Page 7 of Puck My Heart

“Here.” He presented my thermos to me.

I took it from his scarred hands, marks he earned when he reached back into the mangled wreck, trying to extract his family from the tangled me when he alone walked away that day. No one else did.

I hiccuped on his behalf at the horrifying memory, unable to fathom how he could be here, now, and still function. I knew I wouldn’t be able to in his place.

“I think I liked you better when you were grumpy and stomping about last night.” I made the mistake of tipping my head back and meeting his eyes.

Dark as always, Hux didn’t back off like he had before.

“Anya,” he said slowly.Softly. “I’m sorry about last night. Busting in on you. Looking at you like I shouldn’t have.”

“That wasn’t your fault.” The lie fell out by rote. Another old habit too hard to break.

“Bullshit. I could have stopped looking. I didn’t want to.” The bald truth sat between us as he pressed the thermos into my chest. His knuckles dropped to graze my hip. “I’m not supposed to want anything about you.” Those strong, scarred fingers, sofamiliar, cupped my hip where my loose sweats slipped down to bare flesh, and squeezed firmly.

A gasp left my throat and before my brain caught up with the day’s agenda, I scrambled off the sofa, out from beneath my rug and darted to the kitchen. My heart pounded as I slammed my hand down on the coffee machine, intent on refilling the thermos with as much black coffee as it would take, and dashed about pulling out bread and shoving it in the toaster knowing I wouldn’t be able to stomach breakfast so early.

Wait, how early? I checked the clock on the microwave.Six a.m.No wonder I was still half asleep. Or at least, I had been a few minutes before. But no amount of distraction and toast making could erase Hux’s caresses that seared into my skin. And I liked the captain’s touch way too much.

Last night’s flirting had been a hell of a mistake.Hewas the reason I couldn’t sleep.Hewas the reason I ended up on the downstairs sofa so I wasn’t tempted to crawl into the spare room. No, I hadn’t thought about the bedroom I’d been sleeping in for years being his previously.

Sure, seventeen year old me did, once, the year he didn’t come back. That was the year I claimed his room and no one, not my parents, not Solace, told me otherwise. And so Hux’s room just became...mine.

And after the way he watched me just now, I should have thought more about my life choices. Because flirting with Hux and being right up close with my personal spank bank crush of too many years was scary as shit in real time. I was far from ready for the real thing, and no amount of coffee, smutty books or bottles of wine could prepare me for how Hux’s hands felt on my body.

The worst thing?

Ireallywanted what he offered. But after my last break up I was still too raw. No way could I risk being just a quick fling withone of the biggest players out there. Maybe the biggest of them all.

No, Huxley Radfield had to remain a schoolgirl crush. That was where I drew the line.

I prayed I’d be able to hold to that. Because if I crossed that line, when he walked away in a few days and forgot about me, I’d shatter like a snowflake tossed about on stormy winds.

And then I’d be just one more puck bunny left in Hux’s wake.

CHAPTER FOUR

HUX

I shouldn’t have touched Anya. I knew it was a bad idea the moment I walked downstairs and saw her curled on the sofa, all soft curves beneath the blanket tucked around part of her and her clothes.Mydamn clothes, with my name emblazoned across her back when she shifted in her sleep. Somehow, that made her sexier than seeing her naked, and walking away the night before had been one of hardest things I’d ever done when she offered up that empty side of the bed.

And it wasn’t to fucking well sleep.

Hell, I’d been halfway across the line until I saw the wine glass. Then there was no chance I was screwing my best friend’s sister when she was drunk and explaining that one in the morning to both herandhim.

Plus, she mentioned a breakup earlier and the feeling Sol had set me up doubled. I gritted my teeth, my hand resting in the warm spot where she’d been laying for hours tingled at the thought of winding my body around her.

This has to fucking stop.

Hissing breath through my teeth, I grabbed her blanket, folded the fluffy bundle, placed it back where she had been andswitched the TV off. Silence fell over the room, colder and empty without her in it. The coffee grinder in the kitchen stopped a moment later and then everything was quiet.

Only it wasn’t.

A soft hiccup, the muted sort that came from behind a hand, reached me. I was on my feet, striding into the kitchen and had Anya in my arms a second later. Her hands covered her face, and her shoulders shook.

“Fuck,” I swore, stroking her hair as I held her to my chest. “I didn’t mean to scare you, girl.”

She shook in my arms, and I realized just how tiny she was, standing pressed to my chest. Warm, too. Anya was smaller than the often model height puck bunnies the team frequently associated with, but the girl in my arms was the perfect height to lift onto my waist, place her round bubble butt on the counter and?—

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