Chapter 10

My past is perilous
But each scar I bear sings
Monuments to where I have been
And melodies to where I am going

Monuments and Melodies - Incubus

“So why do you have to go into work early?” Andreas grilled me as I rushed around the apartment, trying to discreetly pack a bag of clothing to change into once I got to the arena.

“My charge nurse called and said they are in dire straights, so I agreed to go in a few hours early to help them out,” I said, flustered by this point because he normally wouldn’t ask so many questions, but after our day at the beach he was eerily friendlier all of a sudden.  He was even semi-sweet when we had sex last night, even though I still thought I was going to vomit every time he thrusted into me.

“Well, then I guess I’ll go out for the evening,” he said as he walked out of the bedroom, finally allowing me to shove my Bolts sweater into my back-pack.

“That sounds like a great idea!” I said cheerfully as I threw the bag on my shoulder and walked out into the living room to give him a goodbye kiss.  “I’ll see you in the morning then.”  I hugged and kissed him quickly before turning to go out the door.

“I thought you wouldn’t get here on time!” Downie exclaimed as he held the back arena door open for me.  He was in a walking cast and was leaning on a crutch.  “Andy-ass give you a hard time or something?” he asked as his eyes intently inspected my face and arms for bruises.

“Andreas has been very friendly the last few days,” I informed him as I hugged him and ran my thumb across his smooth upper lip.  “Thank God that stupid thing is gone; please tell me Steven sha…”

My words were cut short as a pair of strong arms separated me from Downie and pulled me against a tall, hard, warm and familiar smelling man.  I squeaked as his lips captured mine and kissed me hard.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that no more facial hair tickled me while he drank from me.  I drug me hands up his thin under-armor shirt and went to his face; as I moved them up I felt that his face had severe tension and that his forehead was creased with stress lines.  I pulled back and looked up at him, cupping his face with my hands.

“Steven, what is wrong?”

I heard Downie leave out a snort behind me as Steven looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time again.  He took a deep breath and whispered, “I’ve just missed you so much.”

“Jealous!” Downie coughed out behind me.

I turned and looked at Steve and then back to Steven.  “There is nothing to be jealous of Steven Stamkos; it is your bed I plan on being in tonight.”

This remark made him turn bright red from the neck on up, making his white blonde hair almost tinge pink.

“That’s exactly what I told him!” Marty chirped from behind us as he walked down the hall.  I turned out of embarrassed Steven’s arms and hugged Marty as we laughed together.  “Ready for a good game tonight?” he asked cheerfully.

“You bet!  I just need to get changed out of these scrubs…” I began to say but the words were left hanging as Steven grabbed my hand and pulled me towards a door that was labeled equipment as Downie and Marty hooted and hollered after us.  “You are really on edge!” I breathed as he pushed me gently into the tiny closet type room.

“I’ve been going crazy, Liv.  I can’t even think straight or sleep because I’m just worried as hell about you,” he confessed as he lifted my shirt up and over my head, inspecting my body.

I covered my arms across my half naked upper half and stepped backwards.  “Would you and Downie stop inspecting me for some sort of disease?!” I hissed.  “I’m fine.  I promise he has not laid a violent hand on me since.”

“Good, because I swear I’d kill him,” he said in a tone that made me believe every word.

“Do not talk like that Bitte.  I am not fond of your violent side,” I spoke quietly while I reached in my bag for a shirt and my hockey sweater.  As I went to pull the shirt down over my head, Steven reached out and thwarted my effort by pulling me against him and kissing me deeply.  I moaned into his mouth and melted into his body, his hands held me possessively.  I don’t know how many minutes were lost until an obnoxious knock on the door separated us.

“I don’t think it takes that long for Olivia to get changed,” Downie yelled like a mother-hen through the door.  “If coach finds out you are having sex right before games, you’re getting sent to Norfolk.  It’s not like we need you right now anyway, you obviously haven’t found the back of the net in a few games…Ouch!” Downie cried from the other side of the door as we heard Marty smack what I presume was the back of his head.

“He is right about taking that long to get changed,” Marty chirped.

We both giggled as I speedily changed into my game-wear before dramatically exiting the closet room with flushed faces.

“Stammer! Hammer!” A man called down the hallway.  “Your guests are here!”

It felt like an elephant was lifted off my back when I saw her for the first time in several days.  I had worried about her so much that I let my mind play tricks and lead me basically into insanity.  You can’t do this to yourself every time you have to leave her side.  They’ll put you in a padded room and a straight jacket.  I needed to find a balance, which I was sure would work itself out when Andy-ass, it’s pathetic when Downie’s nicknames stick, is back in his motherland.

The other event that brought me completely out of the emotional pitfall I had thrown myself into was the look on Erik’s face when we walked down the hallway to find him standing there with his family and a few friends.  I couldn’t wait to give him the good news of what we had planned for him and his family.

There was only one more loose end to tie up before we could move forward with the home hospice plans.  We had 3 nurses that were able to stay at Eric’s family home to help take care of him, but we needed 1 more to stabilize the round o’clock care and Downie and I had decided we knew exactly who we wanted.

“Liv,” I whispered as Diggity gave Eric the locker room grand tour.

“Ja?”

“Um, I have a serious question to ask you.  I wanted to talk about it to you yesterday, but…Well, um, we need another nurse to help out with the home hospice care for Eric.”

“Oh?”

“Steve and I were wondering if you’d take the position.”

Her eyes lit up and then she bit her lip as the gears turned in her pretty little head.  “But what about my job at the Children’s Hospital?”

I sucked in a breath and rambled off the information, “Well, we took the liberty to contact your agency and they said that they were also involved with the hospice agency we are dealing with.  They said that since it was a special circumstance, they were willing to change your contract so that you could transfer to the hospice company.  The only thing they couldn’t promise is that you could go back to the Children’s Hospital immediately after…Um, yeah, you know…”

“After Eric’s family does not need me anymore,” she said quietly as she looked into my eyes intently.

“Yeah,” I said, stepping anxiously back and forth like Downey.  Ugh, his mannerisms are even rubbing off on me!

She took a deep breath and a smile slowly formed before she threw herself against me, wrapping her arms around my waist and squeezing me tightly.  “You boys surprise me everyday.  This makes me very happy!” she murmured into my chest as I laughed and smoothed her hair.  So it was set.  We would be able to go forth with our Christmas gift to Eric and his family. 

The game started off with a special ceremony for our buddy that included a nice video presentation about Eric with a bunch of pictures of the guys on the team spending time with him.  Of course a majority of those pictures included me and Downie.  I don’t think Eric closed this mouth throughout the whole presentation.  He looked so drained and tired, but I knew he was having the time of his life. 

He was given a jersey with his name and birth-year on the back from the team.  All the guys had signed it for him, along with a hockey stick and a puck.  The front office presented him with a season pass to Disney World so that he could go whenever he felt up to it.  Then it came to Downie and me.  As much as I wanted to speak into the microphone, I was afraid I’d break down so we left our arena MC handle the words.  A hushed silence filled the arena as the terms of our gift was explained to Eric and his family.

As soon as they explained the fact there would be 24 hour nursing care for him, Eric blurted out, “Olivia! You must be my nurse!”  She smiled broadly at him, quick sent a glance to me and Downie and then back to Eric as she nodded her head, confirming that she would be one of his nurses.  He jumped up like a normal 12 year old child would do if they were healthy, throwing himself into her arms as the tears rolled down her cheeks.  I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house.

After the terrible loss in Beantown, the team put on a production for Eric’s first hockey game.  It was a high scoring ordeal and we almost allowed the Avalanche to come back and take the win from us.  Unfortunately, it was partially my own fault because I took a bad tripping call with 4 minutes to go and they took advantage of the Power Play and capitalizing on the momentum again a minute later, putting them within one.  It was definitely not our best 60 minute effort, but it was a win and we would take it.

“That was totally awesome!” Eric exclaimed when I walked into the family room adjacent to the locker room.  Liv had brought him down so that he could congratulate the team and get more pictures if he wanted them.  We bumped fists before I pulled him into a hug.  “I’m sorry you didn’t score though,” he said sadly.

“Me too, I was trying bud.”

“Either way it was way better watching it here in person than on that little TV in my hospital room,” he beamed as he bumped fists with a couple more of the guys that walked by us.  “Are you guys still going to come over and hang out with me when I move back home?  I’m not that far away from here,” he asked.

“Of course!” Downie piped up.  “Now that you are home we can hook up your X-Box to the internet and we can even play against you on the road.”

“Totally cool!” Eric exclaimed.  “Thank you guys so much,” he suddenly became serious as he pulled us both into a hug. 

I looked over to find Olivia and Heather standing there with tears once again streaming down their faces and I couldn’t help but smile, knowing that I was following through with my goal of making sure I never forgot others when I hit the big show.

I went along back to the hospital to help get Eric back to his room safely and to make sure I was taken off the schedule since my new assignment would begin on Monday when Eric moved home.

Once he was settled I headed over to Steven’s for a night of freedom.  I could have sworn there was a car following me at one point, but when I turned into the development, it wasn’t behind me any longer.  It sent some chills through me and I began to worry if I was doing the right thing by lying to Andreas about my whereabouts for the night, but when I saw Steven waiting out on his driveway, my worries flew away.

He already had my overnight bag out of my passenger seat by the time I got out of my car and walked around towards the front of it.  He had a huge smile on his face; a complete change from the first time I saw him this evening.

“Are you hungry?” he asked excitedly after kissing me quickly and taking my hand to lead me into his flat.

“Ja, I am.”

“Good! I stopped by the store and picked up a pint of Ben and Jerry’s peppermint ice cream to keep us in the Christmas mood,” he exclaimed.

I couldn’t help but laugh at his young excitement.  He was still very much like a boy even though he took on the role of a man like he was bred to do so.  Somehow we were able to sit across from each other at the kitchen island as we shared spoonfuls of ice cream, giggling at the faces we were making when the cold, minty ice cream hit our taste buds. 

Of course it turned dirty quickly as I began running the tip of my tongue across the ice cream as it sat on my spoon, tracing patterns into it before taking it into my mouth.  At one point I looked up to find Steven literally drooling melted ice cream from leaving his mouth open.

“Ein problem, Herr Stamkos?” I asked suggestively.

He shut his mouth and covered it with a paper towel that he haphazardly swiped off the roll that sat next to him.  “You realize you are getting coal for Christmas for turning me on like that, right?  You are definitely on the naughty list now.”

I giggled as I popped another spoonful into my mouth.  “I have no clue what you are talking about?”

“Nein, you lie. You have every clue,” he groaned rather loudly as I slipped my tongue out to catch a drip of the melted deliciousness before it slid off my lip.

“I think you are over reacting…” I played some more, enjoying the cloud of lust filling his clear blue eyes with every teasing movement I made.  I shouldn’t be playing him like this, but it turned me on too and I was ready for an active night in his arms.

I jumped when a loud scraping noise of his chair skidded across the tiled floor as I was in the middle of licking my spoon probably a little slower than I needed to.  Before I could blink and figure out what was going on, he was on my side of the counter, behind me, growling into my ear, wrapping his arms around me, effectively pinning me to the chair and against him.  “Liv, I hope you got sleep today because I plan on making you work tonight.”

I squeaked as his breath tickled the skin on my neck.  “You do not seem like a dirty minded man,” I chirped at him.

“I usually am not, but for some reason you make me want to do very bad things,” he growled again, this time the tone of his voice mixed with his breath made every hair on my body come to a tension and I could feel my nether lips quiver at the thought of his hands on me.  I shivered as his hands moved slowly and cupped my breasts.  His lips caressed my neck and his teeth nipped at my earlobe, gently.  He whispered heavily into my ear, “Olivia, you make me feel like I’ve never felt before.  Please tell me I do the same for you.”

“Yeessss,” I whined as I arched my back.  I could feel my nipples aching to be touched.  “I never knew I should feel like this,” I admitted in broken words because my head was becoming fuzzy.

He turned my head so that he could lean around and kiss me, his one hand leaving my breast to brush my cheek with his large hands.  The kiss was light and feathery but leaving promises of what was to come.  When he pulled back we both paused and stared into each others eyes, causing the world to stop spinning.  When he opened his mouth to speak, I could have sworn his lips were moving in slow motion, yet the words came out clear as a crisp winter dawn, “I have fallen in love with you Olivia.”

The sentence spoke to me like bells on an angel’s wings.  Not only was it a declaration of his feelings but I felt like he was telling me that he would fight until the death for me, to make sure we would never have to be apart.  I was surprised when I felt him wipe a tear away from my cheek.

“Something wrong?” he asked in a concerned, quiet voice.

I just slowly shook my head, “No, everything is perfect.  You are perfect.  I love you too, Steven.”

A cocky yet meaningful smile spread across his face before he pulled me off the chair and up into his arms to kiss me hard.  I wrapped myself around him, allowing him to easily move us into the bedroom, completely forgetting about the half eaten container of ice cream still sitting on the counter.

We were standing face to face beside my bed, staring at each other for a moment.  I was so zoned in on her green emerald eyes that she startled me when I felt her fingers slowly working the buttons on my dress shirt.  She broke our staring contest so that she could focus on the undoing of each button with a slow, painful pace.  Once my shirt was hanging opened, her hands were running up my abdomen and to my shoulders, pushing my shirt off and onto the floor.  She immediately untucked my white undershirt and again ran her hands up my chest to push it up over my head.  Her hands left paths of static energy on my skin, causing my dick to ache as it pushed against the confines of my pants. 

I sucked in a breath as I watched her lean in and flick one of my nipples with her tongue, mimicking her previous display with the ice cream and spoon.  A loud groan escaped from my mouth as I felt her hand wander down below my belt and press up against my erection.  “Mmmm,” she hummed against my chest while she massaged the length and worked on my belt with her other hand.

I shivered when the cool room air caressed my newly freed dick when I stepped out of my dress pants and moved towards Liv who was now kneeling on the floor in front of me.  I smiled softly when I looked down to find her eyeing up my thick cock.  I knew what was coming, but it still didn’t prepare me for the feeling of her warm mouth devouring me.

“OOOooh, Liiiiiiv,” I moaned allowing my body to immerse itself in pleasure before threading my fingers through her hair.  She was somehow able to fully take me into her mouth, sending me through the roof when she’d hum as I would make her hold as she deep throated me.  The blood pounded in my ears, muting the sounds of her sucking me off and her silhouette was blackened out as she sucked me over the edge, squeezing my balls to heighten my orgasm as I screamed out her name.  I shot my load into the back of her mouth as she hummed in happiness, obviously enjoying the fruits of her labor.  Shit, that is fucking hot.

After I felt the blood going back to my limbs I lifted her up off her knees and went to work on undressing her, kissing every inch of her skin as I uncovered it.  By the time I got down to her panties, she was lying on her back on my bed staring up at me with eyelids heavy with lust.  I kneeled down between her legs, drug a hand down across her naked body, looping a pinky through her light pink, lacy thong and pulled it down to uncover the treasure I was eager to taste.

I kissed up into the sensitive part of her thigh, lightly laughing as she began squirming impatiently around, my hands holding down her tiny waist.  I breathed in her heady scent and drug the full, flat length of my tongue up along her dripping wet honey pot.  She must have been holding her breath because when she breathed out she moaned and pulled my face closer to her like she was afraid I wouldn’t follow through.  I lapped lazily at her, cleaning up her extra juices before thrusting my tongue in between her folds as I sucked on her pleasure button.

He hummed and I cried out incoherent curse words.  I bucked against his face wanting him never to stop making me feel this way.  He was bringing me quickly to my peak with just his mouth but I was completely at his mercy when he used his long fingers to stroke my core.  I swore I saw the Star of Bethlehem when my orgasm rushed through me.

I was still basically convulsing on the bed as he crawled up over top of me and kissed me with his swollen lips that tasted of me.  It was a kiss of promise, a pact to show that I was his and that he would protect me.  I wrapped my arms around his muscular back and hooked my legs around his ass to pull him down towards me.  I needed him inside of me and I wanted him to make love to me.

His easy smile lit up his face as he easily slipped inside of me, making me coo out his name in a lackadaisical tone.  He whispered over and over again that he loved me and that he would make everything work out the way it was supposed to.  He talked about how we were going to grow old together and spend many holidays together in each other’s arms.  I smiled when he spoke of wanting me to have his children and how he was going to make me his wife when the time was right.  I placed as finger on his lips to shush him at one point so that I could focus on the orgasm that was slowly building up as he stroked my nucleus.  I felt lucky to have such a big man to hold tight to as I screamed out in the dark bedroom that was just lit with dancing candle light.

We made love several more times throughout the night, taking cat naps in between sessions until the alarm went off reminding me that I had to return to my prison where the devil himself was awaiting my return.

“Steven, I need to leave now to make sure he doesn’t get suspicious,” I said as I pulled back from another impromptu good-bye kiss; it was 15 minutes after we kissed our first good-bye kiss.

I was still on cloud 9 as I walked down the hall to my apartment and unlocked the door.  I remember dropping my bag by the computer desk before the first hit that caused my world to go black.