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.
I snuck into her hotel room in the middle of the night. We didn’t get in until late last night and I couldn’t get away from Wes until he passed out. We had to be up early for workouts so I just woke up an hour earlier than everyone else so I could stop in and see her.
When I left her room in the morning to get ready to meet the rest of the guys, she slipped me the extra key to her room with the same pink hues on her cheeks. I smiled to myself as I skated around and slid a puck along the ice with the blade of my stick.
Wes came up to me, bumping his shoulder into mine. “You’re awfully smiley today,” he said in a thoughtful tone. “I wonder why that is.”
I gave him a sideways glance. “No idea what you’re talking about,” I mumbled.”
“Mhm,” Wes mused as a smirk pulled on his lips. He quickly stole the puck from me. “I’m sure it doesn’t have anything to do with a certain someone who came along for the trip.”
I stole the puck back and skated away from him without another word. As I sent the puck toward Wolfe, he blocked my shot with his blocker and I circled around. My eyes traveled across the ice and as soon as I saw him, I saw fucking red.
Number 14. Davenport.
I wanted to fucking kill him. Call me irrational or whatever the hell you wanted to. He hurt someone who I cared about. That was grounds for making him pay for it. Harper begged me not to say anything and I never would; I’d never do something that would draw any attention to what was going on between us.
She asked me not to do anything too obvious, and I wouldn’t. The last thing I wanted to be was a threat to her. But Davenport… he was a fucking threat. He had already proved himself to be a piece of shit and I couldn’t shake the feeling that was crawling underneath my skin. I narrowed my eyes as I assessed him from the blue line.
One way or another, he was going to pay for what he did to her.
The ten-minute warm-up flew past and before I knew it, we were back in the locker room while the Zamboni cut the ice. Everyone was double-checking their gear, making sure everything was in place and ready to go. My mind was in a daze, but not the good kind. It was actually a conflicting feeling.
I was thrilled that Harper was on the road with us. I loved her being along for the trip and the experience. That, and it was another great thing to add to her résumé. But then there was the part of me that couldn’t stop thinking about Davenport and how badly I wanted to end his career tonight.
“Cirone, let’s go!” Mac yelled at me from where he was standing in line. I was supposed to be in front of him, yet I was still lingering by my locker, trying to get my shit together.
I walked over to where he was and we all got our gloves on. Everyone began to file out and I grabbed my stick from Miles and headed out onto the ice. Coach moved me to the first line, so I took off my helmet and stood where I was supposed to while the national anthem was sung.
Shifting my weight back and forth on my skates, I kept my head down until it was time for us to get into position for the start of the game. As I skated to the center of the rink and placed my stick against the ice, I saw Harper’s ex. He was on the same line as me. We didn’t play the same position but he was right fucking there.
My jaw clenched and I fought the urge to charge at him at that moment. As the puck dropped, I shifted my focus away from him and played my ass off instead. I channeled all of my aggression into playing the best game of hockey I could play.
As we got into the third period, tensions were high between everyone. We were tied 2-2 and it was a pretty even matchup between our team and theirs. Everyone was dead-ass tired, but we still had to keep pushing on. It wasn’t a loss that we were going to hand over to them, and it wasn’t one they were willing to give up either.
There were only three minutes left in the last period of the game. We were quickly approaching overtime territory, but in such a fast game like hockey, things could easily change within a matter of seconds. And that was exactly what happened.
Their center had a breakaway. He managed to get the puck away from our team and he turned and started power skating toward our net. I was tangled up with their left winger and it took me a fraction of a second to get away from him. By the time I did and skated after the rest of the guys moving down the ice, I was too fucking late.
He managed to snipe a shot right past Wolfe. The buzzer sounded loudly through the entire arena and the defeat hung heavily through the air. Slowing down on my skates, I watched as he celebrated, but he wasn’t the only one. Davenport skated directly over to the boards, right where Harper was positioned with her camera.
It was as if time slowed down as he jumped into the air, his hip slamming against the glass in celebration for a goal he didn’t even score. It was completely out of pocket and my breath caught in my throat as I watched Harper stumble backward. Instantly, I skated as hard and as fast as I could in their direction. As I approached them, I noticed Harper’s camera wasn’t in her hands and as Davenport moved out of the way, I saw the blood dripping from her nose as she covered her face with her palms.