Page 38 of The Pucks We Freeze
I swallowed hard. “Youdomatter.”
His expression flickered, eyes softening before he masked it again with a smirk. “You think this’ll hold me over once you’re gone?”
My heart squeezed. “Will it?”
“It’ll have to.” His thumb brushed the hem of the jersey where it hung against my thigh. “Because I don’t want to forget how any of this feels.”
The vulnerability in his voice sent a crack straight through my chest.
I tried to lighten it. “Are you getting soft on me, Kade?”
His grin returned, sharper now. “You like it.”
“Maybe,” I admitted, then lifted a brow. “But for the record? You were distracting too.”
He gave an exaggerated gasp of mock innocence. “Me?”
I poked him lightly in the chest. “Grinding your hips into the ice during warm-ups while making eye contact with me? You really think I didn’t notice?”
He leaned in again, his mouth brushing the edge of my jaw. “You think it’s easy skating with a hard-on in full gear?” he murmured. “Because that’s what you did to me. All damn game.”
My cheeks burned, heat spiraling through my veins, but I didn’t pull away. Not when we were finally saying what we had been holding back all night. The quiet momentsbetween periods, the glances we exchanged across the glass, the adrenaline that hadn’t faded even after the final buzzer.
We were still buzzing. Still burning.
And in this penalty box, with the game behind us and the uncertainty of the future and his season ahead… I wasn’t ready to walk away yet.
Kade’s fingers coasted over the edge of my thigh where the hem of his jersey rested, his touch light but loaded. I felt it everywhere.
He pressed in closer, his breath warm against the shell of my ear. “You know I’ve been going out of my mind thinking about you, right?”
I blinked up at him, pulse racing. “You have?”
He nodded slowly, eyes burning into mine. “Every night. Every game. Every time I walk into that cabin and you’re standing there in my shirt or brushing against me like you don’t know what you’re doing.”
He brushed his nose along my cheek, jaw clenched. “You’re in my head, Willow. All the time. And now you’re leaving.”
My chest tightened. “It’s only temporary. I’ll be back.”
“I know,” he whispered. “But I need something to keep me breathing until then.”
Then he took a step back, hands falling to my hips. “Lean against the glass.”
I hesitated, but only for a second. There was something in his voice. Not just hunger, but need. The kind that reached bone-deep and made it impossible to say no.
My back rested against the cold plexiglass. The chill shocked my skin, but then I felt his hands slide under the hem of the jersey and the leggings I wore underneath, skating over my thighs like he was memorizing every inch.
He dragged the spandex material down my legs until they were gathered around my knees.
“Lift it,” he murmured. “Just a little. I want to see you touch yourself wearing my number. Right here. Where I was forced to watch you after you distracted me.”
My breath stuttered as I obeyed, pulling the jersey up inch by inch, baring skin that flushed beneath the dim arena lights. My hand slipped between my legs, and the second my fingers found the heat there, I gasped.
Kade’s breath hitched. “Fuck,” he muttered. “That’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
But it didn’t last long.
With a rough sound of surrender, Kade pushed to his feet and crashed his mouth to mine. I clutched at his shirt as he pulled me with him onto the bench, sitting down hard and dragging me with him.
