Meet Me in the Penalty Box (Orchid City, #1)(40)

Nico fell silent and he moved my hand out of the way as he replaced it with his own. I opened my eyes to look at him, but he wasn’t looking at me. His attention was solely focused on the scar on my forehead. He gently rubbed his thumb across it as his eyes found mine. A storm was brewing in his eyes, yet there was a tenderness reserved just for me.

He cupped both sides of my face and pressed his lips against my scar. “I want to snap his fucking neck,” he growled against my skin. “He’s going to pay for hurting you.”

“Nico, please,” I pleaded with him as my voice caught in my throat. “I’ve already closed that chapter of my life. Just let it go.”

Nico pulled away and looked down at me. His stormy eyes pierced mine. “I can’t let it go, Harper. He hurt you. You, of all fucking people.” He took a breath, his chest rising as his nostrils flared.

I shook my head at him. “It’s in the past. Please, just leave it there.” My eyes searched his with desperation. “He’s insignificant in my life, Nico. I’d like to leave things like that.”

His jaw clenched and his eyes fell shut. I watched him carefully as he sucked in a deep breath, his chest puffing out as his lungs expanded. He held it in for a beat before slowly exhaling and opening his eyes back up to look at me. “I will let it go, but only because you asked me to.”

Nico’s words were convincing, but there was something in his eyes that had me questioning the sincerity of it.

“I need you to promise me you won’t say anything to him.”

“I promise, love,” he said with a nod. He raised an eyebrow. “I won’t say anything, but I can’t promise he won’t get slammed into the boards.”

I pursed my lips. Hockey was already an aggressive sport. I knew how it worked when someone had an issue with another player. Asking Nico to not check him or anything was like asking a fish to not swim in water. “Please don’t make it anything too obvious.”

Nico smirked. “Never.”

His hands slowly traveled down my body as he slid them under the bottom hem of my shirt. I raised my arms up as he lifted the piece of clothing up and over my head before tossing it onto the floor. “So, does that mean you’ll come along with me?”

“I’ll go along with the team,” I told him with a playful tone. “I’m not coming with you.”

A chuckle vibrated in his chest as he buried his face in my neck. “You will be soon enough.”

I didn’t have a bra on and his hand instantly cupped my breast. My hands were trailing down his torso, pushing his towel away and it pooled around his feet on the floor. His lips found mine in a rush and he swiftly stole the air from my lungs as he breathed me in.

Nico surrounded me and consumed me with his touch and his mouth. He stripped me down to my bones and buried himself deep within my marrow. He was in my soul and there was no way to eradicate him.

His fingers hooked under the waistband of my panties and he pushed them down my legs as his mouth traveled across the planes of my body. As he stood back up in front of me, he hooked his arms under the backs of my legs and lifted me into the air. Nico pushed deep inside me with one thrust.

My back was against the wall, my nails were gripping at his shoulders, and he gripped my hips as he thrust into me. He slid in and out of me, pounding into me harder each time. My body felt like it was going to split in half, like we were going to break through the wall behind me.

A fire started in the pit of my stomach and was quickly spreading through my body like wildfire. Nico was in my veins and I was chasing the high. He was my high. His mouth was on mine, swallowing my moans while our ragged breaths mixed together. We were climbing and climbing with each thrust.

“Come with me, love,” Nico whispered against my lips as he thrust harder into me.

It didn’t take long before we were both falling off the edge of the cliff together, falling into an abyss of ecstasy. He didn’t stop moving inside me until we were both riding the waves of our orgasms. He pulled his face away from mine, his bright blue eyes piercing my own.

“I’m so fucking lost in you, Harper,” he breathed with something heavy lingering in his irises. “You have no idea what you do to me.”

I stared back at him with the words stuck in my throat like peanut butter. He slowly pulled out of me, but instead of setting me down on the ground, he carried me back to his bedroom and laid me on the sheets. He paused at the edge of the bed, his gaze trained on my eyes as he watched me for a moment.

He was wrong. I knew exactly what I was doing to him, because he was doing the same exact thing to me.

I was just as lost in him.





CHAPTER EIGHTEEN





NICO





As I stepped onto the ice for warm-ups, I circled around half of the rink we were at. I followed behind Wes, my legs powering as I pushed off with my opposite leg with each stride. The muscles in my thighs contracted, but I didn’t feel the burn I would feel later on during the game. Skating around the right side of the net, I spotted Harper where she was setting up.

She was testing out her camera with the lens just barely through the small cutout in the glass. She lifted her head and a soft smile touched her lips as she noticed me. I smiled back at her and winked as I skated past. I watched pink hues touch her cheeks as she ducked her head back to her equipment.