Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Holiday
Itwisted in Tanner’s lap, bracing my knees on either side of his hips as I took his face in my hands and crashed my lips against his, pouring every ounce of emotion I was feeling into the kiss.
It took no time at all for Tanner to catch up.
His hands traveled up my thighs and beneath the dress I’d worn for dinner at the Groves earlier that night.
A trail of goosebumps popped up everywhere he touched, like electricity crawling along my skin. I couldn’t get enough of this man, and I wasn’t sure I ever would. Or if I even wanted to.
And now that I knew he loved me too . . . everything felt different, like the intensity had been turned up to a million.
He pulled my bottom lip between his teeth and sucked it as his hands grasped my ass. He used his hold on me to rock me against the rigid erection tenting the front of his slacks. A needy moan was wrenched from my throat as his hard length pressed against my clit.
“Tanner,” I breathed, dropping my head back as he licked and sucked and kissed across my neck.
“Right here, Sunshine. Tell me what you need.”
My hands tangled in his hair as I ground my hips down on him harder, my core aching and desperate to be filled. “You. I want you inside me. Right now.”
Tanner bunched the skirt of my dress in his hands, lifting it up and whipping it over my head.
My bra came next, leaving me in nothing but a tiny thong.
He dragged the tip of his tongue up the straining tendon at the side of my neck before biting the sensitive skin there.
“Is that sweet little pussy ready for me?”
“Mmm,” I hummed as a rush of arousal flooded my core and drenched my panties. “Always ready for you.”
“You know what I want to hear, baby. Give that to me, and I’ll give you everything you want. Always will.”
I didn’t have a doubt about that. He’d proven it time and time again. But this man—my man, he wanted to hear me beg for it first. The payoff was more than worth it, so I didn’t mind one damn bit.
“Please,” I pleaded, my voice coming out high-pitched as the need to come threatened to suck me under and overwhelm every one of my senses. “Please fuck me. I need you so bad, I can’t stand it.”
A wicked smile pulled at his lips, turning me on even more. “Does my good girl want to ride my cock?”
“Yes,” I panted, fisting his button-down in my hands. “Take this off. I want to feel you.”
Instead of unbuttoning the shirt like I expected, he gripped both sides and tore, sending buttons flying.
My mouth fell open as he stripped it off and tossed it aside like it was nothing. “Oh my god,” I breathed, my chest heaving as my heart started to race even faster. “Why the hell was that so hot?”
Tanner cupped me behind the neck with one hand and jerked me back to his mouth, kissing me like his life depended on it as we both fumbled with the button and zipper of his pants.
As soon as his long, thick cock sprang free, I lifted up on my knees. Sliding my panties to the side, I fisted his length at the base and positioned it at my opening before sinking down, taking him all the way inside me.
“Yes,” I cried out, throwing my head back as a growl ripped from his throat.
“So goddamn tight. Every time.” His hands returned to my ass, lifting me up and slamming me back down as he lifted his hips to meet me, thrusting impossibly deeper. “My Sunshine was made for me,” he grunted as we both lost control.
Our movements and kisses were sloppy and uncoordinated as we chased after a release that would likely ruin us both for anyone else. Not that I wanted there to be anyone else. Ever.
Tanner Fine was it for me. I’d heard Gypsy and her friends talk about their epic loves. I’d witnessed my own friends find theirs one by one. I’d started to doubt if I’d ever find one of my own. Then this amazing man crash landed into my life and turned it on its head.
“I love you,” I breathed, my lips brushing against his as I rode him so hard and fast a sheen of sweat broke out across my skin.
A primal, animalistic sound rumbled from his chest as he fisted my hair at the base of my neck. “Say it again.”
“I love you.” The pressure in my core grew and grew as we fucked each other like our lives depended on it. “Tanner, I love you.”
“Fuck,” he hissed, snapping his hips up again and again. “I’ll never get tired of hearing that. Not. Fucking. Ever.” Each word was punctuated by a thrust until I teetered right there on the precipice of an orgasm that was so profound, I was actually scared to fall over.
“Give it to me, Sunshine. Let me see all that beauty as you come around me. I want to feel it.”
I whimpered, pressing my forehead against his as my pace sped up, my body moving without any input from me as it chased after that release.
One of Tanner’s hands slid between our bodies, right to where we were connected.
The rough pad of his finger pressed against my clit, and that was all it took.
Everything exploded in an array of technicolor.
Stars burst in front of my eyes as I cried out, clamping down around him as he swelled thicker inside me.
On a rough shout, Tanner followed after me, spilling inside me as he came. What just happened was a first for me, unlike anything I’d ever experienced, and I finally understood the difference between great sex, and amazing sex with a person you loved.
As we both struggled to catch our breaths, Tanner gripped the back of my neck once more, bringing my forehead to his. Those warm amber eyes were on fire as he stared into mine, straight down to my soul.
“You’re the love of my life,” he whispered, and on that declaration, he mended every single piece of my heart that had ever been broken.
Once we were finally able to move, Tanner lifted me off him with a gentleness that threatened to bring tears to my eyes all over again.
He climbed off the couch and moved through the house unabashedly naked.
As I watched the taut muscles of his ass flex, I knew I’d never get tired of the sight of my man naked.
In fact, I made a promise to myself right then and there to try and make that happen as often as possible.
He cleaned between my legs with a warm washcloth, wiping away the remnants of our combined release, and once he was done, he stretched across the length of the couch, pulling me against him so I was lying partially at his side and on his chest. Grabbing the throw blanket, he smoothed it over us, wrapped his arms around me, and settled in.
The silence surrounding us was a comfort, and as the seconds ticked by, I felt my eyelids growing heavy. Then he spoke, and what he said wiped away any and all exhaustion. “I’m not going back.”
Stacking my hands on Tanner’s rounded pecs, I lifted my head and rested my chin on them so I could see his face. “What?”
“To DC. I’m not going back. I’m retiring. I’m staying here.”
My mouth opened but no words came out. It was everything I wanted to hear but it also filled me with guilt at the same time.
“Tanner.” I gave him a smile that I hoped didn’t look as sad as it felt. “I can’t ask you to do that. Hockey’s your life.”
“Hockey was my life. And you didn’t ask.
It’s a decision I made myself . . . for me.
” He hooked one arm around my waist and lifted the other, folding it behind his head, causing his bicep to flex.
“I’ve been thinking about retiring for a long time.
I’m thirty-seven. Most guys in the league retire before they get to be as old as I am.
Especially in my position.” He pursed his lips, blowing out a breath as the wheels in his head turned.
I bit down on my bottom lip, hope and concern warring inside of me. “I don’t want you to do this for me. You’d end up resenting me, and I don’t know if I could handle that.”
He smiled softly, the fingers at my back playing with the ends of my loose hair.
“I could never resent you. Truth is, my body can’t handle it anymore.
These couple months in Hope Valley have been the only time in years that I haven’t been in pain.
I’d like to retire now, before I’m forced out because of an injury I may not bounce back from as quickly.
I’ve had a hell of a career, and two Cups to show for it.
I’m good, I swear. I’ve accomplished everything I’ve ever wanted to accomplish in the league.
Now I’m excited for what comes next. I’m excited for my life here.
With you.” His smile grew as he added, “The woman I love more than life itself.”
The wave of emotion that crashed into me was so strong I had to slam my eyes closed and burrow my face into his chest.
“Tell me you want that too, Sunshine.” He gave my hair a gentle tug so I’d lift my face back to his. His expression was solemn as he stared down at me. “I think it might actually kill me if you don’t.”
“I want that,” I swore to him. “I want everything with you.”
Relief skated over his features. “Good.” He hugged me tighter. “Tell me about this place. I know the house up front belongs to your oldest sister, but what’s the story with this one?”
A faint smile tugged at my lips as I pulled up some of the happiest memories of my life. “This was Odette’s home.”
“Odette?”
“She’s the closest thing I ever had to a grandmother.
Until I was six years old, my siblings and I lived in this dinky, rundown trailer park on the opposite side of town.
Odette’s trailer was a few doors down from ours.
” I pulled a fortifying breath into my lungs as I turned my head, resting my cheek on his chest as I braced myself to give him the parts of me I’d been holding back.
My parents took off when I was too young to really remember them. ”
“Jesus,” Tanner grunted.
“It wasn’t all bad. I mean, it’s not like you can miss someone you don’t remember.
Gypsy was in her early twenties by then, and she’d basically been raising each of us from birth already.
She gave up everything to take care of us.
She did her absolute best, busted her ass to make sure none of us felt like we were missing out, and we didn’t.
That’s how incredible my big sister is. She filled both roles so well, I sometimes forget they weren’t hers from the start. ”
His voice was jagged as he said, “I love that she gave you that.”
“I do too.”
“But I hate that you guys had it so hard.”
I inhaled deeply. “I do too, especially for her. But she had Odette. We all did. As soon as Detty realized our parents had taken off, she stepped up. She babysat while Gypsy worked two jobs. Any way she could help, she did, until she became as much a part of the family as any of us. When Gypsy met Marco, everything changed. He saved my sister. He saved all of us. He actually bought this house for us. Picked it precisely because it had a second structure on the property that Odette could move into so she could have her own space while still being with her family.”
My vision started to grow fuzzy with unshed tears as I thought about the woman who’d meant so much to me, who’d been such a massive part of my life for so long.
“Detty was who I came to when I needed someone who could calm the storm. She was a steadying presence, and she had this way of giving me peace. Aside from my shop, this is the place I come to when I need to feel that. She may be gone, but when I come here, I can still feel her all around me.”
“She sounds like an amazing woman.”
“She was the best,” I said with a wistful smile.
“I miss her every single day, but it’s not the kind of missing that causes pain, you know?
She hadn’t been young when she first came into our lives, but we got to keep her for another twenty years, and she kept teaching us new things up until that very last day. ”
Lifting my head, I propped my chin back on my hands so I could see into Tanner’s eyes. “Whenever I felt broken, she put me back together.”
“Baby,” he breathed, the word coming out pained. “You are not broken.”
“I felt like it sometimes. I always swore to myself that I would never ever settle for a man like my father. But every man I let into my life managed to turn out just like him. I had a father who couldn’t be bothered to love me followed by a string of terrible relationships that chipped away pieces of me.
It’s hard not to feel broken after something like that. ”
His hand came up to the side of my neck, his thumb soothingly rubbing along my jaw.
“We all break here and there. It’s just a part of life.
But you kept putting yourself back together.
That’s what matters. All those beautifully broken pieces were glued back into place, and, baby, they created the most breathtaking mosaic. I see it every time I look at you.”
God, the way this man undid me. “Detty would have loved you. I have no doubt she’s smiling down on me right now.”
“Then I give you my word, right here and now, that I’ll strive every single day to be the kind of man she’d want for you.”
I didn’t doubt that for a single second. And that made me love him even more.