Page 77 of Offside Secrets
“I can’t believe it’s over.” She shakes her head, still processing. “Victor’s out of our lives.”
“He is, I promise.” I slide my arms around her waist, pulling her closer. “The question is, what happens now?”
She looks up at me with eyes that are bright and clear and completely sure.
“Now? I’m all in,” she says simply. “No more overthinking, no more letting other people decide what’s best for us. I want this, Campbell. I want you.”
The words hit me like a goal horn, loud and victorious and perfect.
“All in, huh?” I can’t help the grin that takes over my entire face. “So that means I can finally confirm with the guys that you’re my bossandmy girlfriend?”
She laughs, the sound echoing off the walls of the press room where she just turned our world upside down.
“I think the entire sports media already confirmed that for you.”
“But I want to hear you say it.”
She reaches up, her hands fisting in my shirt, pulling me down until our faces are inches apart.
“Campbell Stockton,” she says, her voice warm with laughter and something deeper, “you’re officially my boyfriend. Think you can handle it?”
“I think I can manage,” I murmur against her lips, my breath catching on the words.
And then I’m kissing her.
Right here, in the now-empty press room where she just claimed me in front of the world, I finally let myself feel everything I’ve been holding back. Her mouth meets mine, soft and sure, and it’s like striking a match after days of friction. Heat. Relief. The dizzy rush of finally getting it right.
She slides her hands up my chest, fingers curling into my shirt like she’s been waiting just as long. I tilt my head, deepening the kiss, tasting her confidence, and the faint trace of whatever lip gloss she’s wearing. It’s beyond intoxicating. It’s addictive.
My hand finds the small of her back, drawing her closer until there’s nothing left between us but the sound of our unsteady breaths. She makes this low, involuntary sound in her throat, and it undoes me. I kiss her harder, slower, until the rest of the world disappears—no cameras, no questions, no team, just her. Justus.
When we finally break apart, both of us are breathing hard. Her cheeks are flushed, eyes shining, lips swollen and pink, and deliciously dangerous. And that smile—the one that started this whole mess—spreads across her face as she reaches up and smoothes the front of my Henley with maddening calm.
“So,” she says, voice a little shaky but full of that spark I can never resist. “Ready to scandalize some hockey reporters?”
I grin, still tasting her. “Bring it on,” I say—and mean every word.
CHAPTER 28
SUTTON
Ispot Campbell’s father immediately when I enter my owner’s box. Tom Stockton rises from his chair with careful precision, his movements deliberate in the way of someone whose joints don’t always cooperate. But his smile is warm and genuine, reaching his eyes in a way that immediately reminds me of his son.
“Ms. Mahoney,” he says, extending his hand. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. Though I have to say, after that press conference last week, I feel like I already know you pretty well.”
Heat creeps up my neck. “I hope I made a decent impression. And please, call me Sutton.”
“Decent?” His laugh is rich and amused. “Young lady, you made my son look like the luckiest man in Virginia. Which, for the record, I happen to think he is.”
“You know, I’ve heard a lot about you, too.” I settle into the chair beside him as the players take the ice for warm-ups. “And in my opinion, he’s pretty lucky to have you in his corner.”
“We’re lucky to have each other to lean on. And now we’re lucky to have you, too, it seems.” Tom’s voice is quiet,sincere. “I was worried he’d never find someone who understood what he was really worth. Someone who’d fight for him the way I’ve watched him fight for everyone else.”
Down on the ice, Campbell glides through warm-ups, and I can see Tom’s pride radiating as he watches his son.
The game is already in the third period—Renegades up 3–1—and I find myself relaxing as I watch Tom cheer for the team. He knows the players by name, understands the strategy, and has clearly been following every game despite his health challenges.
“Campbell tells me you’ve been having a rough time lately,” I say during a break.
