Pucked (26 page)

He sucks in a sharp breath.

“
I’m so close. Don’t stop.” I’m not talking to my own hand; I’m talking to Alex and his dirty mouth. It’s the driving force behind my impending orgasm.

I moan his name and some profanity as heat funnels into the center of my body. The phone falls from my ear as the orgasm hits. It’s like dropping a Mentos into a bottle of soda.

Alex’s voice is soft and distant while he croons from halfway under my pillow. “That’s it, let me hear you come. God, I wish I was inside you . . . ah shit, I’m gonna—”

I scramble for the phone. There’s no way I’m going to miss this. Alex rasps my name in the sexiest way imaginable. I close my eyes and envision him naked—fisting his cock, coming on his perfect abs.

I give him a moment to catch his breath before I attempt conversation. It’s a lame one. “Sooo . . .”

“
God that was hot. What are you wearing? I pictured you topless in boxers.”

“
You got the bottom half mostly right. I’m wearing a tank top. It’s white, so you’d be able to see my nipples through it if you were here.” I find it interesting Alex asks about my apparel after the phone sex.

“
Will you take a picture and send it to me?”

“
What if you lost your phone and it got leaked on the Internet?” I also look terrible in most pictures, especially selfies.

“
Hm. Good point. I don’t want anyone else to see you naked. Or partially naked. I can wait if I have to. So you’ll come to Toronto? I’ll have the ticket sent to you tomorrow.”

“
Let me check with my boss first. Give me until tomorrow night to see if I can work something out. If Sidney and my mom want to go, he’ll cover the cost so you don’t have to.”

“
I want to buy the ticket.”

I’m worried about Buck’s reaction. I don’t care what he thinks, but Alex has to play with him for the rest of the season. If things don’t work out between us, it could mess up his game. I can’t imagine Buck being all buddy-buddy with Alex if he finds out he’s sticking his monster cock in my beaver den.

“
When you make the playoffs, you can fly me out to one of those games.” Those are a long way off. Who knows what will be happening between us then?

“
You’ll let me do that?”

“
Yeah.”

“
You’ll stay with me in Toronto even if you fly out with your family this weekend?”

“
Definitely.” I stifle a yawn.

“
Okay. I should probably let you go; it’s late there, isn’t it?”

“
It is.
But middle of the night phone booty was worth being woken up for.”

“
I’ll talk to you tomorrow, sexy girl.” His voice is soft, like feathers drifting over my skin.

“
Night, Alex.”

“
Night, baby.”

VIOLET

The next evening, Charlene hangs out at my place. I have a plan to get Sidney to take us to the game in Toronto, and Charlene is part of the persuasion package.

I prepare for martini happy hour and wait for my mother’s arrival. The drinks are necessary. She’s a cyclone you don’t want to get caught up in, especially with Charlene around to feed her hyperactivity. I didn’t get my energy level from my mom.

Martini in hand, Charlene follows me into my bedroom while I search my drawers for something comfortable to wear. I need to do laundry. All my favorite Marvel Comic boxer briefs are dirty. I settle on leggings and a T-shirt.

“
What’s this?” Charlene asks.

I turn, prepared to issue a snide comment, until I see she’s holding the Waters beaver. My fingers twitch with the urge to rip it from her hands.

“
It’s a stuffed animal.” I pick up my phone from my dresser and scroll through my messages to avoid eye contact.

“
I see that. Where’d you get it?” Charlene flips it over, inspecting the back of its mini jersey.

“
Alex sent it to me.” My skin gets hot. I bet I’m blotchy.

“
Oh, Violet.” Charlene nuzzles the beaver, rubbing her nose on top of its head. “Do you sleep with his beaver?”

She’s mocking me, and I don’t appreciate it. Plus she’s touching
my
Waters beaver. I’m a tad territorial about my presents from Alex. I don’t let anyone else near the books he’s sent me. I also hid the box of Godiva from my mom to avoid sharing.

“
You can’t tell me that if you had a full-body pillow in the likeness of Darren Westinghouse, you wouldn’t hump it before bed every night.”

Charlene drops the beaver on my bed and wipes her hands on her pants. “You’re disgusting.”

“
I don’t hump his beaver. I was making a point, you pervert.”

“
Oh. Right. Do you think I can get a full-body pillow of Darren?”

“
I’m sure you could have one made.”

I pick up the beaver and cuddle him furtively—or not so furtively—before I set him back on the bed, pet his little head, and stroke his cute buck teeth.

“
So what’s going on? You’re like a crack addict on a sugar high right now.”

I’m fidgety and bouncy, which are telltale signs something’s going down. “I have a plan for—” I’m interrupted by a knock at the door.

My flower delivery guy is holding a huge bouquet of flowers with a Canadian flag perched between white and red carnations, white lilies, and a bunch of other flowers conforming to the same color scheme. The theme is strictly Canadian. Charlene is right on my heels, looking over my shoulder.

“
Hi, Fred.”

“
How’s it going, Violet?” He seems nervous. I can’t blame him. The last time he was here, I was pissed off and took it out on the flowers. I also made mention of hockey whores and hookers.

“
I’m good. Sorry about last week.” I take the flowers. Charlene is practically piggybacking me to get a look at them. “This is my friend Charlene.”

“
Hi.” Charlene waves.

“
Hey.” Fred waves back and gestures to the flowers. “I guess you made up?”

“
We did.”

Fred nods and looks down at his feet. This is weird.

“
Well, thanks for bringing the flowers. Have a good night.” I send him on his morose way.

“
I bet Alex would be pissed if he found out the guy who delivers his flowers has a crush on you.”

I put the new bouquet in a vase. “Fred doesn’t have a crush on me.”

Charlene snorts but doesn’t comment further. “Hey, there’s something else here.”

A small box sits in the middle of the bouquet. I open the card first.

I can’t wait to show you around my hometown
.

~xo Alex

Charlene grabs the card out of my hand. “What’s this? His hometown? “xo”? Oh my God! What’s going on?”

“
Alex wants me to come to his game in Toronto.”

“
And?”

“
And spend the weekend with him in Guelph.”

“
Bless you.” Charlene hands me a tissue. “So where are you spending the weekend? You’ve already said yes, right?”

“
Guelph and no.”

Charlene plucks another tissue from the box.

“
I’m not sneezing. Guelph is the name of his hometown, you asshole. I needed to make sure I could get the time off work first before I said yes.” I cleared it with the boss this morning. I told him it would be good for networking. It’s not a total lie.

“
This is huge. I can’t believe he invited you to his hometown. Does that mean you’ll meet his family? You have to go to this game.”

“
If we can convince my mom we need to go to Toronto, she’ll pester Sidney until he agrees, and he’ll get the tickets. The Hawks are doing really well. He’ll want to support Buck.”

“
Smart thinking.”

I hand a martini glass to Charlene. “Right?”

Having Alex buy the ticket for me is far too extravagant for a second date. If my parents go, it solves all the issues. I’ll still feel a little guilty about it, but I’ll survive.

The other part of my plan is to convince Charlene to come, too. I’ll need her moral support at the game. It’s a lot to ask since I’m not sure I can get Sidney to spring for her plane ticket as well. “Will you come?”

“
Are you kidding?”

“
Sidney can probably get an extra ticket to the game and the hotel will be covered.”

Charlene immediately starts searching for last minute flights on her phone. “And I’ll get to meet Darren in person, what could possibly be better?”

I clink my martini glass against Charlene’s. I’ve got her on my side. All I need is to convince my mom and it’s a go.

The deep rumble of my mother’s Mustang and the heavy dance beats signal her arrival at the end of drink number two. As usual, she doesn’t knock. “Is that Char’s car in the driveway?”

“
Hi!” Charlene puts down the shaker to accept my mom’s overzealous embrace.

“
You look great!” Mom kicks off her shoes and wanders into the kitchen. “Is that a martini? What kind is it? You girls don’t mind if I join you for a drink, do you? Sidney’s got a conference call in an hour, and I’m not in the mood for a quickie.”

I pretend I don’t hear the last part and help Char make her a drink.

“
Oh, new flowers!” She
waves her hands in the air like she’s ready to break into a dance routine. She sniffs the blossoms. “These are beautiful! What’s this?” She picks up the small box on the counter.

I completely forgot about it, having gotten caught up in explaining the situation to Charlene.

“
I’m not sure.” I’m hopeful it’s nothing inappropriate or my mom is likely to overshare her own personal experiences.

She thrusts the package at me. “Well, open it.”

I take it with some reluctance, praying it’s not porn related.

I tear away the red and white paper to uncover a box of maple leaf shaped candies. Huh. This is far from offensive. I’ve grown accustomed to Alex’s mildly inappropriate gifts, cards, and emails.

I pop one into my mouth. It dissolves the moment it hits my tongue. Oh God, it’s heavenly. It’s like . . . maple sugar. Soooooo good. I do the contented moan thing. I don’t want to share them because I’m greedy, but I feel bad moaning my food pleasure while they stare.

“
Want one?” I grudgingly ask with a mouthful of melting maple sugar.

They make the same noise I did. Now I get why they were staring. They sound like they’re on the brink of a sugar orgasm.

“
Can you get these outside of Canada?” Charlene asks with a knowing look. “I’d go to Canada just to get something like this.” She plucks another one from the box.

How much less subtle can you get?

“
I don’t know.” My mom takes another one, too.

It’s a small box. I don’t want to continue to share, especially if you can only get them in Canada where maple trees abound. I guess I could ask Alex to get me more. Knowing him, he’ll send me a year’s supply. Not that I’d complain.

“
You should ask Alex.” She goes in for a third.

“
Hey.” I smack her hand, gathering the half-empty box close to my chest.

“
Aren’t they playing in Toronto this weekend?” Charlene gives me the perfect segue.

“
Oh!” My mom gets all excited and bounces up and down.
Hint dropped
. “We should go! Can you get Friday off, Violet? I’m sure Sidney will be all for going. Any excuse is a good one to go see Buck play!”

I’m shocked at how easy this is. I fully expected Charlene and I to have to work for a minimum of ten minutes to get to this point. Instead it takes one question. Some of the credit should go to the maple sugar candies.

“
What about you, Charlene? Would you like to take a trip to Canada with us? Maybe we can find you a hottie hockey player, too! This is going to be so much fun!” She claps her hands together and bounces some more. “I’ve only been to Canada once. We should get as much of that maple stuff as we can.”

My mom takes out her cell phone and starts texting away. Her texting skills are terrible. She’s forever shortening words you can’t shorten.

Her phone pings. “I’ll chat with Sidney and report back!” She gulps the rest of her martini, hops around as she puts on her shoes, and disappears out the door.

Twenty minutes later I get a text from my mom confirming that we’re indeed going to Toronto. I have some idea as to how she managed to make it happen so fast.