Surprise for the Sniper (Connecticut Comets Hockey, #2)

by Siena Trap

“No. I won’t take it back, not even if you’re leaving. It’s how I feel, and I wanted you to know. If I never see you again, please know that I loved you once. That what we had was real, for whatever short a time. Remember that, no matter what, everything I’ve ever done was out of love. For you.”

It’s been a long time. Wha-what are you doing here?” Eyes narrowed, the hard look on his face had me taking a step back. Benji’s voice was low and lethal as he replied, “Do you know how embarrassing it is when you find out the kid you’re about to offer a full-ride hockey scholarship is your own fucking son?”

Leaving her behind was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do. If I’d have known I was leaving the both of them . . . She was right. I wouldn’t have gone. Liv gave me two gifts that night—my son and my career—and I’d been blind to it all. I owed this woman my life.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been jealous of an eight-year-old before. How do I work out a shower with Mom?”

Arms banded around my waist, his grip tightening on my body. “Do you know why I brought you to the City That Never Sleeps?” Feeling his strength surround me, I was at a loss for words, so he continued, “Because thoughts of you are keeping me awake, pretty girl. And I’ll be kicking myself for the rest of my life for not coming back to get you sooner.”

“Nothing about this will be like it was before. That fumbling virgin is long gone, sweet Liv. It’s time you forget about him because I’m about to fuck you like a grown-ass man.”

“Liv, you stole my heart at seventeen, and I don’t think you ever gave it back. That’s why everything has been meaningless since I left you behind. You kept my heart safe, patiently waiting for me to return and retrieve it. To remember where I belong, by your side.”

“Do you think I ever stopped loving you? Why do you think there’s been no one else? Because my naïve heart thought that maybe someday you’d come back. Even as the years passed and the nights grew colder, I held out hope.”