Something warm and almost helpless crossed Dean’s face then.
“My coach kept telling me I needed more spark. More edge. More risk.” He laughed quietly. “Then last year at Worlds I skated injured and suddenly everyone loved me because I pushed through it.”
I stared at him. “You were injured?”
“Hip flexor strain.”
“And yet you still competed?”
Dean shrugged. “I needed the points.”
I gaped at him. “That was reckless.”
“Probably.”
“You could have worsened the injury permanently.”
“Probably.”
I gave him a mock glare. “You… you are impossible.”
Dean grinned. “Says the guy risking international scandal for a make out session.”
The offhand comment robbed me of breath and landed somewhere deep.
The humor faded from Dean’s face. “That came out wrong.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “It didn’t.”
That was the truth of it.
Dean’s expression softened. “Hey.” I looked at him then, and he expelled a breath.
“This isn’t just sex to me.” He leaned closer, his hand covering mine. “I know we don’t know what this is yet.” His voice was low and firm. “But I know it matters.”
My throat tightened painfully.
Dean brushed his fingers along my jaw. “You said skating taught you how to disappear into expectation.”
I swallowed, and he closed the gap between us to press his lips to mine in a chaste kiss. Then he pulled back and looked me in the eye again.
“What if you don’t want to disappear anymore?”
The question settled deep, and between the dark and the quiet and Dean’s hand against my skin, the answer came to me.
I didn’t.
“And now I have to be brutal.”
“Yes?”
He cupped my cheek. “Both of us need sleep, but especially you, because you have to skate for glory in the morning.” His lips twitched. “Except it alreadyismorning.”
Relief swamped me, but I managed to fire back at him. “You expect me to sleep after this?”
Dean’s eyes gleamed. “I do have a suggestion. Something that works for me every time. I bet it’d work for you too.” His gaze flickered to my cock, then back to my eyes. “You know what? We could… administer that particular sleeping aid at the same time. And we’d also have something else to cross off your list.”
My breathing hitched. “You know I have a list?”
