Alex (Cold Fury Hockey, #1)(67)

He growled the dirtiest things in my ear while he pounded into me. He kissed me roughly, biting and sucking at my tender skin. After an orgasm that almost lifted my entire body off the mattress, even with Alex’s heavy weight on me, I almost cried out in relief when he pulled me into his arms and held me close.

He didn’t run, and maybe I was just imagining the cold shoulder from earlier in the evening.

I was getting drowsy but I didn’t want to fall asleep. We may have caught up on the sex we had missed out on, but I wanted to talk to Alex.

“Thanksgiving is coming up,” I tell him as my finger traces circles around one of his nipples. My head is resting in the cradling valley between his shoulder and chest, with an arm holding me tight.

“And this means what to a Canadian?” he teases.

“Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving,” I tell him firmly.

“Yeah, but not in November,” he argues.

“Did you celebrate it this year?”

“Nope,” he says. “Not my kind of holiday.”

“And why is that?”

Shrugging his shoulders, he says, “It’s a family holiday and I’m not close with my family.”

“Well, Thanksgiving isn’t just about family. It’s also about spending time with friends. So, you are coming to eat Thanksgiving dinner with my family next week.”

“I can’t,” he says with what I’m grateful to note is actually a bit of sadness. “We have a game on Thanksgiving Day.”

“I know. Jim-Dad noticed that when my mom suggested you come and she said we’ll just do Thanksgiving on Friday instead of Thursday.”

“No way,” Alex says suddenly. “You are not moving a family holiday to accommodate my schedule.”

“Shut up,” I tell him firmly. “It’s a done deal and if you want to argue about it, you need to call my mom and argue with her.”

I literally can hear Alex snap his lips shut, on the verge of arguing with me, but I also feel his muscles relax even farther into our post-coital bliss.

“Fine,” he grouses, but when I tilt my head up to look at him, I see the smile on his face. “You think we can invite Garrett too?

“Absolutely, although I think having Alex Crossman and Garrett Samuelson in his home is likely to cause Glenn to stroke out.”

Chuckling, Alex rolls toward me, dislodging my perch on his body. He brings his free arm around my waist and pulls me into the warmth of his body. Our faces just inches apart, he tells me softly, “I lucked out when I met you, Sutton.”

I close my eyes briefly, just so I can memorize the look on his face right now and the reverence in his voice. It seems to dispel most of the doubts I was feeling earlier, but I’m still cautious that there is a part of Alex that is locked away tight. I know I didn’t imagine the fear on his face earlier, following what was an intensely intimate moment between us.

For now, though…I’ll take these words and I’ll live off them.





Chapter 21


Alex


“I think I might barf,” Jim Murdock says with a groan as he slides his chair back from the dining room table and stretches his legs out. “Is it bad manners to unbutton my pants in front of our guests?”

“It’s bad manners to unbutton your pants at the table, regardless if guests are here or not,” Penny Murdock says sternly, even though she has mischief dancing in her eyes.

I feel like I’m going to barf too, I ate so much food, but damn, Sutton’s mom can f*cking cook. I couldn’t stop eating, and as Garrett groans across the table from me, I can see he’s as miserable as I am.

“Well, the food was amazing, Penny,” I tell her as I push my own chair back and stretch out just a bit. “I ate way too much.”

“I was just trying to keep up with this little garbage-gut beside me,” Garrett says as he nudges Glenn with his elbow.

The kid gives Garrett a starry-eyed look and blushes scarlet. “No way. You’re like ten times bigger than me and ate way more than I ever could.”

“You are cold trippin’, kid,” Garrett says with mock anger. “You ate like five plates of food. I only had two.”

“Four,” Glenn counters.

“Three and we’ll call it even.”

“Deal,” Glenn says with a grin and then pushes away from the table to copy his dad and me. Garrett follows suit.

Sneaking a glance at Sutton, who sits to my right, a flush of warmth goes through me. She’s leaning forward in her chair, one elbow propped on the table, her chin resting on the heel of her hand. She’s watching the interplay between Glenn and Garrett with such a dreamy look on her face, completely in love with her younger brother and over the moon at the positive attention he’s getting. I love seeing how happy that makes her, but at the same time it causes a small pang of hurt to go through me because I never had a family member look at me like that. My dad’s gaze was usually too bleary and Cameron was lost in his own world, trying to ignore the f*cked-up relationship we all had.

As I watch Sutton, glowing with serenity and peace, I actually feel a bit envious of her. She had a shitty life to start out, same as me. But her life changed and mine didn’t. I’m not sure if the things we have in common drew us together, but I’m fearful the differences we have could cause a void because maybe I can’t be truly happy for Sutton and the life she’s made.