“I’m a big boy, Nicole.”
She meant well, but I wasn’t in the mood to be coddled. This was something I had to work out for myself, no matter how good her intentions were.
“With everyone in Dallas,” she said, closing the door behind her, “sneaking back here was pretty easy.”
I shifted, the bench hot enough to bite. My gaze raked over her body, and I felt a twitch under my towel. “But how did you know to find me in here?”
She shrugged, waving at my feet. I moved them off the bench and pushed up to sit, my arms still a little shaky after my earlier torture session.
“The gym was empty.” She sat down beside me and fixed her towel when one flap revealed too much skin on her thigh. “I was about to head back out when I noticed the breadcrumb trail of clothes you left leading to the sauna.”
I wiped sweat from my jaw, but it came right back. “But you didn’t come here to judge my habits of organization.”
“No,” she said, and her voice softened without losing its edge. She searched my eyes intently. “I came to see if you’re okay.”
The question sat between us, heavier than the heat. I stared at the wall behind her, at the dark knots in the wood, the way the grain twisted and pulled.
“I’m not,” I said finally.
Her expression didn’t change. She moved closer, the bench creaking under her weight. Her towel brushed my thigh and I went still, every nerve awake. If she felt it too, it didn’t show. Her focus was absolute, and glued to my face.
The expectation was full honesty, and I wasn’t going to let her down.
“It feels like all this junk is stuck in me,” I said, the words dragging their way out of my throat. “I can’t skate it off. Can’t sweat it out. Usually the ice works perfectly. Being out there. Doing the thing I’m good at.” My jaw set. “But that’s out of the question. Indefinitely.”
Her hand hovered, then settled on my knee, steady and warm. “Landon—”
“The only thing that came close to that feeling was putting my fist through James’s face, but that’s not gonna happen.” I laughed once, short and humorless. “As much as I want it to.”
She stood.
The movement pulled my attention whether I wanted it or not. She reached for the edge of her towel and let it fall to the floor at my feet. Heat slicked over her skin, the lines of her body bare and unguarded.
My reaction was instant and impossible to hide. I shifted, my grip tightening on the towel as it tented over my hardening dick.
Nicole watched me do it with a faint smile on her face, eyes dark, then she met my gaze. “Maybe I can help.”
She stepped closer and lowered herself, knees pressing into the towel she’d just dropped, hands braced lightly on my thighs. Steam rose around us, thick and unrelenting, the room holding its breath.
“Nicole…” There probably should’ve been a reason—a good one—for us to stop. To think about what we were about to do right here in the team gym.
But with her looking up at me with her desire laid bare, there was no way I could find the end of my sentence.
“Just relax. Let me,” she said.
With her eyes burning into mine, she lifted my towel with painstaking slowness. As if she were giving me time to stop her, which of course would never happen.
Her eyes widened as my cock rose free, almost totally hard now, suggestively twitching in the warm air of the sauna. She licked her lips and swallowed, before looking up at me.
“You were saying?” And the playful lilt in her voice sent another rush of heat straight to my crotch.
I felt hot all over, and only fractionally because of the sauna. If we were anywhere else, she would’ve accused me of blushing.
Eyes level with my cock, she wrapped one hand around it and slowly started stroking up and down. I breathed sharply out of my nose, gripping the bench tightly. Nicole smiled at the instant reaction, before taking it to the next level. She pushed hair out of her face and leaned down, taking my dick into her mouth. Inch by delicious inch. She could only fit so much without straining, but it was enough to drag a needy moan out of me. I watched her eyes flutter closed at the sound, which seemed to excite her even more. The suction on my shaft increased, and she let out a low hum that vibrated through my shaft.
I brushed a sticky strand of hair out of her face. “Look at me.”
Her eyes flashed to reveal a blazing hunger that knocked the air out of my lungs. She bobbed her head up and down, sucking me off with relish, savoring every inch of my throbbing cock as though it were her new favorite meal. The sight made my heart race even more than it already had been, and I sank my fingers into her hair, grasping tightly for something to hold onto.
