Page 27

TWENTY-SIX

declan

“Listen up,” Coach yells between his cupped hands. “That was a hard-fought win, and I’m proud of you boys. Chicago was tougher than we were expecting.”

“Monroe’s wife saved our asses,” Bouchard says.

Coach smiles. “She sure as shit did.”

I grin, proud as hell of Willa. Sure, I scored and so did Ivanov, but it was only because of her careful observations.

“Mrs. Monroe also has two other members of her band with her, and they’re asking for autographs.”

“They want our autographs?” Fitz, the second line center, asks looking bewildered.

“Probably not yours,” Martinez snickers.

“Cal will sign your naked ass if you ask him to,” I say.

“He’s right. I will!” Cal yells from the other side of the door.

“Get showered and dressed so they can come in here,” Coach says, shaking his head and trying to hide a smile. “I won’t have any of you traumatizing Willa.”

“You’d have to try a lot harder than that!” Cal yells again.

I roll my eyes. “For fuck’s sake, Callahan! Go do something for five minutes so we can get dressed!” I can hear my wife hysterically laughing in the hallway.

“Shower and get dressed. You have twenty minutes before press,” Coach says and leaves for his office.

I’ve never seen the guys change so quickly. They’re all presentable within seven minutes.

“Alright Cal, you can come in,” I shout. He barges in and immediately makes a beeline for Bouchard. Kai and Willa follow at a normal pace until Willa spots me. She runs and throws herself into my arms, kissing me deeply.

The team chants her name, making her blush and laugh. “The only thing I did was pay attention. I’m not a coach.” All my teammates come up to her and thank her, tell her how awesome she is for saving the game for us. More than half ask for her autograph. Cal and Kai seem more starstruck than they should be considering they’re the more famous ones in this room. But I’m glad everyone is having a great time.

Coach pops his head back in. “Press in two minutes. They want Banks, Ivanov, Bouchard, and Monroe,” he says, pausing when he looks at me. “They’re going to ask about Mrs. Monroe. It’s up to you two if you want to be out there together or not.” Then he’s gone.

“What do you want to do, Princess?” I ask Willa. I’ve been holding her hand the whole time, even when she was signing autographs.

She shrugs. “I’m used to interviews. I can go with you if you want me to.”

“I always want you with me.” I cup her cheek and kiss her lips gently.

Leroy is waiting for us outside of the media room. He’s the manager of media coordination or some title like that. Basically, he’s who we talk to before we talk to the press.

“Players will go in first. The media have been instructed to hold questions pertaining to Declan’s relationship until the end,” he says. He turns to Willa. “You’ll stay here with me, Mrs. Monroe. Once the topic changes to you, you can make your way onto the stage. There will be an empty chair next to Declan for you. You don’t have to answer any uncomfortable questions.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve had PR training. I’ve sat down for thirty interviews in the past two months. I’ve got this.” She smiles at him, but he looks shocked.

“T-thirty?” he stutters.

“Oh. I thought you knew. I’m in a band. We’re doing pretty well right now. We just finished our latest tour, but part of a tour is television and radio interviews. Usually at least one morning TV show and one radio show per stop, with an occasional late-night show thrown in. We had fifteen shows and thirty interviews this last leg.”

I snort. “She’s being modest. Their latest album just went multi-platinum.”

“I’m the drummer from Shattered Halo,” Willa offers the shocked man.

“Oh!” he exclaims. “You’re Willa Prince!”

“The hair didn’t give that away?” Gideon asks, amused by this whole interaction.

“I didn’t want to assume,” Leroy says, blushing. His phone buzzes in his hand. “They’re ready for you. You know the drill.”

We nod and make our way to our seats. The reporters ask their usual questions while peppering us with compliments. They think it softens us up to answering their questions in more detail. It doesn’t. We just want to get out of here most of the time.

It’s getting towards the usual end time for these things when one reporter asks Gideon, “You guys came out in the second period and exploited weakness in Chicago’s defense that you didn’t even see before. Where did that come from?” Gideon looks at me. Good enough segue.

“I can answer that. It was my wife. She’s an avid hockey fan and texted me everything she noticed during the first period. I showed it to Coach, and we changed what we were doing.”

“Your wife being Willa Prince?” another reporter asks. I smile and turn towards the door where Willa is standing.

“Wanna come out here, Princess?” I ask her.

She walks out on stage and goes to take the seat next to me, but I pull her into my lap instead. The clicks on the cameras go wild. The sound reminds me I need to ask Ben if he got any good pictures of us tonight.

Willa points to a female reporter near the front with her hand raised. She’s definitely a seasoned pro at this stuff.

“When did you two meet?”

Willa smiles at me before answering. “I was four, Dec was six. We’ve been best friends since.”

“When did it become more?” the next reporter Willa calls on asks.

“Around eight months ago, now. Have you ever realized the person you were meant to be with has been right in front of you your whole life, but you were blind to it? That was us for too many years to count.” Shit. That answer squeezes my heart.

“How long have you been married?” the reporter Willa points to in the back asks.

“Almost two months. We didn’t feel the need to wait. When you’ve been as close as we have for as long as we have, not being married felt like wasting time.”

I’m just sitting here, holding my beautiful wife in my arms, and letting her describe this perfect love story we don’t have yet, but we will. Several reporters start asking questions all at once, and I see Leroy move out of the corner of my eye, probably to shut things down, but Willa holds up her hand.

“Declan and I are more than willing to answer your questions, but you need to wait your turns. This isn’t an elementary school classroom; we’re all adults here.” The room quiets and hands shoot into the air.

Willa calls on a few more reporters and kindly answers their questions. “It was great to meet you all, but I’d like to go home with my husband.” She stands, takes my hand, and pulls me off stage.

“You really are a pro,” Leroy says with a surprised laugh.

“It’s not the eighties, Leroy,” I say, patting him on the back. “Rockstars aren’t all drugged out and drunk in front of reporters anymore.”

“Take me home, Dec,” Willa says as we walk away from the media room. A low growl starts in my chest, and I scoop Willa up into my arms. She squeals a little before wrapping her arms tightly around my neck.

“You need to start warning me before you do that.”

“Nah. I like that noise you make when you’re surprised.”

“Wait until you hear the other noises I can make,” she whispers in my ear.

“Fuck.”

We barely make it inside the door before we’re on each other. Willa’s in my arms, grinding against my stomach as I fuck her mouth with my tongue. My knees are screaming for me to sit down and ice them, but I ignore the pain.

“Fuck, Princess,” I groan into her mouth.

“I need you inside me, Dec. Please.”

“Fuck.”

I let her down in front of the couch and quickly pull her pants down, taking her panties with them. She rips my jersey and her shirt off and pulls her bunched up jeans off along with her shoes. I bite my fist as I take in how fucking perfect she is standing in front of me in just a pink lacy bra.

Willa reaches for my belt, but I grab her wrist. “Sit on the edge, legs spread.” She scrambles to do as I ask. I kneel in front of her, kissing my way up her thigh. “Do you taste as sweet as you smell?”

“Find out for yourself.” Her voice is breathy as she stares at me with lust-filled eyes.

I don’t need to be told twice. Licking my way from her entrance to her clit, I moan at her taste on my tongue. “You taste even sweeter.”

“Dec,” Willa whines.

“I’ve got you, Princess.”

I descend on her in earnest, sucking her clit and teasing it with my teeth. She grinds against me, trying to get more friction.

“I want you. Baby, please,” she moans. I practically growl when she calls me baby. I didn’t think I liked that, but from her lips, it’s fucking everything.

I slip two fingers inside her, curling them towards me. I know I find the right spot when the noise she makes gets louder and deeper.

“Right there, Dec. Fuck. Right there,” she mumbles with her eyes shut and head thrown back. I suck on her clit hard and then she’s coming, screaming my name and pulsing around my fingers. I lick her through it until she’s sensitive and pushing me away.

Willa runs her hands through my hair and pulls me towards her, kisses my mouth that’s slick with her arousal and moans at the taste.

“Princess,” I murmur as I pull away. My knees are throbbing so badly, they killed my hard on. “Can you get two bags of ice and the athletic tape?”

Willa’s eyes go wide as she jumps off the couch. “Shit, baby. Your knees.” She throws my jersey on and runs upstairs.

“Willa? The ice is down here!” I yell to her, gingerly pulling myself onto the couch and arranging my body so that my back is leaning on the arm and my legs are elevated.

Willa is running back down the stairs and into the kitchen. I hear her curse while rummaging in the freezer. She reappears a few minutes later with two bags of ice, two cloth bandages and a pair of my basketball shorts. That at least explains what she went upstairs for.

“I couldn’t find the tape. Will these work?” she asks, holding up the bandages.

I stand slowly and take my suit off. Willa helps me get my shoes off and my shorts on before making me sit back down on the couch and wrapping the ice in the bandages around my knees.

“I could’ve ridden you and this wouldn’t have happened,” Willa says, crawling between my legs and settling her head on my chest.

I laugh. “I told you, Princess. You’re not ready yet.” My dick, however, is taking notice of my wife wearing my jersey. Only my jersey. I know she feels me harden underneath her when she snorts. “Ignore that.”

She wiggles, causing me to groan. Willa slides down my body and pulls at the waistband of my shorts.

“Princess,” I warn.

“Let me take care of you.” She looks at me and bites her bottom lip. I lift my hips, letting her pull my shorts down.

“Holy shit, baby,” she says when she sees the size of me. My dick twitches. Willa smiles when she looks up at me. “You like when I call you baby?” she asks. My dick twitches again. Her smile turns sultry as she lowers her mouth to my cock.

Willa licks from my balls all the way to the tip without breaking eye contact. I almost come from that alone. “Take me in your mouth, Princess.”

She does as I ask, sucking gently on the head before taking me to the back of her throat. “Fucking Christ!” I yell, my hips thrusting up of their accord. “Willa, holy fuck.” She pulls all the way off and then takes me to the back of her throat again, but this time she swallows. I moan louder than I ever have in my life. I can feel how wide my eyes are from shock or pleasure, I’m not sure which. She does the same thing two more times, and I’m done for. I never stood a fucking chance.

Willa swallows everything I give her and then licks her lips like she just had a tasty snack. I’m panting like I just ran a marathon. My jaw is hanging open, and I’m staring at my wife like she’s the perfect surprise. Willa gently pushes my jaw shut with her finger and kisses my cheek. Then she helps me get my shorts back up. I haven’t been able to utter a single word.

“I don’t have a gag reflex,” she says as she pulls the blanket off the back of the couch and throws it over us.

“Yeah, I’ll say,” I manage, my voice hoarse. She leans in and kisses me. It’s slow and sweet, but dirty as fuck with the taste of me on her tongue. She snuggles into me, and I wrap her tightly in my arms. I fall asleep with a smile on my face.

I’m so fucking in love with this woman.