Page 4 of Forever After All

"Ooooh. Hey. Wow. You're so muscly. Check you out." She enunciates her words, trying to make herself sound less intoxicated than she is. Alice doesn't take her eyes off mine, but she places a warm palm to the centre of my chest and she gives me a warm smile.

"Well done for having eyes." I chuckle at her, trying to crack a joke to disperse the tension in my body from having her this close to me. Fully aware that I’m only wearing boxers, there is not currently a lot of fabric separating the two of us.

"God, you're so full of yourself."

"Probably! It didn't stop you from finding my room, though, did it? Can't keep away from us hockey players, huh?" I grin at her, and she rolls her eyes in response.

"I think you mean ex-hockey player."

She certainly has a point. I retired at the end of the last season. I was a goalie for Saltern Glass—and a fucking good one too. But previous injuries meant I couldn't continue playing and I wanted to leave while I was still on top.

Being a retired athlete is weird. I currently have a lot of free time, a lot of free cash, and a lot of female attention. None of which I care about, if I'm being entirely honest.

"Alice, where is your room? Are you lost?" My arm is stillsteadying her around the waist as she sways in my doorway.

She shrugs in answer to my question.

"I don't know where my room is. I lost my key, I threw my shit all over the floor," she mumbles at me. "I was trying to pick it up, but hit my head on the wall when I bent forward to pick it all up." She lifts a little bag with one hand, showcasing things roughly stuffed into it. Phone, some twenty-dollar bills, lipstick, earrings, some other type of jewellery that I can't make out as it's as tangled mess, and a condom…

Hmm, interesting.

She presses the fingers of her other hand to her forehead and scrunches her eyes. I automatically reach my hand up to rub the small red bump that's forming on her head, and the urge to run my hands through her glossy brown waves is almost too much to handle.

"Do you want to stay here tonight? Well…this morning?" I ask without a second thought.

"Would that be okay?" She sighs in relief.

"Sure, Alice. Of course. It’s fine. Now, let me help you over to the bed so you can sit down."

"Ow!" She winces as I usher her into the room. I pause, wondering whether I have stepped on her or bashed her into the wall.

"These fucking shoes are killing me." She groans.

I sit her down on the edge of the bed and kneel in front of her.

"Hey, at least buy me a drink first!"

"Oh, hush. I’m trying to take your shoes off. Not have sex with you. Although, with that condom in your bag, I'd think you're the one hoping to get laid tonight, not me."

She reddens as I begin wrapping my hand around her ankle, and I undo the bow at the back of the shoe. They are flat, which has gone in Alice's favour, as she'd have definitely broken an ankle if she was wearing anything with height. The shoes have intricate bows that wrap around the ankle a few times. I pull the first bow free, untangling it from around her leg. She steadies herself on my shoulders so she doesn't fall backwards on the bed. I make light work of the second shoe.

"You good?" I ask as she releases her grip from my shoulders.

"I'm good. Better now." She gives me a small but genuine smile. One that I return. She flexes her toes into the carpet and lets out a small contented sigh.

Alice stands and rolls her shoulders backwards, forwards, and then rolls her neck in small circles. Her chin practically disappearing into her cleavage as she does.

I would like to disappear in there too.

"Just releasing the tension, you know?" she chirps.

I shrug my shoulders and make a pillow divider in the middleof the bed. The good thing about hotels, is that there are always more than enough pillows, and I don't need any kind of temptation from her whatsoever.

After getting the pillows and an extra blanket for the bed, I turn around to see Alice trying to wrestle with the strings on the back of her dress.

"You okay there?" I tilt my head to the side, observing what she is doing.

"Please get me out of this fucking torture device before I throw myself out of a window." She huffs in frustration, hopping around, trying to contort herself to reach the back of her dress.

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