Weak Side : A Fake Dating Hockey Romance (Bexley U)
Weak Side : Chapter 31

It was hard to force the words out while standing there, looking down at her, and for once, it had nothing to do with the way my blood was pumping with desire. The second I admitted to Coach that Claire and I weren’t actually dating, nor was she a distraction, she suddenly seemed fragile. Her chin stayed level, but the color vanished from her flushed cheeks, and I was screaming on the inside for her not to believe what I was saying aloud.

But it was true, right? Our relationship was fake. It was a maneuver of good plays to favor us both in our little game. We had our own reasons, but winning was still the goal.

“Oh.” Coach was beginning to believe me, and I wanted nothing more than for him to get the fuck out of the showers so I could grab Claire by the waist and put the color back on her cheeks. “So, she means nothing to you?”

Well, now wait a minute.

Blood rushed through my ears, and I could no longer feel the water from the shower pelting me. In reality, Claire and I had been standing in the shower for maybe five minutes, but it felt like an eternity had passed while I stood there, stunned by the fact that I couldn’t say yes. Claire Bryant, my roommate and fake girlfriend, definitely meant something to me, but I had no idea what to do with it. I was suddenly four years old again, holding my hockey stick for the first time, unsure of what to do, even though I knew it felt right.

“Wolf?” Coach Lennon barked my nickname, and I quickly answered, blocking out everything I wanted to say to Claire just to get him out of here faster.

“She means nothing! Now can I please shower in peace?! I’ll be on the ice at the start of practice.”

There was this voice of reason in the back of my head that told me not to look down at Claire, but I did anyway, and the moment I did, I regretted it. Hurt.

“Yeah, yeah,” Coach mumbled. “But fair warning, Tom Gardini himself—not his scout—is coming to the game, so make sure to tell your pretend girlfriend to be on your side. You’re smart. Having those puck bunnies around might make you look sleazy, and if there’s one thing I know about Tom, he judges your skill on the ice just as much as your character off of it.”

The door slammed, and Claire jumped in front of me before spinning around and turning the nozzle off. The stream of water that separated us disappeared, and all I heard was her low, desolate departure. “I should go.”

“Claire, wait.” I grabbed her slippery arm and turned her back around. I reached behind her, and the water turned back on. I kicked it up a few temperatures because she had goosebumps over every inch of her skin. “Don’t go.”

“You have practice.” She wouldn’t look at me and was trying her hardest to get her arm out of my grasp. “I’ll get dressed, and when you are all on the ice, I’ll sneak out so your coach doesn’t know I’m here.”

My hand slipped to her elbow when she tried to turn away from me, and I jerked back softly, crowding her space until her back was against the tile and the stream of water was at my back. “Wait,” I rushed.

When her baby blues reached me, I felt them bury themselves in my soul. The soft color of blue was sharpened, and the wall between us was stronger than before. I felt like I’d lost her, and I didn’t even have her yet.

“I didn’t mean it.” I had no control over what was falling from my lips. None at all.

Adrenaline rushed through my veins when her shaky breath hit my chest. Her hand lifted, and she patted the muscle that was beating violently beneath her touch.

“Yes, you did. And that’s because it is the truth,” she countered, smashing her lips together. The wobbling of her chin didn’t go unnoticed, and I panicked to make it right even if I knew that I was going back against everything I thought was sending me down the correct path of my life. But somehow, the NHL didn’t seem all that significant while looking down at the hurt on her face.

“No.” I shook my head.

Claire’s brows lowered, and her eyes grew glossier. “Theo, everything you said was true. We are fake dating, remember? That was your idea to begin with. It just…kinda happened.”

A single tear crept out of the corner of her eye, and although she tried to hide it, I still caught it with the side of my thumb. “Tell me why you’re crying.”

“I’m not crying.”

Both of my hands went to the sides of her face, and I bounced my eyes back and forth between hers. “Tell me right now why you are crying.” I need to hear it. I need to know that she is on the same page as me.

The look of annoyance flashed across her features, but then her vulnerability shone through, and I swore the water cascading down my back turned to ice. “Because your words hurt me, and they shouldn’t have.”

I brought her forehead to mine and peered down into her eyes. I trapped the wet strands of her dark hair in between my fingers as I cupped her face. “I lied.”

Her whisper propelled me to take a step closer, to push our bodies together. “You lied?”

I swallowed the fear that came with telling the truth and basked in feelings I’d never felt before because, to be honest, it was terrifying. For so many years, I’d thought of nothing but hockey and making it to the NHL, but now, with just one wobble of her chin, I’d forgotten all about my dream and was focused on something else entirely. “You mean something to me. I lied so he’d get out of here faster.”

“But—”

My lips grazed hers when I repeated myself. “It’s not fake for me, Claire. I think about you every second of the day. I wonder where you are, what you’re doing, how I can spend more time with you in between your busy schedule and my games…” I gripped her hips, and my knee went in between her slippery legs as my heart began filling with warmth. “And don’t even get me started on seeing you in my jersey.”

I was slapped in the face with what my future could look like the second I felt her slipping from my fingers, and the realization that I’d fallen for my fake girlfriend was humbling, to say the least.

Claire’s mouth opened, but before I devoured it, I silently begged her to say something, anything to give me the green light.

“I’m afraid.” Her mighty chin raised, but her body molded to mine underneath the stream of water, and if I didn’t bury myself inside her in the next few minutes, I’d have one hell of a practice.

“Of me?” I feared, staring down into her eyes.

Her shoulder lifted, and I glanced down at the perfect mounds on her chest. My breath quickened with the sight of her pebbled nipples that were obviously made for my mouth. I was captivated by her mind, heart, and body—and that was new territory for me.

“My mother warned me of guys like my father. Jocks. And even though you’ve proved you’re not what I thought you were, I don’t know if I can take another blow to my heart after Chad.”

I’d never.

“If you give me a piece of your heart, I’ll keep it safe.”

I rubbed my thumb over her plump bottom lip as she contemplated my words. Please. I’d never felt so desperate in my life. I’d never had to work so hard either, and I’d never felt like I had so much at stake. The thought of Claire turning me down and running away while giving into her fear—understandably—was like a bullet headed straight for me.

But to my surprise, her lips were a mere breath from mine, and her leg with the hurt ankle wrapped around my backside. “Don’t make me regret this, Theo.”

“Never,” I said before swiftly taking her mouth with mine and letting the rest of the world disappear. The only thing I could feel was her smooth skin beneath my calloused hands. The only thing I could taste was her pureness and willingness to let me take her under. The only thing I thought of was making this girl mine.

I slowly put her leg down, even though I wanted to do nothing but ram inside of her. I knew we were limited on time, but I didn’t care. “Open your legs,” I demanded, stepping back into the stream of water so I could get a good look at her. Claire did exactly as I told her with her round breasts rising and falling with lack of oxygen from our kiss. A sly grin slipped onto my face as I slipped past her belly button and landed on the spot in between her legs.

“We’re limited on time.” I stalked a step toward her, burning with desire in every part of my body. My dick was harder than it had ever been, and it was painful not to have her on it. “But I’ll be damned if you don’t come more than once.”

Claire’s sweet face morphed into confusion, but when I gripped the inside of her thigh, she gasped and threw her head back against the tiles. I clenched my teeth as I sunk a finger inside and watched in awe as her nipples hardened right in front of me.

“God damn,” I whispered, stealing a kiss from her willing mouth before putting another finger inside.

“Theo.” Claire was quiet but needy. Her hips curved upward, and I watched in awe as her body moved against me, chasing the high and not being shy about it.

“That’s it,” I encouraged. “Let me see you come, Claire.” Her blue eyes flew to mine, but I quickly dipped my head down and took one of her nipples in my mouth, flicking my tongue over the bud. Fire ripped down my spine as I swiped my thumb against her clit, pressing harder the more her hips moved.

“Right ther—” Her moan was louder than it should have been, and I remembered we were in the showers and that the team was going to start getting geared up for practice. I swallowed her echoing whimper, took my fingers out of her pulsing pussy, and hooked her leg over my hip.

“Brace yourself,” I said before slipping inside. There was a crack in the earth, and my heart did a double-take. “Holy shit,” I mumbled, dropping my head to the crook of her neck. My teeth sunk in, and her entire body shook against mine.

“I—” She gasped again as I started to move, and I wanted to stop to hear what she had to say, but I couldn’t. She felt too good, and she pulsed around me so quickly it felt like she was milking me dry. If she kept it up, I was afraid I’d come in ten seconds. “I can’t… Theo. W–wow.”

Claire’s hand flew up to her breast, and she squeezed it just as tightly as her pussy squeezed me, and I pounded in faster and harder at the angle that I knew was getting her twisted. I felt her come around my dick, and the tiles of the showers could have been crumbling around us, and I wouldn’t have stopped plunging inside.

“That’s it,” I coaxed, pushing in deeper. “I could watch you come every second of every day and never get sick of it.”

A whimper flew from her mouth, and I licked it up, plunging my tongue in her mouth to give her a bruising kiss that I’d hope she’d always remember as I quickly pulled out and busted a load on the shower wall, pumping my shaft tightly.

My jaw ached from clenching my teeth, but my entire world seemed to soften after I dropped my hand and looked over at her. The color was back on her cheeks, and there was a brightness around her blue eyes that I was proud of because I knew I’d helped put it there.

“You”—I stepped over to her and pulled her in close with my hands on her lithe waist—“are my weak side, Bryant. Do you hear me?”

She swallowed shyly and stared up at me. “I don’t know what that means.”

I smirked as I reached over and turned the water off. “It means you’re mine.”