Chapter 27
Vox
Imanage to get through dinner without giving more than selfies to Jenn and her friends. I have no doubt she thought I’d hook up with at least one of them, maybe even all of them.
Not only was I not interested in the attention and obvious flirting, but it made my skin crawl with Connor seated next to me.
Jenn’s friends may have been after me, but I didn’t miss the looks she snuck at Connor. The way I wanted to claim that man in front of everyone, just so they’d all back off, was a feeling I’ve never experienced.
There are a lot of new feelings for me where he’s concerned. I want to wrap my arms around him and bury my face in his chest. I want to show him off. I want to make dinner with him. I want to laugh with him without being worried about what others will think or say. I want to hold his fucking hand.
Connor has embedded himself in my veins, making him impossible to ignore.
I offer to help Rachel with the dishes, like I do every year, solidifying my status as Rachel’s favorite child. Jenn and her friends have said their goodbyes and thankfully moved on to the basement.
After placing his dish in the sink, Grey pats me on the back.
“Sorry about that, Vox,” he says with a laugh. “You know Jenn, always has to meddle.”
“It’s all right,” I lie. “I think I escaped mostly intact.”
Grey moves to lean back against the counter, ankles casually crossed in front of him.
“Any of them tickle your fancy?” he asks, making me pause and turn an arched brow toward him.
“Tickle my…fancy?” I repeat, wondering why the hell he’s asking.
“Yeah, you know…did you like them? Want to take them out? Hook up with them? Aiden was clearly interested, and I’ve never known you to turn down a sure thing,” he jokes.
“Uh, no. No one ‘tickled my fancy,’” I answer, resuming my washing and drying duties. “Besides, it’s way too close to the Winter Classic to get caught up in all of that.”
Connor chooses that moment to come into the kitchen, carrying his dirty dishes as well.
“Connor, help me out here,” Grey says, ignoring my desire to end this conversation.
My asshole clenches, and I try to stop this conversation before it can derail any further.
“My focus is boarding, end of story.” Connor stands next to me, holding his plate. “You can just set it in here. I’ll get it,” I tell him, pointing to the sink.
“I don’t want to create more work for you,” he replies gently, with too much concern in his voice.
“Suit yourself.” I hand him the scrubber brush and pick up a towel to dry the plates I’ve just washed.
His features betray his shock at my clipped tone, but he schools them quickly.
I just hope it was quick enough. It could be all the conspiracy theories about Grey that Connor’s been shoving down my throat, but it’s hard not to feel like Grey’s earlier questions were asked with purpose.
“Oh, Vox,” Rachel says, coming into the kitchen a moment later, “Aiden wanted me to tell you they’re going to see a movie tonight, and you’re invited.”
Connor stiffens beside me.
“Thanks for the heads up,” I tell Rachel.
“Well?” Grey asks, rejoining the conversation.
“Well, what?” I ask.
“Are you going?”
“Why the sudden interest in my love life, Grey?” I ask, trying like hell to keep my tone light and a smile on my face.
“You’ve been working hard. Just want to make sure you’re achieving balance.”
This makes me laugh. “Those of us at the top aren’t afforded the luxury of balance,” I remind him, paraphrasing words he once said to me.
By the time I escape the Patterson residence forty minutes later, I’m a ball of tension, desperate to hear my name on Connor’s lips and get on with our night. He tries to follow me out the door, but Grey asks him to hang back.
I manage to give Connor a handshake without hauling him to my chest and kissing him, but just barely. With his back to Grey, he says, “Have a good night,” but he mouths, ‘I’ll be there soon.’
It feels like an eternity until there’s a knock on my door.
The tension from dinner that was fed by our lust and the need we share for each other bursts into shreds the second Connor’s over the threshold.
He cups my face in his freezing hands before he even removes his jacket. It’s snowing outside, and every move he makes sends more snowflakes to the floor.
“Jesus, Vox, I’m so fucking sorry.” He peppers my mouth with quick, closed-lip kisses and begins talking again. “I’m sorry I didn’t remember meeting you.” Kiss. “I’m sorry I disappeared.” Kiss. “And I’m really fucking sorry I broke my promise.”
Okay, so it’s clear Grey spilled the beans after I left his office. Not surprising, but a little embarrassing. Or at least, it would be if Connor weren’t assaulting me with apologies and kisses.
Connor quickly shrugs out of his coat and guides me to the couch in my living room. He sits down and pulls me on top of him, forcing me to straddle his thighs or risk kneeing him right in the dick as he continues talking, not pausing to take a breath or let me get a word in edgewise.
“I felt like I needed to be the one to stop this. My feelings for you are not complicated, but my role in your life is, and I feel like it’s my job to protect you.
Except I can’t stop thinking about you. Thinking about that night we shared.
Thinking about how much I want to be around you all the fucking time.
” His hands are everywhere, rubbing up and down my thighs, my sides, slipping under the cotton T-shirt I changed into as soon as I got home.
“Please say you forgive me. Please say we can do this until it all blows up in our faces. Please…just tell me you’re mine. ”
Finally exhausted of words, Connor goes silent, his fingers digging into my hips like he’s afraid I’ll vanish into thin air.
Sitting on him like this, with my knees spread wide, makes me grind against him involuntarily. Something about the position sends a signal to my brain that it’s time to play.
Connor groans with the friction, his head hitting the back of the couch. “Do it again,” he demands.
Gripping his shoulders for leverage, I honor his request.
“Vox, tell me you forgive me,” he pleads.
I should probably make him work for it. But shoulda, coulda, woulda…
“I forgive you,” I say instead.
“Mmm,” he hums, raking me across his lap, already losing himself to his growing erection. “The only place I’ll ever disappear from now on is your ass,” he says, looking in my eyes as his hands move to unfasten the clasp on my pants.
My brows shoot to my hairline at his bold statement. I like this change in him. What’s even better is that I believe him.
“You want to fuck me tonight, baby?” I ask as he pulls my cock from the sweats I changed into with the T-shirt and begins stroking me slowly.
“More than anything,” Connor confesses, using his other hand to push on my chest. “Stand up. Let me get you out of these clothes.”
After Connor makes a quick detour to the kitchen for coconut oil—which I questioned, since I have lube, but got no answer—we make it to my bedroom.
We’ve left a trail of clothes through my condo that paints the perfect picture of need.
Both naked and panting, Connor places the coconut oil on the nightstand and impatiently pushes me toward the bed, making me laugh.
“Someone’s eager,” I tease, thankful to have him back.
“Oh, hotshot, you have no idea,” he says, taking charge in a way he’s never done before. “Let me tell you how this is gonna go.”
“I’d rather you show me,” I argue, wanting to be inside his fucking skin.
“I’m going to give you the rundown so you can decide if additional prep work is necessary before I get started,” Connor says seriously, causing precum to spill from my slit.
He sees it, rubs it around the head of my cock with his thumb, and gives me a wicked grin.
“Because once I start, there will be no stopping,” he informs me.
“First, I’m going to suck this gorgeous cock until you’re writhing beneath me and you spill your huge load into my waiting mouth.
Then I’m going to tongue-fuck it into your ass and use it as lube to tease that perfect hole open until you’re begging through tears for me to fuck you.
I’m going to peg your prostate repeatedly until you can’t tell whether you’re going to piss yourself or come.
And only when I’m certain it wouldn’t take more than a light breeze to set you off like a rocket, will I come inside you so fucking deeply, my DNA will be in your goddamn stomach. ”
I stare at him with wide eyes, my mouth hanging open.
“Jesus Christ, Connor. Where the fuck did that come from?” I ask in total shock.
“It’s always been there; it’s just been buried beneath the shame, guilt, and fear. But you’ve helped set me free from all of that, Vox. Not even Sam’s forgiveness could eradicate my demons the way you have…and now I want to thank you, to claim you. Hell, I want to fucking own you.”
Well, isn’t that music to my ears?
I give him a smile that I’m confident he’ll correctly interpret as a challenge.
“Then get to work, Coach.”