Chapter 9

Higgy's on kind of a roll so to celebrate, another looong chapter

I’d thought something would change. I’d sat and waited, nursing my rum and eggnog all Christmas day thinking that he’d arrive at my door with a sprig of mistletoe and that knee weakening smile of his. By dinner time I was feeling embarrassed, knowing that he’d probably gone to Kess’s place to share Christmas cheer with Ryan and his family or he’d got together with some of the other singles, Booth , Max, maybe Eddie, and that kind of hurt.   Surely, I told myself, if that was the case they’d have included me. After all, had I not just admitted to being entirely alone for Christmas?

I tried to watch a Christmas Story but couldn’t crack a smile at Ralphie or his little brother Randy, not even when he fell in the snow and couldn’t get back up.

I paced the apartment looking for something else to occupy my mind and ended up opening a bottle of red wine. Before I knew it, I’d drained half of it and then started ripping down the decorations. By midnight I was alternating between tears and ripping down tinsel garland while cursing him and every member of his family. 

That’s when I drunk dialed Eddie. 

Merry Christmas to me. 

He didn’t judge me when I opened the door with what was left of that bottle in my hand. He just took it out of my hand, put it on the counter and led me to the bathroom. I must have been a hot mess because he undressed me like I was his drunk girlfriend, carefully and slowly, before putting me in the shower where he held me while I cried. He never asked why and I hated his hawk nosed bitch of a girlfriend even more for having a strong, silent, sweet man like this and treating him like a walking invitation to every socialite party in the city.

He wrapped me up in a towel and even dried my hair before putting me in bed and holding me like I was a little girl who’d had a nightmare. He stroked my hair and curled his long limbs around me and held me until I fell asleep. 

When I woke up I felt differently about things and took advantage of his morning wood. Not that he’d complained, even though he should have considering they had a game that night. By the time I’d climbed off of him to make coffee I’d decided not to let Chris’s hot and cold running emotions get to me. And then Eddie said I should go with him to practice. So I put my coffee in travel mug, pulled on a pair of jeans and sweatshirt and went with him. 

By Boxing Day I’d been to maybe a dozen practices. Coach AV hadn’t exactly forbidden me from attending but he’d made it clear that especially pre-game morning skates were his time and not time for the guys to be distracted by me. So, careful to keep his rules in mind, I didn’t go into the room and ask the guys what Santa had brought them. I went out to the stands, found a seat up behind the player’s bench where I could see over the glass, and settled in. 

Most of the guys didn’t even notice that I was there. Kess gave me a wave and Burr tapped the blade of his stick against the glass. Other than that, the guys did their warm ups and skated their laps and then Coach called them over to go over some drills. 

When the guys take a knee in front of the coach it’s usually a good time to gauge their mood. If they’re smiling and laughing at his jokes they’re loose and it usually bodes well for the game. If they’re serious and grim then it usually means they’re getting lectured and probably won’t be a in a mood to go for lunch and watch re-runs of Oprah before their afternoon nap. That day they looked loose, most of them smiling, laughing. 

Most, but not all. Not Chris. 

He glared at me through the entire meeting. 

I wished with all my might that I’d brought a book, stopped to a buy a paper or magazine, even that Andrea was there to pull my hair. Anything but have him staring daggers at me. I squirmed and became very engrossed in picking imaginary lint off my sweatshirt. I read every billboard I could see. I studied Harold Snepts entry on the ring of honor. I stared up at Trev, Nazzy and Steamer’s numbers up in the rafters. But every time I looked down his blue eyes were blazing up at me. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore, got up and headed up the stairs. I wanted to flip him the bird. I wanted to scream at him to get out of my head. 

I had angry tears running down my cheeks when I got to the elevator that would take me down to the player’s exit and was feeling like the same hot mess for whom I’d had to call Eddie for clean up duty and I was cursing myself for caring as the doors slid open. I wasn’t even thinking about the walk home yet except that it would do me good and I was trying to think if there might be any liquor stores open at this hour in the morning when I ran straight into a wide, solid chest. 

“Sorry,” I grumbled and rubbed at the tears on my cheeks. 

“Are you?” I’d made the assumption that I’d walked into another employee, maybe even one of the equipment guys but the musky, funky smell that suddenly filled my nose and the feel of the hands that closed around my upper arms immediately told me I was wrong. The voice made my heart race and I cursed it for being a traitor. I slowly lifted my head to look into his eyes and felt a cold, cruel smile spread across my face.

“No, not really,” I admitted. He clenched his teeth and his eyes blazed a dangerous grey.

“So he was really with you last night?” he asked, his fingers digging into my arms so deep that it hurt but I refused to flinch. 

“Eddie?” I asked, just to be sure we were talking about the same thing. He nodded, just once, and I smiled. “Yeah, all night,” I added with a satisfied smile that made his nostrils flare. 

“Damn it…I thought we made some kind of…I don’t know…break through or something. I thought you understood,” he began and then sort of shook me as if it was my fault he couldn’t get his tongue around the words he should be saying. 

“I don’t know what you thought,” I told him honestly, knowing there were still tears streaming down my cheeks and hating that he could see how vulnerable I was. “I mean, I thought that you told me that you wanted me but then you just left and you didn’t even come by the next day. No call, not even a fucking text so…I don’t know what you thought.”  

“I thought you’d quit!” he exclaimed, looking frustrated and shocked all at the same time. 

I stared at him for one, endless moment and then ran my fingers through hair and turned away. The tears stopped, just like that, and now it was my turn to grind my teeth. 

“Would you?” I asked quietly. I knew what his answer would be but I wanted him to say it out loud. 

“Well that’s stupid. Of course not,” he snapped as if I’d asked something ludicrous. 

“So…I’m supposed to just ignore my contract, just let all the guys down and quit, just like that for someone who basically thinks I’m a whore and isn’t sure if he likes me enough to even eat a meal with me?” I asked slowly, choosing my words carefully. 

“If you want me, then…yeah.” I shook my head. It was so clear to him but it wasn’t that clear to me. 

“Yeah well…I’m not that fickle,” I told him, all those jittery butterflies having flown. “I like my job and I like the guys and one kiss…you’d have to give me a whole lot more than one kiss to make me turn my back on that.” The look of shock on his face was kind of priceless as I turned to walk away but for once, since the very first time I’d decided to take this job that niggling feeling of guilt, of uncertainty at the back of my mind was gone and I walked out of the arena with my head high. 

 _______________________________________________________________________________

Not that I wasn’t still furious. 

I paced the apartment like a tiger in a cage, growling under my breath every so often about what a pig he was and wondering aloud how he could he be such a self centered bastard. I knew that part of my brain was trying to assure the other part that I’d done the right thing, walking away from him. I knew damn well that I hadn’t erased every single feeling for him from my heart, but he’d certainly done a good job of making those feelings less significant. 

I was considering opening another bottle of wine when there was a knock at the door. A little part of me, the eager puppy that still wanted both his approval and his attention, had me running to the door in hopes of finding him waiting to apologize and drop down on one knee but when I tugged open the door, it was Kess that brushed by me into the apartment. 

“Just because Megan’s pregnant now Andrea suddenly wants another kid,” he growled, tugging his sweatshirt over his head. I stared at a bruise on his back the size and shape of a stick blade as I closed the door and drew the chain across. 

“Would that be so bad?” I asked, turning the dead bolt. 

“Half the time I can barely look at her so, yeah I’m not sure it’s a great fucking plan to have more kids with her,” he snapped, toeing off his runners and reaching for the belt on his jeans. “I mean, she knows when I take my nap and that she’s supposed to keep Maks and Ry up so that we all go down at the same time so I can sleep but today, noooo, she wants me to look after them so she can get her nails done? What the fuck is that about.” I nodded, unable and unwilling to come up with an argument in her favor.

“That's so disrespectful,” I countered, not talking about his wife, but Chris. Kess snorted as he dragged his belt out with a whoosh and threwit on the floor. I dragged off my own sweatshirt and added it to the pile.

“It’s like she doesn’t get that I’m not a fucking bank manager or something, like she doesn’t even know what I do,” he sighed, dropping his jeans to the floor. 

“Like she doesn’t get that it’s not just about you, it’s about all the guys,” I added and he gaveme one of those ‘you get it’ half grins. 

“Like she just knows the money comes in and she spends it and she doesn’t get that it’s hard on me,” he added as he sat on the edge of the bed and tugged his socks off one at a time. I wriggled out of my jeans and kicked them aside. 

“Like she thinks that you can just turn it off, like what you do doesn’t matter,” I added, thinking about the way Chris had looked at me, as if he couldn’t fathom how I could actually enjoy doing this. As if I could just turn off my feelings for the other guys on the team, as if I could just stop caring about them. 

“I know, it’s like I wanna say ‘are you fucking new?’ he snapped, looking up at me impatiently as I shrugged my bra off and tossed it on the floor with the rest of our clothes. “Sometimes I think she just doesn’t get me at all,” he added with a sigh as I stepped out of my panties and climbed onto his lap. I felt his hands settle on my waist as he guided me down with him onto the mattress. “Fuck, sometimes I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t fuck the shit out of you,” he whispered against the curve of my neck. My eyes fluttered closed. 

This was like a drug, like I’d been jonesing and now I was getting a fix. I felt every single muscle in my body relax as his cock slid up inside of me, filling me. It wasn’t just that Ryan or any of the guys needed me, though that was certainly addictive enough and I knew it wasn’t just because they were all athletes with amazing bodies and equally amazing stamina. The reason that I couldn’t…no, wouldn’t just give this up was that they had become my family, a strangely intimate family and you don’t abandon family. 

“I’m here,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around his shoulders and holding on as our bodies found a familiar rhythm. “I’m not going anywhere.” 

“Thank fucking god,” he groaned, kissing his way up from my collarbone up my neck before capturing my mouth with his. There was nothing sweet and romantic about his kiss. In bed he was just like he was on the ice, never hesitant, never apologetic. Ryan took what he wanted and gave everything, leaving nothing behind. As he rolled me onto his back and ploughed his rock hard cock into me with me abandon I threw back my head and let him chase my cares away. 

________________________________________________________________________________

Except my cares wouldn’t just go away. 

I knew I was still going to have to face Chris and despite the fact that I felt firm in my decision I still dreaded having to face him, knowing that despite everything, even if I steeled myself and reminded myself that he was a pig, he’d still make my heart miss a beat. Even with Kess’s arm draped around my shoulders and Juice doing his worst Bublé imitation into the shaft of his stick, my knees nearly buckled when Chris rounded the corner from the showers in nothing but compression shorts and his flip flops. 

“Damn it,” I cursed quietly, and looked down at the floor. At least the cool, grey concrete didn’t look pleased with itself and its damn six-pack. Kev stopped singing and Kess spun me to face him. 

“Chris and Penny sitting in a…,” I slapped the palm of my hand over his mouth and glared at him. 

“It’s not like that,” I hissed. 

“But you’d like it to be like that,” Kev said quietly, his hand on the small of my back. 

“No,” I lied. I didn’t want to want him but my body obviously felt differently about it. 

“It’s okay,” Kess assured me, his voice muffled against my hand, “we won’t tell.” 

“No you don’t understand,” I sighed, dropping my hand and leaning into his chest, “he hates me.” 

“He doesn’t….” Kev began and I shot him a look that immediately silenced him. 

“He thinks I’m a whore. He called me that to my face,” I snapped. Kev started to get his mad face on and I reached out and pulled him to us, wrapping my arm around his and Ryan’s waists until they surrounded me. “I shouldn’t care what he thinks but I can’t help it,” I added, blinking away the tears that were, once again, threatening to fall. 

“Because you like him,” Kess whispered, cupping my chin in his fingers just the way that Chris had and making me look up at him. I nodded and promptly burst into tears. Both men wrapped their arms around me and held me, protecting me from prying eyes until I managed, hiccupping and coughing to get myself almost under control. 

“Thanks,” I sniffed, brushing at my tears. Kev pulled his shirt off and offered it to me. I took and blew my nose right into it. “I’ll wash it,” I promised. He laughed.

“Only if you wanna keep it,” he snorted, planting a kiss on my forehead. 

“Hey there you are!” I looked around Kev’s thick body to find Hank heading up the hallway towards us. I rubbed at my eyes and plastered a smile on my lips. 

“Are you looking for me?” I asked, wondering if I had the strength for a special assignment. I hoped it would be someone not very demanding like Honey Badger or Eaglet. 

“Higgins just puked his guts up in the room. He needs to go home, can you take him?” I sucked in a sharp breath and fisted my hand in the back of Ryan’s t-shirt.

“Me?” I asked, my voice coming out a high pitched squeak. 

“Why, is that a problem?” Hank asked, his forehead wrinkling as if he never imagined my saying no, which, I suppose, considering some of the things I’d done with him and his brother, I shouldn’t have found odd.

“No, of course not. Let me just get my keys,” I responded automatically, despite part of my brain screaming no frantically over and over.

“We could just call him a cab,” Kess pointed out, which made Hanks’s brow furrow even more. 

“No, it’s fine,” I muttered and dug in the pockets of my jeans. 

“Penny…,” Kev hissed and I put my hand flat on his washboard stomach. 

“It’s fine,” I repeated more firmly and then smiled up into his blue eyes. “I’ll see you later, okay?” He pursed his lips and looked like he wanted to argue but knew better than to try. Instead he leaned in and kissed my cheek and patted my ass as I turned to kiss Kess good bye. 

“If you need me…,” he began to which I smiled. 

“You’ll be playing,” I reminded him, kissed his cheek and turned to head into the room. I could feel their eyes on me the entire way. 

_________________________________________________________________________________

“What the hell are you doing here?”

I glanced up from the book I’d been reading to see Chris leaning  heavily against the wall just inside the kitchen. His color wasn’t really good but it was better and I noticed he had changed clothes, now completely dressed in a clean t-shirt and sweatpants instead of the boxer-briefs I had left him in.

“You’re up,” I acknowledged, sliding a bookmark in to save my place. A glance at the clock indicated that it was a little too late for lunch and a bit too early for dinner but neither of us had eaten all day so… “I’ll put the kettle on. Think you can stomach some toast?”

Though it must have taken some effort he stood up a little straighter. “I asked you a question.”

As I passed him I laid a gentle hand on his forehead and though he frowned, he didn’t pull away as far as I’d expected. “Still warm but better,” I stepped over to the fridge, snagged a Gatorade and stripped the safety seals from it before handing it to him. “Little sips, okay?”

Chris’ eyes, looking much clearer than they had in days, narrowed as he tracked my movement around his kitchen but he sipped the liquid slowly, as I’d suggested. I filled the kettle and put it on to boil and then decided to add some scrambled eggs to the menu since, even if he couldn’t eat them, I was hungry.

He hadn’t moved, just stood there glaring at me and weaving on his feet like a palm tree in a hurricane. “What the hell are you doing here, Penny? Either answer me or get the fuck out.”

I rolled my eyes but the truth was his attitude proved that he was on the path to recovery and after two days of getting alternately praised for helping him and begged to stay and being screamed at for merely existing, nothing he had to say now landed too hard. I’d heard every variation of that very same phrase enough times over the last forty eight hours that it hardly registered. “Why don’t you sit your sick ass down before you fall on your face?”

For a moment I didn’t think he would but then he shuffled over to the island and slumped onto a stool. “I’m not going to fall over.”

“Yeah, well, considering how many times I’ve had to hold you up while you puke, why don’t you just humor me and sit your ass down?” In fact I’d had to drag him from the bed to the couch half a dozen times while I changed the sheets every time he’d sweated through them but in his state I was willing to bet he didn’t remember that.

“I don’t see why you care,” With his chin propped up in his hands and his elbows on the counter rockin’ that just rolled out of bed look I had a sudden vision of five year old Chris Higgins pouting about having to go to school.

Leaning over, I took a good look at him. Yeah, he looked better. Not great but there was definite improvement. “Somebody has to,” I said softly and got away with cupping his cheek for a moment, feeling the bristle of his beard in the palm of my hand. He stiffened and barely refrained from snarling at me. From the pocket of the hoodie I had borrowed from his closet, I produced the cordless phone and placed it in front of him. “Call your mother, she’s worried about you.”

“Oh jeezus you told her I was sick?” he snapped, grabbing the phone. 

“Well what did you want me to say when you didn’t make the road trip?” His finger paused above the keypad and slowly he looked up at me. “You’ve been out for almost three days sunshine.” His mouth moved, forming the word ‘three’ without making a sound. “She’s worried, you should call,” I repeated and then turned to crack an egg into a bowl. 

“You’ve been here…the whole time?” he asked, sounding sheepish for once. 

“Yep, did everything but wipe your ass,” I told him, thinking about how he’d refused to let go of my hand the first night. Not that I would have left him in that condition. “It was here or the hospital and I seem to remember your saying you’d had enough of that the last time they hooked you up to a drip and left you behind. Which reminds me,” I turned and pulled a bottle of pills from one of the pockets of the borrowed hoodie, “do you think you can keep a couple of these down?” 

“Those aren’t my pills,” he grumbled, but took the pills I shook into his hand. 

“No, your pills made you barf on your carpet, which I think you’re going to have to replace by the way,” I added, wrinkling my nose at the memory of two hours spent on my hands and knees with a scrub brush and damn near every detergent I could find. “The doctor says these should be easier on your stomach.” 

“So you’ve been here the whole time,” he said again, this time sounding incredulous. I raised an eyebrow and shrugged. 

“Well who else could do it? By the time your mommy could have got here from New York you might have drowned in your own vomit and your only other choices were rat face…,” he made a face and I rolled my eyes. “Eddie’s girlfriend or possibly Megan but in her condition that wouldn’t have been such a good idea.”

“No, yeah, I guess not,” he agreed and tossed the pills into his mouth, followed by another small swallow of the Gatorade. “Uh…I guess thank you,” he mumbled, almost under his breath. I shrugged and went back to cracking eggs. 

“It’s a glamorous life,” I snorted and reached for the pepper mill. 

“Yeah okay…I guess this was probably pretty awkward for you so…I’m sorry,” he added even more quietly. I wondered how tasty that particular mouthful of crow was for him but decided against asking. 

“It’s like I’ve been trying to tell you, I’m here for whatever you or any of the other guys need,” I told him while I kept my gaze focused on the bowl in front of me. It had been easier to deal with him when he’d been fevered and rambling incoherently. Feeling his gaze burrowing under my skin now made me feel vulnerable, stripped bare.  

“Can we call a truce?” he asked tentatively, like he expected me to bite his head off. I’d bite him, alright, given half the chance but I was no longer sure if it would be in a playful way. 

“Of course,” I agreed, whisking the eggs a little more briskly than was strictly necessary. 

He fell silent while I poured the egg mixture into the pan and I was grateful. I was still suffering from the overwhelming urge to run my fingers through his hair and stroke his cheek the way I’d been doing to soothe him while he tossed and turned.  It had been so nice to be able to touch him without him flinching, to have him grasp my arm and ask me to stay, even if he’d been in the midst of a fever dream and hadn’t really known it was me. It was hard now to stand here, hearing him breathing, moving behind me and not be able to touch him. 

“You okay with that toast?” I asked as I dished the now scrambled eggs onto two plates. 

“I guess so,” he mumbled, picking up the piece of dry toast in front of him from which it was apparent he’d only taken a couple of bites. “Is there any jam?” 

“You must be feeling better,” I smirked as I slid the plate of eggs in front of him and then turned to open the fridge. As I did my phone vibrated in my pocket. It was a text from Katie. 

“I guess I’ll have to take mine to go,” I told him, putting my phone back in my pocket and the jar of strawberry jam in front of him.

“Go?” he asked, spooning the fluffy eggs into his mouth as if he’d just been picked up off of a deserted island and hadn’t seen food for weeks. 

“Hey, go easy on that. Little bites, take your time,” I reminded him, sliding my share of the eggs onto his plate. “Yeah, Katie has a favor to ask apparently,” I added, heading for the door where my shoes were waiting for me. 

“So you’re just gonna leave me here?” he asked, now scooping eggs into his mouth like it was his last meal, savoring each mouthful. 

“Your fever’s practically gone. Text me if you feel warm again and uh…take a shower, you smell,” I added with a grin. “Oh and don’t forget to call your mother,” I added, I slid into my shoes and out the door. 

________________________________________________________________________________

“Saved by the bell,” I sighed as I dropped into the chair across from Katie at the Starbucks down the street from their new house in an upscale area where young, urban professionals were purchasing old, run down Victorians and sprucing them up. 

“I figured you might need a break,” she smiled warmly as she pushed a steaming mug towards me and broke a pumpkin scone in half. 

“Thanks.” I took a long sip of the sweet hot caramel macchiato and let it’s velvety smooth warmth slide down my throat. 

“Sooo,” she sat back and narrowed her eyes at me over her own mug which was clasped in both hands, “Kev tells me you have a thing for Higgy.” I made a mental note to pinch him somewhere it would hurt, a lot, next time I saw him, but shrugged. 

“I’m attracted to him but I don’t know how much I actually like him,” I admitted. It felt good to say out loud, to admit to someone and Katie had been so good to me I knew without having to ask that it would stay between us and not be repeated to any of the other WAGs. She wrinkled her cute button nose and made a face. 

“Are you saying you’re not attracted to my Kev?” I snorted coffee out my nose and reached for a napkin.

“One, I can’t believe you asked me that and two…well yeah but he’s married to you,” I pointed out, I thought unnecessarily but she was still looking at me as if what I’d said puzzled her. 

“I have to ask because…well…with what you do…how is he different from Kev or Eddie or…any of the guys?” This was the exact question I’d been struggling with and considering I couldn’t really explain it to myself I didn’t know how I was going to explain it to her. 

“I guess it would be like asking Marinette and Johanna how they decided which twin to marry,” I shrugged and Katie looked thoughtful.  “I don’t know, maybe it’s because he won’t let me near him, like the whole forbidden thing,” I sighed and broke off a piece of the scone. 

“Or his abs,” she added with a giggle that was so adorable that two guys stopped on the street and smiled at her. 

“Yeah, they’re not bad,” I smirked and felt my cheeks get warm. I cursed under my breath. I hated that no matter how mad he made me, how offhand he treated me, I still wanted him in the worst way. 

“So…does it make you feel differently about being with the other guys, y’know, cuz your all oooh Higgy?” she asked, batting her eyelashes and making a show of fainting into her chair. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. 

“No, actually it really doesn’t.  I mean…yeah, I kind of think that sex with him would be different but…I still like having sex with all the other guys. Actually I’m kind of missing them right now,” I added with a  sigh, thinking that the last few days had been the longest I’d gone without in a long time. 

“That’s good because I have this huuuuge favor to ask,” she said quietly, leaning over the table with this conspiratorial look on her face. Because it seemed like she wanted me to, I leaned in. “You know how the guys are coming back tomorrow…well, I was wondering….”

________________________________________________________________________________

  She had been fine right up until the moment she heard the key turning in the lock and that’s when Katie’s nerves started to get the better of her. I reached out and laid a hand on her thigh and she stilled, like a gentled filly, but her eyes remained wide and she fidgeted with her bustier, alternately pulling it up and down.

“I can go,” I whispered and then pressed a tender kiss to her bare shoulder. 

“No,” she replied firmly, her hand clamping down on my own hard enough that it almost hurt. I smiled and shimmied closer to her, lacing my fingers with hers’ and running the fingers of my free hand through her dark hair. 

I’d been more than surprised when she’d asked me to join her in welcoming Kev home. I’m one of those girls that considers herself to be ‘strictly dickly’, with a few specific exceptions like Kat Dennings and maybe Gemma Arterton, but Katie had been so sweet and so supportive that I didn’t hesitate to agree, especially when she said she wanted to play Mary Ann to my Ginger. It was about the nicest compliments anyone’s ever given to me. 

I could feel her relaxing by degrees as I petted her like a cat and when he opened the door and nearly stumbled, she purred like a big, exotic cat too. 

I’d expected her to spook like a doe when her husband came in the room but she leaned back against me and held his gaze while I swept her hair from her neck and pressed my mouth against her jumping pulse. She tasted of cream cheese icing and her hair smelled of lavender. Kev made a sound in his throat but didn’t move from the doorway, one hand still on the brass knob, his gaze riveted to his wife’s considerable cleavage. 

I felt her sharp intake of breath as my hand slowly brushed over her soft, smooth skin to tug at the laces at the top of the corset. She wasn’t the only one taking a breath, but Kev blew his out as his eyes tracked the work my fingers were doing as, inch by inch I bared his wife to his greedy gaze. Just once he lifted his eyes to meet my inquiring gaze and he smiled, briefly but like a beam of sunshine through dark clouds as he mouthed the words ‘thank you’. I grinned back and kissed his wife’s cheek. 

“Welcome home honey,” she whispered to him, holding her hand out to beckon him closer. He crossed the room in two steps and cupped her round cheeks in his big hands, pressing a forceful kiss on her mouth and then, still cupping her cheek in one hand, he reached back and brushed his knuckles along my jaw and more gently than he had ever done, brushed my lips with his own. 

“Welcome back Juice,” I whispered and then tugged the last loop of the laces on the front of her corset free.