Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
If I asked to be fucked, I can ask for this. “Can you both spend the night?”
There’s zero weirdness when they say yes.
In the morning, this will be over, but for a few more hours, I’m going to enjoy the night.
20
LUCKY NUMBERS
Ivy
Stefan stirs as the sun rises, his warm skin against mine. I’m used to waking up next to soft fur, a gentle paw, a lick of my nose.
I miss my girl, but I’ll see her this afternoon. Right now, I’m enjoying Stefan’s bare chest pressed to my back. He fits me well, all big and strong and a little greedy with his morning mouth, now coasting across my shoulder.
On the other side of me, Hayes is sound asleep, sprawled on his stomach like a starfish. “He’s a bed hog,” I murmur.
Stefan hums quietly against my skin, and, I think, peers over at his friend, as if checking my report. “Seems he is.”
Have they done sleepovers when they’ve been with other women? But that doesn’t feel like a morning-after question. Or, really, one I should ask at all.
I say nothing.
Stefan presses more soft kisses to my neck, then asks quietly, “Do you miss your dog?”
Like a cat enjoying the sun, I bask in the attention—both the question and his touches. “Are you reading my mind?”
He laughs softly. “No, I just had a feeling.”
“Why?”
He presses another kiss to my neck. Wow. He’s affectionate in the morning. Come to think of it, he was pretty affectionate last night too. “Your social media,” he answers. “There’s a lot of your dog. And clothes. And friends. And pretty things like pens and notebooks.”
“Stalk much?” I tease, but inside I feel glowy. He checked me out. Like, really checked me out.
“What can I say? I’ve had a thing for you for a while.”
I go still, a little surprised by the candor. I’m not used to that. “You have?”
“Yes,” he says, seeming undeterred by my reaction. “When I said last night I wanted to make my pitch, it was true. But you’ve also been on my mind since the Hockey Hotties event in the park.”
That was in April, at the end of last season. “I had no idea.”
“You were with that jackass,” he adds quietly as Hayes’s even breathing continues. Stefan runs his fingers along my naked shoulder, recounting the moment in more detail. “And Ryker was with the team. But that didn’t stop me from checking you out online that night.”
The idea of this confident, outgoing man being so taken he went home to look me up is like a shot of liquid gold in my veins. “And you developed a crush on my dog then too,” I tease.
He chuckles. “She’s cute. But it wasn’t till your brother was traded and I saw you’d ditched the douche at the start of this season that I decided no one was going to ruin my chance.”
I’m a little floored. But a little enchanted with him too. I turn to face him, searching for the full truth. “Really?”
His eyes are bright and honest. “You doubt me? Or do you doubt yourself?”
That’s a good question. I give it some thought, and no, I’m not someone who thinks oh god, why ever would that hot guy be into me? But I don’t think I’m doubting Stefan either. I doubt…men.
“It’s not you. It’s…people,” I say, cautiously. “But I remember enjoying talking to you about all sorts of things. I remember thinking I liked that you had a sort of worldly charm about you. I didn’t think anything more on it because of my boyfriend at the time, and then I just thought you were with Annika.”
His sunny expression vanishes. “I was. And then I wasn’t.”
It’s said crisply, like it stings. That worries me for him. “Does it still hurt?”
His brow screws up, as if he’s really considering the question. “It was months ago when she called off the engagement.”
I’m dying to know why. Truly, the desire claws at me. I don’t think it’s my place to ask, but I don’t have to because he keeps talking.
“I’d known her for years. Our families were close growing up. When she had a job opportunity in the States, she took it and we connected again, fell in love, got engaged. But she had an opportunity to return to Denmark, and she took it.”
Something seems to be missing though. “There was no cheating? No bad breakup?”
“None of that. It ended because I was willing to try the whole two continents thing. She wasn’t. That was that.”
And that’s what was missing. One person put in the effort. One didn’t want to. “Ouch.”
“Yeah,” he says with a heavy sigh and a cloud passes over his eyes, darkening his whole expression. This isn’t what I’m used to seeing from Stefan. He’s normally so upbeat, so happy-go-lucky.
“That must have hurt,” I say gently.