Love In Moments (Love Distilled #2) - Scarlett Cole Page 0,20

adrenaline and testosterone that still flooded his veins.

But then he’d seen Olivia on the dance floor. He’d seen the momentary flash of hurt before she’d put up an emotional screen.

He was wrong, she wasn’t Pandora’s box. She was the sun, and he was Icarus, flying too close even though he knew better. “I don’t like hearing you talk this way,” he said, reaching his hand toward her cheek. He wanted to touch her, even though he knew he couldn’t have her.

Olivia pulled away, out of his reach. “Well, you don’t have to stand and listen to me.”

Anders ran his hand through his hair, tugging at the edges. She was right. One hundred percent completely right. He reached for her hand again, linking her fingers with his. Relief flooded him when she let him this time. “I’m sorry. Can we start this whole thing over again?”

Olivia looked over his shoulder, deliberately avoiding his gaze.

With a gentle tug, he pulled her toward him. “Liv?”

Her eyes turned to his finally. “I wasn’t prepared to see you again, that’s all. Seeing you here with someone else stung.”

Unable to resist her, he placed his hand on her neck, pulling her even closer. He could feel her warmth, could feel her breasts pressed up against his chest, and remembered the way sucking on them had caused her to clench around his cock in pleasure.

“I wasn’t prepared to see you, either, Liv. But I can’t say I hadn’t thought about us, thought about you, since Christmas.”

When she looked up at him through those dark lashes, he momentarily imagined what it would be like to take her home. For the two of them to make love and fuck over every surface in the goddamn place so she understood just what she already meant to him.

“You did?”

“Yeah. Impossible not to. You are very unforgettable, Liv.”

He doubted she was even aware of it, but she’d slid her hand inside his jacket, stroking his side. “Being with you that night changed me in a good way, Anders.”

The world seemed to slow around them. The volume quieted. In another time and place, it would be perfect. Him. Her. The connection they had.

“Tell me,” he said, huskily.

She looked down for a moment before taking a deep breath and looking at him again. “You could come home with me and I could show you.”

His erection ached for her. And the idea of a whole night with her, spending it deep inside her, teasing out orgasm after orgasm, on the back of the game he’d played, would be absolute perfection.

But he needed to focus, which seemed impossible given the woman in front of him. And he had a day of rest before travel for the next game. Fuck, he hated this.

“Liv, I can’t. I have a game on—”

“Sure. No. I get it. Busy season, right.” She stepped out of his arms. He felt the loss of her immediately.

“Let me explain.”

Olivia looked away from him. “No, I understand. Wait. What was I thinking? You should get back to your date.”

“I just met her,” Anders said by way of explanation. “I don’t even know her last name, a friend of my sister-in-law. A setup and nothing more. I don’t owe her shit. But you . . .”

“Me, what?”

He tugged at the tie the team had insisted they wear, sliding it around his neck as he muttered a curse under his breath. He wrapped an end around each hand and threw it over her shoulders, using it to pull her back to him.

Olivia held her ground and Anders tugged tighter, wrapping the length of the tie around one hand then the other until she was flush against him.

“I can’t do this now. I can’t play my best on the ice if I am distracted off it.”

“But you’d go home with her?” Olivia asked, lines etching her forehead.

He hated that he felt the need to explain his baser instincts. “Sex is not a relationship, Liv. And you are so much more than a one-night stand.”

She pushed against him, but with the tie holding her arms by her sides, it was ineffective. “Apparently, I’m not. Because that is all we had. Good to know, Anders.”

Goddamn, the woman. He didn’t know how to make it clear. “You are so far from the truth, Liv. That night was way more than meaningless sex. We connected and you know it. That’s why it’s been impossible to stop thinking about you. You don’t want to know how many times I’ve sought release to images