Page 22 of Pucking Amazing

“I’d love one.” Sydney smiles up at me through her lashes. She looks flushed, and there’s an inviting gleam in her eyes.

Fuck. I fidget in my seat, trying to will down my growing erection. Suddenly all I can think about is getting my hands on her luscious body, tasting her.

Making her cry out my name in ecstasy.

My fingers tremble with the overwhelming desire to touch her. To pull her into my lap and lose himself in her intoxicating presence. As the waitress sets down our next round of drinks, I wonder…

Will I be strong enough to stop myself?

CHAPTER 7

SYDNEY

Saying yes to drinks with Tyler is seeming more and more like it was a bad idea.

It must have been my travel-addled brain that convinced me we could just keep things friendly. Because this date has been anything but.

I’ve been thinking nonstop about Selena’s implication the other week that I wasn’t opening myself up to love. I don’t want to let things with Paul impact my future happiness, she’s right. So when Tyler asked me out, I ignored the voice inside that shouted, “unprofessional!”

If a man this hot and nice asks you out, you say agree. But god, I was not expecting this instantaneous and easy chemistry.

I tune back into the conversation as Tyler leans in close, those chiseled features softened by his smile. He rests his warm hand on my knee, his piercing eyes sparkling with boyish charm.

“I’ve never met anyone like you, Sydney. You just...get me, y’know?”

My breath catches. The weight of his touch, the timbre of his voice, sends tingles racing up my thigh. I fight the urge to squirm.

“I feel the same way,” I say honestly, pulse quickening as I meet his open gaze. “Like I can tell you anything.” Anything except how badly I want to climb into your lap right now and grind against those rock-hard hockey thighs...

I mentally slap myself. I can’t let my hormones hijack my brain, not when Tyler is being so real with me. Especially when it seems like he needs a friend more than a hookup.

But lord, the way he’s looking at me, gaze dipping to my lips—is he feeling this too? This magnetic tug, this need simmering just under the surface?

I lick my lips, trying to corral my wild imagination. “So, um, you were saying? About the pre-game rituals?”

“Right, yeah.” He blinks, shaking his head slightly as if emerging from a trance. “It’s just, with all the pressure lately, I dunno...I’m in my head too much. Psyching myself out.”

“That’s understandable.” I squeeze his hand, enjoying the solid warmth, the slight calluses. “You’ve got a lot on your plate. New starting position, your brother, figuring out...things...”

I trail off delicately, not wanting to put him on the spot about his sexuality or what’s going on with DJ. He’s never come out and said anything about it to me, but it’s pretty obvious. Tyler seems to catch my meaning, swallowing hard.

“I just...I’ve never...” He huffs out a breath, shoulders sagging. “I don’t know how to make sense of it all. What I’m feeling, what I want...”

His thumb strokes absently over my knuckles and I suppress a shiver, my skin tingling at the gentle touch. I know we’re not talking about us—or are we? I’m losing track of everything, consumed with the heat pooling low in my belly.

But I can’t pounce on him when he’s lost. Can’t take advantage or risk scaring him off with my own selfish desires.

So I simply lean into him, resting my head on his broad shoulder, savoring the spicy scent of his cologne.

“You’ll figure it out, Ty. I know you will. And I’ll be right here while you do.”

He lets out a shaky exhale and drops a kiss on my hair, his scruff grazing my temple. “Thanks, Syd. You’re a good...friend.”

Friend. I try not to wince at the word, reminding myself that maintaining boundaries is for the best.

“You have no idea how nice it is to just talk like this,” he says, his hand grazing mine and sending traitorous electric tingles up my arm. “I can really open up to you, Syd.”

My heart flutters at the huskiness in his voice, the emotion shining in those mesmerizing eyes. It would be so easy to throw professionalism to the wind and kiss him. But Tyler’s struggling and I can’t do that to him, not when it seems like he and DJ are on the verge of figuring out…something.

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