“How is that the same difference?” she asked.
He sighed, knowing she’d never let it go. “On the ice, when we’re closing in on a goal and our team controls the puck, when we’re right there, passing it between each other, smokin’ the other team, knowing we’re going to score and that the goal is going to be extra sweet because the other team is dogging us but we still hammer the net, we call that a hot puck. The guys and I made it up.”
When he reached his door, her eyes were glazed, her expression hot, her smile a little wicked. “So it’s like a sure thing but way sexier.”
He grinned. “I love the way you get me.”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far.”
He turned, put his ass—and his wallet—in proximity to the electronic pad, and his door clicked open.
Eden laughed. “That was slick. You must do this a lot.”
“Yep,” he admitted, teasing her as he pushed inside his apartment, “Every time I carry in groceries or my duffel bag or—”
“Or me.” She kissed him, long and deep and wet. “Take me to your bed, Mr. Croft, because I have a feeling I’m not the only hot puck in this apartment.”
He hesitated, stupefied a moment that she didn’t want to look around. Didn’t want to marvel over his apartment. He hadn’t brought a woman here since he’d taken custody of Lily, but before that, his hookups had been ridiculously impressed with this place. Eden, on the other hand, didn’t even glance around. She brought her mouth back to his and kissed him like she needed him to make it through the night.
Beckett broke the kiss when he almost walked into a wall. “Damn,” he told her. “You’re making me dizzy.”
“Sure”—she pressed kisses to his forehead, his temple, his jaw—“it’s all my fault.”
“I’m so glad we agree on that.”
“I want to eat you.” Her teeth closed on the skin near his ear, shooting tingles down his neck. “I want to kiss and lick and eat every inch of you.”
“Jesus. Are you trying to kill me?” He paused to press a hand to the doorframe of his bedroom, already breathing hard. He pulled back and looked her in the eye. “You do realize I’ve already wrung myself out in one hell of a game tonight.”
“I was wondering when that cocky side of yours was going to show up.”
“Maybe I’m hoping you’ll get tough with me again.”
“That could be arranged.” She brought both hands to his tie and deftly unknotted the silk. Something that often took
Beckett several minutes to accomplish. “I could get creative with this if I had to—never underestimate the ingenuity of an emergency medical professional. What do you think about that, Mr. Croft?” She let the tie hang loose and started on the buttons of his shirt. “About having your hands secured to your bedframe with your tie, your body all mine to do with as I please?”
A wild, erotic thrill whipped up inside him. “I think that would be a first for me. I also think that would blow my mind in all kinds of new ways. But I’m afraid I don’t get out a lot and doubt I’d last very long. So in the interest of getting the most out of the small amount of time we have, I’d opt for the flipside of that idea.”
She yanked his shirt from his pants and unfastened the last button, then pressed both her hands to his belly and guided him back toward his bed. When his legs hit the footboard, Eden slid her hands up his chest, grabbed his tie with one hand, and used the other to give him a gentle push. Beckett let himself fall to a sit.
The take-charge Kennedy was back, but this time she was joined by the softer, more sensual Eden. The combination created a unique kind of sexual frenzy inside Beckett. Then Eden pressed one knee to the mattress and smiled down at him. A smile that said I can’t wait to get my hands on you and turned Beckett inside out.
She slipped the tie around her own neck, released the ends, and lowered to a crouch between his legs. Beckett’s breath caught, but she only unlaced his shoes and pulled them off. When she stood again, she lifted her chin toward the top of the bed. “Scoot back.”
Instead, he slipped his hands beneath her dress and wrapped his hands around the backs of her thighs, then slid them upward along her smooth, warm, taut skin to the curve of her ass and squeezed.
A sound of desire rolled through his throat, and Eden’s eyes fell closed as a wash of pleasure spilled over her face. He fisted the dress at her hips and dragged it upward, pushing at her arms when she held them down with a murmur of complaint.
He broke the kiss, reminding her, “You said you had a surprise for me.”
With a little smile, she let him draw the dress over her head and he dropped it on the bed beside him as he scoured every gorgeous inch of her.
“Holy fuck,” slipped from his mouth in a raspy whisper.
She was everything he’d hoped for…and so much more. His gaze scoured her body over and over, unable to get enough. She was like a wicked wet dream. Her bra and panties were deep red, like her dress. Edged in black lace, like her boots. Her body filled out the lingerie to perfection. She had curves in all the right places, flat, taut planes in all the others. She was toned and supple and delicious.
He covered the hard thump of his heart with one hand. “This thing feels like it’s going to break my ribs.”