Introduction
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Chapter One
Posey
I move my finger along the deep valley between the pecs of Boon’s chest. Our apartment is quiet, all the lights are off, and our naked bodies are still vibrating against each other. The last twelve hours have been absolutely insane and perfectly awesome, all wrapped into one. One thing is for sure, I’ve never felt such a powerful love in my life. I knew Boon Hoenes was special when I met him on the ice. I even knew he could rock my world, but I couldn’t truly prepare myself for how he has become the one true partner I didn’t even know I needed. I always wanted that partner, but I never saw him coming. In our very short love story, so much has happened, and so much more is to come. Especially now that he’s asked me to marry him. In the middle of pure mayhem, our worlds have collided, and now they’ll become one.
I close my eyes as I nuzzle my nose into his pec. He moves the fingers of one of his hands along my hair, while he rests his other on my belly. My cheek is pressed against his side, and I can feel his heart still beating hard from the adrenaline in his body. I don’t think his heart has slowed since the final moments of game five. We won our conference final; now it’s time for the last leg of the battle.
The Cup final.
We’re taking on a team we’ve already beaten. The Carolina IceCats. Unlike the team from last year, though, this one didn’t rise from the bottom of the standings. No. They are Presidents’ Trophy winners. They smoked everyone with 124 points. They have a power play that is lethal and a goalie who can be in seven places at once. Their penalty kill is a little weak, and that will be what I focus on. I’ll need my boys to draw penalties since the only way to score on Nico Merryweather is to take out one of his defensemen and drive traffic to the net.
My boys can do that. We can win this. Shit—we will win this.
But none of that matters right now. We have six days until the series starts. We’ve got the next two days off, and I want nothing more than to lie right here with the man who was designed in the stars just for me.
He presses his lips to the top of my head, and then his voice fills the darkness. “Crazy night, eh?”
My lips curve slowly. “So damn crazy.” I move my thumb along the finger he adorned with a ring.
“I love you, Posey.”
My heart soars. “I love you,” I say, tipping up my head just in time to meet his lips.
He draws the kisses out of me, taking my breath away. He pinches my jaw before kissing my top lip. “How far along are you?”
I feel his heart rate pick up more than it already was. He’s been wanting to ask this very question, but maybe he needed the darkness to help him get it out. I know he’s still a bit traumatized from the last, ectopic pregnancy. Me too. I can still see the blood on the floor, and the pain was unbearable. If it weren’t for Boon, I don’t know if I would have made it through. Not only because he is the most amazing man on this earth, but because whenever my mind would tell me that losing that baby was my fault, he reassured me it wasn’t. It just wasn’t the time for that baby, he’d tell me. But still, I blame it all on my fucked-up thyroid.
Funny how now that I’m on good meds and I’m feeling the best I’ve ever felt, I’ve been able to carry this baby as long as I have without any trouble. If I said that though, Boon would probably announce it’s the fact that he’s taken away gluten and sugar that’s the cure.
I refuse to think that.
“About nine weeks.”
He goes still under my touch. “How long have you known?”
“For a month.”
“Posey?”
I kiss his chest. “I didn’t want to tell you so soon. What if I had lost it again?”
“So, if you had lost it, you were going to handle it yourself?”
I shrug. “With the play-offs and all, I really did ignore it. I didn’t want to distract you or myself with it. I wanted us to control what we could.”
“You are a distraction, Posey. All of you.” I smile, my lips getting caught on his skin. “But that doesn’t let you off the hook from the fact that you hid it from me.”
“I didn’t hide it per s—”
“You didn’t tell me.”
“So, you’re mad?”
“Not mad. Annoyed. How can I keep you good and healthy if I don’t know the facts?”
“Boon, I’m good.”
“I still want to be in the know.”
I roll my eyes, even though he can’t see me. “I had planned on telling you today, no matter what happened. But then you proposed and we won, so it added to the greatness of the day.”
He moves his lips along my temple. “Don’t hide things from me, even if you think it’s for the best. You don’t have to be strong all the time, Posey. I got you. I want to be there for you.”
I turn my face to prop my chin on his chest. “I just wanted to make sure I was okay before I opened up that can of worms again. I feel we still aren’t really over the first one.”
He doesn’t answer me at first. “I’m not over seeing you in pain. It still keeps me awake at night a lot of the time, but I think, together, we’re okay.”
“We are,” I agree. “Which is why I didn’t want to put the pressure on this one. The worry. I don’t know. You’re still the only person who knows.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, no one but my doctor knows.”
“You didn’t tell Shelli?”
I laugh. “With the way she lost her mind when Amelia told us she was pregnant? I refuse to be on the other end of that. I’ll wait till after the wedding.”
He laughs. “I’m ready for this circus to be over.”
“You and me both, hot stuff.”
He gathers me tighter in his arms, and I hate that I upset him. While I think it was for the best and I was pretty sure he would be upset with me for hiding the pregnancy, I still feel a little bad. Just a little.
“I’m sorry, Hoenes.”
He kisses the top of my head. “You’re lucky you’re hot.”
I laugh out loud, turning to my side so I can be close to his face. “Hot, huh?”
He grabs a chunk of my ass. “And this… You’re lucky I get all this.” He then clutches my face in his hand, squeezing my jaw. “But mostly, you’re lucky I’m completely in love with you.”
I lean in, kissing his lips. It was only supposed to be a sweet, small kiss, but it’s Boon. Kissing him isn’t ever just small or sweet; it’s a rock-your-world, crazy kind of kiss. He holds me in place with his hand as our tongues dance together. I fall deep into the kiss, almost as if it’s the first time I’ve ever felt his mouth against mine. He pulls back first, kissing my top lip and then the tip of my nose before rubbing my jaw with his thumb. “So, when are we telling people?”