Chapter 23
Sunday night, Marlie waited to see if Damon would make good on his promises.
He picked her up on time and drove them to a popular bar slash restaurant, a sports bar Ed liked to frequent. The team cheered when they showed up, none of them seeming surprised to find her with Damon.
But then, the team had brought plenty of their own family and friends. Jeff arrived after her, looking handsome as usual.
He joined her and planted a kiss on her cheek. “I’m so proud of you. You brushed your hair for this, I can tell.”
“Laugh it up, slacker. Way to skate out of my mother and father giving Damon the onceover after the game.”
He dusted his fingernails on his sweater, smug and not seeming sorry about it. “If you’re going to be public about your affair, you have to handle scrutiny from the masses.”
“First of all, it’s not an affair.”
Damon leaned closer. “It totally is.”
She shoved him back with her elbow.
“Oomph.”
“Second of all, the masses? My parents aren’t the masses.”
“No, but we are,” Steve growled.
Suddenly, her brothers surrounded her, Damon, and Jeff while the rest of the group sat at their collection of tables, watching with amusement.
“This is better than the game,” Sabrina said.
Marlie frowned. Wasn’t that chick on the other team? “Don’t you people have anything better to do?” she asked, using her teacher voice.
“Nope.” Tad, one of the teams’ defensemen, sat back and drank, his gaze on her. “So you’re doing the demon then?”
“Yep,” Damon said.
“No.” She glared at Damon. “Not doing. Dating.”
“We’re not dating?” He sounded hurt.
“Yes, we’re dating. We’re not doing each other. This isn’t a porno.”
“Too bad.” Tad sighed and turned to his buddies. “She’s dating him.”
“Ah, hell.”
“What’s that about?” she asked Steve, nearest her.
“I think Lee wanted to ask you out,” Ed answered for him. “But it’s probably for the best. Steve or Will would have given him a hard time. Now he can pretend he’s scared of Damon and escape our wrath.”
“Pretend?” Damon asked with a dark laugh. He cracked his knuckles. “The mean chick is mine. Back off,” he growled at the team.
Who gave back a collective hoot, cheers, and laughter.
“Nice one, coach.”
“Good catch.”
“Good luck.”
Her brothers dragged Damon, who kept pumping his fist in the air as if he’d won another victory, away.
Jeff laughed. “He’s a clown. I like him.”
Lee held up a pitcher. “Yo, Marlie. Grab a glass.”
She sat with the team and had fun talking to people she hadn’t seen in a while, all of them busy living their lives. She’d gone to school with a lot of the people at the table. Though none of them had brought children to the party, she knew several of them had family at home.
She glanced back at her brothers talking to Damon by the bar, all of them intense about something but not angry. At least her family wasn’t trying to break him down. Not like they’d been with Ben, Trevor, and the guys before that.
Did that mean they liked Damon? Did they just want to keep him around until hockey season ended? Or did they like the idea of him with Marlie? Huh. What if that was the answer?
How did she feel about that?
“Ow.” She rubbed her shoulder, where Jeff had pinched her. “A ‘Hey, Marlie,’ would have sufficed.”
“Sufficed. Such an English teacher.” He tugged her chair closer to his. Around them, everyone kept chatting. He lowered his voice so only she could hear him. “What’s up with you and the stalker? You seem pretty cozy.”
“He brought me tonight. I apparently have to go with him everywhere while he’s in town. I owe him for helping coach the team.” She shrugged.
“Nice.”
“And after, he’s going to take me home, wring me out with manly lovemaking, then let me sleep the sleep of the dead.”
“Wow. I like how he thinks.”
“Right?” She grinned and toasted her glass against his. “I think I’ll miss him when he goes. I really like him.”
“Hard to admit?”
She stared at Damon, who found her gaze and winked before Will saw them looking at each other and stepped between them, forcing her to look at the back of her brother’s fat heat. Jerk.
“Marlie, you don’t have to let him go, you know.”
She turned back to Jeff. “What’s that?”
“You connect with this guy, and you really like him. Who’s the last person you ever felt like this about?”
“Um. Well, no one.” Sadly, the truth. “We just kind of click. It’s probably just a newness thing.”
“Or maybe it’s not. Enjoy, don’t think so hard, and stop putting limits on love.”
“You’re just saying that because you’re in love yourself.”
“Yeah, I am. But I didn’t want to be. It just happened. Sometimes that’s life.”
“So wise, Dr. Morrison.”
“Yes, my child. I am.”
“Hey, Jeff. Pass the nachos,” someone called from down the table.
Jeff stopped talking to Marlie and did his part to help feed the team. Then someone else engaged Marlie in conversation.
It took a good half an hour before Damon returned, physically scooted her over, and sat next to her.
“Your brothers are a huge pain,” he growled.
“You’re just learning that now?”
He shook his head. “They want me to take over coaching for Will. I was just planning to help for that one game.”
“Oh, but now you have to. Remember? Everyone loves you.”
“Of course they do. I’m Demon Sinclair. And I see you rolling your eyes.”
How was it his ego made her want to laugh? Probably because he didn’t sound as if he was so into himself. That he only acted like he was great, in on the joke.
“What’s the problem? You have time. You’re still helping your parents. You have PT, but not all the time.”
“But I need Marlie time. If I’m constantly coaching all of them, when will we be together?”
She stared. “Um, it’s not like you’ll be coaching them 24/7. We all have jobs, you know.”
“Do you want me to help them?”
“If I say yes, does that mean I owe you another favor?”
He took her hand under the table and held it, stroking her fingers and palm. She melted on the spot, so turned on, and oddly touched he wanted to spend more time with her. She also watched the devious expression take over his features, turning him from handsome to undeniable.
“Hmm. I do think this means you owe me another favor.” He uttered an evil laugh.
She wanted him. “Fine. But we need to go home now.”
“Ah, I see we are once again thinking along the same lines.” He tugged her with him. “Team, Marlie has convinced me to help you sweep the playoffs before Christmas. So despite the Reynolds men and their cheap threats, I will help you to achieve victory.”
Everyone scowled at Marlie’s brothers.
Will scowled back. “What?”
“Thank Marlie for getting me to help you,” Damon said to Will.
For that alone, she wanted to kiss him.
“Thank him, Will,” Tad yelled.
“Yeah,” Sabrina said and grinned at Marlie.
“Wait. Who invited the enemy?” Lee asked.
“Can it, Lee. I know where you live.”
He muttered under his breath.
Will finally mumbled a thanks, the team cheered, and Damon readied to leave with Marlie.
She gave Jeff a knowing grin and heard his whistle as they walked out the door.
On the way back to her place, she felt jittery, knowing what awaited her once they stepped through her door.
To get her mind off it, she asked, “Exactly how hard did my brothers grill you?”
Damon sighed. “First it was about how great the game went and would I consider coaching them through the season. Then it was all about ripping off my arms and breaking my other knee if I fucked with you. But trust me, I didn’t tell them I was already fucking you.”
“Damon.”
He grinned at her before focusing on the road again. “They love you. I like your family.”
“Yeah? I liked your sister.”
He groaned. “Just ignore everything she said.” After a pause he asked, “What did she say?”
“Just that if I broke your heart, she’d break me.”
“Sounds like Grace.”
Marlie had liked the woman. “Is it true you don’t really date? That you had your only crying jag over a girl in high school?” His cheeks turned pink, and she gasped. “Wow. That was true.”
“Hey, I’m not just a hunk of manliness here. I’m a real man.”
“Right.”
“Julie Cameron broke my heart in tenth grade when she threw me over for a center at a rival school.”
“Center?”
“Julie was a hockey nut. Probably why we got along so well. That and she had big breasts.”
“That’ll do it.”
He grinned with her. “She was my first love, my first big crush. Then she threw me over for that bastard on the Lynx team, that we demolished, by the way.”
“Glad you won.”
“Right? I didn’t let one puck get by me. And not by that loser she dated instead of me.”
“But you’re over it.” Didn’t sound like it.
“Oh, totally.” He chuckled. “My sister let me know that the guy dumped Julie for a cheerleader at his school. I felt vindicated. And then I really fell in love.”
“With?” Jealousy surprised her.
“Hockey. I mean, I’ve always loved the game.
But something really clicked for me in high school, and I knew I was meant to play goalie.
I didn’t make much time for girls. Barely got through school with academics.
I can get fixated.” He glanced at her, centering on her breasts, then looked back at the road.
“I like your fixation.” She put a hand on his thigh, felt him tense, and loved the fact he responded to her so easily.
“Yeah. I’m into you, Marlie.”
“Good.”
“And I’m gonna get into you again, real soon.” They pulled up to her house. He stopped the car and turned to study her. His gaze moved over her from top to bottom but rested on her face. Her eyes.
He smiled, and she knew he saw her as a real person, a woman, and not just a body to sate his needs. He hadn’t treated her as a sexual object. It was if he liked Marlie for Marlie.
“You don’t really know me,” she mused.
“But I want to. That’s why we need time to get to know each other.”
“Even meet the parents?” she teased.
“Yeah, I can’t wait for Thursday.”
She groaned, having forgotten about that. “You don’t have to go.”
“I sure the hell do. Plus, I want you to meet my folks.” He snorted. “Trust me. When you meet sneaky Leila and Big Mike, you’ll understand so much more about me.”
She snickered. “I can’t wait.”
Silence filled the space between them, along with a sexual tension that twined around her like a creeping vine, not letting go.
His gaze darkened. “Why don’t we go inside so I can finish off our night? I know you have work tomorrow, and Morgan’s going to put me through hell at physical therapy.”
“Uh-huh.” Her focus remained on that icy stare that looked right through her. She gazed at him, enamored by everything she knew about him. Especially this side of Damon—his “Demon” side.
“Unless you’d rather I fuck you in the truck?”
That broke the spell. Much as she wouldn’t mind trying car sex, she didn’t want to get kicked out of her house for being indecent in public.
Marlie raced out of the truck and inside the house.
Damon followed on her heels, slamming the front door shut behind him.
He grabbed her and swung her around against the door. Then he kissed her, his mouth hungry, dominant, and turned her into a pile of jelly.
Breaking the kiss, he turned her around, so that she faced the door. “Damon?”
“Shut up. Put your hands above your head on the door. Keep them there.” He tugged at her jeans and pulled them down. Then her panties.
She heard the rusting of his own clothes and the tearing of what she could only imagine to be a condom wrapper.
“Um, I don’t know if this will work.”
He laughed like the demon he was. A finger crested the seam of her ass, a gentle tickle that brought heat in its wake. Then he moved the finger lower and slid it between her thighs, up and into her sex.
“Oh, it will work.” He pumped the thick digit in and out of her slick body.
When he removed it, he replaced it with something else.