“Oh god, I’m sorry. I’ve definitely had too much to drink.” I shrugged. Who was I to judge? I’d been that girl before. “But you said your name was Charlie, right?”
“Yeah,” I responded uncertainly. Had Lindsey put out a BOLO for me? I’d ignored several texts from Sean—much as I had for the past several weeks—and three phone calls from Lindsey so far.
“Like…the Charlie that Sean Tremblay’s dating, Charlie?”
My nails dug into the soft flesh of my palms, and my foot began to bounce. My clenching jaw became painful after only a few seconds, and I fought to control my uneven breathing. Almost as quickly as the reaction began, it ended. My fists unclenched, and I exhaled for one long moment. It was at that very moment that I knew.
“I’m not dating Sean.”
“But I heard that he’s waiting for someone named Charlie tonight,” the woman spluttered. Her eyes widened comically.
Who the hell was she, and why did she know so much about me? “Brittany, can I be real with you for a minute?” She nodded grimly in that way drunk girls do when they’re trying desperately to be taken seriously.
“There’s another girl here that I’m pretty positive he actually wants to be with. He’s used me as a pawn in their ridiculous game of back and forth and jealousy for weeks, and I’m fucking done. They clearly want one another, they both suck, and I wish them all the best life can offer to people like them.”
“Oh my god, you mean Cassandra,” she said with another unnecessarily loud drunk-girl gasp.
The usual annoyance I felt over the fancy pronunciation of her name failed to hit me for the first time, and I grinned. My smile faltered and then faded from my lips entirely. The fact that she knew about my personal life than Lindsey did hit me hard. A crude remark was all I could muster.
“How the fuck do you know this?” I asked.
“Cassandra’s my sister.”
My stomach dropped. For Gretzky’s sake, Charlie. An awkward silence filled the space between us, and I frantically wracked my brain for something to say. My mind was comically blank. I realized I could take it all back, backtrack and say that I didn’t think Cassandra was the worst bitch I’d ever met in my life. The part of me that was just a little bit mean-spirited wouldn’t allow it to happen.
After a few tense moments, Brittany began to chuckle. I turned, quirking an eyebrow, and she smiled toothily at me. “Oh my god, you’re so right. They do suck, and they totally belong with each other.”
“Uh…” I didn’t have siblings to dislike, so I wasn’t sure how deep the shit talking was allowed to go. I opted for snapping my mouth shut and staring at Brittany awkwardly.
She swiped at the moisture gathering at the corners of her eyes before turning toward me head on. She was struggling desperately to be serious. “So why would you bother to come to this thing at all if you just planned on ghosting Sean all night?”
“Well, there’s sort of another guy…” I trailed off, and a third unnecessarily loud gasp ricocheted around the small room. I found myself rubbing my temples. I liked the girl, but I didn’t like her flair for theatrics.
“Tell me everything.”
— D —
“Hey, you’re Devon, right?” I turned from glaring into the fire to see an unfamiliar woman standing behind me. I wanted to roll my eyes at her, to tell her to fuck off and leave me to my brooding. I gritted my teeth and reminded myself that she wasn’t the woman I was a little more than pissed off at.
“Yeah, and you are?” I asked. My clipped tone couldn’t hide my obvious frustration, so I inhaled deeply.
She cocked her head to the side, her reddish hair falling over her shoulder and obscuring her face slightly. A jittery hand pushed the hair out of her eyes as she studied me intently. When she continued to stare and not speak, I turned back toward the fire contemplating again my disappointment in Charlie. The fact that she chose to ignore and avoid me all night didn’t sting nearly as much as the knowledge that she’d finally chosen Sean over me.
The unfamiliar woman wrapped her fingers around my bicep, and I turned with a snarl. “I don’t know who you are or what you want, but you need to take your hands off of me now. I’m not in the mood.”
“Damn, sourpuss, calm down.” My mouth dropped open in surprise, and she continued, “I’m not trying to pick you up. I just need to show you something.”
“No thanks.”
“I think she might’ve been wrong about you,” she muttered before dropping my arm and walking away.
My mind spun in a thousand different directions, and I stared at the retreating form of the woman. I shook my head before turning back to the fire to focus on my less than favorable evening and the rum and Coke in my hand. I didn’t need or want to get pulled that woman’s drama.
I felt like I’d more than done my due diligence with Charlie. Over our past few interactions, I treated her with respect and shared personal parts of my past with her in an attempt to endear myself to her. I clearly expressed my interest in her while simultaneously attempting to plant seeds of doubt in her mind about Tremblay and his behavior. Seriously, how could she not see how much of a douche that guy was?
After our heated make out in my bedroom and intense conversation over coffee, I thought for sure she would be on my arm at the pre-playoffs party. I’d preened at the idea of Tremblay seeing her with me, and I already started pre-planning the full-on gloat-session that he was going to have to endure. I didn’t understand why in all levels of hell was she still running back to Sean. What was it about that asshole that made her feel safe? I couldn’t stop my teeth from grinding at the thought that he might actually end up with her in the end. I did not see that coming all those weeks ago in the locker room.
“Okay seriously, Saddy McBroodyface, I really thought that last one was going to work.”
With a long sigh, I turned back to face my unexpected and wholly unwanted companion. She stood before me, a stern glare on her face and both her hands placed firmly on her hips. I would’ve laughed at the slight wobble to her pose if a fierce fire wasn’t burning in her eyes.
“What do you want?” Short and to the point was my new tactic with the woman. Maybe I could get this conversation over with quickly and continue on my merry way to drunk-as-hell-off-rum-and-Coke town.
If she rolled her eyes any harder at me, she might’ve passed out. Her next words came slowly and in a mocking tone. “I already told you, grumpy pants; there’s something I want to show you.”
“And I already told you no thanks. I’m perfectly content to stay here with my booze.”
“Okay, listen here, Cote,” she said sternly as a hateful look crossed her face. Her fury commanded my full attention. “I’m going to need you to reach down and zip your mangina up because there’s a woman here that, for reasons that are one hundred percent unfathomable to me, really digs the shit out of you. She’s a little awkward and nervous, so I said I’d come get you. Now man up, stop being hateful, and come with me, you damn fool.”
She grabbed my arm and yanked me forward. My thoughts were a jumbled mess as she pulled me down a hallway off of the main room. She was talking about Charlie, right? The slightly buzzed part of my mind wondered if maybe the ballsy girl was pulling me into the secluded hallway to have her filthy way with me.
We stopped abruptly before an unassuming door, and she turned to face me. A determined glint gleamed dangerously in her eyes as she grabbed my shoulders and stared me dead in the eye. “Get your head in the game, man. She’s nervous and upset enough with herself for letting people assume she was coming with Sean to this thing, so don’t be an asshole about it.”
“Yeah, okay,” was my dumbfounded answer.
The woman moved from in front of me and slapped me on the back before pushing the door open. Charlie turned from her spot at the window to face me. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth and her eyes shone with uncertainty behind her glasses. My heart raced at the sight of her standing in a knee-length t
rench coat. Her sun-kissed skin popped against the dark charcoal material.
A tentative smile spread over her face, and my eyes continued their hungry trek down her body. Her legs were bare, and the skirt of the dress didn’t peep from beneath the bottom of the coat. Red heels adorned her feet, and I felt my heart thudding painfully in my chest. She looked so goddamn good in the trench coat and heels; I wasn’t sure I would actually survive the sight of her in the dress.
My eyes continued to gravitate toward the hem of her coat, and I found the urge to rip her from the damn thing nearly overwhelming. The dirty fantasy that she might not be wearing anything other than sexy lingerie under the charcoal length was nearly debilitating.
Charlie cleared her throat and whispered, “My eyes are up here.”
A half-grin quirked over my lips at the slightly dazed look in her eyes. It would seem that I wasn’t the only one to get lost in a moment of fantasy. Her hooded eyes swept over my body quickly before she continued her thought, “I never thought I would have to use that line about anything other than my tits.”
The husky quality of her voice shot straight through my body in a direct line to my dick. I ran a hand over my face and covered my mouth as I chuckled at her. Her eyes traced the path of my hand over my face, and I hoped she was distracted enough to not notice the halfer I was already sporting. There was a pretty real possibility that I’d be cumming in my pants by the time the night was over.
“I’m sorry… I’ve just never seen you in anything other than jeans. You look good.”
Good was a goddamn understatement. She looked downright phenomenal, a cool drink of water to the thirstiest man on the planet. A tentative smile played over her face, and I didn’t miss the subtle clenching of her thighs as she crossed her legs at the ankle. The tension that crackled in the air around us was unlike any I experienced before.
Her voice shook as she responded. “It’s because I’m so damn clumsy. If I’m in jeans a t-shirt, I’m way less likely to flash my vag at someone or pop a tit.”
I briefly wondered if it would be more noticeable if I opted for sitting in one of the leather club chairs and crossing an ankle over my knee instead of just standing there with a hard-on. Seriously, the woman shouldn’t be allowed to say the words “vag” and “tit” in a husky tone if she wasn’t prepared to present me with at least one of those parts of her anatomy. I hummed in the back of my throat. It was getting increasingly difficult by the minute to be appropriate with her.
“Are you afraid of me seeing you, Charlie?”
“No.” Her tone oozed need, and I felt as if my face would split in two with the force of my smile.
“Show me.”
Charlie crossed her arms over her chest, pushing her tits up even higher. My answering groan wasn’t as inaudible as I might’ve hoped. She quirked an eyebrow. “Don’t you think we should talk before I distract you with my rack?”
“Absolutely not.” My tone was no-nonsense. I probably should’ve wanted to talk, to explore what we were and where we were going with our relationship. I was the one that insisted on the sabbatical to give her the time to figure out what she wanted. Her words should’ve been important to me then, but all of the blood in my brain had drained to my dick and her eyes were saying more than enough.
“I want to keep our relationship private,” she blurted out, and I nodded along numbly. “Seriously, Devon, I don’t want my friends or your roommates involved—they’ve caused enough problems to last a lifetime. This is really important to me.”
“Yup. Got it,” I said resolutely.
I didn’t necessarily understand, but I was clear on the messaging. She wanted to be with me. I crossed the room with a smug grin crossed my face.
Charlie held me at arm’s length, and I stared into her eyes. “Devon, I need you to really think about this before you agree to it.”
I struggled to focus with her nails digging slightly into my pecs.
“Charlie, I don’t need to think about it. If this is what it takes right now, then I’m in. I told you I want to be with you, and nothing’s changed. Let’s be honest here, all the blood in my brain went straight to my dick when I saw you in that trench coat. There’s not a whole lot of thinking going on right now.”
I wasn’t sure what I expected from her, but seeing her eyes glazed with lust as she reached for the belt of the trench coat wasn’t it. She grinned devilishly as the coat slid over her skin. My mouth went dry as the material crumpled to the floor around her feet.
I couldn’t figure out the right words to describe the dress that clung to her body. It wasn’t really skimpy, but the amount of skin showing would’ve definitely been indecent in the wrong setting. My eyes swept over her body before locking on the front of the dress. The front gaped dangerously, and I wondered how the material contained her tits at all.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I muttered, and a wicked grin spread over her face.
“See something you like?” She asked cheekily, and I growled in response.
I pushed her hands from my chest and pulled her against me. I wished for a second that we didn’t have a barrier of clothes separating our skin, but the thought was gone the moment she pulled my head down to kiss me. Our lips met in a fevered tempo, and I backed her against the wall.
I worked my tongue over her bottom lip and was surprised by the feeling of her pulling my lower lip into her mouth and sucking it gently. I groaned in response and fisted a handful of her hair. Her answering moan set my blood on fire, and I pulled back from her.
Her eyes were hooded, and her chest heaved against the straining material of her dress. My cock throbbed as I said, “Turn around, Charlie.”
Her eyebrows quirked in surprise, but she didn’t resist as I reached for her shoulders and turned her toward the wall. Her hands shot out to brace her as I closed the distance between us. My body towered over hers, and I reached my hands toward her hips and trailed them upwards as I kissed a path from her shoulder to the side of her neck.
My hands found the v at the front of her dress, and she moaned while I lightly traced a finger from the valley of her breasts up to the hollow of her neck. She pushed her ass back and ground against my straining dick. I wrapped a hand gently under her chin. My fingers splayed over her jaw, and my thumb brushed against her lips. The heat that was burning in my gut exploded through my body at the feeling of her sucking my thumb into her mouth.
My free hand trailed down her body again as I ground my length against her ass. She pushed harder against me as I pulled her dress up enough to caress her thigh. I dropped my mouth back to the nape of her neck and placed a kiss there before biting her gently and sucking the abused skin into my mouth.
“Devon, oh my god,” she moaned, and the breathy sound shot straight to my dick.
I continued to suck on her neck and she worked her ass over my cock. Her movements stilled momentarily as my fingers brushed over the front of her panties. She bit down gently on my thumb, and I brushed my fingers over the lacy material again. She arched into my touch, and I grinned against her neck.
I slipped my fingers under the waistband of her panties. My thumb popped from her mouth and my lips were pushed aside when she leaned her head back to rest near mine. She whimpered when I brushed over her clit with the pad of my thumb.
“Charlie, you’re so fucking wet,” I whispered.
I slid two of my fingers through her slick folds to circle her clit, and she pushed back and started grinding against me again. I sucked her earlobe into my mouth as I continued to circle the sensitive nub. The sensation of her working her ass against my dick as she moaned stoked the fire burning in my gut.
I worked my fingers faster as she pressed harder against me. Her breaths puffed from her lips, and she moaned in the back of her throat. I increased the pressure on her clit, and only a few moments passed before her body began shaking against mine.
She collapsed against the wall as I pulled my fingers from her panties and gripped her hips
tightly. Groans worked their way from my throat as I ground my dick against her ass. Tension began to build deep in my body, and I quickened my pace.
Charlie reached a still-shaking hand behind her body to reach for my dick, and I caught her wrist in my hand. I pressed her arm against the small of her back. Knowing that she wanted to touch me and denying her that pleasure made the moment that much hotter.
Her protest died on her lips as I groaned loudly. I wrapped my body against hers as my hips jerked with my release. My breathing was haggard as I placed a soft kiss on the nape of her neck.
“That was insane,” she panted breathily, and I nodded in agreement. Hell yeah it was.
The embarrassment that washed over my body at the realization that I’d just jizzed in my pants faded entirely when I pulled away from her. She turned to face me—her cheeks were pink, her chest was heaving, and her smile was coy. The realization that I didn’t have time for embarrassment when I was so damn turned on hit me hard, and I smirked back at her.
Chapter 14
— D —
“So she tells you she wants to keep you her dirty little secret and then what? You both walk away from that room with a handshake? Bullshit, Cote, I know you better than that; so spill.”
I stared at my red-faced ex-teammate and unlikely best friend. The Valors were rounding out our last long road trip of the season, and our game that night was against the Quad City Mallards. Big D decided to make the 90-minute drive to Moline to see me play and celebrate a hard-fought win. In true Big D fashion, we were in the skeeziest bar he could possibly find. I appreciated the visit, but Big D was the worst gossip I knew. If I told him that Charlie somehow ended up pressed against a wall in front of me as I dry humped her until I came, it would no doubt somehow manage to make it all the way back to my teammates.
Breakaway: A Hockey Romance Page 15