I’m also not sure if that’s the sweetest thing someone’s ever done for me or if that’s a giant red flag. I mean, do I break up with him for crossing a line, or do I suck his cock again to show my appreciation. Both?
“But my house wasn’t broken into,” I say. “It was just my mother.”
It’s the least of the issues on the table, but my brain apparently feels the need to start small and work up to the whole ‘I hired a security team to secretly follow you 24/7’ thing.
“I…well, right. But we still can’t fully explain the window or your book, so better safe than sorry,” Ash says, seeming flustered.
I make another attempt to throw off the blanket and get up from the couch, and this time he lets me.
“I don’t know whether I should be grateful to you or furious with you,” I say as I start to pace.
“Baby, you need to put some clothes on while you decide,” Ash says, not looking at me. “It’s making my dick hard again to watch you walk around like that.”
I stop pacing and raise a brow. He gives me a ‘Sorry, but I can’t help it’ look, and I resume pacing.
Ash gets up. “Look,” he says, “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to worry you or make you self-conscious. I figured I’d just have the guys follow you for a little while and keep an eye on your house when you weren’t there until we knew for sure there wasn’t any danger.”
My brows shoot up again. “They’ve been watching my house too?”
He grimaces. “Yeah.”
I look away from him. I need to think about this, and that’s nearly impossible to do with a tall, well-muscled hockey player standing a few feet away in his underwear. I’m about to get dressed to buy myself sometime when I realize Ash is right next to me. He grabs my shoulders lightly and turns me to face him.
“Gray, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I really thought I was doing the right thing to protect you.”
I let out a mirthless laugh. “You mean you really thought you were doing the right thing to protect your hockey career,” I snap at him.
Okay, so my psyche is defaulting to anger for now.
Ash’s eyes narrow, and his grip tightens on my shoulders. “Fuck hockey,” he says. “I did it because I love you and want you to be safe.”
And just like that my rage evaporates. It takes Ash a second longer to realize what he just said, but he steels his expression, refusing to backtrack or qualify the statement.
“What did you just say?” I whisper.
“You heard me,” he says. “I love you. You’re fucking mine, and I protect what’s mine.”
I stare at him for several long moments as I try to wrap my head around that.
“I…I…” The words are there on my tongue, but I can’t seem to speak them. “I don’t know what to say,” I say instead.
If he’s disappointed I didn’t say ‘I love you’ back, he doesn’t show it.
“Say you forgive me,” Ash says, “and I’ll eat your pussy for the rest of the night to show you how sorry I am.”
I give him a ‘Be serious’ look, but he shoots back an ‘Iamserious’ one. He steps up to me, and I put my hands on his chest to push him back, but he wraps me in his arms so my own are pinned between us. He starts to kiss a path down my neck, and the goosebumps that rise on my skin betray me.
“Forgive me yet?” he asks against my throat, and I curse my weakness where this man is concerned.
I groan as I feel his teeth graze my skin. “Fine. Just promise me you won’t keep anything like this from me ever again,” I tell him.
I’m letting him off the hook easy, but to my surprise, his mouth stills,and he pulls back.
“What is it?” I ask.
“There’s…one more thing I should tell you,” he says.
My stomach plummets again. I knew it was too good to be true.
