Page 48 of Break Out

I watch as he massages first one foot and then the other. How did I get so lucky to have a best friend like him?

“I don’t know. You just did.” Brody looks up at me, smiling, his eyes twinkling with mischief. I realize I said what I was thinking out loud and clamp a hand over my mouth. “You’ll have to find a way to pay that friend of yours back for the awesome foot massage he gave you.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me, and I let out a bark of laughter.

“Oh yeah. How do you suggest I pay him back? Cash? A check? Something else?” I tease.

His expression grows serious, and he’s quiet for a moment before he says, “Kiss him.”

“I can do that.” I slide my legs off his lap and lean in toward him.

“Wait. Let me wash my hands,” Brody says, holding them up between us and all but jumping to his feet. I rub a hand down my face as he heads into the bedroom.

What the heck is going on?

Chapter nineteen

Brody

I’m about to kiss my best friend.

Again.

The woman of my dreams.

I need a moment alone to collect myself before I do something like blurt out that I’m falling in love with her. Because I realize that’s what’s happening. Maybe I’ve always been in love with her and was too blind to see it. I close the door to the bathroom and take a deep breath. I’m still reeling from what happened last night. I know we need to talk more about it. What it really means. What it means for our friendship.

For us.

I don’t want whatever this is between us to end when this trip is over. I want to see what happens between us. Bracing myself on the counter, I take deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart.

I’d never really thought about my life after hockey. My plan was to play until I couldn’t anymore. Then I’d buy a house somewhere far away from everyone and live out my life in peace and quiet. Alone. I’d find somewhere that no one knew me so I could hide out. Disappear. So there was no one I could let down.

Thinking about it now, I realize that was a ridiculous idea. That as much as everyone thinks I’m a loner, that I keep to myself, I’m not really. I want to be around people. Maybe not the people who I was around today. Or at least, not all of them. But there is one woman who I’d like to be around all the time.

Pushing those thoughts aside, I focus on the task at hand—washing my hands, which are trembling slightly now. I can’t remember the last time I felt this way. I’m always calm and composed, on and off the ice, no matter the situation. It’s what everyone on the team has come to expect of me.

This is new—feeling off my game. Like the normal rotation of my life has changed. I close my eyes, slowly counting backward from ten.

“You okay?” Aubrey’s voice comes from the other side of the door. I should probably go back out there. I’ve been gone for a long time for someone who was just meant to be washing their hands.

“Yeah.” I open the door and walk over to where she’s perched on the edge of the bed.

“What do you think about going down to the pool? We’ve got a couple of hours before dinner,” she suggests, and I heave out a breath, grateful she didn’t ask me why I was in the bathroom for so long.

“Sounds good to me.”

Aubrey riffles through her suitcase, pulling out a bathing suit. I try to focus on changing my clothes, pulling a pair of board shorts from the dresser. But I’m distracted by the sight in front of me, my dick instantly getting hard, as she peels her dress off, her back to me.

“Aubrey,” I say and take two steps until I’m standing directly behind her, my hands settling on her hips. Keeping enough distance between us that she doesn’t feel my hard on, even though all I want to do is rub it against her, sink into her, feel her heat wrapped around my dick like I felt it wrapped around my fingers last night.

“Yes,” she says, peeking over her shoulder at me, a coy smirk on her face.

She knows exactly what she’s doing teasing me. Fucking hell. How did I get this lucky that she’s interested in me? I will never stop thanking my lucky stars that I’m here with her doing this, whatever this is.

“I never collected on my kiss.” I growl, leaning closer to kiss the exposed column of her neck.

“Oh, really,” she mumbles, spinning in my hold so she’s facing me. “I did promise you a kiss, didn’t I?”

I suck in a breath at the sight of the woman in my arms, dressed in a beige bra and matching underwear. Fuck. I really am so gone for her. Aubrey blushes at my perusal, her arms coming up to cover herself.