Page 80 of What if I Told You

“And you’re right. I’m fucking proud of her.” I gesture to the screen. “Look at her out there doing her thing for the team. She’s amazing. If that means I’m pussy-whipped, then so be it.”

“You really care about her,” Oliver says with a smile. “We can all tell that.”

“Hell yeah, I care about her. She’s…”

Everything.

“She’s my home. She’s always been my home. And if I play my cards right, she’ll always be my home.”

“Wow,” Harrison chuckles. “Talking a little fast aren’t we? That’s a huge turnaround from the man you were before Ella came along.”

I shake my head. “Not fast at all. I’m thirty years old and we’ve known each other since we were two. Twenty-eight years is a fucking long time to build a relationship. We just finally got to the point where we didn’t need to deny our feelings for one another anymore.”

“Have you consummated this new phase of your relationship yet, Blackstone?” Ledger asks from the other side of the room.

“Trust me, it’s not that I don’t want to,” I tell him, grabbing my water bottle and twisting it open. “I’m just putting the ball in her court. I don’t want to force her into doing anything she doesn’t want to do.”

“Do you think she doesn’t want to?”

“Nah, I just think the timing hasn’t been right. You guys know what our schedule is like.”

Bear stands and adjusts his pads in preparation for the second period. Then he pats my shoulder and gruffly says, “Tonight is the night then.”

I laugh. “Okay, Bear. And when exactly should that happen? While we have game night with the Red Tails at Oliver’s?”

“Hey!” Oliver admonishes. “Don’t knock game night. Charlee says it’s a fucking fun time and she can’t believe we don’t have routine game nights.”

Ledger pipes in. “So, what are we playing tonight? Spin the bottle?”

“Fuck no,” I say with a stern shake of my head. “And risk someone else kissing my girl in front me? That’s a hard pass.”

“Oh, I imagine the guys or gals from the Red Tails will have something in mind. From what Charlee says, their game nights are always hella inappropriate and top-notch fun.”

“That was an amazing win!”Ella throws her arms around my neck when I stop in her dressing room after the game. “And you scored! Oh, my God, I thought I was going to pee my pants from cheering so hard!”

I kiss the side of her neck and chuckle as I hold her against me. “They’re a hard team to beat, that’s for sure. For a while there, I wasn’t sure we were going to come out on top, but once Harrison scored at the end of the third I felt rather good about it.”

“As you should have. And the crowd was electric tonight. You can tell they were really excited about a solid game.”

“Those are the games we love playing. When the crowd is as into it as we are.” I pat her ass lovingly. “You looked magnificent out there as well, you know. Watching you kick Remi’s ass before the game was hot. Reminded me of old times.”

She winks and gives me a chaste kiss to my lips. “You mean those days where I cleaned your clock on the ice.”

“Yep. You had no idea at the time, but I was crushing on you so fucking hard back then.”

She pushes off my chest. “What?”

“Your tight little ass always looked hot in those leggings you would wear. I enjoyed chasing after you very much.”

“Is that so?” Her voice is less incredulous and a little more seductive.

“Yep.”

“Hmm. Well maybe if you’re really lucky, I’ll let you place your hands on this tight little ass later and take your best shot.”

I palm both of her ass cheeks and pull her tightly against my body. “You’re such a tease.”

She laughs. “In all the best ways, babe. I’ve got to give you something to think about while we’re playing games with the birds tonight.”

---