AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He leaned in, even though there was music playing and sticks slapping. All kinds of noise, but he didn’t want anyone else to hear. “I’m not a kid. You know I’m all man from when you had your hand wrapped around my dick this morning.”
I blushed and there was no way he could miss it beneath the harsh lighting.
“I thought… I thought–”
“I know what you thought, sugar.”
“Why didn’t you correct me? I was hurtful to you.”
“I can’t control what people think of me. Of what’s on social media. I’m sure you learned all kinds of things about me, didn’t you?”
I had, and he was right. What I knew of Dex James from the past two days and what was written about him weren’t the same. The photos didn’t match either. There were images of him during a game. Before or after a game in a suit; I needed to see him dressed up so bad. Out partying. Years ago when he was younger. Even photos of him playing as a kid. It was all up on the internet. Even the bar fight earlier in the summer when they said if he was going to play enforcer off the ice, he should take on that role on it, too. It wasn’t the real Dex at all.
“Because I want you to want me,” he admitted, then set his hand on his chest. “Dex James. The man. Not the famous hockey player.”
It made sense. If I knew who he was by what I read online before getting to know him, I’d have had completely different assumptions about him. A brawler. Cocky. An asshole, even.
But here in Hunter Valley, with me at least, he was just Dex. It was… simple.
Little kids cut past us in their hockey gear and started to skate. Moms and a few dads filled the stands around us doing whatever parents did waiting through a sports practice.
“What does it matter?” I asked. “With me, I mean.”
His dark gaze raked over me, then settled on my mouth. “Often when I’m out with the team, a woman, whose name I don’t even know, will give me her panties along with a phone number written on a napkin. She’s down for giving me a BJ in a bar bathroom just to say she’s been with a pro player.”
I scrunched up my nose. “Lovely.”
“I can’t tell when a woman’s being real.”
I never thought about that aspect. I struggled with men liking me for what I was without being famous. Having the media add their spin would make it so hard for him.
He stood and with his skates on, towered over me.
“With you though, sugar. I know it’s real.”
For some reason, those words seemed important. As if he’d been testing me and now had his answer. “How?”
He bent down, extra low because the skates gave him a few extra inches. “Because you’d have ridden my dick by now. Even if you’re playing the long game, you’d want a piece of me like everyone else. Instead, you’ve been flaunting that hot little body of yours in those sweet as sin nighties and climbing all over me in bed and yet date other men. You’ve got the dentist.”
The dentist. Alan, the perfect man list man. Except I had zero–less than zero–interest in him.
“I don’t want the dentist. I want–”
I bit my lip, realizing I was about to say I wanted him.
“What, sugar?” He took my hand and tugged me to my feet. Put his hand on my hip and squeezed with an urgency that had me meeting his gaze. “What do you want?”
“He’s here!”
“It’s really him.”
“I’m going to marry him.”
“Do you think he’ll sign my helmet?”
“He’s going to sign my forehead.”
We were interrupted as a gaggle of giggling and squealing little girls in head-to-toe hockey gear surrounded Dex. Skates, pads, uniform, helmets. And they were oohing and aahing over him like they were in the presence of a famous movie star. They reminded me of Bridget and her friends when she was that age, which was right before our parents died.
