Page 107 of Rebound
The water runs in the en-suite bathroom, and I stop pacing and stare at the cats. They’re sitting in front of the bathroom door, and I don’t blame them because I also want to sit in front of the door in anticipation of Lavinia. Why am I freaking out about her spending the night?
The water shuts off and when the door opens, Lavinia takes a startled step back. “Oh my god.”
“Guys, don’t bother your mother. Come here, please.”
I walk over to them, bending down and scooping up the three of them into my arms. It’s not an easy feat because they’re already squirming to get down. “In or out?”
“Oh, uh,” Lavinia looks between the cats and me, “where are they usually?”
“Wherever they want to be. It’s their apartment, I just live here.”
Lavinia breathes out a laugh. “That works for me.”
“Wrong choice. They’ll be walking on your head at three in the morning because their breakfast is late.”
I kiss Salem, Buffy, and Sabrina on their heads and situate them on their bed by the window. It’s one of six cat beds in the apartment because why have one place to sleep when you can have several. I keep this one by the floor to ceiling windows so they can hang out in the sun during the day. But it’s early December and there’s already less sunshine for them to hang out in.
“What time is their breakfast?”
“Around six-ish. They have an automatic feeder but still want to stomp on my head or chew on my arms if I’m late getting up.”
I turn in time to see Lavinia making her way across the room. The t-shirt I gave her is just long enough to cover that perfect ass. Her long legs are on full display. I want to live between her thighs. They’re strong and powerful, the muscles shifting as she walks across the room. There’s a clean scar over her right knee, probably from her ACL surgery.
“What’s all this?”
Lavinia looks over her shoulder at me and motions toward the nightstand and bed. On the nightstand, I have a tray with a teapot of hot water, a variety of herbal teas, and a cup.
“I know you have tea before bed every night,” I explain. “And I wasn’t sure how many pillows and blankets you sleep with, so I got extras from the guest room. I tried to tell the interior decorator I’m never going to have guests, but she still insisted on me having a guest room and decorating it. It was easier to let her do that than arguing with her.”
I shove my hands into the pocket of my lounge pants. Lavinia turns to face me fully, tucking her hair behind her ear and lickingher lips. Her eyes are the softest color of green. “Roman, are you nervous?”
I scoff and then sigh. “Yeah.”
Lavinia laughs lightly. “Do you want me to leave? No hard feelings.”
“What? No, that’s the last thing I want.” I didn’t invite her to spend the night only to tell her to leave. I’ve never wanted this with anyone other than Lavinia, and it’s strange to think I’m actually getting it.
When I first got drafted, I kept waiting for the phone to ring or my email to chime, telling me that a mistake had been made because there was no way the NHL wanted me. It’s hard for me to accept that Lavinia wants this.
“Have you never done this before?” Lavinia asks gently.
“Once, when I was eleven. There was this girl, and we were hanging out in her parents’ basement on Halloween watching Hocus Pocus. They had an L-shaped couch, she fell asleep on one end, and I fell asleep on the other.”
Lavinia blinks once, slowly like a cat. “That was me!”
“Was it?” I pretend to be shocked. “Damn, you really have been obsessing over me since we were kids.”
Lavinia grabs a pillow and tosses it at me. I dodge it by shifting to the right. She bends down and grabs another pillow, the shirt riding up and revealing her pink, floral pattern lace panties stretching across the curve of her ass. Fuck. Me.
I reach out, running the back of my fingers along her hamstring. Lavinia stiffens as I trail my hand up and under the curve of her ass.
“You have the most perfect ass,” I say with a groan.
Lavinia arches her back, thrusting her ass further up. She looks over her shoulder at me, her eyes wide and innocent. “Do I? Good to know all those RDL’s are paying off.” Then a pillow lands right on my face and Lavinia’s laugh fills my ear.
I grab her around the waist, throwing her onto the bed and falling down on top of her. She’s twisting and writhing under me as I tickle her, kissing and biting her neck.
“No, stop!”
