Page 68 of The Playmaker

“Come here.”

She saunters toward me, exaggerating her wiggle. “You have something on your mind?”

“Maybe I do.”

She steps up to me, and I slide my hand around her back, drag her body to mine to show her just how hard I am for her.

“Maybe you should tell me,” she says.

“I’d rather show you.”

She laughs, and the sound travels through my body. “I’d rather like that.”

I close my lips over hers for a soft kiss, and when she opens, my heart misses a bit. It’s insane how responsive she is, how much I want her in my arms, my bed…my life. Her hands sweep around my back and I pick her up.

“Don’t strain yourself,” she whispers through deeply intimate kisses, and my heart squeezes at the way she cares about me. I set her on the bed and stand back to remove my clothes. Once I’m naked, I crawl over her and find her mouth again.

A surge of protectiveness moves through me as she adjusts beneath me. “I’m not hurting you, am I?” I ask.

“No,” she says, and pulls my mouth back. We exchange heated kisses, then I go back on my heels to undress her. She sits up and lifts her arms for me, and I tug her T-shirt off over her head and release her bra.

I nudge her until she falls back on my pillow, her curls splaying. I grip her shorts, and she lifts her hips so I can shimmy them down her legs.

“You are the most beautiful woman in the world, Nina.”

She swallows. “You don’t have to say that.”

“I’m telling you the truth, and if you’re wondering, no, I’ve never said that to anyone before.”

“Cole,” she whispers, and reaches for me. I fall over her, put a finger inside her to find her so hot and wet and ready for me, it shuts down my brain. She widens her legs. “I need you.”

I power into her with one fast thrust, and as I sink into her softness, need doesn’t even begin to describe what I’m feeling for her.

13

Nina

When I wake and find Cole sleeping soundly beside me, the world around me spins, my emotions on a complete roller coaster ride as I take him in—think about the gentle, protective way he touched me between the sheets. My heart aches with longing as I put my finger on my kiss-swollen lips. In this bed last night, well, what we did felt a lot like lovemaking to a girl who signed on to hate fuck Cocky Cole Cannon—The Playmaker

Although calling him that no longer seems right.

I ease from beneath the covers, about to dash to the bathroom to get myself together, when Cole says, “Where do you think you’re going?”

My stomach flutters at the playfulness in his voice. “I thought you were asleep.”

“Get over here.” He turns and drags me to him for a good-morning kiss, and I snuggle in beside him, not in a hurry to go anywhere, despite the fact that we both slept in. But we were up all hours of the night…making love. At least I think we were.

“We need to get moving.” I point to the late hour on the clock. “You have your appointment.”

“I know,” he says.

As I note the strange hitch in his voice, I go up on my elbow to see him. “Are you worried?”

“Yeah. Hockey.” He scrubs his hand through his hair. “Kind of my life, right? If I can’t play…”

I put my hand on his face, and give a silent prayer that he gets back on the ice sooner rather than later. “He’s going to give you the all clear. I know it.”

His smile is forced as he drops a kiss onto my forehead, one that travels all the way to my wobbly heart.

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