Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
SINCLAIR
"A shut out." I smiled as Javey slipped into the chair beside me. "You guys did amazing tonight."
He leaned over to kiss my cheek, but his eyes seemed to be everywhere.
Hazards was packed with players, families, and fans. And, yes, puck bunnies. Many of who were eyeing Javey speculatively. A few even gave me a dirty look when I leaned my shoulder against him.
I ignored them and gave him a brilliant smile.
He put an arm around me. "We did okay."
I looked at him in mock horror. "Did I hear you correctly? Are you suggesting you're actually a humble hockey god?"
The smile he gave me was the shy one I'd come to expect from him. Awkward and almost uncomfortable. Like he couldn't quite believe I was sitting with him, touching him.
"Not all of us have egos the size of Jupiter," he said. "Just most of us."
"Not you though?" I asked, half teasing.
"I've never been one to brag. Mostly because if I did, my siblings would tease the shit out of me." He took a sip of his beer.
"You should brag once in a while," I said. "Especially when you win against a team as tough as the Sugar Gliders."
"I'll leave the bragging to guys like Tiger and Coast." He scowled as both walked through the door followed by Phoenix, Bray and the rest of the guys.
Coast scanned the room before seeing me and striding over like he owned the place. Phoenix wasn't far behind.
"Hey, Sunflower," Coast ignored Javey's arm around me and leaned in to kiss my mouth.
Javey growled, a full throated sound of pure irritation. He could have put Aidan to shame.
"Hey, Jav," Coast said lightly. "How's it hanging? Good game tonight."
"What about me?" Phoenix moved around to the side of the table, and slipped into a stool. "Have you forgotten I didn't let a single puck get past me tonight?"
He glared at Coast, his angry, public expression on display. If I hadn't seen him being sweet, I'd buy that this was the real him.
"Yeah, you did okay," Coast said, clearly baiting him.
"Fuck off," Phoenix snarled. "I'm getting a drink." He stalked off towards the bar.
"So," Coast drawled, "do we have a problem here?" He flicked a finger back-and-forth between himself and Javey and me.
"Not if you fuck off." Javey looked as though if he had an ice skate in his hand, he'd use it on Coast's throat.
Honestly, I was getting the same vibe from Coast.
This wasn't the time or place I planned to have this conversation, but it had to happen. It might as well be here and now.
"In case you hadn't figured it out, Javey is interested in me too," I said. "I don't want you, either of you, to fuck off."
Coast leaned back and looked at both of us. "So you're proposing a sharing situation? Including him too?" He jerked his head towards Phoenix, who was leaning against the bar.
"That's what I'm hoping for," I agreed.
Javey was still glowering, but keeping it more controlled now, like he was trying to keep up his outward appearance of being a shy guy. He couldn't be shy and stabby at the same time, apparently.
These guys were nothing if not complicated. Did Coast also have layers he was keeping hidden? I suspected he did. Guys who hid behind bravado always did. He might be a scared little boy under it all.
Why did guys have to be so complicated? We weren't like that, were we?
"If that's the only way I can be with Sin, then that's what I'll do, I guess," Javey said reluctantly.
"Sin?" Coast grinned. "That's cute. Appropriate too." He winked at me.
My heart did a flip in my chest and only just stuck the landing.
"You think so?" I asked. "There I was, thinking I was sweet and innocent."
That made his grin widen. "You might be sweet, but not innocent. You're way too hot to be innocent."
"Are you saying I can't be both?" I cocked my head at him. I might have even fluttered my eyelashes.
"Of course you fucking can," Javey said, giving Coast a filthy look. "You can be whatever you want. It doesn't matter what he thinks. Just what you think."
"I feel like you're trying to provoke me," Coast said slowly. "But as it turns out, I agree with you. Sunflower here can be whatever she wants. Whatever that is, I'm here for it."
"For how long?" Javey sat up higher in his chair. "Until you get bored? How long is that usually? A night? A whole week? Maybe even two weeks?"
Coast propped his elbows on the table and leaned towards Javey. His expression was congenial, except for the snap of anger in his eyes.
"You should know me well enough by now to know, I don't like people insinuating things about me.
Yeah, in the past, I've had a different puck bunny every night.
Sometimes literally. That was before Sinclair.
People can change. It's me, I'm people. Let me tell you right now, you will be on my shit list if you do anything to hurt her.
And before you say I'll be on yours, I already got that message loud and clear.
From you, from Phoenix, from Aidan and from her.
It's sunk into my brain." He tapped a finger against his temple.
"So, I won't be fucking off any time soon. If you want to get rid of me, you'll have to be the one to leave. Understood?" The smile he gave Javey was distinctly unpleasant.
"I'm not going anywhere," Javey said simply. "Not as long as Sin wants me around."
Coast leaned back. "I'm glad we understand each other. Have fun having the same conversation with Phoenix, because he's not as nice as I am."
"Are you talking about me?" Phoenix stepped back to the table, just in time to hear Coast's last sentence.
"Of course we are," Coast told him. "Who else are we going to talk about?" He spread his hands to either side.
Phoenix stared at him, like maybe he was out of his mind. "I can think of plenty of other people you can talk about. None more interesting than me, but they do exist. That's a start."
"We could talk about Aidan, and how pissed off he is you didn't tell him about the attack sooner." I told them all about the conversation in the laundry.
All three of them look equally furious.
"If I knew he was going to say anything to you, I would have…" Coast started.
"You would have done what?" Phoenix asked. "Told him to back the fuck off? I'd like to see you try to tell him that. You wouldn't be first string centre for much longer if you did."
"I'm not scared of Aidan Draeger," Coast grumbled.
"Then you're dumber than you look," Phoenix said, half-teasing, at least. "Which is saying something."
Coast flipped him off. "I'm nowhere near as dumb as I look." He realised what he said, and shook his head while Phoenix and I laughed.
Javey rolled his eyes, like he was in complete agreement with the words, if not the intention.
"You don't look dumb at all," I assured Coast. I gave. Javey a quick, sharp look.
I really wanted them to get along with each other. If he was going to continue with the antagonism, this was going to be difficult and painful. Not to mention short and ultimately doomed.
Was I silly for trying to do this? I should choose one of them and make the other two get over it. Which one would I choose anyway? And would the other two actually back off and walk away?
I already knew Javey wouldn't. I suspected Coast and Phoenix wouldn't either. They'd have to learn to tolerate each other, or this could literally end up with them duelling at dawn, or some other ridiculous man thing.
"Not that dumb," Phoenix agreed. "Mostly you're pretty tolerable."
"That's the sweetest thing anyone ever said to me," Coast said sarcastically. "Pretty tolerable. That's almost as good as marginally better than meh."
I laughed. "Who referred to you as marginally better than meh?"
He grinned, completely self-deprecating. "Just me. Who else would dare to call Coast Riggs meh?"
Javey started to raise his hand.
I grabbed it and pulled it to me, so he wouldn't get into any trouble with it.
"I can think of a lot of words to describe you, but meh isn't one of them," Phoenix told him.
"Let me guess." Coast rubbed the stubble on his chin with his thumb and pointer finger. "Smart, talented, sexy, incredible."
"Humble," Phoenix said.
"Eh, humble is overrated," Coast said.
"Not that you'd know," Javey said, glaring directly at him.
"No, I wouldn't. Why don't you tell us all about it?" Coast cocked an eyebrow at him, not backing down for a moment.
"You could watch and learn," Javey retorted.
Phoenix snorted a laugh. "He's got you there. If anyone knows how to be humble and all that shit, it's Javey."
Javey gave him a look, like he couldn't understand why Phoenix would say anything nice about him.
"He's trying," I said. "Maybe we can all do that?"
"Yeah, I guess," Javey mumbled. He was clearly still deciding if it was a backhanded compliment or not.
Phoenix might not see humility as a good thing. Or he was trying to get Javey off guard.
Personally, I didn't think Phoenix was that sneaky. He liked to pretend he was an asshole, but saying nice things when he didn't mean them didn't seem to be his style. He was more likely to dispense insults, even to his friends. To tease and give them shit as much as possible.
"Phoenix can be very trying," Coast agreed.
"Fuck off," Phoenix told him. "I'm awesome and you know it."
He gave me a look which started out like he hoped I'd agree and quickly became heated.
I could almost see him thinking about his cock in my mouth. Yeah, now I was thinking the exact same thing. I'd lost count of the amount of times I've thought about it since. And fucking in front of the window.
At the time, I'd sensed someone was watching, it wasn't until right now. I realised I was right. Javey was.
Should I tell the other guys that? At some point, I was going to have to, but right now this was all too fragile.
They didn’t care about being seen while they fucked me, but knowing Javey was following me around, that was something else. Something they may take exception to.
When the time was right, I'd tell them and make them understand. If I was okay with it, they'd have to be okay with it too. Whether they liked it or not.
If they were going to share me, they'd have to learn to compromise. This wasn't going to be easy for any of us, but if Elenna could make it work with someone like Aidan, then I could make it work with these three guys.
Yeah, okay, that was one hell of an assumption, but I was determined to make it reality.