Chapter 19
“I can’t believe it’s already time for the playoffs.”
Ellie’s right that time has flown by, but my body can absolutely believe it’s playoff time.
Between playing our hardest to try to secure a top seed and attending as many Bratva training sessions as possible, I feel like a limp noodle at the end of most days.
The time spent with my new family has been paying off, though, and I swear I almost made Misha smile the other day.
My hand-eye coordination is better than ever on the ice, and the only shitty thing about it all is lying to my girlfriend about my whereabouts.
My girlfriend. The cuddly, naked woman in my lap.
I snuggle our giant blanket tighter around us both, taking another long inhale of the nape of her neck.
She smells like her perfume and shampoo, but my sweat from when I tackled her immediately upon coming home from practice.
Seeing her in the kitchen, meal prepping snack packs to get me through the week, made my heart soar.
Seeing her wearing my name across her back again, this time with no panties on, made me drop my gear back in the doorway and fuck her like an animal on the kitchen floor.
“I can’t either,” I mumble into her neck, unwilling to pull my lips off her skin for even a moment.
“How are you feeling? This is the first season you’ve been on a team with a real shot, right? I know your second year in the league you made it to the first round, but—”
“Has someone been googling my playing history?” I tease, tickling her ribs for just a second. Her squirming threatens to harden my cock again, and after what we did a few minutes ago, he needs a moment before he thinks about going again.
The blush that spreads from Ellie’s chest to her cheeks is gorgeous, but she refuses to be teased. “Yes, I have been googling my boyfriend, thank you very much. And I’ll continue to do so during the playoffs. I have to keep an eye on your save percentage.”
We settle back into the couch and watch the flames from the gas fireplace dance.
“To answer your question, I’m feeling a lot of things.
I’m excited to go on this journey with the guys.
I know I’ve only been with them a few months, but we’re gelling so well.
When you have chemistry on a team like this, it feels like everyone’s one organism on the ice, you know?
Even though I’m in the net and not actually out there skating with them, I feel the same camaraderie. So that part is exciting.”
She senses the “but” in my tone and raises an eyebrow.
With a sigh, I admit the two things that have me less excited than I should be for the playoffs. One is something I’ve known would bother me as I find more success with my career. The other is the best surprise, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
“Well, it’s a couple of things. I feel Mom’s absence the most when big life events like this happen, you know?” I hate how quiet my voice is, but my relationship with my mom wasn’t simple in life, and it hasn’t been since her death.
Ellie continues playing with my fingers, but doesn’t try to move out of my arms to face me. I continue breathing her in and playing with the end of the loose braid she knows I love.
“You don’t talk about her very much.” Her statement is quiet but strong, without any accusations.
“I don’t…” Deep breath. “I mean, you know Grandma was more of a mom to me. Mom was just…something else. She was gone a lot during deployments, and even when she wasn’t deployed, she was busy on base much of the time.
I knew she loved me, but I think she was under a lot of pressure to be both Mom and Dad to me, and kinda ended up failing at both. ”
Ellie doesn’t make a move. She just moves on to rub my hands, making firm circles with her thumbs, feeling amazing on my pressure points.
“Obviously, she was a complex person, and I don’t think…
I don’t think she ever intended to have kids.
” My voice cracks, and her grip on my hand tightens, but I keep my face buried, and she doesn’t turn.
“I never knew who my dad was, which you know, but she…She would take extra deployments. Not just the ones she had to go on. But she would volunteer. I found out from my school principal one day, telling me what a heroic Mom I had.”
Not even Thatcher knows this. I’ve never told anyone. Not even Grandma knows that I know.
“But I had Grandma, who is the best Mom ever. And I know she’ll be at every single playoff game, home and away, to cheer me on.
I just wonder, whenever I have these big events, if she’d be proud of me, you know?
And I wonder if she’d want to get to know me more now as an adult than she did when I was just the kid she didn’t want. ”
There. Now it’s all out. My chest feels lighter saying the words out loud to a person, not just my shower wall. Thoughts I’ve had my whole life aren’t just mine anymore.
“I think anyone would be proud of the man you are, Teddy. Not just from a hockey perspective, either.” Her reply is soft, and she’s moved on to give my other hand an equally proficient massage. “What’s the second thing?”
I squeeze her waist before trailing my hands up to rest just underneath her breasts, enjoying the frustrated huff she makes when I go no further.
“The second, and more important, thing is that I’m really going to fucking miss you.
I’ve seen Coach’s schedule mock-ups, and even when we’re playing at home, it’s brutal.
With press obligations and extra practice, I’m afraid we won’t have as much time together as we’ve gotten used to.
I just got you, and now I resent having to be apart.
Which is crazy, because winning a Stanley Cup has been my dream for as long as I can remember. ”
Finally, she pulls the blanket away from us and turns to straddle me, pressing my now fully awakened dick between us and kissing me languidly. When she leans back, there’s a teasing heat in her eyes.
“You’ll miss me?”
“Terribly, baby. I’ve gotten used to having you around. Wearing my name, walking around my place naked, making me laugh. I’m not sure what I’ll do without you.”
She licks a sinful stripe down her right hand before gripping my cock hard enough to make me hiss and arch off the couch.
After only a couple of strokes, she rises onto her tiptoes and places me at her entrance.
I can feel her heat and the wetness that’s a combination of our orgasms from earlier, and I want to surge up into her terribly, but I wait to see what she wants.
“Will you miss this pussy?” she purrs, and I almost fill her up without even getting started. When she mentioned she wanted to try something a few days ago, I didn’t think it was going to be dirty talking me into an early orgasm. Or an early grave.
“Yes,” I growl.
Ellie barely starts to bounce, just sinking onto my tip before backing off again.
“You’ll miss splitting me open with this big cock, won’t you? And feeling how wet you make me?”
“Fuck, yes!” This time, my response is less growl and more whine, and I’m holding back what I really want to do. Christ, the mouth on this woman. At least she’s getting desperate now, too, fully riding me with a slow, savage rhythm.
“Are you going to miss the taste of me more?” She leans in and licks up my neck before nibbling just under my ear and going in for the kill. “Or the taste of us together?”
That’s it. It’s all I can do to keep her head from cracking against the hardwood as I crash us to the floor.
Pushing her knees to her chest, I barely contain myself from chasing my own release.
Instead, I fill her and stay deep until her glazed eyes find mine.
With slow strokes, I build the pace again, her filthy words on repeat in my mind.
“You want to know what I’m going to miss the most about this sweet little cunt?”
Her whine is breathless and delicious.
“You were partially right, baby. It’s the taste of us together, but only because that means I’ve filled you up.
” And fuck, even talking about it has my balls drawing up.
“That’s what I wanted the day I met you, you know.
I wanted to put my babies in you, and I thought you were offering.
I was so ready to get started, right then and there. ”
She’s right on the edge, I can feel it. And I want to give her exactly what we both want.
“How many, Ellie? How many babies do you want? I need to know soon so we can get started, hmm? I want to make sure I have plenty of time to give you everything you want, sweet girl.”
My girl might be on the precipice of bliss, but she’s still with it enough to give me a cheeky grin.
“Six.”
My hips falter and miss a thrust before I regain my rhythm. “Six?”
“Yes,” she groans. “You asked. Six. Big Italian family. A kitchen full of laughter and love, with little feet running around. You’re right, we should probably get started. Fill me up, Teddy. Please.”
She’s coming, and I’m powerless against her wave of pleasure, joining her immediately and whispering nonsense into her ear as we both come down. I grab around on the couch until I find the blanket, and we burrow into it in the middle of the floor, unable to move an inch.
“Please say you can stay all weekend before I have to leave,” I whisper, hoping she can feel how much I need every second I can get before life gets even busier and more stressful than it already is.
“I can. I concocted a foolproof lie. I’m all yours until you leave.”
She nuzzles into my chest hair in her favorite way that makes me feel so damn special and sighs contentedly.
I can’t help but have the last word, though.
Moving a hand slowly between her legs, I carefully gather a bit of the wetness that’s seeped out and gently push it back in.
When she looks up at me with a question in her eyes, I shrug and wink.
“It’s a good thing you’re staying all weekend, baby. Better chance for it to take.”