“Because when I saw you in the club, there was a light that surrounded you. It was so bright it hurt my eyes.”
Wow.
That’s good.
My feet stop moving, and his do as well. His hand is still holding mine as he turns to face me, his dancing eyes looking down into mine.
He’s beautiful.
I don’t think I’ve ever imagined that a man could have this kind of beauty in real life unless it were photoshopped or altered in some way, but he’s just proven me wrong. Because he looks unreal. Every single part of him, like he was created and set down in front of me.
Without saying a single word, I do something that I’ve never done before in my entire life. I lift my hands, cup his cheeks, and rise to my toes before I touch my mouth to his.
I make the first move.
Never in my life have I taken charge like this before. Not that I’ve had many opportunities to do so, but still. This is so far beyond uncharacteristic for me that I surprise myself with my actions.
This has the potential to backfire—badly. But I’m throwing caution to the wind, seizing the day. I just didn’t know that the wind would be like a tornado that would last for hours instead of a cool summer breeze.
Eli Abbott came rolling through, consuming and wrecking everything around me and about me—owning my body that night.
And like a tornado, he is gone the next morning.
I assume I’ve done something wrong, something to make him slip out of my dorm in the middle of the night without saying a single word to me. I don’t know how that is supposed to go. I’ve never done anything like that before.
Was it a one-night stand? Maybe it was.
But it’s so embarrassing that I never try to contact him again. I threw myself at him. He probably didn’t even want me. It was a pity fuck. My god, that’s what it was, and then he left. He was nice enough not to actually tell me to my face, but I know that’s what it was.
He messages me half a dozen times over the next few weeks, but I never respond.
I don’t even read them.
I am mortified by what I must have unknowingly done that was wrong. Because if it wasn’t a pity fuck, then I was bad. So very bad, and that’s just as embarrassing.
To say that I am inexperienced would be stretching it a bit. In fact, I’ve only had sex once before him. It was just to get rid of my virginity because I’d carried it with me all the way to college, and I felt it was time.
But I had zero idea what I was doing in bed, and I must have been terribly bad if he just walked away like that without even telling me goodbye. It had to have beenawful, and I can’t imagine having to hear him actually explain it to me.
So I ignore him.
ONE
ELI
PRESENT DAY
The time on the clock is counting down, and it’s going fucking fast. At seemingly lightning speed. I pass the puck to my winger, and I watch as it’s passed to Luke, who slaps that stick and sends the puck flying straight toward the net. We all watch, holding our breaths as the horn buzzes, signaling the end of the game.
Score.
Vortex Goal.
The crowd is screaming right before they begin to chant, and then the tornado siren signals the score.Yes. Not only yes, butfuck yes. We’re now in the playoffs and on our way to the Calder Cup. We made it a team goal this year to make it into playoffs, at the minimum, and we’ve done it.
We all skate toward the middle of the rink and throw our arms around one another, forming a circle. This is a tradition when we win. The crowd is wild, their screams and cheers actually causing my body to vibrate.
We’re hot, tired, thirsty, and hungry, but we’re still going to celebrate on the ice in front of our still-cheering fans. Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, could keep any one of us from this moment.
