Hat Trick (D.C. Stars, #4)

by Chelsea Curto

For the ones who fight even when they want to give up. I’m rooting for you. (And for the readers who love a hockey player that wears slutty glasses… Riley is for you)

If the man next to me doesn’t get his goddamn hands away from my ass, I’m going to break his fingers.

I’m quiet; she’s loud. The life of every party and vivacious as hell with witty comebacks and a laugh that would bring any man to his knees.

And if it were me down there, I’d wear a collar and crawl if she asked me to.

She looks me up and down, and it’s mortifying how hot my skin is. I’m pathetic.

“She wasn’t finished speaking,” Riley says, deathly low. The look in his eye is murderous. A shiver races up my spine when he curls his fingers into a fist. My cheeks turn bright red when he stares at my boss and tilts his head to the side. “And her name is Lexi. L-e-x-i. That’s not difficult, is it? Treat her with respect and get it right, or I’m leaving.”

He really said dont disrespect my women

The romance books I read are right: having a guy turn a little unhinged and defend your honor is sexy as hell.

Women in the past have used all sorts of phrases to describe me: cute. Sexy, but in a nerdy way. Hot as hell when I slide a blindfold over their eyes. The man of their dreams when I kiss their wrists, untying them from the ropes I like to use to keep them still while I eat them out.

There’s nothing I love more than kicking men’s asses and watching them cry. Especially when they think they’re the superior species.

“You were jealous,” I whisper. “Of course I was fucking jealous. He had your attention. And I’m fucking desperate for it.”

She pulls it over her head, revealing a thin black bra strap that shows off her cleavage, and I whine.

No, he doesn’t and this is Piper responding and letting you all know he secretly smiles when he reads the group chat but now I have to hide because he’s throwing me over his shoulder for telling you that and hfsdfuew798ytfu89ji14

He whimpers and brings his fist to his mouth, biting his knuckles. “Hell. You look gorgeous, Lexi.”

I’m fucking ruined. A stronger man would try to put some distance between themselves and her. They’d do everything they could to get her out of their head because they know nothing will ever happen between them—she said so herself—but I’m the weakest, most pathetic motherfucker in existence. I’m not going anywhere.

“My student loans don’t let me be not good at this.”

I wonder if I could get Lexi to crawl to me. She’d probably put up a fight and flat-out refuse in the name of feminism, but I bet I could convince her by crawling to her first. I’m all for an equal power dynamic if it means watching her temporarily hand over control again.

push my breasts together and he whimpers, agony in his eyes when I shake my head.

“What? I can’t touch you?” “Have you been good, Riley? Do you think you deserve to touch me?” “I’ve been very good,” he rasps. “But I can be better. How can I be better?” I remember the conversation we had in his bedroom when I found his ropes. He mentioned he liked being told what to do from time to time, and I wonder how far he’d go to get what he wants. “Crawl,” I say, and he gets on the floor without a second thought. A wince flashes across his mouth, but before I can stop him and tell him to ignore what I just said because it might be painful, he’s moving toward me on his hands and knees, a determined gleam in his eye I’ve never seen from him before. When he’s right in front of me, he stays there, looking up and waiting for my next ask. I smile, smug and bold, and lift his chin with the curve of my finger. “That’s a very good boy, Riley.”

He opens his mouth to try to stammer out a response, but nothing comes except another whimper, louder, more despe...

With every curl of my fingers and every touch to my clit, his whines get more frequent, and I might need to put him out of his misery early.

I took one look at her, and I was done for. I haven’t been able to get her out of my damn head, and I learned a long time ago that as long as we were on the same team, as long as we were in the same zip code and orbiting around each other, I had a shot. And I wasn’t going to blow that shot by going on shitty date after shitty date with someone who wasn’t her.

“This friends with benefits thing has been amazing,” he starts, and I’d be shocked if he couldn’t hear my heart beating right now. “But what I feel for you isn’t strictly physical anymore. It never was, and it was shitty of me to pretend otherwise. I-I want to go out to dinner and hold your hand in public. I want to go to bookstores together so we can argue over which books are best. I want to go to another amusement park and laugh until I cry. I want to take you out on a date—a real date—and I know that word might scare the shit out of you, but we can go slow and do things on your terms, because I’m sick of acting like I’m only interested in hanging out with you if it means I get to fuck you. I want so much more than that, and I think you might too.”

It’s like he’s staring into the depths of my soul, and if any other person on this earth said those things to me, I’d run. I’d be out the door and halfway to my car, but I can’t seem to bring myself to move. I’m rooted here, in a way. Frozen in place while he waits to hear what I have to say with a patient smile and a soft pink blush on his cheeks.

I blink and Lexi is there in a pink sweater and jeans with her long dark hair framing her face, and yeah. I’m so fucking weak. I almost whimper when I see her because she’s so beautiful.

“It’s the stars in the night sky the day I stepped foot into the arena for the first time. And, consequently, the day I met you.”

I whimper when she drags her tongue up to the tip, sucking the digit dry.

“Because I love you,” I tell her, and she freezes. Her shoulders shake, but I keep going. “I love you so much it fucking hurts, and I know that scares the shit out of you. It scares me too, because how can things be this fucking good with you when the rest of my life is in shambles?”

“You want to know why I’ve had all those good days? Because you were there. Because I’ve been an idiotic, pathetic mess of a man since the first day I saw you. I can’t think straight when you’re around. I can’t walk right when you smile at me. I can’t… I can’t fucking breathe unless you’re looking at me. And everything in your past might have fallen apart, but we won’t. We can’t, because deep down, I know you love me too,” I say.

“If you want to run, I’ll chase you. If you want to build a wall to keep me out, I’ll climb it. If you need time, I’ll give it to you. I’m patient, Lexi. I’m going to be waiting for you when you come back. However long that takes.”