6. Liam
LIAM
There’s a heaviness against my body that isn’t usually there.
For a few minutes, I try to ignore it but eventually my eyes pop open as if it wasn’t the middle of the night. Given the minimal amount of light shining through the room, I’m going to say it’s not even dawn yet.
I lay here for a few seconds, trying to get my head on straight and try to figure out where I woke up.
When I feel something shift next to me, every single memory from last night and the last few hours comes rushing back.
The ballet.
The dancer.
The blue dress.
Chloe moaning out my name.
Every last detail of the last few hours replays in my head like a movie. Every single glorious second of it.
Just thinking about it has my cock twitching.
But I can’t stay.
I look at the woman next to me and every part of me is telling me to stay.
To skip the morning work out and the team skate that is scheduled for today and stay here in bed so I can get lost in her body all over again. If I stay, I can make her scream my name out even more, both in bed and in the shower and then make her breakfast.
It’s so fucking tempting, but since the season starts in a few short weeks, practice and ice time are a necessity.
I look at the time on my phone and let out a sigh, knowing that I have to go. I promised Christian, my teammate and best friend, we would hit the team gym before getting on the ice.
I’ve never hated my best friend more than I do right now. I should have texted him last night to cancel but I was so enthralled by Chloe, I completely forgot.
Now I have to leave her when I really don’t want to.
Reluctantly, I untangle myself from Chloe and start looking from my clothes, trying my hardest to not wake her.
As much as I try though, I don’t succeed because when I step out of her ensuite, I find her awake, curled up under her sheets.
“Do you always get up this early?” she asks, her voice having a rasp to it from the minimal sleep she got.
“Only when I need to.” I voice to her, sliding on my dress shirt.
“And today you need to?” She asks and I give her a nod as my answer.
Her eyes shine bright with the moon light that is floating through the room.
I can’t help but to abandon buttoning up the rest of my shirt and going over to sit on the edge of the bed, just to place a kiss on her lips as I take her face between my hands.
Her lips are so fucking soft and full that as soon as my tongue glides along her bottom lip, I want more of her.
Chloe lets out a moan when our tongues meet and all I can do is keep my hands on her face so that they don’t travel down her body and make me late for my workout.
It’s easy to get lost in her and if I had canceled on Christian last night, I would be doing a whole lot more than getting lost.
But I’m an idiot, so as I yell at myself to not stop kissing this woman, I pull away from her.
A sleep filled smile forms on her lips and I have to force myself to not lean forward and take her mouth again.
“And here I thought that you would at least stay for breakfast,” she voices, laying back down, her eyes falling close.
I reach over her face and brush a few loose curls away. “Any other day, I would, but I promised one of my teammates a few workouts before we hit the ice.”
She hums at my response and I smile down at her even though she can’t see it.
“I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”
“With the Liam Crawford experience?” She says, reaching up and taking my hand from where it’s sliding along her face and bringing it to her lips.
Every single one of our actions is definitely not something you do with a one-night stand.
If someone was looking at us right now, they would think that we’ve been in each other’s lives for a lot longer than seven hours.
“Definitely but I was thinking sometime in the next few days.”
Chloe’s eyes pop open right away, as if she wasn’t expecting for those words to come out of my mouth.
“You really want to see a one-night stand more than once?” she asks, her tone full of wonder.
She’s cute if she thought this was really a one time thing. I thought I made it clear last night that it wasn’t, no matter how much my brain wanted me to keep it that way.
I should keep it that way. This should only be for one night, especially with the season starting soon but I sure as hell don’t want to.
“You’re hell of a lot more than a one-night stand, Chloe.” I say, sweeping my thumb along her lower lip.
She is silent for a few seconds, just looking at me with those hazel eyes of hers, not giving me a single clue as to what she might be thinking.
For a small moment or two, I think that I’m possibly reading too much into all of this. I’ve only spent a handful of hours with this woman, and I’m planning ahead, and thinking and getting excited about when I’m going to see her after this.
I’m usually the guy that is completely fine with spending the night with someone and leaving without a word.
One and done, that’s it. Not seeing Chloe after tonight, though, feels wrong.
But maybe I’m the only one that feels that way.
Chloe pushes herself up into a sitting position and places a hand against my bare chest, the movements of fingers gentle.
“I was thinking the same thing,” she says, her hand making its way up to my neck and sliding into my hair, bringing my face closer to hers.
This girls isn’t shy about what she wants and its such a fucking turn on.
A smirk lands on my face as we close the distance between us and my mouth is almost on hers, almost tasting her sweetness one more time, when my phone goes off.
I would ignore it, but given the song that’s blaring from the stupid thing, I know it’s Christian. The asshole always finds a way into my phone and changes my ringtone. No matter the passcode.
If I ignore the fucker, though, he’s just going to keep calling.
“You have Bad Bunny as your ringtone?” Chloe asks, sounding like she wants to laugh.
“My friend’s doing.” I grumble, standing up from the bed and finishing getting dressed.
“Your friend?” A small chuckle leaves her like she definitely doesn’t believe me.
I wouldn’t believe me either if I hadn’t met the guy.
“Yup, I’ll tell you more about him over dinner.” I say, throwing on my jacket, followed by my socks.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” she answers, giving me a sexy smile when I turn back to look at her.
“It’s a date then,” I say, leaning down and giving her one more kiss. “I wrote my number down and left it on top of your phone. I expect you to use it.”
“And if I don’t?” Her voice is filled with mischief.
“I know where you live.”
“Darn, I didn’t think that through,” she says, her smile growing.
“You definitely did not.” One more kiss for the road. “I’ll see you later.”
With a giggle from Chloe, and one final look, I walk out of her apartment in a high that I haven’t felt in my personal life in a while.
I’ve only gotten this feeling in the last couple of years because of hockey.
It feels fucking amazing.
That feeling stays with me all the way to our practice facility, and it continues to stay as I make my way into the locker room and for Christian to take notice.
“You get arrested or something?” my best friend asks instead of a greeting as I walk into the locker room.
“The fuck? No.” I throw at him, as I walk over to my locker.
“So there’s a reason you’re wearing a tux at five in the morning. I’m assuming it’s the same one from that event you went to.”
I grab the spare workout clothes I keep here and start to undress before answering him.
“Yeah, asshole. There’s a reason why I’m still in a tux.” I grumble. I can feel my high fading away.
“You going to tell me? Or do I have to continue pulling it from you?”
For a broody motherfucker, Christian loves gossip a little too fucking much. If I don’t tell him, he’s going to continue to hound me for details.
“I haven’t been home.” I say tell him, throwing the clothes from last night in a gym back. I should hang it up but it’s already spent half the night on the floor, what a few hours in a gym bag?
“And why is that?” Is he always this annoying or am I just now noticing?
Might as well give him some details so that he can shut up.
“Because I spent the night with a woman and I came straight from her place.” I tell him, turning to him and flipping him off.
“Since when do you spend the whole night with a woman?” he asks as he ties his running shoes.
“I spend nights with women,” I argue back.
“You spend a few hours with women. Usually you are out of there before two in the morning not giving a shit. If you’re coming here from her place, this one must be special.”
He’s… not wrong.
I honestly can’t remember the last time I woke up at a woman's place and came to practice right after. No matter the circumstances, I always head home. It was an unspoken rule that I broke for Chloe and one I would break for her again.
Is it possible to become pussywhipped after one night? Because the way my mind is thinking, I’m certainly heading in that direction.
“She definitely is.” I answer, my mind instantly filling with thoughts of her and our night together.
“Given that dumb smile on your face, she must be.
Dumb smile? He has a dumb smile.
“Are we going to spend the whole morning talking about how I spent my night or are we going to work out?” I throw out, not wanting to add more fuel to his ass.
“Touchy.” he says, giving me a smirk.
If he were anyone else, I would punch him in the face to wipe the smirk off.
“Shut up.” I say back.
Christian lets out a laugh and I’m tempted to drop him as my best friend. Childish, I know.
“I can’t wait to meet this woman.” He voices, standing up from the bench and starting to make his way out of the locker room.
“Why?” I ask as I follow behind him.
“Because in all the years I’ve known you, you have never had a woman light a fire under your ass. And from the sound of things, this one has.”
“You don’t know what you’re even talking about.” I say, shoving the asshole and walking into the gym.
For the rest of my work out, I think about what he said and as much as I don’t want to admit it. He’s right.
One night, a handful of hours, and Chloe has lit something in me that nobody else has before. And I fucking like.
The question is, though, am I going to try and make more out of it, or let it be?
Right now, I have no idea.