Make Your Move (Aston Archers Hockey #1)

24. Lincoln

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

LINCOLN

I wait until Nova is out of sight before I start speaking to Dane. He stares at me, his eyes narrow, but he breaks our stares as his wife and her son walk up. She gives me a nervous glance, unsure of who I am, but she doesn’t question him when he tells her to go find a table, and he’ll be with them soon.

I also realize we are in the middle of an ice cream shop in broad daylight. This is not the time nor is it the place to have this conversation, but I have no choice. He upset Nova, and I have to say something. I can’t do what I’d love to do to him, so my words will have to suffice.

“Come take a quick walk with me, Dane,” I suggest, my voice tense as I motion toward the door that leads out back to their patio.

Dane looks like he could throw up, but instead he nods and follows me outside. We step out into the evening air, and I feel the cold wrapping itself around me. No one is currently sitting outside because of the temperature. “Who are you?”

I turn around to face Dane, my eyes slicing to his as I ignore his question. “What brings you back to Aston, Dane? Your daughter was born two years ago, and from what I’ve been told, this is the first sighting of you since.” I pause, clicking my tongue. “And we both know you aren’t here to see her.”

“My wife has some family here,” he admits, his voice low and cautious.

“Ah,” I say, the venom building on my tongue. “I’m going to be honest with you—I don’t give a fuck why you are back. I don’t give a fuck what you are doing with your life and who you are doing it with.”

“Okay, so what is this about then?”

I take a step closer to him, the anger running rampant in my veins as I roll my hands into fists by my side. “This is about Nova. This is about you showing up out of nowhere and making her uncomfortable.” I inhale deeply, attempting to remain calm. “You have no business being in Aston. So, you’re going to have ice cream with your little ready-made family, and then you’re going to leave here, and you are never going to come back, do you understand me?”

“I’m sorry, but you don’t get to tell me where I can and?—”

“Let me stop you right there,” I tell him, my voice dropping lower into a warning. “This is my home, where I live. This is Nova’s home and where your daughter is growing up without knowing who you are. Unless you want there to be problems, you will not come back here.”

He narrows his eyes on me for a second. “I know who you are. You play for the Archers.”

“So you know I have an entire hockey team who will go to bat for me. An entire line of men who will do whatever they have to do to protect Nova and her daughter.”

I watch the color drain from Dane’s face, and his throat bobs as he swallows hard. Given Nash’s relationship with the other guys, I’m sure they know enough about why Nova is a single mom. Even if they didn’t know, it comes with the territory. A found family extends to everyone’s real family.

Not a single man on our team would hesitate to throw down for Nova and Poe.

“I’m not asking you to make room in your life for either of them. I’m not asking you for anything, Dane. I’m telling you to do yourself and Nova a favor and stay the fuck away.”

Dane runs his tongue across his top teeth, the muscle in his jaw tightening as his nostrils flare. I don’t know Dane, and I don’t know enough about him to know how he will respond to this, but I’m not afraid of him. I’ve gotten into my fair share of fights on the ice over the years. It won’t take much to lay this motherfucker out flat.

“None of you will see me again.”

I stare at Dane, my eyes running over his face. “I sincerely hope we don’t.” Instead of wasting more time or energy on this sack of shit, I leave him standing out on the patio and exit through the gate that leads to the sidewalk. He doesn’t call after me, and I leave him there with a warning and a promise before making my way to my car.

Nova is silent, and she glances at me when I get into the car. She doesn’t say anything, but I can see the curiosity in her bloodshot eyes.

“You don’t have to worry about him again.”

She swallows as she nods. “Thank you,” she tells me, her voice barely audible as she directs her attention back to the windshield. I glance in the back seat at Posey who is playing with a small figurine in her hands. I turn back around, start the car and slide my hand over to Nova, my fingers pushing in between hers.

She doesn’t push me away and even as she continues to stare out the window, her fingers curl around my hand, squeezing gently. Her eyelids flutter shut as she tilts her head against the headrest and a soft sigh escapes her.

I don’t like seeing Nova like this. It’s a stark contrast to her typical carefree manner. A darkening to the usual bright smile that lights up her face. And I make a silent promise to her, a promise that I’ll spend the rest of my days making sure that smile never leaves her lips.

My bedroom door hangs open, and I’m sprawled out across my bed, absentmindedly tossing a puck into the air and catching it. Nova has been quiet since we got back to the house. She disappeared into the bathroom to bathe Posey and has been in her room for what feels like an eternity.

I saw Nash earlier, but he retired to the basement for the night. Since the basement was converted into a full apartment, Nash has his own living room space. He still shares the common areas in the house with Nova and I and he’s been using the bathroom upstairs since he’s remodeling the one in his apartment. When he goes down there for the night, he usually doesn’t resurface until the morning.

The soft clicking of the child gate pulls my attention to the hall, and I slowly sit up, my head turning as I look out through my open door. Nova’s footsteps are light as she pads across the floor. She comes into my field of vision as she stops just outside of my doorway and turns to look at me.

Her hair is pulled back in a braid, and she’s wearing an old worn sweatshirt with our junior team’s name on it. I can’t tell if she’s wearing anything underneath because it covers the tops of her thighs.

“Hey,” she says softly, her voice tender and gentle as she watches me for a moment. “Can I come in?”

“Of course,” I tell her, motioning for her to come sit beside me. Nova steps over the threshold and pulls the door shut behind her. I resist the urge to raise an eyebrow and revel in the moment of her locking the two of us in here together.

She walks to the bed, the mattress barely dipping beneath her weight as she sits down beside me. She’s silent for a moment and the smell of her shampoo invades my senses, storing itself inside my memory. Her head turns slowly to look at me, and she catches me staring. “I’m sorry for this evening,” she starts, her voice quiet. “Seeing Dane threw off my entire mood and brought out some feelings I try not to let consume me.”

I swallow roughly over the emotion stuck inside my throat and nod. “You never have to apologize for feeling, Nova.”

“Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days where I could lie around counting stars and wishing upon full moons. I wish I could go back to when things were simpler, and I didn’t let my feelings get to me. When it felt like life moved in phases, just like the moon.”

My gaze travels along her straight nose and down to her lips where it lingers for a second. “I think we all wish for that at times. Perhaps life is still moving in phases, but they’re just different now. We have different responsibilities than we did before. We’ve lived and experienced enough to make us look at life differently.”

“I don’t miss him,” she admits, taking me by surprise with the abrupt change in subjects. “Dane was a phase that I didn’t want to repeat.”

I tilt my head to the side, watching her as she turns to face me with her entire body. I mimic her actions, doing the same. “It’s good, you know that.”

“You were never a phase, Lincoln.” She pauses as her eyes search mine, and she lets out a ragged breath. Emotion washes over her expression, and the intensity of it hits me in my chest. “You’ve always been the sun. A steady, constant light that never diminishes.”

Her words seep into my soul, shaking me to my core. I don’t stop myself as I reach for her, pulling her into my lap. Nova doesn’t resist. Her mouth finds mine before I get the chance to make a move. Her fingers dig into my shoulders, holding onto me as I lift my hands to cup the sides of her face. There’s nothing soft and tender about the kiss. It’s bruising and relentless as we pour our emotions into one another.

She drops her hands down to the bottom hem of my shirt, pushing it up my torso with an urgency. I break away from her, only for a split second to rip off my own shirt and then hers. Layer by layer, we remove our clothing, breaking apart to come back together, until she’s naked beneath me in the center of my bed. Our clothes are scattered over my bedroom floor, completely forgotten about as we lay our souls bare for each other to see.

I settle between her legs, pushing into her in one fluid movement. My hands cradle the sides of her face, my lips finding hers in an urgent manner as she breathes into me. She wraps her legs around my lower back, her fingers trailing along my back as she holds on.

My hands slide through her hair, pulling her head back against the mattress as my face dips down to her neck. I taste and nip my way back to her jawline as she shivers beneath me. She lifts her hips to meet me with every thrust, taking my cock in deep. The barbells along the underside of my dick massage her insides as I stretch her wide.

She claws at my back, raking her nails across my flesh as I thrust into her, harder and harder with every movement of my hips. The bed groans beneath our weight, and our surroundings dissipate. I forget the fact that her brother is two floors beneath us because in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter.

I’m so far gone for Nova Simmons, and one day soon, the entire world is going to know.

I taste her flesh as my lips and tongue travel across her skin. A moan escapes her, just as my mouth finds hers once more. I swallow the sound, breathing her in. She’s greedy, her hips lifting for more, and I give it to her. I give her every fucking inch showing no mercy. Tearing my lips away from hers, I lower my face to the side of hers, my teeth nipping at her earlobe before I begin to speak.

“Tell me how you want me to fuck you, Nova baby.”

She lets out a breathy moan. “I don’t care how you do it, just so long as you don’t stop.” She pauses, inhaling sharply as I rock into her once more. “Don’t ever stop, Lincoln.”

“I won’t,” I promise her as I pull my face away and spread her legs, pulling them away from me. Rocking onto my knees, I hold her spread thighs in front of me as I look down at her. “I’ll never be done with you.”

Lust swirls in her irises and a fire burns deeply within them, burning holes into my eyes. From this angle, I have the perfect view of her. I slowly slide my cock in and out, her chest rises and falls rapidly as I watch how it looks as I bury myself inside her cunt.

“Touch yourself, Nova,” I demand, my voice husky and rough as I pound into her again. Pleasure spreads through my length as my piercings rub her insides. “I want to watch you make yourself come while I’m buried deep inside your pretty pussy.”

She surprises me when she doesn’t object. Her gaze is glued to mine, and she brings her hand to her center, her fingers brushing against her clit. I slowly begin to move again, my fingers digging into her flesh as I hold the middle of her thighs. My heart threatens to pound through my rib cage as I watch her pleasuring herself.

Her eyelids grow heavier, each blink more exaggerated as she works her fingers over herself, playing with her cunt. She rolls her fingers over and over until her pussy clenches around me like a vise grip. She lets out a ragged breath, each one growing more shallow as moans tumble from her lips.

“Jesus, Lincoln,” she moans while fighting the urge to let her eyes roll back into her head. “I love the way you fuck me. I love the way you feel inside me.”

“I love the way you take my cock. The way your cunt stretches around me while simultaneously clenching around me.” I let out a low moan, pistoning my hips as I fuck her harder. “Make yourself come, baby. Come all over my cock.”

She blinks rapidly, her lips parted, breathing uneven and shallow. “Harder, please,” she moans, her voice barely audible. “Please, Lincoln. I’m so close.”

“That’s it, baby,” I growl, my fingers digging deeper into her flesh. She’s so fucking tight around me, clenching around my entire length as I thrust into her with enough force to make the bed slam into the wall. The warmth rapidly builds in the pit of my stomach, spilling into my veins as she loses herself around me.

She cries out, my name falling from her lips like a dying wish as she brushes her clit once more, sending herself over the edge. My body is on fire, my orgasm erupting inside as my balls constrict, drawing closer to my body. I pound into her again, repeating the movement until we’re both falling over the edge together, drifting into the abyss.

Stars dance behind my eyelids, and I slow my hips, each thrust gentler as I fill her to the brim with my cum. We ride the waves of ecstasy together as I release her thighs. Dropping my hands down to the bed beside her head, I bring my lips to her forehead. Nova lets out a soft breath while she struggles to inhale as much oxygen as possible. I slowly pull out of her, feeling her absence as I roll onto the bed.

“I’ve never done that before,” she breathes against my chest. “I’ve never touched myself for someone else.”

Resting my chin against the top of her head, I trail my fingers across her naked back in feather-like touches. “Did you like it?”

She nods against me. “I did.”

“Good,” I whisper, breathing in the scent of her hair. Pulling away just enough to see her face, I run my finger beneath her chin, tilting her head up to look at me. “You’re important to me, Nova. Everything about you is. If you ever don’t like something we do, I need you to tell me.”

She stares at me for a moment, emotion mixing with the ecstasy in her glossy eyes. “I promise I will.”

My mouth finds hers again, and I breathe her in, my lungs filling with stardust. She’s the only thing I want—the only thing I need—and I won’t stop until she knows how deep my feelings run for her.

She stole my heart that one night under the full moon, and I don’t want it back.

It’s always been hers to keep.