You Always Go And Rescue Me

NOTE: It gets a tad steamy in this chapter. I just want to warn everyone.

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Ch. 6

It had been over two months since Zach and I started dating and things were going better than I even imagined. We spent all our free time together and I saw him a lot more with the line of work I was in. We would steal glances from across the room or sneak kisses when we thought no one was watching, and with Christmas right around the corner, I was really looking forward to spending the holidays with him.

Not many people knew about us. Zach kept his word, though I almost didn’t care at this point who knew. The only people that knew were some of the guys on his team, but other than that it was pretty hush-hush. They were all really supportive too, well most of them. I had met Travis and hung around him a bunch of times and even though he was nice to me I couldn’t shake the feeling that he didn’t like me.

Since Zach and I had gotten pretty serious, we were frequent guests at each other’s places. Most of our time spent together was at my house because it was more private and Zach was overprotective. He didn’t want me traveling by myself home late at night or anything. Despite all this I did go to his house, though not nearly as much. Because of the fact that we were serious and it was more convenient, we exchanged keys to make seeing or being around each other more accessible.

Zach had been in the middle of a two-week road trip. I hadn’t seen him even though I talked to him everyday. We would text constantly and fill each other in on our days. When the last phone call of the night would occur, he always questioned my safety and whether or not Sean had bothered me.

It was miserable being apart but he never made me feel uneasy or that I couldn’t trust him. On about the eighth day that he was gone, I had a long day at work and was pretty stressed out. When I got home I put my pajama’s on and collapsed onto my bed. I fell asleep instantly and would have been out cold all night had I not been awaken by a pair of arms wrapping themselves around me.

My initial reaction was to panic, but it took about two seconds to realize that the arms belonged to Zach. I smiled as I turned over to face him, wrapping my arms around him.

“What are you doing here?! You’re supposed to be on the road. Is this even allowed?” I didn’t really care though, I just wanted to enjoy the moment in his arms.

“I missed you too much. I have to take a flight back in the morning, but since we don’t have a game tomorrow I took the chance of coming to spend the night holding you,” he whispered into my ear. “You sound surprised. Did I disrupt your time with your other boyfriend?” he joked.

I kissed him and nuzzled myself into him. “Yes, I’m gonna have to tell him not to come over now. Jerk. How long do we have?”

“Well, its almost midnight now and we have a practice scheduled for later in the afternoon for once, so my flight doesn’t leave until eleven. That gives us about eleven hours.”

“You are incredible. I missed you Zach.”

“I missed you too baby. I love you so much.”

“I love you too.”

I felt his embrace begin to break up. His hands were loosely and freely traveling my body now. I knew exactly where this would lead and the more intense his groping became, the more we wanted each other. It didn’t take long for his hands to roam down my boxers and with each rhythmic motion I was squirming and moaning with delight. Our passion was indescribable. It had been over a week since we’d seen each other and we couldn’t keep our hands to ourselves. We were both breathless and sweating in satisfaction after we had expressed to each other, physically, how much we hated being apart. We quickly fell asleep from a delightful exhaustion, tangled up tightly in each other’s arms.

The next morning I woke up early and made a big breakfast for him. We didn’t have much time, but just feeling him against me, holding me while we slept was so worth it. My heart wasn’t complete without him around, and we just enjoyed each other’s company until he had to go. We had less than a week until his trip would be over and I was dreading watching him go back. We said our goodbyes and as hard as it was- for both of us- for him to leave, we knew it was only a few days.

When the trip was getting close to an end I was getting anxious for him to get home. I knew he was getting home in the afternoon and all I wanted to do was run into his arms. I had a meeting to go to, but as soon as it finished I was heading straight to Zach’s. When I got there I let myself in. He and Trav were nowhere to be seen, until I heard them from the other room. They clearly didn’t know I was there.

“Would you just think about it man?” I could tell that was Travis, and they were arguing over something, but I didn’t know what.

“Trav, just drop it already.” Zach sounded really irritated.

“No. I’m sorry man but I don’t see what’s so special about her. I mean, she’s great and everything, but c’mon.” I couldn’t breathe when I heard that. Travis really didn’t like me and he was trying to convince Zach to break up with me. As soon as I heard that, I hid myself so that I could hear the rest of the conversation without the risk of being caught.

Travis must’ve been getting frustrated at the lack of Zach’s response, so he kept pressing the issue.

“Look, I know you love her and stuff but do you really see this lasting? It’s been what? Two, three months and you still haven’t had sex with her? If you’d come out with me more often you’d be able to get some every night. There are plenty of women who would throw themselves at you.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

Wow. Travis was that shallow, but he was right in a weird, messed up way. Zach was amazing, and gorgeous, and I knew a lot of girls wanted him and would jump at the opportunity to go home with him.

“She’s holding you back. You’re going to tell me that it’s not eating at you?”

“Just because we aren’t having sex doesn’t mean we aren’t satisfied,” Zach said in an irritated, but extremely sexy tone.

“Yeah, but you can honestly say that you don’t want to have a hot night with a complete stranger- or someone who will actually put out- who will give you everything you want.”

Zach was getting to the end of his rope. “It’s not about that.”

“Don’t freakin lie to me. Look, you can stay with her if you want, just get some on the side. She’d never know.”

Was I seriously hearing this? I had just about enough.

“Alright, yes, it would be awesome to sleep with her, but it’s not my main priority.”

“Marc even said her ex got tired of waiting. You know that. It’s not like you couldn’t do the same thing. And you’re smart enough to not get caught.”

Woah, he talked to Marc about me? Marc Staal knew about us? And he didn’t tell me? I couldn’t believe my ears, I felt so betrayed.

“Enough!” Zach’s voice was filled with rage but I couldn’t help but think Travis was getting to him.

“Whatever, you’ll get tired of this eventually.” Travis was so uncompassionate, so numb to what Zach had been saying to him.

With that last sentence I felt the tears streaming down my face. I couldn’t believe how bad Travis was talking about me. If I was holding Zach back from being happy then what was the point? I turned to leave because I couldn’t stand to hear anymore, but in my frazzled state I bumped into the coffee table causing the boys to hear me and run out. When Zach saw my face he knew I heard everything, so did Travis.

Zach looked like someone had just run over his dog.

“Sarah… don’t leave.” He went to go after me, but I couldn’t be around him.

“No,” I said through tears. “If I’m holding you back, go screw some whore with your friend over there.” I turned and ran out and I didn’t look back.

I went back into New York and walked all around the city in a daze. I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t go home because it was too quiet there; I didn’t want to be alone with my thoughts. That’s the funny thing about New York though, you could be walking the streets, in the mist of a sea of people, but still feel more alone than if you were sitting at home looking out your window. After distracting myself from thinking about what had happened….by thinking exactly about what had happened, I finally made my way home. It was late, definitely after dark, and truthfully I was even shocked at how much time had gone by.

When I walked into my dark apartment, I turned the light on to see a distraught Zach sitting on my couch. When he saw me his face lit up. He jumped up from his seat and ran to me.

“Oh, Sarah. Oh my God I thought something happened to you. You have no idea how happy I am to see you.” He grabbed me and pulled me into him. “Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“I turned it off.” I didn’t have any words, I didn’t know what else to say. All I could muster up was, “What are you doing here?”

He pulled apart just enough so that he was looking me in the eyes. “Please, please let me explain.”

The tears in my eyes were breaking his heart.

“Sarah. I’m so sorry you had to hear that. Please don’t think I care about any of what Travis said. Yes, it’s no secret that I want to sleep with you. I’m crazy about you. I love you more than anything… that would be the icing on the cake, okay? But it doesn’t matter because I’m willing to wait for you. I respect you too much to pressure you, and I’d never go anywhere else, I’m more than satisfied,” he said in that sexy tone of his.

“And what the hell did you say to Marc about me? Why didn’t you tell me he even knew about us? Why did you lie to me Zach?” I was angry and he could tell.

“I saw him not too long after we started dating. He told me about what happened to you...it broke my heart to hear it, okay. It was a harmless conversation. And he told me not to let Sean anywhere near you. No one trusts that guy around you Sar-“

“Sean isn’t the point right now, Zach! You lied to me about this,” I screamed in frustration.

He was actually near tears himself, though he didn’t cry. “I’m sorry. I just….I didn’t want to bring up stuff that would hurt you. Marc hasn’t said anything, well at least I don’t think so. I should’ve told you. Sarah, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I don’t care what’s in your past. I don’t give a crap about what Travis says. He’s an unhappy moron. I just don’t’ want you to run away from me because of my stupid friend.”

I just looked up into his eyes. He was still holding me close to him and I couldn’t bring myself to run away this time. He was being honest, and I knew he was right.

“And if you love me so much, and you trust me, then why didn’t you tell me about it? You lied too, ya know. You think I wanted to hear about your past from Staal?” This upset him, and once I heard it come out of his mouth I realized how much that must’ve bothered him.

“I…I don’t know. I didn’t want to bring anything bad into our relationship and I didn’t think Marc would go running his mouth. I wasn’t trying to lie to you or hide anything from you, I’m sorry.” He had a good point. He shouldn’t have had to hear about it from Marc, even if it wasn’t anything bad. “And don’t listen to Travis. I’m so afraid he’ll wear you down. If you aren’t happy…”

“No! Stop that. I’m happier with you than I’ve ever been. You breathe life into me, Sarah. Travis hasn’t ever been in love, and if he has it ended so badly he’s scarred. I love you. I’m not going anywhere.”

“You really mean that?”

“Yes…I was gonna ask you to come home to Minnesota with me for a few days during the Christmas mini-break we get and meet my family. You think I’d be asking you that if I had any intention of messing this up?” He smiled compassionately at me.

I smiled back up at him. “Really? You want me to meet your family?”

He laughed. “Of course! They’re dying to meet the girl who’s stolen my heart. They weren’t sure they’d ever see the day. They thought hockey was the only thing they’d ever hear me gush about,” he blushed.

I reached up to kiss him, I let my hands run up the sides of his waist and around his muscular back. I kept going until they rested softly on his cheeks and kissed him again, but this time it was more passionate. We were done fighting; there was no use in it. We loved each other and that’s all that mattered. When I pulled away I looked at him.

“Of course I’d love to go with you. I can’t wait to meet your family!”

He smiled in relief and hugged me tightly to him. He picked me up and breathed me in. Our mouths met and our kisses were fueled by pure adoration. They intensified with each second and before I knew it, his powerful arms were carrying me into the bedroom. Just because we weren’t having sex doesn’t mean we weren’t passionate in the bedroom.