The Workaholic and the Realist (New Hampshire Bears #2) (6 page)

I fixed my hair and lightly put on makeup. I had my lacey red thong set on, a pair of jeans, and an off the shoulder sweater. I finished up just as the knocks came at my door.

Keaton stood on the other side of the door with a bottle of wine, wearing baggy jeans and blue polo, covered with a black leather jacket.

“Hello, honey-bunny.”

“Hello, puppy,” I opened the door wider, inviting him in.

He handed me the wine, and after I shut the door, I went straight to the kitchen.

“I’m not sure if you want to open this now or later.” Keaton shrugged out of his jacket.

“We can do both,” I offered, pulling two glasses from the cabinet. I opened the bottle, pouring a small amount into each glass.

Keaton downed his like a shot of Crown Royal and stared me down as he put his wine glass on the counter.

“I’m guessing you aren’t going to wait for me to finish mine.”

“Not really.” He took the wine from my hand. He cupped his hands around my face. “Oh, I’ve wanted to do this since the first night I met you.”

Before I could answer, his lips were on mine firmly, but not harshly. He swept his tongue into my mouth, the sweetness of the wine on it.

“I want to carry you to the bedroom, but I can’t touch you below the waist.” He nipped on my earlobe, and I moaned.

“I’ll make an exception for that.” I kissed him.

Keaton easily picked me up, and I wrapped my legs around him. I felt something in his back pocket, assuming it was his wallet. I went back to kissing him. I didn’t think he would make it upstairs with me, but he did effortlessly.

“Down the hall to the left.” I broke from his lips to give him directions.

When he made it to my room, I released my legs and slid down his body. I felt his hard dick, and I became wetter from the short contact. I retreated from his grasp and pulled my sweater over my head.

“Damn, I knew you were fucking hot.” Keaton licked his lips and reached for me, but I moved away.

“Easy, puppy.” I popped the button of my jeans and swayed my hips side-to-side letting them fall to the ground.

“I’m going to blow just by looking at you.” Keaton gazed up and down my body.

“You’re young. I bet you can bounce back real fast.” I bit down my bottom lip.

“Yes, I can.” He tugged me to his body and led us over to my bed and laid me down.

“Stay above the waist,” I reminded him.

“Just can’t touch you with myself, right?” He nuzzled my neck.

“Correct.” I tilted to give him more access.

“Perfect.” He lightly bit my collarbone, and I giggled from the tingling feeling.

Then I heard it. A soft humming sound. I knew what it was when it touched my clit above my thong.

I moaned. “You can’t use a vibrator.”

Keaton chuckled. “You said, I couldn’t touch and I’m not. You never put any stipulation on anything else.”

“Damn.”
He’s right.

Keaton was able to pull down the cups of my bra and maneuver the vibrator under my thong and directly on my clit. I writhed and squirmed under the vibrations, as he licked, bit, and sucked on my breast. The fucker soon pushed me over the ledge of ecstasy.

“Oh…oh…Keaton…” I arched my back, and he kissed me, stifling my moans as I came.

He separated from my lips but worked his way down with feathery kisses until he reached my neck and then back up to my ear.

“The next time, you’ll come on my cock.”

With one sentence, I knew we were going to do this a lot more.

Chapter Eight

Keaton

“You cheated, puppy.” Harlow leaned against the kitchen counter. She had her sweater on but not her pants, and my dick was still rock hard for her.

“I improvised.” I winked as she handed me a glass of wine.

“Cheater.” She pursed her lips and took the chair adjacent to me.

“You didn’t enjoy it then?” I teased her more.

“Those words never crossed my lips.”

We stared at each other for a full moment, doing nothing but looking into each other’s eyes. She looked stunning as ever with her hair tussled a bit and her sweater showing off her shoulder. I could take her on the table right now and not even think twice.

Until my phone beeped, breaking our trance. I reached of it out of my pocket, seeing the reminder I set. I had to take a test tonight.

“Shit.” I mumbled.

“What’s wrong?” She seemed concerned.

“I have to take a test.”

“Oh, it’s okay. Have you studied? Or is there a loop-hole in there that you can cheat?” She tried to hide her smile, but failed at it.

I stood up and towered over her, bringing my face close to hers. “I’m going to promise this right now. The next time you come, it will be because I’m buried deep inside of you.” I gave her a hard, quick kiss, before leaving and heading home to get to work.

I hated being late and I couldn’t be late for practice or my ass would be benched. Tonight, we were playing Portland Vikings, and I wanted to win against them so badly.

Thankfully, I made it with a few moments to spare. Remington gave me so much grief for my
almost
lateness.

“You must have had a long night with a hot chick.” He slapped my shins with his stick as we took the ice.

“Something like that.” In truth, after I took my test for my Seventeenth Century Literature class, I had to study for my economics class that I had a test in tomorrow. I wanted to study as much as possible since I had a game tonight, and we were traveling in the morning.

Our captain, Hamilton, skated up to us as we were about to start drills over again. “Are we going to have to buy you a watch?”

“Hardy, har, har. I wasn’t late.”

“Close enough.” He glared at me.

“I’ll be careful next time.” Of course, I ragged and ribbed everyone, but Hamilton didn’t have a sense of humor. He took everything very seriously, no matter the topic.

As Coach whistled, everyone began to focus at the task at hand: getting ready for tonight’s game. The Vikings were first in the west, and there was speculation we both would end up in the finals together.

This was going to be a preview.

I wanted to go over to Harlow’s after practice; instead, I went home and worked on homework. My dick told me what an idiot I was for being mature and going home. Being an adult sucked when all I wanted to do was get sucked.

I finished all my work before heading over to the arena for the game. I changed into my warm up gear, and several of the guys and I started playing two-touch. It always made me laugh playing with Kyson. He was horrible, and it made me wonder how he had any coordination on the ice.

Remington and I still were picking on Kyson when our warm up game finished, and we headed back to the locker room to change and get ready for the game.

Once I jumped on the ice with the other Bears, my focus went straight to the puck and stretching out. I was throwing pucks to the fans in the stands when a pair of blue eyes caught mine.

Harlow.

She never came to games. Did she even like hockey? She’d never mentioned it before. I stared for a couple of seconds and a slow smirk grew on her face. I winked at her before skating off with my teammates and back to the locker room. Coach Long gave us the
go get ‘em
speech before we headed back to the ice. Remington, Kyson, and Hamilton were on the top line along with Dag Limon and me. Dag had been with the Bears for a few seasons and knew how to hit as well as I could.

I did everything not to look at Harlow who was behind our goal and realized Meadow sat next to her. I told myself over and over not to think about her hot body and focus on the game.

And I did.

Shift change, after shift change, hit upon hit and after the first period, we were scoreless going back down the tunnel. Coach yelled out everything we were doing wrong and told us how to fix it. After listening to all of it, we went back out for the second period.

However, this period mimicked the first one. The Vikings were trying to wear us down, as we were them. Another twenty minutes went by and neither of us had scored, and we all were tired.

After the break, I caught Harlow’s eyes, she gave me a stern look and tapped her watch. She mouthed
goal
and pointed to the net. I nodded and turned back to focus on the game. If Harlow wanted a goal, she’d get one.

I was the first to admit I wasn’t the best goal scorer. Assists and blocking were my strengths, hence, why I played defense. However, I had a few tricks up my sleeve, and I could pull them out now and then.

When the puck dropped, I trained my eyes on only it. Hamilton kept passing back and forth with Remington and Kyson when I yelled for it tapping my stick on the ice. Kyson finally passed it to me, and I saw I had a clear shot. I settled the puck before putting all my strength into my swing. The puck sailed over the goalie’s right shoulder and into the net. The crowd roared, and my teammates rushed over to congratulate me.

“I want the puck.” I shouted at the ref who picked it up and tossed it to me. I quickly took it over to the equipment manager and told him to save it for me.

The rest of the third period went smoother, and Remington added to our score when he made a shot into the empty net. We all celebrated the win when the final buzzer sounded, and I headed into the locker room to change. I sent a quick text to Harlow telling her I wanted to meet up. I hoped she received it before leaving and heading home.

Remington, Kyson, and I all walked out together after we showered and changed. I had the puck in my pocket and planned on giving it to Harlow.

When we headed out to our vehicles, I easily spotted Meadow and Harlow sitting on the tailgate of Kyson’s truck. When she looked over at me, a small smile appeared.

“Nice game, puppy,” she said loudly.

“Thank you, honey-bunny.” I held up my hand for a high-five, which she returned.

“He got one goal,” Kyson pointed out as if no big deal.

“Yes, but it was the first goal of the evening; ergo, it was
the
goal.” I pushed on Kyson’s shoulder jokingly.

“Keaton.”

My body froze and not because of the cold. I slowly turned to see Felicia walking towards me.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“You won’t talk to me any other way.”

“So, you thought cornering me with my friends would get me to talk to you?” She probably was high or drunk at the moment to think this had been a bright idea.

“Please, Keaton.”

“The answer is still the same: no,” I turned my back on her and saw how confused everyone looked trying to figure out what the situation.

“This is how you treat your mother?”

I flinched as if someone hit me. As I turned back to her, I caught Harlow’s eyes grow wide with shock, but mine were fueled with anger.

“This—” I stepped closer to her, and she took a few steps back. “This is how I treat the woman who left me on my grandmother’s doorstep because she needed a bottle and a needle more than her own child.” My voice rose, and someone behind me gasped.

“I said I was sorry.”

“I don’t care. Do you understand? I don’t want you in my life. No matter what your twelve-step program tells you, not all is forgivable.”

Felicia’s eyes narrowed. “You think you’re so high and mighty because you have a fancy hockey career and went to college and write books. You’re nothing but a workaholic and it’s an addiction just like I have.”

My mind raced. She’d literally spilled out almost every secret of mine in front of my friends. Who told her? Grams had to. What made it worse she thought I was like her? I’d never be like her.

“How dare you compare me to you? I’m nothing like you.” My voice was low, laced with anger.

“Oh, son, you’re more like me than you know.”

“You fucking—”

“Stop.” Harlow jumped in between us. “Stop.” She faced Felicia. “This isn’t the time or place to have this conversation. It would be best if you left now.”

“And don’t go back to Grams,” I yelled at her. Harlow reached back and laced her hand with mine. It seemed to calm me a bit.

“Just leave,” Harlow told her again. Felicia was going to say something else, but decided against it and left the parking garage.

I didn’t realize how badly I’d been shaking until Harlow told me. Or I thought she said it. My ears were ringing, and I was beyond pissed off. Actually, pissed off didn’t cut it, but I couldn’t think of another word at the moment.

“Keaton, give me your keys.” Harlow cupped my face. I reached into the pocket of my coat and gave them to her. She led me to my vehicle and opened the door for me. There was no argument from me, I just followed her lead.

She drove us to her house, and all I could think about was how I hated Felicia even more now than before. If that were even possible.

Harlow and I walked into her place and right toward the kitchen. She pulled a couple beers from the fridge as I took off my jacket and tugged at my tie. She sat the beers on the table and took off her jacket.

“You must think I’m an ass,” I said, taking a large gulp of the beer.

“I didn’t think that at all.”

I rested my elbows on the table and ran both of my hands through my hair. “I hate her.”

“I can understand why.”

I couldn’t explain it, but I suddenly became very emotional. I wanted to say so much to Felicia right now, and the more I replayed it in my head, the more furious I became.

Obviously, Harlow read my mind because she stood up and came over to me. She lifted my chin, and we stared at each other for a few seconds.

“Make me forget tonight happened.” Why would I request something so silly? But I did.

She gently pushed on my shoulder and I leaned back in the chair. She easily straddled me and kissed me hard. At this moment, I craved her. There was nothing else I wanted more than to bury myself in her.

Harlow broke our kiss and rose. She tugged on my hand, and I followed her up the stairs to her bedroom.

She faced me and raised her arms up over her head. I gripped the bottom of her t-shirt and lifted it over her head. She had on a black bra. Nothing lacy like last time, but it still made her breasts look fantastic. Harlow began to unbutton my shirt. There was a small smile on her face as she undid my cuff links and let the shirt fall from my shoulders.

I watched her ease down on her knees, release my belt, and pop the button of my black dress pants. They fell and she followed with my boxer briefs. I was hard as a rock in Antarctica, and I growled when she gripped me and began to stroke.