Outside the Box

by Rochelle Paige

  luka

  “Aubrey, please call me back. Josie told me you were here while I was in the shower. I know it looks bad, but I swear to God it is not what you think,” I said, leaving Aubrey yet another voicemail message.

  I hadn’t heard a peep from her in the hour since she’d left, and it was killing me to know that she was somewhere out there hurting and it was my fault. Looking back now, I felt so fucking stupid for not coming clean with her about what was going on. If she’d pulled this shit with me, I would be so fucking pissed. Why would I have ever even thought the same wouldn’t be true for her too?

  My text alert beeped and I checked my messages, hoping it was Aubrey telling me where to find her.

  Aubrey: I’m okay. Not ready to talk about it tonight. Meet u 2morrow morning?

  Things couldn’t be all that bad if she was letting me know that she was all right. That was just like her, too. She was hurt and angry but still took the time to let me know that we would talk about this. I wasn’t happy that she hadn’t waited to talk to me or charged into the bathroom to confront me, but that was because I didn’t want to spend the night with this between us. I was the one who’d caused this problem, and if this was the way she wanted to play it then, that was up to her. Although it still kinda pissed me off.

  ****

  By the time morning had rolled around, I’d spent the night tossing and turning with all kinds of worst-case scenarios spinning in my head. What if she doesn’t come over this morning? What if she is so angry that she did something stupid last night? What if she tells me that our relationship is over? If Aubrey had been looking for a way to punish me for keeping a secret from her, then she had found a great way to do it. Not knowing what was going on in her mind was driving me crazy.

  I got up and made a pot of coffee before sending Jason a quick text to make sure he wasn’t going to be back in town until later today. The very last thing I needed to add to this mess was him showing up in the middle of my talk with Aubrey. Especially since he knew what was going on and had told me that I should talk to her about it. Hell, he thought I was overreacting to the whole thing anyway and that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but I just hadn’t been willing to listen to reason. I just wanted to make it through the next six weeks unscathed, but now, that didn’t look like it was going to happen.

  There was a knock on the door right at eight o’clock and I ran to answer it. There she was, carrying a box of doughnuts.

  “Hey,” she whispered, looking at me with tears welling in her eyes as she pushed the box into my hands and walked past me inside. “I didn’t eat anything last night, and sugar sounded good this morning.”

  “I can make you some breakfast instead if you’d like,” I offered, hating the thought that she was hungry because I’d made her upset.

  She shook her head no in response and my expression fell. “Maybe we can go get lunch later instead?” she asked. “The doughnuts sound pretty good.”

  “Whatever you want,” I promised, relieved that she had suggested lunch because that meant things weren’t as bad as I had imagined them to be.

  “I’d love a cup of coffee and for us to sit down and talk,” she replied. “You have some explaining to do.”

  I waved her towards the living room and grabbed coffee for both of us. After handing her the cup made just the way she liked it, I sat on the couch across from her since she’d chosen to sit on the chair where we wouldn’t fit together. I considered pulling her up and in my lap for this conversation, but the fire in her eyes let me know that, even though she was here, I wasn’t off the hook yet. Her eyes were rimmed in red, and I knew she’d spent at least part of the night crying. That knowledge killed me.

  “Do you want to tell me what the hell is going on, Luka?” she asked before I even had the chance to say anything.

  “Yes. Let me start by saying that nothing was going on between Josie and me. She was just helping me out with something—” I started.

  “I know you aren’t cheating on me with her,” she interrupted me to say. “But you still broke our rule about being around other people. The one you asked me for because it drives you nuts when I’m near other guys. And I don’t know Josie, so there’s no way she counts as an exception the way that someone like Lexi would.”

  “You’re right,” I agreed. “I should have introduced you to Josie and explained what was going on weeks ago.”

  “So why didn’t you?” Aubrey asked.

  I took a deep breath and started at the beginning. “You know I’m here on a hockey scholarship, right?”

  Aubrey nodded her head and looked at me questioningly, having no idea where I was going with this. “Yes,” she answered.

  “That’s why I picked Blythe in the first place. Because between playing hockey and my grades, they offered me a full ride, which meant my parents could use my college savings to help out my brothers and sisters instead,” I explained. “And then, this summer, I put all that at risk by pushing myself too hard and hurting my knee.”

  “I thought it was better now though,” Aubrey said.

  I sighed deeply, dropping my head to stare at the floor for a moment before looking back up and into her eyes. “It was better at the start of the season. Or at least I thought it was. Lately, it’s been bothering me again. A lot,” I admitted.

  “What does the team doctor say?” she asked me with a concerned expression on her face.

  “Nothing, Aubrey. I haven’t told Coach about it, so the team doctor hasn’t checked out my knee since the start of the season when he released me to play,” I answered softly.

  She gasped at my response. “Oh, Luka. Tell me you didn’t. You’ve been playing injured? Don’t you know how much damage you could do to your knee?”

  “That’s where Josie comes in. One of my friends from back home knows her and suggested I ask her for help,” I said.

  “What kind of help?” Aubrey wanted to know.

  “She’s in the physical therapy doctorate program and has been doing some sports therapy on my knee. Trying to help me rebuild the muscle and improve my range of motion so it doesn’t bother me so much,” I replied. “She grew up skating so she knows a lot about the sport, and she’s done a really good job with my knee.”

  “But couldn’t you have gotten physical therapy if you’d talked to your coach about the problem too?” Aubrey retorted. “Why go to a student when you could have been getting proper care this whole time?”

  “At first, I was worried that, if I went to Coach, I’d be placed on the injured reserve list or bumped off the team, and I wasn’t sure what that would do to my scholarship,” I admitted. “I didn’t want to have to make the call home to tell my parents that I’d messed up and needed them to pay for this year.”

  Aubrey got up and walked over to sit down next to me. She grabbed my hand and held it in hers. “Your health is more important than anything else.”

  “I guess I wasn’t thinking that clearly. Jason tried telling me that it wouldn’t be a problem because it’s my senior year, but I didn’t listen,” I said. “Because the other part of it was that we have a really good chance to make it far in the NCAA Championship Tournament this season. And I don’t want to be on the reserve list because of my knee. I want to be on the ice with my team, doing what I can to get us to the Frozen Four.”

  “Jesus, you’re so fucking stubborn,” she growled. “So you decided to keep playing while your coach had no idea your knee was bothering you. Letting a student help you stay in good condition instead of seeing a doctor. But why in the world did you not tell me what was going on so I could be there for you through all of this?”

  “Because even though I talked to Josie about my knee and Jason knew what was going on, I was still able to pretend like it wasn’t real in some way if I didn’t talk to you about it,” I confessed. “And I know you, Aubrey. If you knew, there’s no way you wouldn’t have pestered me to death until I gave in and told Coach what was going on.”

&n
bsp; She seemed to consider my words for a moment before agreeing with me. “Of course I would have! I still think it’s the right thing to do, but it’s your decision to make. Just please tell me you’re sure that you aren’t risking huge knee problems in the future.”

  “I’m actually doing much better now. The exercises I’ve been doing with Josie are really paying off,” I promised. “Does that mean you understand and aren’t angry with me?”

  Aubrey rolled her eyes at that. “Yes, I understand. But no, it does not mean that I’m not angry with you.”

  “Because I didn’t talk to you about everything?” I asked for clarification. Aubrey nodded her head and made a circular motion with her hand to let me know that there was more to it. “And because of Josie?”

  “Ding, ding, ding,” she said sarcastically. “Yes, Luka. I’m hurt that you didn’t choose to share this with me, and I hope, in the future, that you stop and think about it before making the same decision ever again. But I’m royally pissed that you broke the damn rule that you insisted on in the first place, because when we agreed to it, I didn’t even see the need for it. You’re the one who wanted the damn rule and then you turn around and trample all over it.”

  “You’re absolutely right,” I agreed. “And I know it doesn’t help, but in my defense, I don’t even see Josie as a girl like that. She’s a few years older than we are, never treated me as anything other than a patient, and the bottom line is she just isn’t you.”

  “She’s still cute,” Aubrey grumbled.

  “She’s also nice and smart, but she’s not the girl I’m head over heels in love with,” I admitted, shocking the hell out of Aubrey since I’d never said the words aloud before – at least not in English so she could understand what they meant.

  “The girl you’re head over heels in love with?” Aubrey repeated back blankly.

  I’d finally done what I’d been dying to do since she’d knocked on the door. I pulled Aubrey onto my lap and kissed her on the lips. “I. Love. You,” I told her, punctuating each word with another kiss because I just couldn’t resist.

  “You waited until now to tell me that?” she wailed, crying and hugging me at the same time. “In the middle of our first major argument?”

  “I’ve actually told you before,” I admitted. “Only I was too much of a chicken and said it in Russian.”

  Aubrey pulled away from me and stared in my eyes. “You did?” she gasped. “When?”

  “Friday night,” I replied.

  A big grin crossed her face. “So that’s what you said right before you carried me off to your bedroom to have your wicked way with me. It sounded awfully sexy, but I had no idea.”

  “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 po
werful 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 inside 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 off 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.