Page 53 of Absolutely Pucked
“I figured I’d at least use Listerine so you don’t get my ass-mouth.”
He blinked, then burst into laughter and tugged me so hard I fell on the bed beside him. Fuck, he was so strong. He rolled me onto my back, pinning me to the mattress as he hovered above me. His hair was wild, and his eyes were still a little glazed over, and he was smiling.
I did that. Somehow, I put that joy on his face.
Me.
“What?” he asked, reaching up to cup my jaw.
I swallowed thickly. “You look happy.”
“You just ate me out,” he said with a soft hum. “I’m fucking delighted.”
I started to laugh, but he interrupted the sound with a kiss. He made a big show of fucking his tongue in and out of my mouth before pulling away with a series of small, tender pecks along my chin.
“I’m happy too,” I whispered.
He laid his chin on my chest, and I closed my eyes, losing myself in the feeling of him grounding me completely. “How long has it been?”
I swallowed thickly and forced the words out, which weren’t as broken as they felt. “A long time.”
He didn’t answer, but he held me a little tighter, and that was enough.
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
KILLIAN
“…andshe gets food when the food dispenser goes off. Do not let her convince you that she’s starving. She will try, and she’s very good at it.”
I sighed but smiled as I took the list from Ford’s hands. “I won’t overfeed her. I won’t let her get out or die. I won’t let the house burn down.”
Ford hesitated, then said, “And you’ll be here when I get back, right? Even if…” He didn’t finish his sentence, but I knew what he wanted to say. Even if I got found out. Even if I panicked. Even if I realized this was all too much.
He was on his way to Montreal for a big hockey thing that I didn’t understand, nor was I invited to. It was going to last all weekend, and it was the first time real life had stepped in to shatter the little bubble he and I had been in since the night of the massage.
We went about our daily lives like nothing had changed. He and I both worked, he played hockey and had his practices, and sometimes he had dinner withBoden and Tucker, though he didn’t share details about those nights. But in the quiet moments after the phone calls and texts stopped, and the house was quiet, we had each other.
I’d fucked him in every room in the house. I’d made him beg and sob for more. We kept personal details out of our conversations because both of us had tender, painful pasts, and it was easier to focus on making each other come than the emotional scars that still twinged.
But it was nice.
No. It was more than nice.
My life was still a ticking countdown until Daniel and Delia released me from this fucked-up financial bondage. I didn’t know what was going to happen after that. Would I head back up to Damir’s and try to make a life there?
I sure as shit wasn’t heading back west. There was nothing for me there.
But there was nothing for me here either. There was only one man I couldn’t actually have because we couldn’t keep this a secret forever, and I wasn’t about to ask him to choose me over his friends.
But fuck, I was falling for him.
And it was making it even more obvious now that anything I had ever felt for Delia had been superficial. It had been attempting to soothe wounds that I thought would never heal. And I supposed that was karma, really. Or, at the very least, poetic justice.
Tucker would get his happily ever after, and I would get a taste of it before having to give it up.
But the worst part was, I knew Ford liked me too. I had no idea how much, or how deep, or how real itwas. But the way he held me—the way he touched me, and clung on, and slept with his head on my chest—I knew it would ruin him just a little when it all had to end.
