Take the Shot Page 21

  I kissed down her stomach, and when I looked up, her eyes were heavy-lidded with lust. “Tell me what you need, Lovey.”

  “Fuck, Noah, please!” she cried out when I glided a finger inside her.

  I kissed her thighs, spreading them while I kissed the tender flesh. “I missed you so much. I think I know what you need.”

  “Mmm, keep doing that,” she moaned as she closed her eyes.

  I slid a second finger inside her, while I bent my mouth to her clit. I flicked my tongue across it, in tiny teasing licks while I thrusted with my fingers inside her at the same time. I moaned into her, loving the noises she was making and how her nails raked across my scalp.

  “No,” she moaned.

  I lifted my head in question. “No?”

  She was biting her lip and looking all pouty. “No, I want you inside me right now. I need you Noah, please.”

  I chuckled. “You’re the boss lady, I’ll give you whatever you want.”

  Her smile was a thousand-watt at that. “C’mere you.”

  I removed my hand, grabbed a condom from her bedside table and slid it on. I nestled myself between her legs, teasing her with my cock until she thrust her hips up in frustration. I sank into her hot heat and smiled when she wrapped her legs around me tightly. I thrusted inside her, running my hands through her hair and kissing her every so often.

  Her hands pushed onto my chest in a hard shove. “Ugh, get off, you’re going too slow.”

  I laughed. “What?”

  I slid out of her with a groan, but then her small hands were pushing me down onto my back. She straddled me, reached down to grip my hardness below her and sank down onto it in a swift motion. Oh fuck yes, I loved when she was in control. She rode me slowly, bracing her hands on my chest, which allowed me to explore her with my own hands. I traced down her throat, past the valley of her breasts, only to stop there to squeeze them lightly, which made her laugh. I skated my hand down her belly, until I hit the place where we were joined. She rocked on top of me and the view was spectacular. I plumped a finger on her swollen clit and she cried out in ecstasy.

  “Oh, you’re a bad boy,” she growled at me.

  I grinned and met her thrust for thrust. “You like it.”

  “Mmmhmm,” she moaned.

  She leaned over my chest and kissed my neck. I pressed my hand onto her spot, and moaned at both the sensation of her mouth on my skin and her grinding against me. She cried out seconds before I felt my own orgasm rack my entire body.

  I fucking loved make-up sex.

  29

  DINAH

  I groaned into Noah’s neck and he laughed, but wrapped his arms around me. We were still joined, but I needed to catch my breath. I glanced down at him and smiled at his chest heaving just as much as mine. He reached a hand up and pushed a sweaty lock of my hair behind my ear. His thumb brushed across my cheek and I leaned my face into his hand. These small moments with this man were what I wanted most. It didn’t matter to me that I was eight years his senior, or that I couldn’t have kids, none of those things had ever mattered to Noah.

  “Fuck, Noah,” I breathed out and got off of him to lay next to him.

  “Sorry if that was too fast.”

  I shook my head. “No, it was good.”

  We cleaned ourselves up and I changed into a pair of comfy pajamas. I jumped back into bed with a sigh. Noah was trying to gather his clothes that were scattered across my apartment. “It’s true what I said,” I called after him.

  “What?” he yelled from the other room and then came back into the bedroom with his suit jacket in his arm and started to put his dress shirt back on. “What’s true?”

  “That I love you too.”

  A smile spread across his face. “You better.”

  I eyed him as he put his clothes back on. “You know, I can clear a drawer for you so you don’t have to keep on going back over to your place if you want to stay here.”

  He eyed me cautiously. “Are you sure? I literally live next door.”

  I weighed his words carefully, maybe that was too soon for him. I mean, we had broken up and were just back together, maybe clearing a drawer for his things would be weird for him. I didn’t want things to be weird between us. I looked at my phone to distract myself and chewed on my fingernail.

  Noah crossed the room to my bed and sat on the edge of it next to me. He ran a hand up my torso and caressed my cheek until he ran his long fingers into my messy hair. He kissed me tenderly, and pulled away so suddenly that I barely felt the kiss. His thumb rubbed against my cheek and I leaned into it, loving the feeling of him touching me, even in such a chaste gentle caress.

  “Only if that’s what you want,” he finally said.

  I nodded.

  He smiled and kissed me on the forehead. “Okay, I’ll be back.”

  I sighed and snuggled down into my bed, hearing my front door close. I felt content, like a warm fuzzy feeling had washed over my body. I had been such a fool, a scared fool, when I ended things with Noah. I was glad he was able to forgive me, even though I didn’t think I deserved it. I closed my eyes in contentment and checked my phone when it buzzed across my bedside table next to me.

  FI: So????

  I smiled at her text message. Fi had been right getting hammered together had bonded us.

  My fingers flew across my phone typing a message back to her.

  ME: We’re back together.

  FI: YAY! I’m so glad for you. Riley has been complaining about your boy for a while.

  ME: Sorry to bring you into my drama.

  FI: No worries, us writer girls have to stick together!

  ME: True, now stop torturing YOUR man and tell him you love him and want to have his babies.

  FI: I do not!

  FI: well...maybe just not the babies part.

  ME: HAHA! You’re still lying, girl!

  FI: Fuck, you’re right. I want to have little red-headed babies with him.

  ME: Aw! You’d have such cute babies. Details!

  FI: LATER!!

  I smiled and put my phone down. I got myself out of bed and went over to my dresser. The truth was, I had cleared out a drawer for Noah a while ago, but with me completely freaking out I had never told him about it. It felt like it was a big step in our relationship. It wasn’t, “Hey, move in with me," but it was close to that. I liked when he stayed here and slept in my bed with me. He made me feel safe when he was with me.

  I walked into the kitchen to grab the now warm beer I had been drinking when Noah came over. I took a sip of it and scrunched up my face at the warmness of it, but I drank it anyway and headed into my office. My fingers were itching to work on this new book, so I started working on the new scene that I needed to get out of my head. Writing was weird for me, sometimes I just had to power through to get through a scene, other times it felt like if I didn’t write about a certain thing at that very moment I would explode. This was kind of one of the former unfortunately, which was common for me when starting a new story.

  I nearly jumped when I felt strong hands slip around my shoulders. I tilted my head up to look at Noah. I glanced at the clock on my laptop, and it had been about an hour since I had come into my office. “Hey, how long have you been here?” I asked.

  He rubbed my shoulders and I relaxed into his strong hands. “A bit.”

  I involuntarily moaned, and when I opened my eyes to look up at him, he was smirking. “You should have come in sooner. It’s pretty late.”

  “I didn’t want to interrupt.”

  My heart swelled in my chest. The fact that he was so respectful of my writing time made me love him even more. “You should have, because I’m getting nowhere with this.”

  I pulled away from him and pushed my chair from out behind the desk. Noah was wearing a pair of sleeping pants, and nothing else, and even though I was super tired, it still made my mouth water. This man made me think crazy things all the time.

  I slid into the bed beside Noah a
nd he pulled me against his hard chest. He wrapped an arm around my waist as I got comfortable. I had really missed him being here beside me. There was definitely something nice about having a man in bed next to me. Especially a man who really cared about me, and fought through my own insecurities to be with me.

  I really never thought that I would find someone to love after Jason’s death, but maybe it was okay to find love even after death. I had loved Jason with all my heart, but his sister was right, he wouldn’t want me to be unhappy. Feeling Noah’s arms around me while I drifted off to sleep, it finally felt like my life was clicking into place.

  EPILOGUE

  2 MONTHS LATER

  NOAH

  “NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD see the day,” TJ mused next to me and took a pull off his beer.

  I smiled at him and did the same. The boys had given me grief about moving in with Dinah after only dating for two months, but there was nowhere else I would rather be. Tonight all our friends were gathered here for a housewarming party. But when I saw Fiona Gallagher and Aaron Riley walk in the front door, I knew it was really to celebrate that those two women had both released their next books. My chest swelled with pride that my girlfriend had released her book and she was almost done with book three. She worked so damn hard, and I was amazed at how she did it all.

  “Honestly, T? Me neither,” I finally answered my best bud.

  “Hey, can you do me a favor this summer?” he asked, but he was looking across the room into the dining room where his twin sister Roxanne was staring out the window.

  I had barely recognized her today, with her signature bleach blonde hair now dyed closer to her natural color. It definitely suited her much better, but I was a smart enough man to know to not comment on a woman’s looks.

  I noticed Benny’s drunken ass sidled up beside her. Oh no, that probably spelled bad news. Since I moved in here last week, Benny had moved next door after his eventual break-up with Stephanie finally happened. That man really was lazy and needed to learn how to find a place for himself. But TJ had offered up the spare room that used to be my bedroom, so it all worked out.

  “Sure, man.”

  “Can you make sure those two don’t kill each other this summer?” he asked and pointed across the room at the two in question.

  I laughed and just nodded because Riley walked over to us. We greeted him and shot the shit for a little bit until we all saw Rox storming off and TJ went to go chase after his twin. Benny and Rox living next door together this summer was certainly going to be interesting. I gave the six-foot-four winger a sad smile because he looked so defeated. I was one hundred percent sure that Benny was in love with TJ’s sister, but he would never admit it. I had even tried to coax it out of him earlier today, but he denied it again. Poor guy, he always said the wrong things to her and it was why she hated him. Although, I think hate and love could be a fine line, because I saw the way her eyes grazed across his body too.

  I laughed and made a comment about it to Riley, who didn’t seem at all convinced. The girls joined us in the kitchen soon after, forcing the conversation dead. I pulled Dinah into my side, wrapping my arm around her waist. God, it felt so perfect being here with her.

  “You know it’s weird to have a house warming party when you literally just walked all your shit over,” Fi teased.

  I shrugged. “House warming? I thought we were celebrating your book launches.”

  “Both, Babe,” Dinah insisted.

  Riley laughed and looked between the two women. “I’m still uneasy about the two of you being all buddy-buddy.”

  “Well...good thing it’s not about you!” his wife teased back at him.

  I’m not sure what happened between Riley and Fiona after her and Dinah got blackout drunk together, but he didn’t seem so melancholy anymore and the two of them practically beamed at each other. It was nice to see another one of my teammates happy and in love. Who would have thought it would have been Aaron Riley, though? The KING of casual hookups. I guess that meant TJ was the king now, but a part of me wondered if he was ready to not be that guy anymore.

  Other than whatever the hell happened with Rox and Benny, the party went off without a hitch. Once we said goodbye to everyone, Dinah and I started cleaning up the condo, even though we were both exhausted and could wait until morning.

  “I’m really proud of you,” I told her while I started clearing away the empty beer bottles from off the kitchen island and into the bin.

  “For what?” she asked, closing the dishwasher and walking away into our bedroom. She changed out of the dress she wore for the party, and slid into comfy pajamas. She took off her earrings and threw her hair up in a bun.

  I slipped on a pair of sleeping pants and tidied up my side of the bed that had a pile of dirty clothes strewn about on the floor. “I’m proud of you for publishing your book and working on the next one. You amaze me sometimes.”

  “Aw. And thanks for picking up those clothes.”

  I smiled at her, because I knew that had been bugging her, but she didn’t say anything. She washed her face in the bathroom and then we brushed our teeth together, before slipping into our bed together. Yeah, it might have been really soon to move in together after only dating for a couple months after getting back together, but it just felt right. I know the old cliché, “when you know, you know” was trite, but with Dinah I had to believe it was true. When I looked at her, my heart flipped over in my chest and did a little jig. I felt warm all over at the fact that I got to have that with her.

  “So why did Rox throw a drink on Benny?” she asked me from beneath the covers.

  I laughed and slung an arm over her, snuggling down into her neck. “Is that what she did? I didn’t really see it. You know TJ asked me to make sure they don’t kill each other this summer?”

  “Oh, geez. I tried to introduce her to Matt tonight, but she didn’t seem interested.”

  “Really?” I whispered onto her neck. “She tends to go for the nerdy guys.”

  “Hmm, I thought so too. Although, she has been with Lisa the whole time I’ve know her. Maybe she doesn’t like men anymore.”

  “Um, false.”

  “What?”

  I sighed. “That’s not how bisexuality works. Plus, she was basically eye-fucking Benny earlier, and he was doing the same thing.”

  She busted up laughing. “Oh my god! Her and Benny are so going to bone aren’t they?”

  I laughed. “That’s what I was telling Riley, but he didn’t seem convinced.”

  She laughed with me and stroked her hand across the arm I had around her. “I don’t know, I’ve read a lot of romance books to see a setup. I’ve always suspected something between those two.”

  “Me too!”

  “You’re such a gossip!”

  “Maybe just a little bit,” I agreed. “When book three’s done is there going to be a book four?”

  She didn’t even flinch at the change of topic. “Not sure yet. I think I might try my hand at sci-fi or fantasy.”

  “Really?” I asked surprised.

  She shifted in the bed so we were facing each other. “Yeah, Fi and I talked about challenging each other to write in the other’s genre. It would be really great to write something different.”

  “I’m glad you and Fi have writing to bond over. I know you have your writing group, but you two seem close.”

  She smiled. “Yeah, I like her a lot. I’m glad her and Riley figured things out.”

  “Me too. I’m glad we did too.”

  She smiled and kissed me goodnight. I kissed her back and flicked off the light, happy that I finally took the shot on Dinah and it paid off. My season might be over, and we had a lot of work to do to train for next season, but I was happy in this bed that was now mine and with my girl at my side.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Honestly, I never thought this book was going to be a real tangible thing. This book started as a NANOWRIMO challenge to myself just to see if I could write roman
ce. Then the couple from book two muscled their way into making an appearance in this book. So I said to myself, “Okay, I’ll try to write a second romance book and that would be it. This is just for fun.” Then while vacationing in Canada, I got the idea for a third book in this series. Um, and then I wrote a fourth book and had an idea for a fifth one? So somehow I had a romance series on my hands. So it felt like maybe I should just really try my hand at this thing.

  I love hockey and romance books, so what a perfect way to marry my two loves. To be fair, my YA contemporary WIPs are also about hockey, so maybe this wasn’t a stretch for me. And I always thought about writing a romance book about one of the brothers’ from that book. (SPOILER ALERT: He might show up later in this series.)

  I have to thank my partner Jordan for supporting me always, even when he had no clue what the heck I was talking about. When I got drunk on my birthday and starting spouting that I should just self-publish these books, he was nothing if not really supportive. Even more so when I threw myself full-in to researching how to really go about self-publishing my books. Thanks for hugging me when I worried that everything I wrote was just a pile of garbage and listening to me vent when I was really unsure about things in my books. Especially telling me to just “continue to write and get better” when I expressed worry that maybe I am actually terrible at everything I do.

  To Jim Kenyon for being my first BETA reader and being able to look me in the eye at work after reading all my sex scenes. Thanks for reading this story and telling me I don’t suck. Also shout out to my friends Phil and Megan for being so supportive of this book, even though you haven’t read it yet.

  Thanks also goes out to anyone who was intrigued by this book and bought it. You the real MVP! I can’t wait for you guys to read Riley and Fiona’s story next!

  Can’t get enough of the Philadelphia Bulldogs?

  Turn the page for a sneak peek at the next installment of the series, Fiona and Riley’s story.