Page 55 of Goal Line (Boston Rebels #4)

Chapter Forty-One

EVA

I ’m sitting on a barstool at the counter, thumbing through our article that came out today in Society magazine and snacking on a small bowl of almonds, when Luke ambles into the living room.

His face is ashen, like he’s just gotten terrible news, and there’s a thin sheen of sweat across his forehead.

Pausing at the wide opening into the kitchen, he leans against the tall cabinets to his left.

“You okay?” I ask, a tad worried about whatever has him looking like this.

“Yeah.” He runs his hand through his hair. “I just got off my call with Chloe.”

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

He clears his throat and mumbles something unintelligible as he turns and walks to the refrigerator.

Pushing off the stool, I follow him around the island, thankful that I’m home after meeting Amy for lunch. I don’t see my high school friends often enough, considering that I live here now, and I’m trying to be better about that.

I cross my arms, resting them on my baby bump as I lean against the countertop and study him chugging orange juice straight from the container in front of the open fridge. “I’m here if you want to talk about it.”

“I will. Eventually.”

“But not right now?”

He sets the orange juice on the counter, shuts the refrigerator, and steps toward me. “Right now, I just want you in my arms. You’re the only thing in my life that feels truly permanent.”

I lean into him as he wraps his arms around me. With my head on his chest and my arms wrapped around his lower back, I can feel his shallow, rapid breaths and fast, strong heartbeat. The longer we hold one another, the slower they become, until he feels like my normal, calm, and resilient Luke.

He’s always been my rock, but I’m starting to realize that maybe I’m his, too.

I run my hands up and down his back, hoping that the supportive gesture lets him know I’m here for him...but if his growing erection pushing into my belly is any indication, he’s looking for a totally different type of togetherness.

My shoulders shake with laughter, and he pulls his upper body away so he can look down at me. I glance up to see a confused look on his face. “Sorry, I’m just over here trying to be a supportive wife, and then your dick is poking into my belly...”

He moves his hands to my hips and lifts me up, setting me on the countertop and stepping up between my legs.

Then he smooths the hair that’s fallen from my ponytail back out of my face before leaning forward to press his lips to my forehead.

“I missed you today when you were at practice and then at lunch. I always miss you when you’re not with me. ”

“Same,” I tell him. “It’s going to be hard when the season starts back up.”

He rests his forehead against mine and whispers, “I know.” Another deep sigh, and then he says, “I wish we got to enjoy this honeymoon phase a little bit longer. Pretty soon, hockey will start, and then we’ll have a baby, and after that you’ll be training like crazy for the Olympics.

We’ll never get this much time together, just the two of us, again. ”

I wrap my legs around his upper thighs. “I guess we’ll just need to make the most of the time we do have.”

Tilting my chin up, I press my lips against his, and he kisses me back like we’ve been apart for half a year instead of half a day.

I don’t know how I once believed I could live with this man just being my friend, and now I can’t go six hours without having sex with him.

I guess it’s because I didn’t know what I was missing.

When he lifts me off the counter, I tighten my legs around his hips as he walks into the living room. “Where are we going?” I ask between kisses.

“You’re sweaty from practice and I’m gross from my workout with Zach, so I think we both need a shower before we go out to dinner.”

“We’re going out to dinner?”

“Only if you want to. But I made a reservation, just in case,” he says as he turns into the hallway leading to the bedrooms.

“You know I’m always hungry,” I say with a smile, reaching down to find the hem of my tank top and pulling it over my head as he approaches the door to our bedroom.

“Shit, Peaches.” With a groan, he looks down at my bare chest as my shirt lands somewhere behind him. “I swear your tits are growing faster than any other part of your body.”

“You like that, huh?”

“Just one of the many reasons I plan to keep you pregnant as often as possible,” he says, pressing a sloppy kiss to the side of my neck as he turns into the bathroom.

“Oh yeah?” I ask, sighing from the trail of wet kisses that are making their way to my collarbone. “What are the other reasons?”

“Well, your insatiable appetite for sex is certainly another reason.”

“Maybe that’s because of you and not the hormones,” I suggest as he sets me on my feet and looks down at me like he’s immensely pleased with himself.

“I guess we’ll know eventually. But also, the way you look—like you’re glowing from within as you grow our baby—it’s such a turn-on.”

Aside from the way my breasts just keep getting bigger and my hair looks amazing, there’s not much I love about my body now that I’m solidly in my third trimester. But if he likes my body like this...I’m not going to let the rapid weight gain or the ever-expanding stretch marks bother me.

He drops into a squat, sitting on his heels as he hooks his thumbs into the waistband of my shorts, pulls them over my hips, and lets them fall to my feet.

Then he kisses the underside of my belly before he dips his head lower and breathes in my scent.

“I fucking love the way you smell when you’re turned on. ”

“I’m always turned on,” I say, my breath becoming more rapid.

“Good,” he hums, before turning me to face the mirror over the sink and rising to his feet behind me. Reaching his hand behind his head, he pulls his T-shirt up and over his head before dropping his shorts to the floor.

My breath catches at the sight of his broad, bare shoulders and muscular arms. He reaches down to steady my hips while he uses one of his feet to spread my legs, and I can feel his warm breath on my shoulder as he leans over me and tells me to place my hands on either side of the mirror.

I’m so keyed up that I don’t need him to do anything more to get me ready.

He holds my hips in place as he pushes inside me in one long, slow thrust and leans forward to place one of his hands on the wall above mine, allowing me to adjust to him.

Then he tells me, “I love everything about you, Eva,” as he starts moving inside of me, holding my gaze in the mirror as he adds, “I think I’ve loved you my entire life. ”

It’s all so much that I can no longer control my emotions. Tears leak out of the corner of my eyes as I say, “I know I’ve loved you my whole life. I just didn’t think you’d ever love me back.”

He moves his hand under my belly and across my body so his forearm anchors me to him. “I’ve never not loved you, and I’m never going to love anyone but you.”

Tilting his hips, he changes the angle, making contact with a previously unexplored part of me. Shock waves wrack my body and my lips part with a breathy sigh, but words are lost to me as the sensations flood my system.

Luke tucks his chin so he’s whispering directly in my ear.

“ I’m never going to fuck anyone but you, Peaches.

” His hand moves beneath my belly and his finger finds my clit, and I’m not sure if it’s the way he’s touching me that turns me on more, or if it’s knowing that I’m the only woman he’ll ever have sex with.

“And I’m never going to get my fill of you.

The way you look when you’re about to come .

. . it’s fucking addictive. You are my addiction. ”

The heat builds in my core, and my body feels like it’s burning up, and then Luke growls in my ear, “Now give me that orgasm so I can throw you in the shower and dirty you up with my cum before I clean you off and make you come again.”

I’m about to tell him that demanding my orgasm doesn’t make it happen more quickly, but then he increases the pressure and says, “I love watching your tits bounce every time our bodies meet.”

My eyes follow his gaze in the mirror. The sight of us—of him taking me bent over like this, my belly resting on the counter and my breasts swaying each time he bottoms out—turns the heat within me up a notch.

A few more thrusts, the drag of him along my inner walls, has me teetering right at the edge, and that heat turns into lava spreading through me as my core clenches around Luke and my entire body convulses.

I’m a shaking mess of satisfaction as I ride the waves of that orgasm, crying his name as his eyes stay locked on mine in our reflection.

The minute my body grows slack, Luke picks me up, one arm under my knees and the other under my back and walks us into his massive shower.

Turning the water on, he lets it warm up before setting me on my feet and pulling me under the shower head with him .

Facing him, I reach between us and grasp his length in my hand. He’s still coated in my cum, but the water is slowly washing it away.

“Fuck, Peaches,” he whispers, his head falling back into the stream of water, as he groans.

“I need your mouth.” I sit back on the built-in bench with him still in my hand and greedily suck him in.

He grunts softly and fists my hair as I take him deeper into my throat until he’s moaning with pleasure.

“Fuuuuuuck yes,” he growls, like he’s trying to hold himself back. His reaction only spurs me on. With my other hand, I reach between my legs and circle my swollen clit as I take him deeper and open my throat so he can press even farther in.

“Look at you playing with yourself while you swallow my cock,” he says as I glance up. “There’s nothing fucking sexier than this.”

And then I slide my fingers into my cunt and fuck my own hand as I take him all the way into my throat, whimpering around him. My hips buck wildly against my fingers and Luke’s soft grunts turn ragged as looks down at me.

He pulls out quickly, shooting his release over my neck and chest. The way he’s coated me in his cum, the warmth of it trailing down my body amid the hot steam of the shower, is the thing that sends my orgasm ricocheting through me.

Then he pulls me up into his arms and tells me, over and over again, how much he loves me as the hot water rains down on us.

I hold my face up to the spray, letting go of the girl I once was: the one who actively pursued other guys, even though she was in love with her best friend, the one who’d convinced herself that finding someone— anyone—to love her would make up for the fact that Luke didn’t.

As I stand under the shower, he adds soap to a bath sponge and caresses every inch of my body with bubbles.

Then, he massages my peach-scented shampoo into my scalp and trails the long strands of my hair between his fingers, before rinsing it out.

He slowly and methodically repeats the process with the conditioner, running his hands through the strands and giving the occasional tug that sends shivers down my spine.

What should have been obvious all along is more than clear now: this is how Luke shows his love. It’s how he’s always shown that he loves me—by taking care of me, showing up, being there when I need him. His love isn’t transactional, it just is .

I follow suit, washing him and hoping my hands carefully moving over every part of his body communicate that I’ll always take care of him the same way he takes care of me.

When Luke says that we need to get out of the shower or we’ll miss dinner, I reluctantly let him wrap me in a towel. He heads out of the bathroom to give me time to dry off, but he’s back in only moments, my phone in his hand.

“You have a text and several missed calls from Christopher,” he tells me, handing me my phone, “and from Morgan.” And sure enough, my lock screen is littered with notifications from the two of them.

I look at the texts first—Christopher letting me know that he was repeatedly approached by fans asking about Luke and me when he was out this evening, and Morgan telling me that the magazine article has “kind of blown up in a good way,” and suggesting that we might want to lay low for a bit.

Luke chuckles and says, “Oh no, I guess we’ll have to order takeout and spend all night together naked.”

“Sounds like an awful way to spend the evening,” I reply with a growing smile as all my concerns from this morning about needing more sleep disappear.