Blocked Shot (Love on Thin Ice #1) Read online

  After each game, Hannah studied his body for new cuts and bruises. She made a habit of kissing everything she found to hopefully make it feel better. Curtis laughed at her and promised they didn’t hurt, but she did it anyway. He’d taught her about sports superstitions and some of the things the guys on the team did. Kissing away his battle scars was hers.

  She’d teased Curtis plenty of times that he was going to make her go gray by the time she was thirty. If she was truthful, she wouldn’t even make it to twenty-nine. She’d been a worrier before and watching him play didn’t soothe any of her anxieties.

  “You know I’m not going to make your decision for you as far as your stuff. There’s plenty of room here if you want to keep it. And if you need someone to help light the fire, I’m your guy.”

  One of the things Hannah learned quickly when it came to having Curtis in her life was that making decisions was hard. She’d never had to make any big ones on her own without a rating system or someone to guide her, but Curtis was adamant about letting her decide anything that involved her. It wasn’t easy, but Hannah’s life was exponentially more enjoyable because of it.

  She’d tried new things, like going to a dive bar with Curtis and some of his teammates that Nina would have died even being on the same block as. In said dive bar, Hannah learned she was a pool shark and won twenty bucks off Curtis’ friend Brady. She assumed he let her win, but Curtis was adamant Brady hated losing, even a simple game of pool.

  Hannah thought Brady seemed a little like the male version of Nina. If she’d been talking to her friend, she would’ve introduced the two of them to see how many fireworks went off. Literal fireworks, because if the two of them ever got together, it would be explosive. It was tough to say whether the energy would be anger or sexual. Either way, it was an interesting idea to think about.

  As it was, the only contact the two had was one text Hannah sent letting her ex-friend know that she wasn’t pregnant. It wasn’t like Nina would care, but Hannah thought it was important that the revenge she talked about never came to fruition. It was playing with fire a little, but it’d been over a month and there hadn’t been any replies.

  Hannah was able to concede at times that she missed her friend. Not the hatred always on the verge of exploding Nina, obviously, but there were times when Hannah got to see a little different side of the woman. Most of those times were when they were young, but Hannah remembered them.

  “I don’t know,” Hannah said as she thought about her apartment. “Everything worth anything of value or importance is here, so maybe I’ll find a charity that does pick-ups and have them cart it all away.”

  If she did want to move in somewhere, Curtis had plenty of friends to help out, many of which had no problem bench pressing twice Hannah’s weight. She could sit and just watch them juggle her furniture.

  She hadn’t spent a lot of time with the guys Curtis spent half his week with, but they seemed to accept her. It was important to her that they did since she figured they had at least a little sway in Curtis’ decisions. He claimed they didn’t, and if anyone could control those decisions it was her, but she’d gotten a little idea what the locker room was like and the stuff that was said there had to stick on some level.

  “That is very noble of you.”

  Curtis flipped the page again. The magazine didn’t interest Hannah much, but they took turns picking out what to read. He always went the sports route, while she mixed it up a little with finance, home improvement and cooking.

  “My furniture is all hand-me-downs from either my parents or brothers. I wouldn’t consider it that noble of a gesture.”

  Every once in a while, Hannah wished Curtis was a little squishier. Sometimes she got in a position where the hardness of his body got a little uncomfortable. Her tailbone was the present body part experiencing the infliction as part of it rested on his hipbone. She wasn’t about to complain about her boyfriend having a body carved out of stone. It was just fun to imagine a softer side of him as she moved a little to the side to try to alleviate her discomfort.

  “Fine. Then I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what a great tax write-off the donation will be. With the way your client list keeps growing, you’re going to need all the deductions you can get.”

  Hannah grabbed the magazine from his hand and threw it to the side, so she could roll over and be on top of him. His remarks were said in his pouting voice. He liked to pretend he was jealous of the fact that a few weeks after she’d established her own name as an accounting professional, she had six clients, none of which were the teammates he teased her with when he first shared the idea with her.

  “You know what a turn on it is when you say things like write-off,” Hannah said as she slowly stuck her tongue out of her mouth to lick her upper lip. “Say something else. How about standard deduction?”

  “Why do you think I’m so engrossed in those magazines you make me read? It’s the weirdest turn on I’ve ever heard of, but I’m willing to exploit it anytime. Standard deduction. Accounts payable. Profit margin.”

  His hands grabbed ahold of her hips and rubbed her wet vagina along the length of him. Their reading time on the couch was pretty much always spent in the nude. It was their way of learning things each other liked and doing something other than having sex while naked. Hannah couldn’t remember a time when it didn’t end in them having sex, so the premise was maybe a little misguided. It sure made for fun afternoons, though.

  “Oh, come on. It’s no different than someone getting turned on by an accent.”

  Curtis stopped any motion in their nether regions and raised his brow while he stared at her intently. She tried to keep a serious face. It wasn’t an attempt that lasted long. Her lips curled up and her chest shook as she laughed without letting the laugh fully out.

  “There are days I’m afraid to let you outside the house.”

  Curtis leaned up and grabbed her lower lip with his teeth before she could ask him to clarify. A kiss quickly deepened, sending tendrils of pleasure tingling through Hannah’s body. Every kiss seemed different and special somehow. It was always their lips and tongues coming together, but it either felt like the first time they kissed every time or that something was different and exciting each time. It was hard to narrow down the feelings Hannah had, but it was fun trying to figure them out.

  The kiss didn’t last too long, or maybe it did. Time wasn’t any easier to define than the sensations sometimes. Sometimes they’d go up to their room and time would just slip away. Somehow they managed not to disappear for days, even though it felt like it.

  “I’m afraid to let you out because I’m worried someone else will figure out how amazing you are.”

  Hannah was surprised he continued the thought without prompting. She thought the kiss was meant to make her forget it.

  “At least you don’t have to worry about the fact that hundreds of women already know how amazing you are and pledge their love to you every game. It’s crazy being in the stands hearing them chant your name.”

  Hannah had started sitting with a few of the wives and girlfriends of Curtis’ teammates. It was reassuring watching them go through the same things she had to deal with. She wore one of his jerseys to every game, somewhat superstitiously, and more than once women had stopped her to gossip and gush about Curtis.

  “Thankfully, I don’t love any of them like I love you. I’m never going to love someone as much as I do you. My chest hurts every time you or I walk out the door alone. Road trips have been hell lately because all I can do is think about you here at home and what you might be doing.”

  Curtis moved his right hand away from Hannah’s hip, instantly leaving a cold spot in its place. He reached behind him to grab something off the side table behind his head. There hadn’t been a table before they started reading time, but they’d decided having a place for condoms was a good idea.

  Hannah instantly knew it wasn’t a condom in his hand when he brought it forward. She was still digesting
the fact that he’d declared his love for the first time, when she saw the black velvet box in his hand. She stared at it wide-eyed trying to figure out if she was letting her imagination run away.

  “I know everything between us has felt like a rush. We’ve basically been living together since we started going out. We’ve spent that time getting to know each other. What I learned was that the girl I had a crush on in high school because she was the only girl with a soul around, is the girl I want to be my wife. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, cherishing you every second of every day. Will you marry me?”

  It was definitely her imagination. It had to be. There was no way Curtis Power had just asked her to marry him.

  Curtis opened the small box to reveal the not so small ring it hid. As far as standards of gaudy rings, it was on the mild side, but it was the largest stone Hannah had ever seen up close and personal. The light in the room reflected off the square stone as Curtis moved the box around to take the ring out.

  Hannah had no idea what to do or say. Her brain seemed to be functioning, but intelligent words didn’t appear to be anywhere on the horizon.

  “You don’t have to answer right away, and even when you do, it’s not like we have to get married tomorrow. Just wear the ring for a few days and see how you feel.”

  The suggestion was a little bit on the stupid side, but Hannah wasn’t really in a state of mind to judge. No woman in her right mind would say no to a marriage proposal from him. Not if they knew him anyway, and Hannah knew him better than most.

  As he slipped the ring on her finger, which fit a little loose, she found her head nodding up and down. It was a slow motion at first, but it gained speed.

  “I love you too.” She felt that needed to be said first to catch up a little in the declaration department. “Of course I’ll marry you.”

  She only had a second to stare down at the ring on her finger before Curtis’ had both hands on her hips to pull her against him and his face raised up to devour her lips. The sex that followed could only be described as transcendent. Neither of them held anything back and when the climax came, Hannah swore she felt a part of herself leave her body and flow into his. Generally, things worked backwards in that department, but by then Hannah’s mind was nothing more than mush, so anything was possible.

  Chapter 18

  Curtis swore as he grabbed the piece of paper off his car and crumpled it in his hand. Whichever one of his buddies thought it was funny to leave the love notes was in need of a serious ass kicking, and he was just the guy to do it. It was the fifth note, three more than he’d actually read.

  At first, he thought it was Hannah being cute, but the words couldn’t be from her. Her name was signed at the bottom of the ones he’d seen in a handwriting he knew wasn’t hers. They talked about how much she loved his cock and how she couldn’t wait to pork out his babies. Both of those things could’ve technically been true, but she wouldn’t have used those exact words to relay them.

  The cock part was almost believable, but she only talked like that in the heat of the moment. He didn’t think he’d ever heard her say the exact word, but she had told him she loved his dick while he was inside of her.

  That aside, the handwriting was sloppy, which was why he assumed it was one of his teammates. They liked playing around and pranking each other, but when it came to Hannah, he wasn’t in the mood. They’d been engaged for three weeks and were just starting to plan for the wedding.

  Everyone on the team knew that, so it made since that they were messing around with him. He supposed it was better that they were messing with him than playing pranks on Hannah. If anyone crossed that line, they were dead meat.

  There were times Curtis still couldn’t believe Hannah agreed to marry him. She’d gained an independence she’d never had before, yet she stuck around. He wasn’t about to complain. It just meant he had to pinch himself every time he woke up next to her.

  It’d been a few days since he’d been able to do that, so the note on the car rubbed a sore spot. He’d hoped ignoring the little game would stop it, but the notes had been appearing for a few weeks. No one in the locker room owned up to the notes, which only added to the frustration.

  Curtis opened the door to the car and slid in. He’d already called Hannah to let her know the plane had landed safely and he was on his way. The previous road games had at least been in the same time zone, but the California games made it difficult to call at night since the games didn’t get over until around midnight in New York.

  Because of that, most of their conversations had been texts throughout the day. They probably conversed just as much as they did when he was at home, but it was different not being able to hold her at least for a little while each day. At nights, he spent way too much time tossing and turning in a bed by himself.

  “Fuck,” Curtis yelled as someone knocked on his window.

  He’d just gotten the car started and was about to put it in drive. Since the rest of the team had just gotten home too, he expected to find one of them outside his window. He almost hoped it was someone admitting they were the ones leaving the notes. He wanted a reason to punch something.

  The man with a thick beard wasn’t a teammate. He wasn’t anyone associated with the team. He could’ve been someone from the front office that had just been hired, but there was no reason someone from there, especially a new guy, would be knocking on his window.

  Studying the man, Curtis thought he looked familiar. There was something in his arrogant blue eyes that looked expectantly at him. Curtis had run-ins with plenty of arrogant people who he never actually interacted with, but his head told him he knew the guy for some reason.

  He thought about driving off. All he wanted to do was get home to Hannah, and he could easily finish pulling the shifter back and take off. It would only take a second. Thinking about it took longer than actually doing it.

  The man waved and twirled his hand in a way that Curtis took as asking him to roll down his window. The idea that the man was a threat hadn’t really registered, not when he looked so familiar. He seemed to be about Curtis’ build, maybe not quite as muscular. With nothing in his hands, Curtis wasn’t too worried about him attacking him.

  Taking a deep breath, Curtis hit the button to roll his window down halfway. If the guy wanted to reach in and punch him for some reason, it would limit the range of motion he had. There was no reason for Curtis to feel like the guy would be combatant, he was even smiling, but Curtis projected his own feelings. He wanted to hit the guy for delaying his reunion.

  “You’re Curtis Power, right? I mean, you’re obviously him, but it seems weird not asking first.”

  The question was an easy one, but somehow it seemed loaded. Was the guy a fan or something? Maybe he sat behind the bench and that was why he looked so familiar. Curtis didn’t spend a lot of time studying the fans around him, but his mind had to register them on some level.

  “Yeah. If you’re looking for an autograph, I don’t really have a pen or anything.”

  The guy clearly didn’t have anything he wanted signed, or maybe he did tucked in his pocket, but he wasn’t acting like a fan. He could have assumed Curtis would have something on him. They were always having little events where the players signed player cards and such. Curtis had been a little preoccupied of late, so he hadn’t volunteered for any of the recent events.

  “Oh, no, dude. We went to high school together. I guess we didn’t exactly run in the same crowds, but obviously everyone knows who you are. It’s Paul, Paul Kilmore. Sadly, I was out of town for the reunion a couple months back. I was hoping work would wrap up in Florida, so I could catch up with everyone, but things didn’t work out. Did you go?”

  Curtis studied the guy a little closer. His bleached and spiky hair wasn’t the greased back look he had in high school, and he definitely wasn’t sporting the five o’clock shadow back then, but Curtis could see the resemblance. Paul didn’t seem like he’d been aging great, with defined c
row’s feet causing deep creases around his eyes. Curtis didn’t feel sorry for the guy, only a little surprised the pompous ass hadn’t paid to keep the signs of aging away.

  “Yeah, I was there. Hey, man, it’s nice to run into you and all, but I really don’t have time to catch up. I just got home from being gone a few days and I need to get home.”

  Even if he wasn’t in a rush, sitting around and catching up with a guy he couldn’t stand in high school wasn’t on Curtis’ to-do list. Why Paul Kilmore was hanging out in the parking lot was something Curtis should’ve been more concerned about, he supposed, but the guy wasn’t his concern. Curtis put his foot back on the brake to shift, but Paul’s reply stopped him from leaving.

  “I heard you and Hannah Williams are shacked up together. You’re a lucky guy. She’s always been a fine piece of ass. Maybe a little too uptight, but I’m sure a little alcohol and a good fuck loosens her up.”

  Curtis had tried to keep a somewhat friendly look on his face, especially since he thought the guy was a fan for a minute, but his face morphed into something that rightly made Paul take a step back. The two of them hadn’t spoken a word in years, and even if they had, talking about Hannah that way was uncalled for.

  “I suggest you don’t talk, or even think, about my fiancé if you know what’s good for you. I have somewhere to be, so I suggest you make sure your feet are clear. Better yet, why don’t you stick them under my car so you might actually learn how stupid talking about a guy’s girl like that is.”

  He wouldn’t have minded running over Paul’s toes, and then backing up to run over his full body once he was on the ground. The guy had been an elitist creep in high school and clearly that hadn’t changed. The smile that spread across his face held something sinister, along with the knowledge that he’d riled Curtis up.

  “I’ll try to keep her out of my thoughts, but we did share one magical night together in high school, so it’s going to be a little hard to get those images out of my head. I bet her tits still barely fill a B cup.”