He yawns. “Did you want to work out?”
“No. Our schedule is relentless right now. I might give my body a break from the weights,” I say. It’s a good idea. Between daily practices and nightly games, and not one day off unless we lose, I have no time to squeeze in my own workouts without sacrificing something else. Something else like lying in bed with Connor. I only have so many days like this left with him before we need to stop and go back to our respective cities and teams. Besides, daily sex with him is a workout in and of itself that I can’t get enough of.
“I can come with you to get breakfast,” he says.
“Nah. Stay here.” I kiss his neck and run my hand down his naked body. “Just like this. I want to have you for dessert.”
“Since when is dessert served with breakfast?”
“Since you.” I give him a little spank on the side of his right hip. “Cue up the next episode ofSierra Sixon your laptop. We can watch it when I get back.”
Connor
His side of the bed is still warm and I’m luxuriating in it. His scent is everywhere and I’m starting to understand his obsession with smelling me. It’s intoxicating. Hot and heady. Who knew it could be this blissful?
I suppose I did. I’ve always wanted something like this, but thislife, this career, my father, none of them have allowed me to enjoy this simple pleasure. Sharing a bed with a man. I might suggest to Gavin that we stay here and never leave. Just live in this makeshift double bed with the seam through the middle we try to avoid falling into.
I smile when I hear his footsteps coming towards our door. That was fast and I’m glad about it. I’m starving. Hungry for both food and him.
When I hear him knock, I’m surprised. “It should be unlocked,” I say, not wanting to get out of bed and away from the comfort I’ve melted into. Besides, I’m naked and these rooms are surprisingly cold. They must not have swung for a decent heating system in their haste to retrofit this building for dorms.
He opens the door and I sit myself up to greet him. My face immediately falls when I see my father walk in. Panic flutters through me as I pull the bedding up for better coverage of my naked body. “What are you doing here?” Then, my panic settling into anger, I ask, “And how did you get up here? These dorms are for athletes only.”
He eyes me with disgust. “These dorms are to keep athletes like you in, not to keep people like me out.” My blood runs cold under the surface of my skin, draining me of all my color. How could I have been so stupid as to let my guard down? He gestures at the bed. “This better not be what it looks like.”
Tired, caught, and knowing there’s no conceivable lie I can tell him, I try to muster up what’s left of my dignity. I look him in the eyes and set my shoulders back. “So what if it is?”
“Damn it, Connor. I refuse to believe you’re this stupid.” He grabs a shirt that’s hanging out of the top drawer of the dresser and tosses it at me. “Get dressed,” he barks. “You’re coming with me.”
I throw the shirt on, but only because it’s one of Gavin’s and he doesn’t realize it until he sees the Alaskan Crab Fishing Guild logo emblazoned across it. I can see the fight raging in him. And frankly, it’s beginning to rage in me too. He’s controlled so much of my lifeand robbed me of being able to have someone in my life like Gavin. I won’t let him ruin this now.
“What are you more upset about?” I ask, my jaw tense. “That I’m sharing a bed with one of my teammates, or that it’s Gavin?”
He doesn’t answer my question. “Is this why you played like shit last night?”
Ah. I see. The real reason for his visit. Him finding me naked in bed is as much of a surprise for him as it is for me.
I grab my underwear from the foot of the bed, then stand to put it on. If we’re going to have this fight, I want to have it eye to eye, not with him looking down at me like I’m a kid again. “I didn’t play like shit! We won!”
“You gave away two goals that should have been yours!” he yells back. “You could have easily had a hat trick!”
“I made the right call by passing! I’m not like you! I don’t make selfish plays!”My heart is racing. I never talk back to my father. Not like this. But I can’t let him steamroll all over me anymore.
His nostrils flare. “Being selfish made me the best!” He jabs his finger into my chest, right between the crab in the tee shirt logo’s eyes. “You’re too soft! You’ve always been too soft!”
“I’m not soft!” I bellow.
“You are!” my dad bellows back. He leans closer. “And you’re distracted.” He sneers at me. “I can’t believe that piece of Alaskan trash made a bitch out of you.”
“Yo,” I hear Bouchard’s voice on the other side of the door, followed by a knock. He pokes his head in. When he sees me, he raises his eyebrow and curls up the corner of his mouth. I can almost hear him ask if I want him to escort my father out. Instead, he says, “It’s getting a little loud in here.”
“Mind your business,” my father barks at him.
Bouchard tips his head at him. “Technically, sir,” he says, a smile pulling at his lips, “I was minding my business. Butyoudecided to havethisconversation at high volume.” He steps all the way into the room and stares directly at my father. Even without his goalie gear on, Bouchard is bigger than him. Much bigger. He’sbuilt like a veritable mountain in front of the net. “Now, unless you want the rest of the team to hear you, I suggest you keep your voice down. And if you’re smart, you’ll be off of this floor before Marshal gets back onto it.”
He gives me one last look, silently asking if I’m good. I nod at him, because for the first time in my life, I am.
Bouchard walks back towards the door. He pauses with his hand on the knob and looks back at my father. “See you around, Mr. Kennedy.”
