EPILOGUE
One month later
It was the first important game of the season. Sure, we’d played a few here and there already, but none that would test us. The Wraiths were that team.
We warmed up on the ice in near silence. Music boomed around the rink, spectators filing into their seats. The air was electric. I’d played in a few places, but nowhere felt like Hade Harbor when it came to hockey.
“You know what’s riding on this game, right?” Marcus asked as I skated past the goals where he was stretching. “Can we count on you to bring it?”
“What do you think?” I asked him. “I don’t lose, you know that, Bailey.”
Marcus nodded. “Yeah, I’m starting to see that. Glad you’re on our team, Sinclair.”
“Yeah, I’m happy for you, too. It was about time to start winning.” I laughed and skated easily away from Marcus’ stick when he went to smack me with it.
I skated up the side of the rink, past Cal and Asher who stretched side by side, engaged in quiet conversation.
I reached the players’ bench and spied a row of Ice God jerseys sitting just behind it.
Martino, West, Anderson, and even Bailey were all there, worn by the women who loved them.
Even Ari, Marcus’ older fiancée, who looked far too classy to be sitting ice-side in a polyester jersey, but hey, women liked funny guys. Funny guys who treated them well.
There was someone conspicuously missing, however. I stared pointedly at Winter, who just shrugged, twisting around to look at the top of the stairs at the end of the aisle.
So, my little heathen was late. It wasn’t a surprise; after all, she was often late. She didn’t care too much for appearances, or strict timelines, deadlines, or making polite small talk. She was a heathen through and through, and she was mine.
I’d never been richer.
The ref ended the warm-ups, and we skated into formation.
The whistle blew, and the game started. The Wraiths were just as good as Coach Williams had warned us they were.
I’d studied their previous games, researched their star players.
I knew how the team ticked. Yes, they were good, but we were better.
Or so I thought, until second period, when we were one down, and time was slipping through my fingers.
The jovial atmosphere of the rink had shifted.
Wraiths fans cheered loudly, carrying the energy, while the Hellion fans had grown nervous.
At the end of the period, we stepped off the ice and made toward the locker room to have Coach Williams tear us a new one.
I tried to listen, I really did, but all I could think was… where was she?
I knew she’d had rehearsal right before. I knew it often ran over. My girl had been making new friends, ones that shared her interest in the theater, and I supported that. I was even able to stand the fact that half of them were male.
But she never missed the whole game. Tension swam through me, making me snappy and irritable.
I exchanged glances with Cayden. Half the weight of the game felt like it was resting on our shoulders.
More than half. It was the mark of the forwards to feel that way.
I’d never thought I’d get on as well as I’d ended up doing with Cayden West. We couldn’t be more different in so many ways, and yet, surprisingly alike.
Coach released us, and we made for the tunnel back to the rink.
“You got your head back in the game?” West asked.
No. I didn’t bother answering. He’d see it soon enough.
“Why not?” West asked.
But I could tell in his eyes that he knew. After all, he was exactly the same, which was the reason his smart little girlfriend was always front and center at his games.
We stepped back onto the ice, and West, ahead of me, shot me a rare grin.
“Oh well, looks like you’re out of excuses, Sinclair. Better wake the fuck up.”
He moved away, and I checked the seats behind the players’ bench.
There she was.
She’d just sat and struggled to get my hockey jersey over the stretchy black underlayer she still wore often. Winter tried to help her tug it down at the back.
Winter saw me, murmured something to Selena, and my heathen glanced up and saw me.
She smiled, and it was a sight that would reanimate a dead man.
I walked forward until I was as close to her as I could get, and she leaned over the railing above me.
“Running late, were we?” I murmured.
“Only a little. Don’t tell me you noticed already.” Her lips curved in a knowing grin. “You’ve got it bad, haven’t you?”
I slammed my cage down to end the temptation to kiss her. “Undeniably.”
She laughed, and it was music to my ears. “You’re obsessed with me, aren’t you?”
I grinned back up at her. “Exactly. If I’m not watching you sleep, file a missing person’s report.”
“You two are so weird,” Winter remarked beside Selena.
“Yep, we are.” Selena grinned broadly at her friend and straightened up, waving a hand in the direction of the ice. “Now, go and win. I didn’t come here to watch you lose.”
“Got it, heathen. You just think how you’ll congratulate me once I snatch a win from the jaws of our impending defeat.”
I walked toward the ice as Marcus spoke behind me. “That was big talk, Sinclair. You better bring it.”
“You just concentrate on stopping the puck with that thick head of yours. I’ve got the goals covered.”
I waited in the center for the whistle to blow, hot anticipation roaring through me.
A lust for life, a feeling of excitement, a rush of something that felt dangerously close to contentment.
It was the difference between when Selena was at the game and when she wasn’t. Just like my entire life before her.
The puck dropped.
I exploded forward the second our defenseman chipped it loose. The crowd rose instantly, a wave of noise crashing over the rink. I could hear blades cutting ice behind me, sticks clacking, the pounding of my own heartbeat inside my helmet.
One defender stepped up at the blue line.
I deked left. He bit.
I snapped the puck through his legs and blew past him, the crowd screaming louder. Open ice appeared ahead of me. Their goalie crouched low, tracking every movement. I faced guys like him every season—big, calm, impossible to rattle. They were even more fun to take down. I hunted for my opening.
But I saw it. A tiny opening above his blocker.
My teammate raced down the right side, yelling for the pass, but I kept the puck. The last defender lunged at me with his stick extended. I dragged the puck backward at the last second, spun around him, and cut straight into the slot.
The arena fell silent for one impossible moment.
Then I fired.
The puck rocketed off my blade and screamed into the top corner. Ping.
The sound of it on the crossbar was instantly swallowed by absolute chaos.
The red goal light flashed, and the Hellion fans erupted.
Tied game, but we weren’t done. The Wraiths fought back hard, but Marcus kept them from landing another goal.
Finally, a break came. Their winger lost control near center ice, and I stole the puck clean. Suddenly, it was just me and open ice.
The crowd stood before I’d even crossed the blue line. I could hear them chanting my name. I could hear her above everyone else.
One move. Forehand to backhand. The goalie slid with me. I waited. Waited.
Then lifted the puck softly between his pads.
For half a second, nobody reacted.
Then the net rippled. The scoreboard changed, and the buzzer blew.
Game over.
I was late to hit the showers, since my father had brought some local investors to the game to parade around his hockey star sons.
Cal had blown off the meet and greet, and I covered for him.
I stood and waited while my father talked about the town, the team, and the new sponsorships the Sinclair brothers had brought in.
Since the news about him and Arthur had become known within the family, the dynamic had shifted.
For the first time in his life, my father had been speechless when I’d set out the plan, going forward.
No vindictive behavior toward Marjory. In fact, Father had coughed up a more than respectable amount in alimony, not to mention the full amount she was entitled to if he had broken the morality clause.
I had also explained to him how we wouldn’t be moving schools, or towns, anytime soon.
Cal liked it here, and this was his year to get recruited.
The office downtown was convenient for Selena to get work experience at, and I got to fuck her on the copier during breaks, so there was no downside, really.
Cici’s school was close enough by car, the school which I had taken over the provision for.
I’d also seen to it that she was set up with a trust for her future needs.
Now, my father and I were figuring out a new way of being. A new way to coexist, work together, and be a family. I might be imagining it, but I caught him smiling, like I’d never seen him smile before. Slowly, the weight of years of lying and self-denial was lifting.
And it was all because of my little heathen who I loved more than I’d ever loved anyone.
I stripped off. The rest of the team made their way out of the changing rooms.
“Don’t be too long, the party’s already going,” Marcus remarked as he headed out.
Cal followed. “You know that means he’s got you signed up for some kind of game, right?”
I just shook my head. “Better me than you, right?”
Cal gave me a grin and left. He’d played outstandingly tonight. It really was his turn to be recruited. I only hoped he wouldn’t wind up somewhere too far away.
With my mind occupied with thoughts of recruitments and drafts, I headed to the showers. I was alone by now, and grateful for the quiet. I turned on the water and stepped under.
I soaped up and washed the smell of the game off me. My muscles were tired and achy, but nothing a sauna and cold plunge wouldn’t handle. I’d convinced Selena to join me. Just the thought had me getting aroused.
“Tut-tut. Getting hard in the men’s locker room?” someone called.
I nearly tensed, but I recognized the tone right away. I reached out and grabbed the soap and turned to look at my love.
She lounged in the doorway, already in her underwear.
Heat charged up my spine and, just like that, I was solid as stone.
Since I wasn’t about to confess that just the passing thought of dragging Selena into the sauna with me had me turned on, I just grinned.
“Like father, like son, I guess.”
She rolled her eyes. Since finding out about my father’s secret sex life and long-term love, Selena had become more open to him.
“Mean.”
“Yeah, see what my mother and yours have to say about his meanness,” I pointed out.
Selena clapped her hands slowly. “Wow, such an ally.”
“Get over here,” I growled at her, tired of her being out of reach.
When she got close enough, I tugged her to me, instantly getting her underwear wet.
“It’s just, I know what it’s like to live with secrets that are destroying you,” Selena said.
I wiped water from her eyelashes. She blinked at me.
“Everyone deserves a second chance, or so my friends tell me. Even me.” Her tone sounded very much like someone who was trying hard to change a long-held belief.
I knew in her case, it was that she was a villain and could never be anything else.
“Especially you,” I corrected. “We’ll see about my father.”
She nodded. “Yes, we’ll see.”
I ran my hands down her sides to the small of her back, enjoying the way she fit perfectly against me.
It wasn’t about her body shape. She could be smaller or bigger, her stomach could be swollen with our child, and yet, she would fit perfectly against me.
My body could adapt, my heart could expand. All of this I’d learned because of her.
“Don’t picture a happy holiday card just yet,” I warned her, though I could already see the wheels turning.
She grinned. “Why not? Your mom, mine, and her new/old boyfriend, Cici and Cal, your dad and Arthur, why not?”
I smoothed her wet hair back and sighed. “Is that what you really want?”
She nodded slowly. “If you can handle it.”
“I’ll handle it, if it’s what you want. Don’t forget the most important rule, heathen…”
I brushed my lips over hers. “What the cheer captain wants, she gets. End of story.”
She smiled at me, running her hands up my chest and then reaching past me for the shower gel.
She squeezed it liberally into her palm and lathered her hands.
“And you? What about what you want?” she murmured.
“I already have everything I want.” Here, now, in my arms. My universe made flesh.
“Are you sure?” she prompted.
“Hmm, there’s no competition, haven’t you heard? I won at life. No matter what anyone else accomplishes from now until the end of time. I still won.”
She shook her head ruefully. “So arrogant.” She lowered her soapy hands to my cock straining against my abs.
“Just the way you like me,” I reminded her.
She nodded and bit her lip. “But I bet I can still bring you to your knees. Should we test that theory?” She pumped up my length with a firm grip.
Pleasure pooled inside me.
I smirked, leaning back on the cool tile wall while she worked me. We both knew she’d win this one, but playing was so fucking fun.
“Game on, heathen.”