Page 144 of Power Play

“Dirty girl,” I say in her ear, and her moan goes straight to my cock. “Here I was thinking I needed to be gentle with you. I don’t though, do I? You want to be a little bad.”

“I’ve only wanted to be this way with you.”

I drag my finger across the screen, fast forwarding until right before we both fall apart. I turn up the volume so she can hearevery slap of my hips. Every slick glide of my dick in and out of her. Every one of her groans.

“There you go, Piper. Come on your hand while you watch yourself get fucked. I want to see it.”

I don’t expect her to come undone so quickly but she does, a beautiful sight as she whispers my name again and again. I ease her down from the high, and when she’s thoroughly spent, limbs weak and eyes closing, I lift her in my arms like she’s the most precious thing in the world.

She just might be.

I walk her to the bathroom and set her in the tub, running the water until steam rises from it. I kiss her forehead and smile when she practically pulls me in with her.

It hits me that this has somehow gone from sex lessons to sex to sex with a person I really fucking care about.

I’m not teaching her anymore. She’s not learning anything she doesn’t already know, but we’re still tumbling into bed together.

I can’t keep my hands off of her, and she hasn’t shown me any signs of wanting to stop, even though she could go sleep with someone else tomorrow.

Maybe that’s why it’s so good with her: because she cares about me too.

THIRTY-EIGHT

PIPER

“I can’t believeyou’re going on an international trip withLiam.” Lexi folds one of the shirts I’m packing and tosses it in my suitcase. “I wish I knew what he was like off the ice.”

“You’ve seen him off the ice.” I check the weather app on my phone, frowning at the temperatures. “I feel like you know him best.”

“I stretch his legs, Piper, and he grunts when I ask him a question. That doesn’t mean Iknowhim.”

“I think it’s great.” Maven watches us from my bed, a hand on her growing stomach and another holding a jar of pickles. “You two are having fun together, right?”

“Yeah,” I admit, biting back a smile. “A lot of fun.”

“And when was the last time you had fun?”

“A year into my marriage with Steven before he started working ninety-hour weeks. When we hit our second anniversary, I think I went months without smiling.”

“I promise I’m not going to go to his house and start shit, but if Ieverrun into him in public, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.” Lexi crosses her arms over her chest and scowls. “I won’t hold back.”

“Call me so I can help you.” Emmy tosses her phone onto the mattress and stretches her arms above her head. “He’s the reason Piper and I drifted apart during college.”

“Really?” Maven asks.

“Yeah. He was intimated by Emmy’s career, and he told me she wasn’t a good influence.” I snort and add a pair of sandals to my bag. “Says the guy who was fucking his secretary.”

“Insecure men suck. We need more people who aren’t afraid of a woman’s success. I mean, look at Maverick. He didn’t make the 4 Nations Face-Off team, but Emmy did. Is he crying about it? No. He’s making shirts with her face on it to wear to the games.”

“He’swhat?” Emmy groans. “God. I don’t know if I should be embarrassed or turned on.”

“Both, probably.” I grin. “How are things going with you two after the wedding?”

“Not much has changed, honestly. I think the reason we work so well is because we have distance between us during the season. It makes the time we’re together even more important, you know? Like, I don’t want to fight with him when I’m leaving the next night.”

“What about when you all retire?”

“I’m so ridiculously in love with that man, it won’t matter.” She laughs and plays with the diamond she wears when she’s not on the ice. “It sounds so silly, but before Maverick, I didn’t want to settle down. I didn’t want to have kids or this huge family, and I was convinced no man out there would change my mind. Now, kids are all I can think about. Imagining him as a dad makes me emotional, and I know he’s going to be thebestfather. Does it suck that I’ll have to give up my career to create that life? Yeah, a little bit. Then I think about ten years down the road, and it won’t matter. I’ll have everything I could want. I’ve done what I set out to do when I got called up to the NHL: break the glassceiling for women in this sport. I was the first, but I won’t be the last. I can rest now.”

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