Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Chapter 11

Happy 4th / Canada Day a few days late...

“Mon ami, I have been trying to call you for two weeks, deux semaine!” It was Max on the other end of the line and Sidney winced. It had seemed almost too good to be true, a week without agents, the press or anyone asking him to do appearances, sign contracts, pose in ridiculous outfits or answer questions about players he’d only met on the ice. It had seemed like the first actual vacation he could remember having in years.

“Don’t you have anything better to do than worry about me?” he asked, wishing now that he hadn’t turned on his cell but he’d been expecting a call from Pat, his agent, about a potential new deal with RBK and he knew if he hadn’t been available for that call, it wouldn’t just be Max flipping out, the RCMP would have the dive teams out dragging the lake.

“Oui, mon ami, much better things, but it’s not like you to not answer your phone for days. I text you, you text back, that’s how it goes, comprends?” Sidney sighed but agreed with a grunt. Max was right, normally he was as attached to his blackberry as any sixteen year old girl, but he hadn’t even given it much of a thought lately. “It’s that girl, isn’t it?” Max said in that accusing tone that was half playful and half not that made Sid wary of answering. If he said yes, he was in for at least an hour of teasing and x-rated twenty questions, but if he said no…. “Elle est là en ce moment?” Max asked and Sid gave his blackberry an evil look but was glad that she was not, all the same as he held his phone in his hand at waist level rather than up to his ear. No one had conclusively proven a link to brain cancer but he wasn’t one to take any chances all the same.

“No, she’s working and I’m…busy, so if you were just calling to check in on me,” Sid began, but knew that he wasn’t going to get away that easily.

“I thought we were supposed to be having our annual fishing party,” Max said sternly and Sid rolled his eyes, imagining the struggle his friend would be having to even keep a straight face as he said that.

Annual? We only had the first one last year,” he mumbled, knowing that argument was going to get him nowhere. Once Max had made up his mind about something….

“Jordy, Kris, Flower, we’re all coming for it,” Max announced, as if it were already a done deal.

“I thought we were all just going to meet in Vegas,” Sid interjected, hopefully. They hadn’t actually talked about that at all, not with the draft following hard on the heels of the awards and then the trip up to Edmonton. That trip was coming soon and it had been something that Sid had been looking forward to, but now…

“Oh no, you’ll be on your best behavior when you’re there. No, mon ami, I insist. We’re coming up there and you’re going to sit in an inner tube avec un refroidisseur ensemble de bières et de votre chapeau de pêche et amuses-toi sur,” Max announced as if that made it so and Sid knew from past experience that once his friend and teammate decided something, there was very little chance of talking him out of it.

“I don’t know,” Sid began, because he had to; partly because Max would expect it and be suspicious if he didn’t at least argue a little and partly because he didn’t really want to spend any more time away from Tabby than he was doing now with her in the store and him replacing the sink in the master bath. Sidney wiped his forehead with the back of his arm and picked up the wrench he’d put down to answer his phone and banged it against the main pipe. “Look, Max, I have all this work to do on the house and….”

“Et un très jolie fille à avoir des rapports sexuels avec et vous ne voulez pas que vos amis gueule de la manière, je comprends tout à fait,” Max sighed, but Sid knew that that wasn’t going to change a thing. “So what you’re trying to say is…you really still haven’t told her, have you?”

“Something like that,” Sid muttered, and winced once again as he heard his friend laugh on the other end of the line.

“I don’t know who you are, or what you’ve done with mon ami, Sidney, white as rice and far too honest for his own good…,” Max began but when Sid didn’t join in his joviality, he added, “so you do not want your cover blown, oui?”

“I’m getting around to it,” Sid grumbled as that lead weight at the bottom of his stomach showed up, the one that made him feel slightly queasy every time he thought about all of the lies that were piling up between them.

“Merde! I don’t know why you haven’t told her but if you want to be known as Patrick, mon ami, if that means that you finally get some pussy and piece of mind, puis Patrick tu seras,” Max insisted and Sidney really did grind his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut. There was going to be no talking Max out of coming. He could practically hear his friend’s excitement at the prospect of seeing him with an actual girl for more than one night.

“Okay, a weekend, that’s all,” Sid insisted and imagined the furry little Frenchman on the other end of the line bouncing up and down and clapping. “And one of these days I’m going to come to your house and create havoc.”

“Qu’il serait impossible. You’ve met my brothers. There is nothing you could do to surprise any of my neighbors mon ami. Jordy…peut-être, but you mon ami…pas possible. So it’s a date. We’ll all be there Friday night.” Sid felt the small hairs on the back of his neck stand up as if sensing impending doom. What he’d have to do is tell her, come clean, explain everything before they arrived. Max was used to lying to women, it was practically his m.o. But Jordy, MAF…they couldn’t be expected to lie for him. Jordy because once he was past two wobbly pops he wouldn’t remember to and Flower because it wasn’t really in him….

No he was just going to have to tell her the whole truth. This had all gone on far too long and it was time she knew who he was before he told her his other truth…the one that involved handing over his heart on a silver platter, because he had come precariously close to doing that more than once now. If he was going to say those three words then it was going to come from Sidney Crosby and not Patrick.

“Yeah Max, see you then,” he agreed, despite his misgivings and the stone weight in his stomach. If there hadn’t been the right time, he’d just have to make the right time.

_________________________________________________________

Tabby spun slowly as she entered the room, taking in all of the candles, the soft music, the dim lighting and last, but not at all least, the dark haired boy in the lavender dress shirt and those jeans she liked. He was lighting the candles in her grandmother’s silver candelabra, leaning forward so that his shirt strained across the width of his shoulders and his jeans hugged his ass even tighter than usual. She walked forward and let her fingers brush across his backside and he flinched, almost jumping and he even let out a little girl squeal that made her laugh so hard tears squeezed out of her eyes.

He had amazing reflexes, which was the only reason that the gas lighter he’d been using hadn’t set the entire tablecloth ablaze. He’d paid for it though, as he cursed a blue streak, using words Tabby was pretty sure she’d never even heard her merchant mariner grandfather use.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh,” she bit down on her cheek as she grabbed the lighter away and put it carefully aside before guiding him into the kitchen and reaching to turn on the cold water, shoving his hand beneath it. “That’s just usually something I would do,” she hiccupped as she tried to stop laughing as he winced as the cold water ran over the angry red welt on his hand.

“I was trying to have everything already done by the time you finished in the store,” he explained and Tabby found herself turning her gaze away from his hand and up into his hazel gaze to see real regret on his face, which touched her enough to reach up to brush her fingertips along the line of his jaw and then to reach up and replace her fingers with her lips. He really was too sweet, too perfect. She felt like if someone pinched her she’d wake up and realize that all of this…that he was nothing but a dream, a figment of her wishful imagination. “And I haven’t even ready any of those books,” she sighed as his lips withdrew from hers’.

“What?” he asked with a hesitant chuckle in his voice. Tabby blinked and smiled shyly at him.

“Nothing,” Tabby began but when he narrowed his eyes at her she merely shrugged before shutting off the tap and running the pad of her thumb gently over the livid red burn on his hand, making him suck in a breath through his teeth, hissing. “I was just thinking how you’re too good to be true.” She looked back up into his eyes and found him looking back at her intently, his fair brow furrowed, his expression serious. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. I know what this is.” She began to step back, reaching for a tea towel to dry off his hand but his hand grabbed her wrist and clamped around it in a steel grip that made her wince.

“What? What is this?” he asked, his voice hoarse, the gold flecks in his eyes luminous, like liquid flame. Tabby looked down at where his grip was causing the bones in her wrist to rub together and then back up at him.

“It’s just some fun,” she replied, trying to give him a playful, casual smile praying he wouldn’t see beyond her mask, her carefully arranged demonstration of outward control. “I mean, do you think I’d have just let some guy I don’t even know move in with me otherwise?” she added, forcing her tone to remain light and flippant, nothing like the churning turmoil she felt in her gut when she looked at his handsome features.

“Yeah, yeah right,” he nodded, taking the tea towel she offered and wrapping it around her hand. “I bet you haven’t even told any of your friends,” he added, reaching to take two wine glasses down from the cupboard with his good hand. “They’d probably think you were crazy.” His gaze met hers’ then and just for a brief moment Tabby thought he actually looked hurt, but then he smiled and turned his back on her. Tabby opened her mouth, but couldn’t think of what to say. That was just true, a fact. This whole thing was crazy.

“But crazy good,” she added, walking up behind him and putting her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek to the middle of his back. “Maybe the best summer I’ve ever had.” Whatever it was, she could feel the tension flow out of him as she held him and finally he pressed his towel wrapped hand over hers’ and she felt that she was forgiven, for the moment. “Now, about all these candles,” she whispered, going up on tip toe to sink her teeth into the lobe of his ear.

“I…there was something I wanted to talk to you about,” he began and it was Tabby’s turn to freeze, her vivid imagination running ahead, creating any number of scenarios that included asking her to join a threesome to asking her to marry him. ‘Fuck girl’, she admonished herself silently ‘you’ve been reading way too many Edwardian romance novels.’ “But it…it doesn’t matter now,” he added quickly as the doorbell sounded and he unraveled himself from her arms and headed for the door, digging his wallet out of his back pocket.

Tabby watched him go, feeling bereft, confused and just a little frustrated. She’d been almost sure she’d given the right answer. Boys…men, never wanted a commitment, or if they did, it wasn’t when the relationship, if you could even call it that, was almost entirely physical. Part of her wanted to march after him, shake him and demand to know what he’d meant by all that but the other half of her cringed and wanted to keep her head stuck firmly in the sand. ‘This is just a fling’ she reminded herself, ‘don’t rock the boat. You’re happy now. Just leave it alone.’ Taking a deep breath, Tabby forced a smile on her face and took the glasses he’d abandoned on the counter and headed for the romantically lit table.
_______________________________________________________________

He was pouting. He could hear his mom in his head telling him not to pull a face but worse than that, he could hear Max laughing his ass off at him and calling him a tool for whining about having what all of the guys were always telling him he should have – a booty call, friends with benefits. ‘Don’t get hung up on all the emotional shit’ Jordy was always telling him that, and yet here he was staring into the depths of his wine glass feeling sorry for himself.

The problem was, he’d tried to tell himself it was better this way, less messy. He’d even told himself long distance relationships never worked; he’d seen his teammates try it, and they always failed miserably and yet, no matter how many ways he told himself that he was better off leaving this whatever this was as it was, ‘just fun’ as she called it, he ended up feeling all torn up inside about it.

Max is right, Sid thought dully as he swirled the dark ruby liquid in his glass, I am a tool. I barely know this woman, how can I be in love with her?

The answer came in the form of Tabby walking down the newly firmed up and painted staircase in a silver grey sleeveless dress with a big silver bow tied at the waist, as if she was a present wrapped up just for him. Sid stared, his mouth hanging open as her gaze held his, her dark eyes, painted a matching smoky gray, holding a promise that made him shift uncomfortably in his chair. The soft swishing sound of crinoline against taffeta and the tap of her matching gray suede high heels as she crossed the floor towards him was the only sound in the room. He was holding his breath, a fact made more difficult as she walked around the table, trailing her long, deep red nails along the edge of the table until she was standing right next to him.

Sid sat back in his chair, which seemed to be just what she had wanted as she straddled his lap, her hands sliding over his shoulders, her molten gaze searching his as his hands slid up her thighs. He forgot to feel hurt or angry and only confusion and a surge of desire remained as her fingers combed through his hair and her mouth pressed down over his. His fingers touched silk and fishnet as his hands roamed over the bow topped stockings and loosed the elastic garters holding them in place. She moaned into his mouth as he wrapped his hands around her ass and slid them beneath her satin panties, tugging them off as she raised herself off of his lap enough for him to pull them free, or at least far enough that he could slide his hand back between her thighs and slip his fingers into her warm, wet center.

She gasped, still holding tightly to his neck, her forehead pressed against his as he slid two fingers inside of her, pressing his fingertips up to that spongy, hot spot that made her go very still. It didn’t have to be complicated he told himself as he held her still with one hand on the curve of her ass as his other hand worked inside of her to make her draw a quick succession of short, ragged breaths. It could just be this; great sex. It didn’t have to be more than this he told himself as her fell back, a whimper emanating from her throat.

Or not, he decided as he pressed his lips to the hollow of her throat, digging his teeth in just enough to make her dig her nails into the back of his head. He’d had good sex, decent sex and even dirty sex with other women, maybe even prettier women, but none had ever turned him into a pulsing mass of hormones and raw need. None made him feel this primal, made him want to dig his teeth into and past the flesh of her neck to taste her blood and none, no woman had ever, ever made him want to hold her and let her shiver and shudder and whisper sweet nothings as she came, over and over without his wanting to slake his own desire. Always…or at least the few times he’d thought himself in a relationship before it had been about him first. He hadn’t had time to worry about anyone else but himself.

So was it because it was the long, hot nights of summer, he wondered as he tasted the salt on the thin skin over her collarbones or was it because something in her, something about her that made him want more? More from her, more time with her?

He fumbled with the fly on his jeans, eager…no not eager, that was the wrong word. He needed to be inside her. Grunting, he thrust his way up inside of her and she cried out in response, arching her back and digging her nails into shoulders. No, it was more than just this, Sid knew as he lost himself in her, in that moment.

He had to figure something out. He had to tell her, not only who he really was but how he felt and what they were going to do to stay together. He couldn’t or maybe wouldn’t lose this, he vowed as she bent to capture his mouth with her soft, sweet lips. There was something, something he couldn’t quite understand, but something important and something necessary about her.

Still sheathed inside of her, Sid stood and placed her back gently on the table. He carefully pushed the candelabra aside and then slid her panties the rest of the way off and then, as she wrapped her legs around his waist and he held his hands around her small waist, he began to rock in and out of her body, watching a slow glow suffuse her face as she stared up at him.

Those words, they were right there again on the tip of his tongue. He bit down on his bottom lip, refusing to give them voice.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered instead and she smiled up at him, her dark eyes sparkling in the moonlight and he had to shut his eyes, squeezing them shut. If he looked at her again, if he saw the way she was looking at him he’d say the words and then she’d laugh and it would be over and he didn’t want it to end. Not ever.

12 comments:

  1. I adore this story..I wish I really understood french to get the full meaning rather than just the gist (any chance you could put the English in there to help us illiterate?)
    I love how he loves her, I love how he is so hot and so romantic. This is the perfect summer romance... Please keep writing and I can't wait to find out how she reacts to his news!

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  2. Thanks for the update.I loved it.Sidney has to come clean soon.. I cant wait to find out how she reacts to his news too!

    -Haley

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  3. Have I ever told u...I HATE FRENCH....LOL.. Thank God for Bing...Great Job. Its cute how he really loves her, but he needs to tell her the truth and hopefully when he does she will uderstand and not freak out to much...Keep it Up

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  4. aww. as much as he hates it, hes gotta come clean, and fast.

    and for those who dont know french like i do. use this to translate:http://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wT#fr|en|

    works wonders for me :)

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  5. I'm anxiously awaiting the day that either he comes clean or she finds out from someone else who he really is. That's going to be on hell of a good drama filled chapter.

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  6. I absolutely LOVE this story! Great update!

    I agree with pretty much everyone else here, that the anticipation of Sid coming clean is nearly killing me! I can't wait to see how Tabby reacts! And i love how Sid realizes just how much she means to him, so he better find a kick-ass way of telling her so she'll stay with him! :)

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  7. OMG...come clean and tell her you love her already, Sid!
    But, I know your writing qfd, and I know that even though he may tell her, it's going to take awhile for it to be a happy ever after.
    And yeah, I concur with BKaleta36, I use http://translate.google.com/#fr|en| and it works great for me.

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  8. sigh. oh, love.

    Why would Tabitha bring that up then, about what they have going just being 'for fun'??? what the heck!!??

    And, this Max and the boys coming in on Friday. Them and their shennanigans will lead to no good.

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  9. "Jordy because once he was past two wobbly pops he wouldn’t remember to": too funny! :D

    Can't wait to read how Sid comes clean and the boys coming over!

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  10. ahhh can't wait until he tells her or she finds out... i have a sneaky feeling shes going to find out through his teammates!

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  11. I love your story, well stories! This is my favorite by far though. I can't wait for Sid to finally come clean and to see how the guys play into the story. Update soon please!

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  12. I love the fact that you don't make them rush into a "relationship", I really like it,

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