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“I love you. You, Hudson. Not the guy that the media portrays. Not the one that your fans think they know or even the man that my dad once thought you were. I loveyou. The man who volunteers with a youth hockey team because he loves seeing his players working together. The man that loves his nieces and nephews, who cares about his family. The man who takes my makeup off when I’m too drunk to see straight. The man that loves sharing his city with me and feeding me all my favorite foods. The man who knows my body even better than I do and the man who puts me first. Every single time. That’s the man that I love.” She pauses, pressing the softest, sweetest fucking kiss to the corner of my mouth, then another to the center of my lips, before pulling back and looking into my eyes. “That’s the man that I want it all with. I’m yours, you know?”
My arms tighten around hers as I slam my lips against her, kissing her with every ounce of longing from the past two days. She moans breathlessly into my mouth, and I swallow it, my tongue sweeping along hers.
Somehow, someway, I tear my lips away and rest my forehead against hers as I tell her breathlessly, “When you walk into a room, you are the only thing that I see. I’m so in love with you, Caroline Evans, I can’t see anything but you. My wild, carefree, beautiful girl. It’s you.”
Hockey has always been the center of my universe…. Until suddenly it wasn't.
It's her.
A teary cry leaves her lips, her entire body melting against me, surrendering just as I have to her. She ducks her head under my chin, nuzzling into my neck.
“I’m so sorry I was so stupid,” she says contritely. “I’m sorry that my first instinct was to run when you’ve been nothing but truthful with me. I’m sorry that I put your career in jeopardy with that stupid party. I’m just sorry for so many things, Hudson, and I’m scared that I’ll just keep making the same stupid mistakes.”
“Baby, having to pick you up because you got drunk is nothing. You’re young—you’re going to make fucked-up mistakes because it’s what life is. You make mistakes, and you learn from them,” I tell her as my hands slide up her back and across her shoulders to frame her face as I ghost my lips along hers. “Let’s make them together. You and I.”
She nods over and over, like eventually my words will click into place in her head.
“I told my father everything, Hudson. I told him that I loved you and that if he damaged your career in any way that our relationship wouldn’t survive the fallout.”
“Caroline…” I say, and she shakes her head, placing her finger over my lips to silence me.
“Loving you isn’t conditional. It isn’t something that I can turn off. It’s not something that I can walk away from without breaking my own heart. I could never sit back and watch my dad hurt the man that I love, no matter how good his intentions were. He doesn’t know therealyou, Hudson, and that’s a shame because everyone should know the man in here.” She places her hand over my heart and rubs her thumb back and forth lovingly. “If he wants to have a place in my life, then he has to make the effort to accept the fact that I’m yours, and you’re mine. That’s not changing.”
“Fuck, I love hearing you say that. Mine.”
Rolling her lip between her teeth, she nods. “We talked for a long time today, cleared a lot of things up between us and said things that have needed to be said for a long time, and he promised me that he’s not going to punish you in any way. He should be calling this evening. He thinks that you should both make a joint statement together and explain that you’re in a relationship with his daughter and that he supports the relationship fully. That last night was an invasion of our personal life, and although it needs no explanation, he’s going to explain that you were protecting and taking care of me, just as any boyfriend would do.”
I don’t bother to hide the shock on my face. I mean, I don’t know exactly what I expected from Coach after our talk. I didn’t expect him to embrace the fact that I love his daughter, that’s for sure, but I walked out of his office fully accepting the fact that he might make my life a living hell from this point on because I refuse to walk away from her. No matter what he inflicted on me.
But this?
Making a statement to essentially clear my name? To have my back?
“Don’t look so shocked, Hudson. He was upset about the headline and that we’ve kept our relationship a secret, of course, but I think he also knows that you’re not the same person you used to be. I just… I need you to make an effort to have an amicable relationship with him, not just because he’s your coach but because he’s my dad. If we want to make this work, however we do that, he’s part of it.”
“You asking me to be your boyfriend, Bubblegum?” I say lightly, loving the way she tosses her head back and laughs.
She bites her lips, her nose scrunching slightly. “Yes, I am.”
“Then, I accept. And I promise to work on things with your dad. Whatever it takes. Your happiness is everything to me.”
She nods, leaning forward and melding her lips with mine. At first, it’s soft and sweet, and then it burns bright. Her tongue coaxes my lips open, and she sucks on mine, sending a jolt straight to my cock When I pull back, both of us are panting.
As much as I want to take her inside and spend the rest of the night making love to her, I want to finish this discussion first. The way things are headed with that kiss, there’s not going to be anything else said but my name as she comes.
“Bubblegum, slow down because I only have so much damn restraint.”
A giggle erupts, and she doesn’t look the least bit fucking sorry. Little devil.
“I’m worried about when the media gets a hold of your name. They’re fucking relentless. They’ll camp outside the sorority house just to get a photo of you, follow you at school. I don’t want that shit. I want you to be able to enjoy your college life like you planned to.”
“I know, but with us writing a press release and only releasing the information we want, it allows us to control the narrative. I think that we give the media enough to call them off, but other than that, we exist in our little bubble as much as we can. We’ll figure it out. I know that may sound naive, but itwilleventually die down, and we focus on keeping our relationship as private as we can. My dad and I also discussed me moving out of the sorority house, possibly into a gated apartment complex with twenty-four-hour security, just so he feels confident that I’m safe.”
As much as I hate that she’s having to make sacrifices in order to be with me, a part of me is fucking relieved after last night at that frat house and me almost having to commit a goddamn murder. Not to mention how easy it was for me to sneak into her window that night.
“Is that what you want?”
Her shoulder dips slightly. “I don’t feel connected to them in the way that I did with my girls in Seattle. I mean, Tatum, of course—we’ll always be close. And I’ll still be in the sorority; I just won’t belivingthere. Lots of girls live off campus.”
