Which team are you on?

Friday, July 13, 2012

Chapter 15



“Wait...what? No. Shit.” It was a pretty definitive sounding no and when I looked over my shoulder at him, Pat was staring back at me like I’d just uttered something truly vile. “I didn’t say pull it out, I just said pull on it,” I directed, tossing my pony tail and aiming a playful smile in his direction, hoping that he’d follow along, finally. 

“But why?” I could see it in his face, the sort of psychological blockage that is the result of years of being told not to do something. In Pat’s case it had to be the result of years of being told not to pull his sister’s pig tails. 

“Because I asked you to?” I suggested hopefully. Pat looked at where my hair had just slid back down over my shoulder and then his gaze slowly slid back down to my ass. The same ass that I’d asked him to spank, which he also hadn’t done

“Yeah...but why?” he looked downright uncomfortable and then he looked at me like I was the source of that discomfort. It didn’t go long way towards making me feel pretty. 

“Because, Pat! Because I like it like that, okay? Jesus Pat, it kind of ruins it if you have to ask why every time!” I scrambled away from him and pulled the sheet with me so that I could pout without being naked. Being vulnerable is one thing but naked and vulnerable is too much to ask of anyone.

“I just don’t get why you want me to do that stuff.” Pat sat at the end of the bed looking a little bit like that famous statue ‘The Thinker ‘ although Pat looked more like ‘the pouter’. 

“It’s called foreplay,” I grumbled, exasperated and managing, but only just, not to add ‘something you obviously don’t understand anything about’ out loud. There were a lot of things about Pat that I liked, but this part, the bedroom part, was still not working for us and it wasn’t for a lack of trying. 

“No that’s just fooling around...I’m not...I don’t like all that kinky shit,” he muttered and as he looked over at me through his eyelashes, there was consternation in his gaze but there was also fear. Letting my own frustration leak away, I let go of the sheet and what little protection it afforded and crawled across the mattress towards him. 

“I would tell you if you were hurting me, if that’s what you’re worried about,” I offered, wrapping him up with both my arms and my legs while he sat, motionless and didn’t even make the smallest of attempts to return the affection or accept the comfort I was trying to impart. 

“I like you, okay? I don’t want to hurt you and I don’t get why you want me to.” Up until this very point I assumed his conservative tastes in the bedroom had just been an example of Pat being on his ‘best behavior’. Now I was suddenly having to face the fact that, despite the fact that there were women on just about every street corner in the Windy City offering to sleep with him that Pat’s tastes really did run to Tapioca pudding and no darker or more creative than that. 

“I’m sorry,” I apologized softly and pressed my mouth gently to a pearlescent scar on his shoulder. “Forget it. I was just playing around,” I added, trying to be encouraging, to bring him back to me but he only shrugged me off. 

“I need to get some air,” he muttered and ducked out from beneath my grip. Not that I stopped him going. As if I could. 

“Pat...please,” I sighed. All this time I thought that I’d been trying to do the right thing and it had only ended up pushing him away. 

“Don’t...uh...don’t worry or wait up or whatever,” Pat said quietly as he pulled his jeans up and then, while still pulling up the zipper with one hand, he was already texting with the other; one of his teammates no doubt. 

“You don’t have to go anywhere,” I sighed, gathering the sheet again. Now that he was dressed I was back to feeling overexposed. I was about to offer to be the one to leave, after all I was the offender, but Pat shook his head, sending his golden curls into his eyes. 

“You’re ummm fine here,” he mumbled and then, grabbing his t-shirt from where it was hanging on the inner handle of the bedroom door, I watched him go. 

__________________________________________________________________
It was like trying to pick just one candy when you’re standing in front of a long counter full of different sizes and shapes of candy; sour ones, sweet ones, big ones, small ones, all day suckers and ones that would pop and fizz in your mouth and be gone in the blink of an eye. Leaning against the counter, watching the crowd move like a beating heart, trying to pick out just one girl was like only ever wanting gum; boring and totally impossible. 

“What about the blonde with the bodacious ta-ta’s?” Seabs asked, downing half a pint of something dark and frothy and then wiping the cream coloured froth from his lips with the back of his arm. I shook my head. Big tits were nice to look at but they kind of intimidated me. I didn’t really like something in the room that, by comparison, made me look smaller. 

“What about that one?” Sharpe tilted his head towards a dark haired Latina beauty who’d been eyeing all of us since we came in. I didn’t mind a little dark meat, now and again, but tonight a little spicy heat was not on my menu. 

“The problem, as I see it,” Tazer drawled, staring into the bottom of his beer which he’d hardly sipped at, “is there’s nothing here that’s better than what he has at home.” The man was speaking the truth and I tipped my beer up, finishing it and letting out a loud belch. I did have willing, hot pussy at home but that didn’t mean that I didn’t want something from the menu tonight. 

“Her,” I pointed to a slim, athletic blonde in one of those barely there backless tops that was all side boobs and moved like metallic liquid over her tits. I licked my lips as she flashed her baby blues at me. 

“What do you want that for?” Tazer asked, giving her a glance that was only long enough to take in that she was female, probably. 

“I just want some...y’know, vanilla,” I replied, and pushed off from the bar. She was giving me that shy sexy smile, like she wanted me too but she was worried about leaving her friends. I was a step and a half away when, with one hand, Tazer hauled me back. 

“Whaddaya mean, vanilla?” Guys around us, not our guys from the team but other guys stepped back when they saw the look on Tazer’s face when he curled my collar in his hand and pulled me up onto my toes. Jesus Christ on a bike, the man was always being the white fucking knight to the rescue even when the chick wasn’t in the room. 

“Dude you don’t know, okay?” I gave him a hard enough shove and I’m guessing Seabs or someone else behind me was concerned enough that the big dope let me down but he didn’t let me go. “She’s not, like, normal,” I snarled, rolling my shoulders which did nothing to free me from his grasp. 

“Then. What. Are. You. Doing. With. Her?” I could feel the hot wet mist of his spit on my face and tried to turn my face away, except then I began to strangle in my own shirt. Lose, lose. 

“I like her, okay?” I growled back at the overgrown ape and this seemed to cool his jets, for the moment, but I wasn’t fooled. “But man...I don’t even know if mahogany is even normal or whatever.” 

“You mean monogamy, dumbass,” Sharpie smirked and cuffed the back of my head playfully. I shrugged. 

“Whatever. I mean, look at everything else in nature, they don’t stick with one chick,” I pointed out and looked to Seabs for confirmation. He shrugged, shook his head and returned his attention to the hopping scene in front of us. 

“Except for, y’know, most bird species, wolves...,” Tazer began until I shot him a dark look.

“Figures you’d know shit like that, you spend too much time on your own,” I grumbled back at him. “What I’m trying to say is that maybe it’s crazy to focus on just one person. Maybe that’s, like...unnatural or whatever. Maybe what we’re meant to do is share the wealth, y’know?” 

Offf cooooouuurssse the leopard never changes his spots.” It didn’t surprise me that Jon turned on me but the look of disappointment on Sharpie’s face stole my buzz. 

“You don’t get it. She’s fucking with my head, okay? Anyway, it’s none of your business,” I snapped at both of them. 

“Hey, I think what Tazer’s trying to remind you is that you like the girl, maybe you just need to cool off. We can grab a slice somewhere...,” Seabs offered but I cut him off with a roll of my eyes. 

“No, he’s on his fucking high horse,” I snarled, aiming a dark look towards Captain Know It All.

“Hey man, all you had to say is you couldn’t keep her satisfied all by yourself and I’d have come over.” Carbomb was trying to lighten the mood and, I think, was kind of bummed that we were dumping all over his buzz. I gave him a smile and a pat on his back.

“I’ll try and remember that next time.” 

“Yeah, like she’ll still be around if you don’t go home right now.” I turned and glared at Jon who stared back at me like he knew something I didn’t, kind of like he does most of the time. 

“Whatever. You guys do whatever. I’m gonna get me some. You girls go change your tampons.” Sharpie looked shocked when I snapped at them. Jon just smiled smugly back at me. 

“You go for it champ. Your fucking loss buddy.” I flipped him the bird and then turned and started to wade into the heaving mass of bodies. 

___________________________________________________________
I’d had to be there when he’d imploded. I’d known the minute Seabs had texted to tell me that Pat had dragged him and Carbomb out to a club in the middle of the week. The little guy had been steadily heading for the edge of the cliff but it was kind of a surprise that it wasn’t me that had pushed him off the cliff.
It was her. 

The read headed vixen had driven him out into the night looking for straight up missionary. It was hard for me to understand how a guy that ran around looking for pussy as much as Kaner had since I’d known him could be that afraid of a little kinky fuckery. Of course most of the time either he was gooned to the gills, the girl was or, and this was far more likely, both that he probably hadn’t had much of a chance to experience more than the most basic, straightforward automatic action. 

That and the poor kid didn’t have any imagination to speak of.

I was still shaking my head over it as the heavy mechanical doors of the elevator opened on my floor and I saw her kneeling on the mat in front of the doors to my place, head down. Her hair was pulled back into a simple braid that lay between her shoulder blades like an invitation saying ‘lead me’. 

It had crossed my mind to go past Kaner’s place. After all it was only a block down from mine but from the moment I’d seen her I’d known it would have to be like this. She would have to come to me. 

I wondered as I crossed the hallway and reached over to  put my key in the lock how she’d gotten in but answers to those and other mundane questions like what kinky play had sent Pat screaming from the house tonight could wait until later. Now I wanted to know what was under the sleek black trench she was wearing, besides the very high heeled boots that I found myself looking at as I pushed the door open. 

“Go inside,” I told her simply, stepping aside as she stood without my aid, “take off your coat, then wait for me.” I wanted to know what was under the jacket but after locking the door I forced myself to go straight down the hallway. I had preparations to make before I was ready for her. 

___________________________________________________________

Floor to ceiling windows let in the Chicago night, lights from other buildings and the streets below lent a kind of glow to the otherwise darkened room. A man’s living room complete with dark leather furniture, a wide screen that covered half a wall and a few reminders that, at least inside, Captain Serious was still a boy, an Xbox 360 was plugged in and games were strewn across a glass coffee table.

I took off my jacket and hung it up on a stand and then knelt in front of that glass table and glared at my reflection. Had I given up too easily, given in to Jon’s dark charms too readily? I was angry but it wasn’t that seething anger that had driven me to his door. It wasn’t even the almost certain knowledge that Pat would not be coming home to find me gone. 

I wanted this, maybe even needed it. 

I had thought I could teach Pat, that he would learn but tonight when he’d run from something as simple as pulling my hair while fucking me from behind I’d finally realized that I was wrong, that it wasn’t simply a lack of knowledge, it was a lack of desire. I’d felt desire uncoil within me the moment I’d heard Jon’s voice tonight. It felt like a bear just waking from a long winter’s nap slowly getting to her feet and shaking off the cobwebs. 

“I usually prefer a preset time to a meeting but I will forgive you, this once.” I did my best not to smile as I felt the palm of his hand stroke down over the back of my head and then down my braid. “I also prefer to have an agreement in place, rules agreed to beforehand,” he continued, slowly winding my braid around his hand before he finally yanked down on it, hard, forcing my head back so I had no choice but look up at him and into his espresso coloured eyes. “Maybe tonight there will be no limits,” he said quietly as his dark gaze travelled over my face and down to my cleavage, my breasts cupped in a tight black and purple lace corset. I didn’t argue. I felt like I’d been holding myself wound up as tight as a jack in the box waiting to be sprung by the last note of music for too long. “Give me your word,” he hissed. I licked my lips.

“I prefer to use the stoplight,” I whispered. His crooked grin appeared and he tipped his head to the side as he considered those words. 

“I’m not sure I believe in yellow, or do you prefer amber?” he asked, the knuckles of his free hand caressing my cheek. 

“Sometimes slower is...nicer,” I whispered, my eyes fluttering closed. I could feel his caress on my cheek as if it was between my thighs and I shuddered. He made a noncommittal noise and then I felt his grip on my braid loosen. 

“Go to the playroom, pick your poison...to begin with anyway.” I got to my feet slowly and turned, head and eyes down as I passed him, walking slowly in the direction from which he’d reappeared. I glanced sideways at the pale flesh I could see out of the corner of my eye. He had taken off his shirt and even in the near dark of his living room I could see how cut he was, how lean and muscular. I flexed my fingers at my sides. There were miles of sculpted flesh to explore, but a sub does not touch her dom without his permission, ever. 

There was only one room with a light on in it and I guessed this was where he wanted me to go. I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek as I turned into a room dominated by an enormous green ping pong table. I stopped just inside of the room, not sure where to go. 

Jon walked by me, folded one side of the table up and pushed it against the wall. Fastened to the underside of the table were two different sets of restraints and I heard the distinctive ‘click’ of buckles being opened before he turned and beckoned me forward. 

“I’m going to take your panties off,” he told me, his voice deep and husky in my ear. As much as I wanted to watch him move around me, I kept my gaze forward as he moved around behind me and slid his fingers beneath the edge of the black satin. I felt the warmth of his skin against mine as he slowly dragged my panties down over my ass, down my thighs to my knees right above the top of my boots. “Hmmm, I like it like that,” he said as if he were talking to himself and not to me. “Up.” I stared at the table in front of me and felt the fabric stretched thin between my legs and frowned. I tried raising one leg knew I looked like a duck out of water. With a hand on either side of my waist he lifted me with ease onto the table and onto my knees. “Hands,” he moved along side of the table and led both of my wrists into a leather cuff which he pulled tight. Not tight enough to hurt but tight enough to make it clear that there would be no wiggling free. He ran the back of his hand thoughtfully along my arm and we both watched goosebumps race ahead of his touch. “Green?” he asked with a meaningful glance up at the restraint holding both of my wrists just above my head.

“Green,” I agreed. 

I lost sight of him as he moved behind me, but I felt his hand trail down over my shoulder and down my back. I tensed, expecting a firm slap on my ass but instead the back of his hand continued to slide down the outside of my thigh and down to my boots. 

“I like these,” he said quietly, the palm of his hand running over the black leather covering my calf, “you should wear these more often,” he added as the palm of his hand slid over my heel and suddenly tugged on the metal spike of the actual heel of the boot, forcing my legs further apart and the elastic of my panties to bite into my flesh. 

I heard his self satisfied chuckle right before I heard the metallic snap of handcuffs locking around my ankles. I glanced over my shoulder at him. He was enjoying the view, his gaze locked on my ass and my pussy while his hand stroked along the stiff leather of the riding crop I’d picked up from the toy chest just inside the door. I watched his palm stroke along it’s dark tanned length and felt my mouth go dry. 

As if he was reading my mind with a snap of his wrist he cracked the crop against the edge of the table, just shy of my ankle. The sound alone made all of my muscles clench and I shuddered in anticipation. 

“Green?” he repeated, running the soft, flexible ‘stinger’ end of the crop up the inside of one of my thighs.

“Green,” I gasped as he dragged that ‘stinger’ over my pussy lips. His deeply dark gaze held mine as he brought that stinger down on my ass. I gasped. He smiled. “Green,” I repeated and his grin grew by inches every time he brought that crop down on my ass, sending short, sharp shockwaves right through me. 

Between each stroke he toyed with me, gently stroking the soft end of the crop over my now aching pussy lips but always just short of that spot that could have given me release. Each stroke got a little harder, took me closer to the edge of pain, but each gentle stroke between was just enough to take the edge off.

He knew exactly what he was doing. 

He crossed each stroke so that the pain was spread out, so that it was never too intense in the same place. He teased me slowly, bringing me closer and closer to the edge without letting me get all the way there. I was gasping, whimpering when I felt his hands suddenly spreading my ass cheeks apart and his tongue diving deep into my pussy. 

I screamed his name and nearly pulled my arms out of their sockets dragging down hard on the restraints around my wrists. I could hear the chains on the cuffs dragging across the table as I shifted, trying to guide him but then his hands locked over my calves and he held me down. 

“Yellow,” I hissed. I felt his grip ease up and his then his tongue lapped slowly upwards until, finally, I felt his tongue swirl slowly around my pearl. My entire body went slack and I groaned. 

I felt his fingers slide inside of me, and felt the full strength of him behind them, throwing my body forward, pulling down hard on the restraints. He fucked me hard with two fingers while rolling my clit between two fingers of his other hand until I was teetering, windmilling on the precipice, my eyes squeezed shut, panting, gasping for air, and then he withdrew.
 
I whimpered like a kicked puppy. I hung there in my restraints, unable to give myself relief, feeling the blood still pooling in my aching pussy, now cooling, almost painful and then there was the snap of the crop across the backs of my thighs.. My head tilted back and I screamed. 

“Yellow?” he asked, his hand sliding between my thighs, slowly, gently massaging my clit until I was panting again. 

“Green,” I gasped. His hand withdrew and I felt the sting of the crop again, this time right across my ass so I could feel the current of air across my entrance. I moaned out loud, the moan growing longer and deepening as he shoved his thumb inside of me and slid the pad of his middle finger over my clit. 

“Still green?” he asked and my only reply was to nod. Yes, more of this. I wanted more of this, needed it. 

I heard him chuckle and then felt the sting of the flat of his palm on my ass. I grunted, teeth clenched together and then mewed like a newborn kitten as his hand slid around until his fingers brushed lightly over my clit.

“I could bring you now,” he whispered before pressing his lips softly against my shoulder blade as if he was the most tender, the most affectionate of lovers, “but I won’t. Do you know why?” I shook my head, gasping as he pressed his fingertips up against my clit, rotating in tight, hard circles that were bringing me so close. “You haven’t earned it. You’re only here because he is out playing. When the cat’s away hmmmm my little mouse?” I shook my head but I didn’t breathe life into the lie. It wasn’t the only reason that I was here but it was certainly one of the reasons. “I forbid you from touching yourself until I see you again,” he breathed, his voice warm and low in my ear. “That means no fingers, no toys, no shower wands...no release until I give it to you, do you understand?” he asked, his free hand now toying with my braid and when he asked the question he pulled down on it, forcing me to turn my head and look at him. I stared at intently at his mouth. I was so close I knew that if he kissed me I would cum, then and there,. Reading it on my face or in my eyes he withdrew again, licking his fingers clean while holding my gaze. “Mmm, I knew you would taste sensational. Does he tell you that? That you taste like poire belle Hélène?” I blinked at him. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that Pat could barely find his way around down there with a roadmap, a compass and a flashlight but suddenly it felt disloyal to even speak of him so I pressed my lips together and kept my opinions to myself. “You’ll go back to his place now and when he comes home with his tail between his legs you’ll tell him that you’re mine now and then...well then we’ll see about...this.” He slid one, long, finger inside of me and I groaned like a two dollar crack whore. 

I couldn’t argue. As he undid my restraints and helped me off the table I said nothing. Even as he pulled my panties up while I leaned heavily against him for support I didn’t say one word in either complaint or self defence. I had given myself to him. I had no right to speak. 

As he helped me into my jacket I felt tears begin to build in my eyes. I had betrayed Pat. I could have gone to almost any of his teammates and it would have hurt him less and the smug, self satisfied look on Jon’s face as he did up the last button on the jacket told me he knew it too. 

“We’re horrible people,” I whispered. Jon looked up at me and for the first time his gaze warmed into something that was nearly a human emotion.

“We are who we are,” he said softly and then cupped my cheek in his big hand. “He is who he is and if he was enough for you, you wouldn’t be here.” I blinked, words failing me as the absolute truth of his words sunk in. Then, with an almost apologetic smile, he lowered his lips to brush them tenderly over mine. “I’ll call you a cab,” he whispered and his hand lingered on my cheek long enough that I thought he might actually ask me to stay and then he turned and reached for his phone which was beside his keys in a wooden bowl near the door and I was left to stare at the mile wide expanse of his back while he arranged for me to be delivered back to his teammates home like an unwanted gift being unceremoniously returned.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Chapter 14


I don’t usually like coming home from a road trip. Usually I prefer to be on the road, mostly because home means looking after myself; cooking and trying to figure out how to entertain myself. Now I didn’t have to do any of that.

I had Beth. 

Waking up and hearing her in the shower felt...comforting. Reaching over and brushing my hand across the still warm sheets where she’d slept beside me felt peaceful, as did her scent which was everywhere, not just on the pillow next to me. 

There were those candles that were all along the mantle over the gas fireplace that smelled like cookies right out of the oven and then there was lotion she put on, that scent was everywhere; in the bed, the bathroom and even my car. It smelled...well not flowery and not sugary exactly but something in between. I found I liked getting in my car and catching just a hint of it, or opening the front door and there it was again. It was like putting on my favourite pair of sweats and sitting down with one of those forbidden sugary cereals on a Sunday morning. It made me like coming home. 

Thinking about that made my stomach growl so I rolled over and after a yawn and a stretch I headed for the kitchen. My fridge had never had this much actual food in it before. I had actual choices. I opted for a tub of this Greek Yogurt she was always eating and grabbed the bag of granola she’d gotten me hooked on and headed for the table. 

“How about a bowl?” she slid one in front of me and snatched the tub just before I was about to dump the granola into it. “Do you want oj or apple juice with that?” 

“Uh...coffee,” I replied as she scooped the thick white yogurt into the bowl in front of me. Sometimes it was also a bit like having my mom or one of my sisters around. She gave me one of those ‘were you raised in a barn’ looks and then walked back to the fridge and put the rest of the yogurt away. I watched her move around the kitchen like she’d lived here for years and not just weeks. There were different kinds of coffee in my cupboards now and we’d even bought one of those fancy espresso making machines so that I didn’t insist on going to Starbucks every morning, even though I’d pointed out that it was right downstairs. “Aren’t you eating anything?” I asked when the she handed me a steaming froth topped cup and sat down to nurse one of her own. 

“I will, at the office. They always have stuff there,” she mumbled, staring into the distance. She’d done that, stared into space like that, on the drive home and even after we’d gone to bed where she’d sat with a book propped against her knees. I knew she’d hardly turned the pages at all. 

“Are you...is something wrong?” I wasn’t used to caring about how someone else felt. I mean, apart from my sisters and my mom, I usually didn’t have to. My dad is like me, or I’m like him. We don’t go around just ‘feeling things’ and we certainly don’t talk about it. 

She glanced over at me and gave me half a smile. 

“Fine, you?” It looked like an honest answer but I felt this urge to press her, just to be sure. 

“If you don’t want to go to work or something...,” I began, only to watch her half of a smile become a full one. 

“I like work, actually,” she said and pursed her lips as she studied me through narrowed eyes. “Are you even allowed to pull a sicky? I assume that’s what you’re suggesting,” she added, looking amused. 

“No, not really. I mean...yeah sometimes you say you’ve tweaked something and you get a ‘maintenance day’ but that’s about it,” I replied honestly. She smiled and took a sip of coffee and after a minute I did too while I wondered if I asked her to spend the day in bed with me if she would and if I wanted her to. I felt sort of surprised that the idea appealed to me but then decided it was still too early in the season to be pulling the injury card. 

“Maybe we could do something after you get out of practice, take me for lunch or something?” she suggested. I nodded eagerly.

“We could go to Perry’s,” I recommended, my mouth watering at the thought of the corned beef on rye. She smiled at me over her coffee. 

“Sounds like a plan.” 
____________________________________________________________


The wolf whistles started before I’d even made my way down the corridor. I shook a finger at Duncs and Seabs who were standing at the end of the bench and I couldn’t help but smile when Pat turned, mid stride, to aim a wide grin at me, which sent him skating full speed into Hoss’s back which, fortunately, didn’t even faze the big forward. It did make all the guys laugh though. Well, almost all of the guys. Jon leaned against the low wall in front of the bench and stared at me with those fathomless dark eyes of his and his lips didn’t even twitch, never mind form an actual smile. 

“I need your signature on a couple things,” I said quietly, holding a clip board towards Coach Q whose expression immediately morphed from murderous to the kind and gentle teddy bear grin that hid behind that big bushy moustache 

As he took the clipboard from me and the rest of the guys went back to horsing around out on the ice, Jon continued to stare at me with this menacing expression on his face, like I’d done something to piss him off. The thought of what I’d done...what Pat and I had done...what he had seen us do made me turn away. 

“So how you fitting in Beth?” Coach Q asked without looking up from the paperwork in front of him. It was a press release, not really something that required his immediate and undivided attention but anything with his or any of the other management’s names in it had to have approval. 

“Fine,” I replied, worried if I said more that I’d give away just how nervous it made me to be there, to have Jon staring at me so intently. I could feel sweat begin to trickle down the back of my neck. 

“Well, you gonna say hello to your young man before I make him skate ‘til he pukes?” he grinned as he handed me the clipboard and I felt my entire face get hot. I told myself he was just being nice, nicer than he had to be, but it felt like everyone knew. 

“Uh...nah,” I smiled back at him. “Y’know, treat ‘em mean....” The Coach’s eyes lit up and he let out a bark of laughter as he laid one massive bear paw on my shoulder. 

“Thatta girl,” he smirked and then blew his whistle so hard I winced. All of the guys raced onto the ice. All of the guys except Jon who remained where he was, leaning against the low wall in front of the bench. I told myself not to look though I knew it wouldn’t accomplish anything to play it cool and still, I looked. 

He tipped one of the water bottles into his mouth. Most of the water went into his parted lips, making the muscles in his thick neck work as he swallowed, but some of it trickled down over his chin, down his neck and disappeared into his jersey. I followed the progress of the clear, cool liquid and licked my lips. I wanted, very much, to lick every last drop from his skin. 

As if he knew I was watching, and he probably did, he turned towards me upended the bottle over his head, sending a cascade of water over his short, dark hair. My breath came out in a gasp as the water plastered his hair to his head, giving me an image of what it would be like to look up at him, sweat dampened, working hard over me. 

I tore my gaze away and forced myself to walk slowly away, down the tunnel. Not run but walk, with measured steps until I could turn the corner of the hallway and lean against the cool concrete wall. I pressed my thighs together, the slight pressure and friction enough to make me gasp and send the clipboard clattering to the ground.

____________________________________________________________


I dodged the usual smattering of reporters waiting for a sound bite outside the dressing room calling out a good natured apology I didn’t mean at all and promising that Kaner would be glad to talk to them. That would only hold him up a few minutes, if at all. Pat wasn’t one for speech making. 

She was collecting her purse and checking her phone as she got up from behind her desk. She heard me come in but the smile that died the moment she saw it was me standing in the doorway told me clearly she’d been expecting him.

“I have plans,” she hissed, trying to slip by me, which was impossible, or at least I made it so, filling the doorway easily and blocking her one and only escape route. 

“He’ll be here, soon,” I told her, looking over her shoulder to confirm that the GM’s door was open and the room dark. They had already gone for lunch. We were alone. 
 
She had gone very still, the way a bird will sometimes when it knows it is being watched, as if it can fool you into thinking it is a statue or that it doesn’t exist at all. There was no chance of my thinking that of Beth. The scent coming from her skin filled my head and the desire to run my tongue over her skin to see if it tasted as sweet as it smelled was nearly overwhelming. 

“I lost, I’m out,” I told her. She continued to stare at the centre of my chest, as if by not looking up at me she could pretend that I wasn’t there. I wasn’t about to let her fool herself into thinking that. I cupped her chin in my hand and despite her attempt to defy me, I managed to force her angry gaze to meet mine. “But then I think you knew that would happen. You knew that if I couldn’t have you I would make someone a poor imitation.” The corner of her mouth twitched as if that thought would make her smile but she quickly controlled her expression and continued to stare defiantly at me. 

“Is that what she was doing there?” she asked, her voice dripping with envy while her gaze remained more or less neutral. 

“Oh the things that I did to her,” I whispered, lowering my lips to her ear, “I’m sure she’s still having trouble sitting down.” She tried, oh she tried so hard but a shiver ran the length of her body and I could feel it as I run my knuckle along the curve of her neck to her shoulder. “I thought of you when I did those things Beth. I think you would like me to do those things to you.” It’s not a question. I already know the answer. Her breathing shortened and as I pulled back enough to look down into her eyes, her pupils were large and her lips parted, ready for a kiss. A kiss I wanted to give her, but not yet. 

“Does she come every time you call?” I knew that what she’d meant to say was when I say jump Gabby asks how high and the answer was, of course, yes, but I couldn’t help but grin at the double entendre.

“I think I could make you cum just by telling you to,” I whispered, my lips almost touching hers. Her breath hitched and she looked so exquisitely frightened and turned on all at the same time that I had to restrain myself from picking her and carrying her back over to her desk. It would have been easy to bend her over it and the way she licked her lips as she looked up at me with a silent plea in her eyes told me that she would let me do it too. “In fact,” I whisper, pressing her back into the room, “if I told you to touch yourself right now, I bet you’d cum for me.” 

She blinked at me, and it’s there, the vision in her pretty little head and as I watched, she battled with herself over the idea. It was pretty clear to me that something about it appealed to her. Maybe the idea that she’d have some sort of power over me by making me watch, as if that is all that I would do. Still, she gave the idea some thought before shaking her head slowly from side to side. 

He hasn’t lost yet,” she whispered hoarsely and then made a break for it, trying to deke around me but I haven’t trained for years to be bypassed by some rookie. Before I’ve even thought about doing it my arm snapped out and easily grabbed hers’, stopping her in her tracks and pulling her against me.

“Oh but he will,” I promised her, grabbing both of her shoulders and pressing my mouth over hers’ in a kiss that she fought, at first and then, with a whimper, yielded to. I kissed her hard, wanting her lips to be swollen, to have been kissed when he saw her. He would not ask because he’s a pussy, but he would know someone had kissed her, hard and thoroughly, the way a woman should be kissed. 

It stung when she slapped me but it wasn’t because of the sensation of the palm of her hand coming into contact with my cheek that made me let her go. I only had two choices;  it was that or take her there, in that room, right then and there. It would have been good, I had no doubt about that at all, but it wasn’t not what I want. 

“But he hasn’t,” she gasped and brushed the back of her hand across her mouth as if she can erase my kiss and this time I let her go when she pulls to free her arm and charges by me. I listen to her heels clicking down the hall and hear him call out to her, a happy go lucky greeting that I roll my eyes at. He might not have been so happy if he’d seen me kissing his girl, or better than that, fucking her over her desk. 

The golden boy; I can’t help but think how sweet it will be when he realizes that I’ve taken her from him and with that vision in my mind, I whistled tunelessly as I headed out into the hallway