Falling Forward ✔

Chapter Twenty - Bastien

We let the girls sleep through morning skate. Of course, Spencer and I are both given heaping rations of shit from the other players since we decided to make the five-hour trek to Kalamazoo with our girlfriends instead of on a cramped bus. Neither of us much cares. We've finally found something other than hockey and parties.

The team buys a block of rooms in advance for the two-day away games. Spencer had one to himself until I joined the team. Now we room together. We went fifty-fifty for the girl's room, one floor up from ours. A room Spencer is currently pounding on to rouse them.

"Rise and shine sleeping beauties!" He calls with enough volume that other guests peer down the hall at the commotion. "C'mon, it's three in the afternoon and I'm starving."

Kaila opens the door, a pillow-crease still on her cheek. "You're always hungry."

"Yeah, babe. I'm six-seven and over two-hundred. I eat a lot of food." He then unceremoniously hoists her over his shoulder in a fireman carry. "Time for lunch!"

Kaila grunts. "Put me down!"

He slaps her ass and she squeaks. "Don't tell me what to do unless you're naked."

"You Neanderthal!" She shriek-laughs, then waves at me as Spencer proceeds to carry her down the hall. "Later Reecie, later Bas! Guess I'm going to lunch."

Reece pokes her head out the door as Kaila and Spencer round the corner. "You kids have fun."

Kaila offers a salute and a cough-laugh before they disappear from view.

Sufficiently alone, I slide into Reece's room. Before she can protest how rude I am inviting myself inside, I cup the back of her head, tilt her chin, and bring her mouth to mine.

This kiss is slow and unhurried, unlike every other one we've shared to date. Maybe it's because I know we have time, that she's not going to bolt the second I let her go. Maybe I just like savoring her taste without sparking the inferno that always seems so close to the surface whenever she's around.

"Mm," she breathes when I pull away.

"Good morning," I rasp, buzzed on the feel of her mouth and soft body against mine.

"It's three in the afternoon," she protests with a smile.

"Well," I lay another kiss on her forehead. Because I can. "I missed my opportunity earlier."

She raises a brow. "Oh?"

"You weren't adequately caffeinated," I smirk. "You might have bitten my tongue off."

She winks. "I still might."

"Promises, promises." A shudder of desire racks through me. Later. There's shit to do. I swat her butt lightly. "Shoes and jacket on. We only have a few hours to eat and get everything ready."

Reece blinks, stumbling where I drop my hands and hold out her jacket. "Get ready?" She echoes.

I wink. "It's a surprise."

She glowers, even as she slides into her boots and accepts my help into her jacket. "I don't like surprises."

"This one involves cute critters and no cameras." I promise, making an 'x' over my chest. "Cross my heart and hope to die."

She relents, thankfully, and we head out into the blistering Michigan cold. Most everything in town is within walking distance of the hotel. I have no idea where Spencer took Kaila, but he left me his keys – probably because that chucklehead would lose them doing the horizontal mambo – and ordered me not to come back to the room until it was time to head to the rink.