CHAPTER 6
SASHA
The night air was sharp on my face. I was flushed in the darkness, the game still lingered in my blood.
Or maybe it was her. I couldn't believe the girl I fantasized about was actually touching me, letting me take her arm, letting me feel her warmth.
She was here. We found each other. My body was higher than a kite.
Our feet echoed on the pavement as we avoided the left over drunken fans that wandered the street. Broken bottles and wrappers littered the side walk and I had to step over more than one questionable fluid. But that was New York. It occasionally smelled like pee, but it was always alive.
“So, where are we going?” Her voice squeaked out after not speaking for a few blocks and a part of me really liked that she was as nervous as I was. It meant that maybe she was feeling all the same things I was.
“My favorite place. I fuel up after games here. They're always open late.”
It was only a small place with a broken marquee light that shone our way to the door. We walked down the questionable alleyway, so dark that if the rats scurried you wouldn't see them before it was too late. But it was a comfort I wanted to share with her.
It was always dim. Small crowds of people gathered in low lit corners.
Men lined the bar. Smoke drifted towards the lights.
Heads hung low in a circling fog like a cinematographers dream, or a lighting guy's nightmare.
But it had a certain feel, a certain comfort I needed after the screaming crowds.
I brought Lucy to the same corner booth I always sat in after a game.
A beer was waiting for me. The menu was skirted into a pocket against the wall that Lucy pulled free while at the same time looking around the place.
Signs in Slovak, some Ukrainian and Hungarian plastered the walls.
Faded posters older than I was grew yellow from years of tobacco.
Jerseys in glass frames hung on the walls.
Smiling soccer and hockey teams watched over the patrons.
I took a sip of beer and watched her take it all in. I was trying my best not to be weird about it, but I had been dreaming of her for so long that it didn't seem possible. And she was just as beautiful as I remembered. Even more actually.
“What would you like to drink?” Maria, the owner, came to the booth to take our order.
“Whatever he is having and a water. Thank you.” Lucy smiled.
“Wonderful game tonight, Sasha. So good to have you home. We were watching.” She had started to look old since my return. Years of wear and smoke peeled into her skin.
“You got company tonight?” She looked Lucy up and down assessing her every inch.
It made me nervous.
“Is she a whore?” Maria said is Slovak, the language I was raised on.
My eyes shot to Lucy, praying she didn't understand. I knew right away she didn't.
Her ears shot up like a dog though, curious.
“She is special to me and she is a good girl.” I said in Slovak.
“Hmm.” Maria walked away with a flick of her hips.
I breathed a quick sigh of relief, hoping to avoid any tension.
“What did she say?” Lucy inquired immediately. Her eyes darted to my lips in somewhat of a disbelief.
I couldn't lie to her. Maybe I should have, but I was never good at lying. I always forget and then incriminated myself. Better just to tell the truth. There was no avoiding Maria's reluctance to anyone I brought since my one mistake.
“She asked if you are a whore. In Slovak. It's my mother's language. Maria's as well. We would come here a lot as a family.”
“Hup.” Her mouth made a weird noise and closed. She eyed the woman behind the bar. “And what did you say?” Her head tilted down at me, giving me serious hot librarian vibes with her glasses tipping low enough to see her long eyelashes.
“I told her you are a good girl so please don't mess it up for me.” I took a long sip of my beer.
“A good girl?” She thought about that for a moment. “I hope you don't think I'm a girl at thirty-two.”
“Well, what I said was kind of more like a nice lady, you know, classy. Was I wrong to say that, Lucifer?” I couldn't help but smirk.
“Well, that is yet to be determined.” She winked at me and I nearly crawled across the booth. God, I wanted to taste her. To show her how much I wanted her. The way her words cut with her comebacks, naughty and honest, dropped me.
Lucy was confident, but not in the way most women who want me are confident. They are confident that I'll look at their beauty and want to take them to bed. Lucy just knew who she was and she exuded this energy that drew me in.
Maria set down a beer and water in front of her.
“Thank you so much.” Lucy spoke to Maria, who quickly walked away.
“Cheers. To seeing each other again.” I held up my beer, waiting for her to clink.
“Cheers. To seeing each other again.” She smiled and clinked and took a long swig. “So what is this place? It doesn't seem like the typical hockey hang out.”
“Less rowdy than a normal bar. The team wants me to go out with them. The guys will be shit faced by now, hooking up with a big win. I just want to talk with you.” I couldn't believe I was saying the words out loud.
“That's not what my sister thinks.” Her eyes were sultry and teasing.
I snorted into the beer, sending foam across the table.
“Sorry, should I have giggled and looked coy?” She shrugged.
“I don't think that's possible.” I wiped my mouth with a napkin.
I couldn't stop staring at the way her lips curled around the glass. She licked them, enjoying the taste of the beer a second time and I couldn't help but think of how soft they looked. How I wanted her lips on mine. How I wanted her lips moaning. How I wanted her perfect lips on my cock.
“What are you going to eat?” She looked confused at the menu.
Some of it was in English, but most of it wasn't.
“Oh right, sorry. I always get the Goulash, which is like a meat stew with sliced dumplings.”
“Have any recommendations for me?”
“What are you in the mood for?” Our eyes met.
I walked right into the smirk she gave me and, man, did it make me hard.
Her eyebrows raised. She was happy with whatever expression I was wearing.
I drank more, trying to fix my face before I looked like a love starved teenager.
But she was driving me wild. Sweaty, rapid heart beat and hard.
So fucking hard at the thought of her. I kept thinking of how she would taste, of how she would feel pressed up against me.
Our chemistry was sparking constantly. It was such a new feeling to me and yet, felt so comforting.
Like I wanted to sink into it and skate around in it at the same time.
Lucy was just easy to talk to. From the moment we first met I was both excited and at ease with her. No stress, but all the want that usually came on a date. I wanted to lock away the moment into a box so I would never forget how it felt.
“So, they have pierogies, potato pancakes, burgers, this dumping plate that is Slovakia's national dish. It has bacon and sour cream on it.”
“I'll get that.” Lucy snapped the menu shut and flashed me a thousand watt smile. “Would you order it for me so I don't butcher the pronunciation in front of a woman already judging me?” Her shoulder shrugged a little.
“Of course.” I whispered as Maria arrived at our table.
I ordered for the both of us, but Lucy was right. Maria avoided eye contact with her.
“Should I worry about spit my food?” She peered into her second beer just in case.
“No, never. Maria and Josef left Czechoslovakia the same time my mom did. They're like family. She's just mad because the last girl I brought here to impress was–” I closed my mouth. My eyes darted back and forth trying to come up with a politically correct statement.
“A whore?” Lucy whispered.
“No.” I laughed. “Well, kind of, but no. Not in the good way. She was just not open to other cultures I guess.”
“She didn't like the food. Picky eater?”
“Yes, let's say that.” I wiped some sweat from my brow with a napkin and rolled my sweater up my elbows. Why I was wearing a stupid sweater after the game was beyond me. I could feel sweat dripping everywhere.
“Adrenaline still pumping from the game? Great job by the way.” She noticed.
“Yeah, and this sweater is too much. I was trying to look good.” But now I wanted to kick my own ass for even thinking about it. I'll be drenched through by the time I was done eating.
“Take it off. You're wearing a T-shirt. I can see it poke out from the bottom of your sweater.”
My face pinched as I looked to the men at the bar and then back to her.
“I highly doubt there's a dress code, Sasha.” Her face was questioning my pain.
I scratched my forehead in disbelief. “No, it's not that.” I stood and grabbed the edge of my sweater and started to lift it up.
She caught sight of my abs by the way she swallowed.
It wasn't my intention, but they were the most shredded after a game and I knew it couldn't hurt my chances.
I pulled the T-shirt down and waited for her face to change.
I waited for the inevitable look of disgust or annoyance or judgment.
But it never came. Only a smile grew on her face.
“Oh, nice.” She said.
“Nice?” I pulled the sweater off in relief. “You're not going to think I'm a nerd?”
“Should I?” Her brows furrowed on her forehead and the sexiest curl slid in front of her eyes.
“The guys busted on me in the locker room and actually I think the last girl I dated really did. I thought I picked a regular black shirt out of my drawer this morning and I didn't realize I took out the Goonies.”
She laughed and shook her head, but said nothing as she stood and started to raise the sweater I noticed she stole from her brother-in-law. Under her sweater was a Jaws logo. It took everything in me not to stare at her figure, because wow, what a figure.
“Cheers.” Was the only thing I could think to say as I held up my drink to her.
“Cheers.” She smiled. And there was that glint again. That spark that did something to my body I shouldn't be thinking of at the dinner table.
Maria came back with a large tray of food. The smell was pungent, definitely not first date food. But I was already considering it a second date since hot chocolate in Rockefeller Center. And I brought mints in my pocket.
“This looks so freaking good.” Lucy's eyes went wide as she shimmied her shoulders with delight.
I could feel Maria's eyes watch us from the bar. She wrung her hands on a dishtowel from the corner of my eye. I loaded my fork and took a big bite, but watched Lucy's facial expression like a hawk.
“Oh, shit.” She moaned. Her head tipping back slightly.
“You like it?” I cleared my throat, trying to stay calm. I had to adjust myself under the table at her vocalization.
“I ate throughout the entire game and I'm still going to eat this entire plate. Where have you been all my life?” She looked down at her plate.
“Yeah.” I exhaled.
I noticed the low music off to the side and had to use all my strength to stop staring at Lucy. Even the way she ate turned me on. I didn't dance, but her body inspired me to wrap her in my arms and sway.
“Why did you ask me out Sasha?” She stopped mid bite, her food dangling precariously on her fork like the notion just hit her between bites and she wouldn't be able to finish her food if she didn't hear the answer first.
Maria interrupted my answer with her presence. “You need more drink girl?”
Well, at least Lucy was being acknowledge now.
“No, thank you. It is really amazing.” She smiled.
“Hmp.” Maria gave an approving snort and left with the turn of her heels. Before she was feet from the table, I blurted my answer out.
“Because I like your mouth!” I probably shouldn't have said that. Actually, I know I shouldn't have said that. It made me seem like I was only after one thing. I mean, I was after that one thing, but I wasn't only after that one thing. I wanted a lot of Lucy.
“Good answer.” She crossed her arms over her chest and then started to rub her stomach from eating too much. It was adorable. I loved that she ate with me, enjoyed herself, even if it was a little too much. Instead of staring at how much I eat after a game.
“Why did you ask though?” I patted my mouth with a napkin. Her question left a bad taste. Why wouldn't I have asked her out?
I leaned back in the booth stretched my shoulders. A yawn stole the handsome from my face as I tried in vain to cover it with my hands. I looked like hell, I'm sure. There was always a crash with food after the game.
“Well, I think I'm a catch.” She laughed, but then sobered up.
“But, I'm a catch for an average guy and you're not an average guy.
I mean, I have a sparkling personality, decent rack and a temper that you've already witnessed, but you have a lot of options.” She squinted her eyes like it made her see me better.
“Yeah, I do. And yeah, you do. But I can't tell you the answer to that because I don't know it myself. I just wanted to see you again. I couldn't stop thinking about you. I'm mean, the ice gets pretty cold I wouldn't mind something warm, fiery even.”
“Is that so?” Her eyes flashed with the spark I was hoping for.
“Yeah.” I looked her up and down shamelessly. I was fucking flirting and I loved it. She made me aroused and excited for whatever she was going to say next. “Why did you say yes?”
I studied her face for a long time, trying to understand what she was thinking. She wasn't the type of girl that would chase me for my money or fame, she was too much her own person to need those things from me.
“I was going to say no. Hockey and I fell out of love a long time ago. I've avoided the sport for so long. But I reminded myself that I liked you before my nephew practically peed his pants over the very famous Sarge.” She dramatically said my name and made air quotes.
“Falling out of love with hockey sounds like a sad story.”
“It was.” She took a drink and looked out to the bar, unable to talk about it.
“Fair enough.” I didn't push.
“So why aren't you at the bar again with your teammates? Isn't that like a team thing?” She expertly changed the subject.
“It's kind of a weird story.”