Blaise shifted me off his lap and adjusted himself in his pants.
I got up and brushed myself off, trying to will my horny thoughts away. “Sorry, baby.”
His ocean-blue eyes sparkled at the pet name I let slip. “S’okay, sweets. I have to travel tomorrow, anyway.”
I tried not to look disappointed by that. “But you can still come on Friday, right?”
“Of course. I get in early on Friday morning. I can make it.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “I’m going to get my tips re-dyed.”
“Okay.”
“I’m thinking of a different color.”
He frowned for a second but then nodded. “What color? Maybe I can wear a matching tie.”
I put a finger on my chin in thought. “Purple.”
“Send me a photo when you get it done.”
He stood up and bent down to kiss me. He smacked my ass lightly. “Get back to work.”
I glared at him. “I only like that when I’m over your knee, and you’re about to fuck my brains out.”
“Fuuucckkk...” he drawled out. “Come over for dinner tonight, please?”
I smiled at him. “Maybe I should make you wait until the wedding.”
“Sweets, please. I want to have you as much as possible until...” I knew why he trailed off. After the wedding, we were done. We would tell everyone we broke up and went our separate ways, but a part of me didn’t want us to end.
I reached up on my tip-toes and kissed him. “Okay, I’ll come over tonight.”
I walked Blaise out and kissed him again at the door. “Oh my God, please go before I drag you upstairs.”
When I walked back to the reception area, Olivia and a redheaded woman stood at the desk fanning themselves. “Whoa. That’s quite the man you have there,” the redhead remarked with a smile.
I smiled and put my hand out to her. “Yeah, he is. I’m Veronica. What are you looking to do today?”
I fell onto the bed face-first, panting. Blaise laughed from behind me. His big hand soothed down my back and slapped my ass as he pulled out and got rid of the condom. I laid my head on the pillow and smiled when he returned to the bed and pulled me into his chest.
I trailed a finger across his chest hair. “I was really wound up,” I told him.
He kissed the top of my head. “You missed me.”
I held my forefinger and thumb together. “Maybe just your cock.”
“Liar.”
I laughed into his chest, sighing at the feeling of being back in his arms. I had missed him so much. I really shouldn’t have, but I did.
His phone buzzed on the bedside table, and his chest rumbled with a laugh.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he said too quickly.
I peered up at him. “What?”
“My dad said and I quote, ‘Tell your girlfriend to stop screaming so loud.’”
“Blaise! I didn’t know Hal was home. You told me you wanted to hear me scream.”
He shrugged. “Me neither. I thought he was at the bar tonight.”
I laid on my back and put a hand over my face. “I can never look your dad in the eye ever again.”
He shrugged. “I’m one of six. You think my older brothers didn’t pull this shit before? I told you, my dad doesn’t have those hangups.”
I pulled my hand off my face. “But I do! I would have tried to be quiet if I knew he could hear me. I’m dead. I cannot come back from this.”
He chuckled beside me.
“Maybe you should get your own place,” I suggested.
As much as I loved having Blaise at my place, the commute was killer when he had to travel all the time. A lot of times, it was easier to come back to his dad’s. Especially if I was already in the city.
He grunted.
I gave him a suspicious look. “Why do you still live at home?”
He rubbed a hand across his jaw. “I thought he needed me, and I didn’t want him to be alone. Dad and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye. We clash so much because we’re too much alike.”
“How so?”
He grimaced. “You know why I got traded, right?”
I shook my head.
I barely understood the rules of hockey; I hoped he didn’t ask me to understand the business side of it. My brain immediately shut off when Dinah and the girls talked contracts. Numbers and legalese? No, thank you.
“Because I let my breakup take hold of me. I let my emotions cloud the game, so Toronto traded me. Dad threw it in my face that he did the same thing when Mom died.”
“Maybe it was good you moved back home so you could hash those things out, then? Blaise, I miss my dad so much. Some days I want to call him up and ask for his advice, but I can’t. You’re lucky you still have time with Hal.”
He leaned onto his side and cupped my cheek. “Oh, sweets, I’m sorry. Tell me about your dad.”
I grinned as I told him about my dad. Paddy O’Malley was such a rough and tumble blue-collar guy, with tattoos all up and down his arms and legs. But my dad was a total softie. He never pressured Alex or me to join the family business. He actually wanted us to do something more stable, but when Alex and I followed in his footsteps, he couldn’t have been more proud.
While I told Blaise all of this, he listened intently beside me and twirled my hair around his finger. And I knew he was actually listening and not pretending.
“How did your dad die?” he asked.
I scoffed. “Being a stubborn man! He didn’t take care of himself. Heart attack. I had told him time and again to listen to his doctors. It was before Seth left. Seth had been there for me through that all, but now I wonder if he had been pretending then. Had he always been terrible? What is it about me that makes everyone leave?”
Blaise pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Oh, sweets, no. Your dad didn’t leave you on purpose. And Seth? Fuck him. He doesn’t know what he’s missing. We’ll show him, okay?”
I nodded and wiped the tears from my eyes. I barely talked about my dad these days, but it felt nice to talk to Blaise about it. Even though I really shouldn’t have.
I snuggled into his chest, and he let me, holding me like we did this every single night. Like this was our life.
“I looked at houses last week,” he admitted.
“So you do want to move out?”
“I’m not in a rush, but maybe I should find my own place. Dad’s dating again…”
I looked up at him with interest. “Really?”
He grimaced. “Yeah…I might have heard some shit I didn’t want to hear when he thought I was on the road last week.”
I laughed into his chest. “Oh, sorry, baby.”
He shrugged. “Guess that’s what I get for being twenty-five and moving back in with my dad. But I want him to be happy. Mom would want him to be happy.”
I squeezed his bicep. “You’re a good son.”
He shrugged. “Not always.”
He stroked my phoenix tattoo on my hip and kissed my neck, and I knew what that not-so-subtle move meant. I glanced down and rolled my eyes at his cock, already standing at attention again. This man had a lot of stamina, and I didn’t hate it. But I needed to pump the brakes.