The sounds urged me on as I rocked harder and harder against him. One of Will’s hands came to squeeze my ass, pulling me in closer against him. It was my turn to be loud and I didn’t attempt to stop myself.
Pleasure rolled through me in waves, overtaking me so easily. Will thrust upwards, our bodies meeting in a perfect tangle. As our sounds mixed, so did our pleasures.
The knowledge that I was the one making Will feel so good tingled in my veins. I rocked faster, lifting myself up and letting gravity drag me back down so that the sound of skin on skin was added to the moans and unmuffled cries of pleasure.
Sensation filled me up, finding every crevice, until all I could do was feel. My orgasm exploded in a shower of pleasure so intense that I had to squeeze my eyes shut. I gripped onto Will, afraid that I might get washed away as every muscle in my body seemed to tighten and release all at once.
I was left breathless, gasping. I braced my body against Will’s muscled chest and arms, still rolling my hips. I needed to make Will feel as good as I felt.
So I picked up the pace. I let my body move against his even faster and harder. The way his cries intensified, it definitely worked. I gripped his shoulders for leverage, moving both of us and making the bed creak.
Will’s hand squeezed my ass even tighter, urging another moan from me. And then he groaned, loud and deep. Instantly, all of my attention focused on him. Watching him come was amazing, the way his face contorted, pleasure washing over it.
“Fuck! Lacey!” he cried, hips bucking up so he’d push himself even deeper into me, thrust after thrust until Will collapsed against the bed, finally spent.
I went with him, hands spanning across the muscles in his waist. I could feel his breath, rising and falling. I smirked at how fast it was. Will was a professional athlete, but I felt like I’d done well at making him use all that stamina he’d build up!
Slowly, I slipped my body off his. I discarded the condom, then stretched out against his side. He looked beautiful, his skin practically glowing with the pleasure I had given him.
Sighing happily, I nuzzled against his side. Whether or not we were in a relationship, I’d always enjoyed the peaceful moments that came after sex. I wanted to glory in our naked, satisfied bodies for at least ten minutes.
The way Will yawned and tugged me in closer told me that he, too, enjoyed the moments after sex. He turned his head to press a kiss against my forehead, one that felt weirdly soft and caring. I tried my best not to read too much into it. It didn’t have to mean anything other than what it was.
I wondered if Will would feel the need to leave, but as I turned my head to look at him, I could see his eyes closing. Sleepiness overcame him. I wasn’t going to wake him up to kick him out of my bed!
Rather, I snuggled closer to Will, resting my head against his chest and slowly I let myself doze off to the sound of his heartbeat.
Chapter Eleven
Will
God, I was so stupid.
I’d promised myself not to get involved with Lacey. The way she made my heart skip a beat every time I saw her, I knew she was dangerous. Her pretty eyes and soft lips played on my mind all the fucking time. So of course, I had to go out and sleep with her.
Waking up with Lacey in my arms had been... God, it had felt so good. For a moment, after I woke up, before my brain was fully there with me, all I could think was how nice it felt to have her so close. My body spent from good sex, I’d listened to her soft breathing for a while.
Until my brain did catch up with me.
And then I did something even stupider. I left before Lacey had woken up. Snuck out of her place, without as much as leaving a note. It was... cowardly. As was the fact that I then didn’t go to pick Vega up for a morning run.
Avoiding Lacey was a ridiculous plan, I knew that. Yet that was all I could bring myself to do. I didn’t want to... hurt her. And somehow talking to her seemed more likely to do that than just... not.
Despite knowing how shitty that was, I couldn’t help it.
So I threw myself into training with as much energy as I could. The guys were almost as excited to have me back as I was excited to be back. Being on the ice made everything better. For as long as I was skating, I couldn’t be thinking about Lacey.
Of course, that wasn’t a solution; I wasn’t always on the ice. Even if I wanted to be. So I had to come up with other distractions. Tonight, that was having Luke over. I’d cooked us a meal, something that was always more challenging when Luke was involved since he was allergic to a great many things. I was excited to have found a new recipe. I didn’t often try new things, but I’d figured it might distract me.
“So, how is it?” I asked after Luke had taken a bite.
From behind his doggy gate, Teddy gave a soft growl, like he wanted to answer the question, too. I ignored him, partially in hope that not acknowledging him there might discourage him from breaking down yet another doggy gate. Two weeks after Lacey had installed it (again), Teddy was almost tall enough to tower over it.
“It’s good,” Luke answered, dipping his lamb into the sauce that I’d made. “How come you cooked something different tonight?” Damn it. I’d hoped Luke wouldn’t ask that question.
But he’d been to my house often enough to know that I usually only cooked chicken. I prepared it in different ways, but tonight I’d wanted something I would have to actually concentrate on. And a meat I didn’t often cook with had seemed the best way to achieve that.
“Are you wooing me?” Luke teased, batting his eyelashes at me. “Because your lamb is good, but it’s not that good.”
“Guess I’ll have to try it on someone else,” I announced with mock-disappointment in my voice, reaching out to take the plate off Luke. His loud ‘hey’ made me laugh and I let go. Shaking my head, I took a bite of my food instead. It would’ve been easy to brush off Luke’s question, to divert it onto something else.
But maybe I should tell him? I didn’t know. It felt like a pretty pathetic thing to have an issue about.
“I just wanted a bit of a distraction,” I shrugged. “I’ve been...” Luke was my friend, my captain, I could tell him. He might even get it. Finally, shrugging, I half-muttered. “I slept with someone I shouldn’t have.” And lamb tagine was apparently the answer to that.
Luke raised an eyebrow. “Your reaction to sleeping with someone you shouldn’t is to make complicated meals?” He chuckled. “I haven’t heard that one before.” The way Luke laughed it off made me feel better. Maybe sleeping with Lacey wasn’t the disaster I was imagining.
“Someone you shouldn’t in what way?” Luke asked.
There were so many answers to that question. I wasn’t even sure where to start. Instinctively, I wanted to say that I shouldn’t have because I liked Lacey. But that was hardly a reason. It was a good idea to like someone you slept with. I just happened to like Lacey more than I thought was good for me.
“She’s... romantic. She asked me out and I said no, but then... we spent time together and, you know.” I was sure that Luke could connect the dots. “I snuck out of her place before she woke up. We haven’t spoken since. I don’t... Fuck, I don’t know. I think I fucked up.”
From the way Luke’s brow wrinkled, I was sure that he agreed. The great thing about being such good friends was that Luke would tell me. In a way, after listening to my own thoughts all day, it would be a relief.
“Uh, yeah,” Luke confirmed. “Sneaking out would be a pretty shitty way to treat someone who was on board with a one-night stand. Let alone someone who might not be.”
He was right, of course. “Are you planning to just… never see her again?” Luke asked.
As much as saying ‘yes’ was tempting, I knew it wasn’t the right answer. More than that, even the idea of never seeing Lacey again ached inside me. Sure, I’d fucked up, pretty badly since even Luke was agreeing with me, but... If there was a way to fix it, I didn’t even know what that’d be.
“No,” I finall
y answered. “I mean... it’s probably a no? It’s just... I don’t want to date her, I’m not... I don’t do dating, you know that.” Luke definitely did. The brief relationships I had in the past had always ended pretty quickly. Trust was not my strong point. Neither were relationships.
Luke scratched his fingers across the angle of his jaw, giving me the same face I’d seen him give tactical plans. “Sure, I know that,” he agreed. “But if you don’t want to date her, what makes you want to see her again?”
I licked my lips, wishing an easy answer would present itself. “Isn’t a friend you want to sleep with pretty much what dating is?” I hadn’t said I wanted Lacey to be a friend. But Luke was right, that was why I couldn’t even think about not seeing her again.
The problem was that I knew relationships ended in tears. I’d grown up seeing just how much they could unravel and how unhappy everyone involved was. That wasn’t something I wanted to do to Lacey. I was, however, less concerned by her hurting me. If that indicated something, I chose to ignore it.
“I didn’t say I was going to sleep with her again,” I pointed out. It’d be a lie to say that I hadn’t thought about the sex we’d had. I had. Quite a lot. Lacey’s body against mine, the way she moaned as she came, fuck…
Shaking my head, I reached for the glass of water I’d set out for myself. “You’re not helping the lamb make me not think about Lacey,” I informed Luke seriously.
Luke laughed, looking entirely unapologetic as he mopped up more of the sauce with his lamb. “If you wanted not to think about Lacey, you should have got me talking about hockey,” he argued. He did have a point there. If I’d truly wanted to talk about something else, I could have steered the conversation in that direction.
“So you’re not going to sleep with her again?” he challenged. “But you want to see her again. Are you sure she wants to see you again after you walked out and didn’t even call?”
The answer to that was a definite no. I had no idea if Lacey did want to see me again. I tried not to think about it; it just made me feel guilty. It made me realize just how much I’d fucked up. Not even texting her since we had sex was... shitty. I knew that.
Yet, I hadn’t done anything about it.
“I don’t know,” I answered fairly. “Truthfully, I try not to think about it.” And cooking was just one of the distractions I’d found. Having hockey back in my life - even if it was no-contact - helped a lot, too.
Giving a sigh, I shook my head. “I don’t know, Luke,” I repeated. “I just... fucked up.” Which was hard to admit. But there were no two ways about it.
As if to agree with me, Teddy howled from the other side of the kitchen, making me groan. “And that,” I said waving my fork towards the dog. “He’s been acting up so much.” Sometimes, I thought he might actually have figured out that it was my fault he wasn’t seeing Vega these days.
Luke shifted his attention, grinning at Teddy from across the doggie gate. “Well, I don’t know how you fix things with Lacey,” he said, giving me an apologetic shrug. “But I do know you can take classes in how to train a dog.”
My eyes widened. It had never occurred to me that someone could teach me how to get Teddy to behave.
If only there was someone who could teach me what to do about Lacey. Sadly, I didn’t think that was going to be so easy.
“You’ve still got time while we’re doing contact skates,” Luke pointed out. “Why don’t you find a class or a tutor or something?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, looking over to Teddy. He wasn’t terribly behaved, but I worried that the longer I left it the harder he’d become to control. “That’s a good idea. Thanks, Luke,” I added with a smile. Taking Teddy to some doggy classes would also help me stay distracted.
Not that I could do that forever. Sooner or later, I needed to talk to Lacey. Luke was right, I couldn’t - but also didn’t want to - avoid her forever. Just for now. Just until my cowardice blew over.
“Anyway, tell me about you,” I insisted. “Did I hear it right, you’re learning to cook?”
It was an intentional change of topic. Thankfully, Luke let me have it.
Finding a dog training class turned out to be easier than I had expected. There was one not too far from my house, running on Sunday mornings. Even if I did end up being cleared for contact skates, I could still bring Teddy. It was an eight-week course, which seemed long, but there was a certificate and a dog toy for Teddy at the end, so I figured we’d give it a go.
Of course, what I hadn’t anticipated was that the universe would conspire against me.
From the moment we got there, I knew. By now, I had learned the excited whine that Teddy gave whenever Vega was nearby. And sure enough, as he dragged me along, there she was. Both Vega and her ridiculously attractive owner.
“Lacey,” I heard myself say before I even had time to think about it. My heart was pounding in my chest so much that I briefly wondered if she could hear it.
I expected her to scowl. Maybe even to deliberately snub me. I would have deserved it if she had. The guilt over how I’d treated her gnawed at me with sharp, painful teeth.
But Lacey smiled. It was a beautiful smile. It even, as far as I could tell, reached her gorgeous eyes. The sight made my stomach swoop. I flushed, remembering how good she’d felt under me.
“Will! How are you? How’s your shoulder?”
It took me a moment to register that Lacey was... just asking after me. She wasn’t accusing me of leaving her, or using her, she wasn’t... I didn’t know what I had expected. Her being friendly really wasn’t it.
“Yeah, I’m good,” I answered, after leaving a pause long enough for it to become awkward. “My shoulder’s good. I’ve been skating a lot, still no-contact but I’m being hopeful. Um, how are you?”
Lacey raised an eyebrow, recognizing my awkwardness. I was just grateful that she didn’t comment on it. “I’m good, too,” she told me. “Vega’s been better since she’s been getting more exercise, but she still doesn’t obey me like she used to obey Harlan.”
The mention of Vega getting more exercise made me flush with shame. I’d left Vega high and dry as much as Lacey. And yet both dog and owner seemed nothing but happy to see me.
“I figure it must be something I’m doing wrong, so I came here,” Lacey continued.
It was on the tip of my tongue to assure Lacey that it wasn’t something she did wrong. I didn’t even know if that was true, but my instinct was to defend her, even to herself. Thankfully, I managed to stop before I’d embarrassed myself any further.
“Yeah,” I said instead. “I mean, I think that’s where I’m at with Teddy, too. He’s been acting up more, so I thought I’d bring him here before his attitude becomes a real problem, you know?”
Despite everything, it felt so good to talk to Lacey again. All the feelings I had rushed in and overcame the anxieties I’d felt until now. Unless I started thinking about how much of a dick I’d been to her.
Lacey nodded, so understanding. A lock of hair tumbled across her face and my fingers itched to brush it back for her. Before I could, Lacey’s fingers reached up to tuck the hair behind her ear.
“That’s smart,” she agreed. “If you let him get much bigger, you might not be able to control him. Even as strong as you are.” Her cheeks colored with a blush, but Lacey met my eyes with confidence. I could almost see her thinking about how she’d traced my muscles with her tongue. The thought made heat creep up my neck.
Shifting slightly, Lacey still smiled up at me. “Are you too busy in the mornings now that you can skate again?”
That was the perfect out. I knew that. And to think that Lacey was the one offering it to me felt impossibly generous. For all the awkwardness that I felt, I had to admit that her absolute lack of awkwardness about the whole situation was refreshing, if unexpected.
“I have been busier,” I said, deciding to take her suggestion. “But, um, if you still want me to, I’d like to start running with Vega ag
ain,” I offered. I had enjoyed running with Vega. And now that I was actually talking to Lacey, it was so much easier to offer.
The smile that broke across her face took my breath away. “Oh, that would be great,” Lacey agreed. “She’s so much easier for me to handle during the day when she’s had her exercise first thing. And I feel better when I’m up and dressed by eight.” She seemed so genuinely pleased by the prospect that I couldn't keep feeling awkward.
“You never really finished teaching me to skate,” Lacey said, her lips quirking into a slight smirk. Memories flooded me, reminding me of why we'd stopped. “But I enjoyed what I did learn. I’d like to come see another match, now that I know what it feels like to race across the ice.” She chuckled. “And it wouldn't hurt not to feel like I know what I’m talking about when it comes up at work.”
I wasn’t sure if she was telling me off or asking me something. A part of me was quite insistent in saying that it was neither. It was almost like Lacey was just being genuine. Was I worried about nothing? Or did what happen between us just... not matter to her?
Something about that thought stung me. But I hardly had the right to be offended. I was the one who’d left. I was the one who’d turned down her offer for us to go out. So could I really be offended that she now didn’t care? Probably not, but telling myself that was still hard.
“There’s a game on Friday if you want to come,” I told Lacey. “I can get you some tickets. Bring a friend or something.” Saying that made it very clear that we weren’t going to see the game together. That was good. And the more I repeated that to myself the truer it became, I was sure.
“Oh, Roxi would love that,” Lacey agreed. “I’ll have to ask if she’s free. If not, I’m sure I can tempt someone else to come.” I felt a stab of jealousy, wondering if Lacey had any male friends who might like to join her for a hockey match.
Body Checked (Salt Lake Pumas #2) Page 11