Page 12 of Puck Me Twice Over

I turned and fled.

Spoilers: I didn’t get far.

Outside, behind the pool house. That's where he caught me, yanked my shorts down and buried his face between my legs while I stuffed my fist in my mouth and tried not to scream.

I came on his lips tonight, to the memory of his mouth on my then untouched flesh, the night he taught me what it could be like, hiding in the shadows while a party went on around us. We made as little noise as we could, his tongue glazing my swollen skin.

Knox lapped at me long after my orgasm ended, cleaning my pussy softly. Not over stimulating me like he could have, torturing me to a bitter end on his bed where he knew I’d stay without complaint. No, he soothed me and left me panting and languid in his bed.

“That’s the best fucking picture I’ve seen in years,” he muttered, yanking his jersey over his head without washing his face. My gloss still clung to his lips when he leaned down to drag them across my mouth. I tasted my own scent on his and craved more. “Stay here today, okay? You don’t need to leave.”

I stared up at him, my heart beating hard. “I thought you said I couldn’t leave if we fucked last night,” I whispered, only half flirting. Because the other half of me wanted what he offered so very, very fucking badly.

Knox stared down at me without smiling. “I changed my mind.” HIs fingers found the hem of the borrowed shirt that I wore and tugged. “Don’t change. Wear my things. Fuck, get the scent of yourself all over my house. Tonight, I’ll be back with your things and I’ll take you…somewhere else.” His voice stilted when he said somewhere else as though he might have had something else in mind to say, but changed his mind at the last moment.

I nodded, unwilling to break his strange mood, the moment between us. “I liked watching you skate last night. I haven’t seen you do that in…” Salt itched at my eyes. The last time he skated in my mind was with me at the winter festival years ago. “A long time ago,” I managed.

He didn’t move. “Tonight,” he grated out. “Wear that shirt, Flick. Or walk around naked. I don’t care. Today, I want you to edge yourself. Do you know what that means?” He watched me carefully.

I bit my lip and nodded. “Just because Garrett was an asshole doesn’t mean I’m uneducated,” I muttered.

Knox laughed darkly. “Good.” His mood dropped as fast as it came on. “Touch yourself but don’t come. Every single time you get sad. Think about last night, or this morning. Or whatever fantasy you have that involves us. Then I’m going to ask you about that later. Got it?”

He’d found my Achilles heel and he knew it. Processing emotions had always been hard for me, each one living in a complex layer right beneath the surface. Sometimes floating right on top. Knox was always my distraction, and he used sex—even if we never had intercourse—as a tool to lift me when I sank too low. Apparently, he still wielded that weapon with ease.

Not that I should be surprised. This was Knox Vandevere. If anything, being a Chimera had raised his sex appeal, not lowered it.

“I’ll stay.”

The darkness behind his eyes grew. “Good,” he said softly, the same way he told me to run that night. “I’ll be home soon with your things. Then we can talk.”

“All right.” I bit my lip, wondering how I’d pass a day in his house. “I can go and get my own things, you know.”

Light fingertips grazed my toes. “Let me look after you, Flick. You don’t need to see him again. Not unless that’s what you want.” His statement held a question, and he watched me carefully.

I held his gaze. “No. I don’t want to see him again."

Knox nodded, running his thumb across his bottom lip, his eyes locked on mine. “I’ll see you soon.”

Then his apartment was empty except for me and the slanting sunlight.

CHAPTER FIVE

KNOX

“Head down. Stick with your player. Where’s the puck? Can you even hit it today? Jesus Christ, Vandevere. One more pass like that and you can wear the fucking Chimera suit as team mascot for the next game,” Coach shouted across the ice.

He’d been bouncing and raring full of the sort of energy I envied when I turned up for training while I lacked several hours of sleep from kissing Felicity most of the night. It didn’t help that I dragged my ass in the door ten minutes late, but hell, I had a good reason. The hard gaze he fixed on every one of us told me this was a session no one would enjoy.

“Hey,” Ripley, our mascot wearing team member protested as I skated up, managing not to land on my ass as I plowed into his side instead.

I patted his shoulder. “It’s okay, Rip. No one’s taking the Chimera suit off you.”

He huffed. “Better not.” He hugged the stitched costume to his chest that consisted of a plush lion’s head, a stuffed goat’s body and a snake tail that originated somewhere out the back. I’d never looked too closely to check where that came from.

Our version of the traditional chimera had some extra bits like horns and a pair of oversized dragon wings in ice blue that looked cool as hell when Rip skated around the arena, shooting merch out of his t-shirt cannon on game day. For now, the glossy quilted wings wilted at his sides as he stared at me, bereft.

“Don’t take my costume, man.” Rip sent me the puppy eyes, a master at the damn expression.