Page 61 of Breaking Point (IceHawks #1)

I step closer, lowering my voice despite the loud music and singing pouring from my house.

“Look, I’m never going to ask you to betray her trust, but if it’s getting to the point where it’s affecting you, you can talk to me and I’ll be a vault.

It will never leave outside of us, and I love Cindy like a sister.

She’s been our cheerleader since the moment you were drafted to the team. I’ll never treat her differently.”

He just keeps nodding, looking at me like he wants to spill his guts right here and now until he plasters on a smile and says, “I might take you up on the offer. I’ll just give her a little more time.”

“Okay, no pressure. My door is always open.” Now is what I don’t add.

“Thanks, Crawford. Same to you,” he adds pointedly.

The moment I open the front door, our ears are assaulted by the most godawful singing known to man. Asher and I turn to each other, both wearing mirrored expressions of horror.

Taylor Swift can barely be heard over Cindy and Bella’s cacophony, which by the sounds of it, someone is drunk. Bella texted me early this afternoon asking if it was okay to drink in the house, and to my utter surprise, I felt okay with it.

Even now as I round the corner and the faint smell of alcohol permeates my nose, I don’t want to drink. Only when my emotions get too big for me to comprehend and process do I turn to liquor.

I’m about to crack a joke, but as my living room comes into view, my tongue suddenly weighs a thousand pounds and my feet come to a slow stop.

Standing on my kitchen island, in nothing but an oversized jersey, is Bella, a microphone to her lips while she belts out a Taylor Swift song. Cindy is on the couch, Bambi’s paws in her hands as she makes my dog dance.

Is that…?

Bambi is in a jersey, the number 33 scrawled on her back.

I hear Asher burst into laughter but all I can seem to do is stare at Bella, still wholly unaware of my presence. Her eyes remain closed as she sways her hips.

My cock hardens— painfully .

Despite the fact it’s excruciatingly obvious Bella is tone-deaf, everything fades into the background as she spins on the balls of her feet, showing me the most glorious sight .

It’s not just any oversized jersey she’s wearing. It’s mine.

My name across her back.

My number across her midsection.

And my fucking jersey teasing the skin along her thighs.

I can’t help it, I fucking groan .

Thank god for the karaoke hiding the sound. I’ve never been so turned on in my entire life, and it’s over a fucking jersey .

We’ve been dancing around one another for weeks, had stolen kisses that had to end because it went against our arrangement rules. And in this moment, I have never been more thankful that another person is around so I have an excuse to kiss the ever-loving fuck out of her.

I’m striding across the room in no time.

As Bella spins, she jumps, her eyes widening before she falls into a fit of giggles, but even the laughter dies on her tongue once she sees my expression.

Kneeling, she moves closer. “Grayson, what’s wron?—”

My hands wrap around her waist, pulling her off the bench. I place her to my front and cut off her words with my lips. Wrapping an arm around her midsection—over my jersey—I pull her flush against my body, eating the surprised moan that falls from her mouth.

She’s beautiful, so fucking beautiful, and she has no idea that she owns my heart completely.

Whoops and hollers ring out from Cindy and Asher behind us but they fade, going in one ear and out the other. My cock strains against my jeans, pressing into her stomach. I know the moment she feels it because her hands are suddenly running through my hair, pulling me down closer to her.

Looks like I’m not the only one who has been waiting for an opportunity to kiss again.

I’ve been utterly starved since our last kiss on the deck, when her body molded against mine perfectly, her hips moving in my lap. A groan rumbles deep from within my chest when I can’t stop picturing her squirming atop me.

Then it moves on to everything I think about when I wrap my hand around my cock .

Everything I want to do to Bella.

Every inch of skin I want to explore along her body.

Everything I want to taste.

I can’t stop picturing placing her on the kitchen bench, parting her thighs, lifting the jersey with my name on it, and fucking her senseless until she’s coming around my cock while screaming my name.

I need her .

A whistle cuts through my thoughts as Cindy calls out, “Get a room!”

Bella pulls back, her lips swollen and pink. She places a hand on my chest, her own rising and falling rapidly as she swallows.

Spinning to Cindy and Asher, I smirk. “You’re in it, Cin.”

Her mouth pops open to form an O as Asher throws his head back with a laugh. “Come on, let’s give them some privacy.”

Cindy winks at Bella. “Have fun.”

“See you at practice tomorrow!” Asher calls out before he scoops a giggling Cindy into his arms. “Bill me for any damages!”

I don’t move an inch until I hear the front door close. Even then I remain motionless, standing in my living room with strobe lights flashing, a panting Bella behind me in nothing but my goddamn jersey.

It takes everything within me not to ravish her as I slowly turn around.

Bella’s eyes are wide with part shock and part heat. I can see the war raging in her mind, can see the battle of whether to let go or not.

I’m counting my lucky fucking stars that she takes even so much as a step toward me so I can do something about the tension that has been building since the moment we laid eyes on one another.

I didn’t taste alcohol on her breath when I kissed her, so I know she’s fully sober. She must have just kept Cindy company while she drank, no doubt to make me feel more comfortable, and that just makes me want to bend her over the counter and fuck her as a thank you even more .

What is it about her in my jersey that has shattered my control and made me utterly feral for her?

The battle shifts in her gaze and I can feel her slipping through my fingers, can feel the utter devastation beginning to wreak havoc on my body. I know she wants me—I can see it. But her fear is overpowering it.

“Celebrate with me,” I blurt out.

Her brow quirks. “Depends on what you have in mind.”

Her voice.

That goddamn sinful fucking voice is husky and full of raw hunger despite the walls coming up over her eyes.

“With you, I have a thousand ideas of what I want to do, but let’s just settle on a bonfire,” I huff out, forcing myself to pivot on my feet and walk away.

Because if I stand there any longer, with her chest rising and falling, those plush lips swollen, her body teasing me beneath the jersey, I won’t be able to stop kissing her.

Bambi snores softly at my feet as the crackling fire keeps all three of us warm. Bella and I are sitting side by side, our thighs grazing ever so softly as we share a blanket. Her head is tipped back, her eyes never wavering from the shining stars above, while mine can’t leave her .

I can’t seem to stop myself from soaking in the utter perfection that is her.

It’s why when she asks, “Why did you keep firing the chefs Lucy hired for you?” I end up telling the truth.

“Drew worked as my personal chef.” My gaze doesn’t leave her soft features as she turns her head toward me. “After he passed the mere thought of eating anyone else’s cooking made me physically ill.”

“But you ate mine. ”

“Yours…is different.”

She cocks her head. “How so?”

My lips twitch. “You revived my hunger.” For not only food, but life.

Her hand, wrapped around a piece of the soft gray blanket, tightens. “I’m glad I could be that for you,” she whispers.

“I’m glad too.” I snort. “My stomach is as well. I was living off UberEats for months.”

“I imagine that’s not good for an athlete.”

“No, not at all. The trainers at IceHawks were giving me shit about it.”

Her eyes dance with the reflection of the flames as she lays her head against the seat. “What was he like?”

The question stumps me, and also makes me realize this is the first person in my life that hasn’t met Drew. Then another thought assaults me.

Drew will never meet the woman who is the love of my life.

The thought depresses me more than I want to admit, so I blow out a breath and quickly redirect my attention. “He was my best friend. We did everything together, and when Kieran came into the picture, it was us three against the world.”

A short bark of laughter flies from my mouth. “Drew was a little shit though. Always up to trouble and dragging me into it. He and Kieran were always egging each other on and I was just…”

“There,” she supplies.

“Basically.”

“I always wondered what it was like growing up with siblings.”

My head works side to side. “Imagine a best friend, except one that you fight with constantly and then two seconds later act as if no fight occurred at all.”

Her brows rise. “Maybe I’m glad I didn’t have siblings after all.”

“Was it lonely growing up?”

She inhales deeply. “Yes and no. My parents tried to overcompensate so I didn’t feel lonely, and at times I wasn’t, but growing up wanting to play Barbies or mermaids in the pool and having to beg adults wasn’t the best.” A whimsical smile overtakes her features.

“When I met Layla, though, that changed. She’s been my best friend since middle school. ”

“Have you ever been separated like this?”

“God no. We try and stay as close as we can if possible but she needed this opportunity. Honestly, my home has never been this quiet. With my mom in and out of hospital for treatments and Layla gone, the house feels like it has ghosts walking around.”

“Ghosts?”

“Metaphorical ones. I can’t look at the house the same anymore.”

Sliding my leg up on the bench, I prop my head onto my fist. “Because of your mom’s illness?”

“A little because of that. I mean, it smells like a hospital now but mainly because…” A thousand thoughts flit through her eyes.

I can practically see the gears turning in her mind before she suddenly stops.

“My dad used to fill the house with joy but I can’t look back at those memories with fondness anymore. ”

My heartbeat quickens. “How come?”

It’s quiet for so long that if I weren’t staring at Bella, with her puckered lips and furrowed brows, I would have thought she fell asleep. Finally, her soft voice drifts toward me, making my heart sink. “He left the week my mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.”

Indignation and pure unadulterated anger surges through my veins.

This is what her mom was talking about. The story that was both hers and Bella’s to share.

The utter devastation that fills those gorgeous honey-colored eyes has my chest pinching painfully and my stomach bottoming out. She doesn’t deserve to have that pain in her heart.

“He abandoned you two when you needed him the most,” I state simply.

Bella seems to grow heavier, her body sagging on the bench.

“Over twenty years of marriage, a grown daughter… He wrote a note, packed his bags while we were at the grocery store, and ne ver looked back.” She laughs but it doesn’t hold an ounce of humor.

“Ironic how usually it’s the man leaving for the grocery store and abandoning his family, not the family going out for bread and milk and returning home to half of their belongings gone. ”

“Jesus Christ,” I curse. I wish more than anything I knew Bella then, so I could have helped her. “That would have been?—”

“Shocking to say the least.”

“Look, I don’t want to talk badly about him because he’s your father?—”

“He lost the right to be called my father the moment he gave up on my mother and left me to deal with the weight of her impending death alone.”

The venom in her words doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. In fact, it’s deserved. Dipping my head, I choose to go with the truth. “He’s a piece of shit.”

Her eyes flare before a smirk lifts her lips. “That he is.”

“No, like truly, that man is the scum of this earth.” Sitting up taller, I can’t stop the flood of anger.

How fucking dare he do this to her? To them both?

“I’ve never heard of something more disgusting in my life.

I would like to say that he doesn’t deserve you two but you didn’t deserve that.

I hope there’s a special place in hell waiting for him. ”

Bella is quiet for a moment before saying casually, “Did you know when women get terminally ill the doctors pull them aside and prepare them for their husband to leave because statistically men have a significantly higher chance of abandoning them?”

My eyes feel like they’re popping out of their sockets. “Are you joking?”

“Nope,” she says, popping the p . “My mom’s oncologist sat her down three days before he left. I heard her and him laughing about how ridiculous the notion was in the kitchen.”

“And he left anyway.”

Her sigh is heavy. “He’s scum.”

“Has he tried to contact either of you?”

“Not a word.”

I can’t talk as I watch the pain strike her. “I’m so sorry, Bella. ”

She shrugs.

“No, I need you to know that you didn’t deserve that. Neither did your mom, but you truly did not deserve to have the burden of his failure to be a good husband and father placed upon your shoulders.”

Her eyes are down on her lap, but once they lift, I see there’s silver lining them. “I’ll never forgive him for it,” she whispers harshly.

“And you don’t have to. He doesn’t deserve forgiveness.” My chest fills with pain at the sadness in her gaze. I jump at the first thing that comes to mind to distract her. “Come to the playoffs with me,” I blurt out.

She blinks. “The playoffs?”

“We’re leaving in a week. It’s a two-night stay in Michigan, we’re up against our rival team. Come with me. Asher is taking Cindy so you won’t be alone while we’re training.”

“What about Bambi?”

I shrug. “I’ll have my mom and dad watch her. They’d love it.”

“I’m not sure. I’d have to see how my mom’s feeling…”

“But if she’s feeling okay?”

She bites her bottom lip before rolling her eyes. “Fine, I could use a small getaway.”