21. Ryan #3
Maren turned in my arms, face completely undone—eyes heavy, cheeks flushed, mouth soft.
She looked at me with an expression that had nothing managed about it.
Just her. In the dark. Looking entirely sated.
God, I wished we didn’t have to go back out there, but knowing I put that expression on her face made me feel like a king.
“Where are my panties?” she asked, a grin on her face.
“Sorry, I’m afraid I’m keeping those.”
“What?” she asked, almost incredulous, but not quite.
Then I leaned in, close enough that my mouth was at her ear, and said, “When you walk back out there with your bare pussy under that pretty dress, you’ll think of me inside you. And the panties I have in my pocket.”
She grabbed the edge of the desk behind her.
“Ryan Lindqvist.”
“You like it.” I stepped back and straightened my shirt, tucking it back in, and redoing my belt.
She stared at me with a slack jaw and then huffed. Her eyes were dangerous and she pointed one finger at me.
“You are a problem.” Raised eyebrows and not a hint of seriousness in her voice.
“Only with you, solsken.” I winked.
She pressed her lips together. She’d lost the battle. A laugh came out of her—bright and startled—and I pulled her in and kissed her once more, thorough, and she kissed me back before pushing me away.
“Are you good?” I asked in a moment of brevity, wanting to check in quickly.
“Of course I am,” she replied. Maren lifted up on her toes and gave me a chaste kiss I wanted to turn back into more. “I’m fantastic.”
“Go,” I said when she pulled away. “I’ll be one minute behind you.”
She fixed the necklace at her throat, the small skate settling back into place.
“Okay but you’ll be right behind me?”
“Of course. I love the view behind you.” I laughed, and she turned toward the door so I smacked her ass. She yelped and over her shoulder gifted me a playful little scowl. “Now go. We have about two minutes, probably less before the ball drops.”
She looked up. The composed version was half-assembled and the real one was still right underneath it, and I got to see both at the same time, layered, and I thought there was no way we could stay a secret much longer.
“Happy New Year,” she said.
“Happy New Year, solsken,” I replied and grabbed her for one more kiss.
God I wanted to stay there and just be with her and nobody else.
“Go.” The idea of going back out into the crowd was disappointing at best, having to pretend once again that there was nothing between us.
Something had to give soon. I was caring less and less what other people knew.
She went. I stopped to wash my hands in the mens’ room and met our friends back out in the bar just in time for the clock to strike twelve. Like exactly as it was happening I slid in next to Maren who was standing next to Paige.
The bar detonated as the clock struck twelve, when streamers, shouting, and a whole locker room worth of guys got to lose their minds over it. Cole found me in four seconds, clapped me once on the shoulder, and said “Happy New Year, Captain” in a tone that meant more than just the words.
“Happy New Year.”
Eli appeared at my other side and raised his glass without a word.
People all around us were kissing and clinking glasses, and a moment passed where I wasn’t sure what to do. Maren stood next to me watching the people around us all distracted, and when our gazes met, she bit her lower lip.
Fuck it. I grabbed her by the neck and kissed her quick. Not the kiss I wanted, but it was New Year’s. Nobody would say anything. I pulled away as quickly as I’d grabbed her, leaving her mouth wide open in shock. I shrugged.
“It’s New Year’s, baby. Just go with it,” I whispered, and with my index finger under her chin, lifted it gently so her mouth closed.
“You continue to surprise me,” she whispered.
Griffin came out of the northeast corner, straightening his collar, looking extremely pleased with himself, and equally disheveled.
He caught my eye across the room and grinned.
Enormous, golden, completely unsubtle, just how Griffin always grinned at things that had gone well for him, the same one he’d been deploying since college when something was working out exactly the way he wanted it to.
Griffin pointed finger guns at me.
I shook my head.
I looked at Maren one more time. No longer looking at me, she was laughing with Cole and the same girl he’d been with at his pool party, seeming completely unaffected by what we did in Dee’s office.
Several of the guys came up to her to wish her and Cole a Happy New Year, and the more guys that tried to get a kiss out of her, the more ready I was to tell the whole fucking world she was mine.
I was paying close attention.
I raised my glass to Griffin and silently drank to that.
Two days later I was on the bike cooling down after the morning skate when Cole came in and sat on the one next to mine without turning it on.
I kept pedaling.
“So,” Cole said, fiddling with the controls on his bike.
“What’s up, Westbrook?”
“So,” he repeated. He put his hands on the handlebars and looked at them for a moment. “Maren.”
My cadence didn’t change, externally. “What about her?”