worry about.”