Page 137 of Friendzone Hockey
I’m not fucking waiting. Not leaving any room for doubt. Not letting him think he’s ever letting someone else touch him ever again.
With my hand against his cheek, I back him into one of the large oak trees lining the sidewalk and pull one of his legs around me. Lightning crashes around us. Warm rain drenches our clothes, running in rivulets down our faces.
“Marry me,” I demand.
“Marry you? But we haven’t even?—”
“Haven’t what, Dash? What haven’t we done except fucking consummate?” Though I plan to remedy that as soon as fucking possible.
A thousand memories come to mind. I see them on his face, in his eyes. He grips the wrist of the hand I’ve got plastered against his cheek, his forehead falls against my chin. We breathe in sync, together, always together. Water runs into my mouth. Thunder beats the air, and we flinch, but nothing can break the infinite bond between us, the one growing stronger by the second.
“All I’ve ever wanted is to marry you.” His fingers on my hand tighten, curling, digging in, a silent promise never to let go. Those pretty brown eyes of his glisten with unshed tears. “I’d marry you a hundred times, Alderchuck.”
My soul relaxes. My lungs release the breath they’ve been holding.
He’s mine now, and it’s time to own him. Show him what I’ve been wanting to do to him all this time. I bend without warning, lifting him, dripping with rainwater, easily into a fireman’s carry.
“Stacey! Since when are you an ape?”
“Since I met you.”
I carry my bounty to my oversized Hummer.
Chapter
Twenty-Five
NOW
Dash
This truck is massive. It still has new-car smell. He takes my hand across the console, but I don’t love how the console separates us.
“What was that thought you just had?” he says, brushing a finger over my nose.
“I’m not sure I like this monstrosity. I’m too far away from you over here.”
“Then I’ll get rid of it. Get something with a bench seat. Or, if that’s your only hang-up, I’ll have Sutter’s shady friends tear it out and remodel. Whatever you want. Your wish is my fucking command.”
Whoa. What a rush.
“You can’t do all of that just because I don’t like something.”
“Get used to it. That’s your future, sweetheart. My world falls at your feet.”
Holy shit. My heart skips a beat. I circle my fingers over his palm, overcome with sensation. If I leaped off a building, I’msure I could fly. If I was let loose on the ice, I wouldn’t need skates.
“Sooooo, am I obligated to have a mourning period, or am I a terrible person if I just want you to…” I trail off on a hitched exhale. “I want you. I want you so fucking badly.”
“What did I tell you? At your fucking feet, Dash. I mean it.”
He uses our joined hands to push the keyless ignition. The engine rumbles to life. “C’mon, it’s time that I introduce you to someone you’ve never met before.”
I frown. “Who’s that?”
“The me who owns your ass.”
Stacey’s solid jaw is a knife handle for those sharp teeth, glinting perfectly white above me. I’ve pushed him past the carefully controlled sanity he’s maintained for seven years. It’s not easy getting him here and I take pride that I’m one of the few people who can do it.
