Page 70 of Hooked On Them

Carter groaned, the hand on my throat gentling as my inner muscles clamped down around him. “Fuuuuuuck!” His rhythm faltered as he neared his own climax.

Miles cradled my face, his thumb stroking my cheek as I rode the waves of pleasure. He pressed his forehead to mine. “So fucking beautiful when you come.”

Carter gave a final, deep thrust, holding himself against me as he came with a guttural groan. He spilled inside me, his forehead dropping to rest between my shoulder blades.

I was utterly spent, my knees trembling with the effort of maintaining my position. As if sensing this, Carter carefully withdrew as Miles gently guided me down to the mattress. I lay there, dazed and floating in the afterglow, as Carter disappeared into the bathroom.

Miles stretched out beside me, one hand tracing lazy patterns on my back. “You good?”

I managed a nod, too wrung out for words. My body felt deliciously used, my mind blissfully quiet for the first time in weeks. No worries about the team, the pregnancy, the complicated web of relationships I’d found myself in. Just pure, physical satisfaction.

Chapter23

Gummy Bear

Dominic

The last thing I ever expected to become intimately familiar with was the color palette of an OB/GYN waiting room. Yet here I sat, hood pulled low over my eyes, surrounded by various shades of soothing lavender and mint green that did absolutely nothing to soothe me.

I’d thought coming alone was smart. Strategic. A way to give myself space to process before having to face Miles and Nora together. It was a brilliant fucking plan that backfired spectacularly, leaving me isolated in this uncomfortable chair while some woman across from me pretended to text but was angling her phone my way.

“Could you be more obvious?” I muttered, flipping another page of a parenting magazine from 2019. The cover promised “Ten Ways to Babyproof Your Marriage!” which seemed really ridiculous.

The woman’s eyes widened, quickly averting her gaze back to her phone. Too late, lady.

She was called back a few minutes later, leaving only me in the waiting room. I sighed in relief, hoping the next person who came in wouldn’t be with a boyfriend or husband who was a hockey fan.

My attention back on the magazine, an article about swaddling techniques swam before my eyes, the words blurring together as my mind wandered back to the team and the suffocating tension that had settled between Miles and me these past three weeks. Our conversations had been reduced to hockey plays and schedule confirmations. Nothing more.

“You need to tighten up your left side approach.”

“Got it.”

“Team meeting at four.”

“I’ll be there.”

That was it. That was all we could manage. Years of friendship reduced to clipped sentences and avoided eye contact.

I glanced at the clock on the wall for what felt like the hundredth time, watching the second hand tick endlessly forward. 10:28. The appointment was at 10:30, which meant they should be here already.

Miles was annoyingly punctual and had been since rookie year when he’d shown up fifteen minutes early to every practice while I’d stumbled in with seconds to spare. The fact that he wasn’t here yet made my fingers drum against the arm of the chair.

Maybe they weren’t coming. Or maybe they were outside right now, having some intimate moment I didn’t want to think about.

The frosted glass door opened, and my stomach dropped as they walked in, heads bent close together, fingers interlaced like they’d been doing it forever. They moved in perfect synchronization, Miles leaning down to whisper something that made Nora’s lips curl into a smile I hadn’t seen directed at me since that night I’d taken her brownie bites.

I tried not to stare at their joined hands swinging gently between them. Tried and failed miserably.

I had about five seconds to compose my face into something resembling normal before Nora’s eyes landed on me. Miles’s followed a split second later, and something flashed across his face before it disappeared behind his captain’s mask.

“Dom.” Nora’s voice was soft and careful, like she was approaching a wounded animal. “You’re early.”

I forced my lips into what I hoped resembled a smile but probably looked more like a grimace. “Traffic was light.”

After Nora checked in with the receptionist, they took the seats beside me, Nora in the middle, Miles still holding her damned hand. I focused on my phone, scrolling through nothing. The silence stretched between us, punctuated only by the receptionist’s keyboard clicks and the occasional phone ringing.

When I glanced up, I caught Nora studying me. She looked good and was glowing. Her skin had that dewy quality people always talked about with pregnant women, and her hair looked softer and fuller.

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