Page 96 of Icebound Hearts
We spend a few minutes reliving all the best moments of the game, with Jake providing some of the most animated commentary I think I’ve ever seen, until the Aces arrive in the lounge. I take Jake’s hand and walk him to the door to meet his dad, who beams at us and throws out his arms.
“That’s how it’s done!” he says as he scoops up his son, and Jake gives him an enthusiastic hug.
“I told everyone you were the MVP, Daddy!”
“I’d argue we all played pretty darn well tonight,” Reese says, trailing in behind Sawyer. “Hey, Vi.” He gives me a quick hug before he notices that I’m wearing Sawyer’s jersey instead of his. “Traitor,” he teases, making Jake giggle.
“It wouldn’t look right if we didn’t match,” I cover, and fortunately, Jake nods.
“That’s what I said!”
Reese chuckles and messes up Jake’s hair. “Well, I can’t argue with that. Glad you guys had fun tonight.”
He steps away to greet Callie and her mom, leaving me alone with Jake and Sawyer. Jake spots Maxim coming out into the room and squirms to be let down so he can go say hi to the young forward.
As the buzz of conversation fills the room around us, Sawyer’s gaze flicks up and down, taking in my full appearance.
“My jersey looks much better on you than Reese’s, if you ask me,” he murmurs, his voice low.
“Thanks for sending it out to me,” I say, keeping my expression neutral in case anyone glances our way, despitethe way my skin tingles with awareness. “I was regretting not wearing the one you left on my bed.”
A smile curves his lips, and he takes a half step closer to me, lowering his voice even more until it’s barely audible beneath the chatter from the players and their families nearby.
“Good. Because you’re not taking it off for the rest of the night.”
“What do you mean?” I breathe, my heart thudding against my ribs.
“I’m going to fuck you in it later. While you wear my jersey and nothing else.”
The promise in his words sends a shiver rippling through my entire body, and heat rushes in right behind it.
“I can’t wait,” I whisper.
Chapter 31
Sawyer
Coach Dunaway’s whistle and shouts pierce the air as he calls out our drills, but all I hear is Violet’s voice in my head, cheering from the imaginary crowd that’s filling the stands. I’m still riding high from the amazing game we had against the Knights, and a big part of that has to do with seeing Violet in my jersey.
I can’t get the image out of my head, and every time it comes to mind, a beaming smile is right behind. For fuck’s sake, the corners of my mouth are hurting from all the smiling I’ve been doing since then, but I feel like I’m on cloud fucking nine.
Even though it should be impossible with all the noise from the crowd and the chaos on the ice, I swear every time she comes to one of our games I can pick her voice out from all the rest of the noise. Ifeelit when she screams my name.
And I fucking love it.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had anyone regularly in the stands to cheer for me. My mother died before I went pro, and I’ve never been close enough with my dad for him to show up. Miriam was never very supportive of my career, even early on, and that only got worse over time. All she ever seemed to care about was the money and prestige being attached to a hockeyplayer brought her—but she couldn’t be bothered to come to the games that made all of that money and prestige possible.
But now? Every time I look up, there’s Violet beaming in the crowd like a ray of sunshine. She hasn’t missed a single one of my home games, and she’s brought Jake to as many of them as she could. None of that was part of our agreement, and it wasn’t even a quiet expectation or anything. She just fell right into it.
I keep trying to convince myself that it’s just because she already has a connection to the team. I mean, she’s Reese’s sister, so it’s not like it’s totally out of the blue for her to be interested in hockey. I’m sure she grew up around it, and she seems legitimately interested in the team and how we’re doing. She’s not just putting on a show for Jake and me.
And that’s exactly what made seeing the two of them in the stands the other night wearing matching copies of my jersey so impactful. I can’t really put into words how or why it affected me so much, but it damn sure did because I can’t stop thinking about it.
I can’t stop thinking abouther.
The truth is, the whole thing is a little hypocritical because I used to cringe at players who asked girls to wear their jerseys. I always thought it was a little immature, especially for someone at the pro level. So it surprised me that after we started sleeping together, I couldn’t shake the idea of how much of a turn on it would be to see Violet wearing mine.
And I was right. Seeing her in it was hot as hell.
