Chapter 52
Izzy
“To the game winner!” Mickey says, lifting his shot glass to Nikolai. “You’re next level, dude, seriously.”
“Yeah, you’re cold as ice,” Evan says. Half the guys groan, and the other half burst into laughter. “What?” he adds, spreading
his arms. “We play ice hockey . It’s stupid, but it works.”
I snag a shot from the nearest tray, holding it up, too. Across the table, cluttered with empty glasses, Nik catches my eye
and smiles. I make a silly face, and he replies by sticking out his tongue and crossing his eyes. I giggle.
He clears his throat as he stands, looking around at his teammates.
The guys are practically high on the victory, courtesy of a perfectly executed shootout goal by Nik. When regulation ended
in a tie, they went to a blisteringly fast overtime period, but that didn’t force a goal. The shootout had me screaming, holding
on to Penny’s arm so tightly she yelped. I wasn’t expecting Nik to come out for the game winning attempt, but he steamrolled
the Lowell goaltender in the blink of an eye. I don’t know all the intricacies of hockey, but even I could tell that a shot
like that was a thing of lethal beauty.
He’s so collected when he plays, his face can be blank, but after that goal, I caught the emotion in his expression. Elated,
but a little sad, somehow. Maybe he didn’t think he was going to get the goal.
He played so fucking well tonight. He deserves these cheers.
He holds up his own shot glass, the bar lights throwing his scar into sharp relief. He had the bartender put a couple bottles of vodka on ice when we first walked in.
“Gentlemen—”
“Iceman,” Cooper says, snapping his fingers. “That should be your nickname.”
“ Top Gun vibes all the way,” Evan says, nodding.
“Isn’t Iceman the antagonist?” Penny says. She’s halfway in Cooper’s lap, nursing a glass of wine.
“Not by the end. And definitely not in the new movie.” He squeezes her knee as he presses a kiss to her cheek. “Although to
be fair, when we watched it, we didn’t pay that much attention.”
“Iceman,” Mickey says contemplatively. “I like it.”
“I’ve never seen it,” Nik says.
Cooper’s mouth drops open. “Okay, next team movie night, we’re watching it. Miracle can wait; we watch that one every year anyway.”
I snort. Now Cooper knows how I feel about Nik and Legally Blonde .
“ Miracle also has Russians,” says Micah, the freshman who sticks to Nik’s side like a burr. He’s holding hands with a pretty girl
I vaguely recognize from the communications department.
“Technically Soviets,” Nik drawls. “Weird, though, it’s almost like Russians have reasons to be good at hockey.”
“Even though Canada invented it,” Jean says, his French-Canadian accent more pronounced from the alcohol he’s been knocking
back. “As the only Canadian on the team, I will not let—”
“Can we get going with the toast?” Aaron interrupts. “I’d like to keep the good times rolling, if it’s cool with Iceman and
Captain Callahan.”
“Captain Callahan?” I repeat, catching Aaron’s double meaning. “Oh my God. This is the greatest night of my life.”
My brother actually blushes. “It’s just my name, technically.”
“Okay, Captain America .”
He groans, slumping against the booth. “Iceman, give us this long, poetic Russian toast before we all lose it.”
After a toast that does sound pretty poetic to my untrained ears—not to mention sexy; I want to rub against Nik like a cat
every time Russian comes out of his mouth—I knock back the shot. Victoria pulls me in the direction of the dance floor, and
I let her, even though I can feel Nik following my movements. I’m buzzed enough to want nothing but his touch, yet not quite
bold enough to start making out with him in front of everyone.
Before I can get into the song, however, he snags me around the waist. I squeak as he pulls me into his lap. I try to sit
up, but he holds me tighter, arm draped over me possessively.
“I can’t take how goddamn stunning you are,” he whispers into my ear. “Everyone in this fucking bar knows that you’re mine.”
I bite back a moan at the feeling of his muscular thigh between my legs. He whispers again, this time in Russian, and I don’t
have to be fluent to realize he just said something filthy. His hand slips underneath the jersey, playing with the waistband
of my leggings. I glance around, but no one is paying us any attention. Cooper and Penny are wrapped up in each other, Evan
is dancing with Xander, and a bunch of the single guys are shooting their shots with a group of women the next booth over.
I whimper as his thumb works underneath the waistband, swiping across the soft part of my belly. Not low enough to be indecent, but we’re in a bar full of people, and his hand is close enough to my pussy, my core clenches. I twist around, cradling his jaw in my hands. Our teeth gnash together as we kiss. He groans, the sound slicing through me like the shot of vodka.
I break away slowly. Deliberately.
If we were alone, he’d sweep the glasses off the table and lay me over the sticky top. His chest would heave as he yanked
down my leggings, then cupped my pussy, fingers digging into my slick folds. He’d pour vodka on my tits, my tattoo, and lick
it all clean before nosing between my legs.
I whimper; I’m getting soaked at the fantasy. I rock on his leg, even though it’s not nearly enough. His eyes flicker, pupils
blown wide. His mouth shines with the gloss from my lips, but I pretend it’s from my slick. The alcohol hasn’t done much to
him, he’s only had two shots, but he’s still drunk on something .
On me.
“Take me home,” I breathe.