Page 20 of Trick Shot (Miami Blazers #1)

Chapter ten

~MELODY~

Jace pulls back just barely. Just enough for the breeze to slip between us and for me to feel the sting of being kissed senseless.

He looks down at me, hair wet and slicked back, moonlight spilling across his high cheekbones.

His hand comes up slowly, water dripping from it. He drags his thumb across my bottom lip, still swollen and damp from the kiss, salt from the ocean mingling with the heat of his touch.

“I’ve wanted to do that for a long time,” he murmurs, voice rough, like the words cost him something.

“A whole week and a half of knowing me?” I tease, voice breathless as I try to smile.

For a split second, something flickers behind his eyes. It’s a tiny twitch of his eyebrows—something I don’t understand. Like there's something he’s not saying. Something he knows that I don’t.

But before I can make sense of it, he’s already closing the distance again.

His fingers tangle in the back of my hair, tipping my head back just slightly.

“I love that smart mouth of yours,” he says, lips brushing the corner of mine. “And I can’t wait to find out how it feels,”—his teeth scrape against my bottom lip—“wrapped around me.”

Oh my God.

A violent spasm clenches low in my belly. I inhale sharply at the mental image he’s just conjured.

But I don’t get to answer before he brings me closer to him and his soft lips capture mine again.

His fingers tug at the hair on the back of my head, causing my lips to part for him.

His tongue slides against mine, his hand tightening in my hair even more like he’s claiming me, and the world shrinks to nothing but him.

I’m gone. There’s no up. No down. No logic or air or sense. Just the sharp sting of his teeth dragging across my bottom lip, the wet slide of his tongue tasting me, and the punishing pressure of his body grinding into mine.

I can feel everything—his hands, his grip, his cock, his heat. And he’s not being soft. He’s kissing me like he’s been starved. His fingers slide deeper into my hair and fist it to angle my head. His mouth finds my neck right before I feel his sharp canines sink into my skin.

I can’t stop the moan that leaves my mouth, shameless and loud. My legs tighten around him, and my hands claw at his shoulders. The muscles there are dense, flexing under my fingers as he holds me up.

My entire body is lit up, alive in a way I didn’t think was possible outside of fiction or fantasy.

I’ve never felt like this. Like I’m burning and flying and dying at the same time.

He shifts his hips and I feel him again—hard, thick, pressed right against where I’m aching. The sound that escapes me isn’t human. It’s desperate and broken.

He groans against my skin before he lifts me higher, putting distance between me and his cock. Like he can’t handle the feeling of it touching me. Like he’s holding himself back with every fiber of his being.

And even though I can’t feel it against my skin anymore, my mind still goes there.

What would it feel like inside me? Stretching me, filling me until I forget every other name I’ve ever whispered in the dark?

His lips find mine again, and he groans against my mouth. His grip tightens around my waist, and he grins into the kiss like he hears what I’m thinking.

“Jace,” I breathe against his mouth, barely able to say his name.

“Say my name again,” he whispers, his hand sliding up my side under the water.

“Jace,” I pant, my own breath mixing with his.

His lips are on mine again in an instant—hungry and merciless. The kiss is deeper and rougher, and just as it grows into something I can’t come back from, another name hits me.

Ghost.

The name is like an ocean being poured onto a fire. It stops me cold.

Suddenly, I remember whose arms I’m in. Not Ghost’s, but my brother’s teammate’s—an NHL superstar who most likely won’t remember my name the moment he gets what he wants.

Or worse—have my name cursed into his mind when my brother finds out about this and makes him regret ever locking eyes with me during that welcome party.

My breath stutters, and while my body stays pressed against Jace’s—skin to skin—my mind is already running.

What the hell am I doing?

I pull back like I’ve been scalded.

“Wait,” I gasp, water splashing between us.

“What?” Jace freezes, his hands still on my hips.

“This... I can’t.” I shake my head, eyes wide.

He looks down at me, stunned and confused, and I hate how good he looks like that.

His lips are swollen, his hair is dripping, his chest is heaving, and I know if I stayed, if I let him pull me back in, he’d ruin me.

“Let me go,” I choke out.

I untangle my legs from around him, suddenly hyper-aware of every part of me that touched him, every inch of skin still tingling from the contact.

He lets me go slowly, more than obvious that he doesn’t want to.

The second I’m out of his arms, I bolt for the shore. My legs are shaking, my heart is slamming against my ribs, and I’m trying to cover myself with my arms while running completely naked under the moonlight like a deranged nymph in a Greek tragedy.

Behind me, I hear the water slowly shift as he follows me out of the water.

My feet hit the sand and I scramble for my beach dress, snatching it up and yanking it over my head, struggling to pull it down over my wet, shaking body.

I barely get the thing halfway on when I feel him behind me. He’s so close I can feel his chest brush against my shoulders.

His hand wraps gently around my upper arm, turning me to face him before I can stop him. I squeeze my eyes shut the moment I do. He’s still naked and standing right in front of me, and if I look down I will absolutely fold.

“Melody,” he says, voice low and steady. “Talk to me.”

I shake my head, panic rising like bile. Have I just ruined everything I’ve built with Ghost for the past ten months for a man I met ten days ago?

“Open your eyes.”

“I can’t.” I shake my head.

His fingers slide up to cup my cheek, his thumb brushing softly under my eye, his touch so gentle.

“Look at me, Bunny.”

I freeze at the nickname, eyes still closed. Blood is roaring in my ears as my mind spirals.

Did he just call me Bunny?

‘Look at me, honey.’ He said honey.

God, I’m already starting to hear things. I’m going insane, finally losing my mind—

I open my eyes and look up at him.

His eyes are burning, his wet body glowing under the early moon. I still don’t look down, but God, I want to.

My body remembers what it felt like to have his mouth on mine, his hard length pressed against my stomach, and his hands on my skin.

He moves a strand of wet hair off my face, his touch almost reverent enough to distract me from who he is—or rather… who he isn’t.

“You don’t have to be scared of this,” he murmurs. “Whatever’s in your head... it’s not louder than what just happened.”

But it is. Because what’s in my head is Ghost’s messages, his affection, his care, his words.

I don’t even know what he looks like. I don’t even know if he’s real.

But Jace? He’s standing in front of me. As real as it gets.

I lock my eyes on his face like it’s the only safe place to look—even though that isn’t safe either.

“Talk to me,” he says, voice low and calm.

“I can’t do this.” I swallow hard, chest rising too fast. I open my mouth again, and out spills the first excuse I can cling to. “You’re... you’re my brother’s teammate,” I say. “And judging by what I’ve seen, and what he’s said, you’re like, his best friend.”

He stares at me for a silent moment before his lips slowly curl into a smile. A wicked, dark smile.

“Mm,” he hums, tilting his head. “His best friend,” he echoes, like he’s tasting the words. “And yet here you are—breathless and shaking because you want this as much as I do.”

His hand slides up, knuckles grazing my jaw.

“You think I don’t know how bad you want this?” he whispers, leaning down until his lips brush over mine. “You think I couldn’t tell how wet you got for me in there?”

His breath is hot on my mouth, and I’m slipping. Fast.

I try to recover.

“If Dom finds out—”

“You don’t get it yet, do you?” He tilts his head, smiling like a sinner. His hand brushes my hip, so light I flinch.

“Your brother can’t stop me, Melody.” He presses forward until his lips are against my ear. “And clearly, he can’t stop you either,” he murmurs.

My knees buckle.

Jace, as if sensing it, wraps a strong arm around my waist to hold me upright.

“Which means there’s something else that’s stopping you,” he says slowly, voice curling like smoke around my throat. “Or someone else in that beautiful head of yours.”

Everything inside me freezes. It’s like he reached into my chest and crushed my lungs with one hand.

My silence stretches between us before his mouth curves into a sad little smile. Almost... knowing, like my silence is confirmation.

Then it shifts.

The sadness—and what replaces it—is something seductive and dangerous.

He tilts his head, eyes slowly dragging down my body.

“Well,” Jace murmurs, “he’s not the one who just had your legs wrapped around him.”

“Jace,” I plead, not even sure what I’m pleading for. I’m positive he wouldn’t stop me if I just turned and walked away, but my feet stay buried in the sand in front of him, and my thighs clench instinctively.

His mouth hovers over mine a moment longer before he moves slowly, as if testing if I’ll back away. Instead, I feel myself inching closer until my lips meet his halfway.

I feel that same electric pull low in my stomach the moment his mouth is on mine again. His hand slides into my hair, thumb grazing my jaw. He kisses me like he’s proving a point with every stroke of his tongue.

My mind is screaming Ghost—but my body…

I whimper as he presses closer and I feel him again—hard and thick against me like a promise.

I have to stop this before I’m too far gone. So I do the first thing I can think of and bite his bottom lip. Hard.

He jerks back with a groan, blood beading on his mouth.

“We can’t do this,” I whisper, shaking with lust, guilt, and desire.