Page 13 of Want You

She slid her leg across his chest as gracefully as possible and the moment her knees touched the mattress, she felt herself being yanked back. Then his fingers were spreading her open and his mouth was on her, picking up where it had left off last night.

“You look…” Amanda studied Octavia from the doorway of her office. “Tired and somehow very refreshed. Sex with the hockey player?”

Octavia gave her friend a look that she hoped would shut her up, or at the very least have her wait until the door was firmly closed before she said anything else. Amanda stepped in and shut the door behind her.

“I am exhausted and sore and, I don’t know, high? I feel high, do I look high?” Amanda leaned closer and shook her head.

“No, I think that’s just the post good sex glow. Ugh, I cannot believe you walked out of the arena with the hottest player on the team your first time. Like who does that?”

Octavia smirked back. “Me, obviously.” She laughed, shaking her head. “I told you we met the other night. I literally never thought I’d see him again and then he was just”—she gestured in front of herself—“right there, all hockey playery, and toothless.”

“Did he not show you his teeth the other night?”

“No, he had a full mouth. He told me they were the best money could buy, I just didn’t think he meant that literally.”

“So, are you going to see him again?”

Octavia looked down at her phone. He’d told her he wanted to see her again, but she had been overwhelmed with guilt when she’d been scrolling through her photos and came across a couple Blaze94 had sent. She’d spent the commute to the office revisiting their conversations.

She knew he had an older brother and sister, that his father was out of the picture and his mom was amazing, though she had a tendency to hover, especially with him as he was the youngest. She’d shared about her family and her desire to have one of her own one day despite being terrified about what that meant for her career, something she wanted just as much, even if it wasn’t at her current firm.

He’d laughed and told her he’d stay home with the kids because he owned his company and could work from anywhere.

Blaze94 was funny, kind, and smart. She’d felt an immediate connection through their messages.

Nathan, on the other hand, made her scream, forget her name, and reevaluate what she thought she knew about her own pleasure. He’d listened to her wants, deciphered her needs, and even made her laugh a couple of times. But their conversations had mainly been about what classified something as a sandwich and that wasn’t exactly something you could build a relationship on.

He was also a hockey player and she knew enough about what that meant just from growing up in Toronto. Every guy she went to school with who had skill on the ice had been a fuckboy. It didn’t seem to matter what he looked like either. If he was good with a puck he could get anything he wanted, and to hell with accountability and consequences. Nathan didn’t just have the skill and a good paycheque, he had the looks that made him a hot commodity. The last thing Octavia wanted was to constantly wonder if he was hooking up with some random in another city. Besides, he hadn’t said he wanted anything beyond seeing her again. He was probably thinking the same thing, the sex was good and he’d like to revisit it.

“I don’t know yet, it’s just sex.”

Amanda stared back for long enough that Octavia got squirmy. “Just sex has led to many long-lasting relationships, my friend. Don’t you remember Ryan?” Ryan was Amanda’s ex. They’d dated all through law school and then through their first two years at rival firms. It wasn’t the rival firms that ended it, it was Ryan’s job offer in Vancouver that did.

“I know,” Octavia said, sitting up straighter and fussing with her blazer. “But with Nathan and I right now, it really is just sex. I’m not thinking of anything other than how good—” she stopped dead when she saw Amanda leaning forward eagerly. Nathan was a public figure and even though Amanda was her friend, she wasn’t going to go into much detail beyond what she’d already said. “He’s a good time and a nice enough guy, but I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me, not really.” He knew the sounds she made when she came or when his stubble brushed her inner thigh. But he didn’t know her favourite colour or what she liked in her coffee. Blaze94 already knew those things and she stupidly hadn’t deleted him yet, holding out hope he’d respond. “It’s just sex, Amanda.”

CHAPTER 6

NATHAN

“Berty,” Kerri, the head of the team’s social media, called, using the same nickname as his teammates. “I need you to be on your game when you see that sign, bud.” She joined Nathan as he was walking out of the dressing room for practice.

“What sign?” he asked, looking down at her, already dreading what was going to be through the next set of doors.

“I can’t tell you, your answer needs to be authentic and in the moment. I need you to answer it so the other guys do too.”

Nathan rolled his eyes. As a veteran he was always expected to lead by example. Which was fine when it came to game stuff, he didn’t always love the fluff shit they were expected to do now. When he started in the league fifteen years before, all he ever had to do was talk to a few reporters now and then. Now they had to learn dances and be up on every goddamn trend whatever generation was in charge of the algorithm decided was hot that week.

Kerri’s assistant, Morgan, stood ten feet away from the main door to the rink holding a sign, and the new intern stood next to him holding a phone, already recording.

Nathan stopped in front of the sign and read it out loud, knowing that’s what they wanted. “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” Well fuck a duck.

“You know, I was just having a conversation about this with a friend.” He set the blade of his stick on the ground, leaning thoughtfully on the butt end. “No, a hot dog is a hot dog.”

“Are you sure?” Kerri asked.

“It’s a sandwich for sure,” the rookie Theo Langdon said as he walked up next to him. “Anything in a bun is a sandwich.” He continued by Nathan, jumping onto the ice and hollering back, “Come on old man, don’t think too hard!”

“As I was saying,” Nathan said, rolling his eyes and avoiding looking right at the phone. “A hot dog is the meat, the bun is called a hot dog bun so, a hot dog is a hot dog and not a sandwich.” He nodded once at them and continued on his way.