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Luke

“ T oday is your day,” I whisper against Lennon’s hair. The scent of her vanilla shampoo floods my nose and brings a sense of calm to the storm inside of me. I might be more nervous than her. Dawn is just breaking through the hotel curtains, and soon I’ll have to get out of bed and leave her here to get ready.

“I know,” she breathes out heavily. “I can’t believe how fast the year has gone. It feels like just yesterday the season was starting off and you showed up…all mean and totally uninterested in doing your job.” She pinches my thigh, and I snatch her hand away and pin it to her chest. She giggles as she tries to fight back, but as strong as she is, she’s no match for me.

“There should be no complaints coming out of that smart mouth of yours about how I do my job. Or did ,” I correct with a bitter taste in my mouth. “Seeing as you told me it was your goal to get back here today, and look”—I roll her onto her back and prop myself up on my elbow so I can look at her—“you did it. One final game away from that title.”

Her eyes sparkle at the prospect, and in the early glow of the morning sun, she looks ethereal laid out beside me. Her white sleep tank rides up on her stomach, and I want to kiss every inch of flesh it exposes.

“One more game,” she echoes softly. “And the first one I’ll have to play today without you by my side.”

I stroke her cheek with my thumb, and she leans into my touch. “You’ll be amazing. You don’t need me there.”

“I know I don’t need you there, but I want you there.”

“I want that, too. But your parents will be there cheering you on. If you need to find someone in the crowd to center you, find them.”

“Yeah…I’m glad Coach Maver didn’t say anything to them.”

“It’s because you’re an adult.”

“I know,” she says. “But I want to be able to tell them on my own. Maybe a few weeks from now. You could come over for dinner one night maybe?”

I press a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll do whatever you want. Whatever timeline you wanna tell them on, I’ll follow.”

“What about your family? Since you already told them?”

After I met with Sebastian yesterday, I knew he wouldn’t let me keep it a secret from Dad anymore. So I went over to his hotel room last night, and that conversation went about as well as mine did with Seb. But I trust they’ll come around.

“Again, maybe in a few weeks,” I tell her. “Let things die down a bit, you and I figure out our new normal once we’re back. And you still have a lot on your plate with finishing up the semester and job hunting. They can wait a little bit longer.”

“Okay.” She rolls over so she’s curled into my chest. Her fingers trace small circles against my bare skin. “We did this together, and it doesn’t feel right that you won’t be a part of it today.”

Alice gave me very strict, very stern instructions, that I’m not to come to the game today. I don’t want this to mess with Lennon’s focus on a day she needs to be tunneling down into that well of concentration and tapping into it.

I shift my arm out from beneath her head and reluctantly stand up.

“Where are you going?” she pouts.

“Hold on.” I cross the small room to grab the duffel bag I brought over last night. I shouldn’t have slept here, but we both needed to be close to each other when it suddenly feels like we’ve been hung out to dry.

Lennon sits up in bed, the covers pooling at her waist, and watches me curiously. I block her view of the bag as I pull out what I came over here to get and keep it tucked out of her view as I walk back over.

“What are you up to, Coach Holloway?” She grins cheekily as I approach.

My heart is thumping in my chest, already anticipating her reaction. When I step up to the edge, I pull the mask from behind my back and hold it out to her.

She gasps and throws a hand over her mouth. Her eyes are wide as saucers as she looks from the mask, to me, to the mask once more. Then an excited squeal pierces the air and pulls a laugh from my throat.

“Oh my god!” She reaches forward and takes it carefully from my hands, cradling it gingerly. “Is this for me?”

“Well I certainly don’t have use for goalie masks anymore.”

“Is this your old one?”

I shake my head. “It would’ve been too big for you. I checked the size of yours in the locker room once. But I had the same artist who did mine create this one for you.”

The art styles are similar, keeping the essence of mine there that she loved so much, but the pieces around it are for her.

The majority of it is covered in a giant husky portrait; its icy-blue eyes the exact same color as Haulton’s jerseys. On the back, the number 33 is bold in a graffiti style font, with splatters of black and grey. Tucked within some of the splatters is the number 32; a homage to our shared history of wearing that when we were younger.

But the sides are what catch her attention and cause her breath to hitch. She traces each of the blue lightsabers with her fingers.

“Just like the ones on yours,” she breathes.

“One for me, one for you,” I tell her. They’re both blue, to match the rest of the design, with one on each side for symmetry. And hidden in the swirls of the background of it, I had Killer written in the mix.

“When did you do this?” she whispers, turning the mask over and over to reinspect every inch. Her eyes trace it with the utmost appreciation, and satisfaction floods me.

“I reached out to him the night after you found mine.”

Her head whips up. “The night I slept over?”

I nod.

“But we weren’t even together then.”

My face heats, and I scratch the back of my neck. “I know. But when I saw how much you liked my old one…I don’t know. I thought that if you made it here today, if you continued to put in the work you were, that you deserved something special.”

Tears spring to her eyes, and she carefully sets the mask aside before rising to her knees and inching to the edge of the bed. She throws her arms around my shoulders, and I pull her close, relishing in every inch of skin of mine that touches her.

“I love it, thank you,” she says against my neck. “It’s perfect.”

“Now you’ll have a piece of me down there on the ice with you.”

She pulls back, taking my face in her hands. “I love you.”

“Say it again,” I whisper.

“I love you.” Her smile shines even brighter as more morning light floods the room.

I gently push her back until she’s lying on the bed, and I’m pressed against her. She opens her legs for me, allowing my hips to lay flush against hers, and I grind my hardening cock against her.

A wicked grin flashes across her face as she tilts her head back. The long column of her neck is exposed, and I lean down and nip at her collarbone. Her thighs clench around me as she lets out a surprised moan. I do it again, this time teasing her skin with my tongue.

I kiss my way along her collarbone, up her neck, to her ear, and finally, when she’s squirming and begging beneath me, I capture her lips.

She moans, melting into me the moment we’re connected. Her tongue dances with mine, like we have all the time in the world, and maybe now, we finally do. We’re far from being in the clear, but we at least have each other.

Her hands slip down my chest, pushing down my underwear. My cock springs free between us, and I groan as she instantly strokes me with her warm palm.

She hums against my lips. “All of this for me?”

I thrust into her hand, and she squeezes the tip, making my body hitch. “All for you, baby. Fuck, stroke me just like that. Good girl.”

I kiss her again, harder this time, as she continues to work me over. Slipping my hand between us, I shove aside her little shorts and find her dripping wet. I swirl it around her clit while swallowing her cries with our kiss. Her hips buck, and my cock throbs with anticipation of being where my fingers are right now.

I break our kiss and start to move toward the bottom of the bed, needing a taste of her, when she wraps her legs around me and locks me in place. “No,” she pleads. “Please, just fuck me. I need you.”

Who the fuck am I to deny her? I make quick work of my underwear and her shorts, while she pulls her tank over her head. The motion fans her chocolate hair across the pillow, and I thumb the strands. “I love your hair.”

She smiles. “I’m aware. You touch it every chance you get.”

And I’ll never take it for granted. Not when I spent so long denying myself of it.

Bringing us chest to chest, eye to eye, I cage her in with my elbows around her head and stare down at her.

“All mine.”

“All mine,” she echoes and runs her nails gently over my back.

She tilts her chin in silent demand, and I kiss her once more, softly, gently, as I sink into her pussy. We let out a collective sigh as I fill her and she pulses around me.

“Feels so good every time,” she murmurs, and all I can do is nod as I pull back and slide in again and again.

She’s warm and wet and no longer someone I can’t have but someone who I’ve put everything on the line for and tossed it all to the wind because she’s worth it. The spark that sizzles in my chest again is fueled by her. I ache for her, to be close to her, to be around her.

Each thrust, each joining of the two of us feels so devastatingly right that fuck whoever says it’s wrong.

“You didn’t say it back,” she pants breathlessly.

“My apologies,” I tease, and the next time I thrust in, I pause, pushing even deeper. Her back arches, and her eyes go wide. “Yeah, that’s it,” I coo. “In case you couldn’t already feel it, I do. I love you, too.” My hips snap back before continuing their steady rhythm. Although each time I plunge back in and she squeezes around me, that pace falters bit by bit.

All the blood in my body rushes to my cock, and I know I can’t hold off much longer. Sweat glistens against Lennon’s skin and the way she claws at my arms and starts to lock up beneath me, I know she’s close too.

“Touch yourself,” I tell her. “Come with me. I need you with me.”

She snakes one one of her hands between us, and I can feel the moment she starts rubbing her clit. Her pussy pulses around me as her head pushes back into the pillow.

“Yes,” I hiss. “That’s it. Keep going.”

“Don’t stop,” she whimpers.

I pound into her so hard it shakes the bed, chasing the finish for the both of us.

“Luke,” she cries, and her entire body locks up beneath mine as her orgasm rushes through her. “Ahh, keep going.”

I grit my teeth and bear down, trying to prolong her pleasure as long as possible while staving mine off, but the sight of her under me and the pulsing of her around my cock, I’m done for.

“Fuck, baby,” I groan, pumping into her one last time before I still. Her hands run up and down my body, and I shudder in their wake. She chuckles softly as I collapse against her chest, careful not to crush her, but also not wanting to move just yet.

The sun is fully beating into the room now, and I know she needs to get up and going for the day ahead. Sensing that I’m about to move, she tangles her fingers in my hair and whispers against my neck, “Five more minutes?”

I relax and feel her to do the same. “Five more minutes. And then, you have a championship to win.”