Making a Play

by Victoria Denault

  “Like… a secret?”

  “I know it’s not ideal. I know it’s not romantic or… anything that you deserve.” I feel heavy suddenly and defeated. It’s too much to ask of her. “I feel like such an asshole asking but I want you. I want this. Even if I don’t think I’m going to live up to your expectations. You have some lofty dreams, Fleur, and I know a secret relationship isn’t one of them.”

  “No, but you are,” she tells me and my heart quickens and my breath catches. “Luc, you are the dream—however I can have you. You’re all I’ve ever wanted.”

  She wants me. Fleur wants me. There is nothing else to say. I catch her lips with mine.

  Chapter 27

  Rose

  My brain is melting. Everything is melting into a delicious, soft, warm gooey feeling. I guess that’s what happens when your dreams come true. His lips are warm and soft but so dominant. These aren’t the sleepy, needy kisses he gave me in Atlantic City. I don’t have to worry he’s going to wake up and change his mind. As Luc parts my lips with his tongue I know that he knows exactly what he’s doing and what he wants—and it’s me. He is choosing this.

  I let his big strong hands slip to my hips and slide me flat on the seat, my head against the passenger door. He crawls on top of me as best he can in this tight space, his hands slipping under my dress to find skin. I do the same, sliding my hands under his shirt and up his smooth, strong back.

  “I want to be inside you again, Fleur,” he whispers against my neck before kissing his way to my collarbone. “I want to feel the tight, warm, wet pull of you around me.”

  “I want you, too,” I pant back as his hands slide over my breasts, squeezing them. “I need you.”

  “But we can’t here…” he whispers against my neck and I know he’s right. Still, he takes a long moment to kiss his way up to my lips. “And I don’t think you want an audience. I know I don’t.”

  I freeze, then sit up and turn my head toward the house. Callie is standing there on the porch, staring at us.

  “You knew she was there?!”

  “I saw her out of the corner of my eye,” he explains as he moves away from me and I smooth my dress and hair. “I thought she’d go away but in typical Callie fashion, she has no sense of personal boundaries.”

  I smile at that as we both open our doors and step out. Callie is standing in the middle of the porch, her arms crossed and eyebrows raised. I look at Luc. “So how does this work?”

  “Well, I don’t expect you to not tell your sisters,” he explains. “I think our family is safe. I just think we need to be cautious in public situations.”

  As if to prove his point, he laces his fingers with mine as we walk up the driveway. Callie’s raised eyebrows fall and her lips, so similar to mine, pull up in a smile. She looks so un-Callie-like. The look is soft, sweet and filled with love. I worry about how tough Callie feels she needs to act most of the time, but when she shows her heart it kind of makes me panic. When we get to the porch Callie reaches out and grabs Luc in a hug. She kisses his cheek and says, “Finally. A hockey player who comes to his senses without needing me to hit him.”

  I laugh but also I remember the not-so-funny time when we were teenagers and she punched Jordan in the gut. Luc chuckles too and pats her head. “I’ll leave you two to talk,” he tells me, letting go of my hand and kissing me lightly on the lips. As he disappears into the house, she turns to me.

  “You were making out with Luc.”

  “I was.”

  “It looked like you were about to do more than make out.”

  “We were. And you were just going to stand there and watch? Perv.” I push past her and walk into the house. She’s right behind me, wrapping her arms around me from behind in an attempt to hug me.

  “I’m so happy for you, Rose!”

  “I am, too,” I confess because even with the secrecy factor, I’m still thrilled.

  We walk into the kitchen. Donna is there pulling a large bowl of potato salad out of the fridge. I rush to help her and as I take it from her arms she smiles gratefully. Her blue eyes scan my face and then she glances out the window above the sink at Luc, who is standing by the barbecue talking to Jordan.

  “Luc walked through here a minute ago looking happier than I’ve seen him in years,” Donna notes and I can’t contain my smile. “And now you waltz in here with a big grin. Anyone care to share anything?”

  “Luc and I are…” I pause and realize I don’t know how to word this. “We’re together. But we’re keeping it private.”

  “What does that mean?” Donna asks. “Is that some new hipster term for a relationship or something?”

  Callie laughs. “I can’t believe you just said hipster.”

  Donna laughs at herself. “I’m trying to stay current but it’s hard with the boys all out of the house. I don’t get my daily dose of it, you know.”

  “Well, if it makes you feel better, Donna, I don’t know what the hell she’s talking about either,” Callie replies and turns to stare at me, waiting for an explanation.

  “Luc’s in a precarious place in his career right now,” I explain, stealing a chunk of potato from the salad and popping it into my mouth. “He’s had a rough couple of years with his team and now they’re trying to trade him. His previous relationship turned out to be part of the problem, or at least that’s what everyone thinks, so obviously if he’s seen in a new relationship it’s going to look like he’s repeating his mistakes.”

  “You are not a mistake,” Callie corrects me sharply.

  “I know that and he knows that,” I assure her calmly. “But we’re just going to keep this secret so that no one can misconstrue it.”

  Donna looks confused and maybe even a little concerned. “For how long?”

  That question throws me a little because I don’t know for how long. Luc didn’t say. Is it just until the end of the summer? Is it just until he’s traded? Are we going to have to keep this a secret from his new team? I feel a seed of doubt plant itself firmly in my heart, but I refuse to help it grow.

  “Until we’re ready to make it public.” I give the best nonanswer I can give and then shrug. “The point is we’re together. And that’s what counts.”

  Donna gives me a small, tight hug. “I’m so happy for you, Rosie. I always knew how much you meant to Luc and I’m glad he’s finally realizing it, too.”

  She takes the heavy bowl of potato salad and heads toward the open French doors that lead from the dining room to the deck. I turn and face Callie. The look of love and joy from the porch is gone. Now she looks cynical. She sighs. “Dammit. I’m going to have to hit him eventually, too.”

  She follows Donna out onto the deck.

  Chapter 28

  Luc

  I literally want to punch the middle-aged dudes in fishing gear who get into the elevator with us. The hotel is old and doesn’t have cameras in the elevator so I was hoping to get under her dress before we even got to the room, but thanks to them it doesn’t happen.

  Cole and Leah’s wedding went off without a hitch. The rain from yesterday cleared and it was sunny and warm without being humid. Leah looks amazing and I’ve never seen Cole look so happy. Devin was acting like his wife’s absence was no big deal but you could tell by the tight clench of his jaw that he was pissed off about it. Rose made a perfect bridesmaid. She looked unbelievable. I spent the whole ceremony thinking hot, dirty things that I should not be thinking in a church.

  As soon as we got to the reception, which was in the hundred-year-old Silver Bay Inn directly on the lake, I booked a room. I knew we wouldn’t make it through the entire five-hour reception. Rose and I were playing it cool, acting like the friends we’ve always been but the glances were longer, the smiles were warmer and my dick throbbed every single time I looked at her. After the dinner, and the first few official dances, I slipped up beside her at the bar and told her about the room.

  “Meet me at the elevators in two minutes,” she’d whispered with
a grin.

  Now we get off on the fourth floor and I rush down the hall dragging her by her hand. She giggles nervously at my anxiousness. I use the key card and open the door and as soon as we get inside I bend down and cover her lips with mine, slipping my tongue into her mouth. Her tongue is eagerly dancing with mine as her hands push my jacket off my shoulders and start undoing my tie.

  I run my hands over the silky material of her dress, and stop when I reach her perfect round ass, cup it and hold on as I walk into her, forcing her to take steps backward and collide with the bed. I push her gently onto it and climb on top of her. My body covers her completely and she feels so soft and warm under me, my dick is already throbbing in my pants. But I won’t rush this. I want this—our first time as an official couple—to be long, slow and completely coherent.

  I kiss her neck and her earlobe, nipping it gently with my teeth. “I want you so much. You’ve had me rock hard since the church.”

  She sighs as my hand slides up the outside of her toned thigh, taking her dress with it. I kiss her collarbone and the curve of her breast above the fabric of her dress and lower myself between her legs. Her hands run over the top of my head because it’s all she can reach. Her fingernails graze my scalp and send a shiver of pleasure down my spine. I kiss the inside of her exposed thigh as I push the dress even farther up her torso.

  She’s wearing white lace panties that create the sexiest contrast against her tan skin. Even in the dim light of the room I can see the small landing strip of dark hair under the lace covering her pubic bone. I kiss her there, over the lace, and she shudders.

  “Luc…” Her voice sounds reluctant. Nervous. Apprehensive.

  It suddenly occurs to me she may never have done this before. I mean I know Rose had a boyfriend in college for a while and that they had sex—he was her first. But I also know she—up until this summer—hadn’t been with anyone else.

  And I remember on her birthday camping trip last year we had all gotten drunk playing the drinking game “I never,” where you have to make a statement and everyone who has never done that has to drink. I drank at “I’ve never been in love” and “I never had a threesome,” among other things. Rose drank at almost everything, which made me smile, but I remember distinctly that someone had said “I’ve never had oral sex” and I was shocked when both Rosie and our friend Kate drank.

  I kiss her belly and hook my fingers under the lacy sides of her underwear. I slide them slowly off her body as I pepper her with kisses on her belly button, her stomach and her hipbone. As I move lower I feel her body tense and her hands tighten their grip in my hair.

  She breathes my name again just as tentatively as before. I smile to myself as my hands hold her hips lightly. The idea of being her first at something sexual—something completely intimate and vulnerable—makes me crazy. My dick starts throbbing again.

  My tongue slips out and touches her tenderly. She tastes sweet and wonderful. I give her another slow, light lick from her center upward. I feel every muscle in her body tighten and stiffen. I make another pass and apply more pressure, stopping longer on her clit, circling it and then sucking it between my lips.

  “Oh my God, Luc,” she hisses in a hoarse whisper as her back arches ever so slightly off the bed.

  I smile into her as two of my fingers join my tongue and slide over her soft folds before pushing slowly into her. My tongue never stops moving and my fingers match its rhythm. She starts to pant and her hips buck. I curl my fingers and find that special soft spot inside her. I push into her G-spot once. I do it again and she bucks, gasps and breaks. Her pussy clamps down on my fingers and she lets out a long, fluttering moan that ends with my name. She’s spent on the bed, motionless, as I crawl back on top of her and kiss her flushed cheek and then her neck and ear.

  “You’re so hot when you come,” I whisper heatedly. “You almost made me come.”

  She smiles self-consciously and tries to bury her face in my shoulder.

  “I’ve never…” she confesses. “No one has ever done that.”

  “Good.” That confirmation makes me harder and happier than I knew possible. “I wish I was your first at everything.”

  She turns her head and looks into my eyes. “You’re the first in a lot of ways… you don’t even know…”

  I kiss her. Our tongues dance slowly. I press my lower body into her. I know she can feel my cock pushing against her thigh. Her hands roam down my chest and start to untuck my shirt.

  “Luc, you are wearing far too much clothing,” Rosie tells me as she kisses the nape of my neck.

  Chapter 29

  Rose

  He doesn’t need any more urging, thankfully. He sits back on his knees and pulls his tie over his head and his half-unbuttoned shirt goes next. I quickly undo his belt and his pants and he crawls off the bed and lets them fall to the floor. I stand up too and untie the halter top of my dress; it slips down and pools at my hips before I shimmy out of it.

  He cups the back of my neck with one hand and kisses me breathless as his other hand unclips my bra behind my back. I try not to smirk that he’s skilled enough to do that one-handed. Luc is way more advanced sexually than me, as his earlier maneuvers proved.

  I had waited until I thought I was in love to have sex. I didn’t regret that but that meant I’d only ever had just one partner. Sex with my ex was good. I enjoyed it but we were what I now know was very basic. And my ex had never tried to go down on me even though I had given him a few blow jobs. I didn’t complain at the time, probably because I had no idea how mind-blowing it was. Then again, I don’t know if it would have been with anyone but Luc. And he isn’t just my first in sexual ways. He is my first in emotional ways that I don’t dare tell him about yet—like my first and hopefully only soul mate.

  He reaches out and pulls the sheets back and falls into the bed, pulling me with him. I land on top of him and my hair creates a curtain around us while we kiss. He rolls us so he’s on top of me now, the weight of his body pinning me to the mattress.

  “Luc… I want you inside me,” I breathe into his ear before I kiss the sensitive spot where his jaw meets his neck.

  He moves his right knee to join his left between my legs and balances on one hand while his other moves to guide himself into me. I feel his tip and then his length as he glides slowly inside. My body shifts and I twist my hips a little in order to make room for him.

  When he’s reached his limit, completely engulfed in me, I sigh and he lets out a tiny grunt and we look at each other. His brown eyes are dark and he runs a hand through my hair as he shifts his hips. I feel him move inside me. I shift my hips. Before long, we’re moving, fast and frantic. He’s propped up on his arms, his head tipped down so he can look at us joined together. I watch the muscles in his arms and shoulders flex as he moves and run my hands over his beautiful body.

  I shift my hips, tilting my pelvis and curling my back with every down stroke. On the last thrust, I tighten the muscles in my core, squeezing his cock inside me, and his head snaps up to find my eyes.

  “That’s fucking amazing,” he gasps. I do it again. And again.

  He moves even faster now. Harder. Deeper. I whimper with the pleasure of it.

  “Rosie, you’re going to make me come… I can’t stop…” He lets out his adorable gasp-grunt and his arms give out. His body lands on top of me, sweaty and warm, but he continues pumping. The heat of his body and the friction of his pelvic bone gyrating against my clit is the final straw. I come hard and fast.

  “Holy fuck… oh fuck…” Luc whispers harshly as he feels my warm flood against his still-erupting orgasm.

  After a minute we’re both completely still. I smile into his shoulder.

  “You’re perfect,” he sighs into the pillow.

  “We’re perfect,” I correct him sleepily.

  I’m teetering on the edge of sleep. The feeling of his naked body on top of mine is creating the blissful warmth inside me, like euphoria but gentler… heavier
… and then…

  “We should get back down there,” he mumbles. “I can go first if you want to rest a little longer.”

  Reluctantly I open my eyes as he pulls away from me, taking that blissful feeling with him, and sits up. His eyes look like caramel, his lips are pink from all our kissing but they’re turned down in a small frown. “Sorry, Fleur. I wish I could stay up here, but half the town is at the wedding. Someone is going to notice a bridesmaid and groomsman are missing.”

  I wish he wasn’t right but he is. Plus, I think there’s also the other half of the town milling around at the hotel lounge across the lobby from the ballroom we’re in. The Garrison boys are well known and well loved in this town. People treat them like celebrities, and a chance to see them, plus their hockey-star friend Luc, has attracted looky-loos.

  “You go first. I’ll come down in a bit,” I murmur and give him a small smile because he’s so fucking hot all naked and remorseful. Besides, this isn’t his fault. It’s the way it has to be.

  He leans forward and kisses my shoulder softly before standing up and putting his suit back on. I watch him, wrapped up in the sheets, trying not to wish this was different. It’s still better than nothing.

  Chapter 30

  Rose

  “Rosie! Your French Disaster is here!” Callie calls from the bottom of the stairs. “And he has flowers. I think I’m going to barf.”

  I smile at my reflection in the mirror at that—the fact that he brought me flowers, not that Callie is going to throw up—and quickly put on my sparkly silver hoop earrings before bouncing down the stairs. I blow by Jessie and Jordan, who are curled up on the couch watching a movie, and run into the kitchen. He’s standing there smiling sexily, holding a small bunch of peonies similar to the small bunch of daisies he had yesterday and the small bunch of tulips he showed up with the day before that.

  Last week, while lying in bed naked and spent from incredible sex, he told me he had wanted to get me flowers as a belated birthday gift but he didn’t know which kind I liked. I smiled, pulled his hand off my abdomen and sleepily laced my fingers through his. “Guess,” I’d said.