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Imogen He catches me before my legs completely give way and I fall to the ground. One moment I’m on wobbly legs the next in his muscular, strong arms. He looks like he hasn’t slept or shaved in a few days as I take in the stubble around his strong, defined jaw line. “Oh my god, what are you doing here?” I ask as he holds me in his arms, and I inhale whiskey and mint. “Have you been drinking? Are you drunk?” “No darlin’. But I had to come to you. We went to a club, and I had a couple of drinks. When the guys showed me what Luna had said I had to come back to you.” “You couldn’t have slept. When was the last time you slept?” My concern is evident in my voice. I cling to him. Now he has me in his arms I don’t want him to let me go. Our faces are so close, our lips are almost touching. “I did sleep before the game just an hour.” I can tell he is urging to crush my lips with his. “You didn’t have to get a flight at some unearthly hour just to come and see me, Cody. We could have talke
Cody There isn’t anything I can do right now; I know I need to give her the space she deserves. It’s a helluva lot to get your head round, shit if I am struggling then she must be too. And yeah, who knows what Luna has up her sleeve next. “Do you still want me to come to the opening night. I mean, I can duck out if you prefer?” I ask her. Not wanting to leave. The sight of her fills my senses, she is my oxygen but no matter how much I tell her I love her, there is going to be no swaying her. “Do you want to come? It’s up to you.” Right, so she isn’t giving anything away. I rake my hands through my messed-up hair. I need a shave; I’m shattered from having had no sleep and I ache from the game. What I need is to get in my tub back home and let the warm water over me and the tension evaporate. “Of course I want to come. I want to be here to support you. I also know what a media circus this could turn out to be.” “I guess it will be o.t.t.” She sits down on the chair opposite me and
Imogen As we both stand, I feel myself being pulled towards him, he is a magnetic force and I can’t resist him. I know I shouldn’t do this; I know in the long run it could end up hurting me even more than it already does. Fate can be a weird thing and at the moment our fate is on a thin line, who knows how bad things will get with Luna or how he will feel when he sees his baby for the first time. Cody reaches for my hand, and I allow him to take it. Tingles run instantly up and down my spine, the good kind. He moves slightly so we don’t have the table between us and pulls me into him. God, I’ve missed his strong arms around me, his woody scent and his pure hard chest as my head cradles against it. He tightens his grip on me. “I’m never letting you go, darlin’. You are my entire world; I can’t breathe without you. You are my lifeline, my oxygen.” He kisses the top of my head and I then lift my head. Our lips meet, his are so soft like silk as he presses against my own. I part my lip
Cody My heart is literally singing, and I am over the moon. I didn’t come here to see her by ditching my team on a night out after a win, expecting that Immi would agree for us to date again. That was a pipeline dream, I wanted to see her again, to talk to her and reassure her that if she wanted to wait until my kid is born, then I’d be patient. And being a hockey player, let me tell you I am a very patient and very determined man. You see, you all know how much I love this girl, like I told her, she is my oxygen. I can’t survive without her. To hear her tell me she’ll date me again is like music to my ears. Keeping it a secret, that’s going to be a little harder, but we can try. Then there’s the fact that I’m being drafted to Dallas in now just four weeks’ time. Soon after her opening, which I get that I can’t attend. She is right, it’d be total chaos and I don’t want that for her opening night. The long-distance thing and keeping our relationship a secret, Man, that is going to be
Imogen I wrap my arms around myself. He grins, his eyes shine and I can tell he is feeling as happy as I am. For now, I am totally ignoring all those nasty little red flags in my head and the hundred reasons why dating Cody again is a bad idea. I’m taking a leaf out of my momma’s book and going with my heart. “I’ve got to shoot, darlin’. I have to unpack and get organized for early practice tonight. You want to come over later and watch a movie and chill out with me?” How can I resist? “Absolutely. Are we going to sneak me in? Oh my god, do you remember our first time making out and Atlas knocked on the door?” I put my hand over my mouth as I giggle. It was funny thinking back but at the time it was not since I was off limits and Atlas would have literally killed Cody. He chuckles, I watch as his Adam’s apple bobs up and down. “I do. It definitely rained on me; I swear my dick has never gone down so fast.” “Are you still able to help with the painting? It’s okay if you can’t I und
CodyMan, it was such a pull to have to leave Immi at the restaurant, but I am beat with a capital B. I’ve not had any real sleep for over a month and with not sleeping at all in the last forty-eight hours and playing an intense game, I feel like I am about to collapse in a heap.It feels good to be home, I love this house and it’s going to be a shit to have to leave it next month when I go to Dallas. Atlas and I who are being drafted to Dallas together are talking about leasing something like a ranch outside of the chaos where we can have our own piece of tranquillity. I like the idea of riding again; I have the land here around my house by the lake but I’ve not invested in any animals purely because I am away so much and don’t think it’d be fair. Animals become attached to their owners just like we do to them. Maybe in five years when I decide to retire then I’ll have a couple of horses. One for me and one for Immi.I’m allowing myself to run away in my mind again but in all honestl
Imogen As soon as Cody left, I had to pull my phone out and message Autumn. As I wait for her to get back to me, I wash the cups we drank our coffee from and open my laptop up at the reception counter. I need to finalize the flyers to announce our opening and start getting these printed off. I also want to do the write up to send to our local paper for the press release and still need to contact some of the local shop owners to see if they are interested in coming along too. I’m thinking I need to also create some beautiful invites. I may have left a few of these details a bit late, but better late than never. I’m frissioned with excitement at my opening yet sick in my stomach at the same time. Since my restaurant into New York didn’t take off I am nervous at my new start-up. Okay, it didn’t exactly not take off, I had business, but the landlord of the unit just kept hiking the prices up. At least here I know the rental is set for the next two years with no increase, it is written in
Cody I’m reasonably pleased with how much I have actually managed to achieve and even getting a thirty-minute nap in after my shower. I’ve been shopping and have got the ingredients to make us a nice chicken with cream sauce, green beans with garlic and some mash potatoes. It was a bit of an ordeal since I couldn’t get past some of the aisles when people began to recognize me and ask for my autograph even though I wore my baseball cap down low, tucked my hair that’s now by my jaw line out of the way and wore shades. Yes, in the supermarket. When needs must. I’m thankful to my supporters but sometimes you just want to go out and do a quick shop and this trip that should have taken only twenty minutes or so ended up being forty-five minutes. They all wished me well and told me that I played a great game, oh and not to worry too much about Luna. Thankfully, I do still have a tonne of people who are on my side. Back home, I’ve put the potatoes in the pan to boil and the green beans I’ll