CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

V innie

Evan’s skin prickles with heat, and I decide that this conversation would be much better if it took place without shirts. In fact, this conversation would be much cooler if it took place without words, and we just continue kissing.

I pull away from him. He whimpers, and I yank off his shirt, yank off mine. Then we’re in each other’s arms again. Our lips are once again dancing. His mouth is heaven itself when he sucks on my tongue.

I wriggle free from my pants, flopping on the bed. It’s not the shortest way to undress, technically, but I’m not breaking connection with Evan again. He’s following me, and we flay on the blankets and pillows, undoing all the housekeepers’ good work.

Finally, we’re naked. I tangle our legs together. Only then do I relax, allowing Evan’s warmth to surge through me. Every cell in my body throws a celebration. Evan is a lifetime of Christmases and birthdays and fourth of Julys. He is cozy blankets and bright balloons and boat rides on a lake.

I glide my hands along his naked form, feeling the firm muscles beneath his skin. I brush my hands from his trapezius to his lats, then I trace my hands over the curve of his waist, lingering briefly until I reach his gluteus maximus, my personal favorite.

“Vinnie,” he moans.

I grin and decide to suckle the thin skin on his neck below his ears. He pants, and I slide my tongue upward and capture the lobes of his ears in my mouth.

“You’re killing me,” he murmurs.

“In the best way?”

“The absolute best way.”

His heart surges beneath mine, hammering against his ribs as if frantic to meet mine. Well, that makes two hearts.

“I want us to be together,” I say.

“We are together,” he says, his voice firm. “We’re a couple.”

“Stella is going to give me a talking to.”

He snorts. “You deserve it.”

“I’m sorry,” I murmur again.

“You were trying to protect me. You always try to protect me. It’s what you do.” His looks turns stern. “And now you can start asking me what kind of protection I want.”

“Deal.”

“You haven’t told me what I can do.”

“You’re already perfect, Evan. You always have been.”

“No one’s perfect.”

“Well,” I admit. “Maybe you weren’t perfect for Valentina. But I’m pretty sure I have lots of fans who would gladly battle alongside me in defending your overall awesomeness.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“But maybe I should do a thorough inspection of your body just to make certain.”

“Such competence.”

I move my hand along his high, hockey-perfected ass. Then I still, my fingers slowing. Something catches in my heart.

“Hey,” Evan says, his voice soft. “I know how it works.”

“Maybe you won’t like it.”

“I’ll like it because it’s with you.”

I hesitate, and he laughs against my shoulder. Then he takes my hand and dips it in the space between his two luscious globes.

“Better?” he teases.

My mouth dries, and I think I’m nodding, which is silly, because our heads are so close that he probably can’t see.

I press the pad of my finger against his hole. I hold my breath, but then he wriggles his bottom up and down, dragging his inner core along my finger.

“So good,” he murmurs.

Then I grin, because I have a better idea.

EVAN

Vinnie flips me over, and my hard, leaking cock presses against the blankets. He grabs hold of my ass, then takes his time squeezing. Nerve endings I wasn’t aware of spring to life. He spreads my cheeks, and cold air hits the space between. I shiver. I’ve never felt so exposed, so open. This isn’t an experimental finger in the dark. This is someone looking at...me. I might have spent a sizable number of minutes naked in various locker rooms during my career, but no one has ever seen my asshole before. Vinnie is the first.

My heart flutters, but then Vinnie speaks in his rich baritone voice, and everything is okay.

“So pretty,” he murmurs.

I hold back a snort. I’m pretty sure he’s not talking about...that part.

But then I feel something wet there. It’s his tongue. Vinnie is licking me.

Not just licking. Sucking and tracing...

My cock hardens, moving from limestone to granite. I thrust into the blanket.

“You like that, baby?”

“Yes!”

Vinnie laughs, his voice rippling over my body like the bourbon they serve at the really fancy bars with dim lights and leather seats.

Vinnie flips me over and tackles my cock. I look down at him. He is gorgeous.

Still, I frown.

“Aren’t you going to...”

His brows knit together, worry still overtaking his features. He’s still nervous, still cautious around me, still treating me like a precious vase from some super old Chinese dynasty.

He slips his mouth from my cock, applying just that perfect amount of suction as he slips his mouth from it. “What am I going to do?”

“Well—” Heat floods my cheeks.

He laughs. “Would you like more attention to your bottom?”

“I want all the attention.”

“All?” His voice is soft.

I nod. “I want to be with you, Vinnie. Really be with you.”

“You don’t have to. Not for my sake. If all I ever do is get to hold you in my arms...”

I toss a pillow at him.

His eyes widen. “What was that for?”

“You were going to say something romantic.”

“And that’s a problem?”

“Well. Maybe not. But you could be fucking me.”

Heat blazes in Vinnie’s eyes. “Yeah. Maybe we can try that.”

I don’t wait for him to maneuver me. Instead, I scramble onto all fours.

“Do you have lube?” he asks.

“I wasn’t planning for this to happen. It’s never happened before.”

I glance at the phone. We could call reception, but I don’t want the story of us coming out be because some hotel receptionist decided to tell some online gossip account that we’re making the hotel staff bring us sexual supplies.

“You probably have some lotion in the bathroom.” Vinnie scrambles from the bed and reappears soon with a bottle of some French-sounding brand with the requisite clear liquid.

He hesitates. “I’m clean. I haven’t been with someone since I last got tested—”

“I trust you,” I say. “Same.”

He nods, then crawls onto the bed. He pulls me up again, and I feel the heat of his arms, the brush of his hairs as they rub against my body. He moves his cock along my crack, and I tremble at the feel of it pulsing, at the feel of it leaking. “Like this?”

“So much. Put it in.”

He laughs.

His fingers, now cold and slick with that same French-sounding lotion, find my bottom. He traces his fingers along my crack, and longing rushes through me. Then he delves a slick finger in, hitting nerve endings I was unaware I had, but that now seem the most incredible thing in the world. He moves his finger, awakening my body. I thrust my bottom up, pretty sure I’m acting shamelessly, but not caring in the latest.

I was supposed to be lying in my bed, flicking through the tv channels to find something to distract me, but probably settling on the news, filling the bedroom with somber tales streamed in flickering bright colors, while I tried to ignore the ache in my chest and the awkwardness of our encounter in the parking lot.

I wasn’t supposed to be happy. I wasn’t supposed to be joyous. But now I am, and I can’t stop the bubbly feeling surging within me. Vinnie’s lips are on my back, and I should probably remind him that hickeys are a thing.

Vinnie slides another finger in. God, we’re going to have sex. We’re going to be joined in the way two people can be.

“Just get in,” I say.

“Okay.” Vinnie hesitates. Now even his fingers aren’t playing in my bottom. “But if it hurts, we stop. And I don’t hold it against you.”

“I’m a hockey player. I’m used to things hurting.”

“That’s not what I want!”

I swallow my smile. “Give me a kiss.”

Vinnie lunges for my lips, and yeah, it’s good, because somehow, we really can kiss. Our tongues and lips know what to do in each other’s presence, even when we stumble with our words and are overly polite.

Finally, he breaks away. He slides a pillow under my ass, then pushes himself inside me. I inhale, my heart beating like wild at the new sensation. Vinnie isn’t a tiny man, and that applies to his cock too. He’s paid to look massive and threatening.

But he’s also my Vinnie, all sweetness when it comes down to it. He protects me on and off the ice.

“Should I keep going?”

“Don’t you dare stop.”

Vinnie grins and continues to slide inside me. “You’re so tight, Evan.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“You feel amazing.” He presses his lips together and doesn’t do any more talking, lost in whatever sensation he’s experiencing.

But I can imagine. I’ve fucked too.

I smile up at him, then he begins to thrust. Sweat pools between us, and our bodies slide together perfectly.

Vinnie fills me in a way I didn’t know was possible. My nerve endings rejoice, and warmth flows over me. His dark eyes gaze on me with such love that my heart almost stops.

This is what I was waiting for.

This is what I never had in my marriage, why things between us always felt awkward, like I was playing pretend. And unlike actual actors, I never knew my lines, and I fumbled my way through what I thought I was supposed to say even though I wasn’t convinced that was how I actually felt.

This is why my heart felt Vinnie’s absence in my life.

We’re going to be together forever. I’m already certain.

I watch him delight in my body, watch the happiness flutter over his face.