CHAPTER 21 BEN
“I wish we had more time,” I mutter against her neck. What I wouldn’t give to spread her out on the desk behind me and drive my cock into her for the next hour.
But I need to get back. I can’t leave my dad in there too long or he’ll start to ask questions. He’s intuitive like that.
“I could come over later,” she suggests.
“I’m heading out with some buddies after the game and I don’t know how late we’ll be or I’d take you up on that.
But fuck,” I mutter, dragging my lips along her sweet skin one more time.
I press my lips to hers, keeping my tongue in my mouth even though it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
I run a hand up her torso, stopping to massage her breast for a second.
She reaches down and cups my cock over my jeans, and I’m so hard up for her I feel like I’m about to have the type of accident I haven’t had since I was in junior high and I had a hot teacher.
I blow out a breath as I try to compose myself. “Gift shop?” I ask brightly as I back away from her.
She laughs.
“You know, just in case someone asks where we were. We ran into each other there. I’ll buy you something to remember our private office session.”
“I mean there are other ways you could make it far more memorable.” She raises a sexy brow, and I nearly cave.
“I wish I could, believe me.” I can’t believe how true that is.
“I got an apartment,” she blurts.
I raise both brows. “You’re moving out of Jack’s place?”
“It’s time.”
“Congratulations,” I say, and I open the office door and check both ways for the all clear before I usher her out. We walk toward the gift shop, and I have this strange urge to grab her hand. It hits me from an odd angle since it’s probably been a decade since I’ve had that urge with a chick.
On the walk there, I ask, “Where’s it at?”
“Coincidentally, in the apartment complex close to your house. It’s close to my school, too.”
“Sounds like we’ll have a new place for any secret meetings we want to have,” I say. “Walking distance, too. Which is a huge plus considering we won’t have to figure out how to hide our cars.”
Since the game is starting literally right now, the gift shop is mostly empty.
I check out the stuffed animals and grab a teddy bear wearing a Knights shirt.
I grab a t-shirt for my dad off another rack, and I head to the register while Kaylee looks around.
“Separate bags, please,” I request, and the cashier looks at me like she recognizes me, but she doesn’t say anything.
Oh well. She’s probably more of a hockey fan than a football fan if she’s working here.
Kaylee saunters toward me as I finish paying, and I hand the bag with the bear to Kaylee. “For you to sleep with since I’m unable to, Peaches.”
“Peaches?”
I shrug. “That peachy ass of yours.”
She narrows her eyes at me as she takes the bag from my hands, our fingers brushing in the process, and goddammit she’s pretty. Her blue eyes sparkle at me, and maybe it’s just the way she looks at me, but fuck. I could stare at her forever.
She peeks into the bag and pulls out the bear. She squeezes it to her chest.
“I’ve never been jealous of a stuffed animal until this moment,” I say, my eyes lingering on those hot tits a few extra beats.
She laughs, and even her laugh calls to me.
This is dangerous territory.
My brain is on high alert as it tells me to slow things down…
but there’s this strange and foreign feeling in my chest telling me not to do that.
And my dick…well, usually I allow him to make all my decisions for me, but we all know he’s not putting a stop to anything any time soon.
He keeps telling me to get her back into that office and get her naked.
We head back toward the party suite. Some credit card company invited Jack and told him he could bring along up to twenty people.
Jack extended the invitation to a few of us on the team, and the room has filled since I ducked into an office to make out with Kaylee.
I spot a few other guys from the team and a few more executives, and then I see my dad is still talking to Carol Dalton.
Or, rather, Carol Dalton is still talking to my father. I’m not sure he’s said much, but he tends to be a man of few words.
It’s only a small part of what drove my mother away from him and into the arms of another man when I was twelve.
I was too young to know the details of my parents’ divorce, but I was old enough to remember the fights.
The quiet man had a few things to say when he discovered his wife’s infidelity, and it got ugly.
Neither of them is perfect, but I learned from their mistakes.
Being with Tatum only solidified all that.
I thought I could change my stance on marriage for her, but between my mother and Tatum, I learned that all women eventually lie then leave.
And that’s why I no longer subject myself to that possibility.
Except I’m starting to wonder if I should make an exception for the woman who I can’t seem to stop thinking about.
I shouldn’t. I can’t.
Too much pain. Too much risk.
But a little part of me wants to take that risk anyway.
I grab a fresh beer and wink at my dad as I walk past him toward Jack, where I spot him looking over the ice with Cory Marshall. And when I catch the tail end of their conversation, I realize it doesn’t matter that I can’t stop thinking about her.
I can’t get into something with any woman, but maybe least of all her.
“Dude, all I wanted was to ask her out for a drink,” Cory says defensively.
Jack shakes his head. “And now you know where I stand.”
Cory nods and rolls his eyes for my benefit when he spots me standing there. “Talk some sense into this guy, would you?” he says to me, and then he walks down the stairs and slides into a seat to watch the game.
“What’s going on?” I ask, taking a long swig of beer.
“He wanted to ask my sister out,” Jack says, and my hackles rise. “Can you believe the nerve? He’s eight years older than her.”
“Aren’t you that much older than Kate?” I point out—not because I’m defending Cory, but because if he thinks eight years is inappropriate, he’s really going to take issue with ten years.
“That’s different.”
My brows dip. “Why?”
“Because Kaylee’s twenty-two,” he says. “She’s barely lived her life yet. And besides, she’s my sister. You don’t date a teammate’s sister.”
“Didn’t your brother marry a teammate’s sister?” I point out.
He glances over at me with a glare. “Who’s fucking side are you on, man?”
I hold up both hands. “Yours. Always. I’m just pointing out the facts.”
“Luke and Ellie got lucky it worked, but Josh was pissed when they first got together and were faking it for the media. Not every story has the same ending, though. What if he dated her and broke her heart? Or what if she broke his? How would that change the dynamic in the locker room?”
Right. Noted.
Jack doesn’t want a teammate dating his sister.
He didn’t say anything about a teammate boning his sister…but it’s not the first hint that what we’re doing is a bad idea. First I find my feelings getting invested, and now I’m listening to Jack’s thoughts on his sister’s dating life.
It’s a little forbidden for me to be with her considering the decade that stands between our ages, and Jack just put her in the off-limits category. So why does that suddenly make me want her even more?
I glance over at her, and she catches my eye from where she stands talking to Ellie.
My chest tightens.
It might be a bad idea to keep doing this…but I’m not sure I can stop.