A throat clears beside us, and we both turn to see Graham standing there. Tripp’s hold on me tightens.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I couldn’t keep lying.”
“Would have been nice to know that before you went out there.”
“I don’t know if you know this about me, but I don’t exactly think things through.” And even with the trade burning a hole in my gut, the lie is out. I have Tripp. And I’ve never felt so much relief.
Tripp tugs me closer. “What now?”
“Now, we wait and see what the blowback from this is.”
Thirty
TRIPP
With Dex’s mouth on mine, his naked body under me while I straddle his lap, the press conference is all but forgotten. I rotate my hips, taking his cock deeper.
As soon as we got home, we knew we had to take advantage of the situation before everything blows up. None of that taking our time bullshit from earlier today.
Dex said he loves me—that he’s in love with me.
I never thought this would happen. I never let myself think about it, because the possibility of my straight best friend falling for me was so minuscule, I didn’t want to hurt myself by entertaining the idea. I’d fantasized about hooking up with him, sure. But even in my fantasies, he never actually fell in love with me.
I moan into his mouth before breaking away and trailing my lips down his neck. Dex’s big arms surround me and hold me tight while I move up and down on his dick.
He buries his head in the crook of my shoulder and nips at my skin. “I could stay like this forever.”
My breath is shaky as I say, “As much as I’d love that, you know our phones are going to start going off any minute.”
As if on cue, one of them starts vibrating from the floor, where we dumped our clothes in a mad rush to get undressed.
“Don’t answer it,” Dex murmurs.
“Didn’t plan to, but we’ll need to stop at some point and deal with it.”
“Not until we both come.”
“Deal.” I lean back slowly and plant one hand behind me on the mattress while my other hand wraps around the back of Dex’s neck for leverage.
My cock stands tall between us, and Dex reaches for it, stroking me fast and hard. I throw my head back and ride him, the slow and intimate moves from before gone with the need to hurry up.
Dex trembles as he tries to hold out, but that encourages me to pick up the pace even more. I want him to fall apart and come inside me.
Own me.
“Tripp.” Dex unleashes. He fills me up but never stops jerking me off even as his orgasm tears through him.
“Tell me again,” I beg.
“Tell you what?” he breathes.
“That you’re in love with me. I need to hear it. I need to make sure it’s real.”
With his free hand, Dex cups my cheek. “I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you. I thought our close bond was the best kind of friendship. I didn’t … I never knew it could be like this. I want to be with you forever. I want you to be my husband. In sickness and in health. Hockey or no hockey.”
My muscles tighten, my balls draw up tight, and then I’m coming. I can barely hold myself up anymore as I shudder on top of my husband.
Dex wraps his arms around me and pulls me close while I come down from my orgasm and catch my breath. I’m Jell-O in his arms.
“I mean it,” he says into my sweaty hair. “I love you. I’m in love with you. I want us forever.”
I pull back and look into Dex’s big warm brown eyes. “I’ve always been in love with you.”
He touches his forehead to mine, and it grounds me in a way that the words don’t. Dex is here. He’s really saying these things. And this is real.
My accidental marriage turned out to be the catalyst that made every wish come true. This was my fantasy. My dream.
More buzzing comes from the floor.
And that’s another reason I know this is actually happening. Because in my fantasies, we don’t get interrupted by phone calls.
Dex kisses the tip of my nose and then eases me off his lap. “You recover. I’ll deal with the phone calls.”
Best. Husband. Ever.
I could fall asleep happy right now.
“Huh,” Dex says.
That can’t be good. “What is it?”
“I have two missed calls from Jessica.”
“Way to kick off the drama. Are you going to call her back?”
“She left a voicemail the second time.” He plays the message on speaker.
“Hey, Dex. Can you call me back? I think I know who leaked your story to the press.”
I sit up. “She, what? You don’t think it was her, do you?”
Dex stares at his phone hard. “Why would she call and say she thinks she knows? That would be weird.”
“Call her,” I say.
“You’re okay with that?”
“You’re allowed to talk to whoever you want. Let’s not have that type of marriage where we police each other. That’s not what a relationship should be.”
Dex smiles and then leans over to kiss me. His tongue presses inside my mouth, but he pulls back way too soon. I try to follow him to keep kissing him, but he stands upright and hits Call on his phone.
“Dex,” Jessica answers. Her voice seems chipper but with underlying … sympathy?
“Hey, you’re on speaker,” Dex says. “Tripp’s here too.”
“I figured,” she says softly. “I saw your press conference.”
Dex shifts. “I’m assuming a lot of people have seen it by now.”
“I feel really terrible about how everything went down between us.”
Dex’s brown eyes meet mine, expressing the same shocked question I’m thinking. Did she really just say that?
“When I found out you had married Tripp, my only thought was about how to save face,” she continues. “It’s why I turned to your teammate and posted that stupid Insta story. I knew how much you and he didn’t get along, and … I was in selfish mode. I was too blinded by that to realize you married him because you were upset over our breakup. I thought … I thought maybe you guys went behind my back. And … that’s what I told Patrick. It’s why we pretended to be together. But I can see that you and Tripp are the real deal. The way you looked at him during the press conference … you never once looked at me like that.”
“I don’t understand why you’re telling me this now,” Dex says.
As usual, he missed what’s being said because it’s not being spelled out.
“She thinks Fensby is the one who told the press we cheated,” I clarify for him.
“Right,” she agrees.
“But what I don’t get is why he’d do it now,” I say.
“That’s the other thing.” Jessica lets out a loud breath. “He wanted more, and I didn’t because you’re so right about him. He’s a jackass. So I ended it with him. Yesterday.”
Dex’s gaze snaps to mine.
It was fucking Fensby.
Thirty-One
DEX
“I still think we should have gone straight to Fensby’s house,” I tell Tripp over the sound of the ringtone on speaker. I’d like nothing more than to knock out a few more of his teeth.