“Hey.” Damien lifted my hand and kissed my knuckles. “It was happening anyway. I told you; I was tired of sneaking around. Baby, I’m ready.”
“Are you?”
“Unequivocally. I love you.”
My heart clenched hard.
“I love you, too,” I whispered. “So fucking much, it’s kind of scary.”
“But in the best way.”
I nodded, feeling overwhelmed.
“And the haters?” I added, staring into his bottomless blues. “Because they’re going to come too, Damien.”
Damien leaned in and claimed my lips in a heated kiss.
“What’s the number one rule of defense?” he whispered.
I grinned.
“Always back up your partner.”
He confirmed my answer with another kiss.
“That’s me, baby. I might be a coach, but in my heart and in my soul, I’ll always be a defenseman. I protect what’s mine. That’s you. And fuck everything and everyone else.”
“Love it when you talk dirty,” I quipped.
Damien’s sudden burst of laughter filled me with a happiness that I still couldn’t believe. Thank fuck I was sitting down because his gorgeous smile totally wrecked me.
“That’s coming later.”
“Once the chaos calms, we’re planning a honeymoon,” I stated.
“Oh yes.”
I kissed him again.
“Let’s call my family and then we need to eat.”
“If Jo and Selwin left us anything.”
“Did I mention that both my siblings have hockey careers, too?”
“You did. Olivia’s a coach in Europe and Trent’s a physiotherapist for the league, right?”
Damien nodded.
“That’s pretty cool.”
Oddly enough, I was more nervous about this call than the one with the school president. Meeting the family and all that. But it turned out all right. In fact, Damien’s brother and sister weren’t shocked that he was bi, that he was married, or that he was married to a man. The fact that I was eight years younger, however…
“How did you manage to marry someone so obviously out of your league, Damien?” his sister Olivia teased. “Like, way, way out.”
Damien offered his middle finger in response. “So funny, Liv.”
“Actually, it’s the other way around,” I replied. “I’m the lucky one.”
