“You okay, Krum?”
I keep my head down as I nod, lacing up my skates. “I’m good.”
Trenton lowers his voice as he leans in. “Cassidy told me what happened. You should’ve called me.”
I lift my bruised hand. “I didn’t need backup.”
“Still.” He blows out a breath through his lips. “Aarya okay?”
I’ve tried to shake the image of Carter choking her out of my mind, but it’s all I see when I look at those red marks around her neck. If I would’ve gotten there just two minutes later, who knows what he would’ve done to her.
“She’s alive.”
Trenton nods. “I would’ve lost my mind if someone put their hands on Cass like that.”
I did lose my mind for a minute there. Had Aarya not stopped me…
“What’s happening with the scumbag?”
“We met Brittany at the precinct this morning, and they filed restraining orders against him.”
“Are they pressing charges?”
“They didn’t want to, but everything is on record, including the video.” I swallow. “And hopefully the fucker doesn’t try to come at me with assault charges.”
He shouldn’t, as I was quite convincing before I left the gallery last night.
As soon as the girls left Carter’s office to wait in the truck, I dialed 911 and then I dragged him off the floor and propped him up in a chair. Blood dripped from his split lip, as well as from a gash along his cheekbone. His face was swollen and bruised, and the evidence of my rage turned my stomach.
I haven’t lost control like that since a fight I had on the ice when I first started playing. Since then, I’ve learned to keep my anger in check. But when it comes to Aarya’s safety, apparently all bets are off.
I threatened to slap him with a lawsuit and take him for everything he’s worth if he even thinks about coming after me or Aarya. I hate using my celebrity status, but in this case, it came in handy. I told him I have friends in high places because everyone in this city is a Goldfinches fan, and they’re eager to see me take my team to the playoffs this year. So, he’d be wise to tuck his tail and take responsibility for his actions against the women in his gallery.
I also threatened to kill him if he lays another unwanted finger on my wife ever again. I think he got the message loud and clear. Still, you never know what a slimy bastard like him will do when faced with jail time.
“I’m glad you’re all okay.” Trenton claps me on the back. “Let’s get a win tonight. Our girls are out there watching.”
My head snaps up to him. “Aarya is here?”
Trenton smiles wide. “Along with someone else.”
My eyebrows press together. She didn’t tell me she was coming to the game tonight. I figured she’d want to stay home and rest after last night.
And who is she with?
As soon as I’m announced onto the ice, I skate out and make a beeline for Cassidy’s usual seats behind the goal. I spot Aarya next to her—wearing my jersey with a yellow scarf wrapped around her precious neck—and then I spot a little curly-haired girl bouncing on her lap.
Wearing the same exact jersey, only in a much smaller size.
“Daddy!” I can hear her shouting as I get closer.
I stop right in front of the boards and place my gloved hand against the glass. “Hi, baby!”
Giuliana points to her jersey. “I’m wearing your number!”
I laugh. “It looks so good on you.”
My girls are here, wearing my number.
I have people in the crowd here for me.
My eyes dart to Aarya. She knew I needed this. She knows what it means to me.
Thank you, I mouth.
She shoots me a wink, and a smile sweeps across her face, wide and unbridled and genuine. My heart nearly bursts from the sight of it.
God, I love this woman.
In spite of what she did, as angry as I am about her sneaky plan to catch Carter, I can’t turn my back on her. She’s been on her own for so long, unloved and unappreciated by her parents, unaware of all that she is and deserves. She needs to see that no matter what, I’m always going to be here for her. I’m always going to have her back. She can trust me. She can lean on me. She can count on me to hold her hand through anything.
I think she’s beginning to understand the way I feel about her.
And I think she might feel the same way about me.
I only wonder if she knows it.
Giuliana is sound asleep by the time I get home, sandwiched between a giant dog and a skittish cat.
She was a trooper until the third period when she fell asleep on Aarya’s lap. I’m sure the copious amounts of snacks she ate prior to that aided in her sugar coma.
Aarya isn’t in her room, her bed still made up from the morning, and when I reach my bedroom, my dick practically jumps out of my pants.
She’s still wearing my jersey, but her thick thighs are bare, garnering all of my attention.
I drop my duffle bag onto the floor and close the door behind me, making sure to lock it before I step into the room.
Aarya gazes up at me, her dark hair fanned out on my pillow wearing a playful smirk on her lips. “You won.”
“I did.” I kick off my shoes and pull my T-shirt over my head. “Are you my reward?”
“I am.” Her knees fall apart, giving me a glimpse of the most perfect pussy I’ve ever seen.
“Fucking Christ,” I hiss, yanking down my pants and boxers at the same time. “I’ll make sure to win every game if this is what I get to come home to.”
She runs her hands along her thighs, and that’s when I notice her bare ring finger.
I tip my chin. “Where are your rings?”
Her eyebrows knit together as she looks down at her hand. “Oh, I took them off before I took a shower. I guess I forgot to put them back on.”
I arch a brow. “You forgot?”
She bites her bottom lip as she nods.
“We’ll have to make sure you never forget again.” I tip my chin toward the nightstand. “Put those rings back on your finger. Then I want to see you crawl to me.”
She scrambles to swipe her rings off the ring dish sitting on the nightstand, and then she prowls across the mattress toward me at the foot of the bed.
I know how much she loves it when I take control. She can be the dominant spitfire outside the bedroom, but in here, she gazes up at me with those eager eyes, waiting for my next command.
I fist my cock in my hand and tap the crown against her lips. “Open for me.”
Aarya takes me between her plump lips, and the wet heat of her mouth surrounds me.
“Oh, fuck.”
Her tongue twists around me in a mind-numbing rhythm, her mouth providing the most blissful suction. She grips my balls and gives them a squeeze as she works her other hand around the base of my cock, making up for the space her lips can’t reach.
I tangle my hands in her hair, and my hips jut into her, moving of their own volition. She gags as my dick hits the back of her throat, and I pull back quickly, trying to regain control of my body.
But Aarya moans like she likes it.
I should’ve known my spitfire wants it rough.
I fist her hair in my hands and thrust my dick into her again, diving deep into her throat before pulling back to give her a second to breathe.
“Let this serve as your reminder.” Holding her head, I drive back into her mouth. “You don’t forget to put my rings back on your finger. Understand? Better yet, never take them off.”
I fuck her mouth like a man unhinged, and she moans in between gags like she can’t get enough.
Seeing her on all fours sucking my cock is enough to bring me to my knees, but gazing down at my last name stitched across her back, the pair of my rings nestled on her finger, and knowing she brought my daughter to watch me play tonight…it breaks me wide open.
I yank her off me by her hair and guide her up on her knees until her lips meet mine, and I crush my mouth against hers. Sliding my hands under her jersey, I squeeze two overflowing handfuls of her ass and press her against me, rubbing my dick between her legs.
She presses her thighs together, trapping me where she wants me. “Fuck me, Alex,” she begs against my lips. “Please. I can’t wait anymore.”
“Oh, I’m going to. I’ve been dreaming of this moment since the first night I laid eyes on you.” I drag my lips down her neck, sucking at the sensitive skin behind her ear. “You were wearing that backless little scrap of a dress. I wanted to haul you into a dark corner of the club and fuck you against the wall.”
She hums as her head falls back, granting me better access to her neck. “I wanted you to.”
My hands travel up her body, lifting the material of the jersey until I can pull it off and toss it on the floor. “And the night of the air hockey game at Mac’s house, I wanted to spread you out on the table and bury my tongue in your pussy.”
She grins. “You should’ve.”
I bend down and suck one of her pert nipples into my mouth. “I wanted to sink my fingers inside of you when we were at the MET. Stand behind you and make you come all over my hand while you were staring up at the paintings.”
Her back arches and she releases another sexy moan as my tongue swirls around her nipple. “God, I wanted that too.”
I graze my teeth against her sensitive skin before making my way to show her other breast the same attention. “I’ve imagined fucking you against every square inch of this house. Do you know how difficult it has been to have you here, right under my nose, and not have you?”
“You have me now, Alex. We don’t have to wait anymore. Take me. I’m yours.”
Pride and possession rip through me.
Mine.
I clutch her jaw and speak against her lips, making sure she feels the verity in my words. “You are fucking mine.”
She whimpers, her body shuddering against me.
I nip at her bottom lip before taking a step back. “Now lie down.”
She scrambles to obey as I reach into the nightstand for a condom. She watches with rapt attention as I tear the wrapper and roll it over my length.
I climb onto the mattress and kneel in front of her, pumping my dick in lazy strokes while I gaze down at her. With her knees hiked up to her heaving tits, she waits for me, her pussy glistening in the dim lighting.
I lean down and slide my tongue over her, unable to stop myself from having a taste. I groan against her, lapping her up until she’s a writhing mess under my tongue.
I’ll never get enough of her.
I line up my cock at her entrance and tease her, pushing my crown inside in shallow pulses.
Her hands fly over her head, palms flat against the headboard as she pushes against it trying to sink down and urge me further inside.
I flash her a sinister grin. “You ready for me, baby?”
“Yes.” She’s breathless and desperate. “Yes, please. I need you inside me.”
I lean over, propping myself up with my hands on the mattress on either side of her head so I can be closer to her. I stare into her eyes, glazed over with desire as they lock with mine, and I push myself all the way inside of her, inch by slow, agonizing inch.
She murmurs a string of expletives, and I’m only able to make out phrases like huge, so good, and my personal favorite, best dick ever.
Her pussy clenches around me, so tight and wet, and a long groan releases from my chest. “Oh, fuck, Aarya. You feel incredible.”
We’re still for a moment, our breaths mingling, her body adjusting to my size while I try to rein it in so I don’t fuck her senseless and it’s over in thirty seconds. It’s been so long since I’ve been inside a woman, and I’m beyond happy that my first time is with Aarya. It’s pure ecstasy being inside her, being this connected to her. This feels like more than sex, more than just a means to a release that we’ve been longing for. This is more than physical.
It’s everything I’ve ever wanted.
With her. Only her.
“Tell me you’re not pretending,” I whisper. “Tell me you feel this.”
She cups my face, letting me see the truth in her eyes. “I’m not pretending, Alex. This is real for me. It’s me and you.”
My chest cracks wide open.
Emotion strangles me, my throat thickening as my vision blurs. “It’s real for me too, baby.”
I am wholly yours.
My heart belongs to you.
I love you.
Then she starts moving, letting me know she’s ready. I grip onto her hips, and pull myself out of her before plunging right back inside. I fuck her in slow, deep strokes, loving the way she moans each time I slam inside of her. I lick into her mouth, kissing her in sync with the punishing rhythm of our hips.
“You’re so beautiful,” I whisper in her ear while I pump in and out of her. I need her to know, need her to feel how perfect I think she is, how much I want her. I glance down and watch the way her pussy swallows me, mesmerized by the way she takes me—in awe that this is finally happening.
“You feel so good.” Aarya’s eyes flutter closed as one hand leaves the headboard and grips onto my lower back, her hips meeting me thrust for thrust. “It’s so right with you.”
I relish in her words, understanding the magnitude of them. This isn’t one night; this isn’t something you get from a stranger. We’re connected on a deeper level. This means something.
“You woke me up and breathed life back into me,” I tell her, our breaths mixing as we kiss. “I was so lonely before you came into my life.”
“You don’t have to be lonely anymore,” she whispers against my lips. “We’re in this together. I have you.”
Our pace picks up, and she wraps her arms and legs around me, holding on while I pound her into the mattress. We’re panting into each other’s open mouths as the sound of our skin slapping together echoes throughout the room, pouring everything we’ve got into one another.
And then Aarya comes, with the sound of her throaty moan in my ear, my name falling from her lips over and over again.
I go over the edge right after her, succumbing to the pulsing waves crashing into me.
The last time I was inside a woman, I don’t even remember it. I was most likely drugged, and taken advantage of. She stripped my control from me. The times before that were meaningless—purely physical fun because I was young.
But this? Sex with Aarya?
It’s on another level of intimacy, like her soul has tethered itself to mine.
As we come down and catch our breath, I brush her hair away from her face and pepper her with gentle kisses.
Her fingers draw idle circles along my back as she smiles. “I’d say that was worth the wait.”
I chuckle into her hair as I pull her close. “That was worth everything.”
“I meant what I said.” She pauses. “I want this to be real. I want you to be my boyfriend.”
“You want your husband to be your boyfriend?”
She jabs me in the ribs. “Yeah, I do.”
I pull out of her and roll onto my back, taking her with me so her head is resting on my chest. “I’d love that.”
She lifts her head to look at me. “Thank you for being so patient with me.”
I tuck her hair behind her ear and let my fingers linger on her cheek. “Thank you for being so good with my daughter.”
“She makes it easy.” Aarya laughs. “It was probably worse for you dealing with me.”
“Yeah.” I shake my head. “You’ve been a real pain in the ass.”
“Hey!” She jabs me in the ribs again. “You weren’t supposed to agree with me.”
I laugh and then crush my mouth against hers. She opens for me and moans when my tongue slips in side, and we lose ourselves in another explosive kiss.
“Make me come again, husband.”
I flip her onto her stomach and slap my palm against her ass. “As you wish, wife.”
