Chapter 17
Roman
My eyes drift open, noting the bright winter sunlight filtering in through the closed blinds and casting the room in an early dawn glow. I’m on my back, in the middle of the bed, and Lexi is lying half on top of me. Her head is heavy on my chest, her arm across my stomach and her leg tucked in tight between my own. My cock is semihard and pressing against the top of her thigh, probably because it wakes up—just like me—knowing there’s a sexy woman available for the taking and very happy about it.
But I don’t do anything about it other than lie there and just feel her body weight against mine. I listen to her breathing—a soft snore, just like she emitted last night—that blows across my chest, tickling the hair. The softness of her skin as my fingers drag lightly over her hip. Even the tiny bit of drool I can feel on my chest where her mouth is open, which makes me grin up at the ceiling.
Christ…I love every bit of it.
It makes me wonder, have I missed out on this before? Have I been thinking about women and intimacy wrong all these years?
Lexi is not the first woman to stay in my bed overnight, but she is the first I’ve woken up to cuddled up against me. I’m not a back sleeper. After I fuck a woman, I usually roll right over onto my stomach, tucking a pillow underneath to cradle me from chest to cheek, and my legs sprawled to claim my territory. If a woman stays all night, she doesn’t get an inch of my space, and if all goes well, she slinks out while I’m in the shower after a curt kiss-off after I wake up.
And now it makes me just wonder, should I have tried this before? Should I have opened myself up to something more?
The answer is resoundingly clear in my mind.
I’ve absolutely never wanted this before and this isn’t something you can fake.
No, Lexi Robertson is the only woman I’ve been with where something like what I’m doing right now—morning cuddling—is even possible.
Who knows?
Maybe I’m growing up. Maybe I’m realizing there’s more.
Whatever the reason, I know it just feels right and I’m going with it to see where this will lead me. I like Lexi enough that I’m willing to open myself up to something new.
Lexi moves slightly against me and makes a cute little sound in the back of her throat. I hold perfectly still as her body stretches against me in her sleep, and then burrows in a little tighter. Her arm over my stomach curls and tightens, and she rubs her cheek against my chest.
“What the hell?” she mutters in a groggy voice as her head flies up and her arm releases its hold on me so she can swipe her hand over her mouth.
I angle my head so I can see her, and grin when I see she looks confused over the wetness there, and then her eyes slide down to my chest.
“Oh good God,” she mutters as her hand wipes her saliva away. “I freakin’ drooled on you. Can it get any sexier than that?”
I laugh and her head turns so she looks at me with a sheepish grin. And how is it possible someone can look that utterly fantastic in the morning, despite the fact she had just drooled on me in her sleep?
“Sorry about that,” she says, not really looking apologetic at all, and I love that about her. That confidence that says, “I’m a woman who can slobber on you and you’d still want me.”
“You can drool on me anytime,” I tell her honestly. “I know I most definitely have parts of me I’d love to have you drool on.”
“Mmmmmmm,” she says in contemplation, licking her lips for effect. “That could most definitely be arranged.”
My dick jumps at the thought of her mouth on me, and I’m a bit surprised it’s even got any juice left, because Lexi and I sort of went at it pretty hard last night. And multiple times. “I’ll take you up on that, but for now, how about lay your pretty head back down on me.”
“A man who wants to cuddle,” she says dreamily, although there’s a hint of exaggeration in her tone.
Lexi snuggles back down onto me, wrapping her arm tight around my stomach again and wedging her leg deeper between mine. I know she doesn’t miss my morning wood as her thigh brushes against it, and while the thought of rolling her over and taking her again is a fantastic idea, I’m actually content to lie here a bit.
“So what are your plans today?” I ask her casually, my hand back at her hip so my fingers can play along her skin. My time with her is limited, as we have an afternoon flight to catch out to the West Coast.
With an almost pained sigh, she says, “I need to talk to Gray. I’m thinking about a surprise visit to her house so she can’t avoid me.”
“About us?” I hazard a guess.
“About my decision to disregard her advice,” she clarifies. “Which obviously will include you.”
“She doesn’t like me,” I point out. “Be prepared for her to try to talk you out of it.”
“She can’t,” she maintains. “And frankly, I don’t expect her to. I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt and think her desire for her sister to be happy will outweigh the other stuff.”
I can’t help the skeptical snort that comes out.
Lexi raises her head and looks up at me. “What? You don’t think that?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think about Gray,” I hedge, but there’s no hiding my dislike of my boss in my voice.
“Well, yes it does,” she says, and then to make it clear this is a serious conversation she intends to have, she rolls over and lays her body right on top of mine. Her pelvis traps my cock, which can’t help but lengthen even more now that it’s pressed against her pussy.
She ignores that, though, bringing her arms to cross over the top of my chest as she looks down at me. “Why don’t you like Gray?” she asks curiously, with no condemnation.
“I like her just fine,” I say evasively. “She’s a fantastic general manager. One of the best.”
“No,” she says firmly. “There’s something about her you don’t like. Or maybe it’s that you don’t respect. I can hear it in your voice.”
“Look, I don’t want to get into it,” I reply just as firmly. “She’s your sister.”
“And you probably know her better than I do,” she throws back at me. “Please tell me so I can understand.”
With a sigh, I bring my hands to Lexi’s hips and squeeze them as I tell her, “Gray doesn’t like me. Not personally, and sometimes not professionally. It’s just one of those things, and frankly, because she doesn’t like me, I kind of don’t like her.”
“I don’t understand,” Lexi says, her eyes filled with concern. “How do you know she doesn’t like you?”
“You remember the day we first met?” I ask.
She nods.
“Gray brought me in to tell me that I needed to change my ways or I could potentially be benched or even released from the team,” I tell her bluntly.
“By ‘change your ways,’ you mean—”
“I mean everything,” I tell her grimly. “On the personal side, lay off the partying and loose women, quit making a public spectacle of myself. On the professional side, rein it in…stop getting suspended.”
“Are those unreasonable requests?” she asks me hesitantly.
“Not on their face,” I admit with candor. “But it’s more than that.”
“Explain it to me,” she says softly, and I can tell by the tone in her voice she’s not holding any judgments about Gray or me.
So I try to put it in terms she can understand, not wanting to paint Gray in a bad light, but also making my feelings clear. “I get the personal stuff. I’m a bit of a hellion and always have been. I’ve never answered to anyone, Lexi, not since I was a young kid. I grew up alone with absentee parents and have made my own rules for forever and a day. And as long as my actions don’t hurt anyone, which I never intentionally try to do, then I just don’t see how it’s any of Gray’s business what I do on the personal side.”
“I understand that,” she agrees gently.
“Well, that part’s a bit moot right now, since I’m willing to give up my wild ways for you,” I tell her with a smile, and she smiles back. “But more than that is the fact that she doesn’t give me credit for the things I do as an adult that are antithetical to the things she disapproves of. I mean, I do more than just volunteer saving golden retrievers. I’m involved in a number of charities, I coach youth hockey in the summer, and I help underprivileged people from all walks of life. I spent a lot more time than most of my teammates giving back, because I feel that’s my duty as a means to show how grateful I am for all that I have. And if I sound bitter about it, maybe I am, because all that wonderful shit I do far outweighs the few little scandals that have seemed to surround me, and yet I get no credit from her for that.”
Lexi stares at me a moment, her lips pressing together in a sorrowful way. “I’m sorry. That just sucks.”
And now that the dam is opened, I can’t seem to stop myself from laying it all out there. “So as not to sound like a whiny bitch, I can even let all that personal stuff go. I’m confident enough in myself to know it really doesn’t mean anything. But on the professional side, she’s asking me to change my fundamental being as a player. Yes, I get penalized, but you know what? That’s my job. I’m an enforcer and you have to maintain that reputation. And yes, I’ve been suspended, but I just can’t control that type of passion out there on the ice. I take my job seriously, and that includes doing whatever I need to win. And the thing that really burns me up is that Gray knew all this before she ever offered me a contract. She knew what she was getting, and yet now she can’t seem to tolerate it. Now, it’s her way or the highway, and as I explained, I don’t do well when given those types of ultimatums.”
When I finish, Lexi immediately scoots forward a bit to put her lips against mine. She gives me a tender kiss and then pulls back to look at me. “I understand, and I totally get your frustration. I could perhaps talk to Gray—”
I’m shaking my head at her before she can even get the rest of her offer out. “That is one thing you will never do, Lexi,” I tell her sternly. “While it’s not prohibited, it presents a potentially sticky situation with me dating the owner’s daughter and the GM’s sister. You will never get involved in my career, you got that?”
I know it sounds harsh, and I know this because her eyes widen in surprise. “Okay,” she whispers hesitantly.
“I’m sorry,” I mutter with frustration, my hands squeezing her hips reassuringly. “It’s just…I don’t ever want you in a hard spot, and frankly, I don’t need you fighting my battles. It’s this whole thing that I’m afraid I might lose my man card or something.”
“Okay,” she says more firmly. “I got it. No interfering or intervening. Let you handle your own battles. Be there to commiserate and support.”
“I might not be the one you commiserate with,” I remind her grimly. “You have a sister to think about too.”
“Well, I don’t really see why I can’t have both,” Lexi says simply, yet with so much optimism I can’t help but smile. “I can’t see why we can’t all get along.”
I snort and lift my head from the pillow to kiss her, because that really is cute if not a little naïve. “I think we should just all agree that Gray and I will probably never get along and may intermittently butt heads. I suspect that might be even more so now that this notorious bad boy is dating her sister.”
“We’re dating?” she asks for clarification. “Not just banging each other’s brains out, right?”
“We were dating the minute I heard you on that stage playing your ukulele,” I tell her. “Even if neither of us fully realized it then.”
“Awwww,” she says with a twinkle in her eyes. “That’s so sweet.”
“And since we’re dating, you can be assured that I won’t have any bad-boy behavior off the ice for Gray to worry about. Now I just have to figure out how to play the game and be true to myself and not do something that compels your sister to fire me.”
“I have faith in you,” Lexi says with a brilliant smile. “Roman Sýkora can do anything he sets his mind to.”
“Is that so?” I ask teasingly, my hands sliding from her hips to her ass. I press down on her so she grinds slightly on my cock. While it may have been in limbo while we talked, it immediately perks up with interest.
“So true,” she says huskily as her eyes start to go darker as my dick gets harder. If it weren’t for the need for a fucking condom right now, I’d just pull her up and settle her right down on top of me for a ride.
Instead, I charmingly ask, “Remember that conversation we had about drooling on me earlier?”
Her eyes flash, and then go sizzling hot. “I remember.”
“Think maybe we can do something about it?” I ask, my hands sliding from her ass, up her back and tangling in her hair. I push the top of her head suggestively.
Lexi immediately responds, starting to slide her way down my body, layering soft kisses against my skin as she goes. My cock swells with need and my balls already start to tingle in anticipation.
“Wait a minute,” I say gruffly, my hands tightening on her head.
She looks up at me, her eyes already clouded with lust, her mouth poised right above my navel. “What?”
“Swing your body around,” I tell her softly. “I want you on my face while you’re sucking my cock.”
Lexi lets out a swift breath and sucks in a larger one. She hesitates only a moment before she scrambling around on the bed and flinging her legs to either side of my head. There’s no hesitation as she lowers to my waiting tongue at the same time she takes me deep inside her mouth.
And oh yeah…this is the fucking shit. Sixty-nining it with my girl first thing in the morning, and I can’t think of a better way to start my day. I’m going to have to make sure there are many more mornings just like this.