Chapter 32

Reign

GO SAINTS!

SKATE TO STATES!PUCK YEAH! SAINTS ARE GOING TO STATES!

The different colorful banners line the school walls and inside the ice arena. Once again, our team is playing in the state championship game tonight, just like I knew we would. The past few weeks have been crazy. After winning our conference, the real work began. Coach called extra practices and I spent more time studying at the arena than at the library, or in the dorms. My apartment became strictly a place to crash after workouts and team bonding exercises. I would feel sorry for myself if Riley wasn't going through the same thing. The only way my nights were survivable was hearing we were in the same boat. The girls' team was also playing in the state championship game, but their game was two weeks after ours. And prom fell right in the middle of all of it.

The guys gave me a hard time about my prom-posal, but I don't give a fuck. We needed that moment in the spot to help ease some of the hurt from before. I was such an idiot four years ago when I pushed Riley away that day. This year I've been working double time to get her back and keep her and now my goal is almost accomplished. The text from my dad came right after school. Riley was sent her acceptance letter.

I've been playing it cool all day, thinking maybe she's waiting to tell me until after the game tonight. She's an athlete and understands how invested we get in the game and our head space before a game. We do have plans later, celebratory plans, and I can't wait until then to get it out of her. All the hard work we've both put in this year is about to pay off. I'm one step closer to my dream, a life with her.

My phone vibrates in my locker and I reach for it, smiling when I see her contact name pop up.

WIFEY: Good Luck, Thorn! Kick some ass, I love you!! *face throwing a kiss emoji"

ME: Are you sure you can't come down here before the game?

WIFEY: CONCENTRATE! Love you, baby *hockey stick emoji*

I scoff at her words. If she loves me, she'd come down here. No, stop, focus. We're going to get through this game. This is it. The clock on the wall is counting down the minutes until they call us onto the ice. Adrenaline dances in my veins and Lil Durk bumps in my ear pods. This game is the last and biggest of my high school career but certainly not the most important in my life. It is all a prelude to what is coming. I am in my zone, knowing our team can easily conquer.

I change quickly and tape my stick two times before it feels right in my grip. Our coach came in and gave a pep-talk that had my teammates cheering and yelling as we marched to the ice. The second my blade touches the ice, I feel her eyes on me, and instantly find her in the crowd. Riley is wearing my jersey once again, over a pair of ripped jeans with my favorite beanie on her head. Her long hair hangs down in waves and I can't wait to run my hands through it. She is cheering with the rest of the girls when I skate by.

After warm-ups on the ice, our teams are each announced. The deafening roar from the crowd when my name is called has the West Point Wolverines looking a little green. The ice practically vibrates from the cheers and the stomping feet. I smirk at the camera, my face flashing on the giant jumbotron. I reach around my neck and grab my necklace, pressing the little gold numbers to my lips. The whole girls' section cheers, but I only have eyes for my girl. Her cheeks blush and she holds her fingers up in a heart shape.

Before I know it, I'm skating to center ice, going head to head with the Wolverines center. Both of us stare intently, waiting for the puck to drop. My heart is pounding in my chest as the game starts and we take off over the ice. Every minute, our team gives it their all, playing the hardest we have all year. And it shows. We get goal after goal, and even when they keep up with us after the second period, we outshine them again in the third.

Two minutes are left on the clock. My palms are slick with sweat inside my gloves, and I can feel the chill of more sweat gliding down my neck and under my pads. I pass the puck to Carter, who does some fancy stick handling, while we skate to the other team's attack zone. He fakes a shot and passes it over to me. The puck taps my stick and I skate it toward the net, taking the shot. My breath seizes in my lungs, watching it sail through the air, as if in slow motion, until it hits the back of the net and the buzzer goes off. I just made it a three-point difference.

Our defense manages to hold on while the last few minutes of the clock tick down. The offensive players do their best to skate the puck as far out of our zone as they can across the blue lines. The Wolverines somehow swoop up and make a ridiculous last-ditch-effort shot. The final buzzer sounds right as Leif makes his twentieth catch of the night.

"That's my goalie!" I yell at him, our whole team charging the ice to jump on him. We won the state championship. "We're number one!" My teammates erupt in cheers and fist pumps.

Eventually the refs corral us back to our designated areas where we receive our trophy and pose for a picture. Only after that do the floodgates open and fans spill onto the ice. I need to get to Riley. I search her out and find her boot skating across the ice in her white Docs toward me. I hold out my arms and she jumps into them, her legs wrapping around my wait and her arms around my neck.

"You won!" she screams and presses her lips to my forehead, and then my lips. "Reign! I am so happy for you."

My arms tighten around her, wishing I could bottle up this moment and stay here forever with her. Everything else disappears from around us, and I brush another kiss across her lips. "I love you."

Her eyes soften for me and she holds tighter to my body. "I love you too."

Her words light up my insides. Smiling, I skate with her attached to me around the ice. Cheering and celebrating with my teammates and the school. Another championship under my belt. It's time to move on, and I'm taking my girl with me.

I'm still hyped hours later. Even after celebratory strawberry shakes and some tacos. The combination sounds weird but trust me, it's delicious. Our team eats out together and then half the student body makes its way to the landing to celebrate. I don't care where I end up, as long as Riley is in my arms. As much as I want to take her back to my apartment for a private celebration, she talks me into being here. Leif and Carter give me grief over it until I'm a few beers in. My arm is securely around Riley, keeping her attached to me, and for once at a party she doesn't try to sneak off. Her friends join us and we make up this strange little bubble. It makes her happy. Riley's hands move while she chats with her friends, and she even includes her new teammates in the conversation. I love seeing her relaxed like this, fully immersed in my life.

Eventually I get tired of sharing her, after her girls take her out of my grip again to go dance on some truck bed. I find her easily and motion for her to come over. Riley sways her hips and dances toward me, her eyes darkening the closer she gets. She leans down to kiss me, and my hands shoot out, gripping behind her legs and hauling her off the truck.

"Reign!" She calls my name, and her laughter follows. There's cheers and a whole lot of catcalls as I carry her out of the crowd and to where her parked car is. I've been watching her all night and I know for a fact she hasn't been drinking. She takes her keys out and we hop in.

"Your place or mine?" Hey eyebrows pop up and down, and I laugh.

"Whatever you feel like, babe." I really don't care. I just need a sturdy surface to fuck her on. For the past hour, all I've been able to think about is sliding inside her, having our own private celebration. I've been amped since before the game and now the game is over, but the adrenaline still surges in my veins.

"Mine is closer." She smiles at me cheekily. I can't wait to get my hands on her. Leaning over, my hand brushes her long hair back, exposing her neck. I grip the back with my hand, my thumb rubbing over my favorite spot. Riley moans in my hold and something inside me breaks. My lips run along her neck, then my tongue, tracing over that pulse point before sucking on it. I haven't given anyone a hickey ever in my life but suddenly the idea of her being marked by me isn't so bad. I pull away and even in the dim light of the car I can already see where her blood is rushing to the surface. The sight makes my already hard dick almost unbearable.

"Fuck, babe. Just find us a spot to pull over at. I need you." I groan against her skin and she shivers.

"We're two minutes away from the dorm. Hold it together," she snaps, her voice hoarse and laced with lust.

We make it to her dorm. I don't take my hands off her the entire way to the elevator, in the elevator or at her door. Riley manages to keep it together for both of us to the point that I almost can't stand it. I need her lost with me. Her door clicks behind us and I push her back into it, only taking my lips from hers to pull my jersey off. As much as I love fucking her with it on, I need to see all her creamy, soft skin, and run my tongue over every inch of it. My lips skate across her collarbones and between her tits, my hands lifting and grasping each handful, my fingers rolling the hardened nipple until she's moaning in my mouth. I lift her body against mine, using my hips to pin her to the door. Riley's hands run through my hair and she tugs my head back in order to attack my lips with hers.

"Bedroom," she pants against my mouth. Even with the lust filled fog my brain is in, I at least pick out that word. We make it to her room and I set her on the nearest surface, scattering the papers on her desk to the floor. I pull away and reach for her bra but just like before I look at the floor and see the tops of the random papers. My whole body turns to ice. My hand grips her face and I bring her eyes to mine, while pointing at the floor.

"What are those?"

Her chocolate eyes widen and fill with fear and then pleading. "I can explain."

I let go of her and bend to the ground, lifting the documents. Minnesota. Boston. Iowa. Denver. All acceptance letters. And there still on her desk, with the Michigan crest and large, bold print, ACCEPTANCE.

"I thought you weren't going to send them in?"

"I wasn't." She visibly swallows, her eyes filling with tears.

"But you did. Clearly or else they wouldn't have responded." I pick up the one from Michigan. "Were you even going to tell me you got this?"

"Reign." She slides off the desk and reaches her hand out to me. "Can we talk about this?"

I move out of her reach, not because I'm scared I'll hurt her or I'm afraid of her touch. I do it because if she keeps coming toward me, I'm sure I'm going to do something crazy in order to make sure that she stays with me. Chooses me. Fear and anger twist in my stomach. I know why she did it. I heard everything she said. I thought we fixed it that night. I thought the idea of going farther away from me was done and off the table. At the end of the night, she had softened in my arms and promised me. Things since then have been amazing. We were moving forward; I was making progress at tearing down the walls she had been using to protect herself.

What if she looks at these letters and looks at the schools and they can offer her something I can't? I'm indebted now to Michigan. I'm signed. I need to fucking think. I need to breathe and get out of here before I say something that will hurt her or make this just about me.

I drop the letters on her desk like my hands are on fire and back out of her room.

"Reign!" She calls my name, her arms folded over her naked chest.

I can't look at her. I'll crumble. I'll stay and try to comfort her, and I can't yet. I can't be the guy she needs right now. All I want is to tear up the letters, demand she be with me and never let her up from her bed again. I'll kidnap her and keep her in my apartment if I have to. I'm pretty sure I could figure out how to get her across state lines with me, but I'd have to probably knock her unconscious and fuck that sounds complicated.

I swipe my jacket off the floor and flee from her apartment. The aching hole in my chest grows bigger with every step away from her I take until the rest of me is just numb. I miss her already. It was stupid to leave, but I could have done worse things if I had stayed.