Page 35 of Tempting the Goalie (Riverside U #5)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

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Phoenix is manning the grill like it personally offended him. The pike sizzles over the flames, the smell mixing with charcoal and lemon.

Luc’s tossing a football in the yard with Becket while Asher helps set out paper plates and a giant bowl of potato salad.

Eric’s on his third beer, perched on the picnic table bench beside Elyna, who’s trying to bounce her crying baby on her hip.

Poor Braden’s red-faced and squirming, clearly overstimulated.

I sit back in one of the lawn chairs, sipping a soda and watching it all play out like a scene from someone else’s life, but a sense of contentment washes over me. I’m a lucky girl to have such a great family and boyfriend.

"You want me to take him?" Eric offers Elyna gently, holding out his arms.

Elyna looks startled but grateful. “Are you sure?”

“Eric loves babies,” Asher teases.

“You do?” Elyna asks, seeming surprised.

“I have no experience with babies but I figured it’s worth a try. I saw a movie with a baby recently and when they passed the baby around it stopped crying,” Eric explains.

“That doesn’t sound very promising but my arms could use a break,” she says and she passes Braden to Eric.

Eric chuckles and lifts the baby easily, bouncing him a little. Braden hiccups and calms almost immediately, his head resting on Eric’s shoulder.

“Show-off,” Phoenix mutters from the grill.

Eric turns, still smiling. “What?”

“Nothing,” Phoenix says. “Just focus on the guests and I’ll handle the actual food.”

Eric raises an eyebrow but doesn’t answer. Phoenix has been on the grumpier side more than usual lately. Elyna tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, clearly hearing the edge in Phoenix’s voice. She moves to help set out the condiments instead.

I glance over at Luc. He’s laughing with Becket now; with that same easy smile I’ve known since we were kids. But all I can think about is what my brothers said earlier about the NHL and the puck bunnies and all the women who’d throw themselves at him once he enters the draft.

I hate that it’s stuck in my head.

Phoenix flips a fish filet with more force than necessary.

I watch him watching Elyna from the corner of his eye.

The tension in his shoulders has nothing to do with the grill.

He’s always had a weird thing about her, but he covers it with this gruff, distant act that fools no one except maybe Elyna.

“Fish is done,” Phoenix calls.

Asher whoops and grabs a plate. “About time. I’m starving.”

“You’re always starving,” Becket notes.

Luc settles into the chair next to mine, handing me a plate. “You okay?”

I hesitate. “Yeah,” I say too quickly.

He studies me for a second. “You sure? You’ve been quiet since you got back from fishing.”

I shrug, picking at the corner of my napkin. “Just thinking.”

Luc leans in, his voice low. “Do I need to worry about what you’re thinking?”

I glance at him, trying to find the right words, but they get tangled up in my chest.

“Not really.”

He watches me for a beat longer and nods. “All right. But later on, I’m going to figure out what is going on with you.”

We turn toward the table where everyone’s piling on food, laughter rising again around us. I try to focus on the smell of grilled fish, on Braden's sleepy smile in Eric’s arms, on the breeze blowing through the yard.

But Luc’s hand brushes against mine, and everything about his touch feels so good.

It has to be that my brothers are wrong.

There’s a reason they are all bachelors.

They don’t understand what it’s like to have someone who knows you inside and out.

Luc isn’t some stranger looking for attention, he’s Luc.

The boy who used to leave sour keys in my mailbox when I was upset.

The guy who tried to teach me how to play street hockey, unsuccessfully, and held my hair back when I had the stomach flu in grade eight.

The one who always looks at me like I’m the center of his world and has always treated me that way.

Still, the echo of Phoenix’s voice lingers. It’s not him I don’t trust. It’s the world he’s going into.

Luc glances over, our pinkies brushing now, and I realize he’s doing it on purpose. A quiet reassurance, like I see you. I’m not going anywhere.

“Want to take a walk?” he whispers.

I nod, grateful for the excuse to step away. We get up, and no one really notices. Elyna’s coaxing Braden into a stroller for a nap, and Eric’s making fun of Asher’s playlist. Phoenix is still at the grill, arms crossed now, watching the scene unfold like he’s trying not to care.

Luc and I head down the path toward the orchard where the trees start. It’s quieter here. Cooler.

“You don’t have to say anything,” Luc says. “But I can feel something’s on your mind.”

“I’m thinking too much,” I confess.

“Look, Izzy, if this is going to work, we have to be open with each other,” he says, and I know he’s right. I was never open with West. Hell, I didn’t care to be. But now I care. My heart is all in.

I nod. “My brothers are concerned that once you’re in the NHL, everything’s going to change between us. That you’ll have girls throwing themselves at you. That it’s na?ve to believe this. . .us. . .could work.”

Luc is quiet for a second. “Do you feel that way?”

I look up at him. “No. But I’m scared they might be right. Not because I don’t trust you. I guess, I just. . . I’m scared. After what happened with West.”

“Don’t compare me to him, Izzy,” he says, and I can see I’ve offended him.

“I know you would never intentionally hurt me, but I don’t know. . .” I say feeling frustrated. “I didn’t love West. I love you and you have the ability to completely incinerate my heart.”

His gray eyes fill with sympathy. “Baby, you have my heart too. I worry about us too. I worry that we’re headed back to school, and we have to leave the bubble we’ve been living in. I worry that you’re so smart and beautiful, and one day you’re going to realize I’m not good enough for you.”

“Never, baby, never.” I take a step toward him and caress his cheek. “I will always want you.”

“That’s how I feel. I’ve always loved you, Izzy. When we were younger it was a kindred love, but it’s grown into something deep and real. I love being a hockey player, but hockey is a job to me. It isn’t my life. You are.”

“Oh, Luc,” I say, wrapping my arms around his neck. He pulls me into him and we begin to kiss.

“I’ve wanted to be inside you all day. I missed you,” he whispers against my ear as his hands roam over my ass. “You look so hot in these shorts,” he says of the cutoff jean shorts I’m wearing.

I begin to kiss his neck as I run my hands over his chest. He’s wearing a black T-shirt that hugs his muscles and shows off his wide shoulders and a pair worn gray jeans that look sinful on him.

“I want you too, baby,” I say. We are both breathing hard. I need him as much as he needs me.

“I can’t just take you here,” he says and he’s right. An employee could walk by and see us. “Let’s go to the loft. It isn’t too far away.”

“Everyone will wonder where we disappeared.”

“I’ll get you off quickly and we’ll come right back,” he promises. “I’ve never needed anyone like I need you.”

His words have a way of shattering my heart and building it right back up.

I allow him to guide me to the loft. I haven’t been here since he moved in with Elyna and Braden, but I saw it when Phoenix finished the renovation.

There’s a futon in the main room that converts to a couch. It’s where Luc has been sleeping. He guides me over to it. It’s set up as a couch now.

“Take off all your clothes,” he orders and the bossy tone to his voice causes a rush of lust to run through my body.

I like that he’s going for efficiency. So while I take off my clothes, he takes his clothes off until we are standing in front of each other buck-naked.

“Lie down.”

I do as he says, and he settles his head between my thighs. He spreads my pussy lips and dips his tongue inside me and my back arches off the couch. After a few strokes of his tongue from my clit to my seam, I am a panting mess. My hips move in rhythm with his tongue.

“I need you inside me, Luc. I don’t want to come like this,” I beg.

He moves up my body and kisses me as if he means it.

His cock settles between my thighs and in one thrust, he is inside me.

He thrusts again as he tweaks my left nipple then my right.

I grab on to his fine ass and make him move faster.

I rope my legs around him as he buries himself deeper inside me.

Thrust after thrust he pushes me closer to the edge until my eyes are closed and I’m lost to the lust. We come together in a heap of grunts and groans.

He spills inside me and we both need to catch our breath.

He is hovering above me when we hear voices from outside.

“That’s Asher,” I say, feeling startled. We both fly up to a standing position. I hear Elyna next.

“She must want to put Braden to sleep,” he says, breathing hard.

“I need a towel. I have your cum running down my legs.”

Luc growls. “I love marking you with my cum. It’s so freaking hot.”

“Luc, I need a towel,” I urge as the voices feel closer.

“Go into the bathroom,” he says as he picks my clothes up off the floor.

We run into the bathroom just as we hear the front door of the loft open. It’s Elyna, Asher, and Eric. They must have offered to walk her back here.

“What do we do?” I whisper.

Luc gives me a towel and I get cleaned up.

Elyna is offering my brothers a drink. It sounds like Asher is holding Braden now, and they are laughing about how passing him to different arms works to calm him.

When Luc and I are fully dressed we look at each other, not knowing what to do but it doesn’t seem like my brothers plan on leaving any time soon.

“We’ll just leave the bathroom together. There’s nothing we can do,” Luc says. “We’ll say you got bitten by a mother-ass mosquito and needed After Bite.”

“Why wouldn’t we have gotten some from the main house?” I ask Luc.

“We can hear you guys. We know you’re in there,” Asher says.

“Freaking Asher,” I mumble.

Luc opens the door and we both walk out. I feel the afterglow of sex on my face and a shameful smile I find hard to hide.

“Dammit, Bean,” Eric says, ducking his head. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to get used to this.”

Elyna starts laughing. “I mean, they’re adults,” she says to my brothers.

“Adults, my ass. Bean is our little sister,” Asher retorts, forgetting our age gap.

“Would you all just grow up? We didn’t know you’d be back here so quickly,” I say.

“Sorry,” Elyna says. “It was getting late, and I wanted Braden in his crib or else he would end up waking up. I was scared he’d be super cranky if he was overtired.”

“Don’t apologize,” Luc says. “We’ll head back over to the barbecue.”

“Good idea, we left Phoenix and Becket alone,” Eric says.

“Thanks for your help with Braden,” Elyna says to my brothers.

They end up walking back to the main house with us.

Nobody says a word, and yup, it’s super awkward when your older brothers catch you having sex with your boyfriend, who also happens to be friends with them too.

I’ll have to make a note not to get caught again.