Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Eleventh encounter
“This is the scaphoid, the lunate, the triquetrum…” She traced the bones in his free hand. “The shoulder girdle, the clavicle…” She traced his shoulder. “Atlas, the first cervical vertebra, axis, the second cervical vertebra.” She slid her hand down to the back of his neck.
“Anna? What are you doing?”
She gave him a broad smile, making his heart skip a beat. “I’m practicing, so I can become the best damn doctor in the world.”
They won the first game of the best-of-seven series against the Arizona Wolves just as narrowly as they lost the second.
In the final period, the opposing defenseman intentionally slammed Leon into the boards, injured shoulder first. He turned chalk white and, for a few seconds, looked like he might faint from the pain.
That made the entire Hawks team so angry that they completely lost focus and unnecessarily belted the puck – and their opponents.
Charkov ended up with a gash on his lip and Coach Gray with a hoarse voice, and the game ended 4-3.
Yes, ice hockey was a physical sport. Yes, any of them would have loved to immobilize Leon with a body check last week – heck, even yesterday.
But he was on their team, damn it! They were allowed to pick on him, but shit, no one else was.
Either way, the mood in the locker room was about as cheerful as an anthill with a magnifying glass on it in the midday sun.
“Fuck.”
“Shit.”
“Shit, fuck!”
“Fucking bullshit.”
“Whoever curses next ponies up ten dollars for the swear jar!” barked the coach, who entered the locker room close behind them. However, since he was hoarse, he sounded more like a chain smoker complaining about losing his lighter.
“We have a swear jar?” West asked, confused.
“So are creative curses allowed?” Payne asked innocently. “I have a few waiting to make their debut.”
Temple snorted loudly. “Oh, yeah? What?”
“None of your business, you green fart-face,” Payne said with a grin.
Lucas’ mouth twitched as he removed the heavy helmet from his head, but Coach Gray seemed to have lost his sense of humor along with his voice.
“Quiet! We don’t have a swear jar yet,” he clarified. “But I’m about to set one up. It works wonders at my house.”
“You banned your daughters from swearing?” Fox seemed impressed.
“No,” the coach said sourly, rubbing the back of his neck, “they banned me. They already bought a damn Nintendo Switch with it. So, if I’m not allowed to swear, then neither are you! And with that miserable last third, you’ve forfeited the right to use flowery language.”
A few of the rookies laughed, and Lucas looked at them pityingly. Rookie mistake.
“Hey,” Gray shouted. “Laughing gets you a ten-dollar fine! I understand that none of you think it’s cool that Alvarez is being tended to by Temple and might be out for the next game, but you can’t all be swinging your sticks like the last of the Neanderthals.”
“Is it weird that he doesn’t mean Dax when he says Temple?” Payne whispered. “Or am I the only one who found that sentence odd?”
Lucas gritted his teeth as he removed his shin guards. No. He also found the idea of Leon being treated by Anna…irritating.
“I think swinging sticks sounds like the script for sports BDSM soft porn,” Dax mused.
“Love and Hockey: Love at first stick,” Fox muttered.
“Okay, listen up!” Gray shouted. He could be in the movies as the burly giant. “I actually would have liked to have won both home games. It’s going to be harder to win at the other team’s arena. But we only need to win three more games to advance to the second round — and by God, we will.”
“Coach, by God would be more inspiring if you were religious,” Blake Ford pointed out.
“And you’d be more inspiring if you’d been on the ice today, backup goalie,” Fox added pleasantly.
“Yes. And I believe in fining you for stupid comments, by the way,” the coach added seriously.
“Why aren’t you bankrupt yet, Dax?” Payne asked innocently.
“So,” the coach said louder, “we…”
The door opened and Lucy strolled in. The red-haired PR manager was about as impressed by half-naked hockey players as Lucas was by their final period. “Hey,” she said, “what the hell was that tonight? And, can I open the locker room to the press?”
“No!” the coach snapped.
“Gray, Leslie insists that someone at least make a statement,” she said impatiently.
Gray paled a little more. Leslie wasn’t nicknamed Dragon for nothing. When she became angry, all she needed was a spark and she’d literally spit fire.
“It’s okay, Fox!”
Fox groaned. “Be the team captain, they said,” he muttered grumpily. “It’ll be fun, they said.”
Lucas smiled. Yep, he was glad he didn’t have the job. Why wasn’t Leon back yet? What exactly was Anna doing to him? And where exactly did she have to touch him to do it?
“What kind of statement is he supposed to make?” Dax asked. “That we played like a wet sack of rice in the final third?”
“Speak for yourself,” Payne muttered. “I was a slim pack of oatmeal. Coarse and gritty.”
“I don’t care at all. Just make it brief, Fox. At least Moreau regained his focus. The last few pucks were simply unstoppable. Don’t forget to mention that.”
“Oh, yeah, his newly returned focus,” Fox murmured. “I wonder why that is.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Is there something you want to say, Fox?”
“No, how about you?” he whispered. “Slept with Temple in the last forty-eight hours?”
“Only in Dax’s dreams. And maybe in that BDSM soft porn he was talking about.”
Fox snorted and rose. “You know, you told me you were only friends. Does she know that?”
Lucas also stood simply because he couldn’t stand the way his best friend was looking down on him right then. “Why do you care?” he hissed.
“I don’t want her running to her brothers because she’s angry at you.”
He laughed dryly. The idea was ridiculous. “You really don’t know her at all, do you?”
“Do you?” he said incredulously. “I thought you…”
“Fox, whatever you have to discuss, the press comes first,” Gray interrupted. “And, Moreau, you’re limping.”
“No, I’m not,” he replied automatically, turning around.
“Yes! Go see Temple and have her look at your knee when she’s done with Leon.”
“Coach, I…”
“No argument. Go.”
Luckily, the coach hadn’t introduced the swear jar yet.
Lucas had only seen Anna briefly in passing since Sunday. He’d kept his distance and she’d kept hers. He was rather certain they’d silently agreed that a purely platonic relationship was best.
The problem was that Lucas was always silently agreeing to things. Most people, though, needed words for that sort of thing, and he was afraid Anna was one of them. Yet he still thought it would be easier if they saw each other as little as possible. After all, they’d seen where time alone led.
That was exactly what he’d tell her. That they’d be amicable with each other, but maintain a polite distance. Women liked honesty, right? They didn’t care what you said as long as it was honest. Right?
Sighing, he rubbed his face and stopped in front of the door to the examination room…which was ajar.
“Ouch! Fuck!” Leon’s voice sounded from inside. “I should have known you’d prefer it hard and rough.”
“Shut up, Leon, I barely touched you.”
“Well, you’re allowed, you know?”
Lucas practically heard the eyebrow waggling in Leon’s voice, and his jaw tensed.
Anna sighed loudly. “Leon, really, you…”
“Ow! That’s cold.”
“It’s ice, Leon. It is cold.”
“Still.”
“I’m sorry it hurts,” Anna said, her voice considerably softer.
“It’s not that bad.”
“Leon,” she said seriously, “of course it is. Your shoulder is bruised and your arm movement is limited. I don’t know if I’ll be able to clear you for the next game…”
“You will! I’m fit!” he barked.
How the hell was he speaking to her like that? Lucas had his hand on the door handle when he heard Anna laugh.
“You all think you can impress or scare me with your shouting. I decide who is fit to play and who isn’t. So, stop making such a fuss and listen to what I have to say.”
A grumble came in response. “It’s not fair. I always get a slap on the wrist. And there’s just as much bullshit coming out of Dax and Matt’s mouths!”
“Yes,” Anna drawled, her sympathy evident. “It must be hard to have to put up with so much. Just because you’re the youngest. But if it helps, I would have yelled too.”
“I’m not the youngest. There are a few players younger than me.”
“Yes, but they’re not yet as advanced as you. They still need a few years to be accepted into the upper, elite circle. But, I imagine it’s exhausting not being taken seriously by the others. Even if they respect you, at times, it must seem that they don’t.”
Perplexed silence was the only answer. And Lucas understood Leon. He too was staring open-mouthed at the door.
Leon had just yelled at her and she responded with an incredibly generous kindness the bastard didn’t deserve.
“Do you truly believe they respect me?” he muttered after a minute.
“Hello? They busted heads for you today because they were so angry that Thompson seriously hurt you.”
“Hm,” he said. “I guess so. What about you? Do you respect me too? Enough to maybe put your hand somewhere else?”
Okay, that was enough. Lucas gritted his teeth and stepped forward. He saw through the crack in the door that the center was on an exam table with Anna leaning over him, her hand on his shoulder…and something hot and ugly was unfolding in his stomach.
They were close. Way too close. And Leon should damn well take back what he had just said!
His hand still on the doorknob, he heard Anna speak again, reminding him that she was perfectly fine on her own.
“You know, Leon, I’ve talked to you maybe a dozen times now,” she remarked with a loud sigh. “Each time, you flirt with me…as you do with every other woman in this world. Are you even really interested in any of them?”
Leon opened his mouth in confusion. “Of course I am!”
“Not on a sexual, but an emotional level,” Anna added matter-of-factly.
The player frowned. “I don’t understand.”
Anna laughed. “Of course not. Let me put it this way: What are you looking for in a woman?”
“I don't know. She has to be tall and good-looking.”
“Aww, that doesn’t sound shallow at all,” she said, placing her hand on her chest.
“Well, I don’t know,” Leon replied defensively. Was the bastard blushing? “I haven’t thought about it. Women usually find me.”
“Ah, of course. The terrible fate of hockey players. But you know, you’ll never figure out what you really need or want, Leon, if you don’t take it seriously and just flirt with every woman you meet. But maybe that’s what you want? Just to have fun? I completely respect that. I feel the same way.”
“You only want to have fun?” he asked incredulously.
“Yes.”
“But…then why don’t you sleep with me?”
She laughed. “I’m picky.”
The corners of Lucas’ mouth twitched. Was she?
“I see. So what type do you like?” Leon asked sharply. “What are you looking for?”
She tilted her head thoughtfully. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t even know if I ever want anything serious. But…” She hesitated, speaking softer, “A man who can communicate well would be great. I have…none of those in my life at all.”
Lucas’ neck stiffened.
“Oh man,” Leon said with a tragic sigh, “I’m afraid we’re not meant to be together after all.”
She laughed honestly and loudly…and Lucas hated it.
He wanted it to be his shoulder she was touching. That he was the one she was leaning over. Whose jokes she was laughing at.
Fuck.
He narrowed his eyes. This wasn’t going to go well. If he let her manipulate him, her hands on his body… Shit, no. That would be the beginning of the end of his control.
She’d come against his mouth on Sunday, but he’d had to use his hands twice in the shower to get her out of his head, only to wake up the next morning with a hard-on because he had dreamed that Fox hadn’t interrupted them. That they’d finished what they’d started on the couch.
No.
He turned on his heels and headed to the head doctor’s office. He’d have to get someone else to tend to him.