Delayed Penalty (27 page)

For the next hour we stayed at the bar until finally we were asked to leave when Leo pissed on the side of the building. Little jerk had no class sometimes.

The real problem for me was every encounter I had like that, I imagined him being the guy that raped Ami. My mind played tricks with me and put his face to the unknown, and I was immediately drawn back into that night and was consumed with losing her.

When we got back to my place, Ami tried to relax me, and well, she succeeded as she always did.

She slowly slid her hand up my thigh, boldly skimming her fingers higher over my hips while I watched SportsCenter.

My eyebrow quirked, curious where she was going with it. Every day we were getting closer and more intimate. Every day we were learning more and becoming comfortable. Like a good line, we had a unity.

Spurred on by the look in her eyes, I raised my hand from the remote and touched the side of her face. It didn't take long before my mind was imagining certain spots of her naked, and yeah, I got hard.

Her hand moved, wrapping around my erection, which she could clearly see through my dress pants, and then squeezed firmly.

"You can't do that if you don't intend on taking care of it," I groaned, grabbing her wrist to stop her, and then pulled her down on top of me to lay on the couch.

She moved, her legs falling to either side of my hips, and sat up. Her hands slid down my chest to my stomach and then to the hem on her T-shirt. Peeling it off slowly, she winked at me when it was off and tossed it on the floor, along with her bra, too.

Without saying a word, she moved my hands that rested on her hips to behind my head.

I chuckled playfully, trying to keep from getting too excited, but the fact that she was pretty much in control here was hot as fuck.

With my hands behind my head, I let her move at her own pace doing whatever she wanted to do. With shaking hands, she unbuttoned my black dress shirt and then reached for my buckle. Once she had that undone, she sat up o to pull my pants down around my knees but not off completely.

It took me a minute to realize what she was doing, but then it finally dawned on me when her mouth was on my dick. I jolted back just slightly, surprised that Ami, my innocent girl with her shyness, would want to do that. Fuck if I hadn't been dreaming about it, but damn, I never thought she'd want to do that or even knew how. She said nothing but gave me a look that asked if it was okay. I nodded, groaning deeply, and dropped my head back against the arm of the couch.

My stomach trembled as she trailed her tongue along my hip, following the path with the tip of her finger. I could tell she was scared, not knowing what to do, and it made me feel a little better to think this might have been her first time doing this. I liked to think it was.

She wrapped her fingers around me first, giving me a few lengthy strokes, and then looked up at me. My eyes locked with hers, wanting to let her know with that one look how unbelievably sexy she was.

Then she went for it. She closed her eyes and lowered her mouth onto me.

I must have said something, a few things at least, but I couldn't remember anything other than a few choking gasps. It'd been a while since I had a girl's mouth on me like that, and goddamn if it wasn't everything I had dreamed about and missed.

She ran her fingers over my thighs, pressing the tips firmly against the hard muscles that were clenched tightly with passion.

My hips thrust slightly of their own volition. She took me deeper, pausing for only a moment to adjust her angle, and then moved back slightly so she had more room. I briefly thought maybe we should move to my bed, but I didn't want her to stop.

My hands that were behind my head moved to her hair, gripping it slightly. She made a whimper.

"This okay?" I grunted, trying not to pull on her hair too much. Other girls would tell me to pull as hard as I could. Ami was different.

"Mmhmm," she hummed in approval, taking me deeper.

My hands remained in her hair, not pushing or forcing, just simply setting the pace. I tried to warn her after a minute. Ami didn't seem like the kind of girl that would want that in her mouth, but as always, she surprised me and smacked my hands away.

Who was I to challenge her?

When she finished, I had to repay the favor a few times. We went at it like that for hours, always trying to one up the other. I wondered where Ami learned how to do the things she was doing, the things she was so fucking good at, but then I had to shake those thoughts away. There was no fucking way I wanted details.

I was at the point where I couldn't get enough of her, and I was ready to drop the gloves if she was willing to dance.

Dropping the gloves – This is an act by a player indicating to the opponent he's ready to fight.

"You pissed on the side of the building because your drink wasn't strong enough. That's a douche move and you know it," I explained to Leo. "I liked that place and now we can't go back because we will always be known as the hockey players who pissed on the building."

"Well, it was justified in my mind." Leo took a shot at the goal during warm-ups.

"Your drunk mind maybe," Travis added, circling around to get back in line for his next shot. I pointed at him, nodding my head as if he had the correct answer.

Travis looked over at me when Leo skated away. "Hey, man, you fuck that girl yet?"

I glared. "Stop asking. What happened to you last night?"

"I ended up naked in the lobby wearing red hooker boots."

"Good night?" I said, trying to control my laughter.

He surprised me when he nodded. "Fucking awesome night."

"What happened to Remy after I left?"

"Ah, man," Travis groaned, leaning on his stick. "That fucker left with that Kari chick that was all over him. Turns out he bagged both her and the one with the black dress…together."

"No shit."

"Shit."

Remy was a douche to women, but fuck if they didn't love him. They knew it from the start, maybe even liked it a little, and they accepted him for what he was: a whore. I wasn't like that, though, and I didn't talk about girls like this. They did.

"My dick was red," Remy said, hearing most of our conversation and needing to add his own details. "I'm guessing one of them might have been a virgin."

"Probably the one with the black dress…Laura?" Leo suggested. "Anyway, she looked like she hadn't been cherry picking yet."

"I guess so." Remy shrugged, his attention turning to the sound of the whistle. Drills were beginning. "Either that or I was fuckin' a chick with issues."

After practice, I had plans to take Ami to dinner before we started the next series and I left for San Jose. This time she was coming with me. Just like I'd asked her to move in with me, I asked her to come on the road with me.

I'd never been in love, but I started to look at my symptoms.

The mention of her name made my stomach tighten? Check.

Heart beating like a fucking girl? Check.

Any skin revealed and I'm hard? Check.

Watching her sleep like a goddamn stalker? Check.

Wanting to know everything about her and what makes her smile? Wanting to be the reason for the smile? Yep. Big fucking checks all around.

Fuck. I was in love.

My dad once told me that you knew you were in love with a girl when you would do anything for her. You'd be willing to change your life for her and would do anything she asked you to.

He also said you'd know they loved you if they never asked you to change your life or anything else.

With Ami it was so much more than that and had been since the beginning, before either one of us knew what was happening. I would do anything for her. She knew that.

Sometimes I wondered when this had happened. When did I become so focused on this girl that nothing else mattered? Was it when I found her? When she opened her eyes? When I kissed her?

I had no answers, no justifiable ones at least. I was in love.

I knew the time would come when I would fall in love, but I never thought it would happen like this, with a young girl in such a brutal scenario.

When I thought about what happened to her, it felt wrong to love her.

The shitty part for me was that not only had I never been in love, but I also never knew what I was missing with Ami. I'd never had a girl that made me feel like she did.

The night before we left for San Jose was when I told Ami my feelings.

Before I got back into bed, I removed my T-shirt. Ami watched, her eyes low on my hips. She inhaled a sharp breath. I could see it in her stare, feel it in her touch. She was waiting on empty words to be defined.

I said what I was feeling in that moment.

"I love you," I whispered, situating myself between her knees. I didn't say anything more for a long moment, letting the words sink in. I wondered if Josh had told her he loved her. I wondered what her reaction was. Was it the reaction she was having now, staring at me, giving me a look that told me she felt what I had just said to her?

It was the first time I had said it to a girl that wasn't family and it was natural, like everything else with her. Sure, I felt like there was a wild animal clawing at my heart, and every other piece of my chest, but I said it and she didn't run from me.

My palms were on her stomach, pushing her shirt up. I touched her breasts over her bra. My touch excited her; I could see it in the way her cheeks were glowing and her heavy breaths against my neck and shoulders. My words were what crept deep inside her. I could see it in those bright blues staring back at me and her parted lips, desperate to speak.

My voice, the need to say more, hear more, was trapped in my throat.

Eventually, I said what I needed to say. "Tell me you love me…" I kissed down her arm, bringing her hand to mine, intertwining our fingers together.

"I love you." Her voice was small and unsteady, as if saying it would mean nothing. She wanted to show me. "Show me, Evan. Make it real. Don't say it without making me feel it."

I couldn't meet her eyes, I wanted to, but couldn't out of fear of taking her right then. It was out of my control, so I tried to concentrate on her skin, touching everywhere I could, in hopes that eventually we would be together in the ways we wanted to.

How do I make this real?

When she touched my chest, I shook.

"Please, don't stop, Mase…"

Fuck, she called me Mase again.

I slid her hand away from my chest to press my body flush with hers. She rubbed her palms across my lower back, holding me against her.

My eyes were closed now, my eyebrows scrunched together, my lips swollen and red, matching hers.

I whispered words to her, goose bumps spreading over any place my lips touched. She touched my arm and shoulders, focusing on the way my muscles moved beneath her hands.

I gripped the sheets beside her head, groaning, carefully nibbling on sensitive skin. "I'm so fucked. You have me so fucked up." My nose swept from her throat to her jaw bone, hoping she understood what that meant this time.

Her skin felt abnormally warm. It burned to touch and was tempting to kiss. My lips found the spot where her pulse was the strongest. "Your heart is beating so fast," I whispered quietly.

I released the sheets and touched her face, letting her see I was just like her, trembling skin and chattering bones.

When I settled between her legs, we both shifted and began breathing heavier.

"You're my girl," I said, trickling my fingers down her ribs. "You know that, right?"

Her legs were open now, wrapped around me.

"Mase," she whispered, searching my eyes.

"Be still." My self-control was gone.

"Please," she begged again. "I want you."

I put a finger to her lips and whispered, "Not yet, not now. We have time. Let's just take it slow. They'll be time for that later." The one time we had gotten close, Ami was too scared. Ever since then, she kept saying she was ready, but I just couldn't do it.

Although confused, she didn't argue. It'd be so fucking easy to get carried away. Her body, her words, her starry blues told me she was ready, but I knew she wasn't. And despite how badly I wanted her, I wanted to preserve this a little longer. I played along. Every once in a while I teased, I whispered something obscene into her ear just to see how far I could push. That was just me; I teased and she let me.

I hitched her leg over my waist, giving her open mouthed kisses, and I wanted to push myself against her but didn't. I ached for her so fucking badly, but I didn't trust myself to move. Instead, I kissed her.

"Please." She tried again, desperately reaching to unbutton my jeans.

I groaned against her lips, stopping her hand. "Don't ask me that right now." My entire body shivered, fighting what was right from wrong. If she asked me one more time, I would do it. I would fuck her right here, give in and feel the connection we were starved for.

Her lips were warm, full of love, her center pushed into mine, hot and deep. I cried out against her when she wiggled, arching into me. With only our jeans separating us, I pushed against her again. My body reacted to the heat, and I felt my fucking knees go weak.