Page 28 of On Thin Ice

My eyes widen and I shift on the sofa, the sword in my trousers digging into my leg uncomfortably. “You’re doing it now? Oh my god,” Ping!

I pull the phone away from my ear, putting Callie on speaker and opening her message. “Sweet Jesus,” I breathe, smashing the phone screen against my chest to hide it. “Callie, what the fuck?”

I can hear the smile in her voice. “Is that good enough?”

“Good enough?” I gape, looking at the photo again, turning the phone away from Kyle’s wandering eye.

Callie is standing in her bathroom, one leg crossed over the other as she leans back against the sink. She’s wearing absolutely nothing, not even a scrap of material in sight and I can’t fucking look away. My cock is throbbing, fighting to get home and live inside her for the entire weekend. “Erm…yeah, baby…that’s…wow, I miss you.” I stutter like a fucking idiot, scrubbing my hand across my jaw, still staring at the photo of my girl, looking like a fucking angel.

Kyle leans across towards me. “Let me see.”

I shove him hard and scramble off the sofa, almost falling flat on my ass as I clamp my hand over my phone, hiding Callie’s body from Kyle’s eyes. “You know I’d have to gauge your eyes out if you saw her like that right?” Kyle barks a laugh and Callie clears her throat on the other end of the phone, drawing my attention back to her. “Sorry baby, Kyle’s just being certifiably insane over here. Please come and save me.”

“I have to go Sean, I have training in the morning and I'm so fucking tired from the competition today.” She sounds tired, really tired and I know she’s having a hard time with her routines right now, she keeps telling me how no matter how hard she tries she just can’t get the hang of them. I know it’s totally draining her mentally and physically. Even so, she smashed the competition today, the team event was their strongest and they managed to come second which was a surprise to everyone when my sister fell off beam twice and Anais took a fall on bars. Lois has been a gymnast since she was a child but I’ve never really cared to learn anything about the sport, until this fiery brunette came along and consumed me, I want to know everything about her. Even though I know she’s exhausted tonight after a long day she still stripped off her clothes and made me a happy boy with that photo. God, I love h—

Shit! My head is getting way ahead of me, thinking crazy things like that when we’ve only been dating for a month. I am crazy right? It’s not normal to think you might be in love with someone after a month together? I don’t fucking know what I'm doing with this relationship stuff, even though Callie has helped me a lot when I’ve been feeling uneasy, like a rookie. It’s hard for me to be bad, or unpracticed at anything, I'm pretty much good at everything I do. I’m a weapon on the ice and with the ladies, but wanting someone as bad as I want Callie is total uncharted territory for me and I don’t know what I'm doing with myself.

My blades glide to a stop next to Nick, my chest battering him into the plexiglass and earning a hard jab in my right shoulder as he smirks at me. Only 4 days left until I can go home to my girl, I can’t fucking wait to see her, smell her, kiss her. She doesn’t know this yet but we are spending the entire weekend in bed, naked.

“Stop daydreaming Taylor, you’re losing it.” Coach passes me, slapping a palm down on the back of my shoulder and making his way off the ice. I’m glad he can’t read my thoughts, images of his naked daughter swirling through my mind.

We’ve been training since 8am this morning, it's now 2pm and I'm fucking exhausted. I’ve been making good use of the photo Callie sent me everyday, the guys and I are sharing a hotel room though so I’ve had to be mindful of that. I can’t help but let her name leave my lips on a curse every time I come now, my dick takes over my brain and I can think of nothing but her.

Nick grunts beside me as he yanks his gloves off his hands, the red, icy skin underneath causing him to wince when he curls them into fists. “I know Callie is super fucking hot but she’s kind of a bitch, I don’t know what you see in her past her pussy.”

This fucking guy never knows when to shut up.

My brow furrows and I grab the back of his jersey, leaning into his ear. “First of all, call my girl a bitch again and you’ll be seeing the inside of a hospital.” I watch his smirk widen, he loves fucking with me, watching me lose my shit. “Second of all,” I take a breath, letting the protective anger fizzle out. “I’m scared shitless of her, but I think that’s what keeps me coming back. It’s like I'm scared of her but I like it, keeps me on my toes you know?” I step off the ice, following after Nick and walking towards the locker rooms, the sweat dripping down the back of my neck. “All the other girls I could have are always fawning all over me, desperate for my attention but Callie is the opposite.” I let a coy smile cross my face before I squash it down, watching as Nick drops his trousers. “She tells me how much I irritate her at least once per day and I fucking love it. Maybe I'm fucked in the head.” I cover my eyes with one hand. “Put that fucking thing away.”

“Jealous that it's bigger than yours?” Nick grins, swinging his hips and making his dick dance before wrapping a towel around his waist. “Anyway, maybe you are fucked in the head or maybe…” he grins and throws his arm around my shoulders. “You're falling in love with her.” I drop my trousers too, admiring the muscle hanging between my legs, I can’t fucking wait to put him to good use in 4 days.

“I already know I'm falling in love with her, but I can’t tell her that yet can I? Isn’t it way too soon?” I grumble, lifting my jersey over my head and grabbing a towel from my locker. “I feel like such a fucking rookie at all this relationship stuff, I never know if I'm being too keen or not keen enough.”

Nick yanks back the shower curtain and I step into the cubicle next to him, the hot water creates a cloud of fog around us. “Maybe talk to Lewis about it, he’s done the relationship thing before.”

“Yeah, good idea man.” I say, letting the water flow over my face, the warmth softening my tense muscles.

I need to figure out how to navigate this stuff and I think Lewis might be the perfect person to help me smooth out the confusion that’s rolling my brain into a ball and bouncing it around inside my skull. The funny thing is I know exactly how I feel, it’s not my feelings towards Callie that are confusing me, it’s what to do with them.

Chapter 23

Callie

It’s finally Friday, just one day to go until my new favourite person comes home and I can spend the weekend strapped to his chest, never moving more than a few centimetres away from him. I really miss him, more than I'd like to admit but the phone calls and video chats we’ve been having every day since he left just aren’t enough anymore. I need to actually touch him, to lie with him and have his huge arms wrapped around me so I can bury my face in his mind bending smell.

When I got home last night Molly practically tackled me to the living room floor and made me solemnly swear to stay home all day with her today watching romance movies and eating ice cream in our PJs. Ellen gave us a rare Friday off because our gym is being prepared for a competition tomorrow, thank fuck it’s not a competition I have to participate in. The freshman have a practice comp before the real shit starts for them next year, the poor little fish dealing with big bad Ellen on a Friday and Saturday back to back. I feel bad for them because I’ve dealt with her wrath all fucking week and she’s been in an extra bad mood so I'm even more mentally drained than usual. Molly should have known I wouldn’t need convincing, I’ve always been a PJ day kind of girl. Probably because I spend most of my life now either naked and squashed under a huge, dimple faced hockey player or sucked into a pair of way too tight gym shorts. Since I agreed to give Sean a real chance, to be his girlfriend, I feel like my lightbulb has been relit. If you’d have told me two months ago that Sean Taylor would be my boyfriend I’d have either laughed in your face or swung at you with a baseball bat. But he’s seriously been the one thing I never knew I needed, he makes every part of my life better, except when he has to go away and I'm left missing him. Like right now, he’s been gone for 13 days, due back tomorrow thank god because I need that 6-foot-4 slab of warm muscle to put a very specific part of his body inside me ASAP, before I implode.

The credits role across the screen and I lift my stiff body off the sofa and out of the sea of blankets that cocoon me, Molly and Anais. I gallop across the living room towards our tiny kitchen, my stomach is painfully tight but I can’t stop eating, maybe my period is due or something. I grab a few more snacks and fall back onto the sofa between my friends who are huddled against the cushions. Molly’s gazelle like legs tangle with mine as she spreads out and groans at the stiffness of her muscles. The three of us have barely moved since this morning and it’s almost 9pm already, we’ve ordered a takeout, eaten our body weight in ice cream and watched at least four romance movies. I’m draped in Sean's wardrobe, his grey sweatpants swallowing me whole and his hockey hoodie reaching down to my knees as they quake from the bitter cold in here. Our dorm currently resembles a fucking ice box, the heating having been broken for the last six hours as engineers flocked into the basement to try and fix it. I personally think they should all find a new career, my toes are still frozen as I wiggle them, trying to bring them back to life.

“I miss Sean.” I huff, bringing the collar of his hoodie up over my nose and mouth. “Especially right now when I'm freezing my ass off and his body is twice the size of mine. Plus he’s always hot, he’s like my own personal hot water bottle.” I snicker and scratch at the bun that closely resembles a bird’s nest on top of my head, before yanking it out and raking my hand through my curls. When I look back up at Molly she’s smiling brightly at me, her blue eyes twinkling with something I can’t decipher. “What?” I say, my cheeks washing with pink as she gives me a knowing look.

She lets her gaze drift over my reddening cheeks before landing back on my eyes. “You grin like a Cheshire Cat when you talk about him.” My cheeks flush even more, so I look down at my lap, pulling my lip between my teeth and fiddling with a loose thread on Sean's hoodie. “So?” “Oh my god, are you falling for him?” She gapes, sitting up straight and pulling her blonde waves over one shoulder.

A sound somewhere between a snort and a scoff falls from my lips. “No,” I'm not even convincing myself with that half arsed lie.

Anais jumps up from the sofa and squeals, Molly joining her like they’re a pair of teenagers at a Justin Bieber concert.

“Oh my fucking god you're really falling for him!” Molly shrieks and I grab the nearest empty ice cream container and throw it lazily at her and Anais. Before I have chance to fight back the two of them grab my ankles and pull me onto the living room carpet, landing on top of my painfully full stomach and bear hugging me so I can no longer breathe. Anais squeals, “You’re in love! This is so great!”

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