Chapter Nineteen #2
Then I remember Aleksi’s father, the man who raised him with strength and heart, the man who taught him how to love people the way he does now.
“You’ve given me so much,” I say, turning toward him. “I want to give you something in return.”
“You don’t owe me anything.”
“I want to…” I take a breath. “What if we name him Niko M?kelin.”
For a heartbeat, he doesn’t move. His eyes widen, glass-bright, his mouth parting on a sound that doesn’t quite make it out. Then he presses a hand to his chest like he’s steadying something inside him.
“My father,” he says softly. “You’d really do that for me?”
I nod.
He crosses the room in two strides and pulls me against him, arms wrapping around me like he’s afraid I’ll disappear. His breath catches at my ear. “You don’t know what that means to me.”
I do. I can feel it in the way he holds me against me, the way his voice roughens when he says, “Niko.”
I lift my head to look at him. “I think he’d like it here.”
Aleksi smiles then, the kind of smile that undoes me.
The one he only reserves for me.
The one he gives me on the ice when he knows I’m watching.
When he scores or assists on a goal and looks to me like each one is mine. No one has ever looked at me the way Aleksi does.
It’s not worship… it’s something quieter, steadier—like he’s memorizing the parts of me no one else ever bothered to see. And that’s what terrifies me most but it’s also what draws me closer.
He cups my face in both hands, eyes shining. “You’re the only one that can make this empty house a home. Will you move in?”
I realize, standing here under his gaze, that losing Tarron was survivable.
Losing my mother was inevitable.
But losing Aleksi?... That might destroy me.
I don’t think I could survive that kind of loss.
“I don’t know what to say,” I whisper.
He steps closer, voice low but sure. “Say you’ll take the house. Say you’ll give our son the start he deserves—the start you deserve.”
My throat tightens. “I don’t deserve you.”
“Yes, you do,” he says, his eyes catching the light like something certain. “And if you just keep saying yes, I’ll show you all the ways I plan to give you the world.”
I shake my head, a small laugh slipping out with my tears. “What if I don’t need the world, Aleksi? What if I just want you?”
His hand comes up, fingers brushing my cheek, gentle and reverent.
“Doc,” he murmurs, his accent softening even more, “you’ve owned me, body and soul, since the day we met.
I would have told you sooner but you wouldn’t have believed me.
So I’m telling you now if it wasn’t already obvious… I’m yours.”
Then he kisses me, it’s not rushed. It’s quiet and aching and full of everything we haven’t been brave enough to say out loud. I sink into him, fingers curling in his shirt.
We lower to the nursery floor, the soft new rug beneath us, the framed stars giving us hope for the future. His mouth trails over my temple, my jaw, the edge of my throat, every touch a promise that he’s never leaving me.
My hands find the back of his neck, drawing him closer.
Our hands move over each other, pulling off articles of clothing until there’s nothing between us anymore.
His eyes drop to the chain around my neck. The ring I had sealed in resin lying between my breasts.
He reaches for it and takes a closer look. Then recognition hits him. “You kept it?”
“I wasn’t ready to let it go that morning when I left. I guess I’m still not.”
“Me either,” he says, the ring finger of his right hand still sporting a weathered band around it that he must have coated in something too or it wouldn’t have held up this long with sweat and showers.
He pulls me on top of him, the nursery floor is soft beneath my knees, the new rug still smelling faintly of the store it came from.
Aleksi’s hands slide up my thighs, his touch warm and sure, grounding me even as my pulse races.
I dip down and his mouth finds mine again, slow and deep, like he’s memorizing the shape of me.
“I want you,” he murmurs against my lips. “Always.”
I don’t answer with words. Instead, I shift back up, straddling his hips, my belly pressed between us.
His breath hitches as I settle over him, the heat of his erection already hard and ready beneath me.
His hands grip my waist, steadying me, but he lets me set the pace- let’s me take him how I want to.
I reach between us, wrapping my fingers around his hard length, guiding him to where I’m already wet and aching.
The first press of him inside me makes us both groan, the stretch almost too good, the connection stronger than ever before.
I sink down slowly, rocking back and forth on top of him, taking him inch by inch, until he’s fully seated inside me, filling me in a way that makes my vision blur.
“Fuck, Kendall,” he groans. ”You feel—”
“Perfect,” I finish for him, because it’s true. We fit like we always have. The way I’ve never fit with anyone but him.
I start to move, rolling my hips in slow, deep circles. His hands slide up to my ribs, his thumbs brushing the undersides of my breasts, his touch firm and needy, but gentle at the same time. Like he’d never let anyone or anything hurt me, and somehow I know that’s true.
Every time I lift and lower, the friction sends sparks through my nerves, building the pressure low in my belly.
His eyes never leave mine, even as his breath grows ragged. “So fucking beautiful like this.”
I lean forward, bracing my hands on his shoulders, changing the angle. The shift makes him hit deeper, and I gasp, my nails digging into his skin, my eyes rolling at the sensation. I mumble something like ‘oh God’ but I’m too far gone to know for sure.
“Aleksi—”
His hands move to my hips, helping me ride him.
“Keep going Kendall. You tightening around me feels so good… you’re about to come.
Don’t slow down–.” His thumb finds my clit, circling in time with my movements, and the dual sensation sends me spiraling.
My orgasm crashes over me, sudden and intense, my body clenching around him as I cry out his name.
He doesn’t let up. His hips lift to meet mine, his thrusts growing harder, more urgent, taking me from the bottom as if I had never been in control at all.
Then he pulls me down and kisses me, his tongue wiping at mine, and then he buries his face against my neck with a groan, his release spilling inside me.
I can feel him pulse, feel the way his body tenses and then relaxes beneath mine.
For a long moment, we stay like that—breathlessly tangled, his hands still gripping my waist like he’s afraid to let go.
Then, slowly, he lifts me, his arms wrapping around me as he stands.
I let out a small shriek and he chuckles as I cling to him, trying not to fall.
My legs wrapped around his waist like a vice, my heart still pounding.
“Where are you taking me,” I ask.
“We should break in the bed too,” he murmurs, his lips brushing my ear.
I laugh, breathless and giddy. “You’re insatiable.”
“Only for you.”
We fall like that into bed for the next couple of hours, making up for time lost.
Being with him, in this house, knowing that the future is scary but coming for us, is exciting and terrifying all at the same time. Maybe Aleksi is rubbing off on me but all I can think about is how we can have it all: be together–a family, and keep our careers.