“Eric!”

“Eric!”

“Gentry!”

The press called my name with raised hands, and I called on a guy from NBC Sports in the front row for what had to be the fifteenth post-game question I’d answered.

“Thank you,” he said. “Mark Whitman, NBC Sports. You played three remarkable games this weekend here in Nashville.”

“Thank you,” I replied, leaning toward the microphone that sat on the conference table in front of me. “Was that a question, Mark?”

A murmur of laughter rippled through the room.

“Do you feel like the return of Crosby Stanton gave you that needed edge, and what do you feel led to his return so close to the trade deadline next week?”

“Now you’re asking two questions.” I forced a grin and was rewarded with another hum of laughter. “Of course Crosby brings a lot to the table. He’s an excellent defenseman,” and a total asshole, “and we have that proven chemistry on the ice when he’s back on the line. I couldn’t be happier to have him back. As for the timing of his return, that’s something you’d have to ask Coach Harris about.”

Because I honestly didn’t know. Crosby had been silent in the locker room, Coach wasn’t saying a word, and Pepper hadn’t come near me since we’d left Seattle on Thursday. Considering she’d spent Wednesday night with her sister, I hadn’t so much as kissed her in almost a week.

Like a heat-seeking missile, my eyes found hers in the back of the conference room, leaned up against the wall with her arms folded under her Sharks jacket. Man, I wished it was my jersey on her back, my name and number in giant block letters proclaiming her taken. Mine.

Fuck, I missed her.

Not just the sex, though it was phenomenal. I missed hearing her laugh, holding her while we watched a movie on the couch, getting her opinion on decisions that had to be made.

I called on the next raised hand.

“Scott Harrington, ESPN. We’ve heard rumblings about you leaving the Sharks at the end of the season due to better offers in both Denver and New York. Any truth to the rumors?”

Pepper’s head snapped up and her eyes widened.

Awesome. Yet another discussion I hadn’t been able to have with her since my agent took both of those phone calls on Thursday. Gotta love the press.

“All I can say is that my contract is up for negotiation, and I’m incredibly happy in Seattle.”

I looked directly at Pepper, hoping she knew I had zero intention of going anywhere, and called the next question. “Last, one, guys. I’m starving. We farm boys like to eat.”

Another murmur of laughter ran through the press corp.

“Alicia Peters, Seattle Tribune. Can you respond to rumors that the Crosby Stanton issue was caused by fraternization with the team’s new statistician, Pepper Harris? Anything to do with that tabloid picture? And if so, how do you feel about your team’s season being jeopardized by such behavior?”

My eyebrows hit the roof for a second before I caught myself.

“Alicia, man, that was definitely not one question. You and Mark been hanging out?”

She cracked a grin.

I didn’t.

A deep breath later, having collected my thoughts, I looked her square in the eye. “So, first, as I told Mark, anything to do with Crosby should probably be addressed to Coach Harris, or Crosby himself. Second, if you look at that picture, you’ll see that it’s not Pepper Harris, it’s Ivy Harris, who happens to be her twin, so there was definitely some failure in reporting there. Third, the only reason Pepper didn’t come out and say the caption was wrong, was that she has too much class to address tabloid gossip, which is what that was, and quite frankly, whomever Ivy chooses to date is her business. Fourth, I’m not in the habit of commenting on the love lives of my teammates, and that’s what Pepper Harris is—my teammate. And lastly, if you’ll check our record, you’ll see we didn’t lose any of the games Mason Hall played in, so that really makes your last question misleading. Let’s leave the gossip to the tabloids, shall we, Alicia?

“Now that’s it for me, ladies and gentlemen. I’ll see you back in Seattle.”

Pepper: In two minutes, open your door.

Eric: ok

I carried my cell phone to the door of my hotel room and watched the numbers change until two minutes had passed. Then I turned the handle and opened the door.

About thirty seconds later, Pepper flew through the doorway, shutting the door behind her so quickly that it almost qualified as a slam. Her hair was up in a knot on the top of her head, and the tops of her breasts swelled above her tank top.

My dick had no trouble reminding me that we hadn’t been together in nearly a week.

“Hey,” she said, leaning back against the door.

“Hey,” I answered.

There must’ve been something fascinating on the carpet because her eyes hadn’t left it since she entered.

“Pepper?” I prodded gently. “What’s going on? Not that I’m not happy to have you here, but I know how you feel about sneaking around during away games.” I backed up and sat gently on the edge of the large console table in the small entryway of my suite. It was all I could do to keep my hands off her—I was that desperate to connect with her physically seeing as we’d had almost no interaction other than text messages.

“It might help if you looked at me,” I suggested. A feeling of unease came over me. That wasn’t the face of a woman who was happy in her relationship. That expression went along with phrases like we need to talk, and it’s not you it’s me. Leave it to pepper Harris to reduce me to a junior high boy.

Her gaze started at my feet and slowly rose over my legs, my hips, my bare torso, and finally, she met my eyes. She licked her lips and blinked rapidly before looking at the fire escape plan next to her.

“Maybe you could put on a shirt?”

“You’ve seen me in a lot less.”

“I am well aware. So. Well. Aware. It just makes it kind of hard to think with all of that—” she motioned to my chest, “—going on.”

“I can’t think around you no matter what you have on,” I admitted.

We locked eyes, and that same palpable, electric current connected us, even over the five feet that separated our bodies.

“Please tell me what’s going on, Pepper. You’re making me really fucking nervous.” If I wanted her to be honest, I had to give her the same consideration.

“Ivy knows about us,” she whispered.

“Is that it?” I asked, relief sweeping through me. The muscles in my shoulders loosened as I exhaled, feeling the weight of the world evaporate.

“What do you mean is that it?”

“I mean, is that what has you upset? What has you in my room at 11 o’clock at night, knowing any of the other players could’ve seen you walk in?”

“Well, yes. Don’t you think it’s worthy of a little panic?” She asked, raising her eyebrows above those crystal-blue eyes. God, I could look into those eyes every minute for the rest of my life, and never be tired of them. She had to be a horrible poker player. She wore every emotion on her face, in her eyes. It was one reason we steered clear of each other during away games, knowing we’d be caught.

“Do you still want me?” I asked, needing to hear the answer more than I needed my next breath of air.

“Of course,” she answered softly. “That’s why I’m here. We’re in some serious trouble.”

“Thank God.” I let my head roll back for a few seconds, ridding myself of the last of the tension that had struck me the moment she walked in. “I need thirty seconds before we can discuss this, okay?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. It honestly took me a moment to process, myself, so I understand needing to think about—”

I didn’t give her time to finish the sentence. The moment she’d agreed to my thirty-second delay, I pounced.

My mouth found hers, and my hands gripped the curves of her ass, lifting her to my height and pressing her against the wall.

When she tensed, I pulled back.

“This is serious,” she panted against my lips.

“So is this. Thirty seconds, Pepper.”

“Thirty seconds,” she agreed, wrapping her legs around my waist. Then it was her mouth on mine, her satin, sweet tongue stroking and swirling around my own.

I groaned and sank into the kiss, pouring every ounce of my longing and need into her. Flames licked along my skin where it met hers, and it felt like years, not days since I’d been inside her.

My cock throbbed in time with my heartbeat, pushing against my sweats, reaching for the heat that beckoned just above.

Her shorts were loose and so tiny that all it would take was a hook of my finger, and I could—

Thirty seconds are up. I had to stop before she mistook my need for not giving a shit about her stress.

With one more gentle suck of her lip, I lowered her to the ground and stepped away. She followed until I put my hand up and flat-out retreated across the small living room to put some space between us.

“Nope, if you want to talk, you stay there. I’ll stay here.”

Her forehead puckered, but she eventually nodded. She looked as frustrated as I felt, which would have brought a smile to my face had my dick not been screaming at me.

“So, Ivy knows about us,” I reminded her, crossing my arms over my chest.

Her eyes dropped to my erection, and her lips parted. Holy shit, we were never going to get to this conversation, which was just fine by me, but I knew she needed to talk.

“Eyes up here,” I reminded her with a smirk.

“Right,” she said with a little shake of her head. “Ivy knows about us.”

“So you’ve said.”

“I guess we weren’t as careful as we thought we were.” She wrung her hands. “Somehow she knew. The movie theater, our relationship, all of it. I mean, I left your beanie on the counter, and I know that’s my fault. But I thought we were careful. What are we going to do?”

“About what?” I asked.

“What if she tells? She’s so heartbroken over Crosby. She’s worried you’ll do the same thing to me.”

“I think you know I’m not Crosby.”

“I know,” she assured me. “You’re nothing like him. I know you would never trade me to get your spot back, but what if she tells and it costs you your spot? Your contract? Your family’s land?”

Tears welled in her eyes, and the distance separating us suddenly felt like too much. Within a few steps, I cradled her face in my hands, using my thumbs to brush away the two streaks of saltwater that slipped free.

“If I had to choose between you and my starting position on the Sharks, I would choose you. No second thought. No debate. Period.” I never realized how true the words were until I’d spoken them. There is nothing I wouldn’t give up for her.

She had become the adrenaline in my veins.

The natural high I’d only ever felt on the ice.

She was the first person I wanted to talk to in the morning, the last face I want to see before falling asleep.

Shit.

She’d become my very heart.

“I don’t want you to give it up for me. I don’t want you to ever look at me and think that I cost you everything.” Her eyes were liquid pools that I fell into, all too eager to drown.

“You couldn’t, Pepper. You’ve given me everything. If Ivy knows, then she knows. If she tells, then she tells. Personally, I’d love nothing more than to be able to publicly claim you as mine. Damn the consequences.” Her lip trembled, and my thumb slipped to the full curve, savoring the texture against my calluses.

“Dad will fire you. He’ll force you to choose between the team and me, just like he did to Crosby and Ivy.” Her hands gripped my biceps, her tiny nails lightly biting into the surface of my skin.

“Then I’ll choose you. None of this means anything without you. That means I don’t get my contract signed by the Sharks, then I have two other teams ready and willing to take me.” I’d do it. I’d leave Seattle behind and head to another city, another team, as long as I had Pepper with me.

“I don’t want you to leave,” she whispered. “I’m on contract, and I can’t imagine being here without you.”

“I don’t want to leave either, but if it’s between you and the Sharks, there’s no contest.”

“Why?” She questioned with a cry. “Every player I’ve ever known chooses the game. Why would you choose me?”

 Her doubt damn-near broke my heart. How could I blame her? She’d been raised in a hockey rink, by a man whose life was the game. A man who had buried his heart with his wife, and himself in his work. Her first love had deserted her the moment he signed an NHL contract, and only looked back when she was in a position to put him back in the league. All she’d ever seen from hockey players were their backs as they left her for the ice.

But I never would.

“I choose you because I’m in love with you.”

Her lips parted and her eyes sparkled with fresh tears. “Oh, Eric.”

“I don’t expect you to say it back. That’s not why I’m telling you. I need you to know that I don’t care if Ivy knows about us. I don’t care if the world knows about us. In fact, the moment we get back to Seattle, I’ll tell your father myself. Enough hiding. Enough sneaking around. I want to walk down the street and hold your hand, Pepper. I want to see you at a game in my jersey and know that you are mine just as much as I am yours, because somewhere in all of this, you took my heart, and I don’t want it back. I’m in love with you, Pepper Harris. And that’s more important to me than the emblem on the front of the jersey I put on.”

I sealed my proclamation with a kiss. It was soft, lingering, and full of the yearning that consumed my chest.

“I love you, Eric.”

I sucked in a breath, the air a hiss between my teeth.

“Pepper, you don’t have to—”

“Shut up.” She grinned up at me. “I’m in love with you, and have been for a while.”

Shit, I think my heart is going to burst. It pounded out a rhythm that reminded me of a galloping horse, racing, yet joyful. She was something I’d never seen coming, and now I couldn’t imagine my life without her.

“Stay with me,” I asked. I was already committed to telling Coach Harris about us. There was zero chance in hell I was letting her go back to her own room alone.

“Yes,” she answered.

There was something different in our kiss—a tenderness that replaced our usual urgency. It led to soft touches and lingering caresses as we slowly undressed each other.

Once I had her naked, I gripped the outside of her thighs and lifted her to meet my mouth. With a long, hot, open-mouthed kiss, I carried her to the bed.

Sitting on the edge, I braced her knees on either side of my hips, and took her breast in my mouth, swirling my tongue around her nipple.

Her little whimpers went straight to my cock. Her fingers on my shoulders sent shocks of pleasure down my spine. I worshipped her other breast the same as the first, until she rolled those perfectly curved hips over me, dragging my dick through her wet center.

“Eric, please,” she begged, “I need you.”

“You have me,” I told her, sending my fingers down the flat of her of belly and past her tight curls until I dipped into the sweet honey that told me she was more than ready for me.

I used my fingers to stroke and pet her, urging her body toward orgasm.

She tucked her head into my neck, and I hissed as she used her tongue and lips to caress my jawline.

Then she gave up kissing me and cried out with each thrust of my fingers in her tight heat, each strum of her clit with my thumb.

“Now,” she demanded, rising up and holding my face between her palms. Her eyes went hazy with pleasure, and her thighs tightened.

“You’re so fucking beautiful when you come,” I told her. Then I slipped my fingers free and replaced them with my cock, thrusting inside her with one long pump.

I took her body and lost my soul as we came together.

“God, Pepper. You feel like fire, so hot, and tight, and wet.” This was better than I’d ever experienced. More than I’d ever felt.

Her pussy began to flutter around me, and I gripped her chin, bringing her eyes to mine.

“I love you,” I told her, and then pumped again, watching her eyes flare wide as she came around me in shudders. I beat back my orgasm, willing my body to make this last.

“I. Love. You.” She barely managed to speak as I set a rhythm, making love to her as she came back down, only to bring her right back to her peak again.

She writhed on top of me, unbelievably sensuous, and completely mine.

Fuck, I felt every line of her, every hot, sweet inch—

“Damn it,” I gritted through clenched teeth. “I’m not wearing a condom.”

No wonder it felt so damned good. I’d never been inside a woman unprotected before, but my worry here wasn’t for me, but Pepper. Hell, just the thought of her belly swelling with my kid brought me to the edge of coming. She wasn’t a puck bunny, and I’d be more than happy to find myself trapped between her thighs for the rest of my life.

“I’m pulling out,” I promised, barely keeping my wits as she squeezed me even tighter.

“No. I’m on the pill,” she said with a gasp. “I trust you. I want to feel you come inside me.”

Holy. Fucking. Hot. Her words alone had my balls tightening with the next hot glide of my body within hers.

We were so close our bodies met at every possible inch. From her soft thighs gripping mine to her softer breasts pressed against my chest, and her sweet mouth meeting mine in a deep kiss.

She came with my name on her lips, and I tumbled right after her, losing myself in the perfection of her body.

She collapsed against me and I held her close, knowing that after this, there was no way I’d ever let her go.

She was mine.

I was keeping her.

And God help the person whoever tried to take her from me.

Even if that man was her father.