Page 39 of Make Your Move

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

LINCOLN

Nova is still in my bed when I wake up the next morning. Her blonde hair is fanned out across my pillow, and her lips are parted slightly as she breathes softly. She looks so goddamn perfect, so fucking peaceful. The last thing I want to do is disturb her.

After I brought her to bed last night, I fucked her twice more until we were both drifting into an abyss, falling asleep wrapped up in one another.

She stirs in her sleep, the comforter falling farther down her body as she rolls onto her stomach. She lifts her knee, exposing her leg from beneath the blanket as she bends it and positions it beside her. My T-shirt lands just beneath her bare ass. My heart swells in my chest at the sight while my cock also twitches.

Leaving her where she is, I walk over to my dresser and pull out a change of clothes before slipping out of my bedroom. I walk down the hall toward the bathroom when I hear the front door open. I freeze in place, my stomach falling to the ground as my heart literally stops.

I glance down the stairs and see Nash as he lets himself in and shrugs off his coat. We have a game tonight and have to be at practice in an hour, but I thought I would just see him atthe rink…not here—not right now when his fucking sister is half naked in my bed.

Shit.

Nash lifts his gaze, his eyes meeting mine from the bottom of the steps. “Oh, hey.”

“Hey,” I say, my voice hoarse and thick with sleep. “What are you doing back?”

“Well, last night was a bit of a shit show.” He starts as he begins walking up the stairs. My eyes widen slightly, and I glance down the hall at my bedroom door before recovering and looking at him. “Turns out Ford booked the place for the wrong night so we all ended up crashing at Rowan’s.” He rolls his eyes as he walks past me, heading to the bathroom. “I slept like shit on his couch, so I figured I’d just come home to get ready for practice.”

This is not great.

There’s a part of me that doesn’t care if he finds Nova in my bed. When we were nineteen, he questioned me once about his sister, and I lied. I lied so well he never asked me about her again. At the same time, he had nothing to worry about because I had already decided I wasn’t going to act on my feelings for her.

That was then, and this is now.

After seeing her in my bed this morning, I’m not sure I want her anywhere else. What could really go wrong if he found her? Sure, he’d be blindsided and probably pissed, but we’re both consenting adults. Nova is a big girl, and she can make her own decisions.

“Actually, you go ahead,” Nash says as he comes back out of the bathroom. “I’m going to get changed, and then I’ll go to the bathroom.”

I look down the hall at my bedroom and back to him before nodding. Fuck it. If I go back to my room now to warn Nova, that will look even more suspicious than him seeing her in there. Idon’t imagine she’ll wake up, and if she hears him, I doubt she’ll come out.

But a part of me secretly hopes she does.

Heading into the bathroom, I use the toilet and brush my teeth before letting Nash in. Nova still hasn’t come out, so I head back into my room, opening the door once more just to check on her. She’s still sleeping, so I leave her there and head downstairs to get ready to leave.

Nash meets me at the front door, and we walk out to the street to my car. He gets into the passenger’s side, talking about how their night was, and I pause just outside my car door as I look back at the house. The curtains in my bedroom shift, and I see Nova standing there in nothing but my T-shirt.

A slow soft smile lifts her lips, and she raises her hand to me, giving me a gentle wave. I smile back, lifting my hand to her before I get into the car. If I don’t leave now, I don’t trust myself not to walk back inside to her.

And if I do that, her brother will most definitely find out the truth.

I follow Ford down the tunnel toward the ice. Music plays loudly from the speakers throughout the arena, and the lights shine brightly from above. Rowan skates over to the net, and I step out onto the ice, feeling the slick surface beneath the blades of my skates. With my stick in my hand, I move to the boards, grab a water and squirt some into my mouth and head over to where Nash and Ford are already stretching.

Dropping down onto the ice beside them, I catch bits of their conversation as I work on stretching the muscles in my legs. Nash looks over at the glass, and I follow his gaze to see wherehe’s looking. To the left of the net, just on the other side of the clear material, are Nova and Posey. Posey’s hands are against the glass, and she’s wearing an Aston Archer’s jersey that looks a little too big for her.

A smile pulls on my lips, and I can’t help myself as I climb up to my feet. Ford and Nash follow suit, and we all begin to skate in circles around our half of the ice, taking a moment to get our legs warmed up.

When we got home from practice earlier today, Nova wasn’t there. She had left to go pick up Posey from her father. When I woke up from my pre-game nap, she still wasn’t there. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her before the game, and I wasn’t sure if she would be here or not tonight.

But there she is.

I skate over to the two of them, my eyes meeting Nova’s before looking at Posey. Posey opens her mouth, her face lighting up as she lets out a string of laughter. She jumps up and down, pressing her hands against the glass. Mine are covered with my gloves, but I press them right to where hers are, feeling my heart soaring inside my chest.

I don’t know what Posey and her mom are doing to me, but I think I might like it.

“Whose jersey is that?” I question Nova, pointing at Posey’s jersey.

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