Pucking Obsessed (Bay Rebels #4)

Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

Rebel Arena, Freedom

D ’Angelo

I stalk into the meeting room at Rebel Arena behind Heine.

If Heine looks around at me, he’ll see that my gaze is icy enough to freeze him to death.

Sadly, he doesn’t.

The fact that a man who once was unable to look anywhere in a room but at me, as if I was the sun that he revolved around, is now deliberately ignoring me, churns my guts with dread.

Shivers, which crept up my neck from the moment that I saw Heine again, make me shake.

I battle hard to lock down my emotions and look unaffected.

We had a fucking deal.

Heine isn’t meant to contact me.

Setting me up in order to publicly burn me fucking counts.

I tap my thigh in rhythms of three.

I narrow my eyes against the bright overhead lights in the large meeting room.

Flat screen monitors hang on the back walls. A white touchscreen, which is scrawled with red and blue lines of strategy, runs along the closest wall.

Coach leans with crossed arms against the wall, in front of an empty side of the table. His neck is flushed red with rage.

A large mahogany desk, which is emblazoned in the center with the Bay Rebels’ logo, stands in the center of the room.

Behind me, Shay stumbles at the sight of every member of the board ranged in the arctic blue chairs around it, including the wealthy and unscrupulous Lee, Kates, and Stansfield.

Also, the senior board member, William Bronwyn.

Bronwyn has silver hair and a beard like Santa, if Father Christmas was a thin, ruthless billionaire.

Bronwyn smiles at me, but it doesn’t meet his eyes.

Asshole.

Shay bumps into my back. I reach to steady him.

“Sorry, Sir,” Shay mutters.

I can hear the nerves in his voice.

I hate it.

He should only use Sir , when he’s kneeling for me, and I’m sending him floating into pleasurable subspace.

Shay should only also sound breathy with excited anxiety because I’m playing predator to his prey and chasing him down, before pinning and biting him, until he’s teetering on the perfect edge of pleasurepain .

He should never be made to feel like this by the team, which has adopted him and his brother in the same way that this town has.

For both of us, the Bay Rebels has become our family.

But then, at the beach house this morning, I realized that I also have a family in Robyn, Shay, and Eden, which isn’t related to hockey.

Family no longer is associated with the taste of blood in my mouth.

Family is not the flat look on Mom’s cold face, as I screamed for her to save me — but she didn’t.

Family is not being abandoned by my parents in a discipline school for troubled teens because I dared to kiss a boy.

And family is not being rejected a second time last week by Dad, when he told me that I hadn’t changed .

I haven’t.

I’m fucking proud of that.

Now, I’m loved by an incredible woman. I’m also accepted by men who I intend to give the world to because they’ve offered me a second chance at life.

Although, Eden would probably settle for a cat.

I glare harder at Heine.

Finally, Heine glances over his shoulder at me and catches my look.

To my surprise, he doesn’t quail but only looks smugger.

What’s he planning?

If he tries to go after Robyn or Shay, I’m going to fucking destroy him.

I dart a glance at Robyn, who is at my shoulder.

She looks beautiful as always, despite the crumpled mess of her suit and tangled curls.

She is chewing her lip, nervously.

I wish that I could reach over and release her tortured lip. No one’s allowed to leave teeth imprints in that gorgeous plush lip but me.

Instead, I brush my fingers against Robyn’s. Her gaze shoots to me, and she relaxes.

It’s precisely twenty-two minutes past the time that Robyn should have been lying on the couch with her head in my lap and those lips stretched around my cock.

We should be comfortable in the warmth of my beach house.

It’s precisely seven minutes past the time that I had a whole scene planned, which included me dressed in Robyn’s favorite role play outfit: a tight horse riding outfit complete with riding crop.

I intended to continue her training with Eden’s help.

She’d have been writhing with pleasure under the kiss of my crop, rather than shivering under the judgmental stares of our bosses.

Robyn has so much power, when she offers me her willing submission.

I was born dominant in the same way that I was born bisexual. My power exchange relationships have been the most healthy and positive part of my life.

At least, with one small exception…the small owner of this club, who is currently using his business position to squeeze my balls.

I run my hand through my curls in frustration.

Heine saunters to the head of the table, throwing himself down into the leather chair.

Colton, our hard-ass assistant coach, is sitting on Heine’s right side.

Colton puts the team through hell.

Most practices, one of the team ends up puking.

This is what happens when you put someone who played junior ice hockey and never got over failing to make the selection in tryouts to the NHL in charge of pros.

It’s earned Colton the nickname Stick No Carrot.

Now in his mid-thirties, Colton is as tall as me but broader. His arms are crossed over his barrel chest. He has neat white blond hair and a mustache that looks like a fuzzy caterpillar that’s crept onto his top lip and died.

Heine exchanges a glance with Colton, who shoves a hefty file in front of the club’s owner.

Excellent, the world’s biggest dick of a coach is cozy with the biggest dick of a club owner.

Sociopaths unite.

Heine sprawls back, resting his feet on the table.

Coach clenches his jaw.

If any of us players tried that, coach would bust our balls.

Heine snatches a Bay Rebels logo baseball hat (our bestselling merch), and shoves it over his wavy hair like he’s never worn a baseball hat before.

He probably hasn’t.

He throws his head back dramatically, fixing his gaze on me. “Do I look cute?”

“You look like a dick,” I reply, coolly.

“D’Angelo,” coach says with clear warning in his tone.

Robyn chuckles.

Heine flushes, before grabbing the hat and hurling it over the table toward me.

It hits my chest. I don’t flinch.

“I was making a point.” Heine smooths down his hair. “The hat is cheap and tacky. I want the merchandise changed. Your marketing and PR is boring.”

My eyes flash with rage.

“If you look at the numbers,” I grit out, “you’d see that sports merchandising sales have more than quadrupled since the start of the season. Aren’t the statistics in that thick file in front of you, Charles, or is it only filled with the incriminating evidence on why my ass should be kicked?”

“There’s no need to be aggressive,” Colton sneers, shaking his head. “You always need to control everything. You’re not running this meeting. Don’t be so sensitive.”

I ball my fists.

Robyn places her hand gently on my shoulder; it’s grounding. “Well, I wouldn’t want to bore you, Mr. Heine. After all, this club is your new toy, isn’t it?”

I smirk, taking a deep breath.

Heine frowns. “Then I’m going to start to play. Take a seat.”

My skin itches.

It doesn’t feel right that Heine is directing this meeting.

I glance at the seats in front of coach. It’s a dangerous time, when the safest place in a room is close to a hard-ass like Robyn’s dad.

I glance at Robyn, before pointing at the empty chairs.

Robyn nods, moving with Shay to settle in the seats in front of her dad.

I don’t miss that coach uncrosses his arms and takes a step closer to Robyn protectively. Then he appears to make a decision, pulling back the chair next to Shay and sitting down.

When I move to follow Robyn and Shay, however, Bronwyn stops me.

“Not you, son.” Bronwyn’s eyes twinkle like he’s a jovial grandad. He isn’t. “Stay standing.”

The tips of my ears become red.

So, this is a public humiliation.

I deliberately stalk back to the head of the table like I don’t care that I’m the only person in the room still standing.

This is truly a trial.

My trial.

And I know the asshole who has put me here.

The question is…why?

What does Heine want?

What about the other board members?

“This is ridiculous,” I snarl.

“We didn’t ask for your opinion,” Colton snaps.

Why does Colton appear to have more power in this room than coach? What is he trying to get out of this?

Robyn shoves her chair back, standing as well.

My startled gaze meets hers.

Next to Robyn, Shay pushes himself up as well. Then they march to stand at my shoulder.

“Is this your Spartacus moment?” I drawl.

“I don’t know who that is,” Shay replies, knocking my shoulder with his. “Is he one of your classical dead blokes? But if it means that we burn together, then yeah, it bloody well is.”

My lips twitch. “I appreciate the show of support.”

“Sitting is overrated.” Robyn’s beautiful emerald eyes are troubled, but she forces herself to smile.

I fucking adore this woman.

My chest is tight.

I never thought that I’d find people in my life who wouldn’t let me face the nightmares alone.

Yet my lovers are proving to me that not only will they face my dark past and demons but also the monsters of the present.

Monsters like Colton, Heine, and the board.

I tilt up my chin. “So, I’m here. Who wants to fuck me first? Are you taking turns or is this a gangbang situation?”

Lee, a slim man in his sixties with thinning white hair, olive skin, and a dour expression, grimaces. “Is this how you let your players talk?”

“I don’t let D’Angelo do anything,” coach replies. “He manages to be a dumbass all on his own.”

“What about the other player?” Bronwyn points at Shay. “The talented one out of the twins? That’s a sore looking black eye, son. Did you get it on the ice or a fight off it? I’ve heard the rumors.”

I hiss out a breath.

Shay has frozen.

“Mr. Prince has not been involved in any fighting off the ice,” Robyn says with careful precision.

When she nudges me, nodding toward the line of grim faced board members, my heart speeds up.

Stansfield has turned on his phone and is recording the meeting.

Jerk.

Heine makes a big show, relishing the power, of opening the file and flicking through its pages.

He’s not reading any of it. Instead, he’s studying me and enjoying my twitches of discomfort.

I work hard to keep my face expressionless, but it’s hard when I want to kick the asses of the men and women who are sitting at this table.

“Tell me about this twenty-four seven arrangement that you have going on.” Heine emphasizes the twenty-four arrangement suggestively.

At the same time, jealousy flashes in his eyes.

Does he think that it’s a cover for the fact that I’ve collared Robyn, Eden, and Shay? That we’re in a twenty-four seven BDSM dynamic?

Despite the fact that Robyn and I are in a relationship and we have negotiated contracts, my subs aren’t collared, and this arrangement definitely didn’t start out planned that way.

In fact, I was furious that I had to share a house with them to begin with.

“I organized it,” coach gruffly replies. “Three members of the team were my worse PR nightmares. Yet I knew that if they were controlled, then they also had the most potential. I was proved right. The PR has been turned around. Look at how the season is going. We’ve broken our records. So, why the hell has this meeting been called? We just put on our best performance in the California road trip. The fans and press are the most positive about our team that they ever have been. This is bullshit.”

I grin.

At least coach is in our corner.

Coach mentored me and took me under his wing. He gave me a chance that no one else would, when I was at my most self-destructive.

Of course, he’s also hard on Shay, Cody, and me in a way that I know isn’t right.

Yet he’s Robyn’s only family apart from Cody. I’d never take that away from her, when I know how much it hurts to lose your family.

I can hardly breathe in this room right now with so many people stealing my control from me.

I don’t submit. It’s unnatural to me.

It makes me want to hurl.

“Why are we having this meeting?” Heine taps his chin thoughtfully. “Maybe because of the board being sent this…”

Dramatically, he launches the file flying into the center of the table. The file flutters open onto press cuttings, official complaints, and print outs of emails.

My pulse spikes. Sweat drips down the back of my neck.

It could be anything.

My past. My dominant lifestyle. My poly relationship.

Fuck.

“What are they?” Robyn asks.

Her voice sounds steadier than mine would have been.

“ Noise ,” Bronwyn replies, clasping his hands on the top of the desk. “I warned you once that I didn’t want any more of this. Messy affairs over the news like your divorce to Wilder Talon once was.” Robyn flinches. I glare at Bronwyn. “The focus of this season needed to be the games that are won and not scandals, freak outs on the ice, and complaints from other clubs.”

“Why have you decided to blame everything on me as captain?” My gaze slides from Colton to Heine.

I know why.

Both these men have been threatening me for years.

Is this their attempt to have me kicked out and sent to the minor leagues?

Who sent the board that file?

Was it Colton?

Colton hates that I challenge him and stick up for the rest of the team, when he bullies them. Has he schemed, created this file on me, and gone behind coach’s back to the board and club owner to get me kicked out?

My shoulders stiffen.

Except, nobody knows who Heine truly is. He isn’t merely the club owner.

Merely a narcissistic billionaire.

He’s also a man who has been love bombing me, since we first met in my therapist’s waiting room. A man who both loves and hates me because I rejected him to start with and then...then I wouldn’t become what he wanted.

“He’s the best captain,” Shay says, passionately. “The players worship him. He’s mentored me, since I started. I’ve learned such a lot. Everyone learns from his brilliant example of dedication and teamwork.”

“I see that you have your cheerleader.” Lee snorts.

Shay ducks his head. “It’s true.”

“PR wise, he’s transformed himself from the devil of the team to the angel.” Robyn strides to the edge of the table, resting her hands on it.

Heine laughs, derisively.

I force myself not to show Heine what true aggression is by fiddling with my cashmere scarf.

Robyn looks hot defending me as she leans further over the table. “The website that Eden and I set up with photographs on it, which show Shay and D’Angelo in their day to day lives, has hyped both the team and the PR perception of the players. The scandals that you’re talking about were not D’Angelo’s fault. Right now, you’re victim blaming. Instead, you should be focusing on the fact that standing in front of you are two of the best players in the whole damn NHL.”

I am never going to get tired of being defended by this woman.

But then, I notice the dark red stain that’s spreading out on the back of Robyn’s ivory suit, as she bends forward.

I noticed her clutching her stomach earlier.

Perhaps, it wasn’t only because of hunger from missing lunch.

It suits our luck today, as does her choice of wearing ivory.

Casually, I slip off my long coat. “You’re shivering. Wear this.”

Confused, Robyn straightens. But she allows me to slip my coat over her shoulders to cover the stain, before anyone else in the room sees it.

“How considerate.” Heine rolls his eyes, before pulling out his phone and holding it up. “The problem is what an unpredictable, drunken playboy you are.”

I arch my eyebrow. “Takes one to know one.”

Shay chuckles.

Heine stabs at his phone in response, holding it higher for everybody to see the furious dance under the moonlight that I was blackmailed into recording live by another team’s coach, during the road trip.

I pale.

“I’m glad that I could entertain you.” I cross my arms to hide that they’re shaking. “Watch that a lot of times, did you?”

I try not to imagine what Heine could have been doing with his hands, while he was watching the video.

Heine tilts his head, widening his cornflower blue eyes like that can make them look innocent and not more like a hitman’s. “Most of America did. My favorite headline was: The Puck Off Dance from the Puck Boy.”

“ Noise .” Bronwyn tuts. “Hockey is a tough enough sport without distractions. We don’t want this club to be associated with…” I meet his gaze willing him to say the next words. I’ll rip him to fucking shreds. This meeting is being recorded. “…your type of activities.”

“ My type of activities ,” I say, deadly soft.

I know what he’s hinting at.

I’ve heard it before.

It hits me hard each time.

Shay takes a furious step forward. “You can’t say that.”

“He just did,” Kates points out. He’s a preppy looking businessman who looks like he’d prefer to be anywhere but here. “Settle down. Remember your place. You’re only players.”

Only players.

I work so hard to make Shay not feel only anything. Then these entitled assholes say that to him.

“Jude isn’t,” Shay replies. “The team would fall apart without him.”

I would fall apart. I hear what Shay isn’t saying.

Warmth spreads through me.

To my shock, coach grabs a file of his own, which is equally as thick, that’s resting on the empty chair. He hurls it onto the center of the table.

Pages fly out like paper rain in front of the startled board members.

The file lands with a thump.

“This is why this whole thing is bullshit,” coach growls. “So, Jude gets mixed up in some scandals. Who gives a damn? He wasn’t the one who did anything wrong. On the ice, he’s the reason that we’re winning, along with the man who’s choosing to stand at his shoulder right now in front of your firing squad. Shay is our secret weapon. He’s the best new player in the NHL.”

“What’s all this?” Bronwyn pokes the new file on the table.

“Dozens of character reference letters in support of Jude from players and every single staff member.” Coach leans forward, forcing each board member to meet his gaze in turn. Lee cringes back. “Our captain has his flaws but the man is liked, even more so by the fans. If you try to kick his ass out of this team, then those fans will damn well come for you.”

I gape at coach in shock.

Robyn is looking at her dad in the same way.

I never expected him to back me up like this.

Has he really asked the staff and team for recommendations? Or is this a bluff?

It appears to be working.

Lee coughs. “Well, it appears that Mr. McKenna may have a point.”

Kates reluctantly nods.

“What do you think?” Heine turns to Colton. The move is too slick and practiced. “You coach him. What’s your report?”

Colton relaxes back in his chair, looking me up and down.

He’s reveling in building the tension and my anxiety.

Fucking gloating.

I grit my teeth.

Colton smooths over his mustache. “I won’t sugarcoat it. He’s unmanageable. Insubordinate. Doesn’t know his place.”

“You’re too kind.” I adjust my cuff links.

“He’s also a bad influence on the other players.” Colton’s voice raises in volume. “He encourages them to whine, rather than push past their limits. He backtalks, unable to take orders. He has no tolerance for true pain.”

If only he knew how much true pain I’ve suffered in my life.

Heine laughs, before hurriedly pretending that he’s coughing.

“Is that so?” Heine’s dancing gaze meets mine. “I think that we need a private meeting.”

My blood freezes.

So, this was Heine’s plan all along.

“No,” I burst out, involuntarily.

Robyn’s eyes are lit with concern. She takes a step back closer to me.

Shay’s expression hardens. He studies Heine more closely.

Heine slips his boots off the table, in order to lean his hands on it. “How about a friendly drink, instead?”

“No,” I whisper.

I become ashen.

A dark room. Throbbing music. Crimson horns and white feathers…

My breathing becomes rapid and shallow. I push my nails hard into my palms to anchor myself.

Yet I feel myself slipping.

“Informally, off the record,” Heine offers again. “We could make all of this go away without…”

He gestures at Lee’s phone, which is still recording.

“I said no,” I yell.

I’m breathing too hard.

I feel like everyone in the room must be able to hear my heartbeat that’s roaring in my ears.

Why is everyone staring at me like that?

“So emotional,” Colton sneers. “Just like a woman.”

Heine gives a sly smile. “I’m only trying to help you.”

“Didn’t you hear him?” Robyn puts her hands on her hips. She looks like a fierce Amazonian. “He said no . He shouldn’t have to say it more than once. In fact, it shouldn’t have got to the point of him needing to say it at all.”

“Yeah, fuck off with your private meetings,” Shay adds.

A heavy silence settles over the room.

Shay has just told our boss and billionaire owner to fuck off .

He appears to realize it at the same time as I do.

Shay never backtalks Colton or coach, no matter how much they bust his balls. For my sake, however, he’s prepared to stand up to Heine in front of the entire board.

It still means that we’re screwed.

Shay casts me a wary glance like he expects me to kick his ass for what he said.

Instead, I smile at him.

I wish that I could mouth good boy.

I’m definitely rewarding both Robyn and him later.

I’m glad that Eden isn’t here. He’d probably be threatening to burn the board and Heine literally in retaliation.

Right now, I may let him.

Heine looks stunned.

“See what I mean?” Colton growls. “The team are unprofessional and defiant. They need tighter reins.”

“Are you intending to be the one holding them?” Coach’s gruff voice is threaded with hurt.

Colton doesn’t reply.

Coach employed Colton, when he’d never had a job in the NHL before. He trained him up. And he’s defended him, despite him being controversial on the team.

But now, the sneaky asshole is after his job.

Heine sprawls back in his seat. “How about this? I give you one more chance.”

“Uh-huh?” Anxiety curdles my guts. “What’s it going to cost me?”

“Nothing.”

Unlikely.

Heine looks like a debauched angel. He deliberately poses, as if he’s at a model shoot for maximum effect.

Doesn’t he realize that looking at him makes me want to puke?

Heine tucks a strand of hair behind his ear. “Since you’ve been such a bad boy, acting like the devil …” I wince on devil , and Heine’s lips curl into a satisfied smile. “…you’ve put us into a tight spot. The rest of the board have given me the vote on what to do about this. I offered you the chance to talk to me privately and work something out. But you’ve refused to save yourself. I’ll offer you one more chance, however, and keep this interesting by offering a bet.”

“What bet?”

“You’re playing three games next week. The VIPs will attend. You must play the games…”

“Without noise ,” Brownyn adds.

“Exactly, without any negative press.” Heine looks delighted like he’s describing a new nightmarish reality show that he’s devising. “And win at least two out of three.”

“This isn’t right,” coach barks.

Heine waves his hand dismissively like morals are something that can simply be batted away. “You’re boring me.”

“I’d bet my reputation that this team is better with D’Angelo in it than without,” coach insists.

Heine’s eyes light with interest. “What about your job?”

“Don’t…” I take a step toward coach, but he holds up his hand.

“I don’t take orders from players. Back off.” Coach exchanges a glance with Robyn; she’s smiling with a bitter-sweet expression that I don’t understand. “I’d stake my career on this team. It’s what loyalty means. Obviously, if you want to select a man who has just stabbed me in the back like Colton, then you take your fucking chances. If you want to put my captain to the test, however, then that includes me as well.”

My thoughts swirl. My head is a fucking mess.

Is coach truly going to risk throwing away his last chance at a career to support me?

My only family abandoned me. But coach is prepared to lose his legacy for me.

I swallow, feeling lost.

Coach and Colton glare at each other.

“What happens if we don’t win?” I demand.

I hold my breath.

Here it comes…

Heine cocks his head. “Then you resign your captaincy and your place in the Bay Rebels.”

Shay gasps.

“You can’t do this,” Robyn hisses.

“Again, boring.” Heine’s dead gaze meets mine.

I’m numb.

I know what his gaze is saying as it slides to Shay and then Robyn.

He could raise the stakes and make them worse. He could target Shay.

He could demand that Robyn is fired right now on the spot.

“I’ll take the bet,” I say, quickly.

Heine smiles, smugly. “I’m looking forward to watching you on the rink. The games are going to have a frisson of added excitement now, knowing that you’re playing for your career.”

“On the other hand, if they win,” coach raps the table hard; Lee jumps, “then I want the power back in my hands. I won’t be undermined like this again. I’ll have the authority to fire my staff like normal.”

Heine blinks. “Obviously.”

Now I understand coach’s trick.

I catch Colton’s eye, giving a sharp smile.

He looks startled.

Coach points at Colton. “Then I hope it’s exciting enough for you as well that your ass is also on the line.”

Colton pales in a satisfying way.

“That’s settled then. Next week, we’ll find out whether we’ll have a new captain and coach by the end of it.” Heine stands up, stretching. “What fun. I get to watch my favorite player battling for his life.”