He licked his dry lips and chuckled. “I know, baby. I felt it, too.”
I laid down next to Nate, pulled him into a hug, and went in for a kiss. Then, I rested my chin on his head.
“I can’t get enough of the sounds you make.” I sighed. “I really mean it,” I insisted when he huffed into my neck. “Was that what you had in mind?”
Nate hummed, burying his face even deeper in my feathers.
“Oh yeah, Pecs. That’s exactly what I had in my head.”
Pecs? Gods, he’s cute.
“Well, one of the things,” he hedged.
“What else, Frat Boy?” Ihadto ask, and he gasped again when I slid my hand down his spine. Nate’s hard chest arched against mine. “Vee, I want you. I don’t know how to handle the logistics, but I hope you know your way around an ass.” Soft lips started planting kisses on my chest. “If not, we’ll figure it out together.”
“You’ve never been with a man before?” I asked quietly, not really knowing what to think. I never saw a lack of experience as a negative thing. Damn it, I didn’t have much either. The older I got, the more I enjoyed being alone. And it hadn’t been easy to let anyone close since losing Linden. What I had didn’t scream ‘thrilling sex life’.
“Well, I messed around with a few guys in college.”
Anger at those facelessboysflared up inside me.
They touched what’s mine!
Nate gasped like a fish on dry land.
“Holy shit, Vee. What the hell was that?”
“What do you mean?” I asked. He couldn’t feel that aversion so strong it made me sick to my stomach, could he?
“I don’t know, it was just this…” Nate rubbed a hand over his sternum. “This rush of sickness in here.”
I pulled back and cupped his face in my hands to give him a once-over.
“Shit, do you think we caught something in the forest? Like a virus or anything?” The sparrow eyes danced between mine, gauging my feelings.
“There aren’t a lot of viruses I can get.” I stroked his high cheekbones with my thumbs. “And you seemed fine to me all morning.”
The way he dug his teeth into his bottom lip was so unfair that I burst out laughing.
“What?” Nate squinted at me, barely able to contain his smile.
Gods.
My heartbeat sped up when he looked at me like that.
“I’m trying to decide if you deserved a single minor or misconduct for your unsportsmanlike behaviour,Decks. This”—I rubbed my thumb over the spot he’d bitten—“hasto be against the rules.”
The grin widened under my touch.
“Is it high sticking when it feels this fucking good, though?” He winked and flicked his tongue over my finger. His mouth entranced me, and it took me a moment to understand what he was saying.
High sticking was hitting another player in the head with one’s hockey stick.
We both cracked up.
Damn. When was the last time you laughed with someone at a dirty hockey joke?
That raw place inside my chest knew when it was, but for the first time in a decade I decided not to lean into that grief.
