Easton must’ve sensed me staring at him. He rolled over onto his side and propped his head up with an elbow. He reached for a lock of my hair with his free hand and turned it around his finger.

His dark eyes settled on mine. Every time he looked at me like that, my body came alive with an intense, driving need I had very little control over. I expected him to pull me into his arms and begin the initial stages of foreplay, followed by passionate fucking. That had been our normal MO for the past couple months.

This time, he surprised me. He appeared to be in a rare introspective mood. Easton was a doer, not a thinker. He lived by actions, not so much by words, while I was a planner and a worrier.

“Caro, I’m leaving in a week.”

There, he’d finally addressed the elephant.

“I know.”

“I’ve never really known what love is, except for the love of my family, but if I could love somebody, it’d be you.”

My heart soared with joy. Even though his hadn’t been an admission of love, I’d take it as such. I was a teenage girl, and I wore my emotions on my sleeve.

“I feel the same way.” I didn’t know what love was either, and I didn’t have the advantage of experiencing the love of a family like he had. In fact, my mother considered me an inconvenience, and my father barely knew I existed.

“I want us to enjoy this last week together and not worry about the future. I know you. You’re already fretting about it.”

I had to smile, and he smiled back, one of his smiles that made me all gooey and giddy inside. That same smile that made me drop my panties every single time he aimed the full force of it at me. This time wasn’t an exception. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other, and in seconds we were naked and fucking each other into mind-blowing orgasms.

The world ceased to exist outside of the two of us and this star-filled night.

Chapter Ten

Not Ready

~~Easton~~

My teammates talked me into going out with them after the game. I wasn’t in the mood to party, but I wasn’t exactly in the mood to sit at home and lick my wounded ego either.

At least we were at a bar with a private back room rather than a loud nightclub. I definitely wasn’t in the mood for clubbing, but a few beers and a pizza wouldn’t be so bad. Beer might dull the ache in my chest at least for a little while, and talking hockey might distract me.

I took a chair at a long table and poured a beer from one of the many pitchers. Teammates drank and laughed around me. Some played pool; others hung in groups with and without their WAGs. Many of us were stag, like me.

Ice tapped Kaden on the shoulder and motioned for him to vacate the chair next to me. “Get your ass out of my chair, rookie.”