Page 134 of The Hockey Grump Saves Christmas

CHAPTER 42

APRIL

NATALIE

“Swear to God, if that kid had pulled my tail one more fucking time.” Gabe puts the head, hands, and feet of his bunny suit on the bench inside the front door of his house.

“Only have yourself to blame.” I dump the spare Easter baskets next to the head. “The way you turned around to glare at him every time, made him think it was a game.”

“Good thing he couldn’t see my lips moving or he would have learned some useful new vocabulary. You’ve got to admit though”—Gabe turns his back to me, bends over slightly and shakes the fluffy tail on the butt of the suit—“it’s hard to resist, right?”

I could never have foreseen the blissful contentment Gabe would bring into my life these last four months. Talk about being taken by surprise. I just came up here to meetthe Sullivans two weeks before Christmas Eve, and here he was—the surprise of my life.

The bunny suit I wore that night was considerably smaller than the one he put on today for the Warm Springs Easter Egg Hunt—this one was a special order.

“It is definitely irresistible.” I grab the tail and give it an extra waggle. “And thank you for being such a good sport, despite your tendency to mutter profanity at the kids.” He is still Gabe, after all. “I can’t believe how many families turned out.”

He turns back to face me and pulls me against his broad gray-and-white furry chest. “And I can’t believe there’s anyone in the world I would wear a bunny suit for.”

I link my hands around his neck. “You didn’t do it for me. You did it for the little ones.”

Gabe was the absolute star of the annual event today. He ran around the lawn by the town square chasing the kids, pretending to steal eggs from their baskets, taking photos with them, and even broke into a dance with two girls who taught him the moves. I told him he should pass the video on to the Apollos’ social media person, but he said no one would ever believe it was him inside the suit.

Of course, the team still gets the gruff, invincible, will-take-you-down-with-a-stick-if-he-needs-to man on the ice.

But with me, he’s relaxed more and more. Just like dealing with a child who struggles to open up, I’ve given him the time and space he needs to be comfortable and never pressured him once.

The day he called me from his place in New York and told me he was nervous about that night’s game was a big day. That’s the moment I knew he didn’t just love me but trusted me with his innermost vulnerable feelings and thathe’d let go of the fear of being betrayed—at least by me. It feels like the honor of my life. And it’s a privilege I don’t take lightly.

“Yes, I did do it for the kids. But only because you asked me to.” He bends as far as the bunny suit allows to kiss me.

His lips are soft and slow, but the kiss is also deep and searching. Like we’re home and neither of us has anything to worry about anymore. But that sense of safety and security does not take the edge off all the lustful feelings. Good God, no.

He runs his tongue along my lower lip, exciting the butterflies in my stomach. Then grabs my butt with both hands and rocks his hips toward me.

“I can feel that even through the thick fur,” I tell him.

“Good,” he says with a flick of his eyebrows. Then, despite the bulkiness of the suit, in one swift motion he swoops me off the floor. I yelp in surprise as my legs fly into the air and he cradles me in his arms.

“Let’s go at it like rabbits,” he says, moving toward the staircase.

“Careful you don’t trip.”

“It’s okay,” he says, almost skipping up the stairs like he’s carrying nothing more than a sheet of tissue paper. “I took off the feet.”

“I remember not having much luck standing up in them after you knocked me over that night.” That was the most ridiculous way to meet someone.

I look up to find him gazing down at me as we approach the bedroom. “You were the sexiest thing I’d ever seen in all my life.”

“And now?” I ask, as he angles me through thedoor with care.

“Even fucking sexier,” he says, and drops me on the bed.

He turns and shimmies his fluffy white tail at me again. “If you don’t unzip me, I’ll have to Hulk out of this thing so I can get my body against yours.”

Kneeling on the edge of the bed, I give his backside a playful pat before reaching for the neck and pulling down the zipper.

As soon as it reaches his waist, he pushes the whole thing the rest of the way down, revealing his T-shirt and sweat shorts.

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