Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
JJ
Twenty-One Years Old
When I wake up with Adeline’s warm body pressed against mine, I swear I must be dreaming.
For almost a year, I slept by her side, and I can’t count how many mornings I’d wake up at three thirty so her family wouldn’t catch us.
After my alarm went off, I’d give myself a few minutes to watch her sleep, wondering what she would do if I pulled her into me.
Wondering how soft her lips would be. Wondering what she’d taste like.
Now I know.
Unable to resist, I press my lips to hers. Her mouth slants into a smile. “Morning.”
“Good morning, baby.” I press another kiss to her lips.
She sighs. It’s this soft, sweet sound. Her eyes are still closed, but she looks so damn happy.
Just like I feel. Content. Like we can breathe easy for the very first time.
For so long I held my breath around her or tempered my words, hoping like hell I wouldn’t admit how I felt and screw it all up.
She was my best friend. The only person I could be honest with when everything in my life felt so precarious.
I was too scared to rock that boat. Even after my mom was in remission.
We’d only just celebrated five years cancer free.
We’d already done this dance before, though.
We’d made it years without a recurrence, and then they’d found another mass.
My mother was the center of our family’s universe.
I couldn’t voice how it felt like my chest was being squeezed tight at the thought of losing her.
But Adeline knew. She knew it without me even having to say it.
She’d see me spiraling and hit me with a round of two truths and a lie.
Or she’d link our pinkies and squeeze. Or she’d challenge me to a round on the ice.
She always knew when I needed that distraction. When I needed her.
And when I was younger, the thought of risking that type of bond for the chance at something more felt selfish. It felt like taking the one thing the universe had given me to help me deal with my mom’s diagnosis and saying this is great, but it’s not enough.
Adeline has always been enough. Even when she wasn’t completely mine.
But the day she called about the Olympics, the way she sounded when she discovered there was a woman in my room—someone who meant absolutely nothing—it was the first time I thought she might want more too.
And I realized that my fear was hurting her. I never wanted to hurt her. And I’d risk losing everything to avoid that.
Thank fuck it didn’t come to that. Thank god those days are over. She wants me. She loves me.
“You’re so warm,” she says, her beautiful eyes finally open. This close, they’re so dark. Chocolate swirls with slight golden sparkles, even as sleepy as she is.
I tug her closer. “You’re so perfect.”
Her body quakes as she laughs. “You’re just saying that because I made you come three times last night.”
Smiling, I kiss her again. I can’t stop. “No, I’m saying that because I love you. Because I can finally kiss you whenever I want.”
She presses her lips together, one brow cocked.
I cough out a laugh. “And you made me come three times last night.”
Her resounding laugh is loud. Joyful. Delicious.
“I love you too,” she says, her eyes dancing over my face. “I still can’t believe this happened.” She nuzzles into my chest, embarrassed maybe.
I press a kiss to the top of her head. “Believe it. I’m yours, baby, and you are most certainly mine.”
“I feel like I could run a marathon right now. I have all this excited energy.” She grins up at me. “This is the best morning of my life.”
“You won the damn gold yesterday. You had a goddamn shutout.”
“And I made you come three times,” she teases.
Damn, this girl. I’ve been awake for mere minutes, and I can’t stop laughing.
“Yeah, baby, and you made me come.”
Her cheeks are pink with heat, but her eyes are full of delight. “I’m rather proud of that fact.”
“So it seems.”
“I was thinking.” She presses a kiss to my bare chest and peers up at me from beneath her lashes.
“Hm?”
“Maybe I can do it again.” She pulls back, then with a wicked smile, she eases herself down the bed, dragging her mouth over my stomach, peppering kisses along the way.
“Adeline,” I breathe out. Her name is a goddamn prayer on my lips.
This woman is my everything. And knowing she wants me this way…it’s fucking with my ability to speak.
“Yes, Jonathan Francis?”
“Oh.” The sound is rough, full of surprise. “I didn’t know you knew my real name.”
“Your real name is JJ,” she says with an eye roll. “But you always call me Adeline, even though everyone else calls me Addie, so I thought I’d try it.”
“And?” I raise a brow.
“If you react like this.” She drags her fist up and down my erection. “I’ll call you whatever you want.”
Pleasure shoots down my spine and my eyes roll back in my head. “Adeline, you do that to me, not some goddamn name, I assure you.”
She gives me a secretive smile, the look piquing my curiosity.
“What?”
“I used to wonder why you called me that. Drove me nuts, actually.”
My heart thuds at the sincerity there. “Adeline?”
She nods from where she’s perched between my thighs, her mouth so close I could roll my hips and stroke her lips if I focused.
“It felt like…” I sigh, forcing my mind to focus on the conversation, not my dick and the way she just licked her lips.
“It felt like you were mine when I used that name,” I finally say.
“Everyone else got Addie. I wanted a little piece of you all to myself, even if I couldn’t claim you completely. ”
She shakes her head, releasing a breath of a laugh. “JJ, I was always yours. Didn’t matter what you called me.”
Warmth rushes through me. I think I always knew that too.
Fuck, I wish there had never been anyone before her.
I wish I’d been smart enough to make my move years ago.
Or to wait for her. Because now I know how special this is.
How good it can be with the right person. And I should have known that all along.
I don’t get a chance to tell her that, though, because she slides her mouth over me and my eyes roll into the back of my head. “Jesus fuck.” The sound is stolen from my throat. Dragged from my lungs.
There is nothing sexier than a naked Adeline, hair mussed from sleep, skin soft and warm, taking my cock into her mouth, dark eyes studying my every reaction. Like she wants to know that I’m enjoying it. That she’s pleasing me. “Fuck, Adeline.”
Lashes fluttering, she sucks me deeper.
I toss the covers, desperate to see all of her. Kneeling between my thighs, she grips me, pumping with her hand and her mouth.
A whimper escapes me, snagging her attention immediately.
Her eyes burn as she watches me watch her. “Oh, you like that,” I say. “You like knowing you’re doing a good job, don’t you?”
She hums around me.
“Fuck, I’m going to think of you like this every time I jack off from now until eternity.”
She pulls off me slowly, a string of saliva stretching between my crown and her lips. “What if—” she says slowly.
I narrow my eyes, too damn turned on to guess where she’s going with this. “What if what?”
“What if you don’t just have to think about it?” She reaches for her phone and taps at the screen. Then she hands it to me. “Record me sucking you off, JJ. You can keep this handy when you’re away for all those games…I don’t want you thinking anyone else—”
I press a finger to her lips. “Adeline. It’s you and me. I swear to you I would never.”
She gives me a soft smile. “I know that. But now you’ll have something to watch.” Without waiting for me to respond, she goes back to her task, wrapping her mouth around my swollen cock.
I don’t know where to look, at the screen of the camera that’s filming her or around the side of it, at the real thing.
She’s so goddamn perfect. So good at this. Cupping her jaw, I stroke her cheek. “My beautiful girl. You are doing such a good job. Fuck, baby, you’re a dream.”
My balls tighten, but I don’t want this to end. It’s been sixty seconds, and already, I’m close to exploding. “Addie baby, come here.”
Her eyes jump to mine.
“I need to be inside you. Please, let me make you come.”
She pops her lips off me and shrugs, wearing a cheeky grin. “Okay, if you must.”
Chuckling, I prop the phone up against the lamp so it can capture the two of us. Then I pull her up my body. When I’ve got my head between her thighs, she grips the headboard and rides my face.
“Oh, JJ,” she cries, grinding down on me.
Fuck, she tastes so good like this, wet and excited from sucking me off. Without slowing, I fondle her tits, touching them the way that pulled the deepest moans from her last night.
She slows, peering down at me, watching me eat.
“You’re such a good boy,” she murmurs.
Holy. Fuck. I didn’t think I could get any harder, but I swear I’m leaking, making a mess between my thighs.
My hips roll of their own accord, humping the air. Needy and excited.
I need her to come. So I double down. I suck her clit into my mouth, eliciting a breathy whine. Then I flick it with my tongue. Her head falls back and she rolls her hips. When she starts to pulse, I drag her down my body and thrust into her, wanting to feel her orgasm from the inside.
“Oh god,” she babbles.
“I know, baby,” I rasp against her mouth, kissing her through her first orgasm.
“How?” she whines.
“How what?” I press a kiss to her jaw, her neck. Sucking her sweet skin.
“How does it feel so good. Like—” Eyes wild, she shakes her head, like she can’t find the words.
“Because it’s us, Adeline. Because this is how it’s supposed to be. Me inside you. Always.”
Smiling down at me, she swivels her hips in a way that has my balls tugging tight again.
“Fuck, baby, I’m going to come.”
She moans, back arched. “Come on my tits.”
“That dirty mouth.” I pull out, then make room for her to lie on the mattress.
When she’s on her back, her hair splayed out around her, I drop between her thighs. But I want her to come one more time before we’re finished.
So I bury my face between her legs, and when my mouth meets her clit and I suck, she cries out. I add two fingers and press on the inside wall in a way that made her shatter quickly last night. Within seconds she’s clenching around me, her thighs squeezing around my shoulders as she comes in waves.
I press kiss after kiss to her sensitive sex, only stopping when she sighs out a soft sound. Then I lean back and jack myself until I come all over her gorgeous tits.
“That’s gonna be one hell of a video,” I say, collapsing beside her.
She surveys the sticky mess across her chest and then glares at me. “You’re going to clean this up, right?”
I smirk. “One second.” I pick up the phone, stop the recording, then switch over to the photo option. “Smile for me, baby,” I tease.
She tries not to, but the scowl slips quickly. We’re both too damn happy for that. The second it morphs into the smile I love so much, I snap a picture of my beautiful mess. Then I toss the phone onto the bed and rush to the bathroom so I can get her cleaned up.
After showers, we get back into bed, snuggling and ordering breakfast.
“What time do you have to get back?” she asks.
“I’m supposed to meet the team in Chicago tonight. We play tomorrow.”
I hate leaving her. Damn, I’d give just about anything to have a week alone with her in a bedroom. We deserve at least that.
But there’s nothing I can do about that now, so I move on. “What’s on your agenda now that the Olympics are over?”
Her lips twist, her cheeks going pink, like she has a secret.
I turn to face her completely, eager to know everything.
“There’s a spot in Vegas.”
“A spot?” I parrot.
“A goalie spot.”
“On the women’s team?”
She shakes her head, her smile growing. “I checked my email while you were in the bathroom. They want me to fly out tomorrow to practice with the team.”
“The Vegas Vices?” I ask, my mind blown.
She bounces on the mattress, her expression brighter than I’ve ever seen it. “Yes.”
I clutch her to my chest and squeeze. “Adeline, this is huge.”
She nods, burying her face in the crook of my neck. “I know.”
“Fuck, baby, the NHL.”
“I know,” she says again. “But it’s just practice. I might not get the spot.”
“But they called you. They wouldn’t call you if they didn’t think you could do this.”
She presses her lips together, her dark eyes holding mine. “I know,” she whispers. “JJ, I might play in the NHL.”
“Oh, baby, you definitely will. I can feel it.”
Laughing, she holds me tighter. “I’m gonna kick your ass when we play the Bolts.”
I nod. “Probably.”
The wave of excitement I’m riding suddenly disappears. Because this means she’ll be on another team. On the other side of the country. We just got this, and now we’ll be apart for ten months out of the year. Fuck, I don’t want to be selfish, but this…well, it sucks.
“I know,” she whispers, like she can read my mind.
I’m an asshole. She shouldn’t have to deal with my mixed emotions about this. This is a huge opportunity for her. We’ll figure it out. I didn’t go out on a limb and finally get everything I wanted just to lose it twenty-four hours later. We’re us. We’ll figure it out.
“We aren’t going to focus on anything but the good right now.”
“Okay,” she whispers against my chest.
“I love you, baby.” I run my hands through her hair, stroking softly.
“I love you too.”
When there’s a knock on the door, I release her. “That must be the food.”
She leans back against the pillows, and I press one more kiss to her lips before jumping out of bed.
My phone rings as I reach for the doorknob, so I holler over my shoulder, “Can you get that?” With a wide smile, I pull the door open and smile at the waiter. “I can grab that,” I tell him, stepping over the threshold.
There’s no way he’s coming into the bedroom, not when Adeline is practically naked. I hand him a twenty and pull the cart inside.
“The food smells delicious.”
When she doesn’t respond, I peer over at her.
She’s staring down at the phone, her face ashen. And all that joy and peace coursing through me moments ago drains from my body.
“What’s wrong?”
She shakes her head and lets out a sardonic laugh. Then she holds out my phone. “It’s Tabitha. She, uh, she said she needs to talk to you. She’s in the hospital. She said she just had your baby.”