Breakaway: A Hockey Romance

by Christiana Watson

  “Hold up, I need another.” A spark gleamed in Sean’s eyes as he pushed himself gently from the counter and toward me. Only a few inches of space separated our bodies when he stopped. My hands shook as he reached toward me, and a faltering breath I wasn’t aware I was holding breezed through my lips as he grabbed another beer.

  A forced laugh bubbled in my throat as Sean stared down at me. “In the name of all things good and Gretzky, please don’t open this one with your teeth.”

  My breath hitched in my throat as he leaned forward and pressed his body gently against mine. He shifted to the right, reaching toward the refrigerator and creating a delicious friction between our bodies. A tightening in the area behind my navel and the budding of my nipples reminded me of just how long had passed since I was close to another person.

  The grinding sound of magnet against metal distracted me from the rising tension in my body, and I sagged against the counter behind me, creating a millimeter of space between our bodies. A flash of gold in Sean’s hand and his arms snaking around my body caused my stomach to drop. The space I created disappeared as he leaned down. The familiar ping of the bottle cap against a granite countertop echoed in my ears, and I swore I could hear my own rapid heartbeat there as well.

  Suddenly, Sean’s body was flush against my own. A clink of the beer bottle touching the counter was the only warning I had that he was freeing his hands of obstructions. One arm snaked around my waist, pulling me closer, and my stomach jumped again. His head dipped, and stars exploded behind my eyes at the sensation of his lips moving gently against my own. Shivers exploded through my body as his free hand traced patterns between my shoulders. My body collapsed onto his when his fingers moved from the space between my shoulders and dug into the hair at the base of my skull. I arched into his touch as he nipped gently on my bottom lip.

  Sean pulled back quickly, and I felt my cheeks heat at the smirk on his face. He pulled the empty beer bottle from my lax hands and pushed the full beer into its place. The chill of the bottle caused a shiver to race down my spine. With a wink, he said, “Bottle opener’s on the fridge.”

  I nodded, slightly stunned and mute, and followed him back to the living room where pizza, grouchy roommates, and action flicks awaited our return.

  — D —

  Fighting to keep a frown off of my face was a challenge I wasn’t prepared to face. When Charlie and Sean returned to the living room, her hair messy and his smile smug, I turned my attention to the bloodbath that was displayed on the television. When Charlie sat squarely in the middle of the couch between Sean and me, I turned toward the arm and focused on Uma Thurman in that yellow and black leather number as hard as I could. When the tight leather suit didn’t hold my attention, I turned toward my phone.

  Time was lost on me as I browsed Reddit listlessly. My snap back to reality didn’t occur until Charlie stood with a stretch. I fought to keep my eyes from roaming her body and only succeeded when I saw Sean doing the exact same thing. The time had come and gone for me to ask Charlie out the right way, and I needed to move on. However, that didn’t mean I would support Sean’s interest; and at the very least, I could treat Charlie with the same casual disinterest and dislike she threw at me since day one. Which means you have to stop staring at her tits and ass. Good luck.

  “Gentlemen,” she started as she gathered her purse and headed toward the door, “this has been a blast, but I should head home. I have an early presentation, and I’d like my beauty rest. Thanks for a lovely evening.”

  Sean was quick to jump to his feet. “I’ll walk you out.” The part of me that was pissed off at Charlie’s overall treatment of me couldn’t help the large wink and thumbs up I threw Sean’s way just as she was turning toward him.

  The easy smile she was sporting faded from her lips, and even I could see the uncertainty in her eyes from halfway across the room. I grinned cheekily at her and grabbed my phone from the table. I wasn’t interested in seeing the fallout my actions created. Sean: 0. Devon: 1.

  — C —

  My smile faltered at the sight of Devon’s wink and thumb’s up to Sean. I rolled my eyes and finished the quick trek to the door. To be fair, I wasn’t sure what I expected from the men (as Lindsey was the athlete aficionado, not me), but I certainly didn’t expect them to be nearly as immature as the boys I encountered in college.

  Sean hurried around me and stood back to let me pass after pulling the door open. “Thanks,” I muttered as I passed, head down and eyes averted.

  As we approached my car, the silence growing awkward between us, I shut my eyes and urged ugly thoughts from my head. While it was true that Sean didn’t invite me on a traditional first date, he was still decent to me the entire evening. I certainly had worse first dates with men that expected more than a peck on the lips. My skin flushed at the thought of just what Devon assumed we would be doing between the apartment and my car.

  “Sorry about Cote; he’s a dumbass,” Sean said as we arrived at my car. I turned and leaned against it, the cool metal calming my heated skin. I shrugged, my shoulders jutting up and then down in a half-hearted manner. “I don’t really date. Cam’s a fucking dumbass, too, and likes to make a big deal of it to every rookie that moves in with us.”

  I stared at my shoes in the moonlight. Him not dating seemed like a pretty shitty reason for his roommate to thumbs up him for walking me to my car. The horrifying thought that Devon likely expected Sean to score with me jolted across my mind, and heat seeped through my body. I was thankful for the cover of night to hide the embarrassment painted across my skin in angry red strokes. I don’t know exactly what he expected of me, but I wasn’t a puck slut.

  “Hey,” he said while placing a finger under my chin and tilting my head upward. Concern was etched across his handsome face, and my stomach clenched tightly. “What’re you thinking?”

  I bit the inside of my cheek and exhaled a shaky breath. After worrying my bottom lip for a moment, I finally responded, “That you must not have a very high opinion of me.”

  He stared at me blankly, and I tilted my head back until it rested on my car. No wonder I’d been single since Mason—I was clearly a lunatic. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what men must’ve thought of me when I opened my damn mouth. I closed my eyes. It was easier to deal with my insecurities in the dark.

  “Not true at all.”

  “Sorry?”

  “I’m not a complete idiot. I know tonight probably wasn’t what you expected, but this is what it’s like with me.” I inhaled lungfuls of cool winter air and met his steel gray eyes. “The team takes a lot of my time, and I like being at home when I can be. This isn’t what you expected, but I swear I’ll do better next time.”

  “I’m sorry,” I responded, voice cracking around the lump in my throat. He arched an eyebrow, and I continued, “I feel like an idiot. I shouldn’t assume things about you based on the behaviors of others.”

  “Yeah, you shouldn’t,” he said while pacing forward. My stomach dropped for what felt like the thousandth time that night, and the hard knot in my throat throbbed painfully. “You can make it up to me.”

  He was inches away when I finally mustered up the courage to ask, “How?” My breath caught in my throat when his hands slammed onto the car on either side of me and his lips crashed down upon my own.

  My body responded before my mind could. I was already standing on the tips of my toes with my arms laced around his neck before I had the good sense to stop kissing him back. My muscles tensed, and I started to pull away. Sean’s hands traced their way down my body, the tips of his fingers digging slightly into my fleshy hips and ass.

  “You have to relax,” Sean mumbled against my lips. The vibrations sent shivers through my body, but I couldn’t loosen up. Following directions wasn’t a strong suit of mine, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Devon and Cam were posted up at a window waiting to see if Sean could score with the ice queen.

  “But Devon and Cam,” I protested against
his lips.

  Sean’s steel gray eyes flashed in the moonlight as he regarded me. He leaned toward me and placed his lips very close to my own. His next sentence was syncopated with a short kiss between each word. “Just stop thinking about them. I promise you’ll have a good time if you relax.”

  His lips crashed into mine, and I fought to follow his advice. I couldn’t let the thought of his asshole roommates distract me from getting a little bit of pleasure from something other than my own hand. The pressure on my hips increased as Sean nibbled my lower lip. A groan began to build in my throat when he sucked my bottom lip into his mouth.

  Fuck it. Caring about what others thought of me and my actions didn’t get me anywhere in the past. As if on instinct, my body arched forward. My breasts collided against his chest as I stood on my toes and wrapped my arms around his neck. I was almost distracted by the slight crunch of his hair as my grappling fingers worked through his hair product.

  His tongue swiping across my lips pulled me back into the kiss, and my hesitation only lasted a moment. My head spun as he nipped and nibbled my lips before exploring the depths of my mouth. My wobbly knees caused me to clutch desperately to Sean, and he pressed further down upon me. Goosebumps erupted over my body when the metal of my car met my feverish skin.

  His fingers dug deeply into the flesh of the back of my thigh, and my stomach jumped. His fingers were impossibly close to and yet still too far away from the one part of my body that only I yearned for him to touch. The heat behind my navel increased to molten levels at the feeling of his erection pressing against my stomach. My body ached in the sweetest way as he palmed a healthy handful of my ass.

  The lift of my body was nearly imperceptible as Sean’s lips and hands performed devilish tricks on my sense of time, space and humility. It was only as I felt the pressure of his rolling hips against my core that I realized that my feet were off the ground. The sense of shame that I might’ve normally felt at having my legs wrapped around a man’s waist in a parking lot was overpowered by the delicious sensation the friction between our bodies was creating.

  My body arched away from my car as our lips disconnected and my head lolled back. I gasped on the cool night air, hoping for relief from the fire that raged through my body. My fingers dug at the muscles on Sean’s back as he laid kisses along my jawbone, down my neck and then back up toward my ear. Whimpers built in my throat as he increased the pressure from his hips and nibbled on my earlobe.

  My body tensed, the grip of my legs around his waist tightened, and I began to shake and gasp. “That’s it,” he whispered as he rolled his hips quicker and quicker against my core, “just let go.” I bit my lip to stifle my moans as I did just that.

  Chapter 7

  — C —

  Today 5:24 PM

  Hey how’s it goin

  Well, thank you.

  Thx for coming over the

  other night I had a good

  time

  I had a really nice time, too.

  Definitely not what I expected,

  but I can’t say that I’m entirely

  disappointed in the way the

  night conspired.

  What did u like best

  I think you already know the

  answer to that question.

  Tell me anyway

  Hmmm… Well, then I would

  have to say that it was

  definitely watching you open a

  beer bottle with your teeth. So

  manly. So Canadian. ;)

  Yeah well there are a lot of

  things that I can do with my

  teeth that might interest you

  A shuddering gasp escaped my lips as I pushed my phone violently away from me. It slid across the comforter before teetering over the edge of the bed and skittering across the floor. My heart thudded in my chest, and I buried my face in the blankets before letting out a long groan. What the fuck was I doing?

  Sean essentially summoned me to his apartment to hang out with his friends; I shouldn’t have reacted to his touch the way I did. When he kissed me in his kitchen, I should have shoved him away and told him that I wasn’t that type of girl. Unfortunately, I was all vagina and no integrity Wednesday night, and Sean apparently thought I was into things that I wasn’t—like flirty texting. If Sean sent me a picture of his dick, I would punch him again.

  Today 6:03 PM

  Are u coming tonight

  I’m sorry, what?

  Do u want to come tonight

  Uhm…

  To Skates and Skirts

  Oh! Yeah. I’m meeting

  Lindsey and Emily there at

  8:30.

  So do u want to come

  …didn’t we just establish that I

  would be at 8:30?

  Youll have to be here by 8:25

  but I can make your legs

  shake if you ride my face for

  5 minutes

  I dropped the phone so quickly one might think it burned me. My breaths came out short and labored, and I cursed my shaking hands and aching body. Okay, so apparently my stupid vagina was totally into Sean’s messages. For a fleeting moment, I wished Lindsey was there—she would definitely know what to say back to him. I shook that disastrous thought from my mind; if Lindsey had my phone, I would be riding his face at 8:25.

  I picked the phone up and reread the text messages. My god, I was an awkward idiot. For whatever unfathomable reason, the man was into me. And if I were being honest, I was into him as well—or I was at least into the sensations he elicited from my body. It felt like ages since the last time I had sex, and I definitely couldn’t remember Mason ever making my skin burn and legs quake quite the way that Sean did just from rolling his hips against mine. I clenched my legs together tightly at the memory.

  Today 6:13 PM

  And if u can make it here by

  8 I promise to make u cum

  so hard ur legs won’t have

  the strength to stand on the

  skates youll try to strap on

  later tonight

  “Nope, nope, nope,” the panicked mantra seeped from my lips, and I grabbed the phone while racing through my apartment. I banged on Nate’s door, hoping that he wasn’t already gone for the evening. A sigh of relief passed through my lips when he opened the door, a towel wrapped around his thin hips and his hair dripping onto his bronzed shoulders.

  “Oh good, you haven’t left yet,” I said while pushing my way into his living room. I flopped onto the couch with an exasperated sigh. Nate closed his door slowly and approached the couch with a curious look plastered across his handsome face. I handed him my phone. “Read that.”

  His eyebrows quirked and a smirk grew across his face as he read. After a few silents moments, he asked, “What the hell have you been up to with this man?”

  “Nothing!” I said, but his disapproving glance caused me to backpedal pretty quickly. Lying was futile with Nate; he was a skilled bullshitter and would call anyone out when they tried to bullshit him in return. “Ugh, fine! We made out a little the other night.”

  He cocked an eyebrow at me. I clenched my hands into fists and was momentarily distracted by how clammy they were. He cleared his throat, effectively pulling my attention back to him. He crossed his arms and regarded me with a severe look.

  “Okay, fine! I may have also let him dry hump me against my car until I came harder than I have in years.”

  “In that case,” he said before he began typing on my phone.

  A low moan escaped my lips as I ran a hand down my face. My stomach clenched when I heard the slight ding of my text tone. “Nate, what are you saying to him?”

  A devilish smirk played on his lips as he started replying to the text message. He shrugged his shoulders with a wink, and I dove across the couch. He held me at arm’s length and practically giggled at the response that he received from Sean. I tried reaching for the phone again as my heart beat an erratic rhythm in my chest. My breath
s burst from my chest in small puffs, and I thought briefly that I might pass out.

  Nate stood with a gentle yet reproachful look. “You don’t get to take your phone away from me when we both know that you came over so I could do this for you.”

  He sauntered toward his room, my phone clutched tightly in his grasp and a small smile on his face. I sank back onto the couch and tried to calm my frenzied heartbeat. I wrapped my arms around my stomach and leaned forward, staring at the deep purple wine stain on the carpet in front of Nate’s couch. He swore to me that the wine wouldn’t stain when I spilled it there a few months before; I found myself hoping that it was the only thing he was ever wrong about.

  When he finally exited his bedroom, he was fully clothed and a triumphant grin was spread across his face. I stood, legs shaking and held my hand out for my phone. “Get on home and make yourself presentable enough to make what I just did for you worth it,” he said as he began shuffling me from the apartment.

  “Nate, what exactly did you do?”

  “You’re welcome,” was his simple reply.

  His door closed unceremoniously in my face, and I looked at the black screen of the phone in my hands. I pushed my way back into my apartment and tossed the phone onto my kitchen counter. The mature thing to do was completely ignore the fact that Nate probably made promises to the man that I would never act upon, right? I collapsed onto my own couch with a dramatic flourish and a groan. I was in totally over my head.