Strictly for Now by Carrie Elks

CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO

ELI

“What are you doing?” Mackenzie grumbles. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about this woman, it’s that she hates waking up. Unless my mouth is doing the waking. Then she’s as sweet as a damn cookie.

But we don’t have time for that today.

“I’m getting up,” I tell her, pulling on my shorts. “And so are you.”

“It’s Saturday.” She frowns. “I want to sleep.”

“We need to head to the stadium early. Before we head to Misty Lakes.”

“What? Where?” She rubs her eyes with bunched hands. Damn, this woman is adorable.

My lip curls. “You’re going to skate on your own today. Then I’m going to reward you by taking you to my cabin for the weekend.”

She looks more awake now. “What kind of cabin?”

I pull a t-shirt over my head. “It’s pretty. By a lake. I built it myself. Now are you getting up or do I have to drag you out of bed?”

I’m kind of excited. We have a few days off before next week’s exhibition game. Some of the team headed home to see their families, a few of the others are headed to Vegas to play the tables.

As for Mackenzie and I, we’ll be spending it naked by a roaring fire if I have anything to do with it.

And lucky for me, I do have something to do with it. Misty Lakes is a vast estate owned by my dad. As kids, we’d spend every summer there with him, messing around in the lake, and getting up to no good.

As we became adults, we got to choose a piece of land around the biggest lake and build our own cabins. We got some help, but mostly we built them with our own hands. By the time I got to build mine, both Myles and Liam had already constructed theirs and they gave me a hand.

But mine is definitely the best. It has two bedrooms and a hot tub I had installed last year. It’s my favorite place to chill out.

Now I get to do it with Mackenzie. If she’d get out of bed.

“I’ll put some coffee on,” I tell her.

“Good idea,” she mumbles, turning over and slamming her face into the pillow. I head out to her kitchen and switch on the machine. It’s more of a wet bar than a kitchen, like you often get in these serviced apartments. After the machine warms up, I slide a pod inside and grab a cup from the cupboard.

She’s still face down in her pillow when I get back. I put her cup on the table and lift her hair up to kiss the back of her neck.

“How about we skip the skating lesson and just head to Misty Lakes,” she mumbles into her pillow.

“Nope. We haven’t come this far to stop now.” It pisses me off that her family let her think she couldn’t skate. Okay, so she’s never gonna win a medal, but that doesn’t mean she can’t feel comfortable on the ice.

It’s like they saw she wasn’t going to be a winner and ignored her.

She groans again and twists in the bed to sit up. Her hair tumbles down over her shoulders, though a few strands are sticking in weird directions.

I hand her the cup, and she gulps it, probably scalding her tongue. And then something miraculous happens.

You know that part of Beauty and the Beast where the beast turns back into a prince? It’s like that, but with Mackenzie. Though she isn’t a beast but a grumpy-ass caffeine addict.

A really beautiful, grumpy ass.

“Oh.” She closes her eyes. “I needed that. Thank you.”

“Now get in the shower. We need to pack quickly. Don’t forget your swimsuit.”

Her brows scrunch down. “It’s freezing outside.”

“I have a hot tub.”

The corner of her lip quirks up. “You do? Why didn’t you say so?” The woman practically jumps out of bed, her hips swinging as she walks naked to the bathroom. I watch and admire.

And try to ignore the persistent pulse of my need.

I’ve gotta be honest, it’s an act of supreme discipline that allows us to get out of her apartment within an hour, without me ravaging her. She’s wearing a pair of tight yoga pants and a gray hoodie that stops mid waist, and all I want to do is drag her back to bed.

The rink is empty when we get there. Still grumbling, she slides her skates on then looks up at me.

“Are you putting your skates on or what?” she asks.

“Or what. You’re on your own.”

There had been a ghost of a smile on her lips. It disappears completely, though, replaced by a frown. She looks at the rink and back at me.

“No. I need you with me.”

I cup her face, then lean down to brush my mouth against hers. “You don’t. You can skate, you’ve done it a few times now.”

“When you’ve been there to catch me.”

“All I want to do is see you skate across the ice and back,” I tell her. “That’s it. Then we hit the road for hot tub time.”

A soft sigh escapes her lips. I know how hard this is for her. The fear that’s built up over the years. The embarrassment from her viral video. The feeling of being less than because her family ignored her.

“What if I fall?” she asks.

“Then you’ll get up, skate over to me, and we’ll head out.”

“Do I still get the hot tub?” There’s a quiver to her voice. This woman who’s so confident about everything.

Except this.

“You still get the hot tub and me in it,” I tell her.

Her lips part as she lets out another ragged breath. A look of determination comes over her face as she stands on her blades. She reaches for the handrail and puts one skate onto the ice, and I’ve never been more proud of anybody in my damned life.

“At least I’m wearing panties,” she jokes.

“More’s the pity.”

She puts the other blade on the ice, still holding onto the rail. Her back is to me, and I watch as her shoulders straighten, her back tightens.

And then she pushes away and glides on the ice. Okay, glide isn’t quite the right word. Wobbles maybe. Whatever it is, she’s doing it. All alone on the rink, with nobody to hold her or race to catch her.

Just Mackenzie and her biggest fear.

I hold my breath until she reaches the other side, stopping dead as her fingers cling to the wooden boards. She doesn’t move for a minute, and I start to worry she’s having a panic attack.

“You okay, Hunter?” I call out.

She’s facing the other way but I still hear her. “Just catching my breath.”

No, she isn’t. But it’s fine. “Did I tell you I’ve got a chef coming to cook us dinner tonight?”

She looks over her shoulder. “What kind of chef?”

“One who cooks the best steak you’ll eat outside of Manhattan.”

“In your cabin?” She doesn’t sound so sure.

“He’s good,” I tell her. “I promise.”

She turns. It’s not pretty, mostly involving her slapping her ass against the barrier and clinging on to it behind her. But at least she’s facing me.

“One minute,” I tell her. “That’s all it’ll take for you to skate back over here.”

She nods. Then looks down at her skates. I mentally will her to look back up again, because if she looks at her feet she’s done for.

“Look at me,” I tell her.

“Only if you take your hoodie off.”

I laugh. But I do it anyway, pulling my hoodie and t-shirt off, leaving myself bare chested and fucking freezing next to the ice.

“Come get me,” I tell her, my nipples shrivelling into tiny points.

And she does. This time it’s less unsteady. She glides toward me, a huge ass smile on her face that matches the grin on mine.

“You’re beautiful,” I tell her. “You look amazing.” And as she reaches the edge of the ice, I scoop her up in my arms and she flails her legs in an attempt not to cut me with her blades.

“You stripped for me,” she says, grinning like an idiot.

“I would have taken my pants off, too.” I gently put her down, wiping the hair from her face as I lean in to kiss her.

Her hands are like ice on my bare shoulders as she kisses me back, that big smile never leaving her lips. A shiver snakes down my spine and I quickly grab my t-shirt, because seriously, my nipples are like rocks.

“Come on. Let’s go have some fun.”

* * *

MACKENZIE

Eli’s cabin is just over the border into Virginia. It takes us a few hours to drive there, but it passes in the blink of an eye as we listen to loud music pumping out of his stereo system, the two of us singing along. Eli has a surprisingly mellow singing voice, and it makes me feel kind of needy. Luckily, he must realize because he spends most of the trip holding my thigh.

His dad’s estate is vast. A graveled road winds through the trees which form a canopy above us, blocking out most of the sunlight. Eli slides his sunglasses over his head and looks at me from the corner of his eye.

And then I realize why. He’s waiting for my reaction as we escape the forest and I see the green rolling hills ahead of us.

“Is this all your dad’s?” I ask.

“Yeah. As far as you can see. My cabin’s on the other side of the hill. You’ll see the big lake in a minute.”

We turn a corner and there it is, sparkling like diamonds. Trees surround the lake, and I can’t see the cabin at all. I can see a huge sprawling house, though, at the summit of the hill.

“My dad and his wife are away with Francie,” he says as we reach the house. “We’ve got the place to ourselves.”

“Who owns all these cars?” There are five of them. One is a Jaguar, another is a Tesla. I can’t work out the other three.

“My dad.”

Oh. He pulls in next to one of them and turns off the engine. “If you prefer we can stay in the house.”

Hell no. I want to stay in the cabin this man built with his own hands. “You promised me a hot tub,” I tell him. “And cabin sex.”

He grins. “And I always keep my promises.”

Climbing out of the car, Eli helps me out from the other side before grabbing our bags. Well, mine is more of a case, but I had no idea what to bring to a cabin by a lake, so I’ve over-packed. Eli bears the brunt of my indecision, having to carry it down the pathway that leads to the sparkling water. “That’s Myles’ cabin,” he says, pointing at a pretty wooden building with a wraparound veranda at the far end of the lake. “He’s planning on rebuilding next summer, to make more room for the family.”

He points out all of his brothers’ cabins, before we finally make it to his. And I’m biased, but I really do think it’s the nicest. He’s painted it a soft green, and like his brother’s, he has a porch all around. At the front a huge wooden hot tub overlooks the lake.

“I love it,” I tell him and he beams.

I’m kind of impatient to get inside, not only because it’s freezing but because I haven’t spent a lot of time at Eli’s place. I think I’ve been afraid of being seen going in and out of there, which seems silly now.

“So this is…” He stops dead in the center of the doorway and I almost barrel into him. Then he groans. “Those motherfuckers. I’m gonna kill them.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Seriously. I’m gonna make it painful. Chop one ball off at a time.”

“Let me see,” I say, trying to look past him and into the cabin. I’m trying not to laugh because he never gets riled up like this. “Get out of the way.”

He steps away and my attempts not to laugh completely fail me. The front door leads into a cozy living room. And every wall in it is plastered with that photo of Eli as a baby. Naked. Blown up so you can see everything.

His mom was right. He was impressive from the start.

“Oh my God. Your dick is everywhere.” Tears sting at my eyes.

“I can’t believe they did this,” Eli mutters, grabbing his phone. He punches his finger against the screen and lifts it to his ear. His call connects and I hear the buzz of a voice before Eli replies.

“Sleep with one eye open, you asshole,” he says. “I’m gonna get you.”

The conversation continues but it’s freezing so I step past him, trying to look beyond the Eli homage on every wall. It’s hard though, because he was a cute baby.

The living room has a fireplace on one side, with logs stacked up from the floor to the ceiling beside it. There are trophies and photographs on the long mantlepiece – whoever did the redecoration put them back when they were finished. If I couldn’t see Eli’s irate face, I’d think he did the wallpapering himself.

He walks inside, his phone glued to his ear as he tries to tug one of the photos off. It refuses to budge. “What did you stick it to the wall with?” he asks the person at the other end. I don’t hear the reply but I can see the look of horror on his face.

“I’m gonna have to steam them off.” He shakes his head. “No, you’re gonna have to steam it off. You did this.”

I walk in front of him and take the phone from his hand. His brow dips as I lift it to my ear.

“Hi,” I say.

“Hey, Mackenzie. Do you like Eli’s new look?”

It sounds like Liam. “I love it. I want it to stay.”

Liam coughs out a laugh.

“Seriously. It’s going to be the next new trend. Anyway, Eli and I have to go now. We have a hot tub to use.”

Liam lowers his voice. “Is he really pissed? We thought it would be funny.”

“We?”

“Holden and I. Though we had to pay Brooks to do it last weekend when he was at the house.”

I look up at Eli. His jaw is so tight you could cut your fingers on it. “He’s fine,” I say. “He’ll get used to it.”

“Have a good weekend,” Liam says. “We’ll see you at the game.”

“You’re coming?”

“Yep,” Liam says. “All of us. Gotta support Eli’s team.”

“You should probably wear a cup,” I tell him, trying not to laugh again.

“Good advice,” Liam says, sounding like he means it.

I hand Eli back his phone and he growls something unintelligible into it then turns it off and shoves it in his pocket. He looks at the walls again and grimaces.

“They love you,” I tell him.

He wrinkles his nose.

“They’re going to your game next week,” I tell him. “That’s love.”

“Your family is going, too,” he points out.

I open my mouth to tell him it’s different. That for them it’s a promotional opportunity. I’m so nervous about seeing them, especially Isabella.

But then I close it again. This weekend is about us. Especially about him, from all the photos on the wall.

And honestly, I’m here for that.