Chapter 42
PETAL
“Fun group,” Rake says when I return.
I take the seat across from him. Not sure I want to get too close. I’m pissed and I don’t want his hotness to take away from the piece of my mind I’m about to give him. “They’re great girls. Been friends with them since forever. We’ve been through it all together.”
“I guess now that the secret’s out, they know everything?” he asks.
“Now that the secret is out, everyone knows everything. Including about your being traded.”
He frowns. “That’s what I came up to talk to you about. How’d you hear?”
I wave my hand like no big deal. “I was walking out for coffee today, you know, enjoying a little break and some fresh air, and this reporter yells out to me, asking what I think about your being traded,” I say with exaggerated breeziness.
His eyebrows go up and little lines across his forehead become visible. “I see.”
I give him a sarcastic smile. “Yeah. That’s how I found out.
I tried pretending I already knew, but the man saw right through me.
There’ll probably be a new story all about it tomorrow.
It will go like this—Rake Hanson’s marriage, which everyone thought was real and turned out to actually be fake, is to a woman he apparently doesn’t talk to because she had no idea there’s talk about him being traded to another team. ”
He flinches. “Now hold on. It’s not like that—”
“It’s just like that,” I snap. “I find out you may be leaving town from a stranger. You couldn’t even be bothered to tell me.”
He looks up at the ceiling and cracks his neck.
Guess he’s a little irritated? Welcome to the club.
“I will explain, if you let me.” He pauses like he’s wondering if I’m going to keep interrupting or shut my mouth for a change.
I’m not an easy woman. Never claimed to be.
“If you are not interested, fine. Tell me, and I’ll leave,” he says.
I desperately try to hang on to the anger buzzing through me. It feels good. Satisfying, in a strange way.
And yet, I can feel it abandoning me, slipping away, all because Rake is so damned earnest.
Not to mention hot. I hate that he can do this to me, like he has some sort of evil magic power.
I roll my eyes, just to be a shit. “Go on.”
“Thank you.” He takes a deep breath. “Things haven’t been going too smoothly for me lately, as I think you know. One of the biggest problems is that I’ve not been doing well in practice. I’ve been inconsistent, as they love to say. Up some days, down on others. And we have a game in a couple days.”
“Things are affecting your game?”
Is there more here than meets the eye?
“Yeah. So, my agent brought up the possibility of a trade to see how I felt about it. He just brought it up, that’s all. I’m sorry you had to find out the way you did, but apparently somebody in Aftershocks management leaked it to the press.”
One guess as to who that might be.
“Okay. Sorry to hear your game isn’t going well. But I would still like to know when you were planning on telling me that you might up and leave town?”
He grimaces. “It’s not like that, Petal. First of all, just because my agent brought it up, does not mean it’s going to happen. I’m not gonna lie, it could. But baby, if anything big like that is going down, you’ll be the first to know. Nobody else.”
He’s wearing me down, big time.
“You wouldn’t even call your dad first?”
He shakes his head. “Why bother? Since he seems to be so buddy-buddy with my agent, I’ll let BJ call him.”
“So, you don’t have one foot out the door?” I ask.
My anger might be dissipating but I’m still loaded with suspicion. I can’t help it. Getting burned by Andy left lasting scars.
He pulls me from the chair I’m in and sits me down right next to him, drawing me close and kissing the top of my head. “Mmmm. I always love the way you smell.”
Cripes. How’s a girl supposed to resist things like this?
“Petal, you have my word that if anything—and I mean anything—happens that impacts us both, you will be the first to know. I know you’ve been hurt. I won’t be doing that to you.”
“Okay. I guess,” I sniff.
He hooks a finger under my chin. “I guess, my ass. I mean it.”
I look up at him and a wave of relief crashes over me. “Thank you for explaining. And thank you for apologizing,” I say, trying to keep my voice from cracking.
He did drive up here tonight, for me, because he knew we needed to talk. You have to give a guy credit for that. I know he has an early morning tomorrow. He has all week. And if his game is not going well, that’s probably not a lot of fun.
“Cool. Now that we got that settled.” He looks around. “Anyone else coming here tonight? Or do we have the place to ourselves?”
“We’re alone. The only other person with a key is Tina, the owner, and she’s not coming by. She’s home with two little kids. Why do you ask?”
“I gotta tell you, baby, I’ve had a hard cock since the moment I saw you at the front door this evening. My God, what you do to me.”
An electric buzz shoots down my spine and I tremble in my seat. What I do to him?
What about what he does to me?
Of course, my defensive smart-ass kicks right in, like a little devil on my shoulder that just won’t go away.
“Sounds like a personal problem, Rake Hanson, having a hard dick and all that. Seriously. I am so glad I’m not a man, walking around with a penis that gets erect like it has a mind of its own.
It’s hard enough having a monthly period. But at least that shit’s private.”
“Let me tell you, baby,” he says, pushing my hair off the back of my neck and tickling me with his nose, “it’s not easy being a man.”
I arch to give him more access.
So. Damn. Good.
“I… oh, that feels nice…”
“Were you about to say something, beautiful?” His lips are grazing my skin now, his breath hot and sweet.
“I was gonna say something. But I’ve already forgotten what it was.”
He laughs softly and turns my face towards him.
“So tell me, Mr. Rake Hanson,” I say in a whisper. I know the last thing I should be doing right now is babbling. But I have to get something off my chest. “What are we doing here? Are we just ‘puck buddies’?” I say, using air quotes.
He snorts. “You don’t think you’re the first person to say that, do you?”
“Maybe not. But I still think it’s pretty clever of me.”
“Everything about you is clever, Petal Parker. It’s one of the things I like about you.”
More kisses to the neck. Good lord, I’m not sure I will survive this.
“But, no, we are not puck buddies, or fuck buddies, or friends with benefits. I don’t know why I even need to say that.”
I guess he doesn’t need to say it. But I want to hear it, anyway.