Off Limits (13 page)

With another smooth move, he had me on my back, his cock still buried inside me. “Oh, that’s what a spinner is,” I managed to say. I’d never forgotten when he called me that and wished so many times
that we’d had more opportunity to explore that.

He flashed a grin, his face drawn into lines of taut arousal. “Yeah. My sweet little spinner.” He pushed one of my legs up and back while he spread his own and thrust into me. I reached for my clit, needing to come again, and he made a rough noise of approval. I fingered myself as he fucked me, my other hand squeezing one of my aching breasts.

“Yeah. Do that.” He moved faster, his jaw tight, fingers hard on my thigh. “Want you to come again, baby.”

“I’m…there…” Licking flames burned and brightened inside me, lighting me up with sharpening, piercing bliss. I went over hard, shuddering and crying out, my body tightening on him.

“Fuck yeah…feels good…your body coming around me. Yeah…” He gave one last hard push and went very still, closing
his eyes, groaning out his release as he came inside me, his cock jerking with each ejaculation. God, I loved it, I loved giving that to him, I loved…him.

Eventually, he withdrew from my body, slowly, holding the base of the condom, then stretched out beside me once more. His hand on my jaw turned my face toward him for another long, lush kiss. His fingers brushed my cheek, then rested on my
throat with a tender possessiveness that thrilled me.

“Please,” I whispered on his lips. “Please don’t leave me.”

“Never.” He touched his mouth to mine. Our eyes met. “I’ll never leave you again.”

I’d never leave her…until tomorrow, when I had to go back to Chicago because the Aces had a practice the morning of January second.

Damn.

“Talk to me.” Jenna whispered the words, a pleading look in her eyes.

“Yeah. That’s why I’m here.” My lips twitched into a smile. “Though you might not believe that I came to talk, from how fast I got you into bed.”

Luckily, she got my
sense of humor and returned my smile. “You didn’t have to work hard at that.”

I stroked hair off her face, studying her. “There’s something amazing between us, Jenna.”

Her smile wobbled. “I think so. I just didn’t think you knew it.”

“Been trying to deny it.” I let out a short exhalation. “Fuck, baby. Seeing you again at Christmas…seeing you with that asswipe…uh, sorry—”

“I
knew
you didn’t
like him.” She didn’t look too angry at the insult to her former boyfriend.

“Fucking hated him on sight.” I kissed her lips again and played with her hair. “Kept telling myself you had the right to date whoever you wanted, and if you liked him that was fine. But damn, it pissed me off.”

The smile she beamed at me belied her apology. “I’m sorry. I didn’t bring him home to annoy you.” Her smile
dimmed. “I actually thought you might be bringing a girlfriend.”

I snorted. “Ha.”

“I didn’t like seeing pictures of you with that girl. But I kept telling myself that I was over you. I thought I was.” She sighed. “I really did. I honestly thought Jon and I could have something.”

My eyebrows pulled together and she saw it and smiled again. “I was wrong.” She reached over to push her fingers
into my hair. That felt so damn good. “It took me a while to recognize it, but it wasn’t fair to Jon to keep going when I realized I’m still in love with you.”

“So long.” I groaned and buried my face in the side of her neck. “So fucking long. I’m sorry, Jenna.”

She petted my hair again, stroked her soft fingers over the nape of my neck, then my shoulder. “I know what you were thinking.”

I drew
in a long, shuddering breath. “Such a fucking coward.”

“No, Andrew. No. You lost your entire family. When you were young and needed one. I understood that. I hated it, but I understood it. I loved you and I would never risk you losing your family a second time.”

“It wasn’t just that.”

“No?”

“Your parents took me in, when I had nobody left. I swore I’d never do anything to disappoint them.
Or to betray their trust.”

A rueful smile curved her lips. “You did a good job of that. You were like Saint Andrew. You made the rest of us look like delinquents.”

A surprised laugh escaped me. “Yeah, right.” I shook my head. “When I moved in, your dad had a few words with me, basically telling me to keep my horny teenage hands off you.”

Her eyebrows pulled together. “He did?”

“Yep. And I
wasn’t going to do anything to piss him off, least of all try anything with you. No matter how much I wanted to.”

“Oh, Andrew. Oh my God.”

“So yeah, your family means a lot to me.” I met her eyes steadily. “But you mean
everything.
”

Her breath hitched and her eyes got shiny. “Oh, Andrew.”

“I mean that. I was scared, yeah. But when you told me the other night you still love me and I pushed
you away again and I saw the look on your face…that had to be one of the lowest moments of my life. I hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you. I was an asshole.”

She choked on a little laugh and touched my cheek. “Oh my God.”

“Seriously.” I gnawed briefly on my bottom lip. “I don’t know what your parents will think of this, but if they’re not okay with it…” I stopped, suddenly worried about that,
not because of my relationship with her folks, but because of hers. “I don’t want to come between you and your family.”

“That won’t happen. At least, I’m pretty sure it won’t. Honestly, I’m not sure how Connor’s going to react to this, but…I feel the same as you do, Andrew. My family is important to me…but you’re
more
important.”

Relief crashed through me, and I buried my face in her neck again,
breathing in her sweet scent. “Move to Chicago.”

She stiffened. “What?”

I lifted my head and touched my fingertips to her cheek. “You already said you’re not happy in your job. Move to Chicago. There are lots of big companies there. You should easily find a job.”

She nodded slowly, her lips pursing. “I just made a New Year’s resolution to find the job of my dreams.”

I smiled. “There you go.
You can live with me.”

Her forehead creased. “That’s a big leap. We’ve never even dated.”

I burst out laughing. “Jesus, fuck, that’s true. Well, I’ll have to change that.” Then I sobered. “Seriously, baby, we’ve known each other forever. It’s not that big a leap.”

“Yes, it is.” Her nose wrinkled. “I can’t just move in with you.”

“Well, you can stay with me while you find your own place. But
that’s a fuckin’ waste of money, if you ask me.”

“I guess we can figure that problem out.”

“We can figure anything out.” I kissed her little nose. “Including when I can take you out on a date, because I have to fly back to Chicago tomorrow.”

“Damn.” She pouted. “How did you get here so fast anyway? I watched your game.”

“I bolted right after. Barely stopped to talk to the media. It’s New Year’s
Eve, everyone wanted to get out of there. I headed straight to the airport and got on a flight to JFK. Took a taxi here, even though I thought you probably wouldn’t be home.”

“You figured I was out partying in the new year.”

“Yep.”

“And here I was watching your game and then drinking champagne all by myself.”

“Hey, where is the champagne? I never got that glass you offered me.”

She giggled.
“We kind of got distracted, didn’t we?”

“The best kind of distraction. I’ll go get it.” I climbed out of her bed, naked.

“There’s another champagne glass in the kitchen. Far right cabinet.”

I found the bottle on an ancient trunk in her living room along with her glass. I opened the cabinet door she’d mentioned and pulled out a similar flute-shaped glass and carried it all into her bedroom.

I had to stop in the door. She’d turned on the lamp next to her bed, and seeing her sitting there, her dark hair spread all around her bare shoulders, the covers pulled up over her sweet breasts, her big eyes looking at me, all shiny and happy, made my chest clench. I lost my breath for a moment, like I’d just done ten laps around the rink, and all I could do was stare at her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I shook my head and advanced into the small room. “I’m just struck dumb by your beauty.”

She snorted.

“Really.” I handed her the glass and topped it up, then filled my own. “I’m not bullshitting.”

Her smile was luminous. “I love you so much.”

“Back atcha, babe.” Her eyebrows flew up and I grinned and bent over to kiss her. “I love you too.”

I slipped under the covers with her. Her
little apartment was cute and quirky, kind of like her. In fact,
exactly
like her. It felt cozy and comfortable and kind of made me sad that she was going to leave it.

“We can fit your things in with my stuff.” I gestured. “I don’t have a lot of furniture, actually, so you can decorate my apartment any way you want. Hey, if you don’t like my apartment, we can find something new.”

She shook her
head, smiling as she touched the glass to her lips. “I haven’t even seen your apartment.”

“It’s pretty nice.”

“Mom wants to see it.”

“Yeah.” I paused. “We have to tell them about us.”

Her eyes moved over my face. “Yes. You’re sure…”

I gave a fast, emphatic nod. “Yes, I’m sure. I just was thinking about the best way to tell them.”

“It would be nice to do it in person.”

“That would be the
best, but I’m not going to have time to get to Greenfield until the season is done. Or maybe during the All Star break.”

She nodded. “Well, we’ll invite them to Chicago. Once we figure things out.”

“Will you come next weekend? We have a home game Saturday night. You could come to the game.”

She made a face. “Going to a hockey game all by myself doesn’t sound like fun.”

“I’ll introduce you
to the other wives and girlfriends. You can sit with them.”

“I don’t even know them.”

“Well, that’s why I’m going to introduce you. You can check out Chicago, and I’ll take you out on a date Friday night, and we’ll look at my schedule and figure things out. I told you, we can figure anything out.” I touched my glass to hers with a gentle clink. “Happy New Year, Jenna.”

“Happy New Year.”

Then
I took her glass away from her. “I’m about to make you even happier. Again.”

Her laugh was gorgeous, like the rest of her, as I moved over her. Goddamn, I was so lucky. I still felt the need to grovel and apologize for being such a stupid ass all those years, but she’d forgiven me and I’d spend the rest of my life making up to her for the hurt I’d caused.

We’d just finished our Friday practice
and I was hanging out with the guys in the players’ lounge at the Moens Center, eating lunch. The team put out a great spread for us, which was helpful for single guys like me who’d otherwise probably go through a McDonald’s drive-through on our way home, or make myself yet another PB&J sandwich. I loaded up with chicken parm, pasta, and salad, and ended with a huge ice cream sundae.

Some of
the guys were talking about Friday night plans. “Going to start off at the Sin Bin,” Duncan Armstrong said. “Then maybe go somewhere else.”

The Sin Bin was a restaurant and bar owned by Jared Rupp, one of our best wingers, where we often ended up hanging out.

“Club Noir,” Rupper said. “I hear it’s hot. Lot of chicks.”

Naturally, the guys were looking for girls, and naturally, Rupper, Mr. GQ,
wanted to go somewhere swank.

“Ugh,” Army grunted. “Do I have to wear a suit?”

Everyone grinned. “Farm boy,” Marc Dupuis, team captain and Army’s roommate, said. “It won’t kill you to wear a suit.”

Big D-man Hughie Land’s phone buzzed. He pulled it out and frowned at the screen. “What the fuck?”

Everyone kept eating as he tapped in a message.

“What’s going on, Hughie?” asked Tanner Bennet,
my current partner on defense and probably my best bud in Chicago.

“Why the hell is Pikachu texting me?” Hughie muttered.

“Pikachu?” I lifted my eyebrows and looked around. I caught Army’s quickly hidden grin and dropped gaze. Oh-oh.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Hughie lowered his phone. “Someone changed all my contacts to the names of Pokemon characters. Who the fuck is Pikachu? Come on, if it’s
that chick I went out with last weekend, I need to know…I can’t remember her real name.”

Everyone burst out laughing.

“Asshole,” Benny said. “You can’t remember her name, you deserve this.”

“I just texted back,
Who is this?
” Hughie scrunched up his face as he stared at his phone. “If that was her, she’s gonna be pissed.” He groaned. “I’ll never hear from her again.”

More laughter erupted.

“Who is everyone?” Hughie groaned as he scrolled through his contacts. “Charmander…Squirtle…fuck you. Who the hell did this?”

“Pretty sure I’m Bulbasaur,” Stoykers, our number one goalie, said.

Everyone cracked up again.

Nobody owned up immediately, but it was fucking hilarious and finally Army admitted he’d done it.

“You gotta put a password on your phone if you’re gonna leave it lying around,”
Benny chortled.

“Back to the plan for tonight,” Army said. “What time? And you coming, Rosser?” He looked at me.

“Nah, not tonight, sorry.” I grinned. “Got a hot date.”

“No shit? Christ, you date a different girl every week.”

I grimaced. This was somewhat true. I wouldn’t deny I liked women, or sex, and since I’d pretty much resigned myself to the fact I was never going to have Jenna, sure
I’d gone out with other girls. “Actually, this one’s kind of…serious.”

The guys all made exaggerated noises of shock.

How the hell was I supposed to explain this? Like I’d said to Jenna, we’d never even gone on a date and all of a sudden I was presenting her as someone I was serious about. “Long story,” I finally said.

“She knocked up?” Hughie frowned at me.

“No! Fuck no.” I sighed and rubbed
the back of my neck. “Look, we grew up together. I lived with her family when I was a teenager.”

Benny’s eyebrows flew up. “You’re screwing around with your little sister?”

More shocked noises filled the lounge.

“No! You know she’s not my sister. I just…tried to see her like a sister. You know, so she was off-limits. We’re not related.” Benny knew a little about my past. “Jenna. We saw each
other at Christmas and…well…”

“Little sister’s all grown up?” leered Stoykers.

I made another face. “You’re making it sound sketchy and it’s not. She’s a sweet girl.”

“Can’t wait to meet her,” Benny said. “Bring her to the Sin Bin tonight.”

“Hell no.” Telling them this was our first date would probably only earn me more trash-talking. “But she’s coming to the game tomorrow night.” I looked
at Duper, team captain. “Lovey will be there, right? She can help Jenna out?”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll tell her.”

Some of the guys started heading out and the others finalized their plans for meeting up that night. I went home to make sure the place was decent before picking up Jenna at the airport.