Page 76 of Man Advantage

His eyebrows rose. “Yeah? You’ve… for that long?”

Sure I was blushing, I nodded. “I meant what I said downstairs—you’re fucking hot.”

He laughed softly, and he was blushing too. “You’re, um… You’re not so bad yourself.” He drew back a little and looked me up and down, and when he met my gaze again, he was grinning. “Time and hockey have both been kind.”

I snorted. “Says the man who can’t feel all the aches and pains from both.”

“Eh.” He gave a dismissive shrug. “I can enjoy the aesthetic without feeling the pain. Works for me.”

“Asshole,” I muttered, and pulled him closer. He was still grinning when our lips met, but his mouth quickly softened into a toe-curling kiss. Was it any wonder this man had driven me to distraction ever since he’d come to Pittsburgh? In fact…

I broke the kiss and met his gaze. “Remember the home opener? How I kind of forgot how to play hockey that night?”

Cam made a face as if to ask,You’re bringing that up now? Really?“Um. Yeah?”

I ran my palm up his back. “That was because of you.”

His eyebrows flew up. “It was?”

“Mmhmm.” I chuckled, my cheeks warming at the memory. “I was good right up until I saw you at the Zamboni gate with the boys. Something about the way you looked in that suit…”

Cam blinked. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. I just… I don’t know. One look at you, and my concentration was gone.” I didn’t dare explain exactly where my mind had gone. That would be a littletoosappy and weird.

He stared at me, and then he laughed quietly. “Damn. I honestly had no idea. I wondered where your head was, but I didn’t think…” He trailed off, eyes flicking toward my lips before meeting mine again. “I really didn’t have a clue.”

“Well, good.” I smoothed his short hair. “Then nobody probably knew, so they just thought I was having a bad night.”

He grinned wickedly. “Is it safe to assume you’re not having a bad night tonight?”

I laughed and pulled him closer. “Absolutelynothaving a bad night tonight.”

We sank into another kiss. For ages, we just kissed and held each other. I doubted there’d be much more for a while; I could absolutely go multiple rounds, but I needed to recharge for a bit first. Cam seemed to be fine with this too, just making out without trying to get each other turned on again. I loved it. I loved just kissing and touching without any goal in mind. How long had it been since I’d been in bed with someone who appreciated lazily touching instead of chasing orgasms?

Too long. Way, way too long.

My libido had flared back to life the moment I’d laid eyes on Cam, but I hadn’t realized until now how much I’d been missing this. How much I loved being touched. Kissed. Held. If he told me he only wanted this going forward—just kissing and cuddling and not having sex—I didn’t see myself complaining.

My God, how did I not know how bad I’d been needing affection?

That wasn’t to say I didn’t want sex with him again. Just thinking about moving inside him, tasting him, driving him wild—hell yeah, I wanted all that and more. But this? His hands all over me? Our bodies pressed together? His mouth moving decadently with mine? I couldn’t get enough.

After a while, though, he drew back, an unspoken thought creasing his forehead.

Alarm zipped through me. “What? You okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m…” He swallowed. “Look, I don’t want to kill the mood, but I think we should make sure we’re on the same page.”

I lifted myself up to put some space between us. “Okay. Sure. What about?”

“About, um… what we’re doing, I guess? Like, is this just sex? Or…?”

I thought about it. “I… I don’t know, honestly. I don’t want to punt or anything but… what doyouwant it to be?”

“Well, I mean…” He shifted a little, but he kept a hand on my arm, so he wasn’t pushing me away. “The thing is, I just got out of a long and awful relationship. And you’re still finding your footing after your divorce. Plus I work for you.” He ran a fingertip along the edge of my jaw. “I think we’re way too close to ever be just casual fuck buddies without any connection, but we don’t need to put a name on it yet, do we?”

His comment took me by surprise, and I had to chew on it for a moment. He was right, though; for as much time as we’d gone without seeing each other, we’d been incredibly close as teenagers. Which was probably why we’d been able to break up so amicably, now that I thought about it. Even after we’d been physically intimate for the better part of a year—a line that we shouldn’t have been mature enough to cross and come back from—we’d stillfiercelyheld on to our friendship.

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