Chapter 17
Sebastian
Campus was buried under a foot and a half of snow.
I’d just made it back to the hockey house when the blizzard hit, and it wasn’t until I woke early the next morning that the storm began to slowly taper off.
I watched out the frost-covered window as snowflakes drifted down from the sky unhurriedly.
The plows had yet to make their way through the quiet neighborhood, which meant it was nearly impossible to get anywhere on campus without the use of a shovel or snowshoes.
I was going out of my mind trapped inside, alone, with no way to entertain myself.
Normally, I relished any opportunity to have the place to myself.
It was hard to find a quiet moment living with four roommates.
But right now, I needed something or someone to distract me from myself.
If I wasn’t in a state of half-panic over Duncan’s disappearing act, I was overanalyzing everything that had happened between Grace and me before winter break.
I was worried for my future and my sanity—both seemed to be slipping further away from me with each passing day.
More than anything, I wanted to know if Grace felt as strung out as I did, like an addict going through withdrawal.
Half of me wished I could turn back time to stop myself from following her into the locker room, and the other half wanted to turn back time so I could experience it all over again.
I shuffled aimlessly from room to room, as if expecting to find something new each time I retraced my path through the house.
The storm had delayed my roommates from returning to campus, so for the next twenty-four hours, I had to find some way to keep myself from doom spiraling.
Eventually, I queued up an old Toronto Maple Leafs game in the living room.
It was only five minutes into the first period when I heard the unmistakable sound of a knock at the front door.
Who the hell was out during a blizzard? When another knock rattled the old Victorian, I paused the game and approached the front of the house.
A light flurry blew inward as I pulled open the door.
Standing on the front porch, buried under several layers of winter clothing dusted in a fine layer of snow, stood the last person I’d expected to see.
Grace looked like a giant marshmallow. Her face was mostly hidden beneath a large blue scarf, a pink nose poking out from beneath the thick wool.
We stared at each other for several long seconds before she launched herself forward into my arms, the force of her body colliding with mine hard enough to make me stumble backward into the doorframe as she wrapped her legs around my waist. An icy nose against the skin of my neck tore a startled gasp from my mouth.
Before I knew what was happening, Grace was kissing me.
Her lips moved over my own in desperate, hurried movements as I stood frozen, so utterly surprised by the sudden turn of events that my brain and body felt disconnected.
It took Grace’s tongue tracing the seam of my lips to elicit a response.
When I finally kissed her back, I did so with haste, as if to assure her I felt just as starved of her touch as she did of mine.
There was yearning behind each stroke of her tongue and roll of her body, a deep demand for more.
But all too soon, Grace pulled away, peppering a line of hot kisses along my jawline as she did.
Her mitten-covered hands came up to grip my face, and the heat of our ragged breaths swirled in the air between us.
I smiled at the sight of her lips, which were now as red and raw as the tip of her nose.
“This better not be about the bet,” she warned, and as she spoke, I could hear the fear in her voice.
“I can’t even think about the bet when you’re kissing me,” I promised, lifting one hand to brush a piece of hair out of her face. “I want you so badly.”
Her eyes glazed over in a haze of lust. “I missed you,” she said, leaning her head against mine. And then, as if realizing what she’d just admitted to, Grace quickly added, “I missed your body.”
“Only my body? Is that all I’m good for?”
“If you must know, you’re also a good training partner.”
I tilted back my head and let out a low chuckle. “What else did you miss? There has to be something else.”
She shook her head in a refusal to answer my question.
“Did you miss my relentless teasing?”
Grace’s lips scrunched up as if she was trying to hold back a smile.
“And the feeling of my eyes watching you from across the ice?”
A flush crept down her neck, but she remained silent.
“What about the suggestive remarks I like to whisper into your ear?”
This time, she bit her lip. I nearly groaned at the sight.
“Tell me, Grace, what do you want?”
She hesitated. I had an inkling she was calculating precisely how much information to share.
I hadn’t forgotten the way she’d clammed up at my birthday party during our little truth circle.
It was easy to see how uncomfortable she felt about the prospect of sharing.
Even her best friend had looked surprised when she’d agreed to play that stupid game.
“I want to stop wondering what it would feel like if I allowed myself to be with you,” she confessed. “But I’m not ready for anything serious. All I know is that you make me feel good.”
She didn’t trust me, and I couldn’t blame her. Right now, I was willing to accept “nothing serious” if it meant I could have her.
“Anything else?”
“Can we keep this between us, at least for now?”
“You ashamed of me?” I kept my tone teasing, worried I might scare her away if I revealed how frustrating those words were to hear.
“I’m not,” she said, reaching up to trail her fingers along the stubble on my chin. “We don’t have to hide, maybe just keep things private.”
“I can do that.”
Her thighs clenched around my waist. “Are your roommates here?”
I shook my head, and seconds later we were stumbling further into the house.
The moment her feet touched the floor, Grace started to rip off the winter gear.
There were so many layers that by the time she got to the second coat, I was hunched over in laughter, both hands on my knees as she struggled to break free of the clothes.
“You could help me, you know,” she said, huffing out a breath as she struggled with the zipper.
“All you needed to do was ask.” I threw Grace over my shoulder without a second thought, taking the stairs two at a time as I ran to my bedroom. She squealed out a high-pitched laugh as I kicked open my door and tossed her onto the bed.
“Stay still,” I commanded.
Right now, Grace was going to learn a thing or two about patience.
Slowly, I pulled down the zipper of her second coat, tossing it over the side of the bed once her arms were free.
Grace watched me intently, eyes glazed over with anticipation as I took my time undressing her, dragging each layer of clothing down her body in a slow promise.
I could feel her patience waning, but I didn’t rush things.
Instead, I took my sweet time removing the layers, letting my hands slide over the curve of her hips and the sides of her legs.
Each article joined the growing pile of clothes along the side of the bed until she was down to her lacy blue underwear.
Grace was perfectly spread out for me, her legs parted and her hair splayed out in a halo around her head.
I committed the image to memory. My eyes swept across the smooth expanse of skin that was freckled in a strange constellation of beauty marks.
A small scar marked the flesh across her upper thigh.
I trailed my fingers over every curve of her body, taking care to note the moments she tensed, like when my fingers dragged along the spot below her ear where her neck met her jaw.
“Are you just going to touch me?” she asked, clearly fed up with my slow perusal of her body.
In response, I stood up from the bed. The movement elicited a low whine of impatience.
But once I began to remove my own clothes, Grace went silent.
Her eyes burned into me as I slipped out of my shirt and sweatpants.
The tent in my briefs was proof enough of how much I wanted her, and Grace’s eyes widened at the sight.
With a knowing smirk, I left them on and slowly crawled onto the bed.
I wanted this moment to be about Grace, not me.
Our first time together had been a magnificent collision.
After weeks of quiet study sessions and flirtatious teasing, we’d come together in an explosion of passion.
It had happened so quickly that I’d barely had time to appreciate her.
I wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
My fingers returned to her skin, circling a dusty pink nipple as it hardened under my touch.
Grace was watching me with awe in her eyes, as if she couldn’t believe this was happening.
I continued to explore her, tracing the underside of her breast and dragging my fingers further down her body.
Her stomach tensed, and she sucked in a sharp breath when I reached the very top of her underwear.
“If you don’t want this—”
“Don’t even finish that sentence,” she interrupted, hands coming up to cup my face. “I want this as badly as you do.”