Page 111 of Home Ice

"Oh my god, stop!" I pry one of his hands away and then start working on the other. "I thought you were being metaphorical."

He doesn't even try to hide the look of disappointment that overtakes his face. "It seems so easy in the books."

"The books?"

He rests his palms on the sides of my waist. I keep my hands on his just in case he has another sudden attack of barbarianism. "I might have read a couple to make sure I do things right for you."

"You read a couple romance novels for lessons to use with me?"

He slides my leggings down. Properly this time, so I drop my hands to the side. With every new inch of exposed skin, a tingling wave cascades through my body. "Maybe even a few. They're good, but apparently not very realistic." When he has them off, he runs his hands back up to my knees, but then he stops, gaping at my panties. "Fuck, Lily."

My cheeks color at the realization I'm wearing a pair of comfy high-waisted briefs. The last thing I expected this morning was to be lying on Brant Morrison's bed while he undressed me. I would never have worn granny panties if I even had a hint I would be in this situation. Another reason for me to murder Em next time I see her. "Sorry, I didn't expect this to happen."

"Sorry?" His gaze moves up to my face, and his eyebrows are furrowed. "You don't ever need to apologize for this amazing body. Christ, Lily, you're perfect."

I shake my head. "The underwear. It's not exactly sexy."

He scoffs and yanks me closer to the edge of the bed as he presses himself against me. "Feel how hard I am. It's not your fucking panties that do that to me. You could wrap a goddamn lawn and garden bag around your waist, and it would drive me wild. No matter what underwear you're wearing, the only thing I'm going to want to do is take them off you. Just like I want to do with these." He looks up, and it takes me a moment to realize he's waiting for permission. Like he ever has to ask me.

I nod.

I shiver as he slides them down my legs. They join my leggings in a pile at his feet, and I wait for him to climb onto the bed with me. I want to feel his weight over me, but instead, he bends over and blows a breath across my folds. The warm air ripples across the tender skin a fraction of a second before he sweeps his tongue and then blows again. The air is so cold now it sends a new shiver through my body. He does it again and again. Licking and cooling. There's no time for my body to relax in between and after just a few times, I'm trembling. "I've never wanted anything as much as I want this pussy. Do you understand that?"

I murmur something that is supposed to be a yes.

"Not the playoffs, not the championship. Nothing. I have never wanted anything as much as I want you. Do you understand that now? My family comes before everything else, and you are my family."

His tongue follows the line of my now wet slit, and then his eyes rise up to meet mine. I want to tell him I understand, but I'm not even able to nod, let alone open my mouth.

"I will call my agent right now and tell him I'm retiring, if that's what it takes to prove it to you. I don't need the money. I don't need the career. I need you, Lily. Do you believe that now?"

He pauses long enough for me to catch a breath. "I can't live without you either," I whisper. It sounds so dramatic when I say it. But it's true, and I need him to know this.

"Yes, you can. You've proven that you're a hell of a lot stronger than I'll ever be." He takes my left hand and holds it to his chest. My tattoo on his. Two rattlesnakes coiling together. "I know you're strong enough to live without me, but we're never going to find out because you'll never have to. You know that."

It's not a question, but I nod my head anyway. I do know. Even when I thought running away was the best thing to do for him, I still knew. "You and me. Somehow Chloe." We're not a family without her.

"We'll figure it out. Tomorrow. But right now, my dick is like a helium balloon floating too close to an open flame."

"About to burst?"

"And it's not going to be pretty. I need to fucking feel you around me. I promise I will spend the rest of the night eating your pussy until my tongue is raw, but right now?—"

I reach for his hand to pull him onto the bed, and this time he doesn't fight me.

His lips fall onto mine at the same time he blows out a long sigh. "Thank fucking god." He grinds his body against me as he suctions my mouth. I moan and start rolling my hips, searching for him, but when his tip finally sweeps across my folds, he pulls back. "Not yet. I know," he says.

He kisses down my neck and my chest, through my shirt as he slides toward the edge of the bed. His arm flails behind him, and at one point comes dangerously close to sending the now-swaying lamp tumbling to the floor. "It would be quicker for you to just stand up and get it."

"No." His nose tickles the sensitive skin just above my belly button as he shakes his head. Right now, every inch of my skin is sensitive. If he would give even the top of my foot a sultry glare, I swear I would orgasm. "That would mean my mouth has to leave your body. Not happening, Jams." He uses the hand that isn't demolishing everything within a six-foot radius to lift my shirt and he sucks my skin into his mouth and bites down on it. Hard.

Pain shoots outward, and I yip. But then, like cold air rushing in after a storm, pleasure sweeps right behind it, and I fist the blanket under my hands. "Hurry."

"Got it." I hear him snap open the lid on the bottle of lube and a second later, he traces a finger over my folds. He moves up and down the length and then slips inside. But it's not his finger that I want to feel. I clench around him to tease him, letting him know what I'll do as soon as he puts his dick inside me instead. Into where it belongs. "So fucking eager," he says.

"I need this."

"I know, baby."

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