“You think anything I say to you in Russian sounds sexy,” I reminded her.
“And that’s one of the things I love about you,” she said softly.
“One of the things?” I teased, relieved to know that my feelings were returned.
“I’m head over heels in love with you too, Luka,” she confirmed. “I love how smart you are. And how unbelievably sexy you are. I love that you can talk to me about math in a way that I can understand what you mean. And that you’re so passionate about hockey—even if it means that you make crazy decisions because of it sometimes. I love the way you make me feel like I’m the only woman in the world and how sexy I feel when we’re together. And I love feeling like we can talk to each other about anything, which is why you have to promise me this will never happen again. No secrets about major stuff. If you want to throw me a surprise party or something like that, fine, but please don’t hide something from me if it really matters to you.”
I held Aubrey’s stare as I answered. “I promise that this will never happen again. I don’t ever want to go through another night like this again, knowing you’re out there somewhere hurting but not having any way to make it better. Which is why I need you to make a promise, too.”
“What do you need from me, Luka?” Aubrey asked.
“Couples fight. It’s part of life, so I know the time will come in the future where I am going to do something that pisses you off or scares you or freaks you out,” I said. “I need you to promise me you won’t leave. Not even for one night. That you’ll stick around and talk it out with me no matter how hard or scary it seems.”
“Yes, Luka,” she agreed. “I can promise that. I’m so sorry I ran yesterday, especially now that I know what was going on. I wasted a whole night of both of us feeling like crap when it could have been settled so quickly if I’d just confronted you right away.”
“That’s what I don’t get, Aubrey. Why did you leave? I would have expected you to come charging into the shower after me or something, but not to just walk away,” I asked.
Aubrey hugged me tight as she responded. “At first, I was just stunned. I couldn’t figure out what a girl would be doing here while you were showering, and my instinct was to run. To bury my head in the sand and not think about it at all, because if it was the end of us, I would have been devastated.”
“But then you sent me a text saying you’d come over this morning,” I reminded her.
She shrugged. “By then, I’d realized that there must me some other explanation, but I was just so angry with you by that point that I didn’t think I would listen to anything you said. But I didn’t want you to totally freak out if you couldn’t find me either. I learned how bad that could be when Drake and Lexi got into a huge fight last year and she disappeared on him for a whole weekend. I didn’t want to do the same to you so I figured a text was the safest route to go.”
“I’m really glad you sent it,” I thanked her. “It was still a long night, but the text helped me stay semi-sane.”
“So we’re good?” she asked.
“We’re better than good,” I whispered. “We’re fanfuckingtastic. We survived our first major fight and admitted we’re in love with each other.”
“We did, didn’t we?” Aubrey wondered aloud. “You know what this means, don’t you?”
“No. What does it mean?” I asked.
Aubrey turned on my lap to straddle me. “That we both owe each other a fuckpology since we made decisions that hurt each other.”
“I think you’ve got a point there,” I agreed. “Do you know what else?”
“Nope,” she answered distractedly as she pulled my shirt off. “I have no idea.”
“We’ve never broken the couch in,” I pointed out.
Aubrey looked down at me in wonder. “No, we haven’t! Do we have enough time before Jason gets back?”
“We do,” I confirmed, thinking of the different ways I wanted to take her on my couch. “I’ll be able to get so deep inside you from behind on this thing, too.”
Aubrey started to strip out of her clothes with a crazed look on her face. The need to reconnect with her after our fight was making me hard. I wanted inside her more than I’d ever had before. I needed to show her with my body exactly how much I meant the words I had said earlier.
“I want you to bend over the arm of the couch. Can you do that for me, Aubrey?” I requested.
“Yes,” she hissed out as she stood before me and stripped out of her bra and panties to walk around the couch. Aubrey gasped as she bent over, the cool leather a stark contrast to her warm skin.
I gripped her hips to hold her in place as I dropped to my knees behind her. “Best fucking view ever,” I rasped out as I stared at her glistening pussy.
I slid a finger over it, stroking up one side, across the bottom, and back up again. I could smell her arousal in the air and it was driving me crazy. I needed a taste, so I covered her with my mouth and gently licked at her folds. She moaned at the contact, so I repeated the action again, and she rolled her hips in response. I knew she was ready, and I wasn’t going to wait another moment to take her.
I stood up, sliding my hands up her body and dropped my pants. I bumped her legs open slightly so I could step between them and my cock nudged her opening. After pushing up and in with one powerful thrust and holding still, I savored the feel of her pussy walls clenching against me.
“Jesus,” she panted.
“You ready for it?” I groaned.
Aubrey arched her back, trying to suck me farther into her body. “Luka,” she complained. “I need you to move.”
“Then I’ll move,” I murmured before moving her thighs inwards so she felt even tighter than usual.
I pulled back and felt every inch of her pussy as I glided along her walls. I set a pummeling pace, plunging deep and fast as she rocked her hips to my thrusts, both of us searching for the mind-numbing pleasure we knew wasn’t far away. It built intensely until I felt like I was being swallowed whole.
I heard Aubrey’s cries ringing out as she begged me to make her come. I slipped my hand over her belly and down until it rested over her clit and tapped gently a few times. Her cries turned to screams as her pussy tightened around me. Then she jerked and shuddered beneath me.
Aubrey’s arm came around and curved around my head as she held on. I gripped her waist and pulled her to me as I thrust inside. I moved her exactly the way I liked it, hard and deep, and she hung on to me the whole time. With one final surge, I pressed my head to her back as my climax hit me, and I held her tighter as I found my release, emptying myself into her body.
Gasping for air, Aubrey dropped down onto the couch. “Holy hell, Luka.”
“Incredible,” I breathed out. “I’m not sure if it was the couch, the fact that it was make-up sex, or knowing you love me, but that was fucking amazing.”
“Maybe it was all of the above,” Aubrey sighed.
“I love you, moya printsessa,” I said.
“Love you, too” she murmured back.
Chapter 15
Aubrey
The last month and a half with Luka had been amazing. He’d still been super busy since the hockey team had finished the regular season with a great record and blown through the competition to make it to the Frozen Four. Luka was like a little kid at Christmas who got every single gift on his letter to Santa. His knee was back to feeling one hundred percent and he was kicking ass in games again.
As a season ticket holder, Lucy was able to get tickets to the tournament for both of us. We drove up on Thursday morning so we could go to Frozen Fest and play some games, catch the band, and just soak up the feel of the whole event. As a relatively new fan of the sport, I was amazed at how big it was and how many people were there. We left for dinner and then did the whole pep rally thing to cheer on Blythe College before we went inside for the game.
The first game of the tournament had already been played, but Lucy and I opted to skip it so we had mor
e time for dinner. That might have been a waste since our tickets covered all the games, but we really were just here to support the guys. As much as we enjoyed watching their games, it was more about cheering them on than a genuine love for the sport. And their game gave us plenty of opportunities to stand up and scream. I didn’t think any of the games I’d been to before had prepared me for the craziness of the semi-final game that night. The skating was faster, the hits were harder, and the shots seemed to move like lightning. I’d never seen anything like it before in my entire life. Watching Luka win that game and make it to the championship, knowing how much it meant to him, was just flat-out incredible.
Since Lucy had me covered, Luka had given his tickets to his parents. His aunt and uncle had flown into Chicago to babysit his brothers and sisters, so his parents hadn’t made it into town until right before Luka’s first game on Thursday night. They’d spent Friday morning with Luka, and then they had taken both of us out to dinner Friday night. They’d invited me to join them during the day as they went sightseeing, but I had a big project due next week so I’d had to say no. The trip to see Luka play didn’t work well with my class schedule and everything that I had coming up soon, but it didn’t matter because I had to be here for him. But it did mean that I couldn’t do everything I wanted while I was here.
It had taken a little while for his parents to warm up to me, and I worried that they were offended by my refusal to join them during the day. With my dating history, I’d never really had to worry about a guy’s parents liking me, because by the time the opportunity to meet them had come around, I’d been ready to end the relationship. But with Luka, I really wanted them to like me. Luckily, I’d felt like they had accepted me by the end of the dinner. It had been fun to listen to his father talk in his rumbling voice, his thick accent rolling over me. He was a boisterous man who loved hockey almost as much as he loved his son.
His mom had watched us together with soft eyes that smiled when she’d seen how we acted together. It had been much easier to get her approval, but I thought that was partly because Luka had talked to her about me. She just wanted her boy to be happy, and I did my best to make sure that he was.
Today was finally the big day for Luka’s team. They were playing in the championship game in his last time on the ice as a college hockey player. When I’d asked him why he wasn’t going to play hockey professionally after college, he’d laughed pretty hard before explaining how competitive it was. He had a couple friends from Chicago who might make it to the NHL, but they had delayed college so they could play hockey full time in the junior leagues in the hopes that they’d get picked up by a team. Luka was younger than a lot of his teammates, and apparently, it was because hockey was different than some other sports in that it wasn’t unusual for talented players to wait a couple of years before going to college.
Luka was just happy that the sport he loved had paid for school and that he’d gotten to play another four years at this level. Once he graduated from college, he hoped that, wherever he lived, he could play in a men’s league, but this was it for him when it came to competitive hockey.
Luka was busy with his team today as they got ready for the game, so I hung out with his parents until it was time to go to the rink. I hadn’t really ice skated much as a kid, but Luka’s dad talked me into going on the ice with him during the public open skate. I held onto the wall for dear life, afraid that I was going to fall, while he showed me where Luka had gotten some of his skating skills. Eventually, he skated over to take my hand and helped me around the rink, and I had so much fun skating around with him.
We had an early dinner, and his mom regaled me with stories about Luka growing up. His first hockey game. How much he hated math in high school until his calculus teacher had told him that he was good at it. How he liked to embarrass his siblings but they adored him so much. She even told me about the time he’d crashed his car into the shallow end of the lake by their house when he was supposed to have been at home and he had to call his dad to come tow him out of the water in the middle of the night.
When we got to the rink, I left his parents to meet Lucy at our seats. She’d spent her day with Alex’s parents, sightseeing, and trying to stay calm since he was playing in net today.
“I swear to God, Alex’s mom has nerves of steel,” she told me as I sat down.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I’m a complete mess, freaked out about this game. And she kept telling me to calm down all day!” Lucy complained. “How the hell am I supposed to just relax and have fun when Alex is about to play the most important game ever?”
I laughed lightly at the idea of Lucy ever being calm when she watched her boyfriend play, let alone in the NCAA championship game. “You’ve been dating Alex for years. Doesn’t she know that’s impossible by now?”
“You’d think so. She’s certainly sat next to me often enough and watch me freak out,” Lucy agreed.
I reached over and grabbed her hand to give it a squeeze. “No matter what happens tonight, it will be okay. Win or lose, Alex will always be able to say he played in this game. It’s something he can be proud of for the rest of his life.”
Lucy sighed deeply. “I know. I just want him to win so badly,” she said as the buzzer sounded to signify the start of the game.
We both watched with bated breath as the ref dropped the puck. Jason and Luka were on the ice, and the center passed the puck back for Luka to grab. I couldn’t stop myself from jumping up and screaming his name even though there was no way he could hear me.
The game flew by so quickly, the teams evenly matched and playing their best games of the season. Their determination to win could practically be felt in the air. The first period ended without a single goal being scored, and I could barely wait until the intermission was over. Lucy’s nerves were apparently contagious because now I was fidgeting in my seat, my heart racing as I waited to see what the outcome would be.
Luka’s team didn’t fare as well during the second period. Their center was called for slashing someone’s stick and Luka was on the ice for a penalty kill when the other team scored. I watched as Luka skated over to Alex, who had banged his stick on the ice in frustration. They spoke for a moment before Luka went to the bench and Alex swiped his stick over the ice in front of him, cleaning it in the same gesture he used any time a goal had been scored against him.
Blythe held them off for the remainder of the period, but it felt like the momentum had shifted in the other team’s favor. I raced to the bathroom during the next intermission, knowing that there would be a long line, determined to make it back to my seat in time. There was no way I was going to miss even a second of this game.
By the time the ref blew his whistle before dropping the puck again, I was a nervous wreck. Everything I had told Lucy at the start of the game applied to Luka too, but I knew how much he wanted to win. It was his last game, his dream. And I wanted him to get it.
“Please, please, please,” I chanted under my breath.
We’d come out fighting hard this period but hadn’t caught a lucky break yet. With ten minutes left to play, I was starting to get a little worried that they wouldn’t be able to pull it off. The clock kept ticking down the time, and every shot we had was stopped by the goalie.
And then it happened.
Luka was skating with the puck and had just crossed the blue line into the offensive zone. As he passed it to Jason, one of the players from the other team hit him from behind. I watched Luka as he went down hard, covering my mouth as I gasped in horror.
The ref raised his hand to call the penalty, and I waited for the play to stop so someone could make sure Luka was okay. He was lying on the ice for what seemed like forever when I finally heard the buzzer sound and the crowd roar. Luka got up to his knees and shook his head. Jason skated over to help him to his feet. It wasn’t until he had made it safely to the bench that I realized we had scored a goal. It was now a tie game with a couple of minutes
left to go and a power play for Luka’s team because of the dirty hit he’d taken.
I glared daggers at the player who was now sitting in the penalty box before looking back at Luka on the bench. His eyes met mine across the rink and he flashed me the thumbs-up sign to let me know he wasn’t hurt. I was so relieved that I felt tears well in my eyes.
“He’s okay,” I whispered, and Lucy grabbed my hand to pull me from my seat.
We cheered wildly, stomping our feet and hoping they’d be able to score again. I wanted them to win even more now after having watched Luka go down. And I wanted it to be while that guy was stuck in the box so he knew it was all his fault his team had lost the game, too.
“C’mon,” I mumbled, eyes glued to Luka’s teammates as they zoomed around the offensive zone, shooting the puck back and forth to each other. Their center wrapped around the net, drawing the goalie to the side before he zipped it over to one of the wings, who snapped his stick back and shot the puck toward the net. The buzzer rang right as the whistle blew.
“Goal!” Lucy shouted. “Holy shit! It went in. Did you see that?”
Blythe College had managed to win the game with no time to spare. The team piled off the bench, over the wall, and onto the ice to celebrate. I pulled out my phone to snap a few pictures, knowing that Luka would want them for later.
We knew it was going to take forever for the guys to get out of the rink, so after we managed to find them to offer our congratulations, we headed back to the hotel. Lucy had done the room-key-exchange again, and I’d never been happier that we’d gotten the hang of the room swap earlier in the season than now when his parents were here. I desperately wanted some alone time with Luka, but I didn’t want to be too obvious about my desire to jump his bones in celebration of his big win.
“Papa, I’m going to run up to my room and change before we go out for drinks. Okay?” Luka asked his dad.
The Blythe College Complete Series Box Set Page 57