Misadventures of a Rookie (Misadventures #11)(49)

She turned in my arms and faced me. I gazed down at her, unsure what she was about to say or do.

Swallowing hard, she said, “Gus—”

“If you’re about to break up with me, save it. It’s not happening.”

Her brows pulled together. “What? Why?”

“’Cause I’m not letting you do it. Yeah, things have shifted, they have changed, and the thing is, if you had said that, I would have gotten pissed too. I was just fucking around, promise. And yeah, I don’t care that you don’t like promises, ’cause I’m a promises kind of guy, and I promise you that it’s okay where this is going. Honestly.”

“Gus, this can’t happen.”

“Well it is, so accept it.”

She held my gaze, her eyes searching mine as her lips pressed together in a hard line. “So I’m not crazy? You feel it too?”

I scoffed before taking her face in my hands, wanting so desperately to be closer than we already were. “Babe, I’ve felt like this was something since this started. I just didn’t want to tell you when you were all let’s have fun.”

She exhaled hard. “We’re in for a load of hurt. You know this, right?”

“Actually, I don’t,” I answered, holding her gaze. There was no light except for the moon shining down on her beautiful face.

“Gus, you are a rookie with a one-way ticket out of here. When that happens, what happens to this thing we’ve found ourselves in?”

I shrugged. Had I thought about that? Sure, but I didn’t want to talk about it. We didn’t have to worry about that yet. “Am I leaving tomorrow?”

She shot me a dry look, her brows pulling together. “No, but it’s going to happen.”

“And when it does, we’ll cross that bridge,” I said with a shrug. “Right now, I want to be with you, I want you to be with me, and I want you to be jealous ’cause I get jealous just thinking of someone even looking at you.”

“You do?” she asked, her cheeks warming a bit with color. “I never thought you’d get jealous.”

“Neither did I,” I said simply, rubbing my thumbs along her cheeks. “But then I never thought or expected some beautiful redhead to come into my life and completely turn it upside down.”

A sneaky grin pulled at her beautiful lips. “What are we going to do about us?”

“Let us be,” I said softly, moving my nose along hers. “Stop worrying about shit that doesn’t matter right now, and just enjoy what we have.”

“We do have a lot to enjoy.”

“We do,” I said, a grin pulling at my lips as I slowly turned her around and pressed her ass into my groin. “Like I’m enjoying the fact you’re more than likely not wearing panties tonight.”

She feigned shock as I slid my hands up her skirt. “Why do you assume that?”

“’Cause you’re wearing a bra,” I whispered in her ear, kissing her lobe. “And you never wear both.”

When I found her soft and dripping wet, I smiled against her jaw. “Just as I thought.”

“Proud of yourself?”

“Not yet,” I breathed against her ear as she let out a little moan once I found her clit. “But I will be when I make you scream my name on this beach.”

“I won’t.”

“You will,” I demanded in her ear, kissing it once more. “And you’re going to like it.”

“I mean, I won’t hate it.”

I smiled.

Yup, I was falling hard for this girl.





Chapter Twenty-Seven





Gus





I was carrying the puck and darting around the ice, looking for my teammates. They were on a line change, which was fine. I had time since the other team was changing too. We were tied at one with two minutes left against the Admirals, and I was aching for a goal. I hadn’t scored all game, and I wasn’t sure I’d get one before time ran out. We really needed to score now to win.

When Roberts hit the ice, I sent it up the boards to him, and he took it in as I rushed with Max to the line. Roberts shot, but it went wide, and when Chomsky got it, he shot it quick, but it went off their defenseman. He hit the ground hard. He was stung, and while it sucked, I took advantage. But when I rushed to the puck, some asshole beat me to it and zipped around me.

“Well fuck!” I yelled as I chased him down, since of course, he was on a fucking breakaway.

I was able to catch up and get in front of him, and when he went to shoot, I laid out, taking the puck to the ribs, right where my pads didn’t fully cover.

Of course.

“Fuck!” I yelled out as he kept jabbing me with his stick to try to get the puck. But then he was on the ground, Chomsky on top of him, pounding him in the head. I tried to stand, but then I was knocked down. A body landed on me, and then I was being called a stupid pussy. I wasn’t sure what I did wrong except play my game, but then, I wasn’t the nicest guy out here. We were all trying to fight for our spot. At that moment though, I was trying to get the fucker off me as whistles were blowing and people were yelling.

Loads of fun.

When it was all said and done, both teams were down two men. Sitting next to Max, I squirted some Gatorade in my mouth and looked around as they dropped the puck in our zone. My side was killing me, but I wouldn’t say anything. A bruised rib wouldn’t get me down.