Cutting Ice: A Sports Romance Read online

  I’d tried Johnson, but he didn’t pick up,probably out on a date with his wife, and reveling in some time to himself. Between us and the kids, he spent a lot of time cleaning up other people’s messes. I couldn’t really talk to any of the rest of the team about it--at least, not yet--and there was only one other person who knew about what was going down. Emily.

  It took me a long time to pluck up the courage to turn up at her door, and even once I had, I sat there for a while before I could even think about calling her. It was late, and she was probably in bed--or out, doing something more fun than interviewing hockey players and typing it up on that tiny computer of her’s. But I needed to talk to her. Needed to tell her what had hit me. Because I was pretty sure it was the conclusion she had been guiding me towards this entire time.

  Finally, in a rush of blood to the head, I grabbed my phone and, with frigid fingers, dialed her number. I held the phone to my ear for a few seconds and waited as it rang. No answer. No answer. Maybe she didn’t want to hear from me? Maybe-

  “Hello?” Her voice came down the line at last, and I practically let out a gasp of relief.

  “Emily?” I asked stupidly, and then shook my head. “Sorry. I’m, uh, I’m outside your place. Can I come up?”

  “Sure,” she sounded surprised. “I’ll be down in a minute.”

  She hung up, and a few seconds later appeared at her door. She waved me in, leaning up against the frame as I got out of the car and made my way towards her. She was dressed down, in jeans and a slouchy t-shirt, and she looked good.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, looking up at me and standing in front of the door. She didn’t sound mad, just baffled by my appearance here, but it was clear she wasn’t letting me in until she knew what my motives were.

  “I need to talk to you,” I replied, staring down at her, trying to convey to her the seriousness of what was happening. “Just talking. I promise.”

  “Whatever you say,” she sounded a little disappointed, but nonetheless stepped aside to let me in. I hurried inside and towards her apartment, glad for the heating inside.

  “Sorry for the mess,” she muttered as we entered her place, kicking the dirty clothes and scattered pages of notes off the bed so we could sit down. An image of us the last time we were here flashed through my mind, and I had to fight the urge to pounce on her right there and then, but no. I was here for a reason, and it wasn’t that. No matter how much I wanted to.

  “No problem,” I sat down at the edge, giving her plenty of space to make it clear that that wasn’t what was on my mind. She curled up next to the pillows, watching me carefully.

  “So what is it?” She asked after a pause. I took a deep breath, exhaled it, and then finally spoke.

  “I’m leaving,” I replied, the words sounding foreign in my mouth. It was the first time I’d admitted it to anyone, even though I’d sort of known it for a long time already.

  “What?” Her eyes widened, and before she could stop herself, an enormous smile broke across her face. “But why? Why now?”

  “I was in a diner out of town this evening,” I began, the words falling from my mouth uncontrolled. “And even though I didn’t know anyone from that side of the county…I got recognized.”

  “So?” She leaned forward, waiting for me to deliver the punch.

  “So I realized on my way back that all of this is too easy,” I admitted. “I could stay here, but I’ve already reached the pinnacle of how good it’s gonna get if I stick around Kingstown. I don’t want to be limited in…how much I can do. And how far I can go. You get it?”

  “Of course I do,” she shook her head in disbelief. “I just can’t belief…shit, I can’t believe you came around.”

  “Me neither,” I shook my head, feeling a bubble of emotion rise up and burst in my chest as I realized what I’d just done. “I just needed to say it to someone before I chickened out.”

  “And you chose me?” She raised her eyebrows, incredulous.

  “Well…yeah,” I shrugged. “You were the one pushing me towards this, anyway.”

  “Was I that obvious?” She shook her head and looked down at her hands, which were clasped in a tight ball in her lap. “I just…I wanted you to do something beyond just this town. I’ve seen you play. I know you’re suited for something bigger than this.”

  “I can’t…” I blew a long puff of air out of my mouth, trying to get myself in check. “Thank you. For pushing me. I needed this.”

  “Anytime,” she examined me carefully, as though trying to figure something out, but the expression dropped away from her face after a second or two, and her smile returned.

  “So, when do you go?”

  “No idea,” I admitted. “I’ll have to talk to coach, and take it from there.”

  “Well, thanks for giving me the perfect place to end my story,” she teased.

  “Oh, so you were only doing this for your article?” I shot back, faux-hurt. “So callous.”

  “I am a journalist,” she pointed out. “We’re not exactly known for our decency.”

  “Well, you must be the exception to the rule,” I remarked softly, and realized that I was leaning towards her; the gap between us was closing, and she was inching towards me, both of us all too aware that we were alone in the tiny place with only a bed to share for the night. She let herself fall forward on to all fours, and crawled towards me across the bed, her t-shirt hung low on her body, and allowed me a glimpse of her gorgeous breasts under the fabric. And then, finally, our mouths met once again.

  Maybe it was the giddiness of the situation, maybe it was the adrenalin that was already pulsing through my body, but when we touched, it felt as though something had seized up inside of me. I reached for her, catching her face in my hands and kissing her hard. I pushed my tongue into her mouth and wrapped an arm around her waist, hoisting her onto my lap. She moaned slightly into my mouth, and I moaned back, happy to give myself over to the relief of this release. She parted her legs and straddled me, grinding her hips down against my rapidly-growing erection, while I slid my hands down the back of her pants to grope at her gorgeous ass.

  “I thought we said we weren’t going to do this again,” she murmured in my ear breathily, and I turned to kiss that spot where her chin met her neck. She shivered in my arms, and I replied.

  “That was before,” I pointed out. “Besides, are you complaining?”

  “Far from it,” she replied, and I flipped her on to her back, clambering on top of her. She slid a hand down my chest, and grabbed at my cock through my pants; I groaned, already aching for her touch. What the hell was it about this woman? She had an effect on me unlike any woman had had before. It was unnerving in the best possible way, like I was spinning out of control on the rink, right at that moment before I crashed into the wall or put away a goal.

  Before I knew it, we were both naked, and she was sitting astride me once again. My mind was full of the memories we’d made the last couple of times we’d done this, and how much I wanted to make more; my cock ached as she kissed me again, her breasts lying against my chest. And then, she began to move down, first kissing my cheek and my chin, and then my chest and my stomach. And then, finally, she knelt between my legs. She planted a kiss on that line between my hip and my stomach, and I silently thanked all the long hours of training I had done to put it there.

  Emily took her time as she wrapped her hand around the base of my cock, squeezing lightly and watching my face for a reaction. This was her all over. Analytical, in-control, totally fucking hot. I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she leaned down and flicked her tongue out against my cock a couple of times, lapping up the drop of precum that had oozed to the surface since we began. I closed my eyes and gave myself over to her, my hands clenching into fists next to me as she enveloped my entire cock with her mouth in one motion.

  Her tongue flicked out against the underside of my cock, fluttering down to the base and then back up again Shit, that felt good. I op
ened my eyes to look at her, and reached down to shift a strand of hair away from her face so we could make eye contact She stared up at me intently, my cock deep in her mouth, and I bit my lip hard to keep from grunting with pleasure. She pulled off the top of my cock with a small “pop”, and kissed down the seam until she reached my balls. My toes curled as she paid them both loving attention, sucking carefully on each one, running her tongue across the sensitive ridge in between. I noticed her hand slip between her legs as she did so, my dick growing harder in response. She was certainly thorough, there could be no arguing with that.

  She turned her attention back to my dick, sliding her tongue up and down a few times before engulfing me once more. Her mouth was warm, her lips soft, and all it made me think of was how much I wanted to be inside her at that moment.

  “I really need to fuck you right now,” I murmured, and she looked up at me again, eyes wide. Then, she pulled off me again and smiled.

  “Fuck, yes,” she murmured, and climbed back on top of me. She reached into her drawer and pulled out a condom Hey, those were new. Had she got those since last time I was here? I didn’t have time to pick apart what their appearance meant, as she quickly tore the packet open and rolled the condom down over my erection. She lightly gripped me once more, and hovered herself over me for a moment- before she seemed to change her mind. Her face flashed with something deviant, and she leaned forward and kissed my ear before whispering:

  “From behind?”

  I didn’t need asking twice. She flipped over and pushed herself up on all fours, arching her back so that her gorgeous pussy and her ass were presented to me like all my birthdays had come at once. I placed my hands on her hips, my cock at her pussy, and slowly eased myself inside of her.

  She let out a small squeal of pleasure as I pushed into her, the kind of noise that would forever be engraved on my memory. I reached down and put my hand between her legs, playing with her clit as I eased myself all the way inside of her. Fuck, she felt even better like this-I could see her chest rising and falling as I held myself inside her for a second, enjoying the feel of her cunt flexing to accommodate me. And then, I began to fuck her.

  It was the kind of hard, fast screwing that only happens when everything else has dropped away, all the pretense, all the game-playing, everything that came with the beginnings of a tentative relationship like ours. Our moans and groans melded in the air around us, meshing with the sound of our bodies connecting. She pressed her hips back against me, and I thrust as hard and as deeply as I could. We were constantly groping for more, nothing ever quite turning up as enough, until I suddenly felt her pussy clench hard around my cock.

  I hadn’t realized how close she was until that moment, when she stopped making any noise whatsoever beyond a small, single gasp. I paused inside her for a second, reveling in the sensation of her pussy milking my cock urgently, and thrust one more time. It was all that I needed, knowing I’d made her come, knowing I’d pushed her over the edge, that was all I needed. I let out a strangled cry, and slowly withdrew from her. I flopped down on to my back with a gasp, and a few seconds later, she appeared next to me and put her head on my chest.

  “So,” she asked after a couple of seconds silence. “What now?”

  Epilogue

  “Have you got everything?” Sam asked, fidgeting in the driver’s seat.

  “Yes, I’ve got everything,” I assured him.

  “Keys?”

  “Yep.”

  “Luggage?”

  “Yes.”

  “My stick?”

  “Yes!” I exclaimed, almost laughing at how tense he was. I knew I shouldn’t have been. This was going to be a tough couple of days for him, but I was so proud of him for going through with it.

  “So, we’re ready to go?”

  “I guess so,” I nodded, yawning into the cool morning air. Sam started up the car, and we pulled out on to the street, and started on the road to Philadelphia. Goodbye, Kingstown.

  It had been four months since I arrived in Kingstown, and I’d finished up my story a day before we were due to leave. It had been a difficult piece to put together. I’d spent many an evening on video chats with my editor asking him for direction, but I got there in the end. The piece I handed in the day before had been thousands of words long, and had chronicled the Kingstown Crows’ rise to success and what that meant for the players, the team, and the town. I was proud of it- damn proud, in fact. I knew the copy I handed in wouldn’t be the one that ended up in the newspaper, but I knew that I didn’t waste a single word in that piece. They would love it, and the team would, too, which made me even happier. And of course, it had ended with Sam; Sam leaving for Philadelphia, which is what we were doing at that very moment.

  “Are you okay?” I asked gently, and he nodded. I knew this was a big deal to him. The biggest. He had broken the news about his decision to everyone else the day after he told me. His parents had been shocked, but proud; his teammates were jealous but hopeful that he could carve out a path for themselves down the line. Johnson teared up manfully, even though he strode off to his office at once to cover it up.

  And, of course, there was us. After that night, we were a couple--a proper, bonafide one. My friends back home thought I was rebounding, but I knew what that felt like and this was different; this was real. Sam made me feel giddy, as though the world had tilted sideways every time he walked into the room. And so, when he asked me to come to Philadelphia with him, I agreed. Without a second thought.

  Yeah, we were probably moving too fast, but fuck it. He’d waited around long enough to get his life going as it was, and I didn’t have any plans for after my article. I wanted to try something new, live in a city I’d never been to before. I reveled in the spontaneity of it, and watched proudly as Sam put together all the pieces for us to move down. He’d shown me pictures of the apartment we’d put a down payment on last month, but I hadn’t seen it yet. I wanted everything to be a surprise. I wanted to let go of some of the control I had clung onto for so long, and just go with it.

  I reached over to put a hand on Sam’s leg, and we made our way in comfortable silence through the deserted streets of Kingstown. We were leaving early. It was a long drive, and we wanted to be there by nightfall. Suddenly, my eye was caught by someone I recognized.

  “Oh!” I exclaimed, and Sam’s head snapped around.

  “What? Did you forget something?”

  “No,” I shook my head. “I just…saw someone.”

  “Who, that guy?” Sam nodded towards the man we were passing. “Where do you know him from?”

  I strained to remember; it took a few seconds, but finally I placed him.

  “The night you came to my room and told me you were taking the Soars thing,” I explained. “We met at a bar.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “He used to play for the Crows,” I continued. “But he left because he wanted to get out and see some more of the world.”

  The man heard the car, turned, and raised his hand in greeting; we both did the same back, silently offering our hellos as we went by. I hadn’t seen him since that night, and I wondered if he was some kind of omen, an example of what Sam could be if he got out. I hoped so. I smiled to myself as we drove by, and Sam shook his head.

  “Well, there’s something,” Sam commented. “I think I’m going to take that as a good sign.”

  “I think you should,” I glanced over at him, and he grinned at me, all the tension from when we woke up melting away. I stared out on to the road, towards the long drive ahead of us and then God knows what else beyond that, and for once, I didn’t feel scared. I didn’t worry about the decision I’d made. I wasn’t worried about Sam, or the Soars, or the city, or anything else. No, all I could think about was how we couldn’t get there fast enough.

  The End

  Chapter One

  As he walked down the aisle for the second time, I felt the world tilt sideways.

  I reached out to grab something,
anything, to steady myself, but I knew nothing would make this better --- nothing would make this go away. The entire room was achingly silent as we watched him make his way back down the aisle, striding quickly as he tried to avoid eye contact with anyone in the pews around us. Instead, I felt their eyes on me; felt the overwhelming sympathy and embarrassment as they took in what had just happened to me.

  The bridal party exchanged looks around me -- I could feel them, but I didn’t care to look at any of them. After all this planning, all this time, it had all been called off with a soft “I can’t do this” only moments ago. Talk about an anti-climax.

  Finally, someone coughed out there in the pews- there were at least a hundred people, but each and every one of them had been utterly silent since the news broke. My head snapped up as I tried to figure out who had made the noise, tried to place it -- but it was futile. The silence was broken, and suddenly a wave of whispers overtook the crowd, and what had actually just happened hit me like a ton of bricks.

  Without lifting my head, I paced quickly away from the altar, towards a small door to the left of the chapel that would let me back out into the hotel. I heard some footsteps behind me, some muttered conciliation, but I ignored it. I didn’t want it. How could I? What had happened here, it would never leave me. This was a life-ruiner, a game-changer. Nothing would be the same after this.

  I made it outside before the tears started to fall, and when they did, they came fast and hard and hot, pouring down my face. I blindly groped my way back up to the hotel room. I’d slept there last night, excited and a little nervous, in preparation for everything that was going to happen the next day. How could I not have seen it coming? How could he have hidden this from me? Why did he wait till the moment we were supposed to pledge our lives to each other to tell me that that was the last thing he wanted?