Chapter 26 #2
I keep my voice low and discreet for her. “Penny for your thoughts?”
“Andrea and her stupid cohort are pissing me off by trying to take control of everything,” Diana huffs.
Her wrist trembles as she tries to twist the bottle cap off.
“Not only that, but I’ve also been scouring the internet for any sign of someone seeing me at the Wing and Flame in case word traces back to my family, and it’s driving me crazy. ”
“Di, people were too hyped up on booze and hot wings to notice you were there that night.” I tear into the box of root beer and start organizing the cans into the cooler. “They might’ve seen you, but I doubt they were sober enough to remember anything.”
“I know.” Diana groans, giving up on the water bottle cap. “I’m driving myself insane for no reason. I just feel like everything is spinning out. The Howler. The trajectory of my whole life—” She slams the bottle down and smacks it. “This stupid cap that won’t open!”
I take the bottle and crack it open for her.
Diana blushes and avoids making eye-contact. “Thank you.”
I can’t help smiling a little. “No problem.”
She takes a sip of water. The anger and panic that had rattled her fade into a familiar exhaustion that’s been dragging at my bones, too.
“Honestly, there’s gotta be something in the air making everyone fucking insufferable today.” I tear apart the cardboard boxes. “I just had a group of jackasses try to get me to sign a picture of a guy on steroids in front of Anthony Benigno.”
Diana’s eyes widen as she gulps down her water.
“Oh god, Kai.” She frowns. “That’s…I’m so sorry.”
I shrug. The rage tensing in my bones unleashes through every soda can box I rip into. “Yeah, so if it’s any consolation, you’re not the only one having a shitty time here.”
Diana narrows her eyes and turns to scan the field.
“Where are they?” she demands. “Point them out to me.”
I chuckle. “And what exactly will you do to them, princess? String them up on the flagpole?”
“Yes, and I’d let the seagulls peck out their eyes.”
A determined, furious look flares across her face.
Pure, uncontrolled want breaks through the anger and panic warring in my head.
Being turned on by violence is so fucked up—but goddamn.
Diana’s willingness to fight the assholes in my life makes me want her so much my knees are ready to give out.
My head is so eager to bury itself between her thighs to let her know just how much I appreciate it.
“Kai’s a great player, Bensy. I don’t know, though, you heard coach the other day. He’s still debating whether he’d want Kai on the roster. There’s too much controversy around him.”
My breath goes still. Across from us, Roger, Sam, and Anthony talk over burgers at the picnic table.
“So what? Who in the league isn’t wrapped up in controversy?” Anthony fires back.
“They’re not wrapped up in it like he is,” Sam points out. “People talk about his personal life more than they talk about his plays. That’s gonna get into his head. We don’t need a player with that kind of baggage if we want to make it to the playoffs.”
Panic bursts inside of me, trembling through my hands as Anthony sags back.
“I guess you got a point.” He scratches at his beard and shrugs. “Although, I’d still keep an eye on him and see how he does at the Frozen Four.”
Pressure presses down on my chest. My breath comes out shallow, shaking under the weight of Anthony’s words crushing over me.
“Kai?”
“I-I’m fine.” I grab a box of seltzer and rip it open. The gaping hole sends the cans tumbling out. “Merde!”
Diana bends down to help me pick them up. I chuck the cans into the other cooler. Panic winds around my lungs like a drawstring, growing tighter and tighter.
I’ve always dreamed about playing for the Vancouver Phoenix since I was a kid.
But when I got recruited to Division I, I didn’t care about where I was going.
As long as I could get signed and play the game, I would go to the fringes of this country just to do it.
Now, the chance to be recruited is dangling right in front of me, and it’s being batted farther away by rumors I’ll never be able to run from.
“Kai…” Diana’s elbow brushes against mine, so warm and steady I can’t help but lean into her. “The season just started. You can prove to them and everyone else about the kind of player you are. There’s still time to change their minds.”
I groan and put a bottle of seltzer into the cooler. “I want to do that and beat that group of assholes with a hose.”
Diana scowls at something over my shoulder. “Add Andrea onto the list. I want to throw one of those hopper balls at her, but it’d just be too obvious.”
Her rage fuels mine and it only grows hotter.
I tear apart the last empty soda box and shove it into the recycling bin.
“Wanna get out of here for a bit?”
Diana raises her brows. “Right now?”
“Ideally, because I don’t know how long I can last before I hose down the next jackass who decides to test me.”
And it doesn’t help that you look fucking distracting in that dress, and if I’m going to spend my time ripping through soda boxes to ease my anxiety, I’d rather be ripping through your clothes instead.
Diana fidgets as she glances around us. “Where would we go?”
“We could go to the locker room lounge,” I suggest, “It’s in the building right in front of us and it’s practically empty since everyone is out here.”
Diana hesitates. “But wouldn’t they have cameras in the lounge?”
I laugh. “Since the boys strut around half naked in there, no.”
I reach over her shoulder to close the recycling bin. My lips duck low enough to whisper near her ear. “Believe me, princess. I can bend you over and fuck you against the pool table, and no one would be the wiser.”
Diana’s breath catches, her grip tightens around her media pass.
Footsteps stomp past us.
“God, why would you use a close-up shot on the pucks? The medium shot is so much better.”
Diana’s nostrils flare as Andrea storms by with an irritated DHU journalism student in tow. Diana curses in Mandarin before she stares up at me.
“I want you to rail every thought out of my head until I can barely remember my own name,” she seethes. “I want to forget about strangling Andrea and those stupid boys who humiliated you. Can you do that?”
I smirk, my gaze trailing down the body I’m determined to mark up. “Say no more.”