CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Sabrina
The sound of Crosby’s door closing softly jarred me awake in the morning. Feeling groggy and exhausted, my eyes cracked open. Sunlight filtered into the room. Crosby wasn’t there, but I could hear the soft rasp of his voice in the hallway.
“I’m fine,” he said. “How are you doing?” Since there was no other voice, it was clear he was on the phone. “Yeah...Appeal it…That sounds like a good idea.” Nothing in his voice said he believed what he said. “I’ll try. You know I don’t have a car anymore. I’d have to take the bus again…Uh huh…Thanks for calling. Talk to you tomorrow.” There was a long silence. I wondered if he was listening to whichever parent was on the other end or if he’d disconnected the call and needed time to regroup.
A short while later, the door handle twisted. Crosby stepped inside the room and closed the door behind him.
“You okay?” I asked.
He swung around. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
I sat up, pulling an elastic from my wrist and tying my hair into a top-knot. “You didn’t.”
“Oh, good.” He hurried to his closet and grabbed a towel. Then he moved just as quickly to his dresser, grabbed a pair of boxers, and walked to the door. “I’m gonna take a shower.”
“Oh. Okay,” I said, trying to figure out why he suddenly seemed so eager to get away from me. Was he regretting asking me to stay?
He pulled open the door.
“Wait.”
He twisted toward me.
“You sure you’re okay?”
He stared across the room at me, his eyes saying what his answer didn’t. “Yeah.”
When he walked back into his room twenty minutes later with soaked hair wearing only his boxers, I focused solely on his eyes. And not the droplets of water on his face. Or the ridges defining the muscles in his chest. Or the tattoos wrapped around his arms.
“Is it safe for me out there?” I flicked my eyes toward the door.
He nodded. “No one else is on the floor. But I’ll leave my door open so I can hear if anyone shows up.” He walked to his closet and grabbed a towel. “Here.” He tossed it to me.
I caught it and grabbed the clothes and shower supplies I had waiting beside me. Clutching them to my chest, I walked to the door, making sure not to brush into any part of him as I stepped into the hallway. If my thoughts the previous night were any indication, the sight of him all wet from a shower was setting off major warning signs. “Be back in a few.”
He nodded, quickly turning away from me.
I hurried into the girls’ shower room. The six-stalled room was empty and silent. Finally, I could breathe. I could think straight. I switched on the water. The spray drowned out the silence, but in no way stopped the inappropriate thoughts from running through my brain.
I needed to leave. I needed to head home. If I stayed, whatever happened between us had disaster written all over it. The water continued to cascade over my body, washing Crosby’s scent off me with each passing minute.
As the minutes ticked on, my mind taunted me with visions I wanted to suppress. Me on top of him at the rink. His strong body beneath mine. His arms wrapped tightly around me. His raspy laughter. I shivered at the thoughts. Or maybe it was the water turning colder since I’d been hiding in the shower for so long.
Eventually, I switched off the knob and reached for the towel hanging outside my stall, wrapping it around me as I stepped out. It smelled like Crosby. That fresh woodsy scent—the one I now realized was all his—enveloped me. I closed my eyes and breathed it in. In such a short time, it had become so familiar and comfortable.
Shit, shit, shit.
I needed to refocus.
I dragged my fingers through my wet hair, eliminating the knots as I walked to the changing area where I’d left my clothes.
A knock on the door stilled me.
“Sabrina?” Crosby called through the door.
“Yeah.”
“You okay? You’ve been gone a while.”
The concern in his voice caused unwanted ripples to swell in my belly. “Fine,” I called, before listening for his footsteps to walk away. They didn’t.
“Can I come in?” The gruffness in his voice, mixed with his question, sent heat coursing through my body.
“Ummm. Okay.”
The door opened slowly until Crosby stood in the doorway looking exactly as he had when he returned from his shower. Why hadn’t he gotten dressed? Why was he there? His eyes moved over my towel-covered body, his appraisal slow and purposeful as the door closed behind him. We were alone. Very alone.
I swallowed hard. “Everything okay?”
The silence was deafening as he took two steps closer to me. “How long are we gonna do this?”
“Do what?” I asked, though my heartbeat speeding in my chest told me I already knew the answer.
He took another step. Then another. Until he stood in front of me. He was a head taller, so I lifted my head back to meet his gaze. “I am trying so hard to be good.”
A cacophony of thoughts rushed through my head, none making much sense.
Dammit.
Crosby reached up and brushed his thumb over my cheek, leaving a numbness in its wake. “But all I can smell in my room is you,” he said, his voice hushed.
My pulse hastened.
“All I can think about in my bed is you.”
I blinked, swallowing down hard.
He stepped forward, causing me to step back into the cool tiled wall behind me. I sucked in a deep breath as he caged me in with his hands on the wall. “And all I want to do is kiss you.”
My eyes dropped to his lips. God, they were glistening and perfect.
“And the way you’re looking at my mouth right now tells me I’m not the only one feeling this way.”
My eyes jumped to his. They were zoned in on mine and dilated. Oh, man. My breathing became labored. Would kissing him ease my confusion? Would scratching that itch help me to hate him again or would I get myself in deeper?
His hands cupped my cheeks, strong and possessive. He stared into my eyes, his riveting between them. He was giving me time to stop him. Time to consider what his next move would inevitably be. I pulled in another deep breath and that’s all the assurance he needed. His lips crashed down on mine. They were fierce and determined, and hot as holy hell. My lips parted. His tongue plunged inside my mouth, tangling with mine in desperate pursuit. We both fought for control. Fought against what we initially thought about each other. And truth be told, it made the kiss so much hotter. All the pent up sexual tension he and I had been dancing around had finally come to a head. An explosive head.
Crosby’s hands slipped to the back of my head, cradling it from the hard tiles as his bare chest pressed to mine, pinning me with nowhere to go. He shifted his hips. His erection pressed through his boxers and into my towel, the only real barrier between us. The ache between my thighs came hard and fast, throbbing like a ticking time bomb. Craving the feel of him, I wrapped my arms around his neck, arching into him as his mouth continued to move ferociously with mine. Though it was impossible to get any closer, his hands slipped down my back, pulling me against his chest. His hands continued down until they reached the bottom of my towel. I stilled. So did his hands.
He pulled back enough to see my eyes. We were both breathing heavy. Both turned on beyond reason. “I don’t wanna screw this up,” he said. “I need you to tell me if this is going too fast.”
My body was a live wire ready to ignite if he didn’t stop talking and ease my ache. No way did I want him getting all self-righteous now. My hands pulled him toward me and my lips captured his. The low contented hum in the back of his throat urged me on. But Crosby was in no way passive. He kissed me back, his hands slipping beneath my towel and drifting over my bare ass as his mouth moved with mine. “I want you,” he murmured against my lips.
“I’m right here.”
I squeaked as he lifted me off my feet and stormed out of the shower room. I laughed at the determination in his eyes as he walked us down the deserted hallway and through his open door, slamming it closed behind us. Once inside it was a whole different story. No one would interrupt us there. This could go as far as I let it.
He lowered me onto his bed, following me down slowly. With his forearms on the pillow beside my head, his strong body pressed me into the mattress and his mouth returned to mine. His body moved over me. Through the towel, his erection hit my clit, sending my eyes rolling into the back of my head. He kept at it, torturing me with the feel of him. He was looking for the okay. Looking for something that told him I was okay with what was happening.
I slipped my arms around his back. The ridges were taut and the skin smooth beneath my touch. I continued down to the dip above his ass, reaching the band on his boxers. I slipped my fingertips underneath. He pulled away from my lips and dropped his mouth to my neck, assaulting my skin with open-mouthed kisses that were focused. Deep. Intoxicating. My head drifted to the side as my hands continued down, drifting over his ass and around his muscular hips.
He growled into my neck. “Make sure you know what you’re doing.”
“You think I don’t know what I’m doing?” I challenged, my hand moving to the front and grabbing hold of the hard length between us.
“Fuuuuuck,” he hissed.
My hand tightened, moving up and down in a smooth rhythmic motion. “You should know I love a challenge.”
His laugh rumbled deep, vibrating against my neck before his lips moved back to mine. This kiss was fierce, his tongue diving deeper, stroking inside my mouth and entwining with mine. His hand descended, sliding into the opening of my towel. His fingers found the dampness between my thighs.
Holy mother of all things glory.
He spread my folds and his fingers drifted gently over the swollen skin.
My head fell back, pushing into the pillow as my hand continued moving over him. “Oh, God.”
Two of his fingers pushed inside me. My back arched off the bed. But he didn’t stop there. His thumb found my clit and circled it. Around and around. A groan reverberated deep in my chest as I squirmed beneath him, releasing my grasp on his erection. He pressed his thumb harder, moving up and down. The tingles in my body coiled in that spot. He seemed to know because his fingers began pumping in and out of me as his thumb moved around in circles again, this time slowly. Oh so slowly. He taunted me, circling then gliding over it. Then circling some more.
The tingles built again, this time a flood of euphoria sat ready to unleash. My eyes pinched tight as my body went off like a cork, ripples firing out to all parts of my body. I struggled to catch my breath as his relentless fingers kept at it, milking every last bit of pleasure from me. I couldn’t take the torture. I writhed beneath him, trying unsuccessfully to buck him off my quaking body.
He eventually relented, removing his fingers and letting me enjoy the aftershocks rippling through me. “God, I wish you could see your face right now.”
My eyes fluttered open. “Why?”
“Because you look so damn beautiful.”
I scoffed. “Underneath you?”
He shook his head, embarrassment flashing in his eyes. “I can be a real asshole sometimes.”
“After what you’ve been through, it’s to be expected. But, so you know, not everyone will let you down.”
He flashed a cocky smirk. “That’s what I’m hoping if you wrap that little hand of yours around my dick again.”
“Annnnd Mr. Hockey’s back.”
He laughed and I really liked the raspy sound of it, especially since I was the one to bring it out of him. But as quickly as it happened, it disappeared. “Why are you giving me a second chance?”
“More like a fifth chance.”
He snickered.
I stared up into his blue eyes. They were so pretty and clear up close. So different than the angry ones I’d seen on more than one occasion. “Because I’m running out of reasons not to,” I said.
Relief spread over his features as he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. “Then I’d love to see what your hand and me have in common.”
“As you wish, Mr. Hockey.”
“You warming up to Mr. Hockey?”
“Only when he’s talking dirty behind closed doors.”
“I got you, girl,” he assured me before rolling onto his back and taking me with him. My hand worked its magic until he was as breathless and sated as me. And then we slept, taking a much-needed afternoon nap together.