Page 78 of Choke

The look on her face?

Worth everything.

The flight. The last-minute NHL tickets. The bullshit it took to drag Ronan along. The way her lips parted, the way her breath hitched? That made it priceless. It wasn’t that much, and Ronan hadn’t argued—any excuse to get out of the cold weather. It had all aligned perfectly; one of our former players moved down here a few years ago to work for some financial firm, which coincidentally happens to be where her friend’s husband works.

I don’t believe in fate, but if I did, I would say this was fate. I gave her space, needed it myself, and when I decided to check in, I watched her walk out of her apartment with a suitcase. Initially, I was livid and ready to burn the world, but saner minds prevailed, and Ronan has been fucking her friend regularly since that night at the club. She’d willingly told him all about Lex’s trip to Florida to visit a friend. Based on what I can tell, we got out on the first flight after hers. We landed less than two hours later than she did, hit the golf course, and went to dinner and drinks.

The anticipation of being in this house, near her, was torture—and that twisted, ugly feeling evaporated the second she rounded the corner into view in those tiny shorts and that skimpy top. She’s perfect.

She’s also in a lot of trouble, and she knows it.

The words slip out before I can stop them.

“Missed you, Lex.”

Fuck. I wasn’t supposed to say that.

I wasn’t even supposed to feel that. But I do. It’s like something inside me cracks open, raw and ugly. Giving her space was a mistake—I felt like I was in withdrawal, like my skin didn’t fit right, like I was losing my fucking mind. I wrap my other hand around her, and sherelaxes into my hold. I need to stop staring at her before this gets weird for everyone else, but her wild hair and the way she just licked her bottom lip is making it really fucking hard to do.

I force my eyes away from her and back to the group, rejoining the conversation but never taking my awareness off her, off the way her fingers gently probe my chest. My dick swells from the contact, and I shift, pulling her into my lap so no one else can see what she’s doing to me. She doesn’t fight, but her body does stiffen slightly before she leans to the island to grab her drink and—fuck, this view.

“So how long have you two been…you two?” Aleks questions.

Her lips part—about to argue. I won’t let her. My hand tightens around her thigh, fingers pressing in, staking my claim.

“Still pretty new, but we’ve known each other for years. Met in some small town on the West Coast and reconnected randomly a couple of months ago.”

Her hand flexes on my thigh, but it’s the only sign that she’s objecting to the statement. She keeps her mouth shut.

“Oh,” Alek looks contemplative. “Is this the guy you sent to Jules on Instagram? She’s been insufferable about me going back to the gym. Thanks for that, by the way.”

Her whole body locks up, her face coloring before she ducks her head.

That’s… interesting.

Wrapping my arms around her tighter, I lean forward to look at her face. I drag my gaze over her, slow and thoughtful. She never told me that.

“Instagram, eh?”

Ronan shakes silently, laughing; he looks ready to lose it.

“You two are so fucked.” He laughs, and the comment has the other guys laughing loudly.

There is the sound of a door opening into a wall, and a blonde woman storms out from the other side of the house, her hair wild in a messy bun and pillow lines on her face—on her very clearly furious face.

Party’s over.

She storms up to Aleks, yelling in another language I can’t place. Something Eastern European. Aleks laughs, but that only makes her angrier. She moves and, with both hands, shoves him hard in the chest, which only makes him laugh harder before she spins around, calls him a ‘fucking asshole,’ and storms away, slamming the bedroom door.

Ronan and the other guys exchange awkward glances before Ronan says, “Listen, man, it’s late. We have early golf tomorrow and the game tomorrow night. Let’s call it before she comes back to end us permanently.”

“Yeah, I’m in for it tomorrow.”

He shrugs, and I release Lex, slowly rising to my feet.

I don’t want to leave.

She steps away, and the space she was touching me feels icy, empty. Turning, she looks up at me, holding my stare again, and I’m about to demand that she leave with me when Aleks speaks.

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