For Keeps (8 page)

“
I don’t know what to
say, Valerie. Thank you. This means much, much more to me than you
know.” He hugged her tight to him, and he wondered if now would
be the time…

No, it definitely wasn’t.
But there was something he could offer. “Valerie…”
He trailed off. He’d never been in this situation before, and
he didn’t want to come off the wrong way. Closing his eyes for
a moment to gather his wits, he continued, “Valerie, I don’t
think you’ll ever understand how important you are to me. I
don’t think I could live without you now.”

Blushing, she answered in a
playful tone, “You sure are easy to please.”

“
No, I’m not
actually. I’ve never been more content than I am with you.”
Her smile faded, and he tucked a lone strand of hair behind her ear
as he looked her straight in the eye. “And that’s because
I love you.”

It was the first time he’d
spoken the words, and it caught Valerie off guard. She felt
lightheaded and dizzy, but she smiled wide, her heart beating hard in
her chest.

“
I love you, too, Tyler. So
much. I just want to make you happy.”

Kissing her softly but with all
the deep emotion he felt toward her, Tyler stroked her cheek with his
thumb. “Valerie, you always make me happy. Just you. And that’s
never going to change.”

Valerie prayed that it didn’t
and clung to that desperate hope as they ordered, ate, shouted at the
game, and discussed the logistics of Tyler traveling a lot and what
the future held in store. Valerie hated the idea of him being away so
much, but she wanted him to have all his dreams come true, and she
would do anything she had to, sacrifice anything including time with
him, to assure he got what others had denied him.

* * *

No sooner were they through the
door when Tyler flipped the lock in place, pushing Valerie against
the wall and kissing her fiercely, his hands roaming wildly over
every part of her body. He pawed at her clothes, and she frantically
peeled them off. As he kissed and nibbled at her neck, she asked
breathlessly, “Tell me what you want.”

Gritting his teeth against her
neck, his hot breath washing against her soft skin, Tyler whispered
his desires, his voice a low growl that was filled with passion.

“
You.”

Having her naked in his arms
drove him wild, and he could think of nothing more than feeling his
cock pushing inside of her, uniting them once more, as he felt her
walls wrapped tightly about his shaft. Carefully, he used his knees
to spread her legs wide, and she gasped knowing that he was beyond
the point of no return. He would have her entirely.

Without words he nibbled her neck
and shoulder bone, working his way down to her hardened pink nipples,
his hands gripping her middle back before dropping lower to her
waist. Soon he was down on his knees, his mouth only inches away
from her softness, desperate to taste her.

Slowly, achingly slowly –
he moved, his hot wet tongue inching closer to her clit in broad,
fluttered strokes. He pushed her thighs apart, giving him full reign
of her bubblegum pink clit, as he licked warm wet circles around it,
suckling it carefully – quietly, before sliding two fingers
deep inside of her.

“
oh…OH!”
Valerie screamed, her voice filled with aching need. She threw her
head back, pressing her body firmly against the wall as the first
orgasm rumbled through her body, making ever square inch of her burn
and tingle.

It wasn’t enough for her.
Valerie wanted to take from him, but she wanted to do it her way, and
though she held on, her hands fisted in his hair, through another
explosion, she finally used her grip on him to pull his head back
from between her thighs. When she looked down and caught his hooded
gaze, she moaned and told him in a hoarse voice,

“
My turn.”

Tyler loved when Valerie took the
initiative and rode him. She was like a wild animal, bucking and
crying as she took her own pleasure from him. But she surprised him
now. Rather than throwing her legs over him and settling herself so
she could draw his thick shaft deep inside her, she lowered herself
to the ground and took the head of his cock in her mouth.

Hissing in pure bliss, Tyler
could barely keep his eyes open to watch her as she licked from his
base all the way to the tip and back, over and over again, before her
lips closed around the thick wet head of his cock and sucked it in.
He could have came in her mouth immediately, but he wanted more, and
he could tell she wasn’t ready to stop. He lightly palmed the
back of her head as she bobbed up and down, taking him as deep as she
could toward her throat, over and over again.

The sensation in Valerie’s
mouth drove her crazy. The softness of the skin on the head of his
perfect cock directly contrasted the hard thrust and size of the
shaft, and she wanted to touch herself, feel her own wetness as she
reveled in the taste of him. But this was all about his pleasure, and
she wanted to focus only on him right now.

She cupped his balls carefully in
her fingertips as she continued licking his shaft, but her arms were
suddenly pulled away without warning and in seconds Tyler’s
hands were wrapped tightly around her waist, lifting her and placing
her on top of him, and he entered her in one smooth, satisfying
thrust that had them both struggling to catch their breath. The
tightness, the deep connection and pure desire between a wanton woman
and a passionate, loving man nearly drove them to the edge of glory.

Slowly, Valerie started to move
up and down on his cock, the slight friction building as she reveled
in the heat from his core mixing with the thickness of his shaft that
filled her up and stretched her walls until they convulsed over and
over, one orgasm blooming as another faded so she couldn’t tell
where they began and ended.

Tyler couldn’t take much
more as he felt Valerie coming over and over again, her body
trembling, her inner walls pressing hard around him and threatening
to choke him if he didn’t come. He squeezed her breasts, teased
her nipples, trying to distract himself, but her cries only grew
louder as her pleasure intensified. Finally, he grabbed her hips and
held her tight as he drove one last, deep stroke into her before
exploding deep inside of her pussy. His hips bucked wildly at the
release, it was so intense, and Valerie panted and screamed as her
convulsions came quicker and harder around him.

Finally, she collapsed on top of
him, and as he ran his fingertips gently down her spine, he could
feel the aftershocks going through her, still wringing every last bit
of pleasure out of the both of them. When she sat back up, her hair
was sweaty and tangled in her face, and her lids were hooded with
afterglow, but her smile was sensual, enticing.

“
That, my love, was the
most incredible experience I think I’ve ever had.”

“
I could say the same to
you,” he told her, his words slurred with complete rapture.

He gently rolled her to the side,
and drew her against him, their bodies and skin flush to each other.
He held her, his mouth so close to hers that a deep breath would have
had their lips touching. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve
ever known, and I would do anything to make you happy.”

With a soft, tender smile, she
told him, “I just want you to love me. That’s what will
make me happy.”

He raised an eyebrow. “That’s
easy, then. There should be no happier woman in the world, as much
love as I have for you.”

* * *

Tyler hadn’t been joking
about the brutal hockey schedule, and it was starting to weigh on
Valerie. She didn’t sleep well when he wasn’t home, and
she’d been busy at work, so this was the first time in over a
month since he’d been recruited that she’d been able to
travel with him. She sat in the stands, watching the game and
cheering with the crowd, loving the fact that Tyler’s team was
shutting out their opponents, 4-0.

But she was also tired and
hungry. She’d come straight from the airport, not wanting to
miss any of the game. She loved watching him play, and knew that it
was truly what he was meant to do.

Not to mention the rigorous daily
workout did beautiful things to his already hard body.

Another shot, with Tyler’s
assist, and another score. She stood, hands in the air, cheering
again, but stopped mid-cry as the crowd booed and she felt like the
ground dropped out from under her. One of the players from the
opposing team rammed Tyler from the side after the completion of the
play, his stick angled at Tyler’s knee, and she watched in
horror as the knee bent at an odd angle and Tyler went tumbling to
the ground.

She waited for a moment, covering
her mouth with her hands and praying he wasn’t badly injured,
but when the trainer headed onto the ice, she started shoving her way
through the people blocking her way and ran up and around, finding
the private entrance to the locker rooms blocked by security.

Tyler had told her the guards
would have a list of people they could let through, and she
stuttered. “Valerie... I’m with Tyler Princeton.”

The guard radioed something to
someone inside, but Valerie’s ears were buzzing, and she was
too worried to pay attention. Finally, he nodded and told her,
“Follow me.”

She rushed after the long-legged
guard. Under other circumstances, she would have grumbled about not
being able to keep up, but now, he couldn’t possibly move fast
enough to get her where she wanted to be. She didn’t even know
if whatever medical personnel would allow her to be in the room with
Tyler, but she was damn well going to find out. And she would at
least be waiting right outside.

The coach smiled at her when
Valerie reached the outside of the locker room, but the crinkles at
the corners of his eyes were missing…he wasn’t happy at
all. “Hey, Valerie, he’s okay. He’s in a little
pain, but the medic’s working on that first so we can figure
out what kind of damage we’re looking at.”

The coach put a hand on her
shoulder, and Valerie was glad she’d made the effort to get to
know him and some of Tyler’s teammates. She was a little
relieved to be talking to someone who at least had a familiar face
and knew Tyler. “When can I see him?”

“
I’ll get you in as
soon as I can, okay? I have to get back out to the ice. We’ve
still got two periods to play, and I have to be out there. But I’ll
leave word with the trainer to come get you as soon as he can
convince the doc to clear it.”

The wait was long and gut
wrenching, but finally, the door opened, and the trainer motioned her
in. Tyler lay across the medical bench, his face pale and his eyes
closed, though his muscles were still tense and she could read the
pain on him. “Tyler?”

He reached out a hand, wanting
nothing more than to touch Valerie. The instant he felt her hand in
his, some of the pain regressed, and the tension in his body relaxed
ever so slightly. Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes and smiled
at her. “Hey, love.” He winced as a pain shot through his
knee, but recovered quickly, not wanting to dwell on how badly he
hurt, even after the pain meds. “How bad did it look from where
you were sitting? Was I at least graceful when I fell?”

She let out a small chuckle. “Not
really. It looked like you’d been shot.” She cleared her
throat, and Tyler saw the worry in her eyes that he’d been
hoping to avoid. “How bad
is
it, Tyler? Did you tear something? Break something?”

He shrugged. “If I’m
lucky, then I just pulled the ACL. We’ll have to get an MRI to
see if it’s torn.” He saw the alarm as her eyes grew
wide, and he reached up to caress her cheek. Valerie may not know a
lot about sports, but she understood that terminology at least.
“Look, whatever it is, we’ll deal with it, right? If it’s
pulled, I’m out for about three weeks. If it’s torn…I
have surgery and see where it goes from here.”

Valerie didn’t know what to
say. If, in fact, he had to have surgery on his ACL, that would be
the end of a career that had just started for him, one that he’d
dreamed of all his life. And that could be completely devastating.
“So, do I get to take you out of here and get you in for your
scan?”

He nodded. “I just want to
stick it out in here through the game, say goodnight to the guys when
they come in, and then we’ll go. I want you to stay with me.”
Really, he feared this would be the last time he’d be in a
locker room, with other players chasing the dream like him. He also
realized that this particular injury on his right knee could very
well affect his driving and make racing more difficult. But he would
handle it like a man, stay together, and not act like a child who’d
lost everything.

He still had Valerie, and that
was what really mattered.

His cell phone rang, and he
frowned. Tyler couldn’t remember having grabbed it, but
apparently he’d asked for it when they brought him in, most
likely to call Valerie if she wasn’t already there. Looking at
the caller ID, he nearly choked. “Great. What the hell is my
father doing calling me at all, much less right now?”

Valerie raised an eyebrow. “Are
you going to answer it?”