By the time Hannah got to Curtis’ house, she’d determined she was crazy. Not just a little out there, but straight up needed to be committed crazy. She’d sat through an entire hockey game on the edge of her seat, wincing every time someone even tapped Curtis.

She’d followed his career from afar for years, just to have the ability to say she went to school with him and maybe come up with a quick stat to impress someone. It was silly, but not as silly as her breaking down in tears when he got in a fight that night. Even though they’d spent a carnal-filled day together, she barely knew him, and yet, she was sobbing like they were married or something.

The people on both sides of her kept their distance after that, leaning away and making sure to not make eye contact for the rest of the game. She couldn’t blame them. Curtis had won the fight, so it wasn’t like he was knocked out or anything. His opponent got a couple punches in, and Hannah acted like he’d dropped on the ice unconscious.

It was easy to blame it on the conversation they’d had before the game. Hannah’s world was falling apart. She had no idea when the crumbling would stop. It was bad enough when she had a niggling feeling that Nina was lying to her about the bet. Nina had protected her for so long that Hannah knew there were little lies over the years.

Blackmailing Curtis wasn’t just a little lie. As Hannah used the hidden key to open his front door, she got a look at what Curtis could stand to lose if Nina did something to end his career. She’d gotten a good idea based on the external size of the mansion that it was going to be extravagant, but her imagination didn’t prepare her for the sleek modern living room she entered – the five-car garage didn’t even prepare her.

The place looked like a museum with a few comfy couches to sit on. There was one couch that seemed out of place, but otherwise the black furniture was lustrous and leather. The out of place couch looked to be some kind of tan cloth and quite a bit older than the other couch and the loveseat.

Hannah just stood inside the doorway and stared for a while. Time wasn’t exactly her friend, so she didn’t know how much of it passed before she decided to take another step inside and close the door behind her. She tried to take a breath and decide whether she should leave.

Did it really matter to find out everything? If she walked away that second, whatever game Nina had played with Curtis wouldn’t matter. He’d said it was based on whether he pursued Hannah, so if she cut herself out of the picture, he wouldn’t be risking anything. From how hard she’d just seen him play on the ice, his career meant everything to him, and she couldn’t take that away from him.

It hurt to come to that conclusion, but after he could lose if Nina got her way, Hannah thought it was best if she walked away. She wanted to be the person who let her heart tell her what to do. It was too confused to be making any decisions, though, so her brain had to take over.

Having the decision made, Hannah didn’t feel any better, but she tried her hardest to fight off tears as she turned to open the door that had closed behind her. The key was still clutched in her hand, so she’d lock up, send Curtis a text letting him know her decision and go back to her life. It was the right thing to do.

Her hand closed around the knob and it turned. She hadn’t moved her wrist to turn it from her side, so the action surprised her. Hannah had to scuttle to get out of the way as the door opened towards her and the man filling her mind appeared in the doorway.

She held her breath as she tried to figure out her next move. Walking away from him was so much easier when he wasn’t around.

Curtis made her initial decision for her as he stepped forward, pushing her back into the house and slammed the door behind him. She didn’t register him moving anymore, but somehow, she was in his arms and his lips crushed hers.

The next thing she knew, her back was on something soft and his body was pressing into her. She honestly did not remember moving, just the sudden feeling of his weight on her and hearing his low groan as he rubbed a stiff part of his body against her dress.

She hadn’t known what to wear to a game, but she thought dressing up was in order. Curtis had said he was considering her as his girlfriend, which sounded to her like she shouldn’t show up in just some jeans and a t-shirt.

His hands moved hers above her head and held them there as he ground against her a couple more times and moved his lips away from her mouth, down to her neck. Just being under his ministrations and remembering the joy they caused had her on the verge of orgasm. When he bit into her neck, she stifled a scream of pleasure.

“You don’t have to be quiet. You can scream as loud as you want,” he whispered as his lips came up to her ear. “We need to talk, but damn it I need to be inside of you.”

There wasn’t a question there, but Hannah felt like she could’ve told him no and he would’ve stopped. Her eyes had closed pretty much the second he’d walked in the door, and she had no plans of opening them anytime soon. She didn’t need to see the lust in his eyes to know how much he wanted her – how true his desire for her was. It was no wonder she hadn’t believed Nina about the bet.

No one had ever looked at her the way Curtis did. Her dress was pushed up, panties removed and his pants undone before she had time to brace for his entrance. It was forceful and filling, and heaven help her she was at his mercy.

It wasn’t a rough place to be. Hannah wished she could just stay there, safe and happy in his arms. She knew it was just the feelings he caused inside of her overwhelming her senses, but she saw how easy it would be to fall in love with him. It was stupid on her part. Her inexperience versus his mastery clouded her thoughts and made anything seem possible.

He clearly enjoyed her body, but that didn’t mean anything. They’d briefly spoken about their families and their lives between bouts of sex, but they didn’t know each other. Curtis had his secrets, as did she. He was supposed to be telling one of his, but Hannah didn’t know if she’d ever be able to tell hers, or how many others he had in the closet.

“Hey, your head’s not in this, is it?”

The words surprised Hannah. Her mind had wandered, but she didn’t think it’d be noticeable given his past record of screwing her senseless. She opened her eyes and realized they were on the tan couch. Curtis was frozen in place above her, looking at her expectantly.

“Sorry, I’m here and present now.”

Curtis smiled and leaned down to kiss her forehead. She felt him move inside of her, but it seemed like an involuntary action on his part.

“There’s no reason to be sorry. I said I had to be inside of you, mainly because it’s as close as I can get to you and I need it after seeing you cry in the stands tonight.”

Hannah hadn’t even considered he could see her. She wasn’t in the nosebleed sections or anything, but she wasn’t behind the bench either. The fact that he’d seen her in her miserable state made her close her eyes and turn her head to the side.

“No, no, no. Don’t do that.” Curtis turned her head back towards him. “I kept an eye on you since I knew where you were sitting. You didn’t cry until I got in a fight, so I have to assume it was because you were worried about me.”

She didn’t open her eyes, but Hannah nodded in response. He was going to think she was nothing but a sad sap. They were barely dating and she was already crying over him.

“I’ve been worried about you too. Obviously, it’s a little hard for me to let my emotions out when I’m at work, so I kind of had to do it. Don’t worry, I made sure to not pick a fight with their enforcer. I played in the minors with Erik and know he’s weak on the left side. He got in a couple lucky punches, but they aren’t going to bruise.”

The news made Hannah feel a little better, but not much. She still felt like there was a heavy weight hanging over her, getting ready to drop at any second.

“What is she blackmailing you with?”

Curtis sighed and rolled them so they were facing each other on the couch. He didn’t pull out, making it so his pants that were still mostly on brushed against her bare skin. They weren’t rough, but they caused a shiver to creep up her spine.

His arm wrapped around her, making sure she didn’t roll off the couch in all the motion. It wasn’t exactly a wide couch, but she was thankful he’d picked it over the leather options.

“A picture of her and myself in my bedroom that makes it look like we’d had sex and I’d been taking drugs.”

The words settled for a second before Curtis continued. Hannah blinked her eyes open to look at his face as he spoke. She wished she could keep them closed so she could pretend it was a dream, but she wanted to see his expressions as he told her.

“I’ve never done drugs in my life, and I sure as hell haven’t had sex with her. I’m not sure how she got all the hickies on her, but she did and they could’ve been seen as bruises or something. Between that and the drugs, I would’ve been screwed if I didn’t do what she wanted.”

Nina didn’t like to do things half-assed, even in high school. Curtis kept his face neutral, but Hannah could see the anger in his brown eyes. Every time he spoke about Nina it was there, and it finally made sense.

“Why would she do that? I can see her doing it, which is bad enough, but what did you do to her to make her punish you?”

He’d already said they hadn’t had sex, so it was clear that wasn’t her motive. It made the times she flirted and tried to catch his attention back in the day make no sense. It wasn’t like she made a lot of sense half the time to Hannah, but it seemed above and beyond her usual craziness. Hannah had always thought it was just Curtis resisting that eventually turned Nina against him.

All of ninth grade things had seemed harmless, but then things changed. She still teased and flirted, but Hannah picked up the hatred that carried through to the present.

“She did it to keep me away from you. There was some stupid girls ask the guys dance sophomore year and she asked me, along with about ten other girls. She got pissed and asked who I was waiting on to ask. I told her the truth and a week later the picture arrived in my locker.”

“And that was it. There had to be a note or something, right? She wouldn’t just send a picture and not list out some demands.”

Curtis shook his head as a sad smile crept on his face. Hannah bit her lip, waiting to hear what horrid thing Nina demanded.

“The picture said that if I ever came near you again, the picture was going to my coach. Like I said earlier tonight, I don’t know that it would have the same effect now, which I assume is why she came up with the idea of a bet. Either way, I’m tired of having that hang over me and I haven’t gotten over you. I’ve tried, but I don’t think I can ever move forward until I find out for sure.”

“Me? What do I have to do with anything? We hardly talked in high school.”

Hannah was confused. She was missing something and couldn’t tell if he hadn’t spelled it out or she was too dense to understand.

“True. From tenth grade on I had to keep my distance, and before that I was so busy with school and hockey that I didn’t think I had the time for a relationship. Even with that, when Nina asked, I told her you were the only person I would possibly consider going to the dance with because unlike all of the other stuck-up bitches in school, you have a soul. That obviously wasn’t what she wanted to hear.”

Not knowing what to say, Hannah just stared at Curtis. She wanted to close her eyes and hide, but she was frozen in shock. She didn’t know whether to be honored that Curtis had liked her by default in high school or mortified. He clearly liked her enough that he was willing to deal with Nina’s wrath, but it could’ve just been something on his part to beat Nina after all the years.

No, Hannah told herself. Curtis wasn’t like that. It wasn’t a bet. It wasn’t revenge. She had no idea what it was, but she couldn’t let herself believe he was using her. Her heart commanded that it wasn’t true.

“So, there, now you know why I hate her. I have no idea why she did what she did, but it left me in suspension for over a decade because I couldn’t get over the feeling that I missed my chance for something special.”

“Can we not talk about it anymore? I just want to lay here and think for a while. Is that okay?”

Hannah had questions, but she wasn’t ready to ask them. For a while, she just wanted to be and she didn’t mind if he was there with her. In fact, she liked the fact that he was, because even after everything he’d said and the confusion it caused, in his arms was the safest she’d ever felt.

“You can stay as long as you like.”

Curtis kissed her head again and pulled her body close to him so her head rested against his chest. Hannah closed her eyes and tried to make sense of her thoughts. It was an uphill battle, but she had to figure out how in the world to face Nina with the new revelation. She knew Nina was just looking out for her, but things had to change.