Chapter 35
DRED
“These boys are on fire tonight.” Rix pops a chocolate-covered peanut in her mouth.
“They’re playing so clean these days,” Hemi notes.
“It’s good to see in such a transitional year.” Hammer snaps a picture and sends a message to either Hollis or her dad, or both. They might be retired from the league, but they’re still invested in the team. They’re both coaching tonight at the Hockey Academy; otherwise they’d be here, too.
Roman worked closely with Kellan and Connor last season to get them ready, and it feels like all that hard work is paying off.
“Connor has really stepped it up this season.” Shilpa cradles her little nugget in her arms. He’s wearing an adorable pair of earmuffs, and he’s totally zonked after two periods of being snuggled and passed.
“It’s been a good season for him,” I agree.
“Seems like maybe you’re responsible for that shift.” Essie nudges me.
“I don’t know that it’s a me thing…”
“Seems like a you thing.” Hemi arches a brow.
“He’s getting along with everyone on the team, even Flip,” Hammer notes.
Tally looks up from her phone with a disgusted expression.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
“Yeah, sorry. Cammie’s at Chase’s game tonight, and my ex is hitting on one of our other friends.
She didn’t want to tell me, but she felt like it would be better coming from her instead of someone else.
” She tucks her phone in her pocket. “I don’t care who he dates, but he’s kind of flying his douchebag flag by flirting in front of one of my closest friends, you know? ”
“I’m sorry, Talls.” Fee hugs her arm.
“It’s fine. He’s a dick. He just needs to stop being so creepy and find new people to hang out with.”
“Maybe we need to attend one of Chase’s games,” Rix suggests.
“And bring our boys,” Hemi adds.
Tally’s eyes light up with glee, and a side of vindication. “It would be such a shitshow,” she breathes. “But also probably worth it.”
Tally’s boyfriend from last year wasn’t a fan favorite.
They broke up at the end of summer, when pictures surfaced of him making out with a girl from his hometown.
Apparently, he’d been dating her and Tally the whole time.
Mostly Tally was annoyed by all the online chatter and irritated with herself for not seeing him for what he was sooner, but she bounced back quickly.
“Oh! You know what we need to do?” Hemi taps her lip.
“Go over things for the library fundraising gala?” I ask hopefully. It’s taken a back seat with the wedding and writing all the proposals.
Hemi nods. “We have loads of time, but I’d love to get most of it ironed out in the next few weeks.”
“Agreed.” I try not to sound overly eager, but I would love for this gala to give the library a soft cushion after what happened with Connor’s dad and pulling the funding.
It’s been reinstated, and I’m sure it has everything to do with my husband, although he hasn’t mentioned it.
“Now that I’m settled, I’ll be able to give it more of my attention. ”
The girls jump in, throwing out ideas, and Hammer pulls out her phone to take notes.
The Terror win the game. It’s a Friday night, and they have a three-day break, so we decide to go out and celebrate.
Under normal circumstances, I would bail early because the club scene is not my jam, but not this time.
I’ve been living in a mansion on the edge of the city, missing the easy access I used to have to all my friends.
Before I could walk across the hall or down the street; now it’s a drive with some planning.
And if I’m stepping out of my comfort zone to spend time with them, so can my husband.
The rest of them all live within a few blocks of each other, so Connor and I join the crew and stop at Rix and Tristan’s for a quick wardrobe change.
“You can borrow something from my closet,” Rix tells me. “And we wear the same size shoe.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Connor assures us. “Cedrick will be here in a minute with options.” He holds up his phone to show me the car moving on the map. “He’s bringing several dresses and shoes, so you can pick whatever you’d like.”
“It’s after ten! Cedrick probably wants to go to bed.”
“And he will, after he drops off dresses and shoes, darling. Don’t worry, he has tomorrow off.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“The most heinous, obviously. How dare I want you to be comfortable in your own clothes when we make spontaneous plans to go out with friends?”
“You two are so cute.” Rix hugs Tristan’s arm. “Aren’t they?”
“Adorable,” Tristan agrees.
“Don’t encourage him.” I scowl as Connor beams.
Half an hour later I’m wearing a dress that shows off every curve I have and a pair of shoes that probably cost as much as a month’s rent. I won’t even think about the price of the dress.
Connor’s hand is placed protectively—and possessively—on my back as we enter the club. His brow is deliciously furrowed, and his jaw is tight.
“You’re rather tense,” I observe.
“I wonder why,” he grumbles.
“If you didn’t want me to wear the dress, you should have said something.” I’m poking the bear. Intentionally.
“I thought when I said I liked it the best you would choose something else.”
“So you don’t like this dress?”
“No, I love this dress. You look fucking edible. I hoped the reverse psychology and honesty would work in my favor and push your defiant little buttons.”
“Guess that backfired, eh?”
“Immensely, yes.”
“Does that mean you plan to spend the night broody and glowering?”
“It’s quite possible.”
The air around us is now vibrating with bass.
“Oh! This is my favorite song! Let’s dance!” Tally grabs my hand, and I wave over my shoulder, my smile widening as Connor’s expression darkens.
Quinn claps him on the shoulder and hands him a drink.
“Connor looks like he wants to eat you alive,” Tally shouts.
“He’s pretty annoyed that I’m wearing the dress he said he loved,” I reply.
She frowns. “I don’t get it.”
“I think he’d rather she just wear it for him, and not for everyone else,” Rix explains, motioning to all the bodies surrounding us.
“Oh! That makes sense. I can’t wait until I have someone who gets all territorial over me.” Tally flips her hair over her shoulder and glances toward the guys. “And not the way my ex was.”
“Gotta say, I’m glad you’ve moved on from him.” Hemi side-hugs her.
“Me too. I know he wasn’t everyone’s favorite. Especially not my dad’s.” She rolls her eyes. “At least I never had sex with him.”
“Small mercies.” I exchange a look with Rix.
“Not that he didn’t try…” Tally rolls her eyes.
“They always try. Half the reason he wanted to date me was because he knew I was a virgin. He did the whole candles-and-sex-soundtrack thing once. He wanted to be able to tell his friends he popped my cherry. And then he lied and told them he did anyway—and also that I’m a shitty lay. ”
My eyebrows rise. “This guy sounds like a high-level douche.” Flip better never find out about this or he’ll bury him.
“I got him back by telling the girlfriend of one of his friends that he was a premature ejaculator.”
Rix wrinkles her nose. “Was he?”
“Oh yeah. He always came in, like, under two minutes. And I never got to come.” Tally crosses her arms and pouts—but only for a moment before the beat is too much to resist and she’s dancing again.
“Sounds like a selfish asshole.” Hemi takes Tally’s mostly empty drink and sets it on the bar rail behind her.
“So selfish,” Tally agrees.
I’m unsurprised when Tristan joins us a few minutes later. Dallas and Hollis are next, and then a familiar tattooed arm snakes around my waist. I tip my chin up and Connor gazes down at me, eyes hooded.
“You better not be here to drag me off the dance floor,” I warn.
He pulls me tighter against him. “You know the old saying, darling. If you can’t beat them, join them.”
“So you’re here to dance with me?”
“I’m here for the foreplay.” He drops his head, and his lips skim my cheek and stop at my ear. “All these eyes on us. My hands on you.”
Heat works its way down my spine, settling between my thighs. “Evil to the core.”
“You’re the menace who wore this dress,” he reminds me.
“You’re the one who said you loved it.”
He runs his hand down my side. “You’re the one who didn’t play by the rules.”
I reach up and skim the shell of his ear. “Hard to play by the rules when I don’t even know what they are.”
“I suppose I should have finished the thought in my head, and then you would have known that while I love this dress, you wearing it in a club full of people makes me lightly homicidal.”
“And possibly horny.” I spin and press my ass against him, feeling his hardness.
“Possibly.” He turns my head, tilting my chin so he can cover my mouth with his.
It’s a soft kiss. Sweet. Until he sucks in my bottom lip and lets it slide through his teeth. “Do you know what I can’t stop thinking about?”
“Fucking me in the front foyer when we get home?”
“You’ll be lucky if we make it out of the car.” His hand moves lower, pressing firmly against my low belly as he rolls his hips.
“Tell me more about that,” I suggest.
“I’d like you to tell me more about the time I caught you listening to your audiobook in the driveway.”
A thrill shoots down my spine. “What do you want to know?”
“I know you better than I did then.” His fingers splay across my stomach, pressing illicitly close to the crest of my pubic bone.
“You do,” I agree on a soft moan.
“I know how you sound when you’re about to come.” He kisses the edge of my jaw. “And I know you get off on the idea of being watched.”
My nipples tighten, and my panties dampen.
“And here we are, in the middle of a nightclub.” He bites my earlobe. “Surrounded by our friends, and based on the way you’re biting that lip of yours, you’re dangerously close to coming, aren’t you, Dredful menace?”
“Y-yes.” Everyone is lost in their own world, bodies moving, engaged in their own foreplay. But there are eyes everywhere. Someone is watching. Noticing.
“Do you know how much I want to feel your pretty, wet cunt squeezing my cock?”
My moan gets lost in the bass as heat spirals through me and my knees buckle.
Connor spins me around and works his knee between my thighs.
His hand curves around my ass, pulling me tight against him.
His lips drop to my ear. “I can feel you coming, little menace.” And then his mouth is on mine, swallowing my plaintive sounds.
I melt into his arms. We don’t say goodbye to our friends. As soon as my legs will hold my weight, he whisks me out of the club and into his car.
“Take your panties off,” he demands once we’re on the road.
I shimmy them down my thighs. Connor holds his hand out, and I drop them into his palm. He groans as he brings them to his nose and inhales deeply.
“Oh my fucking God.” I shudder and dig my nails into my thighs.
“Are you coming again?”
“Maybe,” I say through gritted teeth. The roll of my hips gives me away.
Connor almost misses the turn. He makes a hard right, then straightens out the wheel, easing off the gas. His hot hand lands on my thigh, squeezing. I part my legs for him, and he skims my clit. My body is on fire, and I’m on the verge of combusting.
We turn onto our street, and he punches in the code for the gate.
As soon as we’re through, he shifts into park and wraps his hand around the back of my neck, yanking me over and into a kiss.
With that, we’re frantic, insatiable. He throws open his door and steps out into the cool fall night.
I clamber over the center console, and he pulls me out of the car with one arm while he frees his cock with the other.
He hurriedly rolls on a condom, and then I wrap myself around him and he presses me against the side of the car.
Our gazes lock, my heart skips a beat, and then he fills me in one rough, glorious thrust. Our mouths clash, tongues lashing.
Connor fucks me into oblivion at the mouth of the driveway.
I can’t get close enough, will never be full enough.
I want him in ways I’ve never wanted anyone.
And then he softens. His hold gentle, his lips tender on mine as he fucks me still. I think I could love him, if he would let me.