Chapter 12
I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours
A grin spread over Lexi’s face as she eyed the disheveled bed. The smell of sex and hotel linens hung thick in the air, and she pulled it in. Maid service had already come for the day, so she straightened and tucked in the rumpled sheets, erasing most traces of Josh’s and her earlier acrobatics.
Her grin grew wider as her mind meandered back to their combustive encounters.
No man had ever made her satisfaction his first priority.
She’d never been on the receiving end of so much erotic pleasure in her life.
A few hours in Josh’s arms, and doors that had been locked up tight inside her had suddenly been flung open, and she reveled in it.
Tingled with it. Craved it. Who knew a man’s mouth and fingers could do the things Josh’s had done, that the talent they possessed could awaken Wanton Woman and bring her racing from the cave where she’d lain hidden for way too long?
And the act itself? Holy mother of … Lexi was reduced to language like Josh had shamelessly used during their coupling—filthy words that had fired up her blood with blazing heat and unbridled passion.
She loved his filthy mouth and the kisses it delivered—wild, demanding, hungry things that even now made her damp.
But the best part? The emotional connection. He had wanted to be joined with her. In fact, he’d barely been able to hold back. That knowledge filled her with a foreign, powerful feeling of feminine satisfaction.
The way his body had moved inside her, the way he had eagerly delivered what she’d asked for, and the wondrous way he’d looked at her as he’d driven her to climax over and over left every part of her body glowing with awareness.
He was a wild beast crossed with a tender lover, all for her.
Or was he like that with every woman he bedded?
He’d said he’d never felt this way before, and Lexi wanted to take him at his word.
She so wanted to believe she was special. And maybe she was.
Her phone rang with a familiar tone, and she dove for it. “Anna?”
“Whoa! Someone’s out of breath. Tell me it’s not from jogging in place.” Lexi trilled a laugh that gave her away. “Lexi,” Anna singsonged, “did you get your hoohah tickled?”
“Anna, stop!”
“You did, didn’t you? Finally! Tell me all.”
Lexi walked to the slider and looked out at the cobalt-and-turquoise waters beyond. “I don’t have time to tell you all because room service should be here any minute.”
“Room service for you and the man tickling your—”
“His name is Josh,” Lexi blurted, “and yes, he’s having … lunch with me. In my suite.”
“Before or after sex?”
“Both?” Lexi giggled. “He wants to spend the rest of the week together.” She wasn’t ready to reveal that he wanted to spend that time in bed. Her bestie didn’t need to know everything. Besides, Anna would probably guess the details anyway.
“And this guy actually wants to do you instead of you doing all the … doing?”
“Yes, and he’s pretty darn good at the doing too. Along with other … things.” Lexi let out an errant sigh, then proceeded to list the bullet points of one Josh Wylder, leaving out any reference to his mad skills between the sheets.
“He’s a goalie? Wait.” Anna tapped in the background. “Holy shit, Lex. This man is smoking hot.”
“Are you looking him up?” Lexi squeaked.
“Absolutely. Haven’t you?”
Lexi felt her blush from her toes to her scalp. “Well, yes …” Of course she had.
“Hmm. Goalies are very flexible. They can contort in all kinds of interesting ways.”
“How do you know this?” Lexi laughed.
Anna ignored her. “And yours is generous in bed too. I’m happy for you, girlfriend. You deserve it. Pro athletes get around, though. Are you using protection?”
Some of Lexi’s happy bubbles burst. “Of course we are,” she scoffed. Although we might need more.
“Good girl. I’m so proud of you, Lex. You made an excellent choice for your vacation fling.”
Aggravation—or was it embarrassment?—stirred in Lexi’s gut. “Anna, you make it sound like I was selecting a bottle of wine.” This is a man—a real man.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I only meant that a no-fuss, no-muss hookup is exactly what you needed, and you were brave to put yourself out there. You’ve been rewarded. Fuck his brains out all week—and let him fuck yours—then bye-bye, no strings, have a nice life.”
Anna’s words zapped any remnants of Lexi’s giddiness and soured her topsy-turvy stomach.
A weeklong fling. That’s all this was and would ever be.
But that’s what Lexi had been after, wasn’t it?
Somehow she hadn’t thought of saying good-bye at the end of it—maybe because she was still busy saying hello, getting to know Josh, and liking everything he revealed under that gruff veneer of his. And there was so much yet to discover.
“Lex? You there?”
“Um, yeah.”
“Uh-oh. Don’t tell me your little heartstrings are getting attached.”
“No, of course not!” Lexi’s voice pitched a little too high.
“Uh-huh,” Anna countered with an overabundance of sarcasm. Then she exhaled. “You be careful. A guy who looks like he does and who makes his living as a hockey player has way more experience than you. Don’t let him burrow into your heart, Lex. He’ll only break it.”
Lexi bristled at her best friend’s warning tone.
Yes, Anna loved her and wanted the best for her, but Lexi didn’t need any lectures about Josh.
Never mind that Anna had pegged Conrad for the asshole he was from the very beginning.
Lexi was entering into this … this affair or whatever it was with eyes wide open.
Some fun, some companionship, and yes, some mind-blowing sex with a handsome, talented lover who would become nothing more.
She could safeguard herself and her heart until she said good-bye at the end of the week. Yes, she absolutely could.
“Anna, room service is here. I’ve got to run,” Lexi lied. She loathed the idea of fibbing to her bestie, but she also didn’t want to take part in this conversation anymore.
They hung up, and Lexi dropped her butt on the edge of the bed, her good feels utterly flattened. How could she have plummeted from such an incredible high to the dumpster in a few heartbeats?
When a knock came, Lexi jumped up and whipped open the door, expecting a server loaded down with a tray of food.
Instead, Josh filled the frame, a backpack in one hand and a cockeyed smile on his handsome face.
He draped his free arm casually against the jamb, and her heart lifted to a dizzying height.
His hair was a mass of unruly locks left over from their sexcapades, and she longed to plow her fingers through the thick tangle. God, she was in so much trouble.
“Hey,” he said in that sultry Josh voice that made her knees melt.
Stepping back, she opened the door to let him through, and he brushed past, pecking her lips and closing the door behind him.
He dropped his backpack and pulled her in for one of those deep, mind-bending kisses that had her fisting his shirt to pull him closer—the kind of kisses that made her want to rip off his clothes and run her hands over every hard inch of his perfect body.
Breaking the kiss, he rested his forehead against hers. “Miss me?”
She had missed him … and it had been less than an hour. That truth did not bode well for the end of the week when they would go their separate ways.
“It’s only a fling. Let yourself go and just enjoy,” her inner voice—which sounded a lot like Anna’s—urged.
They sat across from one another at a round glass table on the lanai, lunch spread out before them. Josh filled her wineglass with a crisp pinot grigio he’d selected, then filled his own.
He wore black gym shorts and a soft sage T-shirt that somehow brought out the silver in his eyes. Sipping her wine, she watched as he chowed down, though her own appetite flailed.
Pausing, he pointed at her plate. “Everything okay? I thought you were starving.”
“I was. I got distracted, and my stomach forgot.”
“Fuel up, Alexis Grace Campbell. You’re gonna need it.” He winked at her.
Her core pulsed with desire. “For what, exactly?” she teased.
“I’ll show you later.”
“Why not show me now?”
Unmistakable lust flamed in his eyes. “I’m waiting on an email I need to take care of. After that, I’m all yours to use any and every way you want.”
“An email?” It was none of her business, but she couldn’t contain her curiosity. Besides, it distracted her from thinking about getting her greedy hands on him.
Placing his utensils on the table, he swiped his mouth with his napkin, tossed it on the table, and sat back. “My agent called. I’m getting an offer.”
“You don’t seem too happy about it.”
“It’s not the one I want.” He probably read the puzzled expression on her face because he continued. “It’s from the KHL—that’s the Russian league.”
Her throat tightened. “You mean you might move to R-Russia?”
He sighed. “If I sign the contract, yeah.”
“Would you? Sign, I mean.”
He shrugged. “If no one else wants me.”
Lust took a back seat as her concern for him climbed. She leaned forward. “Care to tell me what happened that got you to this point in your professional life? I’m a good listener.”
He matched her pose and placed a fingertip on the end of her nose. “I will, if you tell me what happened to you.”
One side of her mouth twitched. “I guess we know each other well enough now to trade a few secrets.”
“Yeah, we do. Especially since we learned each other’s middle names and all.
” His eyes scoured her, lingering on her breasts—which he seemed particularly fond of—and she recognized raw hunger lurking in them.
A sudden shyness had her wishing she’d thrown on a bra under her tank, which was ridiculous because he’d seen it all—multiple times.
Unfortunately, her embarrassment made her nipples pop and reveal themselves through the thin fabric.
A knowing smirk curved his beautiful mouth.
She squirmed under his scrutiny. “Eyes up here, goalie.”
“Sorry. Distracted again. Happens whenever I’m around you.” He toyed with his fork. “Not sure you can call me ‘goalie,’ though. I haven’t played since the first of the year.”
“How come?”
“I got hurt in a game. My own D-man collided with me in the net when he was trying to clear an opposing player out of my crease, and I wound up with a concussion.” Her alarm must have shown on her face because he rushed to add, “I’m okay now. The medical team cleared me to play a while ago.”
Settling in, she propped her elbow on the table and cradled her chin in her palm. “So is the team still worried about your health? Is that why they didn’t put you back in?”
“Nope. They played my backup while I was out, and he didn’t do so well, so they brought up their minor leaguer, a twenty-something who’d never played in the NHL.
That guy played lights-out, and they went on a winning streak while I watched from the bench.
They rode that kid all the way until the end of the season. ”
“So you never got to play again?”
He glanced to the side and swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his neck.
When he brought his gaze back to hers, anguish reflected there.
“They put me in a few times, but the guys playing in front of me forgot they were supposed to defend in their own zone. They’d done a stellar job of it when the kid was backstopping them, but when I was in there, they seemed to lay back.
I stopped the shots I could see, but when there was a lot of traffic in front of me, I didn’t do so well. ”
“Traffic?”
“Bodies in front of me blocking my view—and that happened a lot. Our guys weren’t defending, weren’t getting their guys out of the way.
In fact, they were half the problem. I couldn’t stop what I couldn’t see.
” He let out a defeated exhale and shook his head.
“That’s not right. I’m blaming it on my teammates, and that’s bullshit.
It comes down to the fact that I couldn’t win us a single game once I got put back in.
Coach thought it was lingering effects of the concussion, like my vision was off or something, so I got sent down to the organization’s AHL team for a conditioning stint.
Basically, the kid and I swapped places.
I didn’t see much action in the minors either, and I didn’t play well when I did.
I really didn’t give my team a reason to call me back up. That’s on me.”
“Are you so sure about that? Couldn’t it just have been a run of bad luck?”
“You make your own luck, babe. The fact that the Forge isn’t interested in re-signing me—even as a backup—and that no other team has come calling means they all think I’m not worth the risk.
I’ve had my vision checked multiple times, gone through a battery of tests, and the docs keep telling me my head’s okay.
And I feel like everything’s working the way it’s supposed to, except my …
my confidence took a hit and probably isn’t where it needs to be.
Bottom line: Teams don’t want to take a chance on me. ”
He was still leaning forward, weight on his forearms, and she reached out and squeezed his clasped hands. “That seems so unfair.”
“What’s the old saying? Life’s not fair. I’ve had a good run.” His expression told her he was trying to convince himself that what he said was true.
“But you still feel like you have a lot left to give,” she added softly.
He gave her a wistful smile that crinkled the fine lines around his eyes. “Yeah, I do.” He uncoupled his hands from hers and crooked a finger. “Come here.”
She angled in, closing the distance between them, and he cupped her head and laid a languid kiss on her mouth that curled her toes.
“How come you’re so smart?” he quipped when they pulled apart.
She sighed. “Not so smart, or I wouldn’t currently be unengaged and unemployed.”
“Tell me.”
Sucking in a breath of courage, she steeled her spine.