Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
MIA
Jessie
I’m heading back to Seattle. I’ll be with you ASAP. Stay with Kate and don’t go back to campus. Tara isn’t the one who told your dad, and I want you nowhere near that son of a bitch.
My heart races. Who else could it have been?
Me
I need to see you. Who was it?
Jessie
I’m boarding the flight now. I just came straight from the arena. It was Leo. He’s known your dad for a while, and he plays on his program. Your dad asked him to keep an eye on you. He saw us outside your dorm building last night and sent Graham a message asking if he knew we were dating.
“Oh fuck,” I announce, causing Kate to spin around from the sink.
Me
You think he was using me to get ahead with Graham?
Jessie
I think he wanted you—because what guy wouldn’t? You turned him down and bent his ego, so he took revenge on us, and it was a convenient way to get ahead with your dad. Speaking of which, has he called you?
Bastard. I could punch him. And, no, not yet. Not holding out much hope for that.
That’s my job, Sweetheart. Sit tight. I’ll be there in a few hours. And I meant what I said earlier.
I frown down at the message.
Me
What do you mean?
Jessie
You’re coming home with me. I love you.
Setting my phone down in front of me, I watch Kate move about the kitchen, the twins asleep upstairs.
“It wasn’t Tara.”
She spins around to face me, drying her hands on a towel. “Excuse me?”
“Tara. It wasn’t her. It was Leo.”
“Who the fuck is Leo?”
I swipe at my tired eyes, resting my face in my hands. “He’s a part of the same friend group I made, and he’s a hockey player. Takes some of the same classes as me. Last time I spoke to him, I basically told him to go fuck himself since he made a pass at me. Turns out, he plays for Dad’s foundation—he just failed to tell me that part. Then he saw me and Jessie as we made out last night and told my dad about it.”
Kate rests a hand on the kitchen counter. “Sounds like one of my cases.”
I burst out laughing when my cell starts vibrating on the side with a call from my dad.
Kate points to it. “Whatever he has to say, it needs to start with a whole heap of sorry before you even think about hearing him out. It’s time he started treating you like the strong-minded woman you are. Also, tell him you don’t have long to talk since you need to try and rebuild your friendship with Tara. Which is also his fault.”
Smiling at Kate, I press Accept and put the phone to my ear. “Hi.”
“Mia, it’s Dad.”
I climb off the barstool, moving into the hallway and up the stairs, closing the spare bedroom door behind me. “I know.”
He blows a long breath down the phone. “Tell Jessie the first thing I said to you was sorry.”
I cock my head to the side in confusion. “Why do you care what Jessie thinks all of a sudden?”
He doesn’t say anything for a few beats, and I hear him adjust, maybe from his bed since it’s really late in Dallas. “He told me, Mia. About his mom, his dad, and how he feels about you. In all my time on this earth, I have never witnessed a grown-ass man pour his heart out in the way he just did. I should’ve called you earlier, but to be honest, I’m still trying to process everything he said. Did he go hungry as a boy?”
My throat feels like it’s closing up at thoughts of Jessie starving. “He went through a lot in his childhood. Back when we were in Dallas, I didn’t know much, but I knew he wasn’t the guy you made him out to be. He made me happy, and he was everything I wanted. You’ve had him all wrong for a very long time, but you were too pigheaded to see it.”
“I’m sorry.” His voice cracks on the final syllable, and he draws in a heavy breath. “I’ve spent so much time worrying about protecting you. Whenever I saw Jessie, I saw that guy locked up for your mom’s death. He drank a lot too. All I saw was a boy throwing away his talent and betraying my trust.”
“No, that would be Leo Walsh,” I reply, deadpan, tagging on his last name with disdain.
My dad clears his throat. “Yeah, Jessie told me about him too.”
“Yeah, well, you really missed with this one, Dad.” I bring the back of my hand over my mouth, the soft white pillows on my bed looking all too comfortable. “I need to call Tara and make sure she’s okay, and then I need to try and get some sleep. You shouldn’t have done what you did with Coulson. That was a real dick move.”
“I know. What can I do to make things right, Mia?”
Looking down at the soft carpet beneath my feet, I shake my head. “Tell Burrows to lay off my boyfriend and support the fact that I love him.”
“For what it’s worth, Mia, I already do support it. I don’t think there are many men out there who would do for their woman what Callaghan just did for you. I meant what I said over text the other day. I’m proud of you.”
Tears sting my eyes. “Thanks. Now, I gotta go.”
“Mia.”
I stir and roll over onto my back.
“Sweetheart.”
When I crack a lid, Jessie’s face comes into view.
Other than his gorgeous blue eyes, the first thing I notice is the stitches across his jawline, along with the black bruising. “Fuck, Jessie.” Reaching up, I bring my palm to his cheek. “It didn’t look that bad over the phone.”
“It’s fine,” he replies, leaning over me and bringing his face down to mine.
“That is so not fine,” I retort. “Have you taken any pain relievers?”
He rolls his eyes. “For a girl who worked with hockey players for several years and is now dating one, you sure don’t know much about our pain threshold.”
I quirk a brow. “You’re right, and I’m quickly learning that you’re just standard men. Refusing to take direction or medication when it will help.”
He pulls back and smirks. “You’ve been spending too much time with Kate. Best get you back to my bed before she corrupts you anymore.”
Brushing our lips together, I part, and his tongue finds mine, kissing me with so much intensity that I feel my pulse in my ears.
“Did you speak to your dad?” Jessie asks, starting to kiss down my neck.
“Yeah. Right before I spoke to Tara.”
“Is she okay?”
I nod, the sensation of his lips over my skin making me pool with heat. “She got it. But I think Leo lost another friend.”
Jessie chuckles into my neck. “The way I want to send him a photo of me making out with you. See if he wants to forward that to your dad too.”
I giggle as I feel his hard length grind between my legs. “Baby, I’m all for showing you off to the world. But I think I’ve about had enough of my dad seeing you all over me to last a lifetime.”
Bringing his hands to the waistband of my leggings, he slowly pulls them and my panties down in one. Leaving me bare from the waist down with a pink cami top and no bra on my top half.
Jessie brings his finger to his full lips. “Shh. No screaming. It’s really early in the morning.”
I pulse in anticipation. “Is Kate awake?”
He smiles and wets his lips. “Jensen too. Not that I give a shit. He fucked her right next door at their own wedding.”
Another giggle bubbles out of me. “I don’t know if I can be quiet.”
Pausing with his mouth over my pussy, he runs a finger through me and brings it to my lips, and I open for him, tasting myself.
“See how sweet you are? There’s no way I can resist you right now. So, be a really good girl for me and be nice and quiet while I eat your pussy. I’ll let you scream later when you’re riding my cock.”
As I lift my hips up off the bed, he rests both my legs over his shoulders.
The first swipe of his tongue has me jolting upward, and Jessie brings an arm over my waist to hold me in place.
He sucks my clit into his mouth, massaging it with his tongue, and I reach out, grabbing a pillow to cover my face.
“Oh my God,” I moan into it, my voice low and muffled.
Licking me from one hole to the next, he circles the entrance to my pussy with his tongue, lowering me down to the bed.
“Spread these for me, baby,” he instructs as his callous palms find the inside of my soaking wet thighs, pushing them apart. “So goddamn beautiful.”
I get lost in the way he eats me out, and the fact that I can’t see what he’s going to do next only adds to the intensity.
When two fingers slide inside me, slowly pumping in and out, I draw my bottom lip between my teeth, desperately trying not to scream. The only sound is the noise my pussy makes as I slowly unravel for him.
“I’m going to fuck this pussy all night once we’re back in my bed,” he rasps against me.
“Jessie, I’m going to come,” I speak into the pillow.
“Soak my face with this pretty pussy.”
His dirty words send me right there, and I feel my release over his hand and into his mouth as I come apart at the seams.
He continues to finger me as I come down from the high, pulling the pillow away from my burning cheeks.
“Can you give me another, Mia? I’m so fucking addicted to this cunt.”
“Make her come all you want; you’ve had a shit twenty-four hours, so I’ll give you a free pass. But just know, you’re taking the sheets home with you to wash.”
The pillow is back in front of my face the very second I hear Jensen’s voice filter in from the other side of the door.
Crawling up my body in hysterics that I do not share, Jessie pulls the pillow away and smiles down at me, kissing the tip of my nose. “You bad girl, messing up my goalie’s sheets.”
I swat at his chest, my face no doubt turning redder. “He can probably still hear us.”
Jessie shakes his head and brings his hand between my legs, running his fingers through me before pushing one inside. “Nah. We’re close and everything, but he’s not into listening to me get it on with my girl.”
I moan into his mouth as he kisses me and continues to finger me slowly.
With his other hand, he pushes down the waistband of his gray sweatpants, and I feel his cock naturally notch at my entrance.
“I told your dad I loved you, and I do, Mia.”
He pushes inside me, and my jaw falls open at the way I stretch around him.
“I want you to move in with me. Tara will get it—the need to move in with a hot hockey star.” He chuckles and grinds his hips against mine.
“But you live across town,” I say between groans of pleasure.
“I’ll buy you a car.”
I shake my head and bring my hands to his ass, pushing him deeper inside me. “No. You need to keep the money you have.”
“Then take my car, and I’ll catch rides. I couldn’t give a fuck how I get home as long as it’s to you each night.”
Still riding my high from before, I come hard when Jessie rolls his hips into me again.
Tipping his head down, he kisses my chest, and I feel the way he jerks inside me.
“Yeah, okay,” I whisper into his hair. “Let’s do it.”