Sneaking around with 34, p.17
Sneaking around with #34, page 17
“Shoot.” I give Rena a smile.
“Do you think there’s a place for girls in hockey? I have four brothers and I’m the only girl. The baby. They never let me play.”
“Well, Rena, that’s my easiest question of the day. There is absolutely a place for girls in hockey. The world might be a little slow in acknowledging the female hockey players out there, but change is coming, and you just make sure you practice so you’re ready. And challenge your brothers. Show them you can hang with them. If they keep saying no, give us a call. The Florida Fury will happily slap the puck around with you.”
Her eyes flare wide enough to fall out of their sockets if they weren’t attached. “Really?”
“Heck yeah!” my teammates yell over the crowd.
“Hear that? Drake is already shaking in his skates.”
Her smile grows wider. “Can I ask one more question?” She holds up her pointer finger.
“Of course, sweetie,” Imogen answers for me.
“Well, I don’t want to take up extra time.” She looks at her, unsure.
“That’s okay, Bob Barker runs this show, and he says it’s fine,” I say.
Imogen and I laugh because Rena looks confused.
“Are you lonely? My mom said you live by yourself, and you just moved here. We used to move around a lot and sometimes I’d be lonely.”
“Ah, well, everyone gets lonely sometimes, but lately… I’ve been exploring this new city. Putting myself out there and getting to know people.” I resist the urge to glance at Imogen and instead look in the direction of my teammates.
The little girl nods. “But my mom says everything is always better when she’s with my dad and us. Wouldn’t it be better if you had a family?”
I lean forward.
“I’m sorry, Rena—” Imogen starts, but I put up my hand.
“It’s okay. Are you asking if I want a family, Rena?”
“Well, yeah.” She shrugs. “My mom said sometimes guys like to stay single though.” Her forehead wrinkles as though she doesn’t quite understand that, and I chuckle.
I glance toward the front of the crowd and see her mother mouthing she’s sorry. I smile to let her know it’s okay.
“Actually, I very much want to have a family.”
She squirms in her seat. “I told you, Mom!” Rena shouts, then scoots closer to me. “Do you have a girlfriend? I won’t tell anyone.” She puts her hand by her ear and the entire place laughs.
I lean in. “Are you sure you can keep a secret?”
She nods enthusiastically.
I cover up my mouth at her ear. “I do.”
Her eyes widen, giving away my answer, and the whole crowd oohs and ahhs.
After Rena leaves the stage with a hug and kiss on the cheek, Imogen leans in close. “Jana’s gonna kick your ass.”
I lean in close to her, catching a whiff of her shampoo. “I told you a long time ago, I don’t pretend to be someone I’m not anymore.”
She stares at me for a long beat, then turns back to the crowd, announcing the next person.
“Don’t stop,” I pant as Warner takes control of my hips. We’re on a small yacht he rented, and we’ve been down below more than up top. It started the minute I took off my cover-up. He pounced on me like a lion.
“I don’t plan on it.” He’s sitting on the edge of the bed, and I’m on his lap with my back to his chest, reverse cowgirl style, my hands on his strong muscular thighs. He has all the control, and I’m more than happy to give it to him. “You’re soaked. I might as well tell them to serve our candlelight dinner down here tonight. I’ll just eat it off of you.”
“Best. Idea. Ever.” I gasp and moan as he drives in deeper and deeper with every thrust.
“Fuck, I hate this thing. Hold on.” He pulls me off of him and I turn to find him fussing with a broken condom. “Let me get a new one.”
“Wait.” I take the condom from him.
“What?”
I pause, considering whether I’m really ready to say what’s about to come out of my mouth and find that I am. “I’m on the pill. We don’t need condoms. I mean, as long as you’re clean.”
“Of course, I wouldn’t hide that from you. I’d never put you at risk like that, Gen.” He runs his knuckles down my cheek.
There have been times these past few weeks that I’ve reprimanded myself for not just spitting out the news to Ford and dealing with the repercussions. I’m a grown adult, after all, and he’s being immature. Plus, he’s not my father. But he was also the one who was there for me when Warner wasn’t. Ford saw my pain and heartbreak more than anyone. Even Cici. I think it’s because we both lost our number one person.
“I am too. Then… okay. Let’s do this.”
“Are you sure?” He looks at me, clearly unsure.
I nod, not wanting to make a big deal of it and bring us back to the past. When I got pregnant, we didn’t use protection one time, but I was on the tail end of my period and thought I couldn’t get pregnant during that time in my cycle. Turns out you don’t know everything at seventeen.
I nod. “I am.”
“Gen…”
I’ve clearly ruined the moment between us by bringing this up, but I want to feel him bare with nothing between us. I want us to have that connection.
“I want this. I do.” I push him down on the bed and climb on top of him. There’s still a hesitation in his actions, so I take his hands and place them on my breasts.
“I love you. You trust that, right?” He’s so serious. I want to bring us back to that place we were minutes ago.
I nod.
“I’d never do what I did before.”
“I know.”
I rise on my knees, reach for his dick, and drag the head through my wetness, then I sink down on him. We both moan. He slowly circles his hips from beneath me, with little thrusts inside me.
“I’m ready to move at any pace you want me to.” He brings his hand up my back and into my hair at the base of my skull.
“This is good,” I say, enjoying the small kisses he’s placing on my neck, as though he’s cherishing me.
“I meant us. Telling Ford.”
Seriously, he’s picking now to discuss this? I know he’s growing antsy, I am too, but we’re in the middle of having sex.
“Okay, I’ll think about it. Just don’t stop.”
His hands wander up and down my body as though he hasn’t felt me hundreds of times before. “You’re my future,” he whispers.
I close my eyes, trying to concentrate on the sweet things he’s saying. Words I’ve waited for so long to hear him say.
He rocks me up and down on his dick. My orgasm is slow to build, but the more he stays at the same pace, the more my body thrums with pleasure.
“You’re mine,” I say, and that declaration seems to unleash something inside him.
He rolls me onto my back and runs his hands up my arms, then links our fingers together. Grinding inside me, he stares into my eyes with an intensity that says I’m his. And I am. There’s no question about that.
I wrap my legs around his waist, so my pelvic bone gets the satisfaction of the friction between us.
“I love you so fucking much, Gen.” He buries his head in my neck, kissing my sweat-soaked skin, licking, sucking.
I tighten my arms around his shoulders, wanting to get as close as I can to him. He increases his pace, and our lips land on one another’s in a frenzied kiss, mouths colliding, and before long, I know I’m going to come.
“Oh, Warner. Oh, God. Oh, I can’t hold back.”
“Don’t.”
My body tenses in his hold until I shudder from the intensity of my orgasm. He never lets me go and inhales a deep breath in my ear, releasing it a second later when he stills inside me, and I feel his cock pulse with his release. Still, he doesn’t let me go.
We lie in the bed for another five minutes as if we both know everything is about to change and our time in secrecy is over. We have to come out if we want our relationship to survive. We just have to figure out when and how.
I’m up on the sundeck of the yacht, enjoying the especially nice day for this time of year, looking over the railing while Warner talks to the chef about tonight’s meal. We dropped anchor about an hour ago and have just been enjoying each other’s company.
This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. But I sense he did it for two reasons. The first is that it gets us away from prying eyes. The second because the money thing is really important to him, and this is his way of giving me the life he thinks I want. He’s yet to get it through his thick skull that all I want in my life is him.
“IMOGEN! Is that you?”
I look to my right to find a speedboat beside us and Saige waving frantically. She and Aiden are there, along with Tweetie and Tedi.
“Where’d you get that beauty?” Tweetie asks. “Richie up there with you?”
I look behind me. No sign of Warner. “Um. No.”
“You’re on a date!” Tedi points. “Who’s the guy? Does Ford know? Can I be the one to tell him? Pretty please?” She puts her hands in a prayer pose.
“Um.”
“What’s going on?” Saige asks, sensing my hesitation.
“Let’s dock this shit boat and join Imogen and whoever her rich friend is,” Tweetie says to Aiden.
“This is not a shit boat. It’s brand new, and you were pretty impressed before we rolled up to a mini yacht.”
“Exactly.” Tweetie holds out his hands. “A mini yacht and this thing, there’s no comparison.”
“Sorry, no one can come up,” I call to them.
“Because it’s a date?” Tedi asks with a Cheshire cat smirk. “Oh, it’s not Mr. Gerhardt’s boat, is it?”
“He’s married,” I say with obvious disgust, because Mr. Gerhardt is nice and all but he could be my father—or my grandfather.
“Who else could it be? You haven’t been on those sugar daddy sites, have you?” Saige laughs.
“It’s really no one. But I should probably get back to him.”
“Gen, I almost forgot.” Warner steps out onto the deck.
“Who’s that?” Tweetie asks.
They’re too low to see who I’m talking to, so I openly shoo him away and shake my head.
“She’s purposely not letting us meet him,” Tweetie says.
“She’s probably ashamed that you’re ready to climb up their emergency ladder,” Aiden tells him.
Warner’s face freezes like if he only moves his eyes, they’ll think he’s a statue.
“Well, it was great seeing you guys, but I was just told we have to go. I’ll, um, message you later, ladies.” I walk away from the railing, then circle back. “Could you not mention this to Ford?”
“Stay away from the sugar daddies!” Tweetie points as though he’s giving me a warning.
“Will do.” I wave one more time and step back to Warner. We have to hide him. I shake my head. “Seriously, are they following us?”
“Drake?” Warner asks.
“How’d you know?” My brow furrows.
“I just remembered he said he’s always out on his boat when we’re not playing.”
“And you forgot when you booked this?” I motion to the yacht surrounding us.
“I forgot, okay?” He seems affronted, then looks at the captain. “I’m gonna have to ask you to dodge that speedboat.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem.” He raises the anchor, then pushes the boat into a high gear.
“Are you sure you forgot? Or did you purposely plan this, hoping it might happen?”
Warner points at himself. “Why would I try and plan that?”
“So we’d be caught! You clearly want us out in public.”
“Yes! Yes, I do!” he yells. “I’m tired of being a secret. Sometimes I wonder if you just don’t want to acknowledge us publicly so that you can bail if you decide to. It’d be a lot easier for you that way.”
“Sir, your friends seem to want to race,” the captain says.
We look back and sure enough, Aiden and Tweetie are laughing hysterically as they try to catch up to us.
I push Warner down to the deck. “They can’t see you.”
The captain looks at us funny.
“This is ridiculous. I thought I could do this. I actually thought it would be fun like it was in high school, but it’s not. It’s not fun, it feels like you have one foot out the door. When I want to spend every waking moment with you. When I want to treat you like a fucking princess but get stopped at every turn.”
I cock my head. “Princess? That’s the word you choose?”
He stands. “Yes, is that a problem?”
“I think it’s telling is all. You call me a princess and you rent this for a day. I don’t need all this.”
“Okay.”
“I’m serious, Warner. I’m not some princess who needs the best of everything and will throw a fit when she doesn’t get it.”
He puts his hands on his hips, and it’s really hard to concentrate with his abs on display like that. “I never said you were.”
“Then why would you rent this?” I open my arms and twirl in a circle. “This isn’t you.”
The captain glances over his shoulder again. “I’m going to have to call the Coast Guard. Your friends are being irresponsible. They’re going to get someone in an accident.”
I grab Warner and drag him down the stairs to the deck, then head to the back of the boat.
“Stop this, Aiden!” Saige is yelling.
“I’ve got it under control,” he yells back.
“You want to know who it is?” I shout at them.
“Don’t do this on my account,” Warner says, and I roll my eyes.
I pull him out of the darkness. “Warner Langley!”
I pull him toward me and plaster my lips to his. There’s no sound from the boat behind us. Even their engine cuts off. We pull away while they’re slowing in the water. All of their faces are in shock except for Aiden, who is pointing.
I just make out Aiden saying, “I fucking knew it!”
“Point proven, right Imogen?” Warner leaves me at the back of the boat and goes to the room below.
“Where are you going? I just outed us. I thought you’d be happy. Want to announce it on the Jumbotron the next game?”
He whips around and points at me. “I didn’t want to push you into it. I wanted you to want to tell the world we’re together. Have you ever wondered whether you truly love me or just the idea of me?”
“What?” I whisper and step back.
He starts packing his bag.
“What are you suggesting?” I ask, hurt by his accusation.
“I was your brother’s best friend when you fell in love with me. I was the king of the school and now I’m Florida Fury’s ‘it’ man. Are you sure you love who I am and not what I am?”
“If that was the case, why would I want to keep it a secret?” My voice is getting louder.
“Because it’s something cute.”
“I’m not thirteen, Warner.”
“Exactly. You’re twenty-seven and you can’t face your brother to tell him you’re in love with his enemy. How much will you sacrifice to make someone else happy?” He swings his bag over his shoulder. “I paid for the night, so enjoy yourself.”
“You’re really leaving?” I yell.
He turns to face me when he reaches the door. “I need some space. I think we both need to think about what we want, what we need from this relationship. I can’t live in secret, but I love you, Gen. And I don’t want to feel like I love someone more than they love me.”
I shake my head. “You’re being crazy.”
“Am I? Who’s more important in your life, Imogen? Ford or me?”
I open my mouth and shut it. My shoulders slump. “But…”
“Just think about it. If you think telling Ford would really do irreparable damage to your relationship, no explanation needed. He’s your blood. You guys are tight, I get it.”
Then he walks up the stairs and leaves me behind. It feels a lot like it did a decade ago, except this time, I feel as though I’m the one at fault.
“Turn around and leave,” I mumble to myself, but Aiden’s front door opens before I can escape.
Saige stands in the doorway, barefoot and wearing a sundress. “Hey, Warner. Welcome.”
“This is for you.” I hand Saige a bottle of white wine.
She smiles when she sees the label. “How did you know?”
“Drake told me your favorite.”
She laughs and waves me into the house. “He’s the sweetest.”
“Just the sweetest.” I chuckle. I shrug off the light coat I’m wearing, and she waits to take it from me.
“Warner, I wanted to apologize for the other day on the water. Tweetie brings out the worst in Aiden and they thought they were having fun. I don’t think any of us really thought it would be you. I mean, we thought you guys hated one another.”
I put my hand up for her to stop rambling. “It’s fine.”
“And I promise none of us will say anything. We took an oath that day in the boat not to be the bearer of bad news.” Saige is very animated when she talks. Her hands are in the air, her eyes show every emotion she’s feeling.
“No worries. Speaking of… is Imogen here?”
“Not yet. I think she’s coming with Ford and Lena. They were dropping Annabelle off at his parents.” She leads the way down a hallway, then all I see is the Gulf out the back of the house. Drake’s got a great place. “Warner’s here,” she announces to the room.
Tedi smiles. “Hey, Warner.”
“Tedi.” I nod in hello.
“How are you?” Paisley asks, then sips her wine.
“Good, thanks.”
“The boys are outside,” Saige says, as if I need a reprieve from talking to the women.
“Thanks.”
I head outside, and sure enough, Drake, Maksim, Cory, Tweetie, and Kane all sit around a card table, playing.
“You’re late,” Cory calls me out.
All the attention comes to me, and I go around the table, shaking hands and saying hello.
