Page 55 of Lucky Laces
I give in to the urge to stroke her skin, running my knuckles along her jaw.“See?”
She blinks and fuck, she’s so damned cute it takes my breath away.“See what?”
I grin.“That I don’t give a fuck if you show up on my porch unannounced, DeeDee.Any time you get the urge, any day of the week, any hour of the night.You show up and I’ll open up the door to you.”
Her inhale is so sharp, I’m shocked that she doesn’t choke.
Then I watch her deliberately try to pull herself together.
I fucking hate that.
So much so I’m not going to let that happen.
“Yesterday—” she begins.
Yeah, no.Not letting her taint the memory of what she gave me yesterday.No fucking way.
“Don’t,” I say, stepping closer.“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”she whispers.
“Don’t ruin what you gave me yesterday with bullshit about it not meaning anything or being a mistake,” I murmur, now trailing my knuckles over her cheek.
Her eyes close, shutting me out of the deep green depths, cutting me off from the tumult of feelings inside her, and when they reopen, my gut twists.
Befuddled is gone.
Regret is in full force.
“Huddy,” she whispers.“We shouldn’t…”
“Maybe not,” I agree, and even though I try to hold the next works in, they’re torn right out of me, “but it was still the most beautiful fucking gift that anyone’s ever given me.”
She sucks in another breath.
And I brace.
Expecting—no,knowing—that this is the moment she cuts ties and walks right the fuck out of my house.
I’m the fuck-up on her roster.
She’s the coach who’s trying to put us in the best position to win a Cup.
I’m just another loser of a man in her sphere.
She’s the most beautiful woman on the planet.
I’m—
“Dammit,” she whispers.
And I don’t finish my thought because she’s suddenly leaping up, launching herself into my arms.
There’s a bolt of pain down my leg, but it’s there and gone in a heartbeat.
Mostly because I’m grabbing her so she doesn’t fall, and her legs are going around my waist, and suddenly my hands are full of the woman I’ve wanted for months, the woman who lives in my fantasies, the woman who didn’t see me…until now.
Because she’s plunging her hands into my hair and she’s dragging my head down and?—
