Icebreaker: A Novel (The Maple Hills Series Book 1)
Icebreaker: Chapter 18

WE PULLED up in front of my house three minutes ago, and so far, she’s made no attempt to get out of the car, so we’re sitting in a semi-comfortable silence.

Her hands are gripping the straps of her bag, she’s staring into the distance, and her body is visibly rigid. I know she’s lost in her head, overthinking, so I let her stew for a little while longer, not wanting to intrude.

Another few minutes pass and her lips are still pulled into a tight line, so I reach out and brush my fingers against her cheek lightly, clearing my throat to capture her attention. I curl a strand of her hair around my finger, and she turns her head to listen to me speak. “Do you want to play house?”

“Huh?” She sounds confused, which I can’t blame her for. Faint crease lines appear beside her eyes as she shoots me a funny look. “House?”

“Like what you played as a kid.”

Her frown slowly fades, the corners of her lips tug up slightly. “And what does playing house entail? We gonna pretend to be Mom and Dad to the guys?”

“We forget about the outside world until tomorrow. I mean, if JJ calls you Mommy, I will hurt him, but other than that. What do you call it when you’re catfishing? Positive vibes only.”

“I do not catfish people! I am a positive person,” she insists, lying to both of us. She huffs, crossing her arms defiantly, but she can’t keep it up and her pretend annoyed expression softens. “Have you always been so soft? You’re not at all like I expected.”

“Yep, just how my momma raised me. If I like you, I like you. I’m an all-or-nothing person, always have been.”

A tiny shred of panic rushes through me when I consider that she might take my words the wrong way after we’ve previously talked about what she’s looking for, but thankfully she laughs.

“I would have guessed with your status on campus that you’d have dicked half of Maple Hills by now. A captain title guarantees getting laid, right?”

“I have, and yeah, it kinda does.”

I’m not sure it’s the answer she’s expecting because her eyes widen, and she just looks at me. “Oh.”

“Are you slut-shaming me, Anastasia Allen? The queen of noncommitment?” Her jaw drops, and she begins spluttering to argue back, but I don’t give her a chance, enjoying seeing her speechless. “Hooking up with people and liking people is very different. If I like someone, I want to be around them and get to know them. It’s not often I want something more with someone, so when I do, I make them a priority”

“God, so clingy,” she grumbles, cheeks flushed red. Her hand reaches over to the door handle, the other secured around her bag. “Let’s go in the house before the kids start a riot.”

It feels great when your best friends like the girl you like, but we’re barely through the front door before they spot Anastasia behind me and turn back into golden retrievers. If I wasn’t seeing it firsthand, I would never believe it. I’ve known these guys for years, and I’ve never seen them act the way they do when Stas and Sabrina are around.

Henry is the first to start. “What are you doing here? Do you want to watch a movie with us? Are you staying over?”

Winding her arm around my waist and leaning into me, she grins up at me before looking back at Henry. “Nathan kidnapped me because he wants to play house.”

“You can call me Daddy anytime, Stassie,” JJ shouts at her from the couch.

“Up.” I hip bump her gently in the direction of the stairs. “Stop being a menace, Johal. She doesn’t want you.”

JJ scoffs loudly. “I don’t believe that. Everyone wants me.”

Henry frowns as Stassie heads toward the stairs, muttering under his breath. “I don’t want you, JJ.”

BEING with Stassie completely sober might be my new favorite thing.

I love talking to her. It sounds obvious, and it is, but I love listening to her dive headfirst into a story. The way she has to hold back a laugh when she tells me something Sabrina said, or the sad smile she has when talking about Seattle. Her Brady impression with a terrible Russian accent still makes me cackle laughing, even after I’ve heard it twenty times.

She has opinions and interests, and beneath her obsessively organized and competitive nature, she’s a woman who just wants to do well. It makes me feel shit that I labeled her as dramatic because, don’t get me wrong, she has her moments, but ultimately, she’s committed and she was just scared.

Another fun discovery I’ve made about sober Stassie is that for someone so opposed to clingy behavior, she’s being pretty goddamn clingy.

As in, literally clinging to me.

Like a koala.

Or a sloth.

Her entire body is wrapped around me. Face buried in my neck, hair repeatedly tickling my nose, legs straddling my waist, leaving me no choice but to balance my laptop on her ass, one hand scrolling through a costume website and the other tickling up and down her back.

As much as I wish she didn’t feel shit, especially since it’s because of me Aaron is annoyed, I’m glad she’s with me instead of pushing me away.

“Do you have any body fat?” She wiggles down my body until she’s straddling my hips, sitting up a little so we’re face to face. “It’s like lying on a pavement. You’re absolutely solid.”

Closing over my laptop and putting it on the floor, I turn all my attention to the beautiful woman on top of me.

My T-shirt is drowning her, which is another thing I love. Weird, I know. It makes me wonder if there’s a psychological reason why her wearing my clothes makes me horny.

“I’m sorry the body I work so hard for doesn’t make a good mattress for you.” I run my thumb across her bottom lip, and when she nips her teeth against the pad, a devilish look on her face, all the blood in my body rushes straight to my dick. “I’m pretty sure you like my body for other reasons, though.”

Her hips roll against the erection fighting to get out of my boxers and I swear to God, one tiny movement and this girl has me ready to lose my damn mind.

“You know what I want?” she muses, finger outlining each ab as her hand trails toward my belly button.

“Tell me, Anastasia, what do you want?”

“Food.” She giggles, lying back down on my chest, propped by her forearms. “I’m starving.”

I’ve been trying to get her to choose something to eat since we got home. It’s been an impossible and frustrating task, possibly the most infuriating one of my life.

I offered to get takeout. I offered to cook. I offered to just choose for us, but everything was met with a grumble and a head shake. So I try again, leaning forward first to kiss the tip of her nose since she looks so fucking cute right now. “Burgers?”

“Too many calories.”

“Pizza?”

“Calories.”

When I’m about to suggest Thai food for the millionth time, her phone rings beside us. “Sorry, lemme just grab this…Hey, Ry.” She holds her phone away from her body as his face fills the screen.

Great.

“What’s up?”

“Hey, I’ve just picked Liv up from rehearsal and saw Brin. She said Aaron upset you, just wanted to check in.” I’m trying not to look at her phone over my shoulder because I’m not sure if I’m in the shot based on the angle. “We’re going to Kenny’s for wings if you wanna join us?”

There’s a quieter mumbling in the background, and he chuckles. “Liv says hi, apparently, I’m too tall and I’m cutting her out of view.”

“Hey, Olivia! Yeah, he’s just being his usual charming self, but it’s fine. He’s just stressed because he thinks I’m being irresponsible about…stuff.”

Me. I’m stuff.

“And he’s always in a bad mood right before we compete, but he’ll be fine on the day, which is all I need. I’d kill for Kenny’s, but I can’t. Thanks for the offer, though.”

“I suggested wings, and you said no,” I mumble quietly.

She rolls her eyes at me, lowering her voice. “Calories.”

“Did you just say calories?” Ryan says harshly. “Is he trying to control what you’re eating again? Wait…Who are you with?”

“I’m with Nathan,” she says, holding her phone out to the side so he can see her lying on my bare chest. “And nobody is controlling anything, so don’t start. I have sectionals in two weeks, Ryan. We can’t all live on a diet of saturated fat and carbs.”

To my absolute surprise, when I look over at her phone and give a polite nod, he’s got the biggest grin on his face. “Nice to see you took my advice, Allen. I won’t intrude on your evening any longer. Bye, guys! Let me know if you wanna join us.”

Stassie disconnects the call and puts the phone down beside us, saying nothing.

“What advice did you take?”

“Huh? Oh, he, uh, Ryan said I should stop being so hard on you and give you a chance. Said you were a good guy and I should stop being stubborn.”

I’ve famously always said how much I like Ryan. I’ve always said he’s a really good guy, a wise guy who should be listened to. I take back all the other shit I said.

“And then he said I should fuck you, for science, and Brin agreed.”

I like Anastasia’s friends. They’re good people.

“Is this you giving me a chance?”

I’m prepared for whatever answer comes my way. She’s still here in my bed, whatever she says. I understand where her line is and I’m happy on the side of it I’m on right now.

“Yeah, I suppose I am. Although if I don’t get some food in me soon, I’m going to get hangry and who knows what I’ll say or do to you.”

“I’m ordering Kenny’s. You want wings, so you’re getting wings.” She buries her head into my chest and groans, mumbling some bullshit about putting on weight.

“Oh shut up, Anastasia.” I laugh, flinching when she digs me in the ribs for telling her to shut up again. “Calories don’t exist in pretend realities anyway. It’s one meal and you burn hundreds of extra calories a day. Okay?”

She fiddles with the ends of her hair, anxiously rolling a strand between her fingers. Eventually, she nods. “Okay.”

“We don’t have to talk about it now, but I wanna know what Ryan meant about Aaron controlling what you eat. Now, what do you want me to order for you?”

About an hour later, I have a much happier girl on my hands.

One big-ass bowl of boneless wings and cheese fries, and she’s got a massive smile on her face, looking at me like I created the sun. All I did was place the order and collect it from the front door, but it’s enough for her to be ecstatic.

Henry didn’t know where to look when she breezed past him toward the kitchen in my T-shirt. Nobody knew where to look when she physically moaned while biting into the first wing. JJ’s mouth opened, but even he thought better of it, which was a relief because we have a game on Saturday, and I’d rather not be down a defenseman.

But nothing can stop Henry and his concerned face. He’s been trying hard to not blurt out the first thing that comes into his head, but he doesn’t always succeed.

Stassie bites into another wing and his frown deepens. “I know I will have to listen to you making that noise later, Stassie. It doesn’t seem fair that I have to listen to it over dinner.”

“Fucking hell, Hen,” JJ splutters, spraying his drink all over the kitchen island.

Her mouth hangs open and even I’m unsure how she should respond. That’s my cue to get her away from my friends. When she’s finished eating and has washed her hands, I drag her back up the stairs.

The second I close my bedroom door, she pushes my body against it and wraps her arms around my neck, dragging my face down to hers.

Stassie’s soft body molds itself against mine and her fingers sink into my hair. “What’s the rush?” I ask, tugging down my sweatpants anyway because I’m not foolish enough to ask too many questions when she’s kissing me like that.

“Henry told me I’m loud when I come, so now I want to do it before he goes to bed.”

Jesus Christ.

All the reasons I thought she’d give me, that one wasn’t even on the list.

My hand slips beneath the flimsy material of my T-shirt she’s still wearing, dipping between her legs, and dragging my finger across the outside of her panties. She grinds into my hand, looking for pressure, fingers gripping my biceps as her tongue moves against mine.

Her little noises and movements are driving me wild. Moaning and squirming, her breathing heavy when I move my mouth down her neck and grip under her thighs to pull her up around my hips, pushing her farther against the door.

I’m fucking desperate to be inside of her. It’s all I’ve thought about since Saturday night. Her hips wiggle against mine, and goose bumps spread across my whole body. “What if I like it when you’re loud?”

“Do something to make me scream then, Hawkins.”

I drop her to her feet and grip each side of her panties, pulling them to her ankles when she gives me a nod. The T-shirt goes next, leaving her naked, thighs rubbing together, rosy cheeked and glossy eyed. She’s the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen, and I don’t even think she realizes it. I leave her standing there, throwing myself down on my bed and lying back.

“What are you doing?” Her hands settle on her hips, and she tilts her head to the side, equal parts confused and unimpressed.

“I’m waiting for you to move your ass over here and sit on my face, Anastasia. What does it look like I’m doing?”

I love playing house.