Delayed Penalty by Shey Stahl

16. Clipping

Hitting an opponent below the knees. This will result in a penalty.

Game 82 – Detroit Red Wings

MAY - Home Game

Evan

I wake up to the blare of my alarm on Sunday morning and don’t want to leave. Ami is in my bed with me, her head on my chest, bare legs draped over my midsection. Fuck if I don’t want to be buried between them.

I have to get up or I’m about to do just that.

There isn’t a lot of time to take care of anything that might rid those thoughts for today. I have to be at the rink by six for our morning skate, so I have just enough time for a protein shake.

I leave Ami curled up in my bed, write her a note telling her I will be back around two and we can leave for the game then, and lock the door behind me.

When I get to the rink, news comes in that Dave has been traded to the San Jose Sharks and our starting line defense is rattled. It’s why you always have to be on your game. And if I have to guess, it isn’t anything Dave’s done wrong either. Sometimes the trade just makes sense to the club.

It’s part of the unknown of being a professional athlete because you never know when you will be in a different state, playing for an entirely different team. It’s hard to make friends, build a home, and have a family. Maybe that’s why they pay us so much?

Honestly, it shocks the hell out of all of us, but we get a defenseman from their team. And fuck if that guy can’t destroy you on a simple body check. I definitely don’t want to tangle with him, even in practice. I make sure we’re always on the same scrimmage team. No way am I meeting him against the boards.

“It smells like sex in here,” Leo says, skating past me and then circling around, taunting me.

“Shut up.” I shove my hand in his face.

“You know, you’re not the first Blackhawk to get it on at the United Center.” Leo looks around, searching for Remy. When he finds him taking shots at Cage before drills begin, he laughs, slapping his hand in my chest. “Remy fucked some chick against the boards earlier in the year.”

“I don’t care,” I mumble, chewing on my mouthpiece.

“Remember our four-game streak in November on home ice?”

“Yeah...,” I say, not understanding where he’s going with that.

“Remy says it’s because he gave the rink some good luck juice.” Leo motions toward Remy with a jacking off gesture as he makes his way over to us. Before he reaches us, Cage nails him in the back of the head with a puck again.

I groan, skating away from Leo. “You’re such a nasty fucker.”

Leo still hasn’t had enough of taunting me and follows me, telling me not to fall on the ice and something obscene about fucking a girl in the locker room two weeks ago. “Stop it,” I warn him. “If you don’t stop, I’m gonna nail your fuckin’ ass to the boards.”

He laughs, flipping me off. He thinks I’m kidding.

I’m not.

“Go away.” I skate faster and he follows me once again.

“Come on, man. I’m on a dry spell. Dish the dirt.” He hacks his stick at me, grinning.

So I board him. Harder than necessary.

“Mase!” Coach yells. “Knock that shit off!”

Leo’s off limits. Nobody touches him on the ice, me included.

Laughing, Leo picks himself off the ice. “Pissed off the warden, pretty boy.”

“Fuck you,” I snap, leaving him to find his footing himself.

After the morning skate, I hurry back to my condo to find Ami sitting on the couch eating cereal. I want a distraction before we play our biggest rival, the Detroit Red Wings.

I also want what we had last night. The closeness. The intimacy. Fuck, I just want her. I don’t care how it comes. In kissing, making out, dry humping like we’re kids, I have no preference.

“I missed you,” she breathes in between kissing, welding her mouth to mine.

“I missed you more,” I grunt, pushing myself closer to her.

Moments later, my pants are gone, shirt’s thrown at the kitten, and hers are being removed. For some stupid reason, I lead her back to my room and on my bed. Which she’s cool with because remember, she’d been practically begging me to have sex with her. And if we’re being honest, I have already, many times in my head.

So what am I really waiting for? She keeps telling me she’s ready. Shouldn’t I listen to what she wants?

In a bold move on my part, my hands find the edges of her panties, getting ready to remove them. I swallow, my heart pumping wildly in my chest. I know exactly what I’m about to do and what it will mean. No going back.

Ami’s back arches and my heart thuds. “Is this okay?” I want to be sure, my voice low and gritty as my hands travel the length of her body before settling between her legs, which are completely bare for the first time. I don’t look. Not yet. I want the okay before I do.

Ami nods, the motion slow and calculated. “Yes.” Part of me wanted her to say no. I can’t understand how she wants me like this after going through what she did. Wouldn’t being physical with a guy be hard for a girl in her situation?

“Are you one hundred percent sure?” My breath and words shake, hoping that she understands this isn’t easy for me.

“Yes.”

“There’s no going back. You know that, right?”

Ami swallows and speaks the only truth I know. “Once you came into my life, Evan, there really never was any going back.”

I’m not sure I understand what she’s saying, but maybe that’s because my dick feels like it’s about to explode with pent-up frustration. I haven’t had sex in five fucking months. I’m getting desperate. My breath is heavy on her cheek, my chest rising and falling quickly just like hers.

I meet her eyes and they’re pleading.

And then it hits me. We’re actually about to do this.

My hands move to her face and then around her neck until my fingers tangle in her hair, combing through the strands and possessively wrapping around her. I can feel the raised bumps from where her scar is on her scalp, but this time it doesn’t send that sharp pain to my gut. This time I’m too caught up in what’s about to happen.

She wants this. She wants me to be that guy for her. It’s not hard to see that I have reservations with being physical with Ami for a while. Now isn’t any different, but I see her, feel her, and hear her. She wants this. She needs it, if that makes sense. For a long time, I can’t make myself make a goddamn move. I kiss her, caress her body as gently as I can. But then it gets to the point of me making the move to between her legs.

“Do you want me to get a condom?” There. If I ask the question, she can say no, right?

I realize it’s me stalling again but I use it.

“Yes,” Ami breathes against my lips. “Do you have one?”

“Somewhere.” Sighing, I shift to reach for the nightstand and pull a condom wrapper out of my drawer.

She doesn’t watch as I slip it on, nor does she check me out. She’s staring at the ceiling for some reason.

“Are you okay?” I ask, rolling into her side, my hand on her lower stomach.

At my touch, her body trembles, her legs moving.

I stop immediately.

“Ami, baby, what’s wrong?” I force her to look at me.

Maybe it’s too much, too soon, too something. I don’t fucking know, but I don’t like the look of fear on her face. Pushing my weight to one side, I stare down at her, waiting for an answer.

“Nothing,” she insists and reaches up to pull me back down against her.

I move between her legs, but I don’t connect our bodies. “Talk to me,” I urge, my body still as I hover over her.

“I’m scared,” she whispers, lacking the confidence in her tone I’m looking for. If I had to guess, it’s more than that. She’s terrified of this. Wanting to do it and actually doing it are completely different for girls. I understood that early on. “I’m just....” Her small voice against my shoulder fades.

I try to get her to look at me, but she won’t or maybe she can’t? “Just what?” I press when she still won’t look at me, my voice full of patience and understanding should she decide she doesn’t want to do this.

“Nervous.” Ami shifts, her pelvis moving against mine, and fuck if I don’t want to move too, just a little. Shit. I have to squeeze my eyes shut as she continues, “Scared. Not scared of you,” she insists, kind of rambling. “I don’t know. This is different. I know that, but I’m scared. Scared that it won’t be the same after this. No longer exciting or new.”

“Ami, stop,” I interrupt, rolling us over to lie on our sides. I had to switch positions. It’d be too easy to accidently slip inside her. “You have nothing to worry about. I’m not going anywhere. We don’t have to do this. If you’re not ready, we won’t. As long as you need, I’ll wait for you. It’s more than sex for me. Yeah”—I motion to my still straining erection against her thigh—“sex is on my mind, a lot, but we’ll get there eventually. It doesn’t have to be tonight.”

Next to me, she stares deeply into my eyes. Then she kisses me. It isn’t a “let’s do something else” kiss either. It’s a “fuck me right now” kind of kiss.

Then I panic. Sadly, I had been hoping for her to blow the whistle, but she’s not having it.

“Ami,” I pant, out of breath when she reaches below to grasp me for the first time. Her tiny fist closes around my cock, stroking me from base to tip.

“I want you, Evan.”

My eyes flutter. “I know, and I want you too, but we don’t have to rush into this.”

“We’re not. I’m not ready.” Thank fuck. Wait… damn. “But I’m ready for something more. Something I’ve never done.”

My mouth turns up with a wicked grin, and I flip her onto her back. “There’s a lot you haven’t done. And a lot I want to do to you.” I wink, letting her feel my weight again.

Between my words and my touch, I’m sure she’s lost, and that fear is gone when she unleashes a moan at the sensation. When my fingers move lower and over a territory I have never been with her, she parts her legs until my hand is flat over her center. I gasp, unprepared for what it would feel like. Yeah, moments ago we were just about to have sex, but this is so much more intimate.

For some reason I rip the condom off and toss it aside, focusing solely on her pleasure. “There you go,” I coo in her ear when she begins to cry out in pleasure. “Let me take care of you.”

My fingers are poised at her wet entrance, gently easing into her. I move slowly, allowing her to adjust.

“Does it feel good?” I grunt, continuing to move my fingers inside her in a steady pace. She doesn’t answer, only nods, moaning softly.

“Come on my fingers, honey. I wanna know I’m the only one who’s ever touched you like this, made you feel like this,” I urge, curling my fingers inside her in such a way that her body arches.

She holds onto my wrist with one hand. I may not have been the only man to do this to her. I don’t know. I haven’t asked in fear. And I certainly do not want to ever fucking think about any in my place now.

I can literally feel her melt around me, her lips crashing to mine as her body collapses in a blissful state as I get her off.

“Holy hell…,” Ami pants, looking up at me.

I smirk and lean forward to kiss the tip of her nose before rolling to my back, my arms resting behind my head.

Ami shifts to straddle me. Her slick, wet pussy glides freely over my cock and I wish to God I hadn’t talked her out of sex because fuck if I don’t want it more than anything now. She slides back and forth and I flex my hips up to meet her movement. I groan, my head resting against my pillow, savoring the amazing sensations before I have to put an end to it.

It takes her a moment before she gathers her nerves, but then her hand slides south over my bare chest, and then farther, grasping me again.

“Fuck, that’s good.” I groan again, thrusting against her hand, her soft, warm hand.

She scoots back so her ass is resting on the tops of my thighs. “Is that okay?” she asks, stroking me with a slow, steady motion.

I’m not sure if someone’s told her, or if she’s done this already to a guy, which I don’t want to think about, but she’s done this before. It’s evident. She uses just the right amount of pressure and movement and I nearly explode all over her hand twice before I stop myself and draw it out further.

I don’t say much more, aside from the occasional moan as my head drops back against the bed, the muscles in my neck tense. The more I react, the more she does, seeming fascinated by getting me off. “Come here,” I urge, moving her hand and making her lie beside me. “I need you closer.”

She goes and curls into my side, her hand finding my cock again. “Is that good?” she asks, looking for encouragement.

“So fucking good,” I pant, relieved to have someone else doing this for me for once. I groan deeply and throb against her fingers, my movements and hers growing more hurried by the second.

I don’t make much noise when I actually come, given my face is buried in her neck, but she knows what’s happening when my body shudders against her and the warm liquid coats her hand.

I turn my head to softly press a kiss against her temple. “Thank you.”

“Thanks for understanding.” She sighs, kissing my cheek.

“Give me a minute.”

After washing off my stomach, I come back to my room with a towel to wipe her hand off. I feel like I need to say something to her, but I have no idea what. I’m not sure it’s the right time to say anything, so instead I hold.

One time when I was about ten, I came into the kitchen one morning to see my mom crying and my dad holding her. I asked her what was wrong and I will never forget what she said to me. “Evan, sometimes a girl just needs to be held.”

So I hold Ami, hoping that I’m providing some relief for her.