24. My Pants Have Left The Building
CARTER
By the time we leave Hank’s, the sun is already beginning to dip into the horizon.
I’m typically someone who loves winter—present year excluded; this shit is too cold for me—because hockey has always been my life, but I hate the shorter days, the fleeting hours of daylight.
I always feel like I’m rushing to get things done before the sun goes down, like right now.
Hank would have kept us all day, and I’m pretty sure Olivia would have happily obliged him, but we’ve got one more pit stop on our date that depends on daylight before we head back to my house for dinner and cuddles.
Potentially naked cuddles. I haven’t decided yet. I’d prefer naked, of course, and I’m beginning to realize that slow isn’t a word in our vocabulary, but sex is something I can hold off on if she’s not ready, and I want to make sure she is.
“When’s the last time you skated?”
“Yesterday,” she answers distractedly.
We’re not far from my place, and she’s got her face nearly pressed against the window as she stares out at Capilano Lake. It’s breathtaking in the winter. And in the summer too. All the time, really.
Olivia manages to pull her gaze away. “I coach Alannah’s hockey team.”
When I accidentally slam on the brakes, I bracket my arm across Olivia’s chest, stopping her forward jolt. “Sorry, sorry. I just—you just—fuck. Wow.”
She’s my perfect woman.
Her brows pinch with her quizzical smile. “What?”
“I think I might love you,” I joke, except I’m possibly, maybe , halfway serious. “That’s amazing. Can I come see a game?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because all you’ll do is distract the girls and the moms.”
“Hmm. This face is highly distracting, you’re right. Don’t get me started on this body.”
God, I love when she rolls her eyes. So tiny and ferocious. “You’re so ridiculously full of yourself it’s insane, Beckett.”
The tip of my finger dances up her thigh. “You can be full of me too if you play your cards right.
She laughs and shoves my hand off her thigh, only to twine her fingers with mine and set them back in her lap, because she likes when I touch her as much as I like doing it. “Who the hell raised you?”
“Mama Beckett would take offense to that, Olivia.” She wouldn’t. She’d bury her face in her hands, apologize profusely, and tell me to keep my filthy mouth shut.
Which reminds me, Mom’s gonna have a field day when those pictures of Olivia and me at lunch hit the news tomorrow.
I make a mental note to pretend like I have no idea what she’s talking about when she inevitably calls me about it, just to grind her gears.
Dad would be disappointed in me if I didn’t .
I throw the car into park at the head of the lake and tug Olivia over to a bench overlooking the lake.
It’s covered in a thick layer of glass-like ice, the slowly sinking sun making it dazzle like crystal.
The snow-dusted pines shine in the sleek reflection, and everything is white, powder blue, and deep forest green.
Olivia’s so enthralled she doesn’t notice me disappear back to the car, and when I stop in front of her, her gaze falls to the pairs of hockey skates in my hands, and a bright beam shatters her face. “We’re going skating? Here?”
“You got it, princess. You said you grew up doing this back home, so I figured this might be a nice way to bring a bit of home to you.”
Her eyes shine with gratitude. “Thank you, Carter. This is, hands down, the best date ever.”
My chest puffs with pride. “Knew I’d kill my first date.”
“First date ever? High school counts, Carter.”
“I didn’t have time for dating in high school. I was too focused on training.”
Probably could have made time, but I have no regrets.
If I had, I might be stuck in a miserable relationship like Adam is right now.
Him and Courtney have been together since they were seventeen, and we all see how well that’s playing out years later.
No fucking thanks. Plus, my raging teenage hormones, insanely good looks, and charismatic confidence—which some label arrogance—got me through high school just fine without a steady girlfriend.
With our skates on, I help Olivia down to the ice and watch as she takes it all in, speechless.
Most areas of Vancouver don’t typically get cold enough for large bodies of water to freeze over so completely, but this winter is an exception. Right now, as Olivia twirls slowly, gazing with wonder out at all this little slice of heaven has to offer, I couldn’t be more grateful for the cold.
“I’ve never seen something so beautiful,” Olivia whispers. The smile she wears is so dazzling, it hits me right in the stomach like a sucker punch.
“Yeah. Me neither.”
Her lashes flutter as she takes her bottom lip between her teeth. “Who do you think is a better skater, me or you?”
“Hundred percent me. I’m way faster.”
“I said better, not faster.” She skates away from me, leaning forward on one foot before she jumps in the air, spins, and lands on her feet. She sends up a spray of snow when she stops in front of me. “Hockey on the weekends and figure skating during the week until I was ten.”
“I’ll take your ass to the ground, Parker.”
There’s a happy thump in my chest when Olivia throws her arms around my neck. She’s finally given up that shyness from earlier today. I love seeing her like this, her walls coming down, her simply…being herself, with me. Me, being myself with her. It’s easy.
“You think so, eh?”
“I know so. Wanna race?”
“No way. Your legs are, like, three times the length of mine. It’s an unfair advantage.”
I skate toward her, loving the way her hips swing with every backward stride. “Afraid I’ll win?”
“I could skate circles around you, Mr. Beckett.”
I incline my head toward the small green boathouse that sits in the middle of the lake, connected from one shore to the next by a narrow wooden dock. “First one there and back.”
Her fingers crawl up my chest. “When I win, will you rub my feet? They’re gonna be sore from kicking your ass.”
The tip of my nose grazes her freezing one. “So arrogant.”
“Guess you’re rubbing off on me.”
“Oh, I’ll fucking rub off on you.” I catch Olivia’s waist as she tries to spin away from me, hauling her right back in. “We gonna do this or what, pip-squeak?”
“Definitely.” She draws me into her, touching her lips to the corner of my mouth. “But there’s something I want to do before I humiliate you.”
I don’t have time to ask what that is before her mouth opens on mine. Hot, wet tongue lashes, nipping teeth and bruising grips, this kiss is nothing but starved. I’m about to toss my ridiculous idea of anything other than naked cuddles out the window when she starts tugging on my zipper.
“What do you think you’re doing there, Miss Parker?” I rasp out. My cock rockets to maximum strain the second her hand wraps around it through my boxers. “Fuck.”
“Can’t a girl put her hands on her man?”
“Yup. Yeah. That’s… fuck …cool. Hands.” My head whips between the trees and my car.
Do I wanna push her up against a tree and fuck her, or watch her slip around on the leather seats in the back of the Benz?
Tree is more accessible. Do we need to take our skates off?
No, I think I can make it work. I’ve got thighs of steel.
“Carter?”
“Yeah, baby?”
Soft lips touch my chin. “You’re gonna lose.”
“What?” I nearly cry when her hand disappears. “What the hell are you— Olivia !”
Her piercing cackle echoes around the lake as she takes off like lightning, her blades zipping along with her.
I’m too stunned to care when my jeans start slipping over my ass, and I’m proud to say that by the time Olivia reaches the boathouse and starts flying back toward me, my pants are around my ankles.
Because that girl can fucking skate .
She’s still laughing like a hyena when she jumps into my arms and crashes her lips against mine. “Ready to rub my feet?”
I’m ready to rub something, that’s for fucking sure.
* * *
There’s a warm body tucked into mine that reminds me I don’t want this night to end, that there’s no part of me that wants to climb on a plane in the morning and leave for three days.
The flawless beauty sprawled out in my lap is decked out in my clothes, head to toe.
My Vipers hoodie, a pair of sweats that swallow her legs, even a pair of my thick socks covering her feet as we curl up on my balcony, next to the roaring fire, Olivia with a cup of the tea I ran out to buy this morning so she can have it whenever she’s here.
Every minute of this day has been perfect, from Olivia’s hand in mine as we skated across the lake, to the way she stood by my side at the stove, dipping her finger into the sauce I was stirring before dinner, humming happily as she sucked it off.
That one accidentally ended with her on the counter and my tongue down her throat.
She’s still claiming the whole thing was purely innocent, that she was simply tasting the sauce, but I’m not buying it.
I pull the elastic from her braid and run my fingers through her silky hair. “Hank didn’t scare you off today, did he?”
“If anything, he made you ten times more appealing. That guy really amps up your cool factor. His smut collection is the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen.”
Right. My eighty-three-year-old best friend and my… Olivia …might have started an impromptu book club today. They’re starting with some book called Follow Me Darkly or something. I have no desire to get tangled up in that, except apparently blindfolds are involved, so, like, maybe.
But still: “My sword of thunder is the most impressive thing you’ve ever seen.”
She tips her head back, wide gaze locking on mine as silence hangs between us. Then she laughs in my face. “You do not call your dick your sword of thunder.”
“I absolutely call my dick my sword of thunder. You know why, Ollie? ’Cause he brings the thunder.” I take her chin in my hand. “I don’t appreciate your laughter right now.”