Page 31 of Penalty Box
He came back over to me, the warmth of his chest radiating through my shirt and setting my skin on fire. “Then tell me what you want.”
My eyes flicked to his mouth, his jaw, and back to those damned eyes. WhatdidI want?
“I want,” I said quickly before I could change my mind, “to make bad choices and figure out the rest later.”
And then he kissed me. It was fast, firm, hands curling around my waist the way I’d been dying for him to hold me. Wonderful warmth spread through my core, igniting everything inside of me in a way that I’d been craving for a long time.
His breath was ragged against my lips as he asked, “Is this choice bad enough for you?”
“Definitely,” I breathed.
Good intentions be damned. All the things I’d told myself I was in control of—gone. Vaporized. Boundaries blurred like oil on water, slipping away the second his mouth met mine again.
This time there was nothing hurried about it. He kissed me slow and dangerous, a drag of heat that bloomed low in my belly. His hands slid up under my shirt, palms pressing into the curve of my back, rough fingertips skating against skin that had no business reacting to him this much. But it did. God, it did.
I hooked my fingers into his shirt, pulling him closer until I could wrap my legs around him. Get him where I really wanted him. He didn’t stop me. If anything, he came willingly, like he’d been waiting for the invitation all along.
He braced one hand beside my thigh, the other still holding onto my waist. The kiss deepened, turned hungry and far less polite. A hundred reasons sped through my mind for me to pull away and stop, but there was no air left for anything like that. Not anymore. Just the frantic grind of his hips between my legs, and the desperate way I rocked to meet him there.
The sound that tore from his throat made every nerve ending light up like I was wired straight into a power grid. We were still fully clothed, but I felt all of him. Everywhere.
“Cass,” he murmured, dipping his mouth to my neck. His voice was thick with restraint when he said, “I’ll stop if you tell me to.”
“Not gonna happen.”
I dragged my fingers through his hair and angled his mouth back to mine, tasting the beer, the frustration, and so much longing it made me forget what day it was.
His hands found the backs of my thighs, lifting me just enough to plant me fully on the workbench. The metal wascold against my skin, but it barely registered. Nothing could cut through the heat he’d stirred up.
I bit his bottom lip and tugged lightly until he growled at me.
“Playing dirty,” he said, forehead touching mine. “I never would’ve guessed.”
I gave a low, throaty laugh that reverberated through the both of us. “You’re a terrible liar.”
“Thank God.” He was wrecked, fingers digging harder into the soft flesh of my thighs as he bucked his hips with need.
My fingers traced the slick, muscular line of his neck. We were breathless, burning for each other, and I rested my mouth against the corner of his.
“We should stop.”
He didn’t move, didn’t speak. Just stood there with every inch of him pressed against every inch of me. Then he pulled back enough so he could look at me. Gaze would be a better way to describe it, because what I saw in his eyes was enough to make me take back what I’d just said.
His thumb traced the corner of my mouth, and he licked his lips.
“We should,” he agreed, stepping back an infuriating foot so I could leave. The space between us seemed to grow. “But I can’t make any promises for next time, Firestarter.”
His scent stayed on my clothes long after I was gone.
10
Mason
The hit should’ve taken me out of the game, but we were halfway through the third period and about to steal an impossible win. No way was I sitting it out.
The boards took most of it, but I still tasted copper. My ribs screamed, the pain sharp and white-hot, blooming under my arm like a warning flare. I clenched my jaw as it snaked all the way up to my shoulder, eyes tracking the puck even as my back burned like fire licking up through bone.
It was bad. I could feel it. Especially after the last hit I took and didn’t tell anyone about.
