Behind the Net: a grumpy sunshine hockey romance

I’M in awe of Pippa.

You don’t want the best for me. You want the best for you. You never saw us as equals.

I love this woman, and I need to tell her. When we lay in bed last night, I almost said it, but I held back. Now, in the elevator up to our suite, I can barely keep from blurting it out.

I love taking care of Pippa, but she doesn’t need me. She can take care of herself, and I love her for that. In my mind, I see our future together, and I want it too badly.

Pippa’s my forever person. I know that now. I think I always knew it.

“You’re incredible,” I tell her, and a smile lifts on her face.

“Because of you.”

“No.” I shake my head. “That was all you, songbird.” I walk her back against the wall, holding her eyes. Electricity simmers around us, and I love the way she looks up at me, so trusting and sweet. “Have I told you how fucking beautiful you are?” I murmur, brushing her hair back before kissing her neck.

She laughs quietly under my touch. “Yes.”

“Good.” I nip her shoulder. Her breath catches, and I love the sound of it.

I’m so gone for this girl. I love every sound she makes.

The doors open on our floor and I take her hand, leading her to the suite. Inside, her gaze roams the space. The fireplace is on, there’s a bottle of champagne waiting in an ice bucket, and through the windows, the ski-hill lights twinkle.

She presses her hands together in front of her chest with a dreamy look on her face. “I never want to leave this place.”

I’m buying a place in Whistler, I decide, for weekends. A place just like this—cozy cabin style—where Pippa and Daisy and I can come to relax. What’s the point of making millions if I don’t spend it on the people I love, doing the things that matter?

This is what matters.

In the bedroom, I lace my fingers in hers, heart pounding as I kiss her, sinking into her warm, welcoming mouth, loving every catch of her breath, every quiet moan. I work her zipper down, letting the dress pool at her feet.

Pippa stands there in that lingerie, looking fucking delectable. Every cell in my body sings for this goddess. I run my hand through my hair as desire pulses in my blood.

“Fuck,” I breathe, memorizing how her tits swell over the lace, how the panties hug her curves, how her perfect pink nipples are barely visible. I brush my thumb over one of the peaks, and her eyelids fall halfway.

There’s a lingerie store near our apartment—I’ve passed it and thought about her a hundred times. I’m going there tomorrow, I decide, to buy half the store for Pippa. My jaw tenses as I picture Pippa wearing panties I bought for her. Her gasping as I tear them off.

Jesus Christ, that is fucking hot.

My pretty Pippa undoes my bowtie, and I feel a twist of affection. Undressing each other feels familiar, and I think back to when the valet referred to her as my wife.

I liked that. My mouth tips up as she undoes my shirt buttons. I liked that a lot. I picture this woman with my ring on her finger, and something possessive beats in my chest.

I like that image, too.

She pushes my jacket and shirt off, and they fall to the floor before her hand slides over my cock.

“I love how hard you get,” she breathes, watching her hand work me over my pants before glancing up at me with a playful smile.

Oh, yeah. She’s getting a ring. A big one. Loud and flashy. Disgustingly over-the-top. She’ll hate it, I’m sure, but I want people seeing it from a mile away. From space. I want it to signal to everyone that she’s taken.

“What are you grinning at?” she asks me, smiling.

She’s so pretty. I won’t force her to wear a ring she doesn’t like. I could never do that. She can wear whatever ring she wants.

I rest my forehead against hers as she strokes me. Need tightens in my body, and my blood beats for her.

“Wait.”

Her hand stills. “What is it?”

My nostrils flare as I drag a breath in. My feelings for Pippa swell and pitch, crashing like waves on a stormy ocean, desperate to get out. Without telling her the truth of how I feel—all of it—intimacy between us feels incomplete. I pull back and search her eyes.

“I love you.” My words are a quiet murmur as I watch her reaction, and my heart slams against the front wall of my chest. I’ve never said those words to a girl. I’ve never felt this way, and it’s exhilarating and terrifying. “I love you so fucking much, Pippa. I’m in love with you. I want everything with you.”

Her lips part, and her chest rises and falls fast as my words sink in. Please feel the same way, I pray to the universe.

“You’re everything to me.” My Pippa. My distraction, the girl I’ve always been powerless against. “I want you in my life. You make me so, so fucking happy, songbird, and I hope I make you happy, too.”

“You do,” she says immediately, and her hands slip into the back of my hair. “You do make me happy. You’re everything to me, too. I love you, too,” she whispers.

My heart bursts open, expanding in my chest. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

My mouth falls to hers, and the soft noise in her throat has my blood humming. She loves me, and I don’t have to keep it in anymore. She loves me, and we’re doing this.

She loves me, and this is forever.

My hands fall to her chest, and my thumbs rub twin circles on her nipples over the fabric of her bra. She arches into my hands, swaying on her feet. A dark chuckle rumbles out of me, and I slip one hand into her panties.

Her pussy is soaked. She moans, wincing with pleasure as I stroke through her, dragging slow, delicate friction over her.

“Shit,” I breathe. “You’re so wet.”

She nods, looking up at me like I’m a lifeline. She clutches me for stability, and I wrap an arm around her shoulders to hold her upright while I touch her. She’s so soft, so wet, so warm, and I can’t get enough.

“You’ve come twice today,” I tell her in a low, teasing tone. “Look how worked up you are.”

She nods again, wetting her lips, and it’s that flash of her tongue that has me dripping with pre-cum. I pull my hand out of her panties and watch her expression glaze as I suck the wetness off my fingers. I groan at her taste, giving her a wicked smile, reveling in her look of disbelief and awe.

“Need you naked, songbird,” I tell her, unhooking her bra and slipping her panties down. “Need you bare for me so I can make you come again.” I guide her down onto the bed near the edge, hovering over her and seeking one of her pinched nipples with my lips, working the other with my fingers.

“That always feels so good.” Her words are a low, strained whisper, and my balls ache with need at the desperate, pleasured tone in her voice.

I love pleasing Pippa. I love making her feel good, and I love being the only man to have done it so well. Her hair is spread out across the pillow, and it’s one of the most breathtaking things I’ve ever seen, Pippa beneath me, looking up at me like this. It makes my heart ache.

“Open your legs for me, baby,” I whisper against her breast. “Open your legs so I can keep making you feel good.”

She obliges, and a dark satisfaction weaves through me at her following my instructions so obediently. So trusting, like she knows I’d never hurt her.

Her abs tighten as I rub her clit.

“Jamie,” she moans in frustration, and I chuckle before lowering my mouth to her.

Her taste hits my tongue, and I groan into her, pushing her thighs wider so I can get deeper. My tongue sweeps up and down her slit, circling her clit, dipping into her tight center, slicking over every sensitive nerve ending until her hands are in my hair, tugging.

“Can’t get enough,” she gasps.

“Good.” I suck her clit, and her back arches off the bed. “Neither can I.”

While I work my tongue over her, I unbuckle my belt and pull my cock out, giving it a few hard strokes.

Jesus. I’m close. I’m too close.

“You’re playing with me.” Her voice is thin, breathy, accusing. “You’re teasing me.”

“You fucking bet I am.” I draw slow, light circles on her clit before sucking hard, and her hips tilt, pressing her further onto my mouth. “You’re mine to play with. Isn’t that right, songbird?”

She nods, pulling my hair, and the sensation shoots down my spine. I suck her clit in a pulsing rhythm, and her thighs shake around my head. Around my fingers, her muscles flex.

“Use your words, baby. Say it so I can hear you.”

“Yes,” she moans as I rub her G-spot. “I’m yours to play with. I’m yours.”

“Good girl. That’s what I like to hear. You want to come?”

Her hands tighten in my hair. “Yes.”

“Ask nicely.”

“Please,” she begs. “Please make me come. Please, baby.”

I relent, sucking hard on her clit while dragging my tongue over it, working her G-spot in the steady, pulsating rhythm that makes her lose her mind.

My free hand drifts beneath her, between her cheeks, teasing, and her head lifts so she can see me.

“Did he ever touch you here, songbird?”

The pad of my finger drags across her back entrance, wet from her arousal, and she squeaks, shaking her head.

“Do you want me to?” I circle the tight bud, rubbing gentle friction.

Her eyes close as she lets out a high, desperate moan I’ve never heard before. “Yes, please.”

I ease my finger inside her ass, so slow and cautious, and as I begin to stroke, she tightens up around me.

“Good?” I ask, smiling.

She’s frantically nodding, breathing hard, saying things like please and yes. I slide my tongue over her clit again, sucking, and within seconds, she bows off the bed, letting out a high, desperate moan and clenching up all over my fingers. My face is soaked with her arousal as her thighs tremor around me, and I’m so hard it hurts.

“Jamie.” She reaches for me, chest heaving while she catches her breath. “I need you here.”

I kneel on the bed, settling over her, kissing a trail down her neck and chest.

“You came three times today,” I tell her, smiling.

Her eyes spark and she smiles down at me. “You made me come three times today.”

Pride pulses in my chest. “Fucking right, I did,” I bite out, and I lower my hips, sliding my cock against her slick center. She shakes when I rub against her clit, and her legs fall open wider.

She reaches down to angle me at her entrance, and I’m already mindlessly pushing inside her, my cock throbbing at how tight and wet and warm she is.

“Oh my god.” Her hands are in my hair and the look of agonized bliss on her face makes my balls tighten. “Oh my god,” she repeats.

A shred of sanity slices through.

“Condom,” I groan. I’m not wearing one. I’m halfway inside her and shaking with need, but I’d never do this without her green light.

“I’m on the pill.” She sobers, and her tongue darts out to lick her lips. “I’ve never gone without a condom before.”

My brain stutters, and every base instinct roars to life. More than anything, I want to come inside her. I want to make her mine, fully and completely.

“Me neither,” I tell her, swallowing. My cock pulses inside her, and her breath catches.

She nods, urging me on, and her hips tilt, seeking more. I sink in the rest of the way, and every thought in my head burns away.

Fucking Pippa bare is the highest plane of heaven. The noise that rips through my throat is unearthly. When I pull out and push back in, she lets out a low moan.

“Do we need to do that thing?” I ask through clenched teeth as I thrust. Her scent wafts into my nose, and it only makes me harder. She’s so wet I can hear myself moving in and out of her, and the sharp pinpricks of pain from her nails digging into my back shove me closer to my release.

I can’t hold on for much longer.

“What thing?” she gasps.

“The—” I scramble for the words, but all I can think about is how fucking incredible she feels around me. I didn’t think it was possible to feel this heightened sense of pleasure. It’s sharper than any pain from any injury. Coming inside her is going to tear my brain out of my skull. “Where you get stuck in your head,” I manage. “The grounding thing we do.”

She’s shaking her head, and the movement is erratic. “I don’t need help. I’m close, Jamie.”

Thank fuck, because I can’t handle this for much longer. Heat coils low inside me, twisting and pulsing. “Touch yourself. Show me what you can do. I want to see you make yourself come while being fucked.”

Her hand falls between us to where we join, and my breath is a hiss as she clenches up on me. Her fingers work her clit in soft, fast circles, and her expression is glorious—wincing with pleasure and desperation as we chase our releases.

Her lips make an O as she stares up at me like she can’t believe it. My control slips, and I stroke into her harder. The necklace I bought her bounces with her tits as I fuck her, and pride pounds in my blood.

“I love you so much.” My voice is rough. The pressure at the base of my spine builds rapidly. “So fucking much, Pippa.”

She’s nodding, over and over again. “I love you. Oh my god.” Her mouth falls open. “I’m going to come.”

On a choked gasp, she clamps down on my cock, and my release barrels toward me. My world narrows to her—her full breasts, her plush lips, her beautiful blue-gray eyes, clouded with lust and clinging to my gaze. I drive into her, uncontrolled and claiming, as my release closes in on me.

I shatter into a million pieces, coming inside Pippa. My forehead falls to hers, and I’m moaning as my vision goes white. The most intense pleasure of my life cuts through every cell in my body as I fill her, gritting out her name.

My world comes back into focus, and I heave for air, staring down at Pippa in disbelief. “Holy fuck.”

A laugh bursts out of her, and then I start laughing, and then we’re laughing together. That was the most intense physical experience of my life, and we’re giggling with each other.

I love this girl. With Pippa, I’ve never felt so complete. Everything I secretly wanted, I have.

I’m never letting her go.