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Chapter Eighteen

Christina

I guess my doctor was right. The combination of the surgery and having the right partner results in zero pain and maximum pleasure.

I never thought I would enjoy that hard a pounding. I snicker internally, knowing some of my friends would find our sexcapades tame. But holy hell that was the hottest thing I’ve experienced, waking up to a sex god who ensures my pleasure even when I can tell how amped he is by the hard line of his jaw.

After a moment for us both to catch our breath, Cam slides out of me and stands to straddle the chaise. Those quads, raising him up from a wide squat like it was nothing.

I sigh, and he glances at me. I wave him off, “Just enjoying the view. Pardon me, I need to see the back view.”

He throws back his head and laughs at me parroting his words back to him. Swinging a leg over the chaise longue, he heads to the bathroom to clean up.

“Someday I want to bounce a quarter off that ass, for real,” I mutter as his glutes flex with each step. My mouth is dry with lust—I’m pretty sure all the moisture in my body is between my legs—and I wonder if he’d be up for another round. The man just played sixty minutes of hockey at the highest professional level and then pounded me for my pleasure, and I’m hoping for more? I need to stop being a greedy slut and let him rest, even if he is twenty-four and could rise to the challenge.

I wander toward the bathroom as he emerges, wrapping the soft throw around me in lieu of clothes. After a quick cleanup, I redon the red baby doll and underwear. When I turn, he’s standing awkwardly halfway between the bed and his clothes.

“I wasn’t sure what you wanted,” he half asks.

I smile and offer him the choice. “I told you earlier I didn’t want Greg to see your car overnight. But if you want to sleep in your own bed, especially after the game and all, I understand.”

Leaving the decision to him, I crawl into my side of the bed. I have one knee down and am turning to plant my butt when the bed bounces hard, and he’s there on his back grinning at me.

“Yes, please.”

I shake my head and laugh at his antics. “Are you still wound up or are you going to be able to sleep?”

“I dunno. I’ve never done any of this before. If not, how do you feel about your sleep being interrupted for round two, or should I slip out if that happens?”

He needs to stop being so damned cute and sweet already. My heart won’t be able to take it. Falling in love with him cannot be part of the equation. Ever.

Still smiling, I say, “Thank you for asking. I’m sure you can convince me, should the need arise.” I draw out the last word with a grin. “I do have a question for you, since you don’t seem like you’re about to crash.”

He scoots the covers out from under where he threw himself then tugs on my arm. “Sure, but come down here to ask it. I need to hold you.”

Geez. More cuteness. I throw my hair up in a scrunchie so neither of us gets smothered by it in our sleep and arrange myself facing him on my side. That crook of his arm is as enticing as a pillow, but I want to see him to have this conversation.

“What’s your question?” he asks, brushing a loose hair behind my ear.

“Could we get away with me using your tickets without arousing suspicion?” A grin starts to bloom on his face as I continue. “Would people believe you offered it to me as your dance partner, or be suspicious because I’m not using the owners’ lower level seats?”

“Aw, you want to sit closer to me. How sweet,” he teases.

“Ha ha. I want to sit closer to the action.” I can’t admit that he’s right, it’s too intimate, not at all casual. Anyway, I’m focused on the secrecy aspect. “Seriously, though, what are your thoughts?”

“It should be fine. But why don’t you want to use your brother’s?”

Thankfully, I anticipated this question. In bed with Cam is not the time to discuss Travis. “Because he likes to use them for sponsors and big wigs, and I don’t want to have to schmooze. The whole point of being so close to the ice is to watch the game.” To watch him.

“Ah, I getcha.” He shrugs the shoulder he’s not lying on. “Sure, I’ll let the Ops team know.”

“Of course, if you want them for anyone else ever, just tell me.”

“Who else would come? My teammates from Indiana are all on tight budgets, although a couple are coming to our games when we’re on the road. And I don’t know anyone here outside of the team.”

His voice sounds sad, as though he might be thinking of his half-siblings, but I don’t press. He’s already had a long night, and now I’ve inadvertently reminded him that he has very few people to celebrate this huge career step with. Instead, I snuggle closer and enjoy his magnificent body pressed against mine as we fall asleep.

Cam wakes me at dawn with his hands roaming my body over the nightie. His cock pokes my butt as he spoons me, and I shimmy against him.

I can’t tell him this, but I’ve only spent the night with a man a handful of times and that was years ago, before my endo diagnosis. This is new and thrilling, yet strangely comfortable because it’s him.

My hip shake gives me away, and his caresses grow bolder. He skims the strap he can reach down my arm and pinches my nipple gently, then harder. He nuzzles behind my ear and asks again, “You cool with this?”

“This is delicious and totally okay, but you’re a furnace. It’s hard to be cool.”

His shoulders shake behind me with a silent chuckle while his tongue traces a path from my neck along my shoulder.

I shiver, and reach behind me, grabbing his hip to grind myself harder against him.

I’ve never had morning sex, as there were always dance practices to get to, and later classes. Since the surgery, I’ve been too afraid to brave any sex, but perhaps I should have. My body feels more relaxed, either from sleep or the magnificent orgasm last night.

He kisses down my spine, pressing me forward to lie on my belly with one leg bent. When he helps himself to a quick bite of my ass cheek, I yelp and say, “If you need sustenance, I’ll make breakfast.”

“You are breakfast.” His kisses trailing back along my spine to my neck reinforce his words, as does his nip of my neck tendon.

Then he freezes. “Fuck.”

I try to roll to face him, but his arm holds me in place across the top of my ass.

“Don’t move for a second. I need a minute to…I don’t have another condom.”

“Oh.” My tone holds all the same disappointment his does. I consider what I know of him and the team policies and say slowly, “You got tested for the team. I haven’t been with anyone in years and have a clean bill of health, and I’m on birth control.”

At his silence, I try to figure out what’s going through his mind. He or someone he knows has probably had a puck bunny or three say whatever he wanted to hear to claim him as a conquest. Or worse, there are horror stories of pinpricks in condoms and suing for parental support. My shoulders sag. “It’s—”

“Yes, please.” His voice is strangled. Cam releases me and fumbles against my butt.

“Are you sure? Can I turn over? Your voice sounds funny.”

“I’m holding my dick to avoid jumping you right now. The thought of you bareback…Fuck, Chris.”

“Oh.” My cheek presses against the pillow as I smile in satisfaction.

He slaps my butt cheek with a snort of laughter and rolls into me again. “I’m sure. Now, where were we?”

After another round, we manage to sneak him out of the house to the driveway. Just as I’m opening my front door, Greg opens the back door of the big house and calls over, “Have you eaten, or do you want to grab breakfast with me?”

I gulp. His timing is close enough I wonder if he saw me with Cam out front.

He doesn’t bring it up and I can’t ask, so I presume my secret is safe for now. But the whole encounter reinforces the risks to Cam in this short-term affair, to say nothing of the risks to my heart.