Stand Your Ground (Kings of the Ice #5)

Chapter One

Bark, Bark

Carter

“Did you take a pill before coming in?” Livia asked me, hanging one hand on her slim hip as the other pointed a very sharp tool in my direction. “Because that shot only numbs your jaw, and I know you gotta be high to say what you just said to me.”

“Come on, Liv. Look—”

“Doctor Young,” she corrected me, one dark brow sliding up into her hairline. “This isn’t a barbecue at Daddy P’s house. You’re in my chair, at my job, and you will respect me and call me by my hard-earned title.”

Fuck.

My cock hardened at her tone, at the way she snapped at me, at how she made me feel small and somehow made me buzz to life at the same time.

“Yes, Doctor,” I breathed.

Livia narrowed her gaze, dropping it to my lap before she rolled her eyes. She was trying to keep her sassy attitude intact, but I saw the smile she was fighting. “Oh, my God, Carter, you don’t seriously have a boner right now?”

“Can you blame me? That was fucking hot.”

My words slurred a little as my jaw began to numb.

As a professional hockey player, I’d had my fair share of dental work. But somehow, I’d managed to avoid taking a high stick hard enough to break my tooth and send most of it flying onto the ice.

Until last night’s game.

Which was why I was here now, in Dr. Livia Young’s chair, shooting a shot that, until now, I’d been too afraid to shoot. And no, I wasn’t just asking her to fix my tooth.

I was asking her to take me under her wing and train me to be better in bed — and in dating, period.

I’d known Livia for years. She was the dentist for the Tampa Bay Ospreys, the team I was now on a one-way contract with.

She was also best friends with Maven Tanev, who was married to one of my teammates and closest friends.

Because of that, we ran in the same circle — attended the same parties, went out to the same places, watched the same group of friends grow up and get married and move on while we played on the sidelines.

Maybe that was what had courage swelling up in my chest like a wave. It hadn’t even been two months since we celebrated the wedding of our friends Aleks and Mia, and now, the whole friend group was preparing to celebrate Will and Chloe and their nuptials.

I had a sneaking suspicion Livia didn’t care one way or another, but I was tired of watching everyone else find their happiness when I couldn’t even find a fucking date.

Don’t get me wrong — I loved my teammates, even when they ragged on me, and I was happy they were all finding their soulmates.

I was just also unhappy that my confidence had been eviscerated by an absolute hard ass of a coach when I was fifteen, and I had yet to recover it.

It pissed me off that something I should have been over by now had soiled not only my performance on the ice, but off it, too.

But that’s how trauma works, as my therapist so often loved to remind me. We don’t get to choose how long it sticks around and keeps its claws in us. We don’t get to turn a dial and make it suck less. It’s a part of us, like a mole or a scar, and we have to learn to live with it.

So, that’s where I was now — acceptance.

My confidence was shit. I couldn’t land a date to save my life, let alone a girlfriend.

But Livia Young was just the woman to help me change that.

She pinched the bridge of her nose, that sharp tool still dangling in her other hand.

Her dental assistant stood by silently, a mask covering part of her shocked face, though I could see the young girl’s eyes flicking between me and Livia.

What I could see of her pale skin was flushed red.

But I had no shame when it came to Livia Young, and she’d never been afraid to speak her mind, either.

That was just one of the many reasons I knew she was right for this job.

“Carter, you are in my chair because you were hit in the face and your two lower central incisors have been blown to bits like a mortar went off in your mouth.”

“I love when you talk dentist to me.”

“And the only lesson I will be giving you,” she continued, waving that tool around like a wand. “Is to get a better mouth guard and learn how to dodge a high stick.”

She was so gorgeous I could barely think straight as I listened to her threats, the corner of my mouth lifting helplessly. Deep brown skin, smooth and enticing, dark black hair pulled into a tight, professional bun. She wore little makeup today, and she was still stunning.

But I also knew that woman when she wasn’t wearing a white coat.

I knew her in silky, body-hugging dresses and sky-high heels.

I knew her with red-painted lips and gold metal through every hole on her body.

And I knew, from the little comments she’d let slip over the years, that she owned more than a few leather outfits that had whips to match.

Which was exactly why I knew she was the right one to propose my hare-brained idea to. Any other woman would have already laughed in my face — if they’d even managed to hear me out.

What grown ass man asks a grown ass woman to teach him how to have swag in the bedroom — and out of it, too?

Me.

The kind of man who clams up or shoots off a corny pick-up line any time he’s remotely attracted to a woman, all thanks to a bald, bastardly son-of-a-bitch who made him feel like the dirt beneath his feet years ago.

“Come on,” I begged again, swinging my legs over the chair so I could sit up and face her. “Look at me, Li— er, Doctor Young,” I amended when she cocked a brow. “I need help.”

“I won’t argue that.”

“And who better to teach me than the master herself?”

I smirked a little with the use of the word master — well, as much as I could with half my jaw numb, anyway. If I knew anything about Livia Young, it was that she loved a compliment. And damn if she didn’t deserve every single one that had ever existed.

There were women, and then there were women like her — elegant without effort, sophisticated and composed, polished like a fine jewel. She didn’t have to try to be beautiful or powerful or confident. All of it existed within her like the blood that ran through her veins.

She commanded attention from the second she walked into a room.

And from the first time I’d met her, she’d turned me to absolute putty any time we were within a foot of each other.

She was used to my antics, to my non-threatening grin and eye roll-inducing pickup lines.

And even though she pretended to be annoyed by me (okay, she probably was slightly annoyed by me), she also laughed at my jokes.

She smiled and tilted her head at me when I flirted with her, like she was just a little curious even if she pretended not to be.

I knew the woman saw my attraction for her, but this was the first time I was calling her on it — really bringing it to the surface.

And asking her to agree to the most ridiculous agreement anyone ever had, I was sure.

Livia watched me for a moment before she sighed, nodding to her assistant to take a break and leave us alone. I could hear the distant sound of drills and water picks from rooms down the hall as the door opened, the assistant left, and then it was just the two of us.

Liv crossed her arms, leaning a hip against the counter as she finally released the tool she’d been holding fast to. Even in the sharp and harsh light of the fluorescents above us, and even with a strange pair of magnifying goggle things strapped around her neck — she was still a knockout.

“What exactly are you proposing?”

I sat up straighter, hope ballooning in my chest. “Simple — I want you teach me how to break a woman’s back in bed.”

“There are magazines for this, you know,” she shot back. “And YouTube.”

“You think I haven’t tried that?” I grabbed the back of my neck. “You think I’m not embarrassed as fuck to admit to anyone, least of all you, that I’m still a virgin?”

Something sparkled in her eyes at that.

“I mean, unless you count the one time a puck bunny let me stick it in her butt, which I don’t, because it was in a room with three other guys getting to do the same thing.”

Livia barked out a laugh. “Okay, I want that story someday, but while we’re on limited time… why do you want this?”

My throat thickened a bit with her question, the truth churning in my gut. But I was too numb and too desperate to get into the real meat of it right now. I wasn’t too proud to beg for help, but I was maybe a bit too proud to admit the source of my despair.

So I went for the shallow reason, instead.

“Isn’t it obvious?” I shrugged. “I’m a professional athlete.

I go out at least twice a week and have girls hanging all over me, but I can never land the deal.

Either I run them off with my pathetic attempt at flirting or I get them home and fucking choke.

” I ran a hand through my hair, shaking my head as I looked at the ground.

My jaw was really numb now, words slurring a bit, and I knew Livia needed to get to work doing whatever hellish things she needed to do to me before this numbness wore off.

“I’m hopeless, alright? Somehow, I figured my shit out on the ice.

I’m in the National League now, no longer being sent down to the A, and I’ve got a lot to offer someone.

I just… I can’t prove that if I can’t get past first base. ”

Livia’s gaze softened.

“Plus, I’m horny.”

She laughed the sweetest, most genuine laugh at that.

I beamed with my broken-tooth grin, swallowing down the fact that the woman I’d most like to prove myself to was her. I liked Livia. I had for years. I knew it, she knew it, our whole fucking crew knew it — and they all teased me about it because they all saw the obvious.

She was entirely out of my league.

We were exact opposites; her dominant and me submissive, her confident and me insecure, her living carefree while I struggled to feel adequate every day I woke up.