I choked back another sob, nodding.
He rose to stand and scooped me up against his chest. “I missed you,” he breathed into my hair.
“I missed you,” I said, gripping him, relishing the feel of him against me.
Nathan was here.
He was whole.
He was mine.
“Wait,” I said, and he set me on my feet but didn’t let me go. “What if I wanted it to mean something?”
He tilted his head. “I’m listening.”
“What if I wanted to marry you…but maybe have a long engagement?”
A smile broke his lips that filled my chest with light.
“Whatever you want, Butterfly. As long as you’re mine.”
“I’ve never belonged to anyone else,” I said.
“Me either.” He pushed back some of my hair, igniting chills along my neck.
I bit down on my smile. “You’re really a Reaper?”
“Thanks to your brother…and a coach I know.” He smirked.
“New city. New team. New start?” I asked, the breath rushing into my lungs causing my head to spin.
He slowly lowered his lips to mine, the kiss slow, gentle.
I parted his lips with my tongue, and he growled, hauling me against him until all I could do was lock my ankles behind his back. I clung to him as he explored my mouth with claiming strokes that did everything to knit the broken pieces of my heart back together. I held him as I gave what he took and took what he gave until we were both so breathless he sank down on the bench behind him, me still straddling his lap. He pressed his forehead to mine, his hands in my hair.
“I love you, Harper. It doesn’t matter what emblem is on my jersey…home is wherever you are.”
I shuddered above him, that current of energy between us now blazing so much heat pooled between my thighs. “I love you, Nathan,” I said. “And I will gladly wear your jersey for the rest of forever.”
He nipped at my bottom lip. “Promise?”
I waggled my left hand at him. “It’s on the correct finger, isn’t it?”
“That it is,” he said and kissed me again and again and again. He drew back, his eyes churning with love and want and need. “So,” he said. “You didn’t just love me because I was a Shark?” he teased. “You’ll still love me if I’m a Reaper?”
“Shark. Reaper.” I shrugged. “I’m much more interested in another name.”
“And that is?”
“Noble,” I breathed, rocking on him slightly. “Harper Noble.”
His eyes flashed, a rumble in his chest.
“It has a ring to it, doesn’t it?”
He pressed his lips together, nodding. “Sounds perfect, Butterfly.”
Epilogue
Three and a half months later
Gage McPherson
“He was a good pick,” Scarlet told me with a great deal of authority as we stood on the home bench of the Reapers’ practice ice while a few of my new recruits played a pick-up game.
“You think?” I asked my daughter. “I got crushed by the media for it.”
She nodded, the movement exaggerated by the navy blue helmet she wore. “He’s hard to get along with, or so it’s been reported, but man, is he fast. You needed someone with speed.”
“I did.” I needed a hell of a lot, actually. We were two weeks post-draft, and between that night and the beauty of free agency, I was only one player short of considering my roster complete.
“Besides, he’s here, so he can’t be too hard to get along with,” Scarlet added with a shrug.
“True.” She had a point. I’d sent out invitations to all of the Reapers for weekly pick-up games. We were still two weeks out from the start of training camp, and nine of them had shown up. Not that I faulted the ones who hadn’t. They’d only had a month to uproot their entire lives and move to Charleston.
But even so, I had my work cut out for me. The Sharks had been a family because we had years of trust and friendship backing us up. Shoving twenty strangers on the ice and expecting them to form those bonds instantly was ludicrous, especially when those players had been rivals at one time or another.
At least not all of them were strangers.
Noble had been the first we’d signed. Porter was the second. Then the expansion draft gave us Lukas.
I missed Rory and Warren. Hell, I missed them all. Connor, Bentley, Eric...all of them.
But this was my team now. Mine. Mine to coach, to train, to mold.
“Gage McPherson!”
I turned to see Langley Pierce striding my way with a look that could slay a dragon...or kill a coach.
“She looks mad,” Lettie noted.
“She sure does.”
Langley walked into the box with her finger raised in my direction. “This is your idea, isn’t it?”
“If you’re in the box, you need a helmet,” I told her.
“Whatever. I’ve been around enough NHL players to know they can control their pucks.” She glared at me. “It’s their sticks they have issues with.”
Lukas skated to a stop behind me, and I stepped to the side so Langley could see him, too. If I was going down for this, so was he.