“Just don’t morph into The Trashman because you’re here in your element. If you start swearing, making fun of me or checking me into the boards, I make no promises that I won’t burst into tears. I could also make like Tonya Harding and take you out the knees.”
“If I do that, I give you leave to kick my ass with a blunt object.”
She swayed to the left again and grazed his hip so Josh took that opportunity to grab both of her hands and turn her around so she skated backwards. A look of sheer panic must have crossed her face at the movement because there were both his dimples again, to reassure her. Damn him and that triumphant expression. Her mind searched for a way to turn the tables.
“No you don’t mister. I can’t even skate forwards so it’s a given that I can’t skate backwards.”
Lake held on even tighter to his hands and marveled at how good they felt and what a perfect fit they were for her much smaller ones. A distinct heat resonated between their two bodies in spite of the chilly temperature.
“Just trust me to hold onto you. I won’t let you fall.”
That might already be too late. As she looked at Josh and trusted him to hold her upright she felt vulnerable, as if she’d just jumped from an airplane at ten thousand feet depending only on her thin, silk parachute. Lake stared into his blue eyes and wanted to feel safe with him; wanted him to be her safety net. He’d been trustworthy since the moment they’d met. Can I take it one step further? She imagined the walls of her fortress starting to crumble, pebbles raining down from the walls to lie atop the grass underneath.
As they skated backwards towards the net, Lake noticed two hockey sticks lying on the ice. Seriously, he wanted to play hockey with someone who couldn’t move more than a few feet on their own steam let alone skate towards the net and shoot? She considered the possibility. If he asked, she’d try it. What if she never saw him again after tonight and he went back to Chicago? Other people weren’t in the arena to witness her make an utter fool of herself. Lake had been brave before her divorce and she wanted to experience that warm rush of freedom again. She could surely slap a couple pucks around without hurting herself, couldn’t she?
****
Josh picked up a stick and held it out towards her as he kept the other one gripped in his left hand.
“The arena crew wasn’t sure who’d be here with me so they set up a net just in case.” He sported a cat ate the canary grin on his face.
“Lake Harrison, will you play with me?”
He gave a couple lifts of his eyebrows and paused as he waited for her reaction. He knew the offer pushed the envelope, but just couldn’t stop himself. Since she didn’t own much in the way of skating skills, he’d set up a line of pucks for her and let her take a few shots at him. Pucks sailing around his unprotected body and head were a small price to pay to soften the expression on that lovely face of hers. Obviously, she had a competitive streak gleaned from many years of showing horses at the highest levels. It also couldn’t hurt that showing off his hockey expertise would raise his wavering confidence. At dinner, he’d be sure to offer himself up as a human sacrifice to the Gods of horseback riding in payback.
Whoa, that came out of nowhere. In a rush, he understood his dad’s words. One date wasn’t going to be enough. A lifetime might not be enough. Her uniqueness had crawled under his skin in record time, making him want more of the same. He’d see her again and do whatever was required to make that happen in spite of the long distance. Hell, with hockey season almost over, he wouldn’t mind spending more time with his dad over the summer. The anticipation of more dates, leading straight to the bedroom coursed through his body. He welcomed it, interested and intrigued by where his fascination with her might go.
She scrunched up her brow, weighing the pros and cons. Her face lit up with multiple expressions and he wondered if she knew how many flitted across in rapid succession. He hoped that she didn’t. He found he wanted to experience the myriad of her emotions. Maybe soon she’d trust him enough to tell him her story, the one he knew lay buried just below the surface. He held his breath waiting for the final response but she remembered herself, and tempered her face not giving anything further away.
“Sure, sounds fun. I know it’s hard for you to believe after my skating here today has rivaled Mike Modano, but I’ve never shot a puck prior to today. I want to be able to tell my sister that I took a shot in this arena from the blue line. If I don’t, she might never let me hear the end of it.”
He smiled at the Minnesota North Star reference and thought back to the auction. So, she knew about hockey and kicked it old school. Josh liked it. He wondered how Lake and Summer could turn out so different with Summer being such a blatant tease. He looked forward to further conversation at dinner to draw it out of her. For now, he was grateful that Lake didn’t have Summer’s more vivacious personality. He normally dated her type and he found the refined and reserved Lake to be a breath of fresh air. It had been many years since he’d had to work this hard to impress a woman, wanting to produce his best self just for her.
Glancing backward, she scoped out the distance between the blue line and the net. Didn’t she know it was about sixty four feet? She couldn’t make that shot unless she put everything she had in her slight body behind it and she aimed dead on the net.
“A shot from the blue line? Are you sure you can make it that far? Don’t you want to start a little closer, superstar?”
Josh set four pucks up in a straight line around twenty feet from the net, confident that distance offered a good starting point. She seemed much more stable after being on the ice for a half hour so he was no longer worried leaving her alone would cause her to fall. He found that keeping her mind and body engaged relaxed her more in his presence. If by a run of beginners luck, she managed a shot on goal, he planned to make a half-assed attempt at a save and let it blow past him. Her smile lit up the arena so he found himself working to get one.
Funny, he’d never cared much about smiles. Once he got their clothes off, and then them off, he didn’t need to gaze at a woman’s face. Unbidden, his dad’s words popped into his mind. He needed to stop behaving like he’d been born in a barn. Had he just listened to his head and not his dick in a situation involving a beautiful woman? That was a first and presented a foreign concept to explore later when got back to his bedroom alone. He drifted backwards and took his place in the net.
“Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be. Here goes.” She wound up and took a pretty stable shot, teetering on her skates. It had the distance but arced wide and left of the net. Like most rookies, she over-corrected and the second and third shots sailed wide right.
“This is your final shot. Since our dinner reservations are in an hour, this should be the last one or we’ll be late. Do you really want to back up and take it from the blue line? Wouldn’t you have a better chance at actually making one if you stayed right there?” His joking tone belied his true intent because a radical idea had sprung into his consciousness.
“Bring it on, Adams. I am not afraid.” With one hand pressing into a curvy hip and the other clutching her stick, she looked super sexy giving him lip while tossing her long hair to the side. Her taunting him that way brought him further assurance she’d loosened up over the course of the afternoon. The time had come to nudge her even further.
Lake tentatively skated on her own to the right side of the blue line and came in a couple of feet. He slid the puck in her direction so she could prepare herself. It caressed the ice and slid to a stop a foot in front of her outstretched stick.
“What do you say we make this interesting?”
“Huh?”
“I propose a bet to commemorate your first true regulation shot. We’ll leave the net open, so imagine that your team is losing by one in the last seconds and you need another skater from the bench. The coach has pulled your goalie. You pump up and fire a huge slap shot from the point. If you make it, I’ll match your donation to Hope for Hounds of fi
ve thousand dollars. If you don’t make it, I get a ... kiss.” He kept smiling, praying and waiting for the possible shut down.
She moistened her lips and then pulled her bottom lip underneath her top teeth. What a sexy look that was. He wondered if she ever wore that one in the bedroom. Or the couch, or the shower, or the kitchen table. A haze of innocence surrounded her and he knew the move was genuine and suffered no machinations of trying too hard. The sexiest women were always the ones without a clue of their seductive power.
“Hmm ... sounds dangerous, but exciting with very high stakes.” She hesitated for a few seconds but pressed forward, saying the words that would change the course of both their lives.
“You’re on.”
Her confident voice echoed through the arena with the answer he’d secretly hoped for but hadn’t expected. Damn, she’d become pleasantly full of surprises.
Scrutinizing the net, Lake lined up her shot. Josh noted her seriousness. Her body wavered back and forth as she tried to decide which angle gave her the best opportunity to put the puck in the net. With that kind of laser focus, he wouldn’t be shocked if she broke out a measuring tape and a rifle scope. This was a woman that gave her all to everything she did. Like a right hook to the gut, he realized her actions would help her avoid his kiss. With that tenacity, he might never get one.
He shuddered to consider the thoughts that might be running through her head as she stared at the net. Probably, that she wouldn’t kiss his nasty ass come hell or high water. Was she contemplating if he had a venereal disease? His reputation had preceded him since high school. He had never regretted his checkered past until this very moment. A date with John the Baptist wouldn’t be enough to make him clean and worthy of Lake Harrison.
Enough already, he shook his head from side to side and flung the negative thoughts from his mind. He’d put forth a valiant effort making her comfortable and now it was okay to take part of that comfort away and just let her sweat it out. In spite of her obvious distaste at his idea, his own excitement rose volumes by the prospect of tasting those sensuous, pink lips. He started chanting, silently, hoping she couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
Miss! Miss! Miss! Miss!
Would those full lips move under his own? How did she taste? Long, passionate kisses weren’t normally his favorite thing. They were too intimate and gave women false hope of a relationship that wasn’t there, at least on his end. He preferred the main event but tonight, he wanted to kiss Lake with a desperation he’d never known before. Dear God, please let this woman miss. He didn’t want one regret after this date. What would one little kiss hurt? He just had to taste her and this bet made it spontaneous taking that normal first date pressure away.
Lake yanked her wrists towards her body with everything she had. Josh stared with rapt fascination as if the scene appeared on a slow motion replay in a cheesy sports movie. The stick flew back; her aim true. Was that slight indigestion or butterflies in his stomach? This might not go his way. If she put enough on it, it looked like it was going to be a shot on goal.
Shit.
The stick rushed forward. A look of sheer concentration and focus remained planted on her face. Damn, he had never seen a woman look hotter than Lake Harrison did in that moment holding her hockey stick with silver steeled determination flashing in her green eyes. What happened next he’d never have believed if he hadn’t fucking seen it with his own eyes. At the last moment, she brought the stick down to the left and deliberately shot the puck into the left-hand boards.
“Oops.”
First, there were rumblings.
Then, there were flashes.
And now, there are sparkles everywhere you go.
Lake, your greatness is starting to show.
All bow~
The Universe
Chapter Nine
What in heaven’s name had possessed her to do that? She’d intended to take her shot. It must be the devil. Yeah, the black haired devil with eyes like the bluest, clearest ocean. It couldn’t have been worse if she’d just turned her face up to him and begged him to ravish her. Why did he cause her to act so out of character like a wanton harlot? Maybe an external force had taken over her arms and made the shot for her. Well, at least Summer would be delighted by her actions. Gleeful, would be the only word to describe her reaction when this story was relayed in full. Lake turned her lips up in a grin at the shocked look on his face as he watched the puck sail left. He snapped his head back towards her, not expecting this sudden turn of events.
Good, you can see how it feels to be completely out of your element and uncomfortable. Lake had felt that way since she’d first clapped eyes on him last night and he could join the party. She couldn’t deny his befuddled reaction made her feel powerful. She didn’t recall ever enjoying such influence in the past, as though she were the siren who called the man forward to meet his death on the jagged rocks too overcome with sheer lust to save himself. No, she usually crashed and burned. This fantastic chain reaction swam with potential.
As Josh cleared his head with a slight shake and begin to glide towards her, Lake decided to savor every last moment and tuck it away in her memory bank to be replayed multiple times. There might never be a moment as perfect as this one with humor, lust, anticipation and trust rolled up into one complete package.
In the blink of an eye, he stood before her and gazed at her lips with his blue eyes smoldering. Bemused, she noticed they’d changed color. No longer a smooth lagoon; they’d become a tempest. The tables had turned again. Lake saw her short lived power over the moment fading away. Doubt bubbled to the surface. What if she couldn’t go through with this? What if she had forgotten what she was doing and he found her lacking? He had kissed hundreds if not thousands of women. What if he gave her a quick peck and then pulled away in disappointment and disgust?
His body leaned into hers and her nostrils picked up the scent of his cologne. He smelled sublime. It caused her pulse to quicken and her eyelids to flutter. If he never came a millimeter further, she could stand stock still for an eternity and snort him like crack. She knew that action would cease to be enough. She would want more. Her body was on fire with wanting.
The raw anticipation of what kind of kiss this would be set her nerves on edge. The fact that he allowed the moment to linger made it that much more delicious, albeit confusing. Don’t you want to kiss me? You made this crazy bet! Just when she thought she couldn’t live through another moment of the oppressive stillness, he reached up and slid those strong hands on either side of her jaw bone as he tilted her face up to meet his eyes. She didn’t know if she could withstand the overpowering sensations of smelling, feeling and tasting him at the same time and her breath hitched in her throat.
It was natural for Lake to let her eyes drift closed as his face leaned downwards towards her own. Mesmerized by his scent and the feel of his light but sure touch on her face, she beseeched her knees to continue to support her. She couldn’t fall at his feet now in an unflattering heap of instability. She wanted, no she needed, to savor this moment. By God it was happening. She felt something again. A luscious sensation took complete hold of her body.
The first light brush of his lips against hers felt like the barest of whispers, as gentle as butterfly wings. Josh held back but Lake sensed the pent up energy in his firm touch like a trapped animal waiting to be released into the wild. He deepened the kiss slightly, slanting his head to the side for a better angle. Amid the rioting sensations, her brain registered that he tasted of cinnamon Red Hots. It suited him, with his fiery nature, and Lake had never known anything as appetizing as this man’s lips pressed against hers. This one kiss had robbed her of breath, and thought and sanity. He nibbled at her bottom lip and of their own accord, her arms lifted. She stretched her body against his as she reached to place her hands at the nape of his neck. Then, she did the only thing she could do. She let go and surrendered.
****
Backfire!
It was the
only word that Josh held in his consciousness. When did he allow this situation to twist helplessly out of his control? Was this really his idea? Sweet Jesus, she smelled like tart cherries and tasted like nirvana. Was that delectable scent her shampoo or her lotion? Her lips were liquid silk and he yearned to devour them but didn’t want to unleash the full onslaught of his passion. Yet. Josh barely held himself in check. Every nerve ending drove straight south. His entire body burned with desire and he sported an erection that had immediately swelled to its full length without mercy at the first touch of her full lips. It seemed the errant organ had a mind of its own with Lake Harrison in the vicinity. Keeping her slanted away from his body provided an inch or two of air between them. He didn’t want to scare the living shit out of her. He’d never relished a kiss more and realized he didn’t want to break the spell with this abnormal inability to control his own lust.
Josh savored the exact moment that Lake surrendered to his kiss. She’s warming to me. He deepened their kiss and started taking tiny bites of her bottom lip to encourage her to open her mouth for further intimate exploration. He about lost it when she reached up and touched his neck as she pressed her full breasts against his chest as far as her tiny stature could take her. He wondered if she felt the same white hot longing that he did. Was she wet for him? If he could just run his hands along her back and push her against him now, it would be spectacular. He wondered what it would be like if he could sink into that blazing hot core over and over.
What the hell ...
I’ve a clock that won’t work
And an old telephone
A broken umbrella, a rusty trombone
And I am delighted to call them my own!
I love them because they’re trash
Oh, I love trash!
Anything dirty or dingy or dusty
Closing The Gap (Dangerous Pasts, #1) Page 6
