Page 145 of The Puck Stops Here
Next week? The team’s bye week. No ice for five days. So many ideas filled his mind on how he could distract her, how he could work with her own coping mechanisms and convince her he was in it for the long haul.
‘Consider it a date.’
‘Blake!’ She thrust her hips, the motion making his lower half perk up. If she’d thought to chide him, she’d be seriously disappointed.
‘I’m not kidding around, Astrid.’ He caught her chin in his fingers, lifting her face to his. ‘I’ll be here for you because I’m crazy about you.’
Her honeyed eyes widened. Was that fear, panic, mistrust? Whatever it was, he wanted it gone.
‘You don’t know what you’re saying, what you’re promising…’
* * *
Oh God, Astrid couldn’t breathe. Not with that look in his eyes, the words flowing from his lips teasing at her heart…
She lowered her gaze. ‘Until you live through it you can’t know.’
And now she sounded like his mother using the same line about their past, but Astrid was using it in relation to her PMDD which was wholly within her. No one else’s fault but her own.
‘But I will soon.’ He lifted her chin again, brought his mouth close to hers, those piercing blues too. ‘And I have so many ideas on how to help.’
‘And like I told you before,’ she said softly. ‘I’m better off on my own when I’m like that.’
‘You just haven’t met the right person to share that side of you with.’
She gave a sad smile, his sincerity chipping through her resolve. ‘Maybe.’
Though she knew it sounded hollow because there was so much more at play here than he knew. So much more she had to tell him because any conversation over what they were to one another had to be built on the truth.
And she wanted to tell him everything. About Chase. About the girls. About the karma pact.
But she couldn’t do that without speaking to Sissi first. And maybe, just maybe, telling Sienna all that she knew, telling her that she believed Aiden had loved her, that he still bore the mark of that love… well, it could change everything.
And telling Blake…ifhe forgave her,thenthe future was worth a discussion, but until then…
‘Astrid?’
‘Hmm?’
‘Anyone ever tell you you’re an over thinker?’
And then he kissed her, stripping away her ability to think as he travelled down her body, hitting on every erogenous zone until he reached his final destination, and her fingers and toes curled into the mattress with her cry.
‘To hell with maybe,’ he murmured between her legs, his eyes burning up into hers and choking up her throat. ‘I say, definitely.’
23
Astrid’s nose twitched in her sleep, her senses becoming aware of the glorious scent of caffeine before her brain had kicked in.
The glorious scent of coffee and… Blake!
Her eyes shot open as her body shot up.
‘Morning, sleepyhead.’
She tugged the blanket up her naked chest and raked her mop out of her face, blinking wildly at his mostly naked, exceptionally hot, freshly showered, and towel-wrapped bod stood at the end of the bed.
‘I think it’s a little late for modesty, don’t you?’
