I gasp. “That’s cruel!” Then I dissolve into laughter. “But… how are you here? Your schedule…”
“I can only stay tonight. I’ve got a flight back tomorrow night, we have a game Thursday. I got permission to miss our practice tomorrow.”
I pout. Only tonight. “I’ll come back with you.”
“You can’t do that.”
“I can. I can do anything.”
“Attagirl.” His dimples appear.
“I just have to make some changes. Some adjustments. I’ll have to travel. But I can make my base in New York.” I hesitate. “Would you… come to Berlin with me? In July?”
He gives me a searching look. “Yes. But why?”
“We’re going to do a benefit concert. To raise money for the victims and their families.”
“Will you be okay?”
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “But I’m going to try.”
He gives me a searching look, then pulls a slow smile. “Brave girl. Of course I’ll come with you.”
I move into him again, burying my face in the side of his neck, breathing in his warm scent. His arms around me are strength and safety and love. But also freedom. Freedom to be myself. To not have to be perfect.
“Eve says that perfectionism comes from fear,” I murmur.
“Mmmhmm.” He draws back and peers into my eyes. “I get that.”
“So maybe you’re not the only one who’s a coward.”
He huffs out a laugh. “We’re all cowards, diva. Everyone’s afraid of something.”
Even he has fears. Even this big, strong, confident man who gets on the ice and slams other hockey players around. “I guess it’s how you deal with the fear that matters.”
“Yeah.” His smile slides into a lopsided curve. “We can’t let it stop us. Which I did. You just have to realize something’s more important than fear.”
“Yes. It’s more important for me to be myself, even if I might fail. Or disappoint my parents. Or my fans.”
“Being yourself—that’s important.”
“Yes. Also… you’re important.”
He cups my face. “You’re important to me, too. The most important. And…” He pauses. “Don’t think I came here just for sex, but I’d really love to fuck you.”
30
MAREK
She chokes on a laugh and falls against my chest. “I’d be mad if you didn’t.”
She leads me to her bedroom. This house is something else; it’s built into the side of a hill, so a spiral staircase leads down to a lower level. Her bedroom is on one side of that level, also with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. She flicks a switch when we walk in, but it just turns on three recessed lights in a nook on the far wall.
I stop and turn to face her. “You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Her smile is shy and sweet and also sexy. She sets her hands on my chest. “So are you.”
She’s wearing a tight little tank top and baggy sweatpants so it’s not hard to get her out of her clothes. I slowly pull off the tank top. She’s bare beneath it, her pretty tits round and high and tipped with plump nipples. “I fantasize about your nipples.” I lower my head to kiss her neck, so gently, then her shoulder, sliding a hand down and around her hip, pulling her closer, and then I bend my knees to kiss each breast. “I jerk off thinking about them.”
