My grip on her waist tightens as her tongue eagerly glides against mine.
Her fingers twist in my hair before her nails drag across my scalp, making me shudder.
“Kodie,” she whispers like a prayer into our kiss, and it’s the final spark that lights my fuse.
Spinning her around, I press her back against the wall before hitching her leg up around my waist so I can grind into her.
She’s right. We should talk, but I’m not sure I’m capable of forming words right now, let alone thinking.
“Oh god,” she cries, breaking the kiss, her head hitting the wall as my lips graze across her jaw and down her neck. “Kodie.”
I breathe her in as I kiss down the soft skin of her throat, wondering how I managed to go without her for so long.
“I’m sorry,” I repeat. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
“Me too,” she gasps as I suck on the patch of skin beneath her ear. Her fingers twist in my hair, tugging tight enough to send a shot of pain down my neck. It hits me right in the balls. “I need you. I need you so badly.”
“I didn’t think I was going to get this again,” I confess, the words falling from my lips. “You’re all I’ve been able to think about.”
“Then why were you ignoring me?”
“Because…because I thought it was the right thing to do.”
I pull back and look into her eyes.
“It was the right thing to do,” I tell her honestly. “But it’s been fucking killing me.”
“Me too.”
“I’ve been fucking up on the ice,” I say, although if she’s watched any games, she’s probably well aware. “You’re all up in my head, Casey. Under my skin.”
Her eyes glisten with moisture as she rolls her lips between her teeth.
After a beat, she nods, reaching for my hand that’s resting on her waist and pressing it against her chest, right over her heart.
“In here,” she whispers, her voice cracked with emotion.
My breath catches in my throat.
I’ve heard women say all kinds of things over the years in the hope of having me for more than a night. But I have never heard them said so sincerely. And they’ve certainly never affected me the way Casey’s do.
My heart stutters in my chest, my stomach knots with a mixture of nerves and excitement, and my hands noticeably tremble.
I’m fucking scared.
Reaching for her other hand, I mimic her movements, pressing her palm to my chest.
“You feel that?” I ask, my voice deep and raspy.
It takes her a couple of seconds, but she nods.
“You terrify me, Casey,” I confess.
She swallows thickly.
“This terrifies me,” I add. “I’ve never felt like this. I’ve never wanted anything like this. My life…it’s hard. My schedule, my daughter?—”
“I don’t care about hard, Kodie. Nothing can be as hard as not having you in my life. It was okay before when I was just watching you from afar. I knew you were incredible, but I didn’tknow. But now that I do, I don’t know how to continue with my life without you in it.”
