Page 75 of Stand Your Ground

I’d crossed a line. I knew I had. She didn’t want to get too much into feels, into emotions.

So quickly, I recovered, flopping back into the bed with a happy sigh before she could latch onto it and question me.

And then I laughed.

I laughed a real, deep, baritone laugh that shook the whole bed.

“What?” she asked, leaning up on her elbow. “Oh, my God,what? Are you having a mental breakdown?”

“No,” I said through the laughter. “No, no, it’s just… my first time inside a pussy, and there’s still ass play involved.”

I arched a brow at her with a grin as wide as my face, and Livia closed her eyes before submitting to a laugh I knew she couldn’t fight off.

“Maybe the universe is speaking, Rook,” she said.

“Well,” I grinned, propping my hands behind my head, “consider this my official notice that I’m listening.”

We cleaned up, dressed, bid adieu to our hosts, and rode back to Livia’s condo in comfortable silence, but my mind was anything but quiet. Every step of the night replayed in vivid detail as I drove with one hand on the steering wheel and the other resting on the center console, begging me to reach over and slide it over her leg. I couldn’t stop thinking about the way she’d looked at me when I got it right, the way she looked when I brought her release, the way I felt both stripped bare and stronger than I’d ever been.

I didn’t know how the hell I was supposed to go back to just being her student.

Her friend.

Not when she’d given me this.

Not when every cell in my body was already leaning toward her, begging for more.

I’d had a taste of her, and instead of it making me feel confident to chase other women, it only made me desperate to chaseher.

Which was a real fucking problem, since she’d made it more than clear that she didn’t want to be chased.

I dropped her off with a kiss on her cheek, hanging onto the little smile she gave me like a lifeline when she disappeared inside the high-rise building.

And I knew it. No questions asked.

I was well and truly fucked.

Bananas

Livia

“LET’S GO, OSPREYS!”

Clap, clap, clap clap clap.

“LET’S GO, OSPREYS!”

Clap, clap, clap clap clap.

The cheer rang out around the stadium, and I had no choice but to join in — mostly due to an elbow to the ribs courtesy of my best friend. She winked at me, clapping and cheering until I joined in, and then she celebrated the victory with a little shimmy of her shoulders.

Ava — Will Perry’s daughter — was next to her, snug as a bug between Maven and Chloe as we watched the final game before the team got some much-needed time off for the Four Nations Face Off. Grace was still in Antarctica and Mia was still on tour, so it was just the three of us tonight, along with our favorite kid.

Ava Perry was one hundred percent the biggest hockey fan I knew. She’d been into it ever since I’d met her — since she was born, I presumed — and now that Will and Chloe had her enrolled in a youth league, she was even more unhinged. Add in the fact that her favorite pop star had become one of the crew, thanks to Aleks wife-ing her up, and you could say our little nugget was in heaven.

I watched her with a soft smile as she chanted louder than any of us, small hands cupping around her mouth to serve asa megaphone. When the chant ended, Ava screamed wildly and added, “Come on, boys! Take it to the net!”

Maven and I shared a grin at that, and then all our attention turned to the ice.