All I'll Ever Need

Seriously, getting out of the house was the hardest part of it all. Sidney was totally focused and ready to get me to school, but then I woke up. Then, I climbed out of bed wearing nothing . . . and he lost it. A part of me wasn’t sure what to think about what he had said, but I realized as he pressed my naked body against the wall and began nibbling all over my body that he meant it.

Sidney wasn’t one to make shit up to make me feel better, but he really meant it.

And holy shit was it incredible to think about. Sidney Crosby, who is probably the epitome of sexy men in the world with his two different sides—the sexy and the adorable—couldn’t get enough of me.

I was nothing special. Literally. Maybe I wasn’t ugly, and maybe my body was a nice shape, but there wasn’t anything special about it.

Seeing the still shirtless Sidney watching me with those ravenous eyes made it harder to move towards the closet to get dressed, but I had to tear myself away. There was a very important test I had to take, and it was important for my future.

But . . . my future was half naked and silently pleading for me to come back to bed with him.

I tried to focus on anything but Sidney, but I could hear him moving, hear his breaths as he tried to push the passionate thoughts out of his head—just like I was.

It didn’t work, but it was easier to walk out when we were both dressed. I grabbed my backpack and let Sidney take me to class, but the entire ride was silent and not because there was nothing to say. The way his teeth clenched together, the way his hand lingered on my leg . . . there was so much going on in Sidney’s head, I think he was afraid to say anything.

Sidney parked the Range Rover towards the back of the parking lot and immediately pulled my face over to his. I wasn’t gonna complain, especially when his teeth nibbled on my bottom lip as he held onto me like I was his lifeline. It was absolutely incredible.

I had to pull away so I could breathe and actually get myself out of the car, but it was hard. The more I moved to get out, the more my heart started to cringe. Literally cringe.

“I’ll see you after practice,” he said, but he struggled to get the words out. His eyes tightened as he slowly licked his lips. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I murmured. “Sid, I . . . thank you.”

His eyebrows rose. “For what?”

“Everything,” I said. “Yesterday, this morning . . . everything. I-I really don’t wanna go to class.”

Sidney grinned, but he turned his face away from me. “Well, baby, I’d love to take you back home, but we both have stuff to do. When I get home from practice—”

I cut him off with a kiss and hopped out of the Range Rover. “In that case, I’m gonna get to class, and I’ll see you after practice.”

That adorable boyish laugh was the last thing I heard as I closed the door and carefully made my way inside. I was running behind, no thanks to the sexy man lusting after me as powerfully, if not more so, as I lusted after him.

I knew that sex would be good when it was a mutual agreement between me and the person I cared about, but I had no idea it would be so addictive and wonderful. All the sex stories I heard from Suzie, from other casual friends I had along the way, none of them even compared to what I experienced with Sidney.

And no one mentioned anything like what Sidney said. Was there something different with us that Suzie had never experienced?

Focusing on my test was . . . impossible. When I managed to push through a question, I was able to answer it properly, but it took me about five minutes longer for each question that usual. On test days, I was typically done within thirty minutes—before anyone else—but that wasn’t the case today.

I turned in my test and walked outside, hoping Matty and Suzie were actually outside. Finding my Jetta amongst the sea of cars was much easier than it should’ve been, and it was yet another painful reminder that my boyfriend was gonna spoil the shit out of me.

Boyfriend.

Suzie wasn’t too thrilled when I made her get into the back so I could drive, but she didn’t argue with me. The drive back to Sid’s was entertaining to say the least. Suzie and Matty didn’t even seem to notice that I wasn’t saying anything as they cut up together. My mind was somewhere else, and I had no intentions of bringing it back.

I went inside and didn’t say a word to either of them. I walked back to Sidney’s room, put my backpack in the back of his closet, and changed into something more comfortable.

Out of my blue jeans and v-cut shirt and into a pair of pajama shorts and a tank top. Since Matty was here, I had to keep my bra on, but I was still much more comfortable this way.

It was hard to distract myself with anything. Even as I played Ghosts with my brother and reminded him that I would always be better than him at it, I kept looking at the time and hating that barely any had passed. Practice was supposed to be three hours, and though there wasn’t even an hour to go, I hated waiting. It was maddening.

Matty got tired of getting his ass kicked, so he grumbled something under his breath and disappeared into his room—not before smiling over at Suzie, however. I don’t think he figured I’d see it, but I definitely did.

I turned back to her with one eyebrow raised. “What was that about?”

She focused on the current dish in her hand as she dried it past the point it needed to be. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, whatever,” I snorted.

She rolled her eyes. “And what about you? You’ve been like a fucking zombie all day. What’s up with that? Did you not have a good time last night?”

“It was the best night of my life,” I said. “That wasn’t it at all. Things aren’t . . . things aren’t like all the stories I heard.”

One eyebrow raised in my direction. “Oh? What do you mean?”

“I can’t stop thinking about it,” I groaned. “I crave it, Suze. Crave Sidney. A-And it’s not just me. This morning, I barely made it to class on time because we couldn’t stop touching each other, couldn’t stop trying to shut out the world.”

Her eyes widened. “Really? You? A sex addict?”

I felt my cheeks flush immediately at the idea, but I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s it. I’m not Sid’s first, but things are different for him, too. He can’t get enough of me. Not sex. Me. So I don’t really think it’s an addiction to sex.”

“It’s an addiction to each other.”

Everyone watched as their captain put his gear in his locker and grabbed his duffel bag. He had no plans to shower, no plans to do anything except get home. As fast as he safely could.

They had other ideas, however. Though they were curious as to what exactly was up with their captain, they all knew what had happened last night, to a small extent.

“Come on, Sid, you can’t seriously think you’re gonna get out of here without telling us how it went,” Beau said as Sidney had, in fact, turned to leave.

Sidney’s eyebrows rose. “Uh . . . it went great, better than I imagined. It’s official now, so . . . yeah.”

“Come on,” Letang laughed, both eyebrows raised as Sidney nervously shifted his weight to his other foot. “Surely there’s more to tell than that.”

Sidney could feel the sweat rolling down the side of his face, sweat that he on most occasions washed off. But there was a woman he was aching to get back to and a shower he could take there, maybe with her.

Yeah, he definitely wanted that.

“Uh, not really.” But that was a lie. A massive lie. Sidney expected them to ask about the sex aspect of it, if there was any sex involved, but it wasn’t necessarily something he wanted to avoid out of embarrassment, like he usually did.

This was something else. He wanted to avoid talking about it because he had finally managed to get it out of his head enough that he could function like a normal person, for at least a few hours. He imagined that when seeing her again, it would be back to incoherent addiction, but for now, he was able to function. He was able to lead them through practice as the happiest—and luckiest—man alive.

Sidney didn’t really expect anyone to believe him, but he at least hoped he could get out of there. His team had other plans, though, and Sidney hated it.

“Right,” Nealer snorted. “Nothing more to tell? No bedroom fun? Just dinner?”

Sidney grit his teeth together and shrugged. “Well, I mean, there’s obviously more to tell, but I gotta get going, so . . . .”

“Holy shit, Sid!” Beau laughed. “You two totally did it!”

“Fuck, Beau,” Sidney snorted, rolling his eyes as his laughter turned into hysterics. “Does it really matter?”

“Um, yes.”

That was pretty much the unanimous answer from all around the locker room, and Sidney wasn’t really able to control himself anymore. The thoughts he had managed to keep hidden came bursting out, and he couldn’t stand to be in the locker room anymore.

At least not without her. Surely they could have some fun alone in the locker r—oh God.

Sidney’s eyes were wide as he put his duffel bag over his shoulders and headed for the door. “I’ll see you guys later!”

He didn’t even care that he heard Letang say, “The Kid totally got laid.”

Yeah, he had gotten laid, and that was exactly what he planned to go home and do yet again . . . but in less vulgar words. It wasn’t “getting laid,” and he didn’t really imagine it ever would be again.

Mika was his. Everything inside of him was hooked on her, and there never could be anyone else. Finally getting to touch her, to kiss her, to fully love her . . . Sidney would never look back.

The moment he was outside of the Iceoplex, he was sprinting for his car.

I heard Sidney come inside, but I was in the middle of helping Suzie cook a late lunch. As much as I wanted to just follow his . . . still very sweaty self back into his room, I managed to focus on what I was doing and help out my very chipper best friend.

Something was going on. The more I talked to her, the more I realized that something happened last night. Had she and Matty agreed to try this? Decided to go out? I couldn’t figure out just what it was, but there was a reason they acted so cute around each other. There was a reason they were both so damn happy.

I was gonna get to the bottom of it . . . and then immediately disappear for the rest of the day.

“So anything exciting happen for you last night?”

Suzie continued moving the meat around to get it all nice and cooked, but her eyebrows rose. “Hmm? Why do you ask?”

“Just wondering,” I said. “It’s a common question that sisters ask each other. You did stay at my house last night with my brother.”

“So?”

I frowned. “Well, I mean, I don’t know. I wondered if the two of you might’ve, ya know . . . worked some stuff out.”

Suzie knew better than to hide something from me, so I wasn’t surprised when she smirked. “You weren’t the only one that got laid last night.”

I immediately dropped the pan of potatoes back onto the stove and gasped. “Holy shit!”

Sidney and Matty both came running into the room, and it took me a second to get over the fact that Matty could run . . . and do other things, apparently.

Sidney’s eyes were wide, though there was something different about the way he looked at me now. “What is it?”

“I-I-I—you got laid?!”

From where Matty stood, it looked like I was looking at Sidney to, probably, both of them, but Matty knew I wasn’t talking to Sidney.

Sidney didn’t, however, and looked even more confused. “Uh . . . yeah? You were there . . . ?”

My cheeks immediately flushed as Matty squeezed his eyes shut. “Ew.”

“Oh, you can’t say shit!” I exclaimed. “Babe, I was actually talking to Matty.”

Sidney’s nose curled as he nodded. “Right . . . .”

“I’m sure he told you that, too,” I sighed.

“And I was painfully reminded that as awesome of a friend as Sid is, we can never have that kind of bro talk,” Matty said. “Ever.”

“Yeah, well, same goes for me and Suzie,” I reminded him.

And no one could argue that.