Tomboy (The Hartigans #3)(36)

“Mr. Blackburn is focused on hockey and doing whatever it takes to give the Ice Knights fans an amazing experience at the arena. I won’t be commenting on his private life.”

Yep, that’s it, two sentences that say nothing.

And don’t bother to rush down to Mama’s Place to catch a glimpse of them and get the real story. My sources (okay, Twitter), tell me they left minutes ago—together.

You know what that says to me, hockey fans? That this relationship is on and like @Don’tGiveAPuck, I am HERE for it.





Chapter Thirteen


They no more than made it into Zach’s house before he swung the door shut, picked Fallon up, and did a spin move that had her sandwiched between the wall and him. His mouth against hers was like a one-milliliter shot of epinephrine surging through her body. Every nerve in her was screaming oh-my-God-finally. And his hands on her ass? If she thought about how good that felt when they were still fully dressed, she just might orgasm right on the spot, and there was no way she was feeding his ego like that.

The whole point of this was to get Zach Blackburn out of her system in the most efficient way possible. The fact that it involved orgasms—yes, with an S—was just an added benefit.

She might regret going about it like this—hell, odds were she totally would—but it all felt too good now to think about that. Plus, there was that thing he was doing with his tongue in her mouth and his hands on her body as he pressed that big hard cock of his—sadly still covered in denim—against her core that pretty much obliterated any thought of changing her mind.

An electric pulse hummed through her body, and she tightened her legs around his hips and brought herself closer to him, reaching for some kind of relief. It was better but so not there yet.

Breaking the kiss, she unwrapped her legs. “Let me down.”

Uncertainty flashed across his face, but he didn’t hesitate, allowing her feet to touch the floor.

“Everything okay?” he asked, moving his hands off her and taking a step back, giving her more than enough space to make a run for the door. “You don’t have to do this.”

And there it was again, a glimpse of that soft center that totally fucked with her, and all of Harbor City’s, perception of him as a complete and unapologetic asshole. It would be so much easier if he were that guy. Then she wouldn’t have to say this next part.

“I want to be upfront on one thing.”

“As long as it’s not that you have a Cajun Rage tattoo,” he said, reaching out and curling the end of her braid around his fingers. “I’m sure we can work through it.”

She narrowed her eyes and flipped him off. “Don’t even joke about that.”

If he noticed that she’d given him the bird, he didn’t show it. The man was having a moment with her braid, and she had to admit seeing it wrapped around his fingers was giving her ideas, the kind that made her breath catch.

“So what’s your one thing?” he asked.

It took her a second to pull back from the mental image of her standing naked and facing the wall while Zach tugged her hair and fucked her from behind. Damn, it was getting hot in here.

Annoyed by how easy it was to get distracted by this man, she straightened her spine and lifted her chin, daring him to disagree with her. “Tonight doesn’t mean a thing. I’m getting you out of my system.”

Up went that pierced eyebrow, and the smile that curved his lips was anything but sweet. “Are you saying you think about me when you get yourself off?”

Only while she was in the shower naked and soapy and on her bed in that hoodie that smelled of him and every time she’d slipped her fingers beneath her underwear and played with her clit. That wasn’t information to be shared with him, though. A woman had to have a code, and hers was opposed to sharing her masturbation mental material with the subject of said fantasies.

“You wish,” she said, both words coming out way too soft to be anything but an affirmative.

Damn it, girl. Where is your bitchtitude when you need it?

He took a step closer, his hands going to her hips, but left space between their bodies that only emphasized how close they were. “I think you do, and now you have a bunch of fantasies you’d like to see happen in real life.” He popped the button of her jeans. “But only for tonight.”

That was as far as he took it—the back of his thumbs against the bare skin of her waist—and it took away her ability to focus on anything else for the moment, as if every nerve in her body had temporarily relocated to those two small spots. It was impossible to come just from an almost-touch. She wasn’t even close to it. Still, she’d been in the middle of fucking guys before and been less turned on than at this moment with Zach. Her heart was racing, her nipples were puckered so much they ached, and the throbbing between her legs grew with every shaky breath she inhaled while he just stood there and watched.

“You aren’t going to get attached, are you?” You asking him or yourself, girl?

He dipped his head lower but still maintained that breath of space between them. “Worried about breaking my heart?”

“I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem.” The urge to raise herself up on her tiptoes and close the distance between them was an all-powerful swirl of want and need inside her, desperate to be released—but she had to be sure first. “This is just to get you out of my system. We’re clear?”