Page 38 of He Has It All (Boston Brawlers Hockey)
“Don’t you dare,” she says, panic in her voice. “You’re not going to turn me away again, Ryan. Not tonight. Everything in me wants you.” She gives a derisive chuckle. “I know you want me. I know your dick is ready to go as always, so don’t tell me I’m not good enough for you.”
“Are you insane?” Clamping my hands on her upper arms, I push her away from me. “You’re too good for me and you know it.”
“If that’s all you’re worried about, then worry no more. I’m not the innocent little girl I was four years ago.”
“Yes, you are.” Compared to me.
Not even my conscience and the goodwill from our lifetime of friendship and mock brother-sisterhood could make me say the truth about who I’ve turned into out loud. Because I’m done with playing around. Done with empty sex and the blind adulation of superficial women who looked pretty—like mirages to a thirsty man in a desert. Except I’m far from a thirsty man and this is far from a desert, so I have no excuse for my excess. And my excess has no reward for me. It’s all trappings. Easily discarded.
It should be. But then what’s left? Something I’m unprepared for. Something I’ve never done, never had. Something I’ve avoided and it’s time I admit why.
“Maybe I’m not ready for you, Chels. I can’t give you what you want. What you deserve.”
“Don’t give me that crap. What I want and deserve is a night of passion. Nothing more. And nothing less, damn you.”
She doesn’t give me a chance to explain before she comes back into my arms, closing in so her heat envelops me like a fog, gentle and completely blinding.
