CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Crosby
Holy hell.
It had been some time since I’d had a gorgeous girl draped over me. And this one wore nothing but a towel. A towel I would’ve given anything to rip off her. But I was taking it slow. I would’ve been an idiot not to. We were essentially alone on a massive campus with nothing to pass the time but each other.
Sabrina’s breath whooshed in and out of her lips softly, a quiet purr accompanying her sleep. She had this tough exterior, but asleep in my arms she was so vulnerable. But I would’ve been lying if I said watching that movie with her body pressed to my side hadn’t been pure torture. I couldn’t focus on the damn movie. I couldn’t focus on anything but Sabrina in my room. On my bed. In every one of my thoughts.
I knew it had been a risk to pursue her in the shower room, but I needed to know if I was the only one feeling the sexual tension that had—in hindsight—been building between us for the past two months.
My body felt languid and, even with her partly naked body pressed against mine, I felt satisfied.
I thought back to the way her body reacted to my touch. Her sounds when she came. I could’ve listen to her groans and ragged breathing all night long. I thought back to her words. Thought back to her assurance that not everyone would let me down. Had I purposely kept people away? Is that what I’d been doing? Had the last year taught me not to trust anyone?
Sabrina stirred.
I wasn’t ready for her to wake up yet. I liked watching her sleep. Liked feeling her on me. Liked having her there. She added light to the otherwise bleak existence I’d been living.
“Crosby,” she whispered.
“Yeah?”
“I’m glad I came.”
“So am I,” I said, ecstatic to hear those words. “Nothing like leaving a girl unsatisfied.”
She chuckled into my chest. “You know what I meant.”
“Yeah.”
“Will you tell me something?”
“I’m not a virgin?” I said.
She laughed. “You’re so stupid.”
I grinned and tightened my arms around her.
“Why do you let your teammates hurt you with no recourse?” she whispered.
My body tensed.
In the past when she questioned me about my teammates, it pissed me off. No one understood the anger and embarrassment their pranks elicited in me. I knew I looked like a pussy taking their shit. And I hated it. But now I realized, not only could Sabrina sense there was more to it, she actually cared. And that changed everything.
“If I suck it up, I’ll enter the draft after the season and be done with it all. If I make waves, it could ruin my chances. Believe me, I wanna kick the shit outta everyone involved, but it’ll only hurt me in the long run.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I can handle it.”
She was silent again for a long time.
My fingertips drifted over her back, tracing small circles over the soft skin above the towel.
“There’s gotta be a way to get even,” she said.
“Oh, believe me. I’ve thought about it.”
“We could hire someone.”
“Hire someone?”
“Yeah. Haven’t you seen those crime shows about people hiring hit men on the Internet?”
“I don’t want to kill them.”
She laughed. “No, not kill them. Hire someone to prank them or something. Oh my God. Did you really think I wanted you to put a hit out on the hockey team?”
“Kinda.”
She snorted and it was so damn adorable.
“Thanks for trying to help. But it’s gonna be okay.”
Another long silence passed. I wondered if she was trying to decide if that was a lie or if she was just brainstorming more ways to bring down the hockey team. I liked that about her. She was determined and sassy and put up with no nonsense—not even mine.
“Are you planning to visit your parents?” she asked.
My body tensed at the mention of my parents. “Huh?”
“I heard you on the phone.” She lifted her head and buried her chin in my chest. “Do you wanna see them?”
I shrugged. “Maybe my mom.”
“Not your dad?”
I shook my head.
“I’m just gonna say this and you can do with it what you want. But bottling stuff inside eventually becomes too much. And as much as you’re unhappy with your dad right now, you might feel better if you said whatever it is you really want to say to him. You know. Get it off your chest.”
I hadn’t thought of that. When I visited my mom, the sole purpose of my visit was to lift her spirits. No one said I had to do the same for my father. I could go in there and let him know how angry I was at him for destroying our family.
“I can drive you,” Sabrina said.
My brows shot up. “To Texas?”
She nodded.
“It’s eight hours away.”
“I’ve got nowhere to be.”
“There are a lot of places I’d like to take you. Prison’s not one them.”
She laughed. “We have time.”
“Fuck.” I jolted up, taking Sabrina with me. “What time is it?”
“What?”
I reached for my phone on my nightstand. Six o’clock. “I start my new job tonight.”
“You’ve got a job?”
I’d been so caught up in Sabrina showing up that I’d forgotten my shift began at seven. “Yeah. Working security at the psych building.” I rolled out from under her and raced to my dresser. “I need cash. I wouldn’t be able to take you out if I didn’t have any, would I?”
She rolled onto her side and propped herself up on her elbow. “You planning on taking me out?”
I stared down at her towel-clad body sprawled out on my bed, eating up her good looks. “Is that a trick question?”
She shook her head.
“Well, if I’m being serious…I’d rather keep you holed up here with me a hell of a lot more.”
She tossed back her head and laughed.
“So, you don’t wanna kick me in the balls for saying that?”
She shook her head. “I respect your honesty. Especially now that I know you’re serious and not just trying to get in my pants.”
“Oh, I’m definitely trying to get in your pants,” I assured her.
She laughed again, this time beckoning me closer with her index finger.
I walked over, stopping at the side of the bed. She beckoned me even closer. I bent down so we were at eye level. “Maybe when you get back you can show me what you had in mind.”
“Seriously? Are you trying to kill me?”
She tucked her lips to stop from laughing and shook her head.
“You don’t say something like that to a guy right before he needs to get ready to leave.”
“Why not?”
I grabbed her hand and moved it to the crotch of my boxers. “This is not how I want to show up for my first night on the job.”
She squeezed my dick gently, gliding her hand up and down the hardened length of it, sending my body into overdrive.
I wanted her to keep at it. God, I wanted her to keep at it. But I needed to get ready to go. I needed to be on time. I needed to show I was responsible enough to hold down a job.
I stared down at her, contemplating the right move.
What was five minutes?
I sprang forward and climbed on top of her, crushing her body into the mattress. Her yelp was captured by my lips. And for the next five minutes, I didn’t let her come up for air, making it perfectly clear if I’d be left hot and bothered all night, so would she.
* * *
By two in the morning, I realized why the job working security in the psych building had still been available. I wanted to pull my fucking hair out. I roamed the dark hallways. I made multiple cups of coffee and sat on the couch in the first-floor library. I checked that doors were closed and locked too many times to count. It was shaping up to be a long few weeks.
I sat down by the front door, kicking my feet up on a table and pulling out my phone. I wondered if Sabrina had fallen asleep after I’d left. I couldn’t erase the thought of her from my mind. The whole idea of us was nuts, but I think that’s why it worked. She had sass and confidence and I had that cocky edge girls pretended to hate but really loved. They liked a challenge. And I could definitely be a challenge.
The only thing that could fuck it up for us was reality—the rest of the school returning in three short weeks. Or my teammates returning even sooner for our games.
As if she knew I’d been thinking about her, a text from Sabrina popped up on my screen. How’s work?
My thumbs pounded away at my screen. Would be better if you were here.
Three dots lit up the screen and I eagerly awaited her response. Funny thing about that…
I stared down at the screen, but another text didn’t appear.
A light tapping sounded on the front door.
I stood from my chair and glanced around the empty entranceway. I squinted through the glass door into the darkness outside. A smile spread across my lips. Sabrina stood there wearing my hockey jersey and skinny jeans. I unlocked the door and pushed it open. “Well aren’t you the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”
She smiled as she stepped inside, brushing by me. The scent of her peach body lotion trailed her, working its way into every one of my senses. “Is it okay I’m here?”
I locked the door behind her and turned around.
She’d sat down on the table my feet had been resting on.
“No one here but you, me, and the skulls on the fifth floor.” I walked over and stopped in front of her so she had to look up to see me. “I kinda missed you.”
Her brows arched. “You kinda missed me? I would’ve thought having my scent all over you would’ve been driving you wild.”
I chuckled as I cupped her cheeks and leaned closer. “Been driving me more than wild.” I seized her lips in a long, eager kiss. It was clear we’d both been starved for it. I dropped my hands to her ass and lifted her off the table. She wrapped her arms around my neck and linked her ankles around my back, driving the kiss deeper. We were all lips and tongue and teeth. This pent-up frustration wasn’t going to last much longer. Even with the reprieve earlier, I needed to be inside her. I needed to feel her body tighten around me. I needed to taste her breasts and suck on her nipples. I walked to the closest wall and braced her against it.
She moved herself against the erection in my jeans. She was as desperate as I was, willing to show up in the middle of the night to get it. She pulled out of the kiss, her breathing labored and her words choppy. “When are you done here?”
I closed my eyes, knowing I had four more hours. “Six.”
She huffed. “I can wait if you can?”
“I can’t wait.”
She laughed as she moved her hands to my face, her fingertips trailing gently over the stubble on my jaw line. “I can be strong for the both of us,” she assured me.
“Then you need to get outta here. Cuz I’m having difficulty holding off any longer.”
Her smile broadened.
I glanced to the front door and the darkness outside. “I don’t like the idea of sending you back out in the middle of the night alone.”
“We never would’ve met if I wasn’t walking alone in the middle of the night.”
I hated the reminder of that night. What had been done to me. How I treated Sabrina. How things went south so quickly. “That was different.”
“I’ll tell you what. Let’s talk all the way home. Then you’ll know I got back to your dorm safe and sound.”
I stared into her pretty eyes, looking for the assurance that she’d be okay. I placed her down on her feet. If anyone was safe on her own, it was Sabrina. “Deal.”
My jersey fell to her knees, but she reached underneath and pulled her phone from her pocket. Mine rang on the table.
I reached for it and, though she stood a few feet away from me, I answered it. “When I get back to the dorm, I want you in my bed in nothing but my jersey.”
She smirked as she spoke into her phone. “Deal.”
Sabrina
The chill of the night air prickled my skin as I made my way down the steps with my phone to my ear. “No crazy slashers around,” I informed Crosby as I glanced from side to side.
“What is it with you and slashers?” he laughed. “You thought I was hiding a machete the night we met.”
I smiled, amazed by how safe I felt hearing his voice as I moved along the dark path. “What’d you expect? I couldn’t see you.”
“Then I certainly gave you an eye full.”
I laughed. “That’s an understatement.”
His laughter carried through the phone causing butterflies to dance in my belly.
“Do you know how hard it was to keep my eyes from staring at your package. I’d had a shitty night and was buzzed, so my resolve was pretty weak.”
He laughed again. “From here on out I give you full permission to stare all you want. Same goes for touching and tasting. Go crazy.”
“You’re such a guy.”
“Yup. Are you almost back to the dorm?”
I looked around. Getting lost in our conversation, I’d only made it a few buildings down from the psychology building where he worked. “Almost,” I lied.
“Thanks for coming to see me.” The thoughtfulness in his voice was still so strange for me given our rough start. It was like Crosby and Mr. Hockey were two totally different people. So different yet so alike.
I stopped mid-stride. I knew I’d never be able to sleep alone in Crosby’s room without him, especially now that I knew what awaited me upon his return.
“You there?” he asked.
“I’m here.” I turned back around and jogged toward the psychology building, with my heart racing in my chest. Sure, I usually talked a big game, but when the time came to throw caution to the wind, I thought twice about it. At least I usually did. Tonight, all bets were off. It only took a minute to reach the steps. I stopped at the bottom and stared at the glass door.
“Why do you sound out of breath?” Crosby asked.
I climbed the steps and stood in front of the door for the second time that night. I tapped on it.
“What the hell?” Crosby mumbled into the phone. I could hear his footsteps through the phone. And then he appeared in the door. A wide smile spread across his face once again. He unlocked the door and pushed it open. “Forget something?”
“I’m not gonna be able to wait.” I launched myself forward, wrapping my arms around his neck.
He stumbled back, my kiss silencing his surprise. He dropped his hands to my ass and picked me up. I wrapped my legs around his hips like earlier. But this was different. This was more frantic. More urgent. More…everything.
I wanted him and I wanted him right there.
And given the way his mouth moved in tandem with mine, it was happening right there. He walked us down the dark hallway, never releasing my lips. He was on a mission. And I was gladly along for the ride.
He turned into a dark room—a library. He walked us toward the sofa in the center of the room and lowered me onto it. He stood over me. “God, you’re so hot in my jersey.”
My chest rose and fell with each breath.
The room was dark, but I couldn’t miss the hunger in his eyes. “But I need to see you out of it.”
My lips kicked up in the corners. “There’s Mr. Hockey.”
He smirked as I pushed up onto my elbows and lifted his jersey over my head, leaving me in my lacy black bra. His breath hitched as he stared down at me. His eyes moved over my chest, the widening in his eyes the approval I didn’t realize I needed. He reached behind his neck and pulled his shirt over his head, tossing it to the floor.
I’d seen him shirtless before. But the way his jeans hung low on his hips with his boxers peeking out quickened my pulse.
His eyes stayed on mine as his fingers moved to the button on his jeans. He slipped it through the slot then pushed his jeans and boxers down his legs. “Nothing you haven’t seen before.”
My eyes lowered. He was right. I’d seen all of him before. But now I had the chance to take him all in. Every. Last. Inch.
He stepped toward me, the corded muscles in his thighs so pronounced. Hockey looked good on him. He bent over me and reached for the button on my jeans, slipping it through the slot and tugging my jeans down my legs and off with my sneakers. He gazed down at me sprawled out on the sofa in my lacy thong and matching bra. “Better than I imagined,” he said as he covered me with his body.
We’d been like this before, but my towel and his boxers separated us. This was intimate. This was raw. This was what we both needed.
“There’s no way I can be gentle right now,” he said, his lips inches from mine.
“Thank God,” I breathed.
He reached for my wrists and wrapped his massive hand around them, pinning my arms above my head. He kissed his way down my body with slow, torturous, open-mouthed kisses that left tremors in their wake and set my body abuzz.
This was going to be so much better than I imagined.
“Don’t move them,” he said as his hands left my wrists, drifted down my arms, and slipped around to my back. He unsnapped the clasp on my bra and pulled the straps up my arms, twisting them around my wrists to keep me bound. He gazed down at me for a long time. I wasn’t easily embarrassed, but his slow appraisal had goosebumps popping up all over my skin. “How’s it feel to be the one tied up?”
“Are you gonna set me free?”
His lips slipped into a slow cocky smirk. “Not right now I’m not.”
Tingles spread out to parts of my body I didn’t realize were erogenous zones.
“I don’t even know where to start,” he said, his eyes moving over me again.
“I didn’t take you for someone who lacked experience in this department.”
His brows shot up, amusement playing behind his eyes. “Oh, I’ve got experience. I just don’t know what to do first to let your body know it belongs to me tonight.”
I swallowed down my fervor.
“Fuck it.” He reached down and tore my panties down my legs. He didn’t waste time appreciating my naked body spread out before him. He grabbed for his jeans and snatched a condom from his wallet. He rolled it on and within seconds he’d found my entrance. He promised rough, but he moved the tip over my swollen skin gently. “You’re already so wet.”
My eyes pinched tight, appreciating the feel of him but anticipating his size.
“God, I’ve been waiting for this.”
I opened my eyes. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“No, you’re not,” he assured me, pushing inside with one hard thrust.
My back arched off the sofa. His rhythm started slow but each thrust became faster and harder. I needed to be closer. I needed to feel him. I slipped my bound wrists over his head. But that wasn’t enough. I needed him deeper. I wrapped my ankles behind his ass as he continued his pursuit. I’d had sex before, but never had a guy hit that spot. The one that made you cross-eyed when he grazed it. Crosby knew where it was. And each time he reared back and thrust in, he hit it. Each time sending zingers ricocheting through my body.
My eyes squeezed shut as I relished in the feel of him. The strength of his body pinning me beneath him. The solidity of him stretching me wide. Gah. I felt him everywhere.
He buried his face in the crook of my neck, assaulting me with sloppy open-mouthed kisses. He may have been in shape from hockey, but his ragged breaths told me this moment was giving him a much-needed release.
My insides began to twist and coil. “Oh, God.”
“You there?” he asked, his thrusts getting harder and deeper.
“Yesssss.” Everything between my thighs tightened, and a suppressed ball of energy exploded down to my toes. My entire body hummed.
With a few more determined grunts and thrusts, Crosby followed me over the edge, releasing a long deep groan into my neck.
I tightened my grasp on him and relished in the feel of him in my arms.
Eventually, he lowered himself down on top of me. We both lay there, our deep breaths mirroring each other’s. We said nothing, enjoying the after tremors and silence that surrounded us.
After some time, Crosby lifted his head and rested his chin on my chest. “If you told me it would be that good, there’s no way I would’ve pissed you off so much.”
“I think because you pissed me off it was that good.”
He scoffed. “Well, then. I think you look fat.”
I laughed, but my laughter was silenced by the softness of his lips and the slow glide of his tongue as he kissed me. He was saying what neither us wanted to say. What we were too stubborn to say. This thing between us could be real.
Now that the sex was out of the way, we were still connected and I kinda liked that we were. And given the gentleness of this kiss, he liked it too.