Page 64 of My Pucking Crush

“That, and I’m in between worlds right now, can’t give you what you need. I’m secure here with the team. But Belova can figure out who I am any minute.”

“You’re running away.”

“I don’t like the term running,” he hisses. “Or hiding. I had guns pointed at my head. It was either take off or be killed. When you swear an oath to a criminal organization, it might as well be in blood. It’s the air you breathe but it’s also the fire that burns you if you make one false move.”

I think about his son and wonder how to broach that topic without causing pain. But ignoring it feels wrong, too.

“Where is your son buried?”

Luca’s lips twitch, and I think I’ll be told again that I can’t know his truths, but he whispers, “Vermont.”

My head pitches back with surprise. “Of all places...”

“Exactly.”

“Does Belova want you back?”

“All I know is he wanted me dead.”

“Why exactly?”

“He said it was because of money. But I know it was out of vengeance for making his sister so miserable that she killed herselfandmy son. Elijah was his heir. Belova has two daughters. His wife kept having miscarriages. It was either he got a new wife who could give him a son, someone he can groom to take over, or make my son his heir. He chose the latter. But I told him he could never have my son for that. Next... they’re both dead.”

“That accident took everything from him,” I say, feeling sympathy, but anger brews in Luca’s eyes.

“And me.”

“And you,” I exhale, seeing how something so tragic can’t be fixed.

What is there to negotiate?

“Belova backed me into a corner when he made me marry his sister. He set me up to fail. Fail her. Fail him. It’s been five years, and I’ve managed to elude him.”

“But he just bought a hockey team.”

Luca steps back. “And I’m deciding if that’s a coincidence or not.”

“Hey, we got off track.” I grip his fingers and kiss them, my wet mouth drawing his eyes to mine.

“I can’t change the past,” Luca whispers. “Right now, until the season ends, you’re stuck with me.”

THIRTY-THREE

Luca

“Ithink I want to unstuck myself,” Max says, shucking off his pants and pulling down his briefs in a hurried but sexy way.

Like he can’t wait, he makes a practiced turn as if he’s on the ice, and strides confidently to the bed.

The view I have from behind is truly the most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen. Men walk around naked at the club all the time. I thought I was immune. Max has re-awakened me.

“By?” I’m stripped from the waist down but left on my dress shirt to set a certain forbidden, taboo mood. “How do you want to unstuck yourself?”

“By burying my cock deep inside you.” Max sits on the edge of the bed and pulls me onto his lap, my thick thighs straddling his waist. “Are you showering?”

“I can. If you need that. If you need me to be clean.”

“I need you to be clean,” he mutters flatly.

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