Frozen Heat

9. Noah

On Monday afternoon,when classes were over, we all were hanging out at home. Before practice, we tried to focus on homework, so that when practice was over, we could shower, relax, and then pass out. Today, Jade had locked herself in the office, painting once she got home from school. It was almost time for her to start dinner.

Before I could go knock on the door, Oliver came rushing in. “Oh, Jadey,” he bellowed, passing me with a smile.

Looking over at Finn, I gave him a questioning look. They had been coming over early before practice when they found out Jade was cooking. He just shrugged, and we followed him into the kitchen. Oli was pulling takeout boxes from a bag. He also had another bag with one of the sporting goods store’s logos on it. Jade wandered into the kitchen with her hair piled on top of her head, and she had paint smudged on her cheek.

“Thanks, Oli. I figured you all deserved a treat for winning your game,” she said, giving us all a smile.

I took plates out and silverware, bringing them to the table. We all sat down to eat, and I realized that Jade was sitting between Ryder and Oli. I tried not to take offense to it, but it seemed like anytime she and I made progress, we ended up taking two steps back. I knew it was irrational, but it felt like everyone knew how I felt about her, yet she seemed oblivious to it all. The blame was partly on me because I was keeping silent with her about it.

“This meal is also a little bit of a bribe, too,” Jade said, breaking me out of my obsession.

Chuckling, I shook my head. “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

She gave me a bright smile, and it was the first time I saw her genuinely smile in the last few days. Sometimes I could see the sadness that clung to her, and I didn’t think she even recognized it.

“I know! I knew I was doing something right. Anyway, I wanted to know if I could come to your guys’ practice. I don’t enjoy being here alone at night. By the time you guys go to practice, most of my homework is done. If it’s not allowed, that’s okay, but I thought I’d ask,” she explained.

“It’d be better having you there than all the puck bunnies who come to watch,” Ryder grumbled.

Even though he”d had sex with his share of girls, he usually gravitated toward girls who didn’t care or even knew he was a hockey player, and he brushed off the advances of the puck bunnies. Oli and I had to deal with girls liking us because of our status our whole lives, so we kind of took advantage of it. Finn turned on the charm around girls. So, we were all guilty of it.

“Coach leaves most of our practices open unless people start causing problems. So, if you want to come, you can,” I explained.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Oli said. He went to the bag he had set down when he came in. “Noah and I got these for you, Jade.” He held out the bag.

She took it from him with a confused furrow in her brows. I gave her a wink because I told her I would get her skates. She seemed interested in learning, so I was giving her the option to continue. She opened the bag, and I could see that Oli had gotten the set of hockey skates in her size that we had picked out for her together. She smiled and jumped up to give Oli and me hugs, kissing us on our cheeks too.

“Thank you, guys. This is so cool. Now Finn doesn’t have to break any rules to get me some skates when I want to get on the ice.”

Finn rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Who told you?” he asked.

Oli started laughing, and we all chuckled because, of course, that dick told her Finn had to break into the girls” locker room to find a pair of girls’ skates for her to learn on that night. They told me I had chosen a bad time to ask them to find her some, but she’d looked so sad. We had to come through for her. Finn flipped him off, which just made the entire table break out in laughter.

HavingJade at our practice was somewhat distracting until we got into the zone. I noticed she avoided the puck bunnies, making sure to sit by herself. She brought a Kindle and seemed to be engrossed in whatever she was reading. After Coach finished putting us through our paces, the guys headed to the locker room to change and shower. I skated over to Jade.

“Hey, you wanna stay here until we get done showering and changing, or you gonna head back home?”

“How long do you think it’ll take for you guys to be done?” she asked, putting her Kindle in her hoodie pocket.

“It shouldn’t be more than about thirty minutes,” I answered.

She scrunched her nose and let out a puff of air. I could tell that she didn’t really want to be alone for that long, and it made me wonder what had happened that spooked her. She didn’t seem willing to tell us all, though. I wondered if maybe it was only one of us, she would open up again.

I wanted to be selfish and tell her I would go with her and see if she would talk, but there was still a little bit of a disconnect with her. She and Oli had grown closer as friends, and he rarely took long to get ready, often just showering at home instead of here.

“Do you want me to go see if any of the guys are ready right now? Oli is usually pretty quick.”

She smiled. “Sure. I’ll wait here until he’s ready. Thanks, Noah.”

“No problem, Jade. He should be out soon.”

I headed back to the locker room, finding my roommate. “Hey, Oli,” I said, clapping my hand on his shoulder. ”Jade wants to get out of here, but she seems a little spooked to go home alone. Do you wanna go with her? I get the feeling something is going on with her. Maybe she”ll talk if it”s just you and her.”

Oli nodded, grabbed his bag before shutting the locker, and headed out to get Jade. I suspected we all took the fastest showers we ever had and got dressed like our asses were on fire. As much as I trusted Oliver with Jade, I didn’t want to leave her alone for too long if she was upset. It was so weird to feel these dueling feelings inside of me and have to decide which one to let win.

I wanted to push her against the closet flat surface and devour her mouth and body, but at the same time, I wanted simply to hold her and make sure nothing ever touched her again. I shook my head at my thoughts and led the way out to my SUV. Once I sat in the driver’s seat, I had to wait for the others to get in the vehicle. Ryder and Callum rarely rode their bikes to practice, so they usually caught a ride with Finn, Oli, and me. I dropped off Ryder and Finn and then headed back home with Callum.

When we got there, I found Oli and Jade just sitting on the couch watching TV as if it was any other day. Her sudden lack of anxiety confused me since she was acting as if she had never been worried about leaving the arena alone. I dismissed it and just did what I usually did after practice. The other guys did the same thing as well. I wanted to talk to her about the kiss and maybe continue where we left off.

Not wanting her to regret being with me, I had to wait until she was in the same place. Who fucking knew if she would ever get there. In the end, was all my yearning and pining for my stepsister going to be wasted when she decided she didn’t want me? If that was the case, I honestly wondered if I’d be strong enough to let her choose someone other than me.

I couldn’t continue this circle of thoughts tonight or I’d get no sleep and be useless tomorrow. When Jade was far away, when she was living at home with our parents, it was so much easier to put her out of my mind. Or at least distract myself with other things, but seeing her sitting in my living room, completely at home, made it a lot harder to push it down and away. If it weren’t for Oli sitting next to her, I might have gone over and showed her exactly how I felt and that she was mine. It probably would freak her out a little too.

Deciding Jade was otherwise occupied, I headed to my room and locked the door. Pulling my rock-hard dick out of my pants, I started to stroke myself and pictured Jade’s full lips wrapped around me. It wasn’t hard to imagine the sounds and sighs of pleasure that she would make. I shared a wall with her for years, and there were nights when I fell asleep to the sounds of her masturbating. It had been a long time since I lived there full time, but I had a long memory and her little sounds of pleasure consumed me.

Lately, only the thought of her did it for me, but it was getting harder and harder for that to get me there. I wanted her here physically. I wanted to touch her, and now that I knew what her lips felt like, I wanted more of her taste and her scent. Calling those images to mind, I continued to stroke my shaft, swiping the pre-cum with my thumb. Speeding up and squeezing harder, I imagined Jade begging for me to fuck her mouth.

Thrusting my hips into my hand, I moaned. I was so close to the edge. I needed something more to push me over. The knock on the door wasn’t enough to get me to stop, and when I heard Jade say my name through the wood, I came with a loud grunt. I caught my cum with my hand and walked to the bathroom to clean it off, before I tucked myself back into my pants. Then I went to the bedroom door, unlocked it, and opened it. Jade looked unsure of herself, and I just opened the door wider for her to come in. At least I would be able to fall asleep faster after just getting off.