Page 53 of Slapshot Summer
“Yeah,” she hummed.
“Ready to be properly fucked?”
“So ready.”Arching her back, she braced her palms against the headboard.The pendant glinted on her chest.This sight was possibly even more stunning than what had come before because she was giving herself to him, body and soul.
She loved him.
He stroked into her, a sweet, slick glide, losing himself inside this woman he adored.It took mere moments for them both to soar over the edge, shatter, and flutter like fragments of confetti.Consciousness caught up to him much later as they lay wrapped up in each other’s arms, hearts pressed together.
Tomorrow was going to be a bitch.
Chapter 18
Leaving on a Jet Plane
“ThelasttimeIsaw you on this shuttle, you were all sprawled out, and your legs were a tripping hazard.I couldn’t believe someone would actually sleep through that ride.”Lexi tried to keep her voice upbeat, but inside, she was withering.She touched the pendant again.
Josh shrugged, his mood sullen.“Didn’t see anything worth keeping my eyes open for.”
She smirked.“Are you going to fall asleep this time?”
His silver eyes bored into hers.“No.This time I’ve got one hell of a reason to keep them open.”He picked up her hand and kissed it tenderly.And there went yet another piece of her heart.When he was done with her, there would be nothing left.
They’d stayed up most of the night, taking and giving of each other’s bodies, sometimes with so much desperation and heat she thought they might combust and other times so slowly and with such intimate tenderness she had to fight back tears.Lexi hadn’t uttered any more I-love-yous, though they quivered on her tongue.If she had let them tumble out, the pain would have been too sharp.If Josh had been thinking them, he hadn’t shared his either.
This morning as they’d eaten their last breakfast on the lanai, he’d announced that he’d decided to accept the offer from the KHL.He only had to tell his agent and sign on the dotted line, and it would be official.For three long years.
“How soon do you need to be over there?”she’d asked as they held each other in the shower, clinging to one another as if they’d been afraid to let go.His best friend, Mac, lived in Denver.Maybe Josh would visit him, and Lexi could get more time with him before he crossed the Atlantic for good.
“Right away,” he’d groused.“They want to put me to work with their trainers ASAP.”
Her hopes had sunk as though they’d been tied to a boulder and thrown overboard.
It was awkward, this ride to the airport, with echoes of that first day when she hadn’t known how to act around him.Though Josh’s plane left two hours after hers, he’d insisted on going with her.“We’re leaving out of the same terminal,” he’d pointed out.“I’ll stay with you and see you off.”It didn’t help that Neil sat behind them and tried to kindle conversation throughout the ride.The only good thing about flying back to Colorado was that she wouldn’t ever have to see Neil’s face again.
They didn’t escape him until they exited the shuttle at their terminal.Josh was traveling first-class and had TSA PreCheck privileges, but he went through security with her, taking off his shoes and pulling everything out of his pockets and his carry-on, all without uttering a complaint.Conrad and she had traveled that way once, and he’d breezed through the PreCheck line and left her behind to catch up with him at the gate.So many stark contrasts between two men.Why hadn’t she metJoshthree years ago?
They sat huddled together in her gate area.Josh’s arm rested behind her, his hand toying with her hair.Lexi startled when she heard the gate agent call her name.“I wonder what that’s about?”
“Only one way to find out,” Josh said.
At the counter, the agent smiled and told her she’d been upgraded to first class.Lexi shook her head in confusion.“What?How?”
“It seems someone paid to upgrade you.Here’s your new boarding pass, in case it doesn’t update in the app in time.You’ll be boarding in fifteen minutes.”
What?
Dumbfounded, she glanced at the coupon.Confirmed her name was on it, and that it was the same flight on the same day.She was still inspecting the pass as she ambled back toward Josh.
His arm immediately went around her when she plopped down beside him.“What is it, babe?”
“Someone upgraded me to first class, but that makes no sense.Who would—” She turned and gaped at him.“Didyoudo this?”
His mouth did this weird pursing thing that gave him away.
“You did, didn’t you?Why?”
“I hated the idea of you stuck in a middle seat.”He shrugged.“And it was an easy thing for me to do for you.”
