23. Run Of Shame
Run Of Shame
MACKLIN
Ihate wiping my cum off Talia’s perfect chest.
There’s no way I would admit this to her, but seeing my release all over her was the biggest turn-on ever. It stirred something within me. It’s like that makes her really mine. Our relationship might not be real—yet—but every kiss, every touch is as real as it gets.
Getting possessive over my fake girlfriend might be a recipe for disaster, but I think we have a chance. By the time our deal ends, Talia is going to be mine.
Once Talia is all dressed, I pull her back into my arms. I can’t help it. I’m even considering not being the first one in the locker room for today’s practice.
“Wait.” I brush my lips on hers. It’s becoming an addiction. “I’m the worst boyfriend ever. I didn’t even feed you. Our pizza is still downstairs. Maybe I can wrap up a few slices for you to take home?”
“You don’t have to do that.”
I insist. “It’s pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushrooms, and olives.”
“That’s my favorite.”
The words slip out before I can think about how they’re going to sound. “I know.”
“You do?” She looks surprised.
Fuck me and my big mouth. “Yeah, you always ask for that whenever people order pizza and ask you what you like. You’ve been hanging out with Tucker and the team ever since I came to Star Cove.
” My hand flies to the back of my neck. “I wasn’t being a creep, I promise.
I’m very observant; it’s second nature for most hockey players. ”
Right. I couldn’t tell you what half my teammates prefer on their pizza. But I’m not obsessed with them the way I’ve been with Talia. I just don’t want her to know just how much yet.
“So you ordered my favorite pizza?”
She doesn’t look weirded out. Thank fuck.
“Yup.”
“That was so sweet, Macklin. Thank you. In that case, I’ll accept your offer to take some with me. It’ll solve the problem of what to eat before I go to work. They usually offer me a meal, but eating stuff from the same menu for almost two years becomes boring.”
I take her hand in mine and walk us out of my room. “Let’s get you some pizza, and then I’ll walk you home.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she protests. “The Zeta house is literally next door. I don’t want to make you late for practice.”
She’s right, but I don’t care. Call me crazy, but right now I can’t bear the thought of saying goodbye to her, of not touching her. If she didn’t have to work, I’d invite her to come and watch us practice.
“Don’t worry about it. Besides, it’s good for us to be seen together if we want to really sell this relationship.”
“Oh, ok.”
Thankfully, she buys my excuse. The truth is that if I didn’t have to go to practice, I’d give her a ride to work, too.
What do you know? I was never like this with Gen, but with Talia? If I didn’t have practice, I’d probably get myself a soda or two and sit in that bar until the end of her shift, so I could take her home. I’m a clingy motherfucker.
Case in point, I hold her hand all the way down the stairs and into the kitchen.
The large pizza box is sitting on the kitchen table. “Let me see if we have some paper plates so I can wrap it up better.” I still don’t let go of her hand, though.
“I’m impressed that no one took that pizza. In my parents’ house, you can’t leave food unattended for more than a couple of minutes. My brothers are like a swarm of locusts. Even Tucker.”
“Tucker knows better than to take my pizza.” I chuckle. “And so do the rest of the guys. Besides, most of them don’t like olives.”
“True,” she giggles. “Tucker hates olives.”
As if summoned by our mention of him, Tucker’s voice filters in from the backyard.
“Get her! No, you stupid fucker. Don’t let her get away.”
His yelling is met with laughter and a chant.
“Baety, Baety, Baety!”
“What’s going on?” We abandon our search for the paper plates and walk out to the backyard to check out the cause of all the commotion.
The scene that plays out in front of our eyes is as weird as it is hilarious.
Baety Swalls, Tucker’s rescue duck that has been officially adopted as our frat house’s mascot, is riding on top of a round vacuum cleaner robot.
Tucker, Colsen and Nash are chasing after her, but that robot is going pretty fast.
“Quack, quack!” Baety flaps her wings, balancing herself on top of the robot and dodging Nash’s dive to catch her.
“Careful!” Tucker snaps. “I don’t want her to get hurt.”
The robot changes direction when Vaughn steps into its trajectory and barrels away from the group of bewildered hockey players, headed toward the pool.
“Shit, get her!” Tucker snaps.
“Easier said than done, Tuck,” Vaughn protests. “The robot detects us as obstacles and dodges us.”
Talia’s brother shakes his head. “We’re fucking hockey players. We should be faster than a duck on a vacuum robot.” He yells, running after Baety.
Everyone runs after him, and Talia and I follow suit, our curiosity peaked by the chaos we just witnessed.
We reach them just in time to see the robot catch against a tile that got cracked after the last rowdy party and create a noticeable bump in the otherwise neat pool area.
The robot capsizes throwing Baety into the pool like a feathered bullet.
“Quack!”
“Baety!” Tucker dives into the pool, swimming toward his duck.
Everyone is laughing except Tucker, who carries Baety out of the pool with a thunderous expression on his face. “What the fuck is wrong with you guys? If Baety had gotten hurt, I’d have had your asses. All of you.”
“Oh, come on, Tuck,” Davis, one of the sophomores, chuckles. “Don’t you think diving into the pool was a little excessive? Baety is a duck and last I checked, they can swim just fine.”
Oh, boy.
Thankfully Nash and Colsen grab Tucker before he can lunge at Davis.
“Baety can swim.” Tucker bites out, furious to the point that a vein is bulging on his forehead.
“But she hasn’t learned her life skills from her duck family.
You all know that when I found her a couple of months ago, she was a duckling.
What if she had hit the concrete around the pool and gotten seriously hurt, huh? ”
Daves flinches, looking repentant, but he doesn’t know when to shut up. “Ok, ok. Take a fucking chill pill, dude.”
“Oh, no,” Talia whispers at my side. “He didn’t just say that.”
Before the situation can escalate, I intervene. Technically, we’re at the Gamma House and Tucker is the frat president. But all the people involved in whatever was going on are Cove Knights, and as team captain, it’s my responsibility to make sure that this doesn’t turn into a brawl.
Don’t do anything to embarrass yourself and don’t do anything to embarrass the team. Is Coach Harrison’s golden rule, so if what happened falls into any of those two scenarios, I need to do damage control.
“Can someone tell me what in the ever loving fuck is going on?” I point at Tucker and Baety. “What was Baety doing on the vacuum robot?”
“You should ask those two dumbasses.” Tucker’s scowl is directed at Davis and Jayden, two of the sophomores. “I came back with Colsen and Nash from the dining hall and imagine my fucking surprise when I walked into a fucked up race against the stupid vacuum robot and my duck.”
I’m not sure I heard him right. “A race?”
“Yeah,” Jayden intervenes. “I’m sorry, it’s kinda my fault.”
“Do I even wanna know?” I sigh.
Jayden is redder than a tomato as he explains.
“I’m an engineering major, as you know. Mechanical engineering, to be precise.
Some of the guys had been complaining that the vacuum takes forever to clean the floors and gets in everyone’s way.
It also can’t clean the entire house on one charge since this is such a big house. So I decided to see if I could fix it.”
“When you say fix it, you mean?”
“I ordered a new, more powerful battery and installed it.” Jayden offers sheepishly. “Then I tricked out the engine, so it goes faster.”
Davis chimed in. “He supercharged it.”
“When I came home, the guys were trying it.” Vaughn adds. “And the second Baety saw the robot, she started chasing it.”
“So naturally,” Davis continues. “We wondered who would be faster, Baety or the robot? So we came outside to organize a proper race.”
For fuck’s sake. “You did, huh?”
“He,” Tucker accuses, glaring at Davis. “Was taking bets. On my baby. I found them mid-race.”
Davis shrugs. “We were just having some fun. Baety was totally safe.”
That statement does nothing to calm Tucker’s temper. “Totally safe?” He raises his voice. “Baety was riding the fucking robot. Like the duck version of one of those mechanical bulls some bars have.”
I do my best to calm them down. We’re hockey players and fights are our bread and butter. It’s just better when we focus that aggression against our opponents rather than against each other. “Tucker, thank fuck Baety is ok. I’m sure Jayden and Davis didn’t mean to cause her any harm. Right guys?”
“That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to tell him. Things were going fine until Tucker got home and started yelling at everyone and scared Baety. That’s why she climbed on the robot, to get away from you.”
Oh, no. I wonder if between me, Nash, and Colsen we could stop Tucker from committing first degree murder in broad daylight.
“Hold Baety,” he hands me the duck. “While I kick the shit out of these two idiots—hold on a second.” He stops his rant to look at me and Talia.
His jaw ticks as he looks me up and down and then does the same thing with his sister. His gaze pauses on our joined hands.
“Is anything the matter?” I ask him, confused.
Tucker’s eyes narrow, his tone suspicious when he speaks next. “What are you two doing here? Weren’t you going to take Talia out to lunch?”
“We got lunch.” Talia intervenes before I can answer.
Tucker points a finger at me. At my torso, to be precise. “Like that? You went to lunch shirtless? And did you come to change into sweatpants to go out? You had jeans on this morning.”
“I don’t understand what your problem is.” Talia glares at him. “We were both tired, and we got a pizza delivered here.”
“The same large pizza that’s sitting on the kitchen table, untouched?” He spits out.
Talia doesn’t back down. “Like I said, we were tired. We took a nap and woke up to Macklin’s alarm. He was going to give me some pizza to eat before work.”
“Is that why your top is inside out?” Tucker growls. “You can’t nap with your fucking clothes on?”
Talia releases my hand, crossing her arms over her chest, mimicking her brother’s stance. “Do you sleep with your fucking clothes on? I took a nap with my boyfriend, Tucker. Not that it’s any of your business.”
The look on Tucker’s face doesn’t promise anything good. I’ve never understood the saying “If a look could kill” until now. The only thing that makes me hopeful that Tucker isn’t going to murder me on the spot for getting naked with his sister is that right now his beloved duck is in my arms.
“You’re my baby sister. Forgive me for not wanting to know what you’re up to behind closed doors, under the same roof. With your boyfriend.”
For a second, I wonder if Tucker is going to give away that the relationship between me and Talia is fake. Or at least, the part he knows about.
“Talia is a grown woman, Tucker.” I argue.
“Exactly. There’s barely a year between us,” Talia offers. “And you’ve never had a problem hooking up at parties where I was present. Often, even in the same room. At least Macklin isn’t a casual hookup. Or did you forget how you acted before meeting Taryn?”
Tucker’s scowl darkens. “I’m just trying to protect you, Tal.”
“I care about your sister, Tucker. I would never do anything to hurt her. I told you this before.”
It’s true, and I mean every word. Every minute I spend with Talia makes me care for her more and more.
Before Tucker can keep arguing, Vaughn gets involved.
“Mack means it, dude.” He slaps our goalie on the back.
“How is that any of your business, Heston?” Tucker barks. “And what the fuck makes you say that?”
Vaughn’s shit-eating grin widens. “Did you hear what they were about to do? He was about to give her the pizza to take home with her. Mack would rather die than share his pizza. He must be in love with Talia.”
Who would have thought that the biggest jackass on the team would be so perceptive?
My phone starts ringing in my pocket. I dig it out of my sweatpants, and for a second, I wonder who could be calling me right now.
“Shit,” I bite out. “It’s Coach Harrison. We’re all late for practice.”
I’ve never seen a crowd disperse that quickly. Our teammates aren’t that scared of Tucker, but Coach? That’s a completely different matter.