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Why does every single word coming out of her mouth make me think she’s in the middle of a good orgasm and dammit, now I want to give her one. Only problem is, she’s not the one-night stand kind of girl, according to Dane, and I don’t want her to think there’s more between us than there is. I’m with her so my buddy can get alone time with Kendra. Yeah, he’s using this ‘relationship’ between Josie and me as an excuse to get together with a girl who’s off limits, but whatever. He’s my best friend and I owe him a thing or two for covering for me over the years.
“Shower?” I say as I step into the bathroom, grab a towel and pass it around my back to Josie. It takes everything in me not to turn around and look.
“There’s only enough hot water for one, and the shower is pretty small.”
I gesture with my head. “You take it then.”
“I’m covered. You can turn.” I spin to face her and her eyes are big and dark as she hugs the towel to her body. Christ, I’ve had a lot of women look at me over the years, but never quite with such vulnerability. My heart does a strange little spin.
“Come here.” Dressed only in my boxers, I pull her body to mine, and use my heat to warm us. “Do you still have your underwear on?”
She gulps. “Yeah, why?”
I reach into the shower and turn the tap to hot. “Then it’s like we’re both in our bathing suits.” I shrug to make light of it, and while I know we both need to warm up, I’m not entirely sure that’s the only reason I’m suggesting we shower together. “No big deal, right?”
“No big deal,” she agrees, and I step into the spray, pulling her in with me. She’s right, the shower is small. Even alone in here, I’d have a hard time maneuvering. I put my arms around her, and since it’s the only way we fit together, she does the same to me. Her hands are little, and when she splays her fingers, her touch does the strangest things to me. I’ve been touched a lot, but never with such curiosity and care. Her brand of tenderness is odd, and…nice. A quiver goes through her body and she moans in delight. Her sounds are fucking killing me.
I rest my head on hers, unable to put it anywhere else. “Doing okay, Josie?” I croak out.
“The cold is leaving my bones.”
I really don’t want to think about bones or what’s happening with the one between my legs. “Yeah, me too,” I manage to push past a tongue gone thick, and she shifts back a tiny inch, and lifts her head to see me. I smile down at her and brush her wet hair from her face. How did I never notice how pretty she was?
The first time I set eyes on her was when Dane and I visited the campus with his brother last Christmas. She never struck me as the kind of girl who went to frat parties, but there she was. I caught her looking at me, but she was gone before I could say hello, and while she’s always quiet in the stands, I’ve seen her at the games. Afterward, she disappears, and I usually lose myself in some puck bunny.
“I’m sorry, Jesse,” she murmurs quietly. “I don’t even know what happened out there.”
“I was getting tangled up, cursed out loud from frustration, and it startled you. You were worried something bad was happening to me, and lost your balance when you looked my way. I tried to help you and we both fell in.”
She chuckles. “I guess that sums it up.”
My hands leave her back and slide down, resting on the sexy curve just above her ass. I grind my teeth to stop myself from going further. I’m not interested in a knee to the nut sack. “You’re kind of the hero in all this.”
Her chuckle vibrates through me. “You’re the one who rescued me,” she points out.
“I guess we could look at it like that,” I tease. I force my hands to her shoulders before I do something I might regret. “Wait, does that mean you now owe me your life, and you know, you’re mine to do whatever I want with?”
Don’t go there, Jesse.
She shifts, and her nipples pokes through her lace bra and presses against my chest. Jesus Christ. “I think the saying is, if you save a life, you’re responsible for that life.”
“Hmm, I think you might be right. Okay so I’m responsible for you now.” I strangely like that idea even though it doesn’t fit with my agenda: head down, all focus on hockey. “Could be worse.”
“Could be worse?” she shoots back and playfully pinches my side.
“Hey.” I wince and try to jump back but can’t. “I didn’t mean it that way. I mean, that doesn’t sound so bad.”
She angles her head, a small smile playing with the corners of her lips. “When talking about being responsible for me, I’m not sure ‘not so bad’ is better than ‘could be worse’ and believe me, I don’t want to be anyone’s burden.”
“Never,” I say. Since when did my words ever get tangled up around a woman before? I’m about to try to explain again, but stop when she speaks.
“I get what you mean, though, and you’re not responsible for me. I’m a nursing student. I’m quite capable of taking care of myself.” Her fingers trail down my back, and as she squares her shoulders to showcase strength, it’s the vulnerability in her that does the strangest things to my heart. “In fact, I’m the one who takes care of others.”
I search her face, and everything inside me softens when my gaze is met with warmth, and a hint of insecurity, something I suspect she’s trying to hide, but here, nearly naked in the shower, it’s pretty much impossible to conceal anything. My throat tightens in a way I’m not sure it’s ever tightened before. Josie might be quiet and shy, but I have no doubt she can take care of herself. Everything about her tells me she’s a nurturer by nature. She’d have to be to go into nursing, but I get the sense that she feels very much alone in this world.
Why is that?
My heart pinches, as the sudden need to be there for her claws at me. Perhaps it’s because I have an older sister I’d do anything for, or perhaps it’s because I have younger brothers that I’ve always looked after, but there’s something happening inside me. Women have always just been for fun. They knew what they were getting into with me. My sole focus is hockey, and I can’t lose that focus. I won’t. I worked my ass off for years to get drafted and I can’t let anything, or anyone stand in my way of playing for the Boston Bucks. Which makes this strange, new pull all that much more confusing. Maybe my brain really is frozen.
