Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 120176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
After getting to the locker room, showering and changing, I texted Mara.
Me: I need a full night.
There’d be parties galore going on tonight, but she responded as if expecting my text.
Mara: I’m at your truck.
24
MARA
He had showered, and he was dressed in a hockey sweatshirt and jeans. He looked edible, but I saw him in there. Saw her. Saw how he loved her, and my chest burned from envy. I had no idea what it was like having a family member love you as much as he loved his sister, or how much she loved him.
And his mom. She was everything my mom wasn’t. Giving. Loving. Enduring.
Could see that in two seconds.
I knew he’d need something. His sister was half asleep before she left the arena. The high she had, she’d crash, and he would know that. As he approached me at his truck, I saw it was eating him up.
He blew out a ragged breath, seeing me. He stopped, almost glaring before raking a hand through his hair.
There was tension between us. Had been since he found out about my ex, ramped up the night I got mad about the puck bunny. It was simmering under the surface the whole time. The sex was good, but there was a harder element to it than normal. An edgier element, like he was punishing me. I got it. I did. A part of me was punishing him, too.
But, I needed him as much as he needed me tonight.
“The guys want to celebrate.”
I gave a nod. “You said a full night. I’m yours for the night.”
His eyes flashed. That was exactly what he needed to hear, and he stepped up to me. “I need to be with the guys tonight, for a little bit.”
But he needed me too. He was looking at me like I was a mirage in the Sahara Desert.
“It’s okay, Cruz. I saw how you held her tonight. I get it.”
His jaw clenched. “You get what?”
“I get that you need some things tonight. Normal rules don’t apply.”
“We had a problem the last time they didn’t apply.”
I stepped to him, pressing a hand to his stomach.
He drew in a breath at my touch, his eyes flashing once again.
“Not tonight. I saw her. You have the same smile as she does.”
His eyes darkened and in the next second, I was pinned against the truck. His body was against mine. His hands were hoisting me up, holding my thighs in place, and his mouth was devouring mine.
Oh yeah. He had needs tonight.
A sensual shiver wracked through me.
His tongue was rubbing against mine, tasting me before he lifted his head, his eyes still dark, but the sexual need was pulsating from him. He bent his forehead, resting against my shoulder as he started grinding up and into me. Slow. His hands holding my legs firmly apart as he moved up. In. Against me. Around. And he did it again, and again, and again until I was combusting from the need of him being inside me.
He dropped me back to the ground and stepped back, his chest heaving silently as he stared at me. “We’re going to do slow sex. Hard sex. I want you in seventy dirty ways tonight. You got me?”
Jesus.
I got him. I was already a quivering mess.
But I got him.
The hockey house was partying it up. The entire place was lit when we pulled up.
“I’m surprised Labrowski and Keys went for another party?”
He jerked his shoulder up, as he parked in the back. “Labrowski’s got a friend. He’s got a soft spot for her, and if he caves, Keys cave. She wanted a party tonight.”
The music was pounding louder than the other night when we got out, but then again, who was going to call the cops of the Grant West hockey team? Especially after tonight’s win? It was different. Cruz’s sister aside, there was a different feel to the game. It was more primal. Raw. Desperate. And the win had been fought for and won hard. Cruz did that. So, when we got out, everyone wanted a piece of him.
He held my hand, keeping me attached as we went through the backyard before getting to the house.
I saw the looks.
Girls noticed the hands. Guys too.
Once we got into the house, Cruz pulled me against him. My back against his front, and he had an arm around me, his hand sliding into my pocket.
That was noticed as well.
He took us to get alcohol, and he bypassed beer, taking the bottle of bourbon instead.
Atwater offered to mix me a drink, which I accepted. I was not into drinking straight shots tonight. No way. I’d really be messed up, but not Cruz. He took the bottle and walked us to a back room where a bunch of guys were. I’d never been in this room, it looked like a small media room. Three couches, one against each wall, with a bookcase filling up the fourth wall. A TV was in the middle of the bookcase, and two video game controllers were being used as two guys were in chairs on the floor, duking it out on Madden.