Page 16
Story: Neo (Valencia Ice Mafia #1)
violet
The problem with being touched by a hockey god is that now I’m cursed with memories of the experience and how much better it could have felt if I had allowed it to progress where Neo was hoping to take it.
His tongue or his fingers?
My nipples harden just thinking about his wicked proposition. It’s all I can think about some days.
To avoid getting any further worked up about someone who I need to take completely off my radar, I try reading a chapter in my Econ textbook on Solow’s growth model. Yet all I seem to keep thinking about is the look Neo gave me as his fingers flicked my clit. His lustful gaze is practically seared into my consciousness now. Two seconds more and I would have orgasmed so hard for him it would have been embarrassing.
I was smart to stop it when I did. I truly believe that you give a little piece of your soul away when a man can make you come like that.
I decide to call Kennedy not only to check up on her but because I feel guilty as hell about what almost happened last night and I kind of miss her.
“How’s Philly?” I ask her.
“As good as it’s ever been,” she replies sarcastically.
“And how are you?”
“I’ve been better.”
“Are you ever going to tell me why you had to leave so suddenly like that?”
“Just some family shit. Nothing that warrants a full blow conversation right now. There are little birdies listening.”
“Understood.”
“What have you been doing while I’ve been gone? Anything exciting going on in Valencia City?”
Spying on Neo’s hockey practice.
Drooling while he swam in the buff.
Letting him suck on my nipples.
Relishing the feel of his fingers in my panties.
“Just reading and stuff.”
“Of course,” she laughs. “That’s all you ever do. Have you talked to your man at all?”
“Elijah?” I say, almost forgetting about him.
“Is there another one?”
“Right,” I chuckle nervously. “Yeah, of course, I’ve talked to him. I miss him so much,” I lie.
“Aww, that’s cute.”
“Are you staying home through the whole winter break?” I ask her.
“Hell, no. It’s a shit show here,” she sighs. “My goal is to fly back the day before New Year’s Eve. There’s a party I want us to go to and I want us to get new dresses for it.”
“A dress?”
“Yeah, like a total fuck ‘em dress. We need to look super hot. I’m going hunting.”
“Hunting for what?”
“Dick hunting, girl.”
“Uh, okay,” I chuckle. “Is that Ray kid going to be at this party?”
“That’s the word on the street,” she replies. “Hey, are you going to go over your Dad’s on Christmas?”
“Probably not.”
“Aww, I know he’s not your favorite person, but I don’t want you to be alone on Christmas. That sucks.”
“It’s fine. It’s just another day of the year.”
“Now we know that’s not exactly true. It’s only been a year and I know you must miss your mom something fierce.”
“Yeah, I do,” I admit. “But that’s why I’m going to stay in bed and read a novel I’ve been wanting to get to. I just want to get through the day and move on.”
“That sounds super sad.”
“I’m fine, Kennedy,” I huff, annoyed with her commentary on how I’m choosing to spend my holiday.
“Okay, girl, if you like it, then I love it.”
“Hey, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Is Shane from our neighborhood in Philly?”
There’s a loaded silence between us which sort of reminds me whenever I bring up Shane’s name in front of Neo. Neither he nor Kennedy ever want to talk about this guy. What is he, a serial killer or something?
“He’s definitely not a Philly boy. He’s from New Jersey.”
“South Jersey?”
“Yep.”
So near Philadelphia.
“Did you know him before coming to VCU?”
“Why all these questions about him? What do you care?”
“Why are you getting so defensive?”
“I’m not being bloody defensive.”
“Why did you suddenly speak in a British accent?” I try holding back a laugh.
“I just finished my holiday ritual of watching a few classic James Bond movies in a row.”
“Roger Moore or Sean Connery?”
“Sean Connery, of course.”
Of course.
“So what’s going on, Kennedy?” I return to the topic at hand. “Why does nobody want me to ask about Shane? He seemed nice enough at the rink the other day. Nicer than the other one.”
I pretend not to even remember Neo’s name.
What a joke.
Kennedy sighs heavily, clearly not wanting to discuss it, but my curiosity has been getting the better of me since the festival. I need to know.
“If you must know, and I don’t care who hears me, I don’t like talking about him because Shane’s bitch of a mother is dating my father.”
Well, damn, that’s not where I thought this conversation was going.
“Um, and?”
“And I don’t like it, Violet!”
“Is it serious between them?”
“As a heart attack. They brought me and Shane home to tell us that not only are they serious but they’re engaged. Can you believe that? She is marrying my father and moving into my mother’s house.”
Oh, damn.
“So you and Shane–”
“Will be step siblings if I don’t figure out a way to stop this colossal midlife crisis of my dad’s. He’s making a huge mistake, and he’s so pussy whipped he doesn’t even realize it.”
“How long have they been dating?”
“That’s not the question you should be asking.”
“Okay…what’s the right question?”
“How soon did they start officially dating after my parents’ divorce?”
“That sounds like a trick question.”
“The answer is exactly three weeks and four days after the papers were finalized.”
“Yeah, that’s not long at all.”
“Exactly, which means they must have been seeing each other well before my father strolled inside our kitchen and told my mother on a random summer night that he wanted a divorce. It means that his mother is the reason for the divorce.”
“I can see now why you’re angry.”
“Oh, I’m not just mad, I’m livid.”
“And how does Shane feel about it?”
“What does he care?”
“Well, it’s his mother in the middle of this, too. I’m sure he has strong feelings about who his mother marries.”
“I don’t know if Shane has a strong feeling about anything other than himself, Violet. I’m not sure he’s even capable of feeling anything outside of what happens on that ice and in his boxer shorts.”
“Ah, okay.”
No need to argue with her about a topic that she is probably way more knowledgeable about than me. She’s been at VCU longer and knows those guys better.
I can hear her angry breathing over the phone and decide to distract her with a random piece of information she might find amusing.
“We got a Christmas tree,” I blurt out.
“What?”
“A Christmas tree.”
“I thought you couldn’t stomach the whole idea of decorations because of, well, you know.”
“It’s not a huge tree or anything. It’s a small thing covered in one string of lights and a few random gold Christmas balls.”
I stare at Neo’s little gift, which I’ve since placed on the island counter of our kitchen, and find myself smirking. How the heck did that guy get a decorated Christmas tree, leave it for me, and leave the apartment without me hearing a thing? Talk about James Bond.
“Facetime me. I want to see it.”
We hang up our cell phones and I call Kennedy right back. Her eyes are slightly sunken in, like she has had little sleep. This thing between her dad and Shane’s mom must be really taking a toll on her.
“See.”
“Aww, it’s kind of cute in a very Charlie Brown Christmas kind of way. I’m so proud of you. Where’d you buy it?”
“Well, that’s the thing.”
“What?”
“I didn’t buy it.”
“Explain yourself, love,” she says in a faux British accent again.
For a moment, I consider telling Kennedy that it was Neo who left the tree but then I’d have to explain how that came to be, and I’m not too sure she’d be happy to hear that I had lunch over at the ice house and then ended up here where I let him spend the night. It goes against every one of her “we don’t go anywhere solo” safety rules.
And she’d be one hundred percent right.
Out of sheer curiosity, I violated the girl code.
So I decide to keep my mouth shut.
“I found it.”
“So it’s like a little abandoned tree that you rescued? How sweet.”
“Yeah,” I look away guiltily from her face. “Something like that.”
“Go. Away.” Kennedy says to whoever has just entered the room, and she turns her phone face down so I can’t see who it is, not that it matters. I already know that it’s Shane.
Suddenly there’s a physical scuffle, and what sounds like laughter. Then Shane is on camera.
“Hey, book worm,” he smiles, much of his ginger-colored hair sticking straight up in the air.
“Uh, hi, Shane. What are you doing?”
“Just–”
A bed pillow unexpectedly flies into camera view, knocking the phone out of Shane’s hand, and another scuffle ensues.
“You’re going to pay for that, Kee-Kee,” I hear him growl.
“Violet!” Kennedy hollers. “I’ll call you back!”