Page 127 of The Puckable Playbook

Fully facing me again, his fingers immediately intertwining with mine. “I’m trying to show you the man I can be.”

“Does the man you can be involve lying next to me?”

My heart pounds, the fear of rejection coating my tongue. Worry that I’ve pushed him too far away hovers like a shroud.

He moves closer, winding his arms around my back. He’s in my space, but not suffocatingly so, like the two of us are in our own cocoon. “You think I don’t want to?”

I lick my lips, gaining myself some time. “I don’t know what I think. I just miss you.”

“I’ve been waiting for you to feel comfortable, sweetie.” His hot breath hits my mouth.

My eyes flutter closed. The bond between us has only gotten more palpable. Without me realizing what the issue really was, Zaiah solved it. I wanted to feel seen, to be heard, to feel loved. And like he knew the sound of my next breath, he gave it to me. Everything that was a mess inside myself, he knew, untangling the myriad of feelings, smoothing them out, and breathing life into them with every note, flower, and caring word.

He treated me like the woman I wanted to be.

“You’ve been showing me the man you truly are. Not who you could be, Zaiah, who you are.”

He threads his fingers through my hair, capturing my neck in his large palm. “I’m only catching up to you. How do you think I learned to be this way? I took note of what you did for me. The way you believed in me. The way you celebrated with me night after night on the ice, cheering me on.

“Lenore, I’m this way because you were this way first. My North Star. My guiding light. I haven’t been the best boyfriend, too wrapped up in myself, but that’s gone now. You showed me I can be a person who goes after their dreams while supporting someone else because that’s what you’ve been for me since day one. Look at you. You’re perfect.”

I run my hand up his chest, stroking the length of his corded neck. The way I love him is breathless. It used to scare me, like maybe he’d slip out of my grasp and leave me broken.

But I’m not scared anymore.

“Zaiah.” I swallow, my throat suddenly parched. I force my breaths out in even measures. “Sleep with me?”

“You sure?”

“One hundred pucking percent.”

The intensity ratcheting between us overflows until he grins. “So we’re clear, is there going to be more than sleeping?” he asks, leading me into my room, his touch never wavering.

I don’t have to answer because I slip away to take my shirt off, leaving it nonchalantly on the floor behind me as I walk to the bed.

When I turn, Zaiah is feasting on me like a hungry shark, and that look, it’s as good as any card he signed with love. The spark in his eyes ignites a heat inside me, and while he slowly takes his own shirt off, I move my way up the bed.

We needed the gut-wrenching honesty, the pain and worry. The absolute relief I feel to have gotten through that and still be looked at with that same ferocity in Zaiah’s eyes says so much. In fact, it says everything.

There isn’t anything that can tear us apart when we grow together. Two people who care enough to work with each other. Who want to see the other win in the best of ways. Who will be by the other’s side while they do it and be the first to don the party hat.

Zaiah has left no doubt that he’ll be that person for me.

My body flushes with desire. “I’m going to need you to hurry,” I breathe, nearly out of my mind with want.

A ghost of a smile crosses his lips. “I think I’m going to need to take my time. Savor you. Love you.”

He starts unbuttoning his pants, a tantalizing tease as he slides them down his hips in a slow, seductive caress.

“Zaiah James.”

“Lenore Robertson…” He waits until I meet his eyes, then he crawls up the bed, whispering beautiful things into my skin, his lips like a feather, his touch like a flame.

And there, we remind each other of the rawness of our love. We come together even more completely than we have before. All the barriers stripped away. All our flaws showing in beautiful simplicity, and we take each other, faults and all.

CHAPTER 33

Zaiah

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