Chapter 40
WILDER
“Uh, you good, Coach?” Bellard, our right winger, says as he skids to a stop a few feet from me, eying me cautiously.
My brow lifts. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
He shrugs. “Dunno, but you’re like… smiling. Well, like a grimace that resembles a smile, I guess, and it’s weird. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile, so just wanted to make sure you’re, like, not checking out or something. You know, mentally.”
Fuckers. This is the shit I have to put up with daily.
“Are you trying to skate laps today?” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. “Go back to worrying about your stick work and not what I’m doing, Bellard.”
He lifts his glove-covered hand in a dramatic salute, but there’s a shit-eating smirk hanging on his lips, and I’ve got to give him a little fucking credit for being brave enough to come up to me and say the shit.
Unlike the majority of his teammates, who look like they might shit their pants the second my attention is directed at them. I’ve got no illusions that these kids stay in line out of respect rather than fear.
Today, I’m on the ice with the guys as they run drills, and with Taylor hovering nearby, I have to get my head screwed the fuck on straight and do what he brought me here to do.
So the fact that I’ve been walking around smiling like a dopey fucking idiot since I left that room is what’s concerning. Mostly because I have no idea what the fuck to make of it.
Any of it.
The way Maisie Delacroix is consuming my thoughts. How I’m checking my phone to see if she’s texted back. Waiting for the next time I can be around her and kiss her. Fuck, just touch her.
I’m beginning to feel like a goddamn teenager, and I have no idea how to stop it.
How to stop this strange feeling that’s forming beneath my ribs.
When it comes to her, that part in my brain that’s in control of critical thinking seems to short-circuit, and I momentarily forget that she’s a student, and I’m the man who’s thirteen years older than her.
Sighing, I glance down at my clipboard, checking to see who Taylor’s got on line today, and when I look back up, there she is, breezing through the door from the athletic building.
Her hair has been smoothed, plump lips refreshed with gloss, and she looks put together like she wasn’t just mewing on my cock, making the neediest little sounds as I sucked on her neck fifteen minutes ago.
A grin tilts my lips.
Until I realize I’m doing it, and I quickly steel my expression, forcing my gaze back down to my clipboard.
But she’s close. I can fucking smell her, her light, sweet scent making my nostrils flare.
I sneak a look and see her leaned against the boards, chin propped into her elbows, bright blue eyes gleaming.
Pretty as fuck.
“Damn, Maisie,” Legros says as he skids to a stop in front of her, his mouth stuffed full of a guard so the words come out jumbled. He reaches up and yanks it out, his sweat-drenched brow hunched together. “What happened to your neck? You look like you got in a fight with a bush and lost, babe.”
Her eyes widen, fingers flying to the place in question.
Thank fuck she doesn’t look at me, even though I’m staring at her like I’ve lost my damn mind because I’m pretty sure it would be game over.
What I didn’t realize when she first walked out is that her neck? That spot just below her ear and the little dip at the hollow of her throat that I just licked is covered in a delicious pink-tinged burn from my beard.
I’m starting to recite stats in my head to keep my cock from getting hard in my sweatpants.
Christ.
I like marking her up like she’s mine far too much for something that could never happen. Even if there were a world where I wanted it.
“Uh, I…” she stutters, throat bobbing as she searches for an answer. Now, her cheeks are nearly the same color as the marks I left all over her. I bite the corner of my lip to stop from smiling. “Oh, you know, just a reaction to something. I’m not sure, honestly.”
Legros nods, leaning closer like he’s trying to inspect the spot. Finally, he shrugs. “Might wanna get a doctor to check it out. I can take you after practice if you need me?”
Yeah, not fucking happening, even if she were injured. He’s not taking her anywhere.
“No, I’m okay. I’m headed out anyway. Just wanted to pop in and see you guys on the ice while I was here. We can catch up later, okay? I don’t want you to get in trouble though. You should, um, go back to practice.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” He sighs and cuts a look at Taylor before popping his mouth guard back in. “Later, gorgeous.”
Once he’s gone, Maisie’s gaze catches mine, and a soft, knowing smile turns her lips up.
I skate closer, as if I’m going toward the group of guys running drills, and as I do, I lower my voice into a whisper for only me and her to hear. “Good thing he missed the hickey. I would say I’m sorry about it, but you and I both know that I’m not.”