Page 15 of The Girl in the Hockey Jersey

My heart pounds as he curves over me.

Drag him back inside,every part of me screams.

But I can’t, and I know it, so I plant my hand on his chest.

“Push me away,” he whispers. “Or don’t. Drag me closer, beautiful girl. Don’t let me go.”

I curl my fingers in his shirt instead. “That’s the tequila talking.”

“The tequila stopped talking hours ago.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t be more than an anonymous girl in your jersey.”

He catches my hand and drags it up between us. Rubs his thumb over my ring finger. “Are you married?”

I gasp and yank my hand out of his grip. “No. And if you thought that—”

“I didn’t. I don’t. Just trying to figure out why you wouldn’t want a repeat.” It sounds just cocky enough for me to re-focus my energy. He’s a cocky player who assumes women want him endlessly. Will bend over backwards to sleep with him.

“There are lots of reasons. Too many to count. And—”

He cuts me off with his mouth, hard and intense. His tongue licks past my lips and I can’t pretend I don’t want one more all-consuming taste. I open for him, surrendering to the wild heat. He slows his plunder as our bodies fit together one final time, his tongue deep in my mouth now.

As if he knows we only have one more kiss, and he’s going to make it last as long as possible.

I cling to him, bare legs shaking as he works his trouser-clad thigh between them. He tilts my head to the side, angling just so as he swallows my first breathy moan.

We’re in the hallway.This is madness.

But it’s the middle of the night, and as he mouth fucks me, it really does feel like we’re the only two people in the world.

Like all my reasons might be real enough tomorrow, real enough once I get home, but right now? Right here, with his hands tight in my hair and my slick, swollen pussy riding against his dress pants once again?

All that matters right here and now is just how fucking real this kiss feels.

The rest of the night can fade away to fantasyland, but this searing embrace is going to imprint on me differently.

It’s dizzying. He makes my pulse roar in my ears, like the ocean, or a packed arena full of rabid fans.

And then in the distance, there’s a ding.

The elevator arriving on this floor. As quick as he cut me off before, to kiss me and make me some kind of liar, he breaks away. His mouth looks as swollen as mine feels. He brushes his tender lips against my forehead, then pushes me into the room, the door swinging shut between us.

Chapter8

Kieran

My first thoughtwhen I wake up is,not enough sleep.My second thought—as I’m halfway out of bed, becausefuck, even though it wasn’t enough, I’ve overslept and someone’s pounding on the door—is that it was a mistake to leave Jersey Girl’s room.

She kicked you out.

Fair. True. But we were both tipsy. She wasn’t thinking straight. We should exchange numbers.

I wrench the door open and nod at Stanzi. “On my way down.”

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