But my girl showed up to a boardroom full of executives and told them her boyfriend wasn't getting fired for protecting her. That means something to me.
I stop at the truck and turn to her. "You didn't have to come."
"I know."
"I was trying to keep you out of it."
"I know that too." She tilts her head. "Did you really think I was going to let you walk in there alone?"
"I had Beck. And my agent. And my dad."
"So you had my reluctant brother, a man you pay, and a father who just figured out how to maybe show up." She squeezes my hand. "You needed your girlfriend."
I can't argue with that. I pull her close and kiss the top of her head. She presses her face against my chest. She feels so good in my arms, so right. We stand in the parking lot for a minute, her arms around my waist, my chin resting on her hair.
"One game," she says against my shirt. "That's nothing."
"My thought exactly."
"You'll be back on the ice before the swelling in your hand goes down." She pulls back and looks up at me. "And Savard is done. The Federation complaint, the TikTok, the Havoc canceling his contract. He's finished."
"He's going to fight it."
"Let him." Her jaw sets. "I'm not scared of him anymore."
I look at her and see the girl who asked me to take her virginity in a parking garage. A girl who moved into my spare bedroom with twelve garbage bags and a stuffed sloth. The same girl who went live on TikTok and named her abuser to the world, and then went skating like it was just another Tuesday.
When I first saw her skate, years ago, I could never have imagined that this rare, beautiful, smart girl would be mine.
"Have I said today that I’m in love with you?"
She smirks. "Not yet. You were busy almost getting fired."
"Right. Well, I love you. In case that wasn't obvious from the broken hand and the management meeting and the general destruction of my professional reputation."
She laughs. "You're such a romantic."
"The most romantic. Ask Savard. He'll tell you about my romantic right hook."
"That's disgusting." She's still laughing. "Take me home."
“You got it, Freckles.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Thorne
Iwake up hard.
It’s not an unusual morning situation. My body is just doing its thing. I can ignore it with a cold shower and a protein shake. But this is Mollie-specific, because she's pressed against my chest with her ass nestled into my hips. My cock is thickening against the warm curve of her body before my brain even catches up.
Unnnf, this feels like heaven.
She smells like vanilla and sleep and the faintest trace of sex from last night. Her red curls are everywhere, half on her pillow, half on mine, tickling my chin. One of my arms is trapped under her neck and my free hand is resting on her hip, which means I'm already touching her. Which in turn means my cock has decided that we're doing this whether the rest of me is awake or not.
I press closer. She stirs and makes a soft, sleepy groan that goes straight to my dick. My hand slides from her hip to her tit, cupping it through the thin T-shirt she fell asleep in. Her nipple hardens under my palm and she arches back into me, still half asleep, her body responding before her brain comes online.
I know what that’s like.
