Hot as Puck(73)

Around me, I’m dimly aware of the change in the quality of the shouts and cheers coming from the crowd, and I realize we’ve been spotted. But I don’t bother playing it cool or dialing back my happiness to a more respectable level or worry about what kind of show we’re putting on for the fans. A few thousand people might be watching, but this moment is all for Libby and me.

I skid to a stop in front of her, snowing on her boots, and reach for the sign.

“I didn’t have time to write a better poem,” she says softly, letting me take the sheet of paper and toss it onto the rubber floor at her feet.

“What are you talking about, Collins? That’s the best fucking poem I’ve ever read.”

She bites her lip. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” I say, slipping my hands around her waist. “As long as it’s true.”

“The truest thing I’ve ever felt,” she says, her words becoming a yip of surprise as I sweep her into my arms, spinning in a circle on the game-ravaged ice as I kiss her, holding nothing back.

There are skate scars and ruts beneath my feet that make for a bumpy ride, the crowd is cheering so loud that the air around us vibrates like a train is rumbling by inches away, but for me there is only Libby. Libby’s lips and her taste and her tongue dancing with mine. Libby’s curvy body pressed to my chest and her arms clinging tight to my neck and her heart beating in perfect rhythm with mine.

“I love you, Elisabeth Collins,” I mumble against her mouth. “Will you be my girl?”

“I will. On one condition.”

“Anything,” I say, knowing it’s true. I will do anything for this girl, this woman who has taken my black and white world and shot it through with heart-stopping color.

“We keep the same rules. No lies, no holding back…” She pauses, before adding in a softer voice, “And if it ends, we do our best to make it easy on the other people we love.”

I gaze into her eyes and jump right into the “no holding back” water, head first. “And what if it never ends, Libs? What if I want to spend the rest of my life being the lucky bastard who gets to come home to you?”

She blinks faster and her lips part. “Well, I…I guess that would be okay, too.”

“Okay?” I scowl, and she laughs as she kisses me.

“Better than okay,” she murmurs. “So much better than okay that you should take me home right now so I can show you how much better.”

I squeeze her tighter. “Give me five minutes. I was so stressed out about losing you that I scored a bunch of goals in the last period and probably need to get back to the bench so they can start calling the three stars of the game.”

She arches a brow as I set her back on her feet just inside the tunnel. “Sounds like you don’t need a Sext Goddess for good luck after all.”

“Oh, yes, I do,” I say, as I skate backward. “And I’m going to show you how much as soon as I get you alone, Collins.”

I cruise backward toward the bench, eyes locked on a smiling Libby the entire time, while the crowd continues to cheer because the only thing better than a hat rack is a hat rack followed by romance on the ice. And when my name is called as number one star, it’s great, but not nearly as great as the moment when I get back to the tunnel and get to kiss Libby some more while my teammates hustle by giving us good-natured shit for being grossly, publicly, disgustingly in love.

But in between the calls to “get a room” and “let her come up for air, Cruise” I hear Chloe calling out to Brendan, “Daddy! Daddy, I did it! Justin and Libby are in love because of my paper and markers and because art is magic!”

“I think it’s love that’s magic,” I whisper against the skin of Libby’s neck.

“Agreed. Though your cock’s not too shabby, either.”

My eyes narrow as I pull back to gaze into her deceptively sweet looking face. Damn, I knew I’d make a dirty talker of her sooner or later, my naughty, delicious little Libs. “And your vagina is an enchanted crevice of wonders untold.”

She giggles. “An enchanted crevice?”

“I didn’t want to say cave. It’s too sweet and tight to be a cave.”

“You’re so weird.” She shakes her head as she reaches up, cupping my scruffy face affectionately in her hands. “Now get dressed as quickly as possible, please, so I can take you home and get you undressed.”

“Your wish is my command, beautiful.”

And it is. She commands me onto my back on the floor as soon as we walk in my front door, and I have her the first time with her on top, her skirt bunched up around her waist and her sweater and bra pushed up so I can get my mouth on her tits because we’re too desperate for each other to take the time to take our clothes all the way off. Afterward, I carry her to my bed and undress her slowly, carefully, doing my best to memorize how stunning she is as she looks up at me with love and lust mixing in her eyes.