“They’re cupcakes!” Shayla squealed, shoving the vase into my hands. “Can you believe it? I’ve never see anything so pretty in my entire life. I’m dying to know if they taste as good as they look.”
“Wow,” I breathed out, walking into my apartment to set the vase on my kitchen counter.
“Right?” Shayla asked, following behind me. “I didn’t get to see your hottie this morning. He called in to see if I’d be willing to bring over your coffee if he promised to come in next week with his usual tip.”
I hadn’t been expecting anything since I’d known Jason had to be up and out the door super early to meet up with the team and head west for their first road game this week. But I wasn’t surprised he’d still found the time to do something special for me before he left.
“I’m glad you did because I’m in desperate need of caffeine.” I gladly accepted the cup from her and gulped some of it down.
“Of course I said yes! And not just because of the money, either. It’s like I’m a part of a romance novel, helping the dashing hero woo the woman who was meant to be his.” She gestured towards the cupcake bouquet. “When I opened the big, white box this was delivered in like your guy asked me to do and saw what was inside? I gasped. Like for real; out loud and everything. I swear that you two are the highlight of my week.”
I could certainly relate—my relationship with Jason felt the same to me. He was well on the way to sweeping me off my feet. With his thoughtful gestures and the chemistry sizzling between us, I couldn’t help but start to develop feelings for him. It didn’t seem to matter that he was younger than me and an athlete, two characteristics that should have me running in the other direction. He was more than a twenty-three-year-old hockey player to me. He was Jason, the sweet guy I was dating who just might steal my heart if I wasn’t careful.
“As my official fairy godmother, I think you deserve one of these.” I carefully pulled one of the cupcakes out of the bouquet and handed it to her.
“I’m more like the friendly errand girl in this story, but I’ll take it.” She was already taking a bite of it as she walked towards my door. “Yup, it tastes as good as it looks. Maybe even better.”
Turning the vase, I snapped a picture of it to send to Jason before removing another cupcake for myself. I munched on it while I got ready for work and grabbed another on my way out, placing the vase in the fridge to make sure the buttercream frosting stayed fresh while I was out. Shayla had been right; they tasted better than they looked.
Between the sugar and the caffeine, I was ready to face a calendar jam packed with meetings after my three-day weekend. I had a crazy day ahead of me, starting with an hour-long talk with Sloane, my boss. One that ended on a subject I wasn’t expecting.
“The wedding you were at this weekend? It was for your best friend and Andrew Rourke, right?”
“Yes,” I answered hesitantly, not liking the calculating gleam in her eyes.
“And you were the maid of honor?”
“Uh huh.”
“From what I saw in the Sunday paper”—she pulled it out of a desk drawer and dropped it between us—“there were a ton of other players there. Did you make any contacts with people from the Cavaliers?”
“It was a wedding, not a work event,” I reminded her. “I wasn’t there to network. I was there to support my best friend.”
“You know better than that, Cee-Cee,” she chastised. “With a job like ours, and in a city like Chicago, you’re always rubbing elbows with the goal of gaining new clients in mind. If you’re not, then you’re going to get stuck running small accounts while someone else lands the whale.”
I had a difficult time facing criticism when I’d done something wrong, let alone when I hadn’t. “I’ve brought in more than my fair share of new clients since I started here.”
“You have,” she conceded. “It’s why you earned that promotion I gave you. But you need to remember that this industry’s motto might as well be ‘what have you done for me lately?’ with the way we’re always trying to get new business.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” I was practically biting my tongue at that point.
“Please do. It’s not as if I’m asking too much for you to use your association with Andrew Rourke to our advantage, he is a client after all.”
“True,” I conceded. “But I didn’t have the same connection to him when he signed with us. His relationship with Josie developed shortly afterwards.”
“Hopefully, you’ll be comfortable with the idea of leveraging your friendship with him by the time they return from their honeymoon. I’ve heard through the grapevine that things aren’t going well with their PR rep and they’re thinking about hiring an outside firm. It would be nice if we could find someone who’s able to pull some strings for us if the gossip is true.”
I understood why she was pushing hard for me to do whatever needed to be done in order to land the Cavaliers as a client. The account was bound to be a huge one, possibly even the biggest one Pied Piper had ever managed to land. Recognizing her point of view didn’t mean I had to like her suggestion, though—but I wasn’t dumb enough to share that with Sloane. Instead, I kept quiet, nodding in agreement as needed, and then I escaped her office as soon as I could.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” I mumbled to myself once I was in the safety of my office. I dropped my head on my desk and barely stopped myself from banging it a few times. If my boss was pressuring me to use my connection with Andrew to try to land the Cavaliers as a client, I could only imagine how she’d react when she found out I was dating one of their players. I dreaded that conversation because there was no way in hell I was going to use him as a business contact. I’d hate for Jason to ever think I had an ulterior motive for spending time with him. If she pushed too hard, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.
I’d thought my week would slowly inch by with Jason out of town and Josie on her honeymoon. But work kept me ridiculously busy—to the point where I barely had time to eat or sleep, let alone feel lonely without them. At least, not until I finally crawled into my bed each night and wished Jason was there. I’d only spent one evening in his arms, and I already missed him. Damn him for being so addictive. I should have known it would happen after the way I felt the loss of him all those months.
Luckily for me, I was still able to get my fix since he was on the West coast and the time zone difference meant he was able to talk when I was going to bed. It started out with text conversations the first few nights. Eventually, the texts changed to whispered discussions about anything and everything—and sometimes nothing at all. Last night, our talk turned a little sexy. Tonight, my heart was racing in my chest as I wondered if we’d pick up where we left off. Or maybe even push it further.
“Hey, firecracker.” The rasp of his voice sent shivers up my spine as I settled against my pillows and pulled my blanket up over my head. I wasn’t sure why, but it made me feel like he was closer than halfway across the country.
“How was the game tonight, big guy?”
“Damn good. We won again, and I even got an assist on the game-winning goal.”
“Woohoo!” I cheered, a huge grin spreading across my face. “Way to go! Do you have time to chat, or are you going out to celebrate with the guys?”
“I’m all yours. I already had a quick drink with Alec and Ryan.”
“Only one? Shouldn’t you be out partying the night away since you have the next couple of days off before your home game on Monday?”
“Why would I go to a crowded, noisy bar with the guys when I’d rather be right where I am, alone in my hotel room talking to you?”
Every chance he got, he blew my expectations out of the water and made my heart melt a little more. “Fuck, you’re sweeter than I thought you’d be.”
“Only with you, Cecily. You bring the best out in me.”
“Jason,” I sighed, tears welling in my eyes and my voice cracking on the second syllable.
“What, baby?”
I swiped at the lone tear tracking down my cheek. “I’m so sorry.”
“For what?”
“All that time we lost.” More tears spilled down my cheeks. I hadn’t apologized for my mistake before. Hadn’t talked to him about what we’d lost because of it. Hadn’t even let myself think about it too much because then I’d have to admit how much I’d come to feel for him. Until now. “It was because of me. Because I assumed the worst and walked away without giving you the tiniest benefit of doubt.”
“Cecily,” his stern voice snapped through the line. “Stop. You already explained, and I understood what happened back then. I still do.”
“But—”
“No buts. Not from my firecracker. Especially not about something that happened in the past. You and me? We’re staying in the here and now.”
I sniffled, tears flowing down my cheeks freely.
“I can hear you crying, and I’ve got to say that I don’t fucking like it. Not when I’m there to comfort you, and sure as fuck not when I’m more than fifteen hundred miles away and can’t do shit to help.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“Save your sorry’s for when I’ve earned them.”
It was such a guy thing to say that a half-giggle, half-snort crept up my throat.
“I’m not going to lie, it sucked when you walked away from me the night we met. And nine months was a long damn time to wait until I found you again. But... I feel like maybe we’re stronger for it.”
I rolled on my side and hugged a pillow to my body, wishing it was Jason instead. “Do you really think so?”
“Yeah, I really do,” he murmured. “Back then, I might not have figured out what you mean to me quickly enough. I could have fucked things up with you and lost my chance. Now I know, and I’m better prepared to make this work because I refuse to let things between us go to shit.”
“How’d you get so good at this relationship stuff?”
“I met you.”
I let his certainty sink in for a moment. Absorbed it and felt some of my fears disappear. “You’ll be home tomorrow?”
“Yeah, we’re heading back in the morning.”
“I’m calling dibs on your free time this weekend.”
“Oh, you are, huh?” he laughed, the mood between us shifting from the seriousness of just a moment before.
“I sure am. The same way you did last weekend with my Sunday.”
“If I recall correctly—and I do because I don’t forget a single moment I’ve spent with you—you made me work for a yes.”
“Shit,” I mumbled.
“I guess it’s a good thing I’m easier than you. If you want my weekend, you’ve got it.”
“I’ll take it. Let me know where to meet you as soon as you get back?”
“I’ll text you the address from the airport,” he promised.
“Then I’d better get some sleep so I’m bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for our date.”
“Night, baby. See you soon.”
Soon couldn’t come fast enough for me. I was anxious for us to take the next step in our relationship.
11
Jason
The last six days had been fucking fantastic from a hockey standpoint since we’d won all three of our away games. Coach was more than satisfied with how I was playing lately. My parents had flown in for the second game, and it had been great to see them since it had been a couple of months. I didn’t have much to complain about when it came to the trip, except that it had been hell on my libido.
I’d had no problem going without sex all those months, but with Cecily in my life it was hard as fuck. Literally and figuratively. Other than when I was on the ice and focused on the puck, I had sex on the brain non-stop. I walked around with a half-chub almost all the time. It was as though finding her again had triggered my inner horn-dog, and I couldn’t get him to shut the fuck up. I had a feeling that after I’d gotten my little firecracker in my bed, my overwhelming need for her wasn’t going to ease—even if I kept her there all weekend.
Not that it was going to stop me. My wait was finally going to be over—I glanced down at the text message I’d gotten from Cecily while I was on my way home from the airport—in about ten minutes.
“Shit!”
I went into the bathroom and took the quickest shower in the history of man. It had to be done, though, since I’d forgotten to set my alarm the night before and ended up racing for the airport in California. I hadn’t thought about shower time when I’d told Cecily to come straight over, and there was no way in hell I wasn’t going to be ready for her when she got here. I was thankful for my speediness when I heard a knock on the door as I was wrapping a towel around my waist. It wasn’t quite how I’d pictured being dressed when she arrived, but it would have to do.
Positioning my body off to the side, I opened the door and found Cecily standing in the hallway with a bunch of bananas in one hand and a bag in the other.
“I figured you were the one who could use some potassium—” her voice trailed off as she stepped inside and caught sight of me. The green of her eyes grew darker as her gaze swept up and down my body, scanning every inch of bare skin she could see. “Holy fuck. You’re naked.”
I yanked her further into the room and shut the door. “I’m not naked. I’m wearing a towel.”
“Umm, that’s basically the same thing.” Her gaze dropped lower, to where my cock had started to tent the material. All it had taken was her eyes on me to get me hard. “Maybe if you’d sent me a banana instead of an apple, I’d have climbed you like a tree a week ago.”
Speaking of bananas, I pulled the bunch she was holding from her grip and set them on a table. “Wanna climb me now? I’ll tree the fuck out of you.”
She burst into a fit of giggles, her green eyes dancing with humor and her red hair swinging as her body shook. I loved how much fun we had when we were together. She’d never looked more gorgeous than she did right then—happy and finally alone with me, without anything or anyone to interrupt us. The only way she’d look better was if that red hair of hers was spread across my pillows.
“Cecily.” Her laughter dried up at my raspy whisper, filled with all my need for her. I held my hand out, and she took a couple of steps closer to me. Once she was near enough, I gripped her wrist and yanked her into my arms.
“Jason!” she yelped as I lifted her off her feet and carried her into the bedroom.
I set her down on the edge of the mattress and stroked her lower lip with my thumb. “I love hearing you say my name, but it’ll be even better when you moan it.”
“I think it’s past time for that to happen, don’t you?”
“Fuck yeah, I do.” Yanking her up, I pulled her hard against me, groaning when my hard cock nudged her belly. My mouth crashed down on hers, and I consumed her. I teased her lips with licks and nibbles before I thrust my tongue deep between them. I growled deep in my throat as I fought for some semblance of control.
My hands explored every inch I could reach—caressing her neck, stroking her back and spine, clutching at her hips as I ground my cock against her belly, and gently squeezing her breasts through her shirt and bra.
“You feel so damn good, but I need you naked.”
“Yes,” she gasped. “Too many clothes. Or towels in your case.”
She tugged on the knot at my waist and then helped me with her clothes, lifting her shirt over her head and tossing her bra onto the floor, while I yanked her jeans and panties down her legs.
“I’ve dreamed of this. So many damn times.”
I cupped her gorgeous tits and brushed my thumbs against her hardened nipples.
“Me, too.”
My cock twitched at her admission. “One of these days, I want to hear about every single thing you dreamed about us doing.” I lowered my head at flicked my tongue over a nipple.
“What about yours? Do I get to know them?”
“Fuck yeah.” I switched my attentions to the
other side, sucking her nipple into my mouth and letting go of it with a pop. “We’ll make a list and take turns at crossing items off until we’ve run out of our fantasies and come up with new ones. Together.”
“I love that idea.” She lightly scratched her nails down my chest. “But for later.” Her hands slid lower. “Much, much later.”
I sucked in a breath when she scraped my hipbones and started to inch inwards. My cock pulsed against her belly. Bending my knees, I trapped her hands between us as I rubbed myself against her clit, enjoying the fuck out of her startled gasp.
“I feel like I’ve waited forever for this moment.” My cock, thick and hard, surged against her. “I want you so damn much.”
“I’m right here, all yours for the taking.”
I ran my palms down her sides and skimmed them over the curve of her ass. Lifting her up, I tossed her on the mattress and followed her down. “I’m going to enjoy every touch.”
I trailed my hand down, between the valley of her tits and over her belly. Her breath hitched the closer I got to her pussy. “What do you want?”
“Touch me. Please.”
“Where? Here?” I traced her slit lightly, teasing her sensitive flesh. Her hips jerked upwards, and I forced them back down to the mattress. “Patience, my little firecracker. Don’t worry, I’ll make you explode soon enough.”
“How about now and later?”
I laughed, a low husky sound, and dipped my head to nip at her neck. I nibbled right where her pulse was making the skin flutter. Her back arched, and I grazed my fingers over her clit. “Isn’t that the name of a candy?”
Checked Into Love (Bachelorette Party Book 2) Page 10