It’s Mother-Pucking Christmas!

23. Dakota

23

DAKOTA

T he puck went in the net again. The crowd groaned while we all cheered.

“Oh, this is a slaughter!” Nate said cheerfully.

“I’ve never seen a game like it,” my dad crowed.

Several of my uncles had had enough beer that their masks were off, and they were giddy watching the game.

Ryder was a machine, no, a high-precision missile.

“Goal!”

“Holy shit!” My family and I all jumped up out of our seats.

“Is this normal?” Gracie asked as she stuffed one of the pugs into his half-done sweater to measure.

“That’s too small for him. You always make them too small,” I said, eyes glued to the ice. To Ryder.

Gracie tsked. “He gained weight.”

“I think you need to just take another knitting class. It looks like it’s narrowing.” I measured the sweater with my fingers.

“Oh, did he score again? Shoot.”

The camera zoomed in on Ryder, grinning as the goal count appeared above his head on the large monitor.

“Look at that smile!” Gracie grabbed me, sending one of the pugs sliding off her lap.

Ryder was gazing up at me. The camera zoomed in on his face, brilliantly handsome. I waved to him, and the smile broadened.

“That man is in love with you. You’re in trouble, Dakota!” Gracie teased. “I predict that I’m going to be knitting baby outfits this time next season!”

“Just because you’re trying to dump those tiny sweaters off on someone doesn’t mean I’m going to be pregnant,” I grumbled.

“Someone needs a snack,” Gracie singsonged.

“I don’t want those hot dogs my mom smuggled in.”

“I’m sure they’re fine.”

Gracie handed me the pugs so she could rummage for food. I turned back to the game and Ryder.

“Dakota, what the hell?” A skinny man in an Icebreakers jersey and a mask crouched in the seat next to me. The mask lifted up.

“What do you want, Timmy?”

“You were supposed to make him suck,” Timmy hissed as Ryder did some hockey jujitsu, faked out three defenders and the goalie, and slapped the puck in the net before anyone could even register what had happened.

“Uh… goal!” the announcer said, slow on the uptake.

Several rows away the talent scouts were nodding appreciatively and making notes as Ryder skated away, fluid like he was flying, like he hadn’t been going ninety miles an hour for the last forty-five minutes.

The Frosthawks looked exhausted.

Ryder looked like he could go all night.

“You screwed up, Dakota. He’s never played better in his life. This was not what you were supposed to do!” my brother hissed. “They’re supposed to lose. The Icebreakers are up twelve goals.”

“The Frosthawks are supposed to be the feeder team for Boston. They’re playing like the Ice Spirits. This is embarrassing,” the announcer said into the speaker. “It’s like peewee hockey out there… Oh! O’Connell scores again!”

“Dayum, son,” my cousin exclaimed a few rows away.

“What’s he on?”

The final buzzer sounded.

Timmy groaned. “I lost so much money.”

“Are they taking toes yet?” I asked him, standing up to watch the Icebreakers celebrate their insane win.

“I saw the writing on the wall and took out another bet,” he said miserably. “But, Dakota,” he said, begging, “Ryder has to lose the next game against the Arctic Avengers. He has to. I’m, like, eighty thousand deep. I’m your little brother. Please! ”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, following the crush of people down to the rink.

Ryder was at the edge of the ice, cameras in his face.

“How did you do it?” One sportscaster was gushing. “That was amazing.”

“Historic!”

“Did you make a deal with the devil?”

“No, ma’am,” Ryder said. “I owe it all to Coach Kowalski and the Icebreakers management for giving me a chance. I’m just grateful to be here. And grateful for my wonderful girlfriend, who came to support me.” His eyes lit up when he saw me.

I was shuffled through crowd of onlookers, then suddenly I was on the other side of the barrier from Ryder. He scooped me up in his arms, hugging me and kissing me in front of everyone.

“There it is!” One of the reporters whooped. “Now we know the secret ingredient.”

“I love you,” Ryder whispered against my mouth and kissed me thankfully, so I didn’t have a chance to respond. “Be in my hotel room in an hour and a half.” He pressed something sharp in my hand.

I left the rink and peered down at it.

“Ooh!” Gracie said, the blue glitter under her eyes sparkling in the lights from the parking lot. “Now we know why he was so eager to finish that game!”

Ryder loved me.

This was bad.

No, it was good. It was good for Timmy.

Bad for me. And devastating for Ryder.

“Don’t worry.” My cousin winked at me. “I’ll keep them all preoccupied. Go celebrate that win!”

I love you.

Had I misheard him?

Maybe it was just that he was hyped up on the win. Yeah, that was it.

Even if it was for my brother, I didn’t want to break Ryder’s heart. That was beyond naughty-list territory. That was go-kart-to-hell territory.

“Uncle Nate knows the recruiters,” I reminded myself. “Ryder will get a really good position somewhere else. Somewhere far away from Maplewood Falls.”

Or he could go to New York City and play for one of their NHL teams. I could run into him in the subway randomly on a Tuesday. Or in a restaurant. Basically, I’d feel horribly guilty for the rest of my miserable life.

“Let’s get off that ledge,” I whispered to myself as I rode the elevator up in his hotel. “Ryder doesn’t really love me, right? He said girls dump him all the time because he falls too fast. His friends will help him get over it.”

I should do it now. Shouldn’t sleep with him again. Didn’t know why I was going to the hotel room except that my entire body craved him, was aching to know what it was like to fuck him after he was high off a win.

And besides, I was already dressed for it.

The door handle to his hotel room eased under my hand when I swiped the key card.

Part of me wished it hadn’t.

After turning on some soft lamplight in the hotel room, I slipped out of my jacket and the layers of Icebreakers merch, leaving me standing there, wearing only my surprise for him.

I checked the clock. It had been an hour and a half since he’d given me the key.

The electronic lock clicked.

“You’re late,” I told him when he stepped inside, the door slamming behind him. “If you’re on time, you’re late.”

He worked off his gloves. Threw them on the floor. Checked his watch. “That clock is fast.”

Blue eyes scanned me, realized what I was wearing.

“You did say you fucked the Arctic Avengers out of me.”

“That was just…” He shrugged a massive shoulder. “I was just messing around. Now? I’m going to fuck you for real.”

The shirt came off, revealing that muscular chest, everything still locked and loaded from the intense game.

Yeah, I definitely wanted him to fuck me like this.

That same hockey intensity was in his eyes, like he was both completely focused on me and aware of everything else around us, yet I was still the center of the universe.

Grabbing a fistful of my hair, he pulled my head back so he could claim my mouth, his tongue deep down my throat. Large hands cupped my tits through my sparkly blue lace bra. His hands and mouth were a frenzy on me, pulling at my lace thong panties, on my tits, in my hair, gripping the back of my neck so he could plunder my mouth with his tongue as his fingers sought the wet heat under the panties. I clung to him while his bruising hands claimed my body, like I was the puck he was just tossing around on the ice.

And I couldn’t wait for him to hit it.

I undid the zipper on his pants, palming his hard length.

He slapped my hands away. “Get on your hands and knees.” He kicked off his boots. “On the bed.” His belt hit the floor. “No, the floor. I need something hard to brace on when I make you take my cock. Don’t want to twist anything.” His mouth twitched.

I gulped. Turned around. Felt his gaze pinned to my backside as I knelt on the floor and tipped forward.

Suddenly he was there , large hands grabbing my ass, forcing my legs apart. “Like that. Spread that pussy for me.”

The thong wasn’t enough to hold my dripping cunt. I felt the wet juices all over my thighs.

His breath was hot as he licked me, making me shiver. He pressed his face between my ass cheeks, licked his tongue from my slit all the way up to the pink hole of my ass.

“I can’t wait,” he said, his breath hot, “to marry you so I can fill your pussy with cum then come up your ass.”

I almost came right then.

“You’re going to be nice and tight for me.” His deep voice was ragged. He pulled at my blue lace thong with the silver snowflakes.

I hoped the hotel room was soundproof because I couldn’t stop the loud cries, the moaning, the begging, the pleading as he hooked the thin string of the thong, pulling it to the side so he could attack my pussy. His mouth was hot on my wet slit as he ate me out, his powerful mouth and tongue working my clit, three fingers pumping in my opening, until I was coming on his mouth.

“Next time you come”—he slapped my ass hard, making me yelp—“I want to hear the fight song.”

I barely had time to catch my breath before a condom packet was ripping. His cock was thick and heavy, dragging over my thighs as he spread me. He’d stepped off the ice still in predator mode and rammed that cock right in my pussy like he was crushing through a line of defenders. I almost passed out as he slammed into me, his powerful hips and thighs ramming his cock into my tight cunt as I made strangled cries.

His hands were a vise on my shoulders. I felt the full force of his weight as all two hundred thirty pounds of him slammed into me over and over, his thick cock penetrating deep inside me. He pulled out and slammed in again, forcing me to take all of him at once.

“You’re so fucking tight.” He drove into me. The power lever was at a hundred percent as he rutted into my pussy, claiming me like no man had ever done.

“I can’t.” I groaned, my arms collapsing as he kept up the inhuman pace.

One hand on my hip kept my pussy angled for his cock. He braced the other hand on the floor next to my head.

The carpet burned my elbows as he slammed into me, over and over. I felt myself come, but with his cock in me, my pussy was aching for release again. I was lost in the sensation of him.

“Let me hear it.” His teeth grazed my ear. “I told you I wanted to hear it when you came.”

I couldn’t remember my own fucking name, let alone the fight song of a team I hated. “Fuck you, Ryder, just give me your cum.” I moaned as he continued to take me, his cock destroying my pussy as I begged for more, coming with another strangled cry.

“I’m enjoying this too much to come,” he snarled.

Now I knew how the Frosthawks felt as he scored goal after goal on them.

You couldn’t do anything except pray you survived the wave of power.

“Shit,” I moaned as he pushed off me, both hands digging into my hips and lifting me so I was almost hanging upside down and he could fuck me like I was some sex doll.

“So much better.” He jerked me back on his cock every time he pounded into me, like I weighed nothing. “Yeah, you know how to take my cock, don’t you?” He grunted as he impaled me on his thick, huge cock over and over.

How the man could talk was unreal.

My body jerked as the blood rushed to my head and my clit. This time when my pussy tightened around him, shuddering my orgasm around the unrelenting pounding of his cock, I felt his hands tighten on me, then he was cursing.

“Fuck, Dakota, fuck , I love you, I fucking love you, I want to marry you, I want to give you my children, fuck, Dakota, take my cum.”

I wanted to take it, wished I was actually feeling that hot, thick seed in my pussy. Instead, I just moaned as he jerked the last of his orgasm into me.

He swung me, dizzy and delirious, up into his arms and carried me to the bed. I stroked his thick, soft hair as he buried his face between my legs again, wracking an orgasm from me, then another.

He unhooked my bra and sucked on my tits, rolling the nipple in his mouth, then putting on a condom. He kissed me long and slow as he made love to me, easing into me with long, powerful thrusts. Murmuring how he loved me, how I was perfect, how I was his everything, how he wanted the perfect family with me.

“I love you, Dakota,” he whispered against my mouth as he thrust his cock into me, smooth, as only a pro could be. “Say you’ll be mine. Say you’ll marry me.”

I moaned against his mouth as he gave me a bruising kiss.

“Come for me, Dakota. You know I love it when you come on my cock.”

The orgasm came on me suddenly, without warning. I cried his name into his chest as he jerked into me.

“You’re beautiful. You’re perfect. I’ve never loved any woman the way I love you,” he whispered against my hair.

My heart raced like I had taken ten shots of espresso.

His heart thudded, powerful and sure in his chest. I concentrated on it as I caught my breath.

Too bad I hadn’t come hard enough to forget I was a terrible person.

Ryder curled his huge body around me on the hotel bed. “I love you so much,” he whispered in the soft glow of the lamp, stroking my sweaty hair. “I’ve never loved anyone like you, Dakota.”

I couldn’t break his heart.

Except I would.

I had to.

Because I couldn’t let anything happen to my little brother. Because I’d do anything for my family—

Including throwing away the best thing that had ever happened to me.