Ice Contact (Milwaukee Steel Riders #1)

45. Hayes

45

hayes

M y fingers tap furiously on the empty beer glass in front of me, my knee rapidly bouncing up and down. A cold rush of air from outside hits my cheek, sending a chill up my spine as my heart races. Glancing over my shoulder, I zero in on the door. Damn. My knee bounces harder. Not her.

“Watching the door won’t make her show up faster,” Vladi snarks as Johnny walks over with another round.

“I am not watching the door, Vladi.” I’m absolutely stalking the door.

“The fuck you’re not. You look like you’re watching a ping pong match the way your head keeps turning back and forth.”

“The Wolf’s right, Larsy,” Johnny pipes in. “You haven’t stopped lookin’ at that door since you sat down. Don’t worry; she’s never once been late. She’ll be here shortly.”

“Someone’s blue balls are crabby today. You don’t want to spend some alone time with me, Larsy? I’ve barely seen you since you’ve been a married man…I’m so lonely without you,” Bougie whines, his voice thick with sarcasm.

“How about you all just mind your own goddamn business?” I grumble, nodding my thanks to Johnny for the full beer. “You can all go fuck yourselves. We just got back from an away game; I’ve had to be around your annoying asses for the last two days. Excuse me for being excited to see my wife .”

The day after the wedding, we had a day off, leaving me a full twenty-four hours to consummate our marriage in every way imaginable in our apartment. God I can’t wait for the offseason. Then we had a travel day for a game in San Jose. We won, and I got my tenth career hat trick, the hockey universe’s wedding gift to us. After the game, we took a late-night flight back to Milwaukee, but didn’t arrive until Olivia was already at work. Stupid time zones. I have been waiting for two fucking days to get my hands on my wife. I tighten my jaw trying to hide the smile my teammates will no doubt give me shit for. But I can’t keep it contained. I have a wife.

The door flies open again, but I don’t turn around, trying to prove my point. I sit patiently at the bar and take a big sip of my freshly poured beer. Johnny looks at the door, then back at me with a cheeky grin. I sit up straight in my seat, my heart pounding against my chest. Warm arms wrap around my waist as a familiar scent surrounds me. I place my hands over the tiny ones gripping my abs, my cock jumping in my slacks. Slightly turning my head, I see flowing auburn hair behind me and nothing else in the bar matters. I swivel my stool around to face the feisty siren standing before me, being gentle enough to not break her hold despite my excitement. Damn, I’ve missed this view. I place a hand on her cheek as I press my lips to hers . Fuck my teammates. I’ll slam any one of them into the boards if they give me shit about this.

She smiles against my lips. “Miss me Hayesy-poo?”

“Every minute of every day, siren.” I drop my forehead to hers, refusing to break contact with my wife . I’m never going to get over that.

“He’s got major blue balls, Liv! They’re making him really cranky; if you can do the team a solid and help him out, we’d appreciate it!” Bougie shouts across the bar. I keep my gaze fixed on Olivia, as I flip Bougie off, seeing Vladi quickly smack him on the back of the head from the corner of my eye.

Fucking rookie.

“What?! I’m just being honest; he’s been a damn grump the past two days. He needs some action. Hell, I need some action.”

Olivia’s cheeks are flushed, but I notice the slightest glimpse of mischief in her eyes. She looks at me, as if asking for permission to reply, and I nod, taking another sip of my beer.

“Thanks for the heads up, Bougie, but since you guys only play with pucks, you can leave the ball-handling to me. It happens to be my specialty.”

I choke mid-sip, coughing up my lager at the audacity of what just escaped her mouth. She just gave the perfect response to shut Bougie up. Damn…I need to take some notes. His eyes go wide at her boldness, his mouth dropping open without any signs of it coming back up anytime soon. Vladi laughs harder than I’ve seen him laugh in a long time, and Johnny walks away shaking his head, probably off to find Walt and fill him in. Once I catch my breath, I pull her in close and whisper in her ear, “Olivia Larson, what the hell has come over you?”

She lets out a slight chuckle, burrowing deeper into my chest. “Someone helped me come out of my shell. Plus, you know it’s true.”

“Fuck yeah it is,” I say, desperate to feel her lips on mine once more.

“Here’s your Strongbow, Liv.” Johnny slides a glass across the bar to Olivia. “I know you’re not singing tonight, but figured you’d like one.”

It warms my heart to see the family she has with Johnny and Walt. It’s comforting to know there are people looking out for her while I’m on the road. And now they are all part of my family too.

“You’re the best, Johnny.” She takes a sip, her eyes rolling into the back of her head and making me incredibly jealous of her damn drink. “By the way, sorry I kept you all waiting. Bill called a meeting at 4:30 and it ran long. He wanted to talk about the new cloud storage we’re moving to. He doesn’t understand it. I almost told him to go outside and pick his favorite cloud and that’s where his documents would be stored,” she says rolling her eyes. “Maggie was coming too, but she has a big deadline tomorrow, and she doesn’t have time to stop by.”

“Aww, no Mags tonight? At least Bougie’s here to keep us on our toes, eh, Vladi?” Johnny looks to my stoic friend, who turns to me with a puzzled, pleading look on his face.

That’s fucking weird . I guess he really doesn’t want to hang out with Bougie.

“Mr. Larson, would you follow me outside for a moment?” Olivia asks, pulling me from my thoughts.

“Outside? In the dark? With you? How do I know you’re not trying to murder me like on Dateline?”

“You don’t,” she says, sauntering toward the door with a playful smirk. I nearly fall off the bar stool in a rush, weaving through tables and dodging customers as I race toward the exit after her.

Bolting into the alley where I helped her to her car what seems like yesterday, I catch up, wrapping my arms around her and holding her tight. “What are we doing here, Mrs. Larson?”

“I was just thinking…” she glances around, her cheeks red from the chill. “We never got to finish what we started here. I wanted to kiss you that night. I figured we could try again.”

A guttural moan escapes me. “Oh siren, I wanted you so bad that night. But I couldn’t have you,” I say, caging her against her car. “I would have cut off my right arm to have kissed you that night, but that wasn’t how our story was meant to be written.” I press my leg between hers, placing my lips on her sensitive neck.

“It wasn’t?” she whispers, her breaths short as I kiss along her jaw.

“No. That night was just the beginning. The ending is ours. We’re living it.”

Olivia crushes her lips to mine in one quick move, both of us eager to complete this unfinished moment in the place we met. Our tongues collide as she fully wraps her arms around me, grinding her sweet cunt into my leg. I bet she’s dripping wet. I press against her, pissed at the layers of clothes separating our skin. Fuck, I need to get her home and in-

BOOM!

We jump apart, our kiss interrupted by the slam of a dumpster lid eerily similar to the first night we met. Glancing towards the sound, I see Johnny taking out the trash once more. This guy has terrible fucking timing.

“Sorry!” he yells over to us with an embarrassed wave. “It was completely unintentional…this time!” He winks as he walks away, his shoulders shaking with barely controlled glee.

Looking at Olivia, we both double over with laughter. “Okay, siren, let’s say goodbye to our friends and head home. I believe you made a promise to my teammates to get rid of my crabbiness, and I’d like to make good on that.”