Revenge Puck (Shot at Love #1)

Chapter 28

28

Preston

W hen Maya brings Finley home from preschool, he’s a ball of energy like usual. Recognizing Elle from the few minutes she was at last night’s game, he instantly grabbed her hand to pull her along to see all his cool toys in his room and then out to the backyard.

She seems most impressed with the treehouse.

“You built this? Seriously?” Elle asks again as the two of us huddle up inside the small fort that’s five feet off the ground. There are three steps built into the tree as well as a rope in the middle of the floor that Finley can climb to get in or out.

“I’m not just an amazing hockey player,” I tell her, placing a quick kiss on her cheek while Finley’s gone to get us juice boxes and goldfish so we can have a picnic.

“What else are you good at?” she asks. “Well, besides the things that I have already experienced.”

Rubbing my scruffy chin, I consider her question, trying not to think about the things she and I experienced last night and this morning. “I’m a decent cook.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll show you tonight. We’re having Tuscan ravioli with Arugula salad and chocolate filled cannoli.”

Her blonde brow shoots up. “Wow. I’m already impressed.”

“Okay, so the cannoli may be store bought this time since I’ve been busy, but I can make it.”

“I can’t wait to try it all.”

“Uncle Pres!” Finley calls from below us when he returns with the goods. I reach down to grab the Warhawk lunch box from him, and it suddenly hits me just how devastated the little guy will be when I’m playing for a different team. He loves the Warhawks so damn much.

Clearing my throat, I reach my other arm down to pull him up through the hole in the floor where the rope hangs from. “Thanks for the snacks, buddy.”

“Welcome,” he replies proudly before he sits down near us and begins laying out a juice and snack pack for Elle, then me, then himself.

“This looks so delicious,” Elle says as she jabs her tiny white straw into her box and sips it before popping a cheddar cracker into her mouth. “Wow, the apple juice and the goldfish taste great, Finley,” Elle tells him before she takes her second and final sip from the juice. “Thank you so much. I was starving after Uncle Preston told me about his dinner plans.”

“You’re welcome, Ellie,” he says triumphantly, flashing her a big grin. “I’m glad you came to visit us.”

Elle completely freezes at his remark, as if he just told her the secret to curing cancer or some other miraculous shit.

I nudge her gently with my elbow to her side. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” she whispers to me. “He just…he gave me a nickname.”

“Yeah, he likes you,” I tell her quietly. And it’s true. Elle is great with the little guy, a natural, making me certain that she’ll be a great mother someday.

God. I shouldn’t be thinking shit like that, not when it’s becoming more and more obvious that the two of us won’t have a future together.

A move to the West Coast would mean juggling my time between traveling for games, practices, and seeing Maya and Finley as often as I can. That won’t leave me much time for a relationship with Elle.

She won’t marry me or have my kids. She’ll be a mother to some other man’s spawn while I’m alone and miserable in California.

I should tell her and Maya about the offer from the Grizzlies, but I haven’t even laid eyes on the contract yet. It’s still just one possibility. Maybe I’ll get more offers if I have a great game tomorrow night or if the Warhawks win the championship trophy.

Elle

“Are you sure you don’t need my help?” I ask Preston and Maya as they work on preparing dinner and Finley huddles down in his room to do his reading for the night.

“Heck no,” Preston replies. “Just sit down and relax. You’re our guest.”

“We don’t get many guests, so we have to try to impress you,” Maya says, flashing me a grin over her shoulder.

“Trust me, I am already impressed. My dinners typically consist of takeout.”

“That is a shame,” Preston says with a shake of his head while making the ravioli.

Seeing Preston in the kitchen is almost as sexy as seeing him on the ice. He cooks while Maya makes the salad and sets the table, the two moving around the kitchen with an ease of people who have lived together for years. They’ve obviously made a lot of dinners together, just the two of them because their parents are apparently assholes.

And Christian may or may not know he’s a father. Either way, he’s not here to help out, to spend time with his adorable son who also calls me Ellie.

When dinner is ready and we sit down to eat, Finley talks a mile a minute between each of his bites, telling us about what he did at school, all the funny things his friend Joey said and did. The way he speaks and laughs with such an easy-going personality reminds me so much of his father that it’s scary. The only difference is that Finley was shy at first, but the longer I’m here, the more he seems to relax.

I still can’t believe that Christian wouldn’t step up and be a father if he knew about him. He’s a good man. Or at least I thought he was, despite his philandering ways.

But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s Preston who is the good man, and I was with Christian for all the wrong reasons.

All I know is that as soon as dinner is over, I’m going to block Christian’s number in my phone once and for all.

Maya interrupts Finley’s play-by-play of his day, currently describing the lineup order for the entire class, by asking him, “Would you like to have a sleepover tonight with Joey?”

The boy’s brown eyes widen. “Tonight? But it’s a school night, Mom.”

“Yes, sweetie. I know it’s a school night. And usually, we don’t do sleepovers except on Fridays or Saturdays, but Joey’s moms have made an exception. They even invited me to stay over too.”

He frowns and says, “Oh man. It won’t be as much fun if you’re there!”

Maya rolls her eyes and then boops the tip of his nose with her finger. “Too bad, buddy. I’m coming too, and it’s going to be awesome.”

Later that night, I finally do what I should’ve done the day he dumped me—I block Christian’s number, closing the book on him for good.

Even though I haven’t known Preston for very long, everything already feels different with him. Like he wants more from me than sex. He’s not rushing me, giving me as much time as I need to move on from the destruction of my heart and trust issues that Christian left behind.

After Finley and Maya leave, Preston and I are curled up on the sofa watching cooking shows.

I go up on my knees to kiss his cheek and then his lips when he turns his head to me.

“You know I don’t expect anything tonight, right? Just because Maya and Finley aren’t here…” Preston tells me.

“I know you don’t expect anything. That’s not why…” I trail off as I try to figure out how to explain it. “I’m ready, Preston. His number has been permanently blocked. I know that’s not much proof, but in five months I never felt the way I feel for you after only seven days. And while I know you have rules about sex before a game…”

I don’t get to finish my thought. Preston scoops me up and is then striding through the house toward his bedroom.

Winding my arms around his neck, I ask, “Is this a yes?”

“It’s a hell yes, cupcake.”

Finally!

But once he lays me down in the center of his giant, king-sized bed, Preston’s face falls as if he’s having second thoughts.

“What’s wrong?” I ask him, sitting up on my elbows.

“I was just thinking that this is still so new with us, and the future is uncertain.”

“I know that, Preston. And while I don’t love the idea of the unknown, I just want to enjoy this time with you for however long I can.” When he still doesn’t look convinced, I cup the side of his fuzzy face and tell him, “Don’t worry. You’re not taking advantage of me. I won’t think it’s more than it is between us just because we have sex.”

“I want it to be more, though,” he says. And I hear everything he doesn’t say as well. But it’s unlikely to become more, given that we live so far away from each other. “And I want to see all of you this time.”

“All of me?”

“Last night you kept on my jersey.”

“Oh. Right.” He’s asking me to get completely naked. And while I’m nervous that seeing every little inch of my imperfect body will disappoint him, I still sit up to whip my shirt over my head because I don’t want any barriers between us.

“God bless America,” Preston says. Pausing the undoing of his pants, his eyes linger on my breasts for a long moment before he crawls up on the bed. When he’s on his hands and knees above me, he runs one finger down the center of my cleavage. “I could spend the entire night with these beauties.”

Lowering his head, his tongue follows the same path as his finger. The scruff on his cheeks grazing my breasts through the red lace bra makes all the insecurities disappear, along with the ability to hold myself up. I lie flat on the mattress again, and Preston’s tongue follows. He groans as he flicks it back and forth between the mounds. Then his mouth is covering my entire nipple through the lace, warming it with his breath, lavishing the hard point with an open-mouthed kiss that ends with a gentle tug between his teeth.

A jolt of desire shoots straight to my core. Needing to feel his mouth on my bare flesh, I tug both cups down, tucking the fabric under the weight of my heavy breasts.

“Oh yeah. All night,” Preston says again before he devours my boobs with the same zest as he licked another part of me.

His obsession with a certain part of my body, while flattering, quickly becomes problematic the longer it goes on. I’m wet and aching, without any relief in sight. My pants and panties are still on, and Preston is still fully dressed other than his shoes.

But I don’t have to wait long for this amazing man to come to the rescue. Without removing his mouth from my nipple, his hand lowers to the crotch of my jeans, cupping me possessively.

“ Yesss ,” I moan when he applies pressure to that ache, causing my back to arch. His mouth frantically covers more of my breasts now thrust in his face as he rubs me through the denim.

“Give me a few more minutes up here,” Preston says, flicking his tongue over my other nipple now. “And I’ll spend as much time as you need down here. I want you soaking wet before I get another taste.” His hand applies more pressure to my mound. Just thinking about how good it feels when he’s “tasting me” down there has me trembling all over with pleasure.

I fly so high I get dizzy for several wonderful seconds. When I come back down, I open my eyes and find Preston moving down my body. His big hands tremble, trying to work the much smaller button and zipper on my jeans. When he gets them undone, he jerks the denim down my legs with a muttered curse, like they’re the bane of his existence. Then I’m lying underneath him in just my panties, and a matching bra still tucked underneath my heaving breasts.

“These pretty red panties are drenched,” he remarks, rubbing a thick finger over the damp crotch. I’m still so sensitive from my orgasm that I squirm at his touch. “But you’re still not ready to take my cock yet.”

“Please,” I whisper, wanting him, needing him inside of me. Like a little tramp in heat, I shove my panties down my legs and kick them off my ankles. I’m way past having things like modesty.

The way Preston looks at me like I’m precious to him, like I’m the most beautiful woman in the world, makes all my insecurities disappear.

He doesn’t waste any time teasing me. No, he gets right to stroking me with his tongue while simultaneously sliding a finger inside of me, getting me ready for him.

Every moan he pulls out of my mouth has his eyes lifting to mine, watching the pleasure visible on my face. I run my fingers through his hair and whisper his name, a plea for more. I need more of him, all of him. His tongue becomes frantic. He adds another finger, sending me flying so high I never want to come down.

But when I do, I open my eyes and find his face hovering above mine.

“Should I get a condom?” he asks, his voice so deep and rumbly a shiver runs through my entire body.

“Only…only if you want to,” I tell him. “I’m on the pill and I used one with…with everyone I’ve been with. Tested recently and was all clear. Very recently.” I don’t say Christian’s name, but we both know that’s who I was referring to.

“I haven’t been with anyone in years, and I have never gone bareback.”

“So, we could be each other’s first?”

“God yes. Even if I won’t last five seconds once I get inside of you.”

“That’s fine.” Grinning up at him, I run my fingertips over his broad shoulders and say, “I bet you’ll make up for it in the second period after a short intermission.”

“Damn right,” Preston agrees.