Focus

All dressed up and nowhere go. After about two hours of sitting around in a too short skirt and just tight enough top layered over way too expensive lingerie I was beginning to feel like an idiot. My dearest James was supposed to fly home that day after a solid road trip with the Preds. I was supposed to meet him at the airport, with bells on. Well, my bells were on, my hair was looking decent for once, my eyeliner appropriately winged and yet…

I downed the last of the wine as my phone vibrated off the coffeetable. Another text from James. “delayed again, fucking snow, don’t worry about picking me up, go to bed, i’ll be home soon” I sent him a brief reply, sad face emoji included. Yet something about his text hit me a moment later: home. I had been staying at his house while he was away, only because he practically demanded that I do so. And even though I knew it was just temporary, something about that “home” made joy bubble up uncontrollably inside of me. James Neal was coming home. To me.

God, that was ridiculous, I remember thinking. We had only been dating for a few weeks, so I told myself to chill the fuck out. I thought about staying up to wait for him anyway, until I checked the time, just after midnight and I had to work the next day. He was right, I needed to get to bed. I let out a disappointed sigh and forced myself off the couch and up the stairs toward his bedroom. The Neal pups Nixon and Snoop followed close on my heels.

Trying not to be frustrated, I stripped off my outfit, including my red lace bra and thong set that I had bought just for this welcome-home occasion and then scrubbed my face clean of makeup. As per usual, I pulled one of James’ oversized shirts over my naked body and crawled into bed. I barely registered Nixon and Snoop cuddling up behind me before I was fast asleep. Apparently canceled romantic plans and disappointment had a soporific effect on me, and the dogs.

Several hours later I was awoken when the bed dipped from James’ weight as he snuck in under the covers. I sleepily rolled over to face him, rubbing my eyes to clear the fuzz away. “Hey, babe.”

He slipped one arm under my body and pulled me close, while the other brushed my bangs back from my forehead. His voice was hardly louder than a whisper. “Shh, go back to sleep. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Mmm, s’ok. I’m glad you did.” I leaned my face toward his, anticipating the kiss I had been waiting over a week for. Instead, he tilted his own head to avoid my lips.

“No dogs in the bed, huh? ‘I promise they sleep downstairs,’ isn’t that what you told me?”

I saw his smirk in the dark and used both hands to pull his face toward mine. “You’re gonna be mad at me about that? You know I can’t say no to any of the boys in this house.”

He moved closer, but still refused to kiss me. “Just so we’re clear, I knew you were letting them on the bed from the day I left. You’re a shit liar, Syd.”

I threw my leg over his hips and tried to pull his body even closer to mine. He had come to bed naked and his erection, hot and hard, rubbed faintly against my rapidly moistening cunt, making both of us groan. “That’s a good thing though, right? Now you know I could never get away with lying to you about anything.”

“Good point.”

I nodded and once again jutted my chin out, offering up my mouth. “Now stop being mean and kiss me like you missed me.”

After a soft chuckle, he did just that. When he had planted a few chaste kisses on my lips and cheeks, he started again with renewed energy, nipping at my bottom lip until I moaned against his mouth. A hand came to my bare ass poking out under the shirt and kneaded it roughly. His tongue and lips worked with mine until I was wide awake and ravenous for him. Our short panting breaths filled the air despite their hushed tone. His hips jerked forward, rubbing his rock hard cock against my inner thighs.

He paused his ministrations only momentarily to shift on top of me, his strong thighs straddling mine. He moved his mouth to my neck and spoke quietly against my skin. “Spread your legs for me, baby.”

I held back a gasp when he bit down harshly on the soft spot over my collarbone. Still, I felt like I needed to pay him back a little and kept my thighs firmly closed. “First you don’t even wanna kiss me, but now you wanna fuck?”

When he flicked his tongue across my ear, I did gasp. “Don’t be like that. Open up for me. I missed you so goddamn much.” I couldn’t answer as his mouth was back on mine, the kiss now desperate and demanding. And my body responded immediately, my back arching to press my breasts against his chest and legs shifting underneath his to spread wide and cradle his narrow hips.

He moaned in approval and before I could even think straight, he reached down and shoved his cock inside me quickly and roughly, as if waiting just a single second more would have been unbearable, unthinkable even.

At our joining James sighed and my mouth could only open in a silent gaping shape as his thickness stretched me out. When he pulled back and thrust into me more tenderly, I found my voice. “James…yes.”

“Fuck, you feel like heaven, you know that?”

I murmured my agreement absent mindedly and wrapped my arms around his wide shoulders, open-mouth kissing his skin from neck to biceps, loving the taste of him. James found his rhythm and went to work, slotting his body against mine in just the right way so he rubbed against my clit and g-spot on every stroke.

It was perfect, one of those moments that doesn’t last that long and doesn’t impact the reality of your life, but one that stays with you nonetheless. I remember him smiling down at me as he sped up, asking if I was close. I was. I remember my hands on his hips as he snapped them forward, feeling every move he made ripple through the muscles underneath his skin. I remember gasping out his name as I came around him and the feel of him releasing inside me as his eyes closed in pleasure.

Then…well I don’t remember much after that since I was practically weak from the intensity of that long awaited orgasm. I assume he rolled away and pulled me with him, tucking my head under his chin, his chest heaving under my cheek. I must have slept, because eventually I woke again, only this time when I opened my eyes I was alone and the sun was blindingly bright through the window. I checked the clock, not even six a.m. And had I not felt the stickiness between my legs, I would have assumed the fantastic sex had all been a dream born out of missing him.

I stumbled downstairs, drawn by the smell of coffee and the clatter of cookware in the kitchen. I walked in an unfamiliar sight: James Neal using his stove to prepare food. Weeks ago he had promised he was the type to make me pancakes, but I soon learned that was all talk. The man was useless around the house normally, but not this morning, apparently.

He smiled at me over one shoulder as I grabbed a cup to fill with caffeine from the french press on the table. I suppressed a comment on his glasses; he never liked them, but to me he looked ridiculously adorable in them. He told me kindly, “You ruin everything. I was gonna bring you breakfast in bed.”

Good lord, my heart. I set my coffee down and wrapped my arms around him from behind, kissing his back. “Stop fooling around, Neal.”

“No fooling.” He switched off the burner and turned in my arms before cupping my face with both hands. “Although, I won’t object to feeding you at my table, just so long as you’re naked.”

James had pulled on a pair of black boxer briefs before he came down, but apparently I was not afforded the same clothing privileges as him. With a grin, he peeled the shirt off my body and tossed it aside, returning to kiss me with his hands grazing my hips delicately.

I leaned against him and enjoyed the warmth of his bare chest against my own nakedness. Trying to be reasonable I told him, “My breakfast is going to get cold.”

He smacked my bare ass, drawing a high pitched squeal from my lips. “Fine. Sit.”

As James served up eggs over easy, toast, and bacon, I sipped my coffee and just watched him. It was…strange, seeing him be so domesticated. Normally we ordered take out and he could hardly be bothered to throw away the containers more often than once a week. Now, suddenly, he was back from his road trip cooking and making coffee and smiling at me over his paper like me being his naked breakfast guest was business as usual. Add into the fact that if my clothes were off, he was usually right on top of me, without fail. Strange indeed.

Halfway through my plate of food while he was two pages into the sports’ section, I decided to ruin the peaceful, homey bliss we had been enjoying. “What’s up with you, Neal?”

He didn’t look up from his paper. “Huh?”

I playfully slapped the newsprint down on the table. “Breakfast, coffee, me being naked in front of you without your hands all over me. All very suspicious behavior.”

He took a long sip from his own mug of milky coffee before answering, his eyes meeting mine as he did so. “How were the eggs?”

“Perfect. Don’t change the subject.”

“Can’t I just be nice and make my beautiful woman some breakfast?”

“Well, yeah, sure, but you have admit, this isn’t exactly par for the course.”

He shifted to the side of the round table and pulled my chair toward his. “I just missed you, baby. Wanted to say thanks, for watching the dogs…and for being here when I got back.”

Well, shit. There I was trying to be rational and he had to get all sweet on me. Since we were already so close it was easy for me jump up and straddle him in his chair. Predictably, his hands went right to my ass as I hooked my arms around his neck. “I think I like you all nice and appreciative.” He smiled and moved to kiss me. I pulled back. “But, I’m still not buying it. I might be a terrible liar, but you’re more than transparent at times. You’ve been eyeing me up since you got me naked down here. The James Neal I know would have fucked me on the table by now.”

One of his lush brows raised in amusement. “You trying to say you want me to ruin your breakfast and fuck you on this table, Syd?”

Lord, I really did, but I wanted answers more. “Later, now I want an explanation as to why you feel the need to act like a gentleman when you know damn well I like it when you’re bad.”

He didn’t answer right away, but instead seemed to become transfixed with my eyes, staring at me hard and debating internally. Finally he said, “Don’t be mad.”

“Oh, God, here we go. What am I not supposed to be mad about?”

“I kind of mentioned you, well, us, to some of the guys.”

“Excuse me?”

“Not details, but they’re guys, you know they got the point.”

I was torn between amusement and annoyance. What the hell did he say about me to them? About us? Like I needed to imagine an entire hockey team discussing my…well anything, really. “Ok…that’s…whatever. What does this have to do with breakfast and you trying to keep your hands off me?”

“Honestly?”

“Well, I don’t want lies, James.”

“Alright, sassy pants.” He looked down, surprisingly, not at my exposed breasts. When he met my gaze again he was stoic. “I told Shea how I felt about you and asked how we could…how I could…you know…”

My heart was pounding; what the hell was he trying to say? “Spit it out, Neal.”

“I’m just trying to say that I want things to be…serious with us, Syd. Not just fucking all the time. I like you a lot and I don’t wanna lose you because I’m gone so much. But at the same time, that’s my life, I don’t have a choice. But I also want you to know that I’m here, for you, for this…for us. Even when I’m away, I need you to know that I’m gonna be here, with you.”

I just kissed him; there was really nothing else I could do. How else do you respond when a man like James says he wants to get serious? God, it was glorious to hear him say that, just what I wanted from the man I wanted more than anything. I knew I surprised him by not answering and he didn’t accept my non-verbal response for very long. He broke away, but kept my face close to his with a hand on the back of my neck. “Nothing to add?”

I felt like I should say something romantic, but that’s not really my style and I think James knew that about me already. Don’t get me wrong, I was crazy about him, but I’m also the sort of woman who uses sarcasm and jokes to mask emotions. So, instead of telling him that I think the sun shines out of his ass and that being with him makes me smile so hard my face hurts and that he’s pretty much the light of my life, I just said, “Well, number one, if you wanna get serious with a girl you should tell her first, not the captain of your hockey team. It’s only polite.”

“I’ll give you that much. Anything else?”

“Yeah, did Shea tell you to make me breakfast and not manhandle me every chance you got?”

James shifted me momentarily to get comfortable and laughed. “Sort of. He said I should find ways to please you that don’t involve making you come. And I know how much you enjoy a good meal.”

Damn, he was good. “Alright, well that brings me to my third and final point.” I climbed off of him and cleared the dishes to the sink before I sat down on the table in front of him, my legs spread wide, pussy bared to him, my feet resting on his thighs. “Number three, James, I’m more than happy to receive your affection in the form of sex.” With a smirk, James brought his mouth to my inner knee and grazed his bearded face along my inner thigh, his hands stroked my outer thighs before settling on my hips.

When he was close to my cunt, I tugged at his hair so he would meet my eyes. I leaned down and kissed him gently. “Listen, I’m not good with this kind of stuff, but I wanna do this, be serious with you. But I want YOU, not some cleaned up version that your freaking hockey buddies tell you I’ll like. Make me breakfast, fine, but then bend me over the kitchen counter and fuck me until I’m screaming. I want your passion, God, more than anything, that’s what I like about you, James, about us. Your hands constantly on my ass, your dick pics and dirty talk. We can be serious about each other, but that doesn’t mean we have to act serious, you feel me?”

He nodded and then returned his mouth to my body, licking up my cunt as I threaded my fingers in his thick locks. I let out a whimper when his tongue met my clit, but my bliss was cut short. Grabbing my hips he yanked me closer to him, my ass half way off the edge of the table; I laid down flat on my back to better accommodate the position. “I like that idea of us, Syd. So, let’s start now. Serious romance, nasty sex. Tell me something you like about me.”

No hard task. “Your smile.” He used two fingers to spread my labias and his mouth came to my cunt as he swirled his tongue around my clit, just once. I let out a frustrated moan when he pulled away again.

His voice was breathy, as if I was the one torturing him. “Something else.”

I thought back to the first BJ I gave him in his car and I figured this was his way to pay me back. I didn’t mind at all. “Those damn eyes of yours that pierce my fucking soul.” I was reward with a grunt and another brief swipe over my clit by his tongue. “Your kindness, your patience.” Two more passes of his tongue. “Ugh, God, your cock, so perfect.” I heard him chuckle and felt two fingers slip inside me, but remain still.

I paused to breathe, just enjoying his fingers on my g-spot and the anticipation of his mouth coming back on my clit. His voice was teasing. “That’s it? Come on, Syd, what else?”

There were a million things, but it’s hard to think straight with a man’s head between your thighs. I remembered then what I liked about watching him play. “Your fights, your hard checks, especially against the Flyers.”

“Fuck ‘em, right?”

“Yeah, fuck the Flyers. Mmm, ugh, James!” He had made three long passes with his tongue, dragging it from my entrance to my clit before he pulled away again.

“Give me more, I’ll give you more.”

“Your semi-drunken kisses, sloppy, but so cute, you feeding me Chinese take out noodles in bed, your laugh, your dogs, the way you skate with the wind in your hair…fuck, yes.” His fingers were thrusting shallowly in my pussy as his lips wrapped around my clit, pulling at it. I kept going and so did he. “Lavender detergent and your obsession with clean sheets. Late nights watching sports and yelling at the TV. That nasty smirk you give me, your library, your bad jokes, the way you let me beat you at board games.”

James stopped to laugh at my last point, but didn’t deny it. I was so close though, I couldn’t afford for him to pause. My hips thrust forward, instinctually searching for his mouth. “Please don’t stop. Please, James. The way you give so much of yourself to others…yes. How you don’t pry into my past. The way you listen, how much you care that I’m happy…just, God, yes! Yes!”

I shuddered and came against his mouth as he licked me through it. His grip on my thighs was like a vice and falling apart under his control felt so damn good. I laid there, sated and blissed out, until I felt him lean over me and press his mouth, pungent with my arousal, against mine.

“Thank you for all of that. And you taste even better than I remembered.”

“Mmm, you’re not wrong, Neal.” I ran my tongue across his soaked and stubbled jaw line to prove my sincerity. He had both hands flat on the table and I gently stroked his arms before reaching between us to palm his cock over his boxer briefs. “Let’s take care of this, shall we? Cause I gotta get to work and I’d hate to leave you in need.”

At the feel of my hand on his cock, James bit his bottom lip and met my gaze. “Call in. Spend the day with me. I don’t even have a practice so you’ll have me all to yourself.”

What a tempting thought. Unfortunately, I was not a professional athlete and I really needed the money my shit job provided. “I can’t, babe. I don’t have any vacation time yet.”

He gave me a childish grin. “If that’s the only problem, I’ll pay you your missed wages.”

I stared at him, incredulous. “Oh, I see we’re back to me being a hooker again, huh?”

He huffed out a laugh. “Not like that. I just mean I’d help you out. If you needed it.”

I frowned deeply. “I don’t want your money, James.”

His smile, on the other hand, never faltered. “I know you don’t, that’s why I’m offering it you. I’ve got plenty of it, but I can never have enough time with you.”

Good Lord Almighty. “Fucking hell, James, you weren’t joking about being serious, were you?”

“Mmm-hmm. You gonna call in?”

I thought about it for a second. “Fine, but I don’t want your money. I want you to tell me why you like me so much. I gave you plenty of reasons just now, all I want from you is one.”

Before responding, he cradled my face with one hand and ran his thumb along my cheek. “Because when I look at you, I know that you’re just seeing me, just James, not the Real Deal. That means everything, Syd. You don’t give a shit about number eighteen, you don’t care about the money. And that’s why I like you. Because you’re immune to all the bullshit that comes with this life, you’re just incredible. And you also love my dogs, which is very important.”

I laughed because otherwise I was probably going to cry. Damn him for being so sweet. “Good enough. Now, are you gonna fuck me on the table already, or what?”

Wordlessly, with a grin, he pushed off the table and lost his underwear. When he leaned back over me, he grabbed both my hands and stretched them above my head, curling my fingers over the far edge of the table, lengthening my body and laying me bare to his touch. He pressed the head of his cock against my entrance and surged forward, stealing my breath. He told me, “I won’t make you beg, but you better be screaming my name by the time I’m done.”

I was about to start screaming from the moment he reared back and pressed back into me, shoving the table across the floor as he went. Instead, I just taunted him. “That’s up to you. You better fuck me so good that I don’t have a choice whether I scream or not.”

His chuckling was drowned out by my moans and the squeak of the wooden table under my ass and the grating scraping sound of the table legs against the linoleum floor. “Forgot to mention, I also like the fucking sass that comes out of your mouth.”

When he kissed me, I brought my hands down to stroke the back of his head, but he quickly moved them back into place. He fucked me good on that table, moving his mouth from my lips to breasts, biting harshly on my nipples and then laving at them gently. His mouth on my skin, his cock relentlessly working against my g-spot, not being restrained, but still denied the right to touch him, the combination of mental and physical stimulation set my body on fire and soon I bent my knees, to take him deeper, to feel his pelvis rub against my clit.

He lived up to his end of the bargain and I lived up to mine: he fucked me until I couldn’t see straight and I came, twice, screaming his name.

Notes