Breaking the Ice: A Sports Romance Novel (Ice Breaker Series Book 1)

by Victoria St. George

  I walked down the mantle, gently running my fingers along the edges of the pictures. There was Jake holding Gavin when he was a newborn, his face filled with pride and excitement. Another showed him holding Gavin on the back of a horse, the little boy looking both frightened and thrilled. In another, Gavin was slightly older, sitting beneath a Christmas tree surrounded by cast-aside pieces of wrapping paper and with ribbons on his head. It suddenly made Jake seem more real. Instead of just a wealthy, famous hockey player, he was a person, a father. The longer I looked at the pictures, the more I realized that they were all of just Jake and Gavin. Not a single one of them featured a woman who I could guess was Gavin's mother.

  It seemed strange, but I hadn't really given much thought about who Gavin's mother was or what the relationship Jake had had with her had been, or even when it ended when I first saw the little boy. Seeing the pictures, however, and the lack of any motherly figure made me immediately think about this mysterious woman and how Gavin had come to be.

  Jake

  I rested my hand on Gavin's belly and whispered him one of the bedtime stories that I had memorized. He stared up at me, his eyes fluttering closed and then opening sharply as if he was fighting falling asleep so that he didn't have to stop looking at me. I loved that my son wanted so much to be with me, and there was a tinge of guilt in my heart as I remembered what it was like when I was young and wanted so desperately to spend time with my father. That moment reminded me of the devotion that I had to my child and how much I wanted to give him far more of a life than my father had given me.

  I stayed by the side of the bed gazing down at him until his belly rose and fell slowly and steadily, and his eyes closed softly. I gently closed the door behind me and headed back into the living room where I had left Hannah. She was no longer sitting on the floor with the pizza and bottle of soda but had stood up and was looking at the pictures of Gavin and me that lined the mantle. I watched her for a few moments, appreciating the generous curves of her body and her thick, dark hair again.

  "He's my whole world," I said.

  She turned quickly and I saw a hint of color cross her cheekbones.

  "I'm sorry," she stammered slightly. "I just noticed that they were here."

  "It's alright," I said, taking a step closer to her. "I'm really proud of him."

  "I didn't even know that you had a son," she said.

  I nodded, looking at one of the pictures, then back at her.

  "I know. Not many people outside of my family and very close friends do. I don't talk about him much."

  "Why not?"

  "Am I talking to Hannah, the reporter?" I asked, taking another step closer.

  She shook her head.

  "No. Just Hannah."

  "Just Hannah," I repeated, tasting it on my tongue. "I want to protect him."

  "From what?" she asked.

  "People like you," I said with a chuckle. "My father was a hockey player."

  "I know," she said.

  I nodded.

  "So I know all about what it's like to be the son of the famous athlete who everyone wants to talk to and who everybody wants a piece of on and off the ice. Far too often he chose all of the other people over me. That didn't just mean that I never got to spend any time with him. It also meant that the attention that I did get was usually for the cameras and the interviewers. Everyone at school knew all the details of my life because they would see me on those awkward family montages that they like to show of athletes, or they would read newspaper articles about our family. Most of the time, though, what they saw or read wasn't really true. They thought that I was so lucky because he was my father. I really hated it. Gavin is my life away from playing hockey, and that's the way I want to keep it. At least until he is older and can decide if he cares about the sport and wants to be a part of it."

  "I can understand that. Can I ask you a question?"

  She sounded hesitant, and I knew exactly what was going through her mind.

  "You want to know who his mother is?" I asked.

  She nodded, looking slightly embarrassed to be asking such a personal question. I didn't mind. It was a completely normal thing for her to want to know, especially when considering that she didn't even know I had a child. She was the first woman outside of my immediate family who I had told about Gavin, and I felt strangely comfortable with her knowing about him. For the first time, I felt like I could trust someone with the story and not worry about myself, or him.

  "A few years ago I was just getting started on my career. I wasn't anybody yet, but that didn't stop the groupies. There is a whole subsection of groupies that specifically go after the newer players because they are easier to get and easier to manipulate. Of course, I didn't know that at the time. I was just excited to be getting the attention. We spent one night together and then a few months later she turned up at the rink and told me that she was pregnant."

  "Did you believe that you were the father?" Hannah asked.

  I shook my head.

  "Not at first. I didn't want to. Again, my career was just getting started and I was just looking for the fun that the other players were getting."

  "I can believe that. Considering your reputation and all."

  Her words made me pause.

  "My reputation?" I asked, taking another step toward her.

  She nodded.

  "You know that you have a reputation. That can't possibly be a secret for you."

  "Oh, it's not a secret. I just didn't realize that a reporter of your chops would concern herself with something so trivial as a reputation."

  "Isn't that all reporters care about?" Hannah asked. "Isn't my whole career just basically one big gossip mill?"

  "Gossip mills are the problem," I said. "You are a reporter. You do facts."

  "Mmmm," she said, taking a step back as I drew closer to her again, "and the fact is that you have a reputation. It's something that all of us reporters know about."

  "It is?"

  She nodded and made another affirming sound.

  "It's part of our orientation before we are allowed to actually be reporters. We learn all about you and your conquests, and then some strategies for how to avoid becoming the next headline."

  "Oh, really?" I asked.

  She smiled at her teasing and continued to step backward as I approached her. We were moving our way back across the living room and I had my sights on the couch against the far wall.

  "Absolutely. There's a slideshow and everything."

  "What's in the slideshow?"

  She paused and kept staring into my eyes. When she didn't say anything else, I continued toward her, closing the space between us. I had been trying as hard as I could to resist my urge for her, but I knew that I couldn't do it any longer. She was purely irresistible, and now that I had opened up to her in a way that I had never opened up to anyone before, I wanted her even more.

  I reached forward and rested my hands on her hips. She didn't resist the touch and I stepped up so that the front of my body touched hers. I felt her breasts crush against me and her hands come up to touch my arms. Her eyelids were slumbering and her lips parted as she gazed up at me. I didn't say anything else, but licked my lips and leaned down to touch them to hers.

  Hannah sighed and I felt her melt into the kiss. Her grip on my arms tightened slightly and she pressed her body against mine. I nudged at her lips with the tip of my tongue and she complied with the gesture, opening her mouth so that I could explore it more fully. As we kissed, I knew that I was not going to be able to stop. There was a moment, just before I kissed her, that I could have walked away and kept everything as it had been, but that was over. Now that I had tasted her mouth and felt her lips against mine, I knew that there was nothing that I could do to resist the need that was pushing me ever forward.

  Instead of continuing to guide her toward the couch, I turned her so that her back was to the hallway and started leading her in that direction. After a few steps, I took my mouth from
hers and brought it to the spot just beneath her ear. I kissed her soft skin and ran the tip of my tongue along it.

  "Come with me to my bedroom," I whispered.

  "But," she started to protest.

  "Don't worry about Gavin," I said, knowing what was causing her to hesitate. "He is in his room and his nanny's room is right next door. I turned on his monitor. He'll be fine."

  "His nanny?" she asked.

  I laughed softly and kissed along the side of her neck.

  "She's 65 and looks like Aunt Bea."

  "So not one of your groupies that you just took in so that she could take care of the baby and you could have access to her whenever you want it?" she teased.

  "No," I said.

  She nodded.

  "Alright."

  I smiled and turned her around by the hips, using them to guide her down the hallway and then down another hallway that led to the stairs up to my bedroom. We stepped inside and I closed the door behind us. I felt strangely nervous as she gazed around the room and then turned to look at me. This was the first time that I had brought a woman back to my house and suddenly I didn't know how I was supposed to act. Keeping her eyes trained on mine, Hannah reached behind herself and eased the zipper on the back of her skirt down.

  As I watched the skirt skim down the swells of her hips and then down her legs, I felt my mouth water. There was something simmering and elegant about her. It was completely different than the way that the women that swarmed the rink and lingered outside of the locker room just waiting for whatever player would give them the attention that they so eagerly sought. Those women always struck me as young and inexperienced, even if they were most certainly not inexperienced. While their excitable enthusiasm could make for a lot of fun, there was never any depth.

  Hannah was something on another level. She stood before me with complete confidence and sophisticated sexuality that made me even more eager to experience her. I stepped up closer to her and took the hem of her blouse. She lifted her arms up over her head and I peeled the shirt off and tossed it to the side. She was left in only lacy black lingerie and I drew in a breath.

  Hannah

  The way that Jake looked at me sent a thrill through my body. The blue of his eyes had darkened until they looked like velvet and his long dark eyelashes were low with desire. This wasn't something that I had anticipated. Until this moment, standing in his bedroom with my clothes at my feet, I had thought that I had control over my desire. I believed that no matter how intensely attracted to him I was, I could resist the charm and hotness of Jake and keep our relationship at a professional or maybe even friendly level.

  Now I couldn't deny my need any longer. I couldn't pretend that my heart didn't race when I looked at him or that my body was already hot and wet waiting for him. I wanted to give myself over to him and experience the luxuries that I hadn't permitted myself for so long as I hid behind my career.

  Jake reached around for the clasps of my bra, but I shook my head. He paused, and I brought my hands to the buttons down the front of his shirt. I wanted to savor this. We had come this far so quickly; I wanted to slow it down and let myself really enjoy every moment. Nothing had changed. This could never be anything more than just this one night. No matter what new thoughts or feelings were building within me, my focus wasn't changing and I knew that when the morning came, I would have to think of him in the same way that I had the afternoon that I met him.

  For now, though, it was just the two of us. We were existing in the private world of his bedroom, away from everything else, and I could pretend that there was nothing else around us.

  My fingers worked their way down his shirt and then I pressed it back over his shoulders, revealing his beautifully chiseled body. He stood still as I lowered my hands to his belt and released the buckle, then the button of his pants. He drew in another breath as I lowered his zipper, my fingers brushing against the firm swell that was obvious beneath the fabric of his fly. Jake's pants dropped to the floor and he stepped out of them. My eyes focused on the distended fabric of his trunks. I licked my lips and forced myself to look up at his face again.

  Jake ducked his head and captured my mouth in a more possessive, insistent kiss. I offered myself over to it, looping my arms around his neck and enjoying the warmth of his skin against mine.

  Suddenly Jake swept me up into his arms and started carrying me back toward the bed. I felt small and protected in his grip and I let him lower me onto the mattress. As he stood, Jake's hand came to the side of my face and traced along the curve of my jaw. He ran his hand down my neck and then along my chest, applying light pressure as his hand swept between my breasts and onto my stomach. I arched my back toward the touch and let my eyes close.

  The touch of his hand gave way to the warmth of his mouth and he followed the same path with his lips, occasionally letting his tongue slip between his lips to glide along my skin. He lifted his head and blew a stream of cool air along the damp trail that he created. The sensation made me tremble. Jake kissed all the way to the waistband of my panties, but before he went any further, he lifted his head again and I felt his breath grazing across the swells of my breasts.

  I opened my eyes and saw him taking me in appreciatively. He ran his mouth along both breasts, nuzzling them rather than kissing them, and then brought his fingers to the front clasp that held the cups in place. My bra popped open, revealing my heavy, full breasts and I moved my arms to get out of it so that I could let it drop to the floor off of the side of the bed.

  As soon as my bra was off, Jake's mouth was on my breast. I gasped as he pulled my nipple in and swirled his tongue around it. His hand slid along the curve of my waist and onto my other breast, massaging it as he continued to suckle at my nipple. His teeth sank lightly into my flesh and then he moved his mouth to the other breast, lavishing it with the same attention.

  I was writhing by the time that he stopped, brought to a level of arousal that I had never experienced just by those simple movements. He was far from finished when he took his mouth away from my breasts. Instead, he kissed along the center of my belly back to the waistband of my panties. The tip of his tongue dipped beneath the elastic and he ran it from one hipbone to the other, but not deeply enough to soothe the ache that he had built between my legs.

  I felt Jake's hand run along my other thigh and then back up to my hip. He pushed back onto his knees and looked down at me, groaning as he traced my garter belt with his fingers. He leaned down and ran his tongue beneath the garter on one inner thigh and then pressed my legs apart gently to repeat the gesture on the other leg. His hands worked at the clasps on my outer thighs and then inner thighs, releasing the garter belt completely from my black thigh-highs.

  His fingers gripped the top of one thigh-high and Jake rolled it down my leg carefully, following the progress of it with kisses. He continued until his mouth reached the arch of my foot and he tossed the silk away. He repeated the process on my other leg and then slowly released the hook-and-eye closures along the front of my garter belt so that he could peel it away. Suddenly I was in nothing but my flimsy panties and I felt both vulnerable and excited.

  Jake's mouth came to the front of my panties and I moaned at the heat of his breath and pressure of his tongue through the fabric. He sucked at me through my panties and ran his hands up my outer thighs until he gripped my waistband and eased my panties down and away from my body. I was fully bare before him, and Jake gazed down at me with hunger and admiration in his eyes.

  I felt his hands come to the backs of my thighs and press my legs back and apart to open me to him. His breath ran along my wet, ready core and my back arched. He didn't move away but instead brought his mouth closer, touching a gentle kiss to the taut peak that he had coaxed forward just with his slow, patient attention to the rest of my body. I whimpered and opened my legs further, trying to encourage him further. The tip of his tongue flicked through my folds and I gasped again. The sound seemed to persuade him forward and Jake l
owered his mouth further, opening it over my center so that he could draw his tongue deeper through me.

  He focused the tip of his tongue on the sensitive pearl of my clit, swirling it masterfully until I felt like I couldn't control myself for much longer. Just before I completely lost my grip, Jake took his tongue away and lowered it down to delve inside me. I reached down and buried my fingers in his thick hair, at once holding his head closer to me to intensify the feeling and pulling back on it trying to relieve the incredible pleasure that was threatening to send me into oblivion.

  His hand came up to press down on my belly, holding me in place, and his thumb slipped down, brushing across my clit in synchronization with the movements of his tongue inside me. It was only seconds before the pressure that had been building through my hips, thighs, and belly reached an intense peak and then broke into a cascade of spasms. He moved his mouth away and plunged his fingers deep within me, pressing them as far as he could as I came around them.

  Finally, my body calmed and quieted, but I wasn't yet fully satisfied. I needed him inside me. Fortunately, he didn't seem to be hesitating in continuing and I watched as he backed off of the end of the bed and stood. He didn’t take his eyes off of me as he tucked his thumbs into the waistband of his trunks and pushed them down. His thick, incredible erection sprung out and I reached for it.

  Jake

  Still tasting Hannah on my lips and tongue, I climbed back onto the bed and crawled over her so that I could let her wrap her hand around my cock. I moaned at the touch and pressed my hips forward to further the touch. She wrapped her entire hand around me and started to stroke it. Her palm rose up over the head of my erection and I felt her soft skin gather the drops of fluid that formed there to make her long strokes faster and smoother.

  I felt the pressure of her hand change to a slight pull and I realized that she was trying to guide my hips forward. I allowed her to guide me until my hands were above her head and my pelvis was over her chest. Hannah gripped my erection and brought the tip to her lips, tracing them slowly. It was delicious torture and a deep groan wrenched from my chest. Finally, she opened her mouth and took me in fully across her tongue. Her hand moved to my hip to stabilize me and I reciprocated by lifting one of my hands off of the mattress and tucking it beneath her head to hold it up more comfortably.