Chapter 28
NILS
Adan had fallen asleep when I’d still been in my port-orgasmic bliss. Not that I could fault him for it. He must’ve been exhausted after that long day and playing that game. But I was still awake, and I couldn’t stop watching him sleep.
He lay sprawled across my bed, one arm flung over his head, the other resting on my chest like even unconscious, he needed to touch me.
The streetlight filtering through my window caught the angles of his face: the sharp line of his jaw, the curve of his lips still slightly swollen from kissing, the tiny scar near his left eye from that fight with HIT.
All these months of careful distance, and now he was here. In my bed. Mine.
I propped myself on one elbow, cataloguing all the small changes that five months had wrought.
His face had lost the last softness of youth, replaced by the defined features of a man who’d fought for his dreams and won.
His body had grown even more beautiful, all sleek, powerful muscles, like a jaguar.
He shifted in his sleep, burrowing closer, and my heart clenched with so much love, I could barely breathe. This beautiful, stubborn, brilliant man had waited for me. Had sacrificed and suffered through months of pretending I was nothing more than his coach, all to protect his future and mine.
I thought about that first practice, how he’d challenged me about being qualified to coach him.
The anger in his eyes that had slowly transformed into respect, then friendship, then something so much deeper.
How he’d pushed me to be better, not just as a coach but as a person brave enough to want things for myself.
The trophy was still on the floor in the hallway. A symbol of everything he’d achieved, everything we’d sacrificed for. Tomorrow, he’d fly to Detroit to start his NHL career. My contract would run through August, and then…
Then we could stop living these separate lives. Stop pretending we weren’t everything to each other.
I traced his features with my eyes, not daring to touch and wake him. He needed rest after the game, after the emotional toll of finally being free to come to me. But I couldn’t stop looking, couldn’t stop marveling that we’d actually made it through.
Exhaustion finally pulled at me too. I curled around him, my body finding its place against his like puzzle pieces clicking together. His breathing was deep and even against my chest. The sound of home.
* * *
I woke to soft lips on my neck, gentle kisses trailing across my shoulder. Consciousness returned slowly, my body recognizing Adan’s touch before my mind fully engaged.
“Morning,” he whispered against my skin, his voice rough with sleep.
I hummed, tilting my head to give him better access. His hands were gentle, reverent, mapping my body like he was relearning something precious. This was different from last night’s desperate reunion. This was tender, unhurried, like we finally understood we had time.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“Don’t know. Don’t care.” He kissed his way up to my mouth, slow and deep. “Just need you.”
I opened for him, our tongues meeting in a lazy dance. His weight settled over me, skin against skin, and I wrapped my arms around him to keep him close. We kissed for long minutes, hands roaming but not rushing, reveling in the luxury of touching without fear.
“Would you want to…?” Adan didn’t finish his sentence, but I knew what he was asking.
“Go all the way? Yes.”
He swallowed, his eyes dark as they met mine. “I’m not sure if I want to…” He made a gesture, then said it anyway. “…be on the receiving end.”
“It’s called bottoming,” I said, unable to resist teasing him a little.
“I’m not worried about getting the terms right, but I wanted to…”
“Negotiate?”
“You’re not making fun of me, are you?”
I grinned, but then something softer took over. “No, ?lskling, I’m not.”
“?lskling? What does that mean?”
“It means darling. Because you are. My darling, my ?lskling.”
His eyes grew endlessly soft, such a stark contrast to the hardness of that body, the fierceness of his character. “I love that.”
“And I would love to bottom for you,” I said softly.
His eyes lit up. “Yeah? You sure?”
“Never been more sure of anything. I want all of you, Adan. Everything.”
“We need supplies, right? Like, condoms and… lubricant, I think?”
Apparently, his research hadn’t covered that, but luckily for both of us, mine had. I reached for the drawer in my nightstand and took out the lube and condoms I’d stocked there in anticipation for our separation to end at some point.
I handed them to Adan, my heart pounding with anticipation. He took them, his fingers brushing against mine, sending sparks through my body.
“I’ve never done this before,” Adan said, then chuckled. “Obviously.”
“Neither have I, but we’ll figure it out together.” I pulled him down for another deep kiss, pouring all my desire and affection into it.
When we parted, breathless, I shifted onto my stomach. “You’ll have to… prepare me. Open me up.”
Adan’s hands caressed down my back, over the curve of my ass.
I heard the click of the lube bottle opening.
With exceeding gentleness, he circled my entrance before slowly pressing a finger inside.
Classic Adan—he’d gone straight for his goal.
I exhaled, willing my body to relax and accept the intrusion.
It felt strange at first, but not painful.
Adan worked his finger in and out, getting me used to the sensation. “Okay?”
“Yeah. You can do more.”
He slid in a second finger. The stretch burned slightly but I focused on relaxing, on the intimacy of letting Adan inside my body.
He worked me open with careful patience, adding more lube and a third finger when I was ready.
The fullness started to feel good, especially when he curled his fingers and brushed against a spot that made me gasp.
“There?” Adan asked, sounding pleased with himself. He rubbed over that spot again and pleasure sparked through me.
“Yes, right there,” I managed to say. “Feels amazing.”
“Good. I want to make you feel amazing.” He withdrew his fingers. “Do you think you’re ready for me?”
I nodded. “Please, I need you.”
I heard the crinkle of the condom wrapper, then felt Adan’s weight settle over me again, his chest pressed to my back. He nuzzled into my neck, kissing my racing pulse. “Tell me if I need to stop or slow down, okay?”
“I will. I trust you.”
The blunt head of his cock nudged against my entrance.
“Okay?” he checked one more time.
“Yes. Please, Adan.”
With that, he began to push inside, moving incrementally, letting me adjust to his girth.
My body instinctively tensed at the unfamiliar intrusion, but I focused on keeping my breathing steady and relaxing around him.
Adan paused, his broad chest flush against my back, letting me adjust. He placed soft kisses along the nape of my neck.
“You feel incredible, Nils,” he murmured against my skin. “So tight and perfect.”
I could only moan in response, words escaping me as he filled me deeper. The sensation was overwhelming: a twinge of pain mixed with a growing undercurrent of pleasure. I had never felt so vulnerable, so utterly claimed by another person. And I wanted more.
“Keep going,” I whispered, wanting to feel all of him.
Adan pressed further, sinking in inch by delicious inch until his hips were flush against my backside.
He stilled again, his breath ragged against my neck.
Being joined with him like this, as close as two people could possibly be, sent a thrill through me.
I was completely vulnerable, open to him in every way, and there was nowhere I would rather be.
I experimentally clenched around him and Adan let out a low groan. “You keep doing that and this is going to be over embarrassingly fast,” he warned.
I huffed a laugh that turned into a moan as he began to move, withdrawing slowly before gliding back in, rocking his hips in shallow thrusts that sent sparks of pleasure through my core. This wasn’t fucking—this was making love, showing with our bodies what we’d been unable to say for so long.
He built a steady rhythm, each thrust a little deeper, a little harder, angling to find that spot inside me that made stars explode behind my eyelids. Pleasure coiled tighter and tighter at the base of my spine as he moved within me.
I fisted my hands in the sheets, pushing myself on my elbows and knees to meet his thrusts, needing him deeper still. “Adan,” I gasped out, barely recognizing my own voice, wrecked with pleasure. “Please…”
He reached beneath me to wrap a hand around my straining erection, stroking me in time with his thrusts.
The dual stimulation made my toes curl and my back arch, pressing me more fully against Adan’s muscled chest. He groaned, sinking impossibly deeper.
I cried out as he brushed against that spot inside me, sending shockwaves of ecstasy through my core. “There…”
He obliged, snapping his hips faster, driving into me with more force.
Heat pooled in my core, building to an impossible crescendo.
Every stroke of Adan’s hand, every thrust of his hips, drove me closer to the edge.
Pleasure coiled tighter and tighter inside me, my body trembling with the need for release.
Adan’s breath was hot against my neck, his low grunts mingling with my desperate moans.
“Adan, I’m close,” I gasped out, my voice strained.
His hand sped up on my aching cock. “Let go, Nils. I’ve got you.”
With a few more deep thrusts against that perfect spot inside me, I shattered.
Ecstasy crashed through my body in intense waves as I spilled over Adan’s fist, my inner muscles clenching around him.
Adan groaned, his hips stuttering, and with a final snap of his hips, he followed me over, pulsing deep within me.
We collapsed together, chests heaving, slick with sweat. Adan peppered soft kisses across my shoulders as we caught our breath, still joined. After a few blissful moments, he carefully withdrew, making me wince at the loss. He disposed of the condom before gathering me in his arms.
“That was perfect,” I said dreamily.
“It was. Seeing how much you enjoyed it, maybe we can reverse roles next time?”
That was my Adan, never backing down from a challenge. He was competitive even in this. “Only if you want to.”
We lay tangled together as the morning sun painted golden stripes across the bed. Reality was starting to creep in—Adan’s phone buzzed constantly from wherever he’d dropped his pants: probably teammates and family and agents all wanting his attention.
“What happens now?” Adan asked, voicing what we were both thinking.
“You go to Detroit tomorrow. Start your NHL career.”
“And you?”
“I’ll finish my contract, and then…” I took a breath. “Then we stop living separate lives.”
“Yeah?” He propped himself up to look at me. “You’d come to Detroit?”
“I’d go anywhere. Detroit, Sweden, the moon. Wherever you are.”
“Even with me not being royal?”
I laughed. “I don’t care and neither will my family. Half of us have married commoners—a term I hate, by the way. Though my family will want to meet you properly. Fair warning: my mother will try to adopt you immediately.”
“And my mom will try to feed you until you burst. We’ll call it even.”
His phone buzzed again, more insistent this time.
“We should probably deal with reality,” I said reluctantly.
“Probably.”
But neither of us moved, too content in our bubble to face the outside world just yet.
“Was it worth it?” Adan asked suddenly. “The wait? Everything we went through?”
I cupped his face, making sure he could see the truth in my eyes. “You’re worth everything. Every day of distance, every moment of wanting what I couldn’t have. I’d do it all again if it meant ending up here with you.”
“Good answer,” he said, kissing me softly. “Though let’s never do that again.”
“Never. From now on, we face everything together.”
“Together,” he echoed.
His phone rang this time: not a text but an actual call. With a groan, he rolled away to find it, giving me an excellent view in the process.
“It’s Tank,” he said, looking at the screen. “Probably wondering if I’m dead.” He answered with, “I’m alive, I’m fine, I’ll see you later.”
Tank’s voice was loud enough that I could hear it. “Bro, where’s the trophy?”
“I’ll get it in a minute, Mom.”
“What do you mean, get it? Where is it? And where the hell are you?”
Adan hung up and tossed the phone aside. “Five more minutes,” he said, crawling back into bed. “Then we’ll face the world.”
“Five more minutes,” I agreed, pulling him close.
But we both knew it was more than that. It was five more minutes of this perfect morning, but it was also the beginning of everything. No more hiding, no more pretending, no more careful distance.
Just us, finally free to love each other the way we’d always wanted to.
“Hey,” Adan said softly. “We made it.”
“We made it,” I confirmed, kissing his forehead.
And as we finally got up to retrieve his trophy and face our future, I knew with absolute certainty that this was only the beginning. We’d fought for this, sacrificed for this, waited five long months for this.
Now, finally, we could start living the life we’d both been dreaming of.
Together.