Page 15 of Puck You Not

Three

Parrish Locksby

This girl had the most beautiful violet eyes I’d ever seen.I’d never thought that was a real eye color, but hers were genuinely a gorgeous darkvioletshade.This close, I could tell she didn’t wear contacts.The violet was natural.

But her eyeswerewide with shock, the perfect bow of her rosy lips slightly parted while she stared at me, the great big oaf who’d tackled her.

And I felt her gaze deep inside me, so deep it was as if she could see clear into my soul while she gaped up at me like a deer in a freight train’s headlights, stunned and unmoving.Meanwhile, I registered every curve of her tiny body beneath me, and though I should move, I just couldn’t.I didn’t.Not yet.Not until I’d saved the sensation into my memory banks.

“I…ah… The grass is a little wet,” she murmured finally.

“Shit.Sorry.”Damn it, what was I doing?I jerked to my feet and reached down, offering her my hand so I could haul her upright.A sizzle burned through me when she placed her small, cool hand in my much larger one.I pulled her to her feet, and she stumbled into me, her palms slapping into my abs.

My dick twitched in reaction.I wanted to feel those splayed fingers on my bare skin, and I wanted to keep her right here against me for as long as I could.She had me transfixed.Until that moment, nothing but hockey had ever done that to me.

Despite my baser instincts, I grasped her shoulders and braced her half an arm’s length from me until she was steady, fighting back my arousal at the fingers still curled against my abs.

“Okay?”I asked quietly.

“Yeah.”She yanked back her hands, as if suddenly realizing she was touching me.“Uh, thanks.”

“Don’t thank me.I’m the asshole who slammed into you and landed us in a ditch.I’m Parrish, by the way.”

The tip of her little pink tongue dabbed across her lower lip.She nodded, and her teeth sank into that same flesh she’d just moistened.Those violet eyes, so full of intelligence, flashed with humor, though she didn’t speak.

Christ, she probably already knew exactly who I was.Most people around campus did.

“And you are?”I asked, hoping to barge past her apparent shyness.

“Uh…”

I raised a brow at her.She had to think about her name?Had she hit her head when we’d fallen?Did I need to take her to the campus clinic.

“Avalon,” she whispered.“I’m Avalon.I…uh… I have to…go.You got me all wet.I mean—” She broke off, her face going a fiery red while her words shot another burst of arousal to my dick.

Yeah, my brain went right to sex.Shit, I couldn’t wait to make her slick and wanting.And I would.In all my time here at Rustin, I’d never had such an immediate need.

Her hand waved beside us.“The grass.I meant the grass.It’s still wet from last night’s rain.”

“Right,” I breathed, not even trying to keep the husky growl from my voice.I knew nothing about Avalon, but I knew she’d be in my bed.As soon as I could manage it.

Still, I sensed I needed to give her a second to breathe.Reaching down, I grabbed her backpack from where it had gone flying onto the ground near us.Crouching, I gathered the books and notepads that had spilled from it, wincing at how damp they were, and tucked them inside, beside her laptop, which was thankfully inside a protective sleeve.

Her eyes quickly shifted to the side when I straightened, and she made a point of looking at the asphalt path where we’d collided.If possible, her face had grown redder.

Was she checking me out?That was a good sign.

Look all you want, babe.

“Here you go.”I thrust the bag toward her.“I’m sorry again for not paying attention.That’s not exactly how I like to tackle a girl.”

Her lips formed an O, her eyes going wide again.“I suppose not.I wouldn’t exactly be who you’d target, anyway, right?I mean…” She shook her head, already backing up the incline as fast as if the grass was on fire.“I… Bye!”

“Avalon—”

But she was already sprinting away as her statement settled in my brain, stunning me a second time.What was that?What did she mean by that?Jesus, I might be a jock, but I wasn’t the stereotypical type who tried to get into every girl’s pants.Few of us at Rustin were—at least on the hockey team.Did she think I was a player?Damn it.Without doubt, her assumption would make it more difficult for me to execute my plan to make her mine.

I was about to follow her when a flash of pink caught my eye.Glancing down, I noticed a cellphone in a sparkly case on the grass a few feet from where her other things had fallen.

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