Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 120176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
He lay on me for a moment.
Sometimes I didn’t mind this, sometimes I hated it.
Cruz was a nice guy. He could be a dick at times, but generally he was decent, but because of my baggage and the rules, we didn’t make a lot of conversation once the sex was done. Earlier had been an exception. I blamed the alcohol in me, or other stuff…
I waited to see what he’d do.
He groaned, rising and separating from me, but he only dropped down to the bed beside me. He had a hand on his stomach, his very ripped stomach, as he was catching his breath.
I still lay there, my mind very blessedly blank. For now.
After another few minutes, he frowned at me. “You want to go again? Usually, you’re getting dressed and out the door before I can pull the condom off.” He did just that as he was speaking, twisting to toss it into the garbage by his nightstand. He lay back down next to me, his gaze focusing on me.
I knew I should get going. It wasn’t good to be here when everything would catch up to me, because that’s what I’d been doing since leaving Fallen Crest. Keeping busy, drinking, the game, being around others, and now sex–all to keep the shit from my mom out of my head.
I felt the wall starting to crumble and sat up.
“Hey.”
I paused, staring at him.
Still frowning, he studied me a moment before sitting up, his hand going to the inside of my leg. “Stay a bit.” His hand moved in, finding my center, but he only teased me, running his fingers around me. “Guys are here. I’ll grab some food, and come back for round two?”
We could hear them in the house. Cruz’s room was on the back section of the hockey house. He had a decent room considering he was a freshman, with his own bathroom and that was realty gold in the hockey house. The drawback of his room versus my place was that if I didn’t want to slip through the house, running into his teammates or who else they invited back tonight, I’d have to slip out through his window and go around to the stairs that are attached on the side of the house.
But I considered his offer and knew better. “You’re going to go down there, get food, and the guys will pull you into their party.” Which meant, it was time to go. I sat on the edge of his bed, noting how he had the thought to throw down a giant towel before we landed on his mattress. I picked at it. This thing was huge and thick. “Where’d you get this thing?”
He laughed, laying back. “No personal questions, Daniels.”
I snorted, reaching for and pulling on my underwear then my bra before I stood and looked for the rest. “I didn’t know that was a personal question. My bad.”
“It is because my sister made it.”
He was right. That was personal.
I saw him grinning at me and couldn’t help but grin back. That was his effect, but not just on me. On everyone. Everyone liked Cruz, even if he was being a dick, they still liked Cruz. I blamed whatever star-power charisma he had going for him.
I tugged on my jeans, then my shirt.
“I drove you here. Need a ride back?”
“Uh…” I was looking for my shoes.
He sat up and reached down on his side of the bed. His hand came back up holding my shoes, and he handed them over. “Here.”
“Thanks.” I took them and sat back on the bed to pull them on.
I felt the mattress depress beneath me and looked over. He was standing, going to his closet.
I sat there, watching as he dressed, pulling on a pair of sweats and sweatshirt, not so much unlike the ones Miles wore earlier to his game. I hadn’t given him an answer, but I was seeing that he wasn’t giving me an option.
He grabbed a hat, pulling it over his head, before putting his phone and wallet in his pocket. His keys were last.
“Guess I’m getting a ride home?”
His eyebrows shot up in response, but that was it.
This was our norm, bare minimum talking. Once I was ready to go, he held the door for me.
There was an exit at the end of his hallway that went down on the outside of the house, but I was glad not to run into anyone else on this floor. The doors were closed or the few that weren’t, the rooms were empty as we passed by.
His roommates knew our deal, but I still tensed.
Cruz followed me in the hallway, out the door, and down the set of stairs to a gravel alley by their house. We passed the rest of the house; all the lights were on, and music could be heard from inside.