Chapter 42
forty-two
INDIGO
The days leading up to the finals are pure chaos. How can they not be? Between the guys practicing and getting ready to battle it out for the Cup and my secret identity reveal, it’s been nonstop—and often unwanted—publicity.
We haven’t confirmed that I’m Violet Quinn yet, but most of my die-hard fans are convinced.
While the shot the photographer got didn’t include anything like a title or my pen name, the people who’ve read all of my books are familiar enough with my writing style and voice that they’re just waiting for me to come out and own it.
Which I won’t do until the outcome of the Cup is decided, because I don’t want to take the focus away from Bash and the guys. They’ve worked so hard to get to this point.
I did tell my mom, who was a little hurt I’d kept the level of my success from her, but she understood my motivation. My dad hasn’t reached out, but I’m sure he will soon, since his project is wrapping.
Sebastian and I have spent every possible waking moment together.
I was feeling guilty about ditching Lola until she told me she and Megan had been taking advantage of the empty rental.
They’ve really hit it off, and it’s not only sex between them.
Lola is falling, and it sounds like Megan is too.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever see the day, but I’m insanely happy for my bestie.
If things keep going the way they are, maybe we’ll end up extending our stay for a lot longer than the next month or two.
But I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
“You’re thinking too loud,” Sebastian murmurs, nuzzling my cheek while we’re tangled together in bed. Diffused morning light makes his golden skin glow in the most stunning way. And when he squints, his eyes barely opening as he fights against sleep, the amber flecks in his irises shimmer.
He’s so beautiful. I never want to leave this bed. Not even to pee, which I’m going to need to do sooner rather than later.
“Sorry.” I brush the pads of my fingers across his cheek. The scrape of his stubble against my skin sends shivers skittering up and down my spine.
“You okay?” His fingers tickle the underside of my breast, and it has heat pooling between my thighs. “It’s been a lot.”
“I’m good. Promise.”
“You say that, but you still sound distracted.”
When he presses a slow, lingering kiss to my jaw, my mind goes momentarily blank. “Huh?”
Sebastian chuckles. His fingers slide higher up my breast until they’re playing with my nipple. “So that’s what it takes to get you out of your head?”
“I… What?”
This time, his laughter is full and throaty, and it sends vibrations throughout my body and straight to my clit. “Exactly. Now, roll onto your side.”
Before I even have a chance to wrap my mind around what he’s asking, strong hands are rolling me onto my side and a very hard dick presses into my ass. The contradictions of the moment are delicious.
The mattress is soft and cloud-like. It molds to my curves perfectly. Sebastian is hard behind me. Firm, warm, and, while he still molds around my curves, there’s very little give. He’s all strength and power.
Power I can’t wait for him to unleash on me.
Before I can ask him what he’s doing, I hear the crinkle of a condom wrapper, then he lifts my thigh and drapes it over his leg, opening me.
“God, you’re beautiful, Indie. So fucking beautiful.” He has one arm pillowing my head, and he tangles those fingers in my messy hair. The other arm snakes over my waist and his fingers skim over my exposed sex. He chuckles when I gasp and jolt in his arms. “And so responsive.”
The thing is, I’ve never been this responsive before. Not with anyone else. Sometimes it took an embarrassing amount of foreplay to get me ready for sex. But not with Sebastian. All it takes is one touch, one kiss, and I’m wet and ready. “Only for you.”
“Mm-hmm. That’s right, sweetheart. Only for me.” His calloused fingers circle my clit before stroking through my slit. He hums as they grow slick with my arousal, then he pushes them slowly inside of me.
“Oh.”
He hardens even more behind me and, with his fingers buried deep in my pussy, I push my ass back against him and wiggle. “Fuck, you test my restraint.”
“So let go,” I beg him. I love the control he has over himself and the way he uses it to rock my world. But right now, I don’t want control and restraint. I want him to claim me. I want to feel him every time I sit down.
“You want me to let go, huh?” The stubble on his jaw scrapes across my cheek.
“Yes.”
A rumble goes through Sebastian’s chest as he adds another finger, crooking them inside of me and dragging them along my inner walls. And when I moan, he hums his approval. “Okay, baby. If that’s what you want.”
“It is,” I say before his fingers leave me, and then he’s pushing me onto my stomach and gripping my hips tightly to pull my ass in the air. When he nips the top of my ass cheek with his teeth before soothing the spot with kisses, I squeal.
“Been wanting to do that for so long,” he says. I’m not sure if it was meant for me or if he was talking to himself. “This ass is insane.”
My mind stutters with momentary embarrassment when he digs his fingers into my cheeks and spreads me. But that self-consciousness is quickly replaced with arousal when he uses one hand to lightly slap my pussy.
He chuckles lowly, soothing my skin before doing it again. “You like that, don’t you?”
I mumble something incoherent.
“I can tell, baby. You’re gushing.”
I turn my head, muffling my cries in the mattress when he spears my center with two fingers, pumps them a few times, then withdraws. When I glance back over my shoulder, he’s coating his condom-covered dick with my arousal, and I shudder with desire.
Of course, he catches it. He sees everything.
“Don’t worry. I know what you need.” Then he leans over me and kisses my shoulder while rubbing the length of his dick through my slit, coating himself in my slick before lining his head up at my entrance and slowly, torturously slowly, pushing in.
With the side of my face pressed into the mattress and my ass in the air like this, he fills me deeply and fully, and it’s so much. So full. Stretched almost to the point of pain, I suck in a breath and hold still while he rubs his palms up and down my spine, giving me time to adjust.
But only for a moment.
I did ask him to let go, after all.
“Oh, shit, baby. You’re so tight like this.”
I can’t respond. He pulls back before thrusting hard and deep, and all I can manage is a garbled moan.
“Goddamn. Look at your perfect ass bouncing as I fuck you, Indigo. Shit.”
As if the sight is sending him into a frenzy, Bash picks up the pace, his hips smacking into my ass with a relentless pace. The bed groans beneath us, the headboard bumping against the wall.
Each hard thrust has me sliding up the mattress until Bash grabs hold of my hips and uses them to pull me back onto his cock again and again.
I’m going to have bruises, and I’m not mad.
I’ve written FMCs who get turned on by the idea of their lovers leaving their mark after an intense round of lovemaking, but I never saw the appeal in real life.
I get it now.
Each little bruise will be a secret etched into my skin. A reminder of what we did. Of who I’m with.
“Fuck. You’re soaking my dick, and you’re not even coming yet. What are you thinking about right now, dirty girl?”
I choke on the words before they can leave my throat. All I can manage are gasps and groans.
“You’re a dream, Indie. This is a dream. It has to be.”
The soft emotion in Sebastian’s voice only serves to heighten the pleasure his rough treatment of my body brings. I want to tell him it’s real. That I’m here. His. But all I can manage is a whine of pleasure as my stomach tightens and heat builds in my muscles and my lower belly.
“Love the way you feel, baby. You’re so soft. So perfect.”
I’m too lost in pleasure to feel even a shred of insecurity about his use of the word soft.
“Fuck. I’m so close.”
So am I. And when Sebastian reaches around and circles my clit with his fingers, I fall over the edge within moments. Bash follows almost immediately, his cock jumping inside of me, his hips bucking harder, faster, until he stills over me.
“Indie…”
I sag into the mattress as he presses his forehead between my shoulder blades. “Oh my god.”
“You’re perfect. You know that, right?”
A different kind of pleasure flushes through my body. “So are you.”
“I still can’t believe this is real. I spent so many years searching for you in every crowd, and then there you were. Sometimes I pinch myself to make sure I’m not imagining all of it.”
“Oh, Bash.” When he pulls out of me, quickly taking care of the condom, I roll over and let him pull my head onto his chest. “I’m so sorry.”
“Stop apologizing, Indigo. Now that I know what you saw, I don’t blame you.
Just… promise me that if you ever find yourself in a situation where you’re thinking about running again, you’ll talk to me first?
Give me a chance to grovel if I screw up.
Or explain if there’s a misunderstanding.
” He sucks in a deep breath, my head rising with his chest. “I can’t lose you again. ”
“You won’t,” I promise.
“And if the attention gets to be too much, tell me, okay? I can’t make it stop, but I can hire security or get you a place in a building with a doorman. I know you didn’t want this, but please give me a chance to deal with it.”
I hate the deep furrow between his brow and the tight set of his jaw.
Reaching up, I smooth the wrinkled skin with my fingertips.
“It wouldn’t be any better in LA. In fact, it would probably be worse.
There are photographers everywhere. At least here, most of the attention we get will be from fans with cell phones. Or haters. But whatever.”
He chuckles at that. “Fuck the haters. They don’t matter.”
Not compared to him, they don’t. Not with friends around us.
Here, in the Twin Cities, I’m not alone. I don’t have to face this with only Lola at my side. I have a whole hockey team and their partners to square up for me, and it means more to me than I could hope to express. I won’t let that go simply because I have haters.
My phone buzzes, but I ignore it. Soon, we’ll have to leave this bed so Bash can get ready for the first game of their final playoff series, and then the craziness really starts.
I groan when it buzzes two more times, because it’s probably my agent, Elise.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. You can check it.” Bash reaches for my phone on the bedside table and hands it to me.
It’s not Elise.
Dad
Hey, sweetie. Sorry I’ve been MIA. I’ve missed you.
Dad
Sounds like I’ve missed a lot in the past few weeks. Your mother says you and Sebastian have reconnected and are dating?
Dad
She also tells me you’re a well-known author? I always knew you were talented, but I’m blown away, kiddo. Proud of you.
Dad
What’s the address where you’re staying? I have souvenirs for you and Lola. Would have gotten something for Sebastian, but I didn’t find out about him soon enough.
My smile is wide enough by the end of the texts that my cheeks hurt.
My parents may not be conventional, but I know they love me.
Despite being almost thirty, I can still count on my dad to bring home something fun or pretty for me whenever he’s on location.
When Lola and I became inseparable, he started picking up things for her too.
“It’s my dad,” I tell Bash, showing him the screen before typing my reply. “Sorry you don’t get a souvenir.”
Sebastian laughs. “That’s okay, Rosebud. I’ve got everything I need right here.”
Glowing from the inside, I type out a response to my dad and hit send.
Me
Thanks, Dad. I’ll share my souvenir with Bash. I miss you too.
I send him the rental’s address and tell him he’s welcome to visit if he wants to. Not that he will. Filming for his current project may be done, but he probably has two or three more lined up that will keep him on the West Coast or somewhere exotic.
Maybe Sebastian and I can add a second leg to our trip this summer? We can spend some time with his parents, then make a shorter trip to LA to visit with mine.
My stomach growls.
Sebastian laughs and kisses my temple. “Come on, Rosebud. Let’s get showered, then I’ll feed you. It’s going to be a long day, and we’ll both need our strength.”
He’s not wrong. The team and all their fans are counting on Bash to be in peak form tonight, and I need to psych myself up to deal with the looks and whispers that will inevitably follow me everywhere I go as soon as we step into the arena.
Bash needs to be cool as a cucumber on the ice, and I need to pretend to be unaffected by all the attention. We both have games to play. And it’s important for both of us that we win.