Page 32 of Player Misconduct
"I should just tell you... it's been a while for me," I whisper, because lying seems pointless and maybe I'm worried that fourteen months of abstinence since I left the NFL isn't going to feel quite like riding a bike. What if I'm rusty?
And like most of the guys on the Hawkeyes team, Aleksi's had his own reputation with women before his NHL season. Though I haven't witnessed him bringing back women to the hotel after away games or taking home a puck bunny from the bar after home game wins. All I know is that he had a reputation before coming to play for the Hawkeyes. I'm sure he's used to experienced women, and I've only had a small handful of partners. Med school doesn't exactly lead to extracurricular activities.
"What does 'awhile' mean?" he asks, no judgment in his eyes, just curiosity. He wants to understand.
"A little over a year..."
His breath heats over my collarbone.
"You're thinking too hard," he murmurs, words sinking against my skin.
My pulse trips up, the logical part of me scrambling to hold onto reason while the rest of me melts under the quiet authority in his voice.
Then his lips find the spot just below my throat. His mouth is soft and hot. Goosebumps rise all over my body.
"I'm a doctor. Thinking is my job."
"Not tonight." He pulls back just enough to look at me, those impossibly blue eyes catching the weak bathroom light. "Tonight it's just us. No job titles--no responsibilities. Just two people who might not wake up tomorrow."
The words land like a prescription I don't want to fill. Because he's right. If this turns out to be some kind of infectious disease, if the fever starts in the next few hours, if the CDC comes back with the kind of news that ends stories—
I don't want to die never knowing what this feels like.
So I kiss him again, harder this time, and he makes a sound low in his chest that I feel in my sternum. His hands move to my bare hips, nothing between us but his boardshorts.
"Off," I say, tugging at his wet, cold shorts.
That sexy-as-sin grin flashes across his face before he shoves them down and kicks free. And then there's nothing between us except intention and the hammer of my own heartbeat.
I let myself look. Really look.
Aleksi Mäkelin is six-foot-three of lean muscle and old scars, the kind of body built for speed and endurance rather than show. Only his scars remind me that he’s still flesh and blood, not some immortal being like his perfectly sculpted body suggests. His thighs are impossibly thick from a lifetime of explosive skating.
As the team doctor I've seen Aleksi bare-chested a few hundred times. His entire body is only covered by a pair of boxer briefs. Dripping wet still from the showers.
But then my eyes drop lower—
My breath catches.
He's hard, flushed, the tip already glistening. Something low in my belly clenches.
I've seen the bulge in his boxer briefs but this is the first time I've seen him naked. I knew he'd be impressive but seeing him completely bare, his knees positioned between my thighs, hard length waiting to fill me. I'm suddenly more turned on than I can ever remember being in my entire life.
"Like what you see, Doc?" His voice is teasing but strained at the edges, his eyes studying mine as I take every inch of him in, hovering above me.
"Yes..." I whisper, my tongue swiping to wet my lips. His eyes dilate at the action and then he moves again.
He leans over the side of the bed, rummaging in his duffel. A strip of condoms is placed on the bedside table. There's enoughfor tonight at least. He tears one free, rips it open with his teeth, and I watch those careful, competent hands roll latex into place.
The athletic tape ring on his left hand catches the dim light. The one that matches mine.
Something in my chest twists. It’s sharp and sweet… and terrifying.
Then he's braced above me, forearms bracketing my head, and I can feel him right there—blunt pressure to my center, impossible heat, his thick head pressing into me.
"Tell me if I need to stop," he says, and I love him a little for asking even though we both know I won't.
"Don't stop."
