Chapter 5
Iwas a dick. I know I was. But the more I thought about Cassie’s plan, the more I hated it. How in the hell is dating someone going to change the fact that the press hates me?
It’s nothing against Piper. I’m sure she’s a nice girl—maybe with questionable taste given she dated Duncan.
Changing the weights, I start another set of reps. I need to work out the chaos in my brain before I hit the ice. It’s an optional skate day. But with how I felt yesterday, I can’t have another day like that.
My play hasn’t been suffering. If it weren’t for Puck, hockey would be all I have in life. It’s the only thing I focus on. Is it a sad existence? Maybe.
Cassie might have a point, but I’m not going to tell her that.
I finish my set of reps, relishing the burn in my legs.
“Going to be a better day at practice?” Troy comes up to me, wiping his face off with a towel.
“I hope.”
“You need to get out of your head.”
“Believe me, I’m trying.”
“Anything I can help with?” Troy grabs two water bottles and tosses me one.
“Do my postgame interviews for me?”
“Nah. They want to hear from our best defenseman.”
“Don’t let the other guys hear you say that.”
Troy shakes his head. “Just have a few go-to things to say. Don’t stray from that. Works for me.”
“They love you and eat up anything you have to say. If you told them a question was dumb, they’d be apologizing to you.”
“You’ve got this, Willy. Don’t get in your head about it.”
Troy leaves me be and I hit the treadmill for some cardio.
I’m only a few minutes into my warm-up run before I spot a familiar head of blonde hair.
Piper.
She’s cleaning up towels and water bottles from the guys. Grunt work of an intern. I haven’t had the balls to go tell Cassie that Piper is out. Mainly because she’ll castrate me.
I crank the speed up on the treadmill and go faster. I need to push Piper out of my head, along with Cassie and this stupid plan to rehab my image.
It must work because by the time I’m looking up from the treadmill, Piper is gone.
I end the run and grab a towel before heading back to the locker room to suit up for the ice.
When I get to the hallway, the low drone of voices stops me short.
Piper is standing there talking to Duncan and some woman I don’t know. I can’t imagine how painful this must be for her.
All I know is she dated him. Based on everything I’m seeing, this is awkward. And that’s before Piper moves to leave and ends up falling ass over heels and covers herself in sweaty towels.
I make up my mind.
I guess there’s no going back now.
Piper
The day has goneby without much activity.
With Nick back on the ice for practice, we don’t see him as much in the training room as we had been.
He’s working more with the assistant goalie coaches to get back into shape.
Because it’s been a quiet day, I notice when Cash spots me while he’s running, and I hate that I notice.
God, even just the look on his face gets me amped up.
Gets me riled up.
Cash wanted my help, but apparently he seems to think he can figure this thing out all on his own.
But that’s fine. I don’t need him. He doesn’t need me.
I’m better off without him, right?
I can’t imagine what Cash thinks when he looks at me. A spoiled, pretty little princess? A blonde bimbo? Someone who doesn’t have two brain cells to rub together?
I don’t know, but after last night, I don’t know how anyone could ever pretend to be Cash’s girlfriend.
I do my best to ignore him as I grab the empty towel bin and head to the equipment room and fill the bin with sweaty towels.
Grunt work, but it’s what an intern has to do.
As I turn the corner, I bump into the wall and see two people kissing down the hall.
Of course, they’re kissing in the hallway. Why can’t I ever escape people and love?
Not that I have my own.
It’s when they break apart that I notice who it is. Duncan and Ava.
I have no idea how Ava got here when the facility is closed to anybody but players and staff, but obviously, she somehow managed to find her way in.
I haven’t seen Ava since she moved out the day after I found them having sex.
The last thing I want to do today is to deal with these two.
“Piper, it’s so good to see you!” Ava exclaims.
“I can’t say the same about you,” I mumble to myself.
Piper, why can’t you be an adult about this? Duncan chides me.
“You’re right. I can be. I’ve got work to do.”
“Laundry?” Ava asks, turning her nose up at me.
“Only helping out since the equipment guys are short-staffed.” I give her the most charming smile I can muster before turning to leave.
Except making a quick exit does me no good when I run into the wall and go toppling over the wobbly cart.
Covering myself in dirty towels.
Oh my God. I’ve never really paid attention to how bad hockey players smell. I mean, sure, I have to deal with this on a fairly daily basis, but I’ve never realized how bad it actually could get.
Could this situation be any more embarrassing?
Lying on the floor covered in dirty towels, I wish a sinkhole would open up and swallow me whole. It’d be better than the embarrassment washing over me as Duncan and Ava laugh.
“Do you need help?” Ava asks. She couldn’t be happier if she tried. I hate that my accident is causing her to be this elated.
As if she hasn’t been gloating since stealing my boyfriend. Not that I care that much if that’s how he was treating me.
I do my best to pop to my feet, dirty towels falling around me.
“God, you smell.” Duncan twists his nose up.
“Because of you!”
These two make me feel like a child. Like they’re humoring me by even talking to me. I wish they didn’t make me feel so small.
But I do. Not that I’m helping myself in this situation.
“C’mon, Dunc, we better let the towel girl get back to it,” Ava tells him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.
Dunc?What a dumbass nickname.
“Not just the towel girl,” I say. “Only helping out where they need me.”
“No, she also has to touch everyone to help them get over their injuries.” Duncan says this like I’m hitting on every player in the locker room.
Which is so far from the truth, I want to punch him. He’s the one that hit on me. Told me how beautiful I was. How sexy. Never once complimenting me on anything else but how I looked.
I wish I could go back and smack some sense into myself.
“Ooh, maybe I should look at that job,” Ava says.
“Sorry, Ava, I don’t think that the team is hiring sluts right now.”
“Piper, cut it out.”
Even I knew that my comment was a bit below the belt. But when I’m around Duncan and Ava, I just can’t seem to help myself.
After the way they treated me—my supposed boyfriend and friend, roommate even—I just can’t help myself.
Between the two of them, they make me angrier than I’ve ever felt in my entire life.
“Hey, Piper!”
Oh God. As if this situation could get any worse, Cash is calling out to me. I turn, and he’s coming directly at me. His face is unreadable.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
“Princess, you said I was going to have to meet you out here when we’re done.”
Cash wraps an arm around my waist and hauls me close to him.
What in the world is going on? Is it a full moon and I don’t realize it? Why is everyone acting so crazy today?
“Out here,” I parrot back to him. Standing this close, I’m at least a head shorter than he is. Dark brown eyes gaze into mine.
“I thought we were going to grab lunch together.”
“Lunch.”
Cash drops a kiss on my forehead. I must have run into the wall harder than I thought because I don’t have a clue as to what is going on right now.
“What in the fuck is going on here?” Duncan asks.
Well, at least both of us might get an answer to our question.
“Oh, Douche, I didn’t see you standing there.”
Cash pulls me in front of him, my back to his chest. I do my best to ignore how good it feels to be pulled tight against him. All those hard muscles against my back?
Definitely not focusing on how good they feel.
“What, sorry, you’re the only one who’s allowed to date around here?” Cash asks, dropping his chin onto the crown of my head.
“The fuck—are you two dating?” Duncan hisses.
“I’m sorry, what’s it to you if I’m dating Cash?” I ask.
“I’m sorry, this man is not good enough for you, Piper.”
“And if the standard of good enough for me is you, then everybody in the world would be better for me than you.”
Duncan looks like he’s trying to riddle that out, and it gives me more joy than necessary.
“Don’t think about it too hard, Douche. You might lose what brain cells you have left.”
Cash’s words have me stifling a laugh. This was not how I saw this entire interaction playing out.
I guess Cash came to rescue his Princess.
“I’m serious, Piper. Does Noah know you’re dating him?”
“You know, I’m really getting sick and tired of every single man in my life thinking they know better about what I need than I do.”
Duncan glares down at me, crossing his arms. His biceps flex. He definitely wants to punch Cash.
“If you’re making these kinds of decisions and dating Williams here, then you obviously need to have someone check your judgment.”
Duncan’s eyes are focused above me. Cash is taller than him. I can only imagine the look he’s getting from Cash when Ava tugs on his arm.
“Come on, baby, we don’t need to deal with these two.”
Linking arms with Duncan, she drags him down the hallway. He glares at the two of us in their wake. I watch as they disappear around the corner before stepping out of Cash’s arms and pushing him out of arms’ reach.
“Okay, what in the hell is going on here? Am I in the twilight zone or something?” I hiss at him, in case someone walks by and hears us.
Cash shrugs. “You looked like you needed help.”
“I was doing just fine.”
“You were?” His mouth tilts up into a smile as he looks down at the pile of towels that I’m still standing in. “Because it seems to me like you’re in a pretty smelly situation.”
“Why’d you come to my rescue?” I ask. Whether I like it or not, Cash bailed me out of a situation that could have ended badly.
“Like I said, it looked like you needed help.”
“But…” I let my words trail off as I think of last night and the moody man standing in front of me who wanted nothing to do with me. “I left you. I told you I wouldn’t help you.”
Cash scrubs a hand over his face. “Because I was a dick to you. The more I thought about this situation, the more it wasn’t fair to you. I’m not the best at conveying my feelings to people.”
“Really? Never would have guessed.” I laugh.
“Oh good. There you two are.” A new voice enters the hallway.
Cassie is the epitome of a power woman in her black pencil skirt and white blouse. The red soles of her shoes carry her directly to us.
“Piper. Have you given more thought to my arrangement?” Cassie quirks a brow at me before returning to the beeping on her phone.
“Listen, Cassie?—”
I interrupt Cash. “I’m in.”
It’s a split-second decision, but Cash came to my rescue. As broody as he is, it’s only right that I come to his.
What’s a few months, right?
“You are?” they both ask at the same time.
“Why does that surprise you?” It steels my resolve. I want to prove these people wrong—that I can do this.
“I thought Cash would have scared you off,” Cassie tells me.
“Hey!” he retorts.
“Fair.” I laugh, not confirming to her that he almost did.
“I’ll have a ticket at will call for you at tomorrow’s game.” Cassie is back typing on her phone. “You’ll be with the rest of the wives and girlfriends, and I expect to see you in the family suite after.”
“The family suite?”
“Have to make it believable.” Cassie leaves in a whirl of expensive perfume.
Cash leans against the wall, crossing one ankle over the other. Sweat clings to him, his T-shirt sticking to his chest.
“Think you can make it believable enough, Cash?” I ask him. “We really need to sell this.”
Pushing off the wall, Cash stalks toward me like a lion after his prey. My back bumps into the wall, eliciting a squeak. Cash loops an arm around my waist and I collide with his hard chest. I’m flush against him and all those muscles. Muscles I’ve only seen at a distance in the training room. I want to sink my fingers into the defined pecs. Lick them.
My hands grip Cash’s shirt, holding him to me.
Cash’s eyes darken as they stare down at me. His tongue darts out and licks his lips. His free hand cups my cheek, thumb running along my bottom lip. “You want me to pretend that I like you, Princess?”
Words and all common sense flee my head. I shouldn’t be having a reaction to Cash.
“Yes.” My voice is dry. Scratchy.
“Think this is believable enough?”
His eyes never leave mine. I want to look away, but I can’t. Cash has locked me in his hold and I couldn’t escape. Even if I wanted to.
I’ve never felt like this under another man’s gaze. He’s making me feel like we’re the only two people in the world right now. That we’re not in some back hallway in a hockey arena.
I tilt my head up, wanting more. More of this Cash, right now.
“Piper?” A shouted voice echoes down the hallway.
I shove Cash out of my arms, causing him to stumble over the empty laundry bin.
“Oh God! Are you okay?”
He catches himself against the wall.
“I’m fine,” he says as he laughs. Those eyes of his have locked down again. Just when I thought the two of us were having a moment, it’s gone.
Claire spots me as she turns the corner, seeing the mess I’ve made. “I need you in the physio room. Clean this up and then I need your help with some training.”
“Got it.”
Righting the bin, I start throwing towels into the empty basket before Cash’s hand stills mine.
“Was that believable enough for you, Princess?”
“Yes,” I squeak out. “Yes.”
“We’re doing this then?” Cash tips my chin up to meet his gaze. “I don’t want to drag you into anything you’re not comfortable with just because I helped you out.”
“That’s exactly why I’m doing this.”
“Really?”
I nod. “You showed me a part of you that tells me you’re a good guy.”
“I’m not the good guy, Princess,” he says, shaking his head.
“No?” I stand, throwing a towel into the bin.
“I’m the villain.”
“I think you want to be, but really, you’re Prince Charming.”
“No one sees me that way.”
I press a hand to his chest, getting close. Closer than I should. But if I’m now Cash’s girlfriend—fake girlfriend—I can, right?
“Under all this ink and broodiness is a good guy, whether you want to believe it or not. I’ll see you at the game tomorrow.”