Page 26 of Pucking Around

“No.” I shake my head. “Say my name.”

“Don’t,” she murmurs. “Please, don’t.”

“Don’t what?” I reply, inching closer, my hand cupping her cheek. She smells so fucking good. She left me her perfume in Seattle, but it’s nothing like smelling the combination of that scent on her skin mixed with her hair products and her detergent and just…her.

I want to wrap her in my arms and never let go. I want to wear her t-shirts to bed like a lovesick fool. Okay, so there’s no way they’ll fit me, but I could take two and cut them up and sew them back together. Or Caleb can do it for me. He’s good with sewing machines and—

Oh shit,Caleb. Rachel and Caleb. Rachel is the hot doctor Caleb picked up from the airport yesterday. The doctor with the kinky dildo who now shares a wall with him. The hot doctor he drove in to work this morning.

I was about to find him and grill him for more details because Iknowsomething else happened last night. He was being too cagey about it. Now my pulse is racing, and my tongue feels too big for my mouth. Do I want to know what happened? I don’t know if I can take it. We’ve shared the occasional bunny in college, but this is totally different. Rachel is—she’severything.

“Please look at me,” I murmur.

She glances up, her hand wrapping around my wrist as I cup her face. “We can’t do this,” she whispers. “I work for the team now. I just signed a hundred pages worth of contracts. I’m your doctor.”

“No.”

“You’re my patient. I can’t cross that line—wecan’t—”

“No,” I growl again, pressing in with my hips.

She gasps. Yeah, my girl is mad for me. I can feel it. I lower my hand from her jaw, wrapping my fingers gently around her throat, my fingertips brushing against her racing pulse. She whimpers, her neck arching. She can’t help it. She loves my hands on her.

We’re both on fire, trembling with need. I have never been so turned on by another person in my life. She breathes near me, and I’m ready to fucking go. I have her in my hands again, and I can’t wait a moment longer to taste her. Lowering my face, I press my lips to hers.

Boom.

Like kerosine tossed on a bonfire, we ignite. We’re pressed so tight, my hands racing down her sides to grab her ass and lift her, wrapping her legs around my hips so our heights match. I slam her up against the side of her truck. She hisses in my mouth, our tongues chasing, hands desperate.

Fuck, she’s the girl I want to kiss for the rest of my life. I don’t care how crazy that sounds. She’s ravenous, whimpering as I pin her with my hips, my hardness right there. If we were naked, I’d be inside her. Fuck, I’d be pounding her into the side of this truck.

Her groping hands knock my hat off and her fingernails drag over my scalp. It makes my whole body shudder as my dick twitches. I need to be inside her. Need to bury myself in her and never resurface.

But then she’s gasping, her body squirming in my hold. “Jake,” she whines. “Please—”

And I know what she’s saying without saying it because that’s just the way we are together.Please, put me down. Please, stop.And then my heart is breaking into pieces.

I loosen my hold on her and she slides down my body back to the floor of the parking garage. We’re both shaking, need hammering through us. What we have is volcanic. She knows it too. I can’t do this. I can’tnotbe with her. She’s in my city, on my team, in my fucking arms…and she’s saying no.

“Don’t push me away again,” I plead, my heart shredding. “I can’t do this twice, Rachel. Don’t ask me to pretend that we’re nothing. I don’t care about the damn contract.”

Her chin lifts in defiance, lips glistening with my kisses, teary eyes dark and dangerous. “Well,Icare. This is my life, Jake. This ismychance,” she says with such determination. “This fellowship, this team. It’s my whole career on the line. You don’t have to care about breaking the rules, butIdo.”

She’s closing off, shutting me out. Goddamn it, she did the same thing in Seattle. “No,” I growl. “Rachel,please—” Am I begging? Fuck, I have no pride when it comes to this girl. No chill. No game. I’m lost to her. I was from the moment she turned around on that barstool. “Don’t do this. Don’t push me away.”

But I see the resolve shining in her eyes. “My contract lasts the whole season,” she says, voice tight. “We can be friends. We can be colleagues…but nothing more.”

I drop my hands away from her, our connection broken, and we both take a gasping breath.

My Mystery Girl is putting me on ice. She wants to focus on her career, and I can respect that. I’m a career addict too. You don’t get to my level of sport and not be obsessive over your job.

I swallow, heart racing out of control. “Ten months,” I say, my gaze locked on her. “Ride out your contract. I’ll play nice.” I lean in. “But the second it’s over, you’re mine, Seattle. You’re not leaving me again.”

13

Iwalk on jelly legs back inside the building, Mystery Boy striding silently at my side.Jake.His name is Jake Compton, and he’s not a mystery. Jake Compton, starting defenseman of the Jacksonville Rays.

And I didn’t imagine our chemistry. Over the last two months, I’ve downplayed it in my mind. The sex wasn’t that good. Our connection wasn’t that deep. I was tipsy. I was lost in the moment. Now I know the truth. It was real. All of it. Our connection, our heat, the instant passion, the way he reads me, the way I read him. What’s worse, he knows it too. He knows I can’t resist him.