Chapter 26
DEX
“How come you never married one of the women in the photos?” she asked.
We were in bed eating pizza directly from the box.
While we got it from the amazing place on Main Street, we had it delivered this time.
Lindy was in one of my t-shirts nibbling on a crust. If she stayed naked, I was going to fuck her again.
We did it twice back-to-back and I was sure her pussy needed a break.
A short one because I had plenty on my own special list to check off.
“You looked me up.”
It wasn’t a question. It was only a matter of time before she did. When we talked at the rink, I knew she’d learned some things about me, but the gossip photos… yeah, a sore spot.
“When Aspen told me who you are–”
I set my hand on her bare calf. “Sugar, you know who I am.”
She cocked her head and smiled. “What you do, that you’re a hockey player, she was so surprised I had no clue.”
“You don’t follow sports. It’s okay.”
“She was surprised not because I live in a sports-free bubble, but because you’re so popular. So good at what you do.”
“It takes an entire team to win a game,” I said. Sure, I was good, but the league was filled with talented athletes. I wasn’t going to start spouting things like There is no I in TEAM or inspirational shit like that, but hockey was a team sport.
“I’m sure the entire team then has social media followings like yours. Game photos. Locker room shots. Interviews. Magazine covers. I didn’t even know you were one of the Sexiest Men of the Year.”
“As long as you think I’m sexy.”
She looked me over where I was sprawled on the bed, propped up on my elbow in just my boxers.
“You’ll do.”
I leaned forward and gave her bare ass–which was only partially covered by my shirt the way she was sitting–a playful swat.
She giggled. I smiled, loving her this way. Relaxed. Smiling. Bare except an article of my clothing. Her hair wild and messy.
“Nothing happened with any of those women.”
Her smile slipped and she tossed the crust onto the open box between us. “It’s none of my business.”
Just like any man in her life who came before me. Lindy wasn’t young like her sister, who didn’t have a long history of lovers. She was thirty-five. I wasn’t na?ve to think she hadn’t had her fair share of guys in her bed.
“It is. I want you to know the truth, not what you read or see online.”
She studied me. “Okay. Tell me.”
“I’m not sure if you heard anything from Bridget, but my father–Mav’s father, too–was an asshole.
If cheating was a sport, he’d be an Olympic champion.
My brothers are close in age, then there’s me, a few years younger even than Theo.
He left for college when I was in sixth grade.
I was the only child really for years. I wanted my dad’s attention.
His affection. When he took me to my hockey practices or games–instead of the family driver–I was thrilled, thinking this would be it.
Dad wants to be with me. That he’ll cheer me on like other parents. ”
I ran my fingers over the pattern in the blanket, remembering clearly everything I was sharing. How pleased and special I felt. Then hurt.
“He’d drop me off and disappear. From the bench, or sometimes even from the ice, I’d see him flirting with women. Young ones. Not illegal or anything, but not his age. When I got older, I realized he was going off somewhere in the building and fucking them. He used the rink as his prowling area.”
She crinkled her nose. “That’s pretty gross. Why didn’t your mom divorce him?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know the answer to that. He died a few years ago. I don’t miss him. Neither do my brothers. I don’t think my mom does either. But none of us have asked her why she stayed. It’s not our business.”
“I’m sorry he was a jerk.”
I chuckled. “Hockey was my escape from the house. Silas took me with him one time to free skate, just for fun. I was six. I saw kids playing hockey and I wanted to do it. So I started. Then it became my life. On the rink I could leave my life behind. I just skated. Played. People said I was dedicated, but I only wanted to forget. I got a full ride to play in Minnesota, but I wasn’t there a semester before I was drafted.
At eighteen, I wasn’t prepared for the life.
The games, the drinking. On the road all the time.
Partying. Women. It’s exactly what you think, and it didn’t make a difference I was so young.
The only thing I was used to was the money.
Some guys get money blind, or spend like crazy, but I came from it so I didn’t lose my shit.
I won’t lie and say I didn’t party or work my way through a lot of hockey bunnies, but I quickly started seeing my dad in me.
Being at a rink or a bar and not even getting a name. ”
“You were a teenager. I’d be surprised if you didn’t want to sleep around. And if women were throwing themselves at you? How could they resist?”
I grinned.
“I stopped. Cold turkey. I always wanted a family. A real family. Wife. Kids. Everything I didn’t get growing up. Then I met you. The only woman who didn’t throw herself at me. In fact, the only woman who built a pillow berm in bed to keep me away.”
She flushed and glanced away, but the corner of her mouth turned up.
“I want a family, too,” she admitted. “I’ve been dating. A lot.”
“Like the dentist.” The guy she left to come home to me.
She nodded.
“No serious relationships at all?”
I found that surprising. She was gorgeous. Smart. Funny. Sexy as hell.
“I had a serious boyfriend the last year of college,” she admitted. I did the math. That was over ten years ago. “He was also from the area, and I thought he was the one.”
“What happened?”
Her mouth turned down. “My parents died. I became Bridget’s guardian. Overnight, I became a parent of a ten-year old girl. Carpool. Swimming lessons. Homework. Chore charts. I took the job at the accounting office because bills had to be paid. Brandon didn’t want any of that.”
I frowned, flipped the lid closed on the pizza box, took her hand and pulled her into me so I had her–albeit awkwardly–in my arms. “He ditched you when your parents died?”
“Yeah.”
“You were twenty-four?”
“Twenty-three.”
A twenty-three-year-old losing both her parents and having to raise a little girl on her own. And he was asshole enough to abandon her?
“He’s a loser,” I said. “Give me his name and the fourth line enforcers will take care of him.”
She laughed and I couldn’t help but smile. “I don’t know what a fourth line is but thank you.”
“So you’ve never moved away from home?”
She snuggled into me. “I went to college in Missoula, but that’s not very far. I guess… no.”
“Same house. Same job.”
I thought of bumping into her boss at the rink earlier and learning she wasn’t spending extra hours on work-work, but something else.
My little bad girl was up to something. It couldn’t be all that sinister, but she was keeping it a secret.
And she was serious about it with the amount of time she put in.
“Speaking of. Your job.”
She stiffened, then pulled away. I let her go.
“I’m an accountant.”
“Yup. That’s great. You’re not doing people’s taxes at night. What are you doing? Moonlighting for another company?”
“No!” She looked at me with such horror like I asked her if she was running a prostitution ring out of her kitchen.
It was definitely a touchy subject, something she didn’t want to share.
Tough.
“Then what? You had your laptop in Denver. Worked instead of going out with me and Mallory. Then the past two nights. What are you working on?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
She finally glanced my way. “Nothing.”
“Then I’ll ask Claudia.”
Launching herself, she jumped me, pinned my shoulders down.
I was so stunned, I laughed. Moving her would be easy.
She found that out when I bent her over the bed, then flipped her around like she was my little fuck doll.
But I stayed still. She held me down for a reason and I wanted to find out what it was.
“Don’t ask Claudia. She doesn’t know.” She sounded panicked. Frightened even.
“Know what, sugar?” I asked, my voice soft.
Whatever it was, it was big. Important.
“Are you in trouble?” I asked, setting my hands on her hips. Her pussy was right over my dick. Only my boxers separated us, and I felt the heat of her. But if she was caught in a difficult situation, I needed to know.
“No!” she said. “It’s… embarrassing.”
I frowned and looked up at her. Studied her.
She tucked her tangled hair behind her ear. Wouldn’t look my way.
“Embarrassing? Sugar, does someone have something on you? Are you–”
“What? Why would you… oh. You’re famous and people spin things around. Has that happened to you?”
“Not me, but another player.”
“It’s nothing like that.”
“Then tell me.” I’d had enough. It was time to pull out the big threat. “Do you want me to spank it out of you?”
Her eyes flared. “You wouldn’t.”
“I would, even though I can tell that you would like it.”
She sighed. Heavily. Glanced around the room as if it was fascinating. “Ugh. Fine. Fine! I… I’m a romance author. Or I’m trying to be.”
I blinked. Processed. Grinned. “Yeah?”
Her eyes met mine, but warily. “Yeah.”
“You have anything published?”
She nodded. “I self-publish so it’s not through a big publisher or anything.”
“Holy shit, sugar, that’s awesome.” I jackknifed up so she was in my lap still, but I could kiss her.
“You think so?” She sounded so unsure.
“Why keep it a secret? I think it’s awesome.”
“Because I write steamy stuff.”
“How steamy?”
“Steamy.” She didn’t clarify and I used my imagination.
“People will think it’s word porn and I’ll be that pervy woman in Hunter Valley.”
“You are a pervy woman in Hunter Valley. My pervy woman.”
“In private. If people found out, it would be like you and the social media sites. People making their own opinions.”
“Like I said, I don’t care what other people think.”
“That’s because you don’t live in a small town where everyone knows your business. You’re a big-time hockey player with probably a PR company.”
“I do have a PR company, but sugar, I’m just a guy. I have feelings. If I let it get to me, I’d never be able to leave the house. But you… this is really cool.”
She rolled her eyes, but her blush gave away that she liked the praise.
“I don’t want to be an accountant. Never have, but there wasn’t a chance to do anything else with Bridget and all.
Imagine what her classmates or their mothers would say.
So I waited until she was at college. It’s an afterhours thing. My thing.”
“What does Bridget think?”
“She doesn’t know. No one knows.”
“I understand your feelings on this. I do, more than anyone probably.”
“Yeah, maybe you do. Then you understand why I want it a secret.”
“Okay, it can be a secret, but not from me. No secrets for us. Can I read it?”
Her eyes flared. “No!”
“No? You are a bad girl. You’re corrupting me, you know. I’m young and impressionable.”
Now she rolled her eyes. She shifted and I let her go. Picking up the pizza box, she turned and set it on the floor on the side of the bed. Then she came back to me, leaned down. Kissed me.
“I want to corrupt you some more then.” She bit her lip and her eyes took on a playful look.
“Yes, ma’am.” I grabbed her and pulled her beneath me. I’d learn more about this romance writing thing. Not now. She wanted to corrupt me? Game fucking on.