Page 79 of Puck You
I frowned, feeling slightly overwhelmed by his barrage of questions.“Every year on my birthday since I turned thirteen.Why?”
Sebastian rubbed the back of his neck in a rare show of nervousness.“I wish I had letters from my dad.I know it’s not the same, but I’d do just about anything to hear from him.”
Great, now I feel like an asshole.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t think—”
Sebastian seized me by the waist and pulled me into his lap, my legs settling on either side of him.Our faces were mere inches away from each other, the tips of our noses almost touching.
“You don’t need to apologize.Thank you for sharing that with me,” he said, his eyes roaming over my face in a look of awe.“It can’t be easy feeling responsible for your little sister and feeling abandoned by your mother.”He paused, a small smile flickering across his face.“You take it with grace.”
A laugh deep from my belly burst forth at the same timeSebastian caught my lips in a kiss.I leaned eagerly into his touch, keen to lose myself in the taste of his mouth and the fresh pine scent that clung to his skin.The sensation of our lips moving in tandem brought me to a place of simplicity, one where nothing else mattered but the hunger of our kiss and the urgent touch of his tongue against mine.His warmth fell over me in an embrace.It melted away the frigid grip of fear that had taken hold of my body.
Sebastian pulled away from me with a gasp, as if it had taken everything in him to stop kissing me.“Will you do me a favor?”he asked.
I was already nodding my head before he finished the sentence.
“Put on your skates, will you?”A shred of unease penetrated the blissful haze I’d found myself submerged within.
“Trust me, okay?You can’t leave the ice tonight on a bad note.”
Trust me.For the first time, hearing those words didn’t cause me to tense up.With a leap of faith, I nodded my head in agreement.
“Any other requests?”
He shook his head and said, “Come on, get your skates on and meet me back here.”
We departed for our designated locker rooms and emerged a few minutes later, laced up and ready to skate.Sebastian and I met in the middle of the rink, stopping within the line marking the blue circle.
“Here,” Sebastian said, shrugging out of his jacket and handing it over to me.
“So chivalrous.”
Despite my teasing, I pulled on the coat and took a deep breath of his familiar scent.
“What now?”
He shrugged.“We skate, of course.”
Sebastian pushed off and glided in a leisurely circle around me.“Every time we’re out here, we’re skating with an objective: get the puck, stop the pass, make the hit.Sometimes, it’s nice to skate without one.”
With gentle nod of agreement, I dug in my edge and pushed off.Sebastian followed close behind me as I swept over the rink without purpose, hands at my side, head tilted back ever so slightly.The only sound to be heard was the whoosh of our blades cutting through the ice.It was familiar and comforting and helped me feel centered after a long day of drifting off course.I closed my eyes and focused on the noise.I let it rush over me until all I could sense was the air against my face and the ice underfoot.
The connection that I had with the ice—that we both had—was more than just a skill or a hobby.Skating kept me grounded.Breathed life back into me.Reminded me that no matter how poorly I played, or how fucked up things got, I still belonged here.If all else failed and nothing made sense, I could always return to the rink and find a little bit of myself on the ice.At that realization, I slowed to a stop and opened my eyes.Sebastian stood just a few feet away from me, the same truth written across his face.I didn’t need to thank him for reminding me why this mattered.He knew.
Later that night, after what felt like hours of skating around DuLane Arena with only a dull, flickering light to illuminate the rink, Sebastian and I walked back to my apartment and slippedinto my bedroom unnoticed by my roommates.I didn’t consider the potential consequences or overanalyze how fast things were moving between us.After he stripped down to his boxers and I changed into an oversized shirt, he pulled me into the tiny bed.We barely fit, but that didn’t matter.I lay with my back against his chest, our bodies molded together in a perfect fit.Exhaustion swept over me almost instantly.The last thing I remembered was Sebastian’s smooth voice wishing me sweet dreams.
Chapter 19
Sebastian
My mind and body were halfway between waking and sleep.A beam of morning sunshine stretched across the bedroom wall.There was a delicious warmth pressed to my chest, and pinpricks dancing across my arm where Grace’s head lay, the tantalizing scent of cherries thick in the air.She was still fast asleep, her chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm, hair sprawled over the pillow and along the side of my face.I blinked away the morning cobwebs and glanced around her room.
Grace and I were alike in our preference for order and neatness.Through the gap in her closet doors, I could tell that everything inside was where it should be, either hanging from the clothing rod or tucked away into the built-in shelves.Even her desk was organized; the large pile of books that sat atop it was stacked neatly together under a tiny figurine of a hockey player.Beside the books, there was a dusty purple lamp, a framed picture of her and Sam, and a mason jar filled with different writing utensils.I had a feeling Grace’s notes were crafted to perfection.She probably color-coded each subject and had a personalized table for abbreviations.
For some ridiculous reason, I grew hard at the thought of her curled over a book, lip pulled between her teeth as she carefully highlighted the text.All those times we’d spent in silence studying together, pretending as if there weren’t some magnetic force pulling us together, played across my mind.Somehow, simply being in her presence was enough to excite me these days.Slowly, the blazing heat of her body pressed against me, and a zing of pleasure shot straight to my cock.
She wiggled again, and without thinking I ground my hips into her ass.The catch of her breath was all I needed to confirm that she was awake and aware.Still, I paused for a moment, my mind finally catching up with my body.Something told me to proceed with caution.Grace had been incredibly vulnerable last night.I could tell how truly exhausted she was after opening up about her family.We’d barely made it back to her place before she’d passed out.The last thing I wanted to do was push her for sex after such an emotionally draining night.
