Page 104 of Face Off
“No. I think I’m ready to go to sleep for the night. I’m still so tired. Thank you for all your help. You nursed me back to fantastic health. Ten out of ten, would recommend your puke-cleaning services again.”
“Will you text me if you need anything or if the nausea comes back? I can be over here in three minutes. Two if I run.”
“That’s about as fast as you do other things.”
“You’re a little shit.” He climbs off the bed and pulls on his shirt. “Need anything else before I head out?”
There’s a moment where I think about asking him to stay.
To lie back down and curl up next to me until morning, but I’m not sure where that falls on the fuck-buddy scale or if I’m even allowed to have it.
I shake my head instead, shoving the invitation far, far away. “I’ll see you at practice tomorrow.”
“You’ll see me at the arena tomorrow. Whether or not you’re going to practice is up in the air.” Maverick bends down and kisses my forehead. He tucks a piece of hair behind my ear and smiles. “Bossing you around is fun.”
“Don’t get used to it.” I pull the covers up to my chin. “Night, pretty boy.”
“Night, Emmy girl,” he says, and he leans against the door of my bedroom, watching me until I fall asleep.
TWENTY-EIGHT
MAVERICK
“I hate playingvideo games with you guys.” Reid tosses his controller on the couch and pushes his glasses up his nose. “You use your athletic capabilities, and I bring nothing to the table.”
“It’sGrand Theft Auto, not real life sports. Athletic skills don’t mean shit when you’re driving a car through the streets of LA,” I say. “At least you’re better than those twelve-year-old kids we went up against in Halo. It would’ve been real embarrassing if we lost at capture the flag.”
“We won capture the flag because you told the kids who you were, and they screamed for eight minutes.” He scratches at his red beard and leans back against the cushions. “Not because we played better.”
“A win is a win,” Dallas says as he pops onto his feet. “You all are staying for dinner, right? Maven and June are eating over at her dad’s place, and it’s been ages since we hung out just the three of us.”
“An eighty-two-game season is a hell of a lot more intense than an eighteen-game season,” I tease. “Some of us are busy.”
“We have the best record in the league, and I’ve already kicked two game-winning field goals, so you can fuck off,” Dallas says.
“Hockey is still the harder sport.”
“God.” Reid groans. “Not this argument again.”
“I think my absences are forgivable given I’ve been in three different time zones in the last two weeks, but count me in for food tonight,” I say, ignoring him.
“You’ve been home plenty and we still haven’t seen you.” Reid grabs his phone and scrolls through his social media apps. “You posted that you went to Georgetown Cupcakes the other night, and we didn’t get an invitation.”
I did go to Georgetown Cupcakes the other night, but it wasn’t for me. Emerson told me she hadn’t had a chance to try the famed bakery yet, so I picked up a half-dozen treats on my way to her apartment.
I got creative with the frosting from the red velvet cupcake, licking it off her chest and stomach before feeding her the rest of the dessert while her legs were wrapped around my neck and her fingers were in my hair.
The text messages from Dallas and Reid and the rest of my teammates are going unanswered, but it’s hard to respond to them when Emerson invites me over, drops to her knees in the foyer, then sucks me off with my jeans around my ankles.
I crave her, and it’s getting hard to keep my hands to myself when we’re around people. I’m horny all the time, and I feel like I’m back in high school when she straddles my lap and kisses me until my lips are swollen.
The sex is top tier, but it’s not just the physical stuff I’m enjoying.
Some nights when she sneaks into my hotel room, we lounge on the bed in robes and talk about our upcoming games or our favorite movies. We won’t touch each other besides a quick kiss or the graze of a finger against a thigh, but it feels right.
It’s fuckingfun, and while I know I should be more accessible as a captain and the best man in an upcoming wedding, it’s practically impossible to stay away from her.
“Sorry, buddy. Next time I’m on a late-night snack run, I’ll make sure to stop by with a delivery,” I say, shooting him a smile. “How’s the season going? And the woman you’re in love with?”
