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My cheeks heated under his thumb. “Thank you. I don’t always dress up, but I figured you’d like it. I think it’s the first time you’ve seen me out of athleisure or pantsuits.”
“Riley, trust me when I say it doesn’t matter what you wear, I can never keep my eyesoff you.”
“Even when I’m in full pads?” I asked, amazed at the sincerity inhis voice.
“Oh, especially then. Did you know I stare at you when you take water breaks? I watch when you take off your mask. There’s sweat running down your face, and your hair is coming out of your braids. You look like a fucking mess…” He groaned, his eyes far away before he snapped back to reality. “I have to force myself to look away before I pop a boner onthe ice.”
“W-what?”
“And when we get into the locker room, you immediately take off your sweater and unsnap your upper pads.Uh, God.”
“I’m still fully clothed then!” I’ve never seen any of my other teammates, even the ones who were attracted to me, look at me with lust when I was freshly covered in sweat. God, Kingston was a freak. I couldn’t stop the incredulous smile on my face.
“It doesn’t matter. You look like a warrior ready to face anyone who challenges you, gorgeous and deadly. It’s like staring at a Valkyrie. I’ve never seen anything like it or met anyone like you. You drive me insane but, at the same time, are the only thing that’s keepingme sane.”
I stared at him, at a complete loss, as his words bounced around my insides like pinballs, tearing up my heart and stirring my stomach.
Flat on my back in his bed, I spread my arm to Sebastian in invitation. Immediately, he flopped lengthwise onto me and rested his head on my sternum. I opened my legs, his stomach slotting between them, and buried my hand into his damp, silky hair.
Sebastian let out a soft sound as my nails scratched across his skull, and he snuggled in closer to me.
“Whatever you do, please don’t stop.” His voice wasdrifting.
“Are you falling asleep on me?” I asked, notstopping.
“Yeah. We have a big game in a couple days. You’re going to need to catch a few hours yourself if you have a hope of stopping Glass.”
A savage smile that Sebastian couldn’t see plastered across my face. “He has one of the hardest slapshots in the game. Did you know that he broke a hundred miles per hour a few months ago? It was only in practice, but it’s still incredible. During games, his rockets are consistently in the high nineties. Add in that little deke he does—which is kind of like the awesome one you’ve pulled against me a dozen times now—and he’s borderline impossible to stop. Hell, he’s on his way to catching up with your shooting percentage. I can’t wait to go toe to toewith him.”
With a little grunt, Sebastian squirmed under my hands, and I realized that I had gripped his hair tight in my excitement. Whoops. I let go and smoothed down the disturbed strands in apology.
He settled again and sighed against me, the puff of air leaving goosebumps in its wake. “Is that why you love hockey so much? The challenge?”
“Well, yeah. What’s the point of doing anything if you’re not going to be the best? And the only way to do that is to play against people better and strongerthan you.”
“Is that why you never switched to women’s hockey?”
“I guess. At first, it was because of Mason. He was my only friend, on and off our team. A lot of the other kids thought I was a little too energetic, but Mason didn’t mind. So I followed him around like a baby duck for a while. As we got older, and the girls started separating from the guys, I fought to stay with them and Mason. Of course, most coaches didn’t want me on their teams, even after I proved myself better than the other boys. That’s when having two lawyers as parents came in handy.” Ichuckled.
Sebastian’s head popped up, a single eyebrow raised. “Did they sueanybody?”
“No, no, no. They never had to go that far, but I’m sure they threatened more than a couple poor coaches. Though I didn’t fully understand what they did for me until after they died, and Mason, Drew, and I had to practically fistfight my junior coach to let me onthe team.”
He folded his hand on my sternum and rested his chin on them, gazing at me through his thick lashes. “Did you ever want to quit hockey altogether?”
“I did once. After my parents died. I barely wanted to move from my bed, let alone go to fucking hockey practice. I didn’t give a shit anymore,you know?”
He nodded at my rhetorical question. “What broughtyou back?”
I smiled. “Mason. My brother tried to help at first, but he had so many other things that he was taking care of at the time. He had bills, funeral arrangements, and college. For the first month after the funeral, before Drew and I got the hang of things, I hardly got out of bed. And Drew was so swamped with everything, while trying to cope with his feelings, that he just barely remembered to feed us every day. So, when I started to show signs of legitimate depression, Mason broke into my room and dragged me to a rink. We skated for hours. It was like magic—I finally remembered why I loved hockey so much and, weirdly, being on the ice helped me connect to myparents.”
“Were they into hockey?”
“Oh God, yeah. My parents dragged me and Drew to games at the Snow Globe all the time. It was our family time. My parents were constantly busy with work, but they always tried to make time for a good hockey game. The arena became our home away from home. Hell, we did most of our homework in stadium seats. I think that’s what made Drew hate hockey a little, but I fell in love. Those were the happiest days of my life. Your parents own a rink, right? You must have lived onthat ice.”
Sebastian heaved out a sigh and rolled off me. He landed on his side and flipped to face me. He tucked an arm under his head and chewed his lip.
“What? What did I say?” I asked, searching his face for the source of the abrupt mood shift.
