Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 121734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
I hoped he could hear the sincerity in my tone. “They’re taking their cues from you. And your cue is that you’re all in with them. That’s breathing new energy into them. It’s as if somewhere down the line, someone told them they were only going to go so far and they believed them. They let themselves get locked into that box, except there was no door for them to get out. You didn’t just break into the box to release them. You obliterated the box for them. They’re starting with new belief in themselves and that’s because of you. You believe in them. They see that. They’re starting to believe in themselves too and they’re having fun. Athletes always play the best when their bodies are loose, when their minds are clear, and having fun is the best way to make that happen. You brought that back to them. That’s no small feat. Give yourself that, at least.”
He didn’t reply right away. His throat was tightening before he said, gruffly, “Thanks for that.”
I shrugged, releasing him and stepping over to grab some plates. “Just the truth.” I turned away, giving him a modicum of privacy because I could see what I said had an effect on him. His head bent before I turned away and I heard him draw in a ragged breath.
“It weighs on me.”
I slowed in pulling the plates out from the cupboard. “What does?”
“Coming here. Trying to juggle a family crisis but wanting to do my best as a player too. As a teammate. I like them. I like this team a lot. I want to do the best for them, be the best that I can be.”
I glanced over my shoulder. He was watching me back, a raw vulnerability to him that was making my heart pound in my chest. I murmured, “You already are.”
He closed his eyes and nodded, his chest rising. “Thanks.”
I shrugged again. “Like I said, it’s the truth. I’m not blowing smoke up your ass.”
His lips tipped up, curving. “I’ve never had that experience.”
“And we’re back to our regular programmed Tyler show.”
He chuckled. “Not quite. Let’s eat and watch the Sorcerer’s Stone so you get the full effect of the Harry Potter world.”
“Learn what a griffin is?”
The look he gave me was all suggestion, all heat, and it had me clenching for the table because it was making me all too unsteady. “You can learn what a Griffin is any day of the week, but yes. You’ll learn the difference between a griffin and a hippogriff.”
“A hippo-what?”
He came over the next night after the game.
He also came over the next three nights after that.
Sometimes we had sex, though I was aware every time I heard his knock and every time I opened that door it needed to be the last night. I still opened the door.
I was fast losing the ability to stop this.
Some nights he brought take-out and crawled in bed with me to watch the rest of the Harry Potter movies. He was right. Griffins were awesome. We moved onto The Lord of the Rings and he was still coming over almost every night.
There would be a time when I needed to end this. I knew it.
Except every night I kept thinking to myself, the next time. I would tell him the next time. Then he’d reach for me, roll me underneath him, and that thought would melt away because no matter what, I loved how he made me feel.
He made me feel wanted.
30
TYLER
Idropped down to the bench, exhausted. That loss sucked.
“Hey, man.” Sunny sank down next to me. “That was shit.”
I grunted. It’d been a shut out for them. Four to zero. Meester had been in goal and he was currently sitting in front of his locker, his head hanging down. He was still learning, but I said, “Not getting an argument from me.”
“Yeah.” He was just as glum as I was. We begin silently undressing.
If I wasn’t thinking about hockey, worrying about Skylar, who still wouldn’t respond to me, then my mind trailed to Rain. She was fast becoming an addiction.
I liked her. I did.
I shouldn’t, but I did.
It wasn’t just the sex, which was hot. It was more. It was her. Talking to her about my worries, she’d been there for me on numerous occasions by now. Going to the hospital with me, not injecting her own judgments into what my sister should do, and then saying all that to me about how I was helping the team. I felt safe with her.
Who was I kidding? I just wanted her. Any way I could get her, I would take it. She felt good in my arms, felt right. The last two nights I hadn’t even left after sex or after the movie. The first night it happened, we’d both just fallen asleep. The second time it happened, she’d fallen asleep and I was the one who made the decision. I stayed.