Page 27 of Playoff (Toronto Blaze #4)

Worth taking time

Jess

It was stupid and reckless, and for tonight I wasn’t going to care. We weren’t even in Toronto, so I could pretend Alek was just a guy—someone I’d met, was going to have fantastic sex with. And then later, when I was home, I could push my own wants aside again and do the right thing.

Just for tonight. Because even if Alek had been someone else, I still owed my brother and needed him to be himself again before I took care of me.

For I don’t know how long, we just kissed.

His hair was too short for my hands to grip, but I could tug down his head with my palms on the scratchy stubble to get him closer.

He responded by sliding his hands lower, to my ass, pulling me tight.

And the whole time our mouths were fused together.

He tasted me, a little growl in the back of his throat, and then I chased his tongue into his mouth and growled back.

He finally pulled away. “Bed.”

“Which one?”

“What’s closest?”

“Mine.” Then strong arms lifted me and dropped me on the bed I’d claimed dibs on.

I waited for Alek to drop down beside me—either to continue kissing or to get to the naked portion of the event.

After that kiss, I’d been expecting torn clothing and being taken against the wall, and I was good with that.

But for a moment he just stood. His chest lifted as he pulled in long breaths and his gazed focused on me.

I lifted up on my elbows, letting my eyes fall from his broad shoulders to his waistline, pausing at the bulge I could see behind his zipper. “Well?”

“Deciding what I want to do first.” His voice was deep, sending goose bumps over my skin. My completely covered skin.

“Do I get a say in that?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You’re welcome to make suggestions.”

“I’d suggest naked.”

“Oh, that’s definitely happening. Eventually.”

I pouted. Who was this? I wasn’t the kind of person who pushed or pouted. “I want to see you, now.”

“Patience is a virtue.”

“They weren’t talking about getting naked when they said that.”

He smiled but didn’t answer. Just took the single step needed to climb onto the bed beside me. “Let’s start here.” He picked up my foot and peeled off my sock. “Happy now?” he asked.

I kicked out at him. “No.”

He set my bare foot down and reached for the other one.

“Aren’t we in a hurry?” I asked

“Some things are worth taking time.”

And he did. After my socks were gone and he stretched out beside me, I thought we were finally getting somewhere.

He moved to my sweater. Pulling it over my head, he ran his hands over the newly exposed skin.

Slowly. His hands were big and callused, the friction on my skin raising more goose bumps.

I was one big goose bump by this point. I squirmed, needing more, but he wouldn’t hurry.

Then he slid his lips over my skin. Softly, sometimes gently nipping, holding my wrists when I tried to move him along. My nerves lit up, fireflies buzzing in my veins.

He reached the waistband of my jeans and I shivered, relieved that something more was on hand. He flicked open the button, then looked up at me smugly before pulling the zipper down with his teeth.

With his teeth! I’d never had anyone try that before, and I lay back, shocked and quiet.

Then his mouth slipped. “Fuck!” he swore. “That hurts.”

I pushed up on my elbows again. “Are you okay?”

He dropped his head onto the bed between my legs, my jeans unfortunately still on. “I slipped and caught my lip.”

I bit back a giggle. “Does that happen often?”

He lifted his eyes to meet my gaze. “I’ve never tried it before.”

I struggled not to laugh. “I’ve never had anyone try that either. And I definitely haven’t tried it myself.” A snort snuck out of my closed mouth. Then the laughter started.

He dropped his head again while I found some self-control and stopped giggling. His shoulders were shaking.

“I hope you’re laughing and not crying.” If I’d made someone cry while we were having sex… When he raised his head, grinning, I let out a relieved breath.

“I swear I can be smooth. I don’t know why the hell I thought I could do that.”

“I would have been impressed if you’d pulled it off.”

He lifted himself up. “Why don’t we just get naked and then we can do the good stuff without any smooth moves.”

“Because that was smooth,” I teased.

Something like a growl came from him as he grabbed my waistband and tugged. Perfectly willing, I lifted my hips and the denim slid down over my ass…and stopped. I looked down and dropped back on the bed.

“You have the most boring underwear I’ve ever seen.”

“I wasn’t expecting anyone to see them,” I told the ceiling.

Alek got back to tugging the jeans down, sliding them off my feet.

Before I could push myself up to deal with the underwear, he yanked my ass to the edge of the bed and knelt down between my legs.

He slid his big hands under my cheeks, and leaned over and…

Tugged the front of my underwear with his teeth. His hands pulled down the back of them, so I didn’t end up with ripped panties, and he chuckled. Show-off.

Then he put his mouth on me and I wasn’t laughing.

The man might not be able to pull down a zipper with those teeth and lips, but he could do wonders on my lady bits. I was soon panting and moaning, passing my hands over his head in the absence of hair to tug on.

“Alek, I’m going to?—”

He backed off, eyes wide with pupils eating up most of the iris. He shoved me back up the bed and quickly removed his jeans and underwear. He grabbed a condom out of his pocket before dropping the pants on the floor, letting the foil wrapper fall on the bed. Then he stripped off his T-shirt.

I barely had a moment to enjoy the view—turns out I had a thing for tattoos—before he’d sheathed himself and crawled onto the bed, bracing himself over me.

“Once I’m inside you, then you can come.” That voice, deep and raspy, was as close to a growl as a human would get.

I wrapped my legs around him, drawing him closer, needing him inside me. “Then hurry up!”

Finally he was ready to listen to me. Once he was lined up he slid inside me, where I was wet and hot and ready for him.

“Yes,” I moaned. Or he did, or we both did. Nerves inside my channel were stimulated by his cock, and I clenched down on him. He pulled back and rammed home again, moving me farther up the bed. I wrapped my arms around his neck and whimpered in his ear. “Yes!”

His head was beside mine, his hot breath fanning my neck.

I held on for dear life as he pounded into me, the delicious friction spiking my arousal so close to that peak.

I held on tight as he let himself go, winding higher and higher until finally I came, keening into his ear a litany of yes, yes, yesses .

My orgasm crashed over me, obliterating everything else in my brain and body.

A few seconds, minutes or whatever time later, I blinked my eyes open. Alek was stretched out beside me, chest rising and falling as he drew in lungfuls of air.

Damn it. Why did the best sex I’d had in years, maybe ever, have to be with this man? The one I couldn’t do this with again.

He turned his head toward me. “You okay?”

I nodded and let a smile cross my lips. “Better than okay. I had no idea sex in Hamilton was like this or I’d have come here sooner.”

He laughed. “Is there a website to review cities for best sex?”

My smile widened. Not that he was actually saying this was his best sex, but he was saying, in a roundabout way, that it had been pretty damn good. If the earth was moving for me, I wanted it to move for him too.

“If there’s not, I’ll hire a computer person and create an app. I’ll make a killing and put financial advising behind me.”

But no, I wouldn’t. That wasn’t me. Neither was this. I sat up, ready to find my boring underwear and get dressed.

Alek was watching me too closely. “What’s the problem? Do you hate your job that much?”

“No. I mean, it’s not what I dreamed of as a kid, but I help people. Keep them safe.”

“From people like my parents.”

My mouth dropped open. I’d forgotten, for most of this evening, who he was.

He sighed, face closing up. “We’d better get back.”

Everything rushed into my head. All the reasons we couldn’t do this, shoving out the post-orgasm bliss and making me self-conscious. “Yeah, you’re right.”

I pushed myself off the bed and found my boring underwear, slightly damp from his mouth and from my arousal.

I slid them up my legs, since going commando would be damned uncomfortable, and part of me wanted to keep that little bit of connection with him.

Then I found my jeans and pulled them on, socks and boots.

Sweater and coat. By then Alek was dressed and we were ready to go.

I looked back at the bed, my face warming. “They’re going to know exactly what we were doing.”

He threw some bills on the untouched one. “It won’t be the first time. And they won’t care.”

But I did. And somehow this made the whole thing feel tawdry. Best sex of my life, and this was how it ended up.

I was so, so stupid. I couldn’t do this again.