Love on Ice (Manhattan Mavericks #1)

15. Harper

15

HARPER

“ Y ou finally woke up. I was starting to get worried about you,” Felix says as I groan, rolling out of his arms. Where the hell am I? I rub my eyes trying to orientate myself.

“How long have I been asleep for?”

“Two hours.” Felix chuckles.

“Two hours. Shit. Have the girls gone? I’m sorry I ruined your fantasy.”

Felix hauls me onto him and makes me look up at him. “You didn’t ruin a thing. In fact, you gave me one of the best mornings of my life, this comes pretty close to winning the Stanley Cup.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. Watching Sunny eat me out of you. New kink unlocked.” He grins.

“She knew what she was doing.” I chuckle, feeling my cheeks turn red remembering what she did to me.

“That was beyond any fantasy I could have ever dreamed of. Thank you,” he says, placing a kiss on my forehead. “I think you’ve cured me. I feel like I can take on the fucking world now. There is nothing anyone can say that could ruin this moment for me.”

“Guess my plan to make you happy worked.”

“Sure did.” He grins. “You know what would make me even happier?” I shake my head.

“If I could eat the delicious breakfast Sunny brought in hours ago.”

“You haven’t eaten breakfast?”

He shakes his head. “You wore me out. I only woke up five minutes before you.”

“That’s not fair, I thought I had ruined everything.” I pout at him.

“Never. That was a lot of fun. Thank you,” he says sincerely.

“Glad we settled that. I’m going to go have a shower.”

“Care for some company?” he asks, running his hand up my spine.

“Seems like you’ve woken up ready to go again.”

“You’re like my own personal bottle of Viagra,” he teases.

After another round in the shower, we sit down to have breakfast, my stomach is ready to eat itself. I dig into some avocado toast and poached eggs. Sublime. As I moan around my food, Felix gives me a look. “What? I worked up an appetite.”

“Yeah, you did,” Felix answers cockily.

My phone beeps from the bedside table, and like an addict, I get up, grab my phone, and click open the messages. It’s from Meadow Miller, the COO of my company.

Meadow: Heads up. Page Six article about your breakup has gone live.

“Fuck,” I curse as I click the link.

“Everything okay?” Felix asks.

“Not really,” I answer, chewing my nail as I start to read the article. “Page Six has written an article about my breakup,” I explain as my eyes scan down the article. “I was kind of hoping to deal with it when I got home,” I share as I continue to read. “That motherfucking asshole,” I blurt out. “Josh leaked the news to try to salvage his reputation. He implies that I’m too much of a party girl and that what we wanted didn’t align together.” Tears well in my eyes. “Our futures didn’t align because I walked in on him fucking his intern.”

Felix gets up, grabs me, and places me in his lap as he hugs me tightly. “I’ve got you,” he whispers to me, and that’s what does me in as I burst out crying. He holds me like that for what feels like an eternity until my phone rings.

“I have to get this, it’s my brother.” I sniffle, getting up out of the security of his arms, walking outside to the pool area, and taking a seat.

“What the fuck did Josh do?” is the first thing Sam says.

“Hey,” I say, bursting out crying again.

“Harpie, what happened?” Sam asks, using my childhood nickname.

I sniffle. “I went to surprise him at work and found him fucking his twenty-one-year-old intern.”

“I’m going to fucking kill him.” Sam curses. “I can’t believe that fucking asshole has the nerve to tell Page Six that you broke up because you didn’t want the same things.”

“Guess that much was true, he wanted to fuck his intern, and I wanted monogamy.”

“That asshole. His name is blacklisted. I’ll fucking make sure of it,” Sam says angrily. “How long ago did you break up?”

“A bit over a week.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asks.

“Because I was embarrassed. Like the fucking article says, I’ve lost another man. That there’s something wrong with me because I can’t keep them.” I sob to him.

“Harper, I’m your older brother. I would have protected you.”

“What’s wrong with me, Sam?”

“Nothing. You are perfect. It’s those assholes who have the problem,” Sam says angrily.

“There must be a shred of truth to it because these men keep cheating on me. I must be the problem,” I say, sniffling.

“I won’t hear you talk like that. All I know is you’re pretty awesome. And maybe they can’t handle that.”

“You said something nice about me,” I say through a stuttered breath.

“I’m not going to kick you when you’re down.”

“Mom and Dad are going to be disappointed.” I sigh.

“I’ll deal with them. Want me to come over with champagne and ice cream, I know that cheers you up,” Sam says.

“I’m not at home.”

“Where are you?”

“I skipped town after it happened and headed to The Paradise Club resort.” Silence falls between us.

“Ew. Don’t want to know. But good on you.”

This makes me laugh. “Thanks. Things were going great, and I was feeling good until this bullshit.”

“Something else will happen, and it will all be forgotten,” Sam tries to reassure me.

“They painted me out to be some scarlet woman in the article, Sam. Listing off my long list of boyfriends and accounting for how many cheated on me. My personal life is being used as fucking clickbait.”

“I know. It sucks. What can I do to fix it?” Sam asks.

“Nothing. You can’t do anything. I’m the laughingstock of New York society.” I wipe away the tears that start to fall again.

“You’re not, I can assure you.”

“Kimmy said you guys are heading to the South Pacific on a scouting mission,” I ask, changing the subject.

“Oh, did she now?”

“Yeah. Where was my invite?”

“We’ve pushed it back but if you want to come, come. Honestly, I was trying to cheer Nate up, get his mind off seeing Camryn again.”

“They’re going to get back together. Once they see each other again I guarantee that will be it.”

“I hold out hope for him,” Sam says quietly. “Anyway, if you need anything let me know.”

“I’ll be home in a couple of days. Fingers crossed this saga will be done by then. Mom’s gala is coming up and she doesn’t need this negative press.”

“I know. But it’s not your fault and she will understand,” Sam reassures me. “Chin up, Harpie, I’ll see you when you get back.” With that, he’s gone.

A large hand slides over my shoulder and gives it a squeeze. “Are you okay?”

I look up at Felix and smile. “I will be.”