You Had Me at Hockey (Bears Hockey #2) - Kelly Jamieson Page 0,36
Josh and it doesn’t feel lame. It feels…exciting.
Inside, I hang up our coats and move to my kitchen. “Would you like a drink?”
“Sure.”
“I have vodka.” I pull a bottle of Grey Goose out of the freezer. “And limoncello.” I close the freezer and peer into the fridge. “Oh, I have a few beers! And a bottle of rosé. I’ll have that.”
“A beer would be great. Is it Pissing Pigs Ale?”
“Ah! Ha, no! That was Pig’s Ass Porter. This is…Plaid to the Bone Ale.”
“Jesus.” But he’s grinning as he takes the bottle from me. “What ever happened to Bud Light?”
“Seriously?” I give him a reproving look. “Be adventurous.”
“Seems I have no choice around you.”
For a moment, I’m still and silent, feeling that pang of shame I’ve felt so many times when people pull back from me. But when I glance at Josh, his lips are tipped into a rueful smile and his eyes are warm. Maybe he didn’t mean it as a slight? Maybe he actually…likes that about me?
I gaze down at the bottle of wine in my hands, my breath stuck in my chest.
“Hey,” he says quietly, as if sensing my uncertainty. “Like I said earlier…sometimes it’s more fun when your plans get blown up.”
I meet his eyes. “If I piss you off, will you tell me?”
“Honesty’s important to you, isn’t it?” He sets his beer on the counter and takes the wine bottle from me.
“Yes.” I open a drawer and find the corkscrew. I pass it over and he works at opening the wine.
“I’ll tell you.”
“Thank you.” I pull a wineglass out of a cupboard and set it down. Josh pours wine into it and then we walk into my living room. I start some music, turn on the fireplace, and take a seat next to him on the couch, curling my legs under me.
“What would your perfect day look like?” I ask.
He smiles at the unexpected question. “Hmm. I guess…I’d like to have morning sex. Then shower sex. Then breakfast.”
“What for breakfast?”
“Bacon. Lots of bacon. And waffles.”
“Okay. Then what?”
“Then…a nap. And more sex.”
“Sensing a theme here…”
He grins. “Then I’d play hockey, score five goals, and win the game.”
“Yes!”
“Then go home and have more sex. No, wait. First a steak dinner. Then sex.”
“Priorities.”
“I work up an appetite playing hockey.”
“It sounds like it,” I murmur. Now my head is full of thoughts of sex. Morning sex. Shower sex. I bet Josh is strong and athletic and beautiful…in bed. All wet in the shower. On the living room floor. I am beset with erotic images of naked Josh…
Heat washes down through me and I take a gulp of my chilled wine.
“How about you?”
“Um, me?” I’d tell him I like sex too, except…I don’t know that.
“Your perfect day.”
“You know, that day doesn’t sound bad, actually. Except I don’t play hockey. Obviously.”
His eyes darken. He’s thinking about sex, too. With me. Oh Jesus.
I touch my index finger to my lips. “Maybe instead of hockey I’d like to go shopping. The steak dinner sounds great, though.”
“Seems we’re on the same page about the sex.”
I smile slowly. “Maybe so.” After a weighty pause where our eyes meet and hold…and hold…and I can feel my pulse everywhere in my body, I say, “Okay. What’s something you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time but haven’t done? And why haven’t you?”
Tipping his head back, he frowns. “Jesus. I don’t know.”
“Take your time.”
He flicks me an amused glance. “Thanks.” Then he goes silent again. “Ugh.”
“That bad?” I ask softly.
“Well. I had a friend once who…let me down. I’ve never confronted him about it. I’ve wanted to but I haven’t done it.”
“Why?”
“Never had the chance.”
“Really?”
He drops his head forward. “Okay, I have had the chance, if I really wanted to.” He appears to be thinking, then lifts his head, his jaw set. “I haven’t done it because it doesn’t matter anymore.”
He’s lying. But maybe he actually believes that. I want to ask more, to push him. But I hold myself back. “Something to think about, I guess.”
“Yeah. Your turn.”
Well, one thing I’ve always dreamed of is having sex. Is this the time to tell him that? Once again, I have a talent for scaring men away. Guys get freaked out about virgins. One time I told a man just as we were getting busy and he got wangxiety, and it never happened. “I’ve always dreamed of finishing college.”
After a beat, he says, “You still could.”
“Actually, I am taking courses. Well, just one right now, but