Learn Your Lesson: A Single Dad Hockey Romance (Kings of the Ice)

Will

It was late by the time Chloe got home.

Ava was long asleep, and with an early practice tomorrow morning — I should have been, too. Instead, I was watching video of Jacksonville, who we’d play on Saturday, pretending not to have half my focus on the pool house.

I was making mental notes of how one of the team’s forwards attacked on goal when a light flickered on. I’d missed her making her way through the gate and across the yard, but looked up just in time to see her dropping her purse and keys by the door before she disappeared inside.

I needed her tonight.

I needed to touch her, to hold her, to smell her and hear her sigh.

That fact alone scared the ever-loving fuck out of me, but it was true. I’d needed her more in the past month than I’d ever needed any woman in my life.

What was most surprising was that she showed up without me even having to voice it.

Just like when I was sick, she’d stepped up in every way as I focused on the team and our playoff race. She was running this house and this family like it was her full-time job.

I used every chance I could to thank her for it.

I told her with words — though they were feeble and insignificant. Thank you just didn’t seem like enough. So, I told her with a weekly bonus, too.

But my favorite way to thank her was by making her come.

I had memorized it now, the series of events that led to her release. I could close my eyes and picture her flushed skin, her fluttering eyes, the shape of her body as she spread and opened and invited me in. I knew the sound of her sighs, her whimpers, her deep moans as she drew closer and closer. I could feel the way her nails would rip into my flesh, could never forget the precise way she tightened around me in little pulses when she finally gave all the way in.

She was all I thought about other than hockey and my daughter these days.

When I had a great game, I couldn’t wait to celebrate with her. When I had a shit practice, she was who I wanted to get lost in.

Every waking moment, every sleepless hour — it was her.

I forced myself to wait twenty minutes before I shut my laptop, turning out the kitchen light and making my way across the pool deck to her door. I knocked softly, letting myself in when I didn’t hear a response.

“Chloe?” I called out, making sure I didn’t surprise her.

“Back here,” was the answer, a soft, almost sad reply that came over the gentle sound of a bathtub filling.

Nacho ran right up to me, circling my feet with his bushy orange tail. I smirked, bending to pet him behind the ears until he was purring, and Pepper was coming over with a croaky meow to demand his own pets.

Coconut sat on the back of the couch, eyes narrowed, tail flicking. I wasn’t trying to win over those asshole cats, but the other two had warmed up to me quite nicely.

Still, I counted it as a win when Coconut let me pet her once before she meowed and hopped off the couch, sauntering away with her tail high.

I made my way toward the sound of the water next. When I stepped into the bathroom attached to Chloe’s bedroom, I found her staring at her feet propped on the edge of the tub, the water pouring between them and bubbles covering her all the way up to her collarbone. Only her neck, head, knees, shins, and feet were above the water line.

She didn’t startle when I entered. Her eyes were hollow and empty as she turned to look up at me, and she forced the most pathetic attempt at a smile before her eyes were on her toes again.

My chest tightened.

You should go.

The three-word warning echoed in my mind like a police siren, the warning clear.

But I couldn’t leave her.

I just… couldn’t.

Wordlessly, I stripped out of my pajamas, tossing them on the floor before I slowly turned the water faucets off. Then, I moved to stand behind Chloe, sweeping her damp hair off her neck in a silent request for permission to join.

She sat up just enough to let me slide in behind her, the massive tub fitting us easily as I lowered myself down. The water rose dangerously close to the top, but I didn’t care if it poured out and onto the floor. I wanted to be there with her — connected, touching, feeling.

Once I was settled, I pulled her flush against me.

And we both sighed.

It was like coming home, the way we melted into one another. No words were needed. Just being there together was enough.

Again, fear prickled the back of my neck, but I ignored it.

I couldn’t help the fact that I was already hard just at the sight of her, let alone the feeling of her slick body nestled up against mine. But I didn’t act on my impulse. Instead, I helped her relax into me, finding her shoulders with my hands and rubbing the tense muscles as she sighed and sank deeper into the water.

“That feels nice,” she whispered, a little moan escaping her when my thumbs worked into her rhomboids.

I kissed her hair, had a moment of panic for how easily that gesture came to me, and cleared my throat. “Rough night?”

“No, actually,” she said. “It was lovely. We played cards and had cake for Mom’s birthday.”

“But?”

She sighed. “But… yeah, I guess it was a rough night, in some ways.”

I swallowed, a moment of silence passing between us while I worked her shoulders and watched what I could see of her expression from this angle.

“Want to talk about it?”

It was something I shouldn’t have asked. While we clearly had crossed many of the original boundaries I’d made that first night in this very pool house, we had still been careful. Any time conversations ran a little too deep, one of us would change the subject or mount the other to turn our attention elsewhere.

Just like the no kissing rule, there was a reason I set the guideline that we couldn’t be friends.

Because friendship and fucking often felt a lot like a relationship. Sometimes, it felt a lot like love.

I knew from experience.

My heart thumped hard in my chest as I realized I asked because I wanted to, because whether I liked to admit it or not, Chloe was already my friend.

She was more than that.

God, she was so much more than that.

She was…

“No,” she answered, saving me from my spiral, from the panic gripping me hard by the throat.

She covered her hands with mine, moving them lower, beneath the water, until one was cupping her breast, and the other was slipping between her thighs.

“I want this.”

I groaned as she moved my hands the way she wanted, rubbing herself with me as her pawn.

I knew exactly what she needed — it was what I needed, too. Not words. Not therapy.

An escape.

Whatever stress coiled in my body from work, whatever pain was passing through Chloe after seeing her family tonight… we held the key to releasing it all, to finding relief, in just a single touch.

My cock twitched against her back as I cupped her hard between the legs, rubbing my palm against her under the water. The soapy suds added the perfect amount of lubrication for me to glide and slip, and Chloe let her head fall back on my shoulder, her eyes closing, mouth parting.

“Yes,” she breathed, bucking against my touch. Her hands reached behind her for me, twisting in my hair. “I love when you touch me, Will. I love the way your hands feel.”

I groaned at the sound of my name, at the breathless way she said it.

“Grab my throat,” she begged, squirming beneath my touch under the water.

“Fuuuuck.” The word dragged long and low out of me, and I kept one hand working between her thighs as the other slid up her chest until I could wrap my fingers around the column of her neck. “You like when I choke you, baby?”

“Yes,” she panted, wetting her lips. “Harder.”

I squeezed, just enough to make her whimper, to make the blood rush to her face. It was hot as fuck, and the way her pussy clenched around my middle finger told me it turned her on as much as it did me.

“You know who I really want to throttle?” I asked, squeezing a bit tighter. “Noah.”

She stilled under my touch, and then a soft laugh slipped through her lips. “Who?”

“The guy at your school,” I clarified. “The one the girls were talking about.”

Just saying this guy’s name made my entire body vibrate with jealousy. I’d done my best to put it out of my mind since the barbecue — especially because Chloe had never brought him up to me, and clearly, I was getting any spare time she did have.

But I’d be a lying sonofabitch if I said I didn’t think about it.

“I want you to date, Chloe,” I said, rubbing her neck with my thumb as I slid my finger deep inside her, out, and in again. She moaned at the touch, body slick and sliding against mine. “I want you to be happy. But, fuck, I don’t want to share you.”

The admission had my next breath harder to take, but I tried not to focus on it. I tried to keep all my attention on where she was writhing against me, instead.

“He isn’t real,” Chloe breathed, arching her ass against me. “I made him up.”

“You… what?”

“I made him up,” she repeated, covering my hands where I held her. She gripped me tight, both of us groaning when I pushed my finger inside her again. “The girls were convinced I was smitten over someone, so I created Noah.”

Chloe twisted in my arms a bit, enough that our eyes met.

“You’re the only one touching me, Will. You’re the only one I want to touch me.” She swallowed. “The only one I want to touch.”

My nose flared with possession, my eyes searching hers before she turned again, body pressing against mine in a silent plea for more. And fuck, it shouldn’t have made me happy. It shouldn’t have felt so good to hear her say that.

I didn’t deserve it.

But I desired it all the same.

She couldn’t speak anymore, not when I gave her what she asked for, her every breath being cut short by my grip. I kept it just loose enough for her to be okay, but tight enough to give her what she needed, and I slid my palm under the water up to her tits. I played with her nipples, taking my time with each swollen, beautiful breast before my hand dove back down again, applying pressure against her clit.

She bowed off me, hips thrusting up and nearly out of the water as she chased that friction.

I licked a slow, sensual line behind her ear before sucking on her lobe, nipping it with a growl. It sent chills over her skin, and her entire body trembled when I pressed my palm against her clit again and smoothed her up and down.

“Look at you,” I mused, smiling against her neck. “So desperate to come. So fucking needy.”

She mewled, and one low, whispered word escaped through her rosy lips.

“Please.”

My cock hardened even more at the plea, and I rocked it into her as I squeezed her throat a bit tighter. Her nipples were taut, face red with effort as she bucked against my hand.

Water sloshed out of the sides of the tub as I began to work her harder, faster, my palm sliding up and down before I’d bundle my fingers at that sensitive nerve ending and torture her with quick circles.

Our bodies were slick, sliding against one another as she whimpered and chased her orgasm. I could tell she was close — so fucking close — but she couldn’t quite get what she wanted.

All at once, I released her, pulling my hands from her throat and between her legs. I gripped onto her hips and started lifting.

“Stand up.”

Chloe was in a daze, her eyes fluttering, body trembling at the loss. But she did as I said, using the sides of the tub to help her stand as I gave her a boost. When she was up, I turned her to face me, guiding one foot to the edge of the tub behind my shoulder.

I fully planned to immediately go to town on her, but now, I couldn’t help but take a moment to appreciate the glorious fucking view.

Her body was soaked, bubbles clinging to her curves and sliding down to the water in slow rivulets. Her plump breasts heaved with every breath, her face flushed, eyes heavy as they stared down at me and waited for what I’d do next.

“Goddamn, Chloe,” I praised, running my hands up her calves, her thighs, until I could palm her perfect ass. “I could stare at you forever. I could live and die right here, just like this.”

“Please make me come first.”

I blinked, and then a laugh barreled out of me. Gone was the Chloe who shied away from asking me for what she wanted, who didn’t even know what to ask for in the first place.

I wet my lips and pulled her down to my mouth. “Yes, ma’am.”

I thought I saw her smirk, but then her face went blank — eyes widening before snapping shut, mouth opening, neck arching and legs violently shaking. I ran my tongue over her swollen clit, teasing her only a moment before I rewarded her with the sucking pulses I knew she loved.

“Will,” she whined, dropping lower until I took more of her weight. I hummed against her cunt and sucked harder. She was already close. She just needed to be filled.

Carefully, I toyed with her pussy with one thick finger before driving it inside. She was so wet, not from the bath but from me. It made it easy to plunge another finger in, and I curled them in time with the rhythm of my mouth on her clit, ignoring the way my arms burned and my neck ached at the angles and effort.

I was a fucking hockey player.

If there was one thing I had, it was stamina in spades.

It didn’t take long for Chloe to become a wild animal. She fucked my face in her desperation to find release, and I gave her the same energy back. My fingers slid in and out, curling, fucking her deep while my tongue worked her clit. I swirled it and latched my mouth onto her, sucking and licking and moaning so she could feel how much I loved to be here, how badly I wanted to make her fly apart.

And fly apart she did.

Her hands shook where they braced her on my shoulders, nails biting into the muscle as she cried out. She bucked her hips and trembled so hard she nearly collapsed, but I held her tight, not letting her back away from my mouth or my fingers as I gave her every last wave of that climax.

She screamed my name and a dozen curse words, shaking and rocking against me. And when she finally found the end, her orgasm receding, her head snapped forward, eyes hooded as they latched onto me.

I pressed a light kiss against her clit, helping her bring her leg off the edge of the tub and right herself as I removed my fingers from inside her.

She shook her head on a sated smile.

Then, she turned, offering me a sensational view of her glistening backside before she lowered into the water. She stayed on her knees, leaning forward, one hand on the edge of the tub and the other holding her steady under water. She looked over her shoulder, her wet hair sticking to her neck and cheeks and lips in rustic strands as she batted her lashes.

And she didn’t even have to ask for what she wanted.

She wiggled that perfect ass side to side, the bottom of it gliding over the water, a beckoning grin on her pink lips.

I inhaled a long groan of a breath as my hands moved to palm her, sliding up and over the slick swells of her ass in admiration. I smacked one cheek and then the other, biting my lip at the resulting wave of each.

With a growl, I moved her forward enough for me to stand. I needed to grab a condom, which was a real fucking inconvenience in this moment.

As I searched for the nearest towel, Chloe’s hand shot out to touch my leg. “Where are you going?”

“Condom,” I managed.

She bit her lip. “What if we…”

Her voice faded, but her eyes finished the question for her.

My heart kicked hard in my chest at the thought of fucking her raw, of taking her without a barrier between us.

I knew this woman’s body inside out. I knew she had a thin little bar on the inside of her left arm where her birth control was implanted. I knew she wasn’t fucking anyone else but me.

That made another rush of adrenaline spike through me, possessiveness a heady drug fogging any other thought.

“You know I’m not with anyone else,” I told her.

“I know.”

“You know I’d never be unsafe with you.”

“I know.”

She pulled at my leg, urging me down, her spine glistening, heart-shaped ass begging me to relent. It was the conversation we needed to have before taking a step like this, to ensure we were being smart, being safe with one another.

But it was also a conversation I never thought we’d have.

She was rooted so deep in me, I knew whether I admitted it or not that I’d never be free of her.

I ignored that reality as I sank back into the warm water. Enough of it had been slopped over the sides of the tub now that her pussy rested just above the waterline.

With a thick swallow, I fisted my cock and pressed my crown against her, sliding between her slick lips as we both moaned and shivered together. When I wedged inside her enough to move my hands, I found purchase on her hips, and slowly drove inside.

I ceased to exist.

Like a black hole had swallowed me up and delivered me inside a new universe altogether, I felt my body bending and warping from the inside out, all my awareness zeroing in on where her pussy hugged my cock for the first time without anything between us.

I hissed and groaned and savored the panting breaths Chloe let free. Her back arched, eyes rolling shut, and when I slid out and back in, deeper, we both cursed.

“Oh my God,” she moaned, and while I was content to stay just like that, fitted together, Chloe slid off my shaft and back down in a slow claim. “Oh my God.”

“You feel fucking remarkable, Chloe,” I managed, my voice so low and gruff I almost didn’t recognize it. It was like every breath was being strangled by the new sensation of having her fully, like every cell of my being was locked onto where we were connected.

“I knew it would be different, but holy shit,” she breathed. I had my hands loosely holding her hips, letting her control every fluid movement. Watching the way I disappeared inside her beneath the full shape of her beautiful ass was enough to make me come after just a few pumps.

I stared up at the ceiling, willing myself to hold on and not give in yet.

For a long while, Chloe paced us, moaning and panting as she slid off me and back on in a slow, torturous rhythm. Every time she’d back up, her ass would pop against my abdomen, the flesh rippling.

“It’s so hot watching you like this,” I praised, hands gliding over her ass as she continued working toward her second release. My words made her moan and pick up speed. “That’s it, baby. Faster.”

Her ass slapped against me, sloshing the water in the tub as she fucked me harder. The more she moaned, the longer I watched that gorgeous sight, the closer I was to coming. It was climbing up my spine like an inevitable storm now, lightning cracking in my veins, thunder rolling through my bones.

But then Chloe slowed, making me groan in a mixture of pleasure and pain.

Was she edging me this time?

“I… I’ve been thinking about another lesson,” she said quietly.

I didn’t miss how she’d gone shy on me again, how her cheeks were pink as she looked over her shoulder at me. I also couldn’t think of another single lesson we could have at this point, but I was curious.

“Yeah?”

She nodded, and I grabbed ahold of her hips, grinding deep inside her before withdrawing in a slow, measured tease.

“Tell me.”Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

“Sometimes, when I… when I play with myself… I…”

She bit her lip, wincing a bit like she was mortified to even admit what she wanted.

That got me really fucking curious.

“Show me,” I said. “Show me what you do.”

Chloe swallowed, balancing her weight on the hand pressed against the bottom of the tub. Her other hand slid over her breast, down her side and hip before slicking over her round bottom. She gripped my cock where I’d pulled out of her, both of us moaning as I slid back inside, and she had no choice but to move that hand.

And then, she was toying with her ass.

My breath hitched in my throat, my next swallow impossible to take as I watched her. Her fingers circled the hole as I withdrew and slid inside her again, and as I did, she pressed just the tip of her middle finger inside.

I nearly blacked out.

“You want me to fuck you here,” I asked, using my thumb to move her finger out of the way. I circled her ass without penetrating, just toying with her, asking, seeking.

I thought I saw her nod.

“I need your words, baby.”

“Yes,” she whimpered, and I rewarded her by pressing my thumb against that entrance, applying just a tease of pressure. “Yes, please.”

I muffled the curse that ripped out of me, wetting my lips as my heart raced in my chest. It was one thing to fuck her without a condom, but to have her beg me to fuck her ass in the same night?

I didn’t know how long I’d last.

“Do you think you can come like that,” I asked, pressing my thumb inside her. I only went to the first knuckle, but she rewarded me with a deep moan.

“Absofuckinglutely,” she breathed.

I smirked, but couldn’t find it in me to laugh — not with my cock deep inside her cunt and my thumb edging more inside her ass. It took every ounce of focus I had not to come, not to give into my own urges and slam into her, hard, over and over until I found mine.

“It might hurt,” I warned.

“Go slow.”

I nodded, withdrawing from her pussy as we both moaned at the loss. I replaced my thumb with the crown of my cock, teasing the hole, using the slippery suds and water to lubricate that sensitive area.

I pressed in, just enough to stretch her around my head, and Chloe moaned louder than I’d ever heard.

“Holy fuck,” she breathed.

I stilled. “Should I stop?”

“No,” she said incredulously, and then her hand reached back for my ass, pulling me toward her until I slid in a half inch. “Oh, fuck.”

My eyes crossed at how tight she was, at taking her in this forbidden way. I didn’t know what turned me on more — the sight of her bent over in the tub, the way she’d been bold enough to ask for this, or the fact that she trusted me to be the one to take her like this for the first time.

The combination had my veins burning, and I pressed in more, sliding in a full inch before I withdrew and slid in another.

Chloe hissed at the fullness, her hand slowing me, and I took her cue. I was in no fucking hurry to get her there. I was enjoying every blissful second of this.

Slowly, centimeter by centimeter, heated breath by heated breath, I worked my cock inside her. Chloe moaned and panted the deeper I got, and once I was all the way in, she squeezed her ass around me.

“Oh, my God,” she breathed, looking over her shoulder like she wished she could see the view I had. “You’re fucking my ass.”

“And you’re taking it so damn well,” I said, sliding out and back in as we both groaned. “Stretching for me, hugging my cock so fucking tight.”

“Fuck, I want to come.”

She didn’t wait for me to tell her to do so. Her hand shot down between her thighs, and she spread them as much as she could in the tub, rubbing her clit in slow circles as she moaned and gave me control.

I fucked her in time with her own movements, slowly at first, and then a little faster as she rubbed her clit with more speed. I didn’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t for her to come so fast and so hard.

“Shit, Chloe,” I praised as she took my cock and touched herself, her moans growing louder and louder. “Look at you, coming while I fuck your ass. You filthy fucking thing.”

“Yes,” she whined, and then she was a mess of moans and curse words and my name.

That was all I needed.

The sight of her rocking her ass to meet me, her tits bouncing and flinging water, her neck arched and mouth open as she cried out her release… it was lethal.

I fucked her harder, deeper, plunging into her once, twice, three times before I caught my own release. She gasped at the fullness but was still riding her own orgasm, so I didn’t dare stop — not even when my own climax took me under, drowning me and filling me with life at the same time.

My body burned. The universe expanded and snapped back to this room alone. All the blood in my body rushed to my cock, and I buried myself inside that woman until she’d drained every last drop of me.

“Goddamn,” I groaned, slowing, thrusting inside her and withdrawing almost to the edge before I pushed out again.

When I did, a bit of my cum leaked out of her, and I moaned again.

Carefully, I withdrew completely, but before she could move, I grabbed Chloe by the hips and held her there.

“Squeeze your ass, baby,” I said through my panting, my racing heart, my bleary vision.

When she did, cum dripped out and down, sliding over her thigh, between her legs, covering her in me.

I was a feral fucking animal at that sight.

“You are un-fucking-real,” I said.

I wrapped my arms around her, kissing her back and taking her weight until we were both collapsing into the water, clinging to one another, hands in each other’s hair, lips against skin, hearts racing out of control.

Somehow, I ended up reclined against the back of the tub, and she was in my arms, her head on my chest, body melting into mine.

She peeked up at me, blinking, her eyes wide and face flushed.

We stared a long moment, and then I smiled, and she smiled, and we both laughed as she buried her face in my chest, and I wrapped her in a tight embrace. Whatever sour emotion had been clinging to her when I stepped into this room was gone now, and all the stress from my day had disappeared, too.

“Well, that was fucking incredible,” I said with a grumble against her hair.

She giggled and shook her head, her face still covered by my chest. “I… I really liked that.”

The confession was mumbled, but I lifted her chin to look at me, holding her gaze with my own. “Don’t ever be ashamed of what you like in the bedroom, what you want. Especially not with me.”

Something flashed through her, and she nodded.

Then, her eyes fell to my lips.

My heart stuttered to a stop, chest tightening until it was painful.

And I wished I would just kiss her.

I wished I didn’t feel my rib cage crushing my lungs, that I had more control over how the anxiety and fear spiked in my body at just the thought.

But I was powerless against it.

It was engrained in me.

It was years of pain, of suffering, of rebuilding to who I had finally managed to become — all of it resurfacing and shutting down every door I had managed to creak open since I’d walked into this bathroom.

I cleared my throat, putting distance between us. “Let’s get cleaned up.”

I couldn’t look at her as I helped her stand, couldn’t find a comforting word to say as we took a shower and washed each other before she wrapped up in her robe and I dried off with a towel and we climbed into her bed.

She rested her head on my chest, and I played with her wet hair, my eyes on the ceiling and hers somewhere across the room.

And I hated myself more in that moment than I ever had in my entire fucking life.

Because I was just counting down the minutes before I could leave.

What the fuck is wrong with you?

I knew the answer, I just didn’t want to admit it. I didn’t want it to be true. I didn’t want to be controlled and ruled by tragedy, by trauma, by a physical response to intimacy that I had no goddamn power over.

This was why I’d drawn boundaries. This was what I’d been afraid of.

And yet, I’d broken my own rules. I’d been just as guilty in this as Chloe was.

Maybe more so.

And here we were, silence stretching between us, lines blurred, hearts too involved.

“I’m going to head in,” I said, my voice a low croak as I maneuvered her off my arm.

I sat up, but before I could stand, Chloe’s hand wrapped around my forearm.

I stilled, taking a calming breath before I glanced over my shoulder at her.

“Will,” she breathed. “Don’t you… can’t you stay?”

Fuck.

I closed my eyes, nostrils flaring, trying to reach for that part of me that had opened to her. I tried to stay open, willed myself to be calm and kind and understanding. I willed myself to do what she asked, tried to convince myself how I would love it, too.

But it was like a monster breaking free from the flimsy cage that held it at bay, like I was being taken over against my will. I felt it happening, and yet I was powerless to stop it.

The doors slammed shut.

The walls grew tall, lined with barbed wire.

The monster roared.

It didn’t even feel like me as the scowl slid into place, as my jaw hardened, the muscle beneath it popping against my skin.

I met her gaze. “Are you sure you’re still okay with this?”

It was as if I’d slapped her.

Her head snapped back, lips parting before she zipped them shut again. She swallowed, her eyes dropping from mine in shame at the same time she released my arm.

I thrashed against the monster, wanting to reach for her, to apologize instantly.

But I was a prisoner inside my own soul.

“Of course,” she said. “I’m fine, I just… I don’t know, I’m being silly.” She gave a pathetic excuse for a smile, waving me off as her eyes glossed. “Go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She hurried off the bed without letting me see her face again, ducking inside the bathroom.

And the monster dragged me out of her sheets in a numb daze, hauling across the back yard until he could lock me in my castle once more.

This time, it felt like he threw away the key.