Crew (Hockey Royalty #3)

12. Liv

Chapter 12

Liv

M y eyes flutter open and for a hot second, I have no idea where the hell I am. No clue what day it is let alone what time or what country I'm in. I do know I've been sleeping like I was in a coma. I rub my eyes and turn over and that's when I feel the sensation between my legs—a small, satisfying ache—and the memories of what is now the best birthday ever come wafting back. I smile and reach for Crew. But I find nothing but cool empty sheets.

I sit up. He isn’t in the bedroom at all. The door is closed. The room is dark and quiet, the curtains billowing thanks to the open window. The patio below is quiet, meaning the restaurant has closed. It’s late. I’m alone. He did not just leave me here, did he? I feel a pinch of rejection squeeze my heart.

It's not rejection, Liv, I scold myself. He owes you nothing. He's not your boyfriend. He's a one-night stand… two-night stand. He did what he came for. Served his purpose. Don't make this something it's not.

But then I hear a noise. Water running. I climb out of bed. I'm still naked and the last thing I want to do is put on that tight dress. So I grab the short-sleeved waffle shirt Crew had on when I got here. I slip it over my head. The hem hits me mid-thigh and it's loose and smells like him, all musky and sweet.

I open the door and step into the hall. There’s light coming from the bathroom. I walk over there and am greeted by Crew’s naked back. That butt is even more impressive bare and illuminated. Round and firm and I just want to bite it. Is that weird? It must be.

“Hey,” he says and smiles, turning to face me not at all concerned about his nudity. God, I am such a prude. I could never walk around naked in front of someone like that. Although, my eyes slide down his body. I know everyone says women are the pretty ones naked, but Crew Westwood is the exception to that rule. “I thought we shouldn’t leave without enjoying the tub you almost had an orgasm over.”

I laugh and he moves to the side and throws out his arm in a flourish. The tub is almost filled with water warm enough to be letting off steam. Flowers are floating in it. Daisies and what might be lavender twigs?

“I doubt there’s a flower shop open at four in the morning, and I didn’t want to risk you waking up and thinking I’d left you here,” he says and shrugs. “So I desecrated one of the bouquets in the living room.”

I laugh. “They might charge you for that.”

He shrugs again. “I don’t know if you realize this, but hockey players make stupid amounts of money.”

I feign a look of shock and he winks. I walk farther into the bathroom, the tiny black and white tiles cool under my bare feet. I lean forward and let my fingers skim the water. Crew stands behind me and his hands wrap around my waist lazily. “You have a habit of stealing my clothes. Word of warning, you can’t bring this one home. I can’t be seen walking out of here in your little red dress. This isn’t Vegas. People will talk.”

I laugh and turn so we’re facing each other. “That reminds me, I owe you that shirt back.”

“And I owe you a hoodie.”

My eyebrows shoot up. "You have my hoodie? I thought I had left it in the hotel suite. I actually called them asking if they had it."

“I needed to wear something,” Crew explains. Then his fingers move to the hem of this shirt and he lifts it over my head. I fight a blush as my naked body is revealed to him. “In the tub, Fireball. And leave space for me.”

“What?” I look at the tub. “It’s not big enough.”

“It may take some creative positioning, but we can make it work.” Crew sounds way more confident than I feel as I step into the tub.

I slip down into the water quickly so I can hide myself. Crew notices, I can tell by the slightly bemused look on his face. He walks to the other end of the tub and hauls one of the tree trunks he calls legs over the side. The water inches higher. I tuck my legs up, hugging them to my chest. By the time Crew has lowered himself into the tub completely some of the water has sloshed over the edge.

His legs slide down each side and he leans forward and kisses my hands on my knees, which are poking out of the water. “Put your legs down the middle. Just watch the family jewels.”

I giggle and do as I’m told. He takes my ankles and props each of them up on his hips and then we both lean back on our respective ends of the tub. Our eyes lock and he smiles. “First bath with someone?”

“Yeah.”

“I like being your first, Olivia.”

“I have to say you’re pretty good at it.” I grin. “I’m not regretting my pick.”

His fingers dance over my ankle bone, deliciously tickling me. "Can I ask why you picked me? I mean other than the obvious that I’m a sex god and all.”

I laugh, and he pretends to look offended. “I think it was just dumb luck. I mean I was hellbent on losing my virginity on the trip. It’s the only reason I went.”

"Why? I don't judge you for holding onto it or letting it go, but I have to wonder why you didn’t have sex for so long and then suddenly wanted to give it up to anyone,” Crew says. He looks curious and also slightly worried, like he doesn’t want to offend me.

I shrug. I wish I could tell him the entire truth but I don’t want to ruin last night and I think if I tell him about the attack, he’ll get all sad or angry or sympathetic and it will ruin everything. So I skirt around the catalyst.

“I wasn’t holding onto it for religious reasons or even moral ones.” My fingers glide through the water and I pick up a daisy head and pluck off one of the petals. “My mother is a very sexually liberated woman. She has never made the issue taboo. She gave Conner condoms in his Christmas stocking when he was fourteen and offered birth control to both my sister Mae and me at the same age.”

I pluck another petal and watch it drop into the water. “Is this a case of being contrary for the sake of being contrary? Like when I announced I was quitting hockey to become a lifeguard when I was sixteen?” I look into his hazel eyes, which have an amused shimmer, so I don’t know if he’s joking or telling the truth. He nods. “No lie, I quit hockey, took the lifeguard test, and got a job at our local beach in Nova Scotia.”

“You were going to give it all up, your family’s legacy, and ignore your talent and become… a lifeguard?” I am trying so hard not to laugh that tears blur my vision.

He laughs for me. “I may have gotten the idea after watching Zac Efron in the Baywatch movie.”

Now there’s no holding back my laughter. “Oh my God, that movie was so cheesy!”

"It was, but Efron was hot and made the job look sexy," Crew explains. I like the way he can admit another guy is hot. Some guys are too full of homophobia to do that. "Also my dad spent our whole lives telling Nash and me we didn't have to play hockey. That he wouldn't be disappointed and I guess I just wanted to test that.”

“And…”

“My dad didn’t complain or say a word,” Crew replies with a whimsical smile that says he’s thinking back fondly on the memory. “He would even come to the beach to watch me work. My brother on the other hand was furious and didn’t talk to me the entire summer, but joke’s on Nash, that just made me happier that I did it.”

"So what happened? Why are you now a Stanley Cup-winning hockey player and not a beach god?"

“I missed it. It felt like I was missing a limb all summer long,” Crew confesses. “And I was the worst at remembering sunblock, I spent the entire summer various shades of pink with screaming sore skin.”

I laugh, plucking the last of the petals and flicking it off my finger into the water. He nudges the outside of my hip with one of his feet. “Sorry to interrupt, let’s get back to you and your hymen.”

I laugh. “I broke that years ago with a vibrator. On purpose. I didn’t want to ruin my first time with a guy with pain and blood.”

He looks shocked. “Wow.”

“But to answer your other questions, no I wasn’t just trying to be the opposite of my mom, or contrary, or whatever. I was… I am a romantic. I wanted some big, epic romance with someone I was madly in love with," I explain and feel so silly opening up like this, naked in a bathtub with a one-night stand. "I wanted it to be with someone I trusted and loved and thought of as my best friend but also couldn't keep my hands off of."

“And you never found that?” He sounds shocked.

“No. I didn’t.” I sigh and focus on a sprig of lavender as it floats towards Crew’s chest. “I guess maybe I had all of that, to varying degrees, with my last boyfriend but I just didn’t want to pull the trigger. Because at this point, it had become a thing. Like this entity unto itself. A member of the family. There was Liv and Liv’s Virginity. Everyone knew about it and made a big deal about it so I felt like everyone would know about losing it and make a big deal about that. And I liked my last boyfriend. I even kind of loved him but I didn’t feel like he was worthy of being the big deal.”

He's watching me serenely, but I so badly want to know what he's thinking. I feel ridiculously self-conscious having divulged that. I've never explained myself to anyone. Not even Tenley or Harlow or my sister who, unlike me, is not a virgin. Oh wait… I'm not either. "Anyway, I realized right before the Vegas thing, that holding onto it made it an even bigger thing and that a one-night stand was the perfect way to just be done with it. That way it was all on my terms, and no one would have to know. The guy wouldn't stick around and so if it went badly or whatever, I would never have to see him again.”

“And yet here we are,” Crew says with a wink.

"Well, it didn't go badly."

“I’d say it went great.” Crew ventures his hands up my calves. “I delivered on my promise in there.”

He tips his head back toward the bedroom. I bite my lip and stifle a nervous giggle. “You did. Thank you.”

“It was truly my pleasure, Fireball.” He grips my calves and starts pulling me toward him. He leans in and our lips meet. The kiss is lazy but turns up the temperature in this bathtub.

“Have you ever had sex in a bathtub?” I ask him.

“Yeah. It can be a logistical nightmare. As a lifeguard I don’t recommend it,” he says and it makes me laugh. His eyes slide left toward the freestanding Italian-style shower against the far wall. “Now shower sex… that is something I would give a five-star rating.”

“I’ve never…” He smiles. I blush. “Wanna be my first at that too?”

“I will never say no to being your first at anything, Olivia.” Crew leans in and captures my mouth in a searing kiss. “Lucky for you I brought more than one condom.”

And then he stands up and pulls me out of the tub and into the shower.