Page 45 of Hockey Boy
“Oh yeah? What’s it about?”
“Promise not to make fun of me?”
“Lex,” I say softly, leaning my head back.
She snuggles in closer to my neck, and fuck if I don’t love having her cuddled right there. If she weren’t using the move to hide from me, I’d let her stay there forever.
I rub a hand up and down her back. “I’d never laugh at you. Only with you.”
Straightening, she hits me with a smile that’s like an electric shock to my heart. On the heels of that, my breath is stolen from me. Holy fuck. Clearly, I didn’t get a good look at her when she got in the hot tub. I never got to truly see her bathing suit, and then when she crawled into my lap, I was too focused on my panic attack to appreciate the breasts that are spilling out of her hot pink top.
Don’t look at her tits.
I suck on my teeth and force my attention to remain on her face. “Tell me about the book.”
She shifts back like she’s going to climb off my lap.
I grab her thighs, keeping her where she is. “Where are you going?”
Giggling, she points to her stuff. “I read on the Kindle app on my phone. I thought I’d pull up the book and read it to you. See if you can really keep a straight face.”
Oh fuck. She’s going to read to me? Is it like porn? Am I going to get hard in this hot tub? Yes, if Lennox is reading porn to me while wearing that tease of a swimsuit, chances are I’m going to be a rock beneath the bubbles. Maybe she’ll sit back on my lap while she reads to me…
A guy can dream, right?
“Let me set the scene,” she says, leaning over the edge of the tub and drying her hands on her towel. Once she’s got her phone, she sits back down on my lap.
I have to bite my cheek to keep the huge smile from spreading across my face. She didn’t even pause to think about whether she should sit here or keep her distance. Climbing into my lap was her natural inclination.
“Okay, set the scene,” I prod.
“They broke up because he was a jerk.”
I nod, taking in the stars visible in the night sky.
“He’s notreallya jerk. He’s actually very swoony, but he acted like a jerk because he didn’t believe her.”
Chuckling, I drag my hands up and down her thighs. “Got it. He’s a jerk. We should always believe the girl.”
She narrows her gaze on me. “When you love her? There’s no question.”
I sober. “Of course. Keep going.”
She relaxes against me, her body so soft and warm. “He sees her out on a date with another guy. Actually,” she hums, twisting her lips to one side, “that makes it sound like it wasn’t on purpose, when in reality, he knew they were going to be there.”
“So he’s a stalker?” I waggle my eyebrows.
She shrugs, but her eyes light up like she finds the idea of it hot. “For her.”
Now we’re getting somewhere.
She looks down at the phone, her face illuminated, and begins to read.
“‘Does his touch set fire to your skin like mine does?’ he grits huskily into my ear, his breath sending a shiver of betrayal down my arms. With his left hand still on my hip, he presses against me and trails his fingers up my bare arm, and I have to hold back a whimper.”
I ghost my fingertips over her thighs, making circles as she reads, and keep my focus trained on her lips as I memorize every word that spills from them.
“Do not let him know he’s affecting you,”she continues reading, but her eyes jump up to mine.