Make Your Move (Aston Archers Hockey #1)

21. Nova

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

NOVA

L incoln’s arm is around me for the entirety of the movie. He laughs along, chuckling to the funny parts as if it’s his first time watching it. When I stayed with Nash and Lincoln for a few days during summer break in high school, Lincoln and I had a movie marathon one day where we watched half a dozen rom coms together. I was sworn to secrecy when Lincoln told me he’d never speak to me again if I told anyone.

He has always been a closet rom-com lover, and it’s honestly adorable.

“I forgot how that one ended,” he admits quietly as the movie rolled onto the credits, and he shifted beside me. I go to move away to give him space, but he quickly looks at me. “Where are you going?”

“I thought maybe you were uncomfortable,” I offer, shrugging with a touch of doubt. “I don’t want to crowd you.”

“Nova, Nova, Nova,” he murmurs my name, his arm tightening around me as he pulls me back to him, except he doesn’t pull me back to his side. He moves me directly onto his lap so I’m sitting on him, my legs straddling either side. My hands land on his abdomen, and I flatten my palm against his stomach. “I want you to crowd me.”

His hands start on my thighs, slowly drifting farther up my legs to my hips. He pushes my oversized T-shirt up, the material bunching around my waist as he lifts one hand to trail his fingers along my collar. His digits dip beneath the material, coasting across my skin.

His fingers move upward until he plunges them through my curls. “Is this my T-shirt?” he asks, sliding his hand out to cup the side of my face. “The one you were wearing the other night?”

I pull my bottom lip in between my teeth and nod. I slowly begin to push his shirt up, my hands dancing over the muscles carved into his abdomen. Lincoln groans. “Did you want it back?”

Lincoln’s eyes drift across the shirt, down to where I’m straddling his lap, and they begin to lift back up to my face. I’m acutely aware of his growing erection pressing against me, and I fight the urge to shift my hips as warmth builds within my body. “No, I don’t think I do,” he admits, his eyes meeting mine once more. “It looks better on you.”

The warmth spills into my veins as Lincoln’s finger trails along the waistband of my panties. I inhale sharply, instinctively moving against him as I feel him pulsing between my legs. “Lincoln,” I almost moan his name, but it comes out softly. “What are you doing?”

“What do you want me to do?” he asks me, his voice low and husky. He removes his hand from my abdomen and brings it up to my face. He cups both sides, his fingertips pressing along my jaw. “Tell me what you want, Nova,” he murmurs, slowly pulling me closer.

I slide my hands closer to his chest, memorizing every inch of his flesh as he pulls my face down to his. He pauses, hesitating as his eyes search mine. “I want you to kiss me,” I tell him, my voice thick with need as I watch his tongue dart out to wet his lips.

Very slowly, he shakes his head at me, his grip on my face growing softer. “I lied. I don’t want you to tell me what you want.”

Confusion floods me, and my eyebrows pull together. “Oh?”

“If you want something, I want you to take it. No hesitation, no overthinking. Just take it.”

For a second, I do what he tells me not to do. I hesitate, I overthink. His grip on my face grows tighter, gaining my attention once more as he gives me a knowing look. I’ve never been one to take what I want. His words swirl around in my brain, and there’s a nervousness that pricks my skin. I don’t know how to do it. I don’t know how to be in charge.

“Nova, baby, you’re overthinking it.” He pauses, a tender smile dancing across his lips. “Let me show you.”

His movements aren’t rushed as leans forward, just enough for his mouth to touch mine. He kisses me with a sweetness that seeps into the fibers of my bones. There’s nothing rushed about the way his lips move over mine, but he stops abruptly just as I’m waiting for him to deepen the kiss.

“If you want more, you’re going to have to make your move, supernova,” he murmurs against my mouth as his lips delicately skate across mine. He nips at my mouth, but he doesn’t dare kiss me again. “What’s it going to be?”

I swallow roughly as my heart picks up the pace inside my chest. His skin is warm beneath my hands, and I press my fingers deeper into his skin as I let go of any inhibition or hesitation I have. I’m the one who makes the next move, and my mouth crashes into his, stealing his next breath.

Lincoln doesn’t object, settling back into the couch as I follow after him. Our mouths fuse together, tongues tangled, bodies melting. He tastes like every answer I’ve ever searched for. Like every wish upon a full moon. He’s soft and sweet, gentle and tender. I steal the air from his lungs right before he takes it back, draining every bit of oxygen from mine.

There’s a hesitancy to my movements as I hold back from diving in deep. Lincoln Matthews is a quiet force, similar to gravity. He pulls you in, holding you safe and steady. But he isn’t gravity. Matters of the heart are never predictable. They’re volatile and uncertain, and Lincoln Matthews has the power to throw my entire world off its axis.

He kisses me back like we have all the time in the world, but there’s an urgency building. A deep-seated need within the fibers of our marrow. The need that makes us… us. I slide my tongue along the seam of his lips, tasting him. He parts them in a rush, and my tongue moves into his mouth, sliding against his own as the kiss grows deeper. Stars form in the darkness behind my eyelids, and I let go.

Lincoln is worth the risk.

I push his shirt farther up his body, stopping as it reaches his neck. The movie switched to the regular TV at some point, but the sounds are background music. I hear nothing, I see nothing—except for him. He surrounds me, he consumes me, and I breathe him in like the night sky swallows the stars.

Lincoln shakes me to my core without any realization of what he’s doing. The warmth sends my body into overdrive, my senses hanging on to every touch, every taste, every smell. What was once slow and sweet has now become urgent and heated. I want more of him. I want all of him.

Abruptly I break away, sitting upright, grinding myself against his cock. He feels so hard beneath me, and there’s only the material of my soaked underwear and his two layers of clothing that are between us. “I want your shirt off.”

Lincoln stares back at me with a fire burning in his irises. “Done,” he says, sitting up just enough to take it off. I watch him as he rests back against the couch, his hands falling to my hips. I swallow roughly, reaching for the bottom hem of my shirt. Lincoln’s eyes burn holes through mine, his cock throbbing as I pull the article of clothing up over my head and toss it onto the floor behind us.

“Look at you,” he murmurs, his voice thick with lust. “You’re fucking perfection.” His eyes travel over my body before his hands start to follow. I revel in his touch, feeling his fingers tracing and memorizing every inch of my body. His fingertips gently brush across my nipples, and I shift on his lap, grinding against him. “Do you want me to touch you, baby?”

The thought has my body humming with untapped pleasure. “Please, Lincoln.”

“Tell me where, Nova. Tell me what you want me to do.” He pauses, sensing my unsureness of how to proceed. “Do you want me to touch you here?” he asks as he cups my breast within the palm of his hand.

“Yes,” I breathe as heat builds within the pit of my stomach. My heart beats erratically in my chest, and I don’t bother making an attempt to calm it.

Moving away from the back of the couch, he rounds his spine as he leans toward me, his mouth coming closer to my chest. “I want to taste you, supernova. I want to taste every fucking millimeter of your body.” He brings his lips around my nipple, sucking, tasting and teasing until I’m practically coming undone in his lap. “May I do that?”

“Yes.”

He rolls his tongue around my nipple, another round of slow, sweet torture as he sucks and rolls the small bud within his mouth. “Give me your words, Nova. I need you to tell me where you want me to taste.”

My heart hammers away, and my stomach flips as I feel a rush of heat between my legs. That’s where I want him. That’s where I want his mouth.

“I want your mouth,” I tell him, reaching for his hand as I bring it to my center. “Here.”

He growls, a groaning sound rumbling in his chest as it makes its way up his throat. “Do you want me to taste your pussy?” His voice is rough, yet soft like silk.

“Yes,” I moan as his fingers brush against my clit through my panties.

A devious grin dances across his lips. “I’ve dreamed of how sweet you might taste,” he tells me, sliding his hands beneath my ass before he flips me to the side, laying me down on the couch.

“What are you doing?” I question him in a rush, suddenly feeling self-conscious as he positions me on the couch and slides his fingers beneath the waistband of my underwear. I lift my hips as he begins to drag them away from my body. I’m conflicted because I want him to, but there’s a hesitancy because it’s been a long time since I’ve been intimate with someone like this.

Dane didn’t like to do it, so I could count the number of times he went down on me on one hand.

“Do you not want me to?” he asks, his eyes searching for mine as he waits for my assurance. My knees fall to the sides, granting him access as he positions himself between my legs. He slides his hands under my ass, his eyes raking over my naked body. He looks at me like I drifted down from the heavens on a cloud. His gaze is intense, burning, yet shining. Brimming with an unreadable emotion that makes my throat constrict.

No one has seen me naked since having a kid. No one has ever looked at me the way he does.

I pull my bottom lip between my teeth, nodding. “I do.”

“Then let me eat, baby.”

He looks up at me once more, pinning my thighs against the couch before lowering his mouth to my center. He slides his tongue against my flesh, sending a ripple of pleasure through my body instantly. My back arches, my eyes rolling back in my head. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.

Lincoln knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s skilled with his mouth and his tongue. He flicks my clit, alternating between lapping at my pussy and pressing his tongue against the bundle of nerves before rolling it around with an intense amount of pressure. He doesn’t stop. He licks, and he tastes, and he touches and teases. He moves his hands to the front of my body, using his weight to pin my legs down as his fingers roam across my skin.

I can’t hear my own thoughts over the moans that escape me. The primal sounds I’ve never heard from myself before this moment. Dane didn’t like it loud. He didn’t want me to make any noise. He wanted it quiet and ritualistic. Lincoln moves with purpose, almost like my sounds are increasing the need.

He groans against my flesh, the sound vibrating my entire pussy. Instinctively, my hands reach for his head, my fingers tangling in his hair as I grip the wavy locks. His tongue circles my clit again as he grows relentless, fucking me with his mouth, taking everything I have to give. My brain can’t form a coherent thought except for how close I am to coming.

“Don’t stop, Lincoln,” I moan, the volume of my voice not registering in my mind. Posey is sleeping and can’t get out of her room without me. Nash isn’t home. It’s just Lincoln and me.

I swear I feel him grin against me before he continues. He laps at my flesh, sticking his tongue inside me before moving back to my clit. I don’t know what he’s even doing anymore, and I don’t care. As long as he doesn’t stop, that’s all that matters. My eyelids grow heavy, and my stomach begins to tighten as I feel all my pelvic muscles constricting. My eyes begin to roll back, just as my orgasm hits me with enough force to send me into a fucking coma.

My body seizes, my hips bucking against his face as he pins me down and doesn’t stop. He sucks and licks and tastes me, rolling his tongue. I cry out, his name a breathless chant as my body is flooded with pleasure. It’s spilling over the edge, consuming me entirely as I come. Lincoln doesn’t stop, but his movements slow. I ride out the waves of my orgasm while he keeps his face between my legs.

He doesn’t stop until there’s nothing left, and only then does he lift his head. His gaze collides with mine, and I’m momentarily paralyzed from ecstasy. From the look of pure need in his eyes. He stares at me, wiping his wet mouth with the back of his hand. There’s a sound from outside, and he whips his head to the side, glancing out the window.

“Fuck. Nash is home.”

“Oh no.” Anxiety instantly washes over me, and I try to sit up and roll at the same time, but my legs are still like Jell-O, and I accidentally roll onto the floor instead. “Goddammit.”

Lincoln chuckles as he collects our clothing from the floor and tosses mine to me. He shrugs on his shirt and I quickly pull the other T-shirt over my head. “I’ll distract him if you want to sneak away.”

“You are a lifesaver,” I tell him in a rush, feeling relieved of not having to face my brother after his best friend just gave me the best orgasm of my entire life. I glance down at the erection in Lincoln’s pants. “What about you?”

He adjusts himself, attempting to hide it. “It’s okay, Nova. I’ve waited a fucking lifetime for you. I can wait a little longer.”

The doorknob in the mudroom jiggles as the lock clicks. My eyes widen as I stare at Lincoln, not wanting to leave him yet. “I owe you.”

“I have every intention of collecting,” he promises as he winks. He glances toward the kitchen and back to me. “Go. Unless you feel like explaining this to your brother.”

Fuck.

Tonight is not the night, and this is not the way for Nash to find out. I don’t want to run, but I know I need to. We’ll cross this bridge if we have to. Lincoln has been clear about his aversion to relationships. The last thing I want to do is make him feel backed into a corner. I don’t want him to feel any pressure or obligation.

I don’t want him to feel like he has to be with me.

I want him to want to be with me.