“Holy shit,” I hear him groan into my chest and he roars like a fucking lion and comes just as hard as I do.
Moments later, when we’re both on the other side, I feel his lips kiss their way across my collarbone to my shoulder. Both his hands are wrapped around my back, and he pulls me down and lays himself out on the mattress. I close my eyes as my head lands on the bed, and then I feel the soft chenille throw I keep at the foot of the bed cover me. A second later his lips are back on my shoulder and he’s pulling me into his chest to spoon.
This side of Elijah is surprising too. It’s so gentle and sweet, and I could get used to it…only I can’t.
“I’m going to cuddle you to sleep and then I’m going to sneak out.”
“Oh. Okay.” And I can’t hide my disappointment at the thought of him leaving.
I start to pull away but he doesn’t let me. He turns me toward him. His green eyes look glassy and his full lips a little stained from my lipstick. I almost completely forgot we were all done up for a fancy work event. “I want nothing more than to spend the night here with you, but knowing Levi, he’ll show up at the asscrack of dawn to take me to breakfast before he leaves with the team for their road trip, and if I’m not there he’ll have questions I can’t answer.”
“Oh, right.” I give him a tiny embarrassed smile. I just got all girlfriend-y and needy. I blame the fact that he got all boyfriend-y and sweet.
He curls me back into his chest and runs a hand through my hair. It feels like heaven. I sigh and it turns into a tiny yawn. He chuckles and kisses the curve of my neck. “I’m surprised you came so fast,” I mumble sleepily. “I guess I’m good.”
He chuckles again. “I was surprised too, but you chanting my name in that breathy little whisper of yours while you came was the hottest thing ever.”
“What? I didn’t do that.” I swear I didn’t do that.
Did I do that?
“I didn’t think you realized it, which was what made it so much hotter,” he whispers against the shell of my ear, and I smile. “You’re incredible, sweet Dixie.”
“You’re pretty fantastic too, Elijah.” I don’t want to fall asleep. I want to stay like this, reveling in his warm, strong embrace and the feel of his breath tickling my shoulder and his lips on my neck for hours, until dawn, but I’m exhausted and long before I want, I fade to black.
7
Elijah
He pounds on my hotel room door way too fucking early just like I told Dixie he would. Levi is nothing if not predictable. It’s hilarious that he and my parents are always at such odds, because he’s more like them than either Todd or I could ever hope to be. Our parents are always calm, always punctual, never raise their voices or act brashly. I’ve never seen them cry, not even after my grandmother passed. Levi is exactly like them in that way. Or he was until he met his girlfriend, Tessa.
I fling open the door and come face-to-face with him. He grins—it’s too big not to be sarcastic. “Hey! You’re up!”
He knows I was far from up.
I leave the door open and wander back toward my bed, but before I can fall face first into it he’s got a hand on my shoulder, keeping me upright. “Since you’re up, throw on some clothes and let’s go for breakfast!”
“What is it about dawn that makes you such a fucking cheerleader?” I ask, but I stumble toward my open suitcase because I know he’s not going to let me go back to bed.
“It’s almost nine, Eli. Dawn was hours ago,” he says to me, like nine a.m. makes him any less of a psychopath. “The team plane leaves at noon for Milwaukee. You’ll be joining us soon, so get used to it, little bro.”
I dig around for a clean shirt and the only jeans I brought.
“You look wrecked,” he tells me. “Did you and Jasper go out after the event?”
I nod. I love when he makes up my excuses for me. “Just for a few.”
“Find any chicks?” I glance over and he’s cocking his dark eyebrow at me like a jovial sitcom dad. I roll my eyes.
“What, are you trying to live vicariously through me?” I grin as I pull on my olive-green Henley hoodie. “Sorry, big bro. I’m not kissing and telling just because you’re tied down.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way. You know, even when I was single I wasn’t exactly into sowing my oats,” he replies and leans his ass against the dresser. He glances at his watch as I head into the bathroom and try to calm my bedhead. “Come on, princess.”
“Yeah. Yeah.” I wet my hands and run them through my hair and then grab my coat off the chair and head to the door. “Wherever you’re taking me better have bacon. I’m not getting my ass up at this hour for anything less.”
The streets are pretty quiet because the rest of San Francisco isn’t insane enough to be wandering around so early on a Saturday morning. I follow him left down the street the hotel’s on and then right down another street, which is more like walking down a cliff. I’m totally cabbing it back. There is no way I’m climbing this later.
He tells me about the road trip he’s heading out on, which is three games in three cities over five days. And then he does what I know he’s going to do and asks me about my upcoming games. I tell him we have two at home this week and one away on the weekend in Vancouver, Washington, against the Winterhawks’ farm team.
