Page 36 of Penalty Box
“I’m mildly panicked over here,” I admitted then. “Hydraulics isn’t just pressure and flow rate. There’s system mapping, fluid dynamics, load sensi—”
“Agh, make it stop,” he winced. “I think you just broke what was left of my brain.”
“How do you think I feel?” I slumped over with my head in my hands. The exam was less than a day away, and my head was like a sieve.
“Here’s what we’re gonna do…” He got up so suddenly, I nearly fell off my crate. For someone still bouncing back from a bad injury, he was freakishly agile. “When I was in high school, studying went better when I had a partner to quiz me. So we’ll do that. I’ll quiz you on hydraulicky flowy things.”
I snorted. “We’re off to a great start.”
“We are,” he said, unbothered by my incredulity. “You just can’t see it yet. But you will. Just let me get some snacks. No study session is complete without snacks.” He hurried to leave, then paused in the doorway. “A real study session also comes with breaks for making out. You should know that.”
“Mason.”
“Don’t move. I’ll be back.”
My heart did that stupid fluttering thing again, and it had me questioning myself for the umpteenth time. The more I entertained this… crush, the more it started to feel like there was somethingrealhere.
I had no business catching feelings this hard. But when Mason was around, everything else quieted down. The exam stress, the pressure of avoiding my dad, the fear of what the next bad decision would lead to.
When I was with Mason, I could breathe. Surely that meant it wasn’t a huge mistake that I’d regret for the rest of my life?
“I couldn’t decide, so I got everything.” He walked in a few minutes later, arms loaded with soda, sour candy ropes, chocolate-covered pretzels, and too many packets of M&Ms.
I was kidding myself to think there was any kind of fight to be had with this one.
“Fine,” I said, picking up a candy rope. “But this is only going to work if we help each other. You’ll quiz me on my work, and I’ll quiz you on hockey.”
“Deal.” He grinned, snatching the textbook and flipping to my notes. “First question— What’s a tandem center valve?”
I rattled off the answer, and the games were underway. The rhythm came quickly. He’d ask me something he had no clue about and I’d shoot him a question about NHL trivia, penalty kill strategies, you name it. We laughed, bickered, and leaned in close over diagrams and doodles as though they were what we actually paid attention to.
Not the charge that swelled up whenever our faces drew nearer, or how his eyes would drop to my mouth every time I spoke.
But more than the insane attraction, was my surprise at how quickly I was getting the work I’d been poring over for weeks. His method was helping, and as the session drew on, I became more and more relaxed.
“Time for a break,” Mason said, discarding my textbook onto the floor with a deliberate thud.
“We’re not making out.” I dropped my eyes when I said it. Didn’t have the balls to look into those eyes.
That’s why I didn’t see him move toward me, only realized he was right there when he took my hand and pulled me to my feet. I bumped into him with the force of it, a tiny gasp slipping out on contact.
“A wise woman once told me that breaks were as important as hard work,” he murmured, gazing deep into my eyes.
My restraint unraveled in a heartbeat.
His lips brushed mine once, soft and testing, like he was giving me one last chance to pull away. I leaned in, and the kiss deepened instantly. No teasing, or waiting. We were giving in to a raw, aching need that had been building for the longest time.
Ravenous hands explored over and under the layers of clothing between us, and each time skin touched skin it sent a spark shooting straight between my legs. And then he was lifting me, one arm under my thighs like I weighed nothing. He clambered onto the Zamboni with me in his arms, my hands scrambling for purchase on his shoulders.
Once he had me settled, our mouths met again. Hot and urgent.
He tasted like sugar, the sour candy still on his tongue. There was something else too, a taste that was just… Mason. I tilted my head, opening up to him even more, and the kiss turned dizzying.
His thumb swept along the underside of my jaw, coaxing my mouth wider, pulling another low, involuntary moan from deep inside me. His body slotted between my knees, the heat of him seeping through the fabric of my sweat pants. It wasn’t much of a barrier to keep me unaware of his growing hard-on, and I rolled my hips against him.
He groaned, holding my face in both his hands. “You’ll tell me if this is too much.”
“It’s not. Not enough.”
