Chapter 12
12
Where in the world is Sydney Malloy? Honeymooning or hiding?
Liam Locke, Wyatt’s younger (and better looking) brother, says the couple is extremely happy. But it looks like Liam’s got his hands full. Being a daddy? Sydney has found a family as dramatic as she is…
-Celebrity Truth
Wyatt
M y back hurt. I pulled off my shirt and tossed it to the side to give my arms a little more freedom and picked up the axe again, bringing it down heavily on the round log I’d set up to split.
The satisfaction of watching the wood split barely outweighed the twinge in my lower back.
It was that damn couch. It came with the cabin and had to be about fifty years old. Every spring was busted, as Liam pointed out when he stayed over. And it was too damn small for a man of my size. What the hell was I supposed to do, though?
I couldn’t drag her up to this mountain and then take the only bed.
I heard the soft strumming of a guitar and looked up to see Syd in one of the Adirondack chairs on the porch, holding her guitar on her lap. She wore an oversized t-shirt that swallowed her up. She strummed again and started singing.
“He’s a mountain man. He ain’t scared of spiders and he splits logs with his bare hands…”
“I’m using an axe.”
“Creative license,” she said and kept strumming. “ He’s a gentleman but he doesn’t like to show it. He has a heart of gold but he has to hide it. He kisses like Prince Charming but looks like a bear…”
“This is a terrible song.”
“It’s for posterity. For our children,” she said, laughing at me. But at the mention of children, I felt a flush across my skin. Two kids up here with us. Maybe more. I’d have to build that loft.
“Keep chopping mountain man, you’re inspiring me.”
I laughed. Fuck me, she was cute.
Why not oblige her? I set a round log on the tree stump, and picked up my axe, flexing with all my might.
“I’m only doing this because we need wood for the fire. It’s still cold at night this high up on the mountain.”
“If that’s what you want to tell yourself,” Syd said with a smirk.
I brought the axe down on the log and split it in two.
“You know, there’s a guy who makes Tik Toks of himself splitting wood shirtless,” she said, still strumming her guitar. “I think he’s like a gazillionaire now.”
“Yeah, well I can tell you that’s not something I’m going to be doing in retirement. Too hard on my back.”
I stretched my arms above my head, trying to elongate my spine, which was something my trainers were always harping on.
I looked over at Syd, her eyes were glued to my chest.
“I feel so objectified,” I teased.
She blinked a few times, then wet her lips. “Sorry,” she mumbled, “Not sorry.”
“Make it up to me by singing a real song.”
She started to strum one of her bigger hits and she sang it with her dirty angel voice, that, now that I knew her, was even hotter than it had been before. She was sweetness and sin and a broken heart. For a woman who didn’t think about sex, she made everyone who heard her voice think about it.
Which now that I thought about it, kind of sucked for her. She kept getting put in a box by other people deciding who she was without ever knowing her.
She hit the final note and I put the axe on the ground so I could clap and whistle. “One more!”
“You think you’re getting a free concert?” she asked.
“I’m hoping I am. Play something new. That song you were humming in the car yesterday.”
“That’s not ready for anyone to hear,” she said, her cheeks going pink. She didn’t think I noticed in the car, but I noticed everything. She hummed, she chatted. She pointed out birds. She chatted some more. She sang along with her playlist.
“Maybe later?” I asked.
“Maybe.”
I would take that as a yes and keep splitting wood while she played guitar on my porch. I can’t say I ever imagined this scene playing out in my cabin, but it was amazing. Amazing until my back finally said enough already.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Getting old sucks.” I twisted from side to side to stretch out the muscles.
“You’re hardly old. Did you hurt your back chopping wood or on that lumpy sofa?”
I gathered up the split logs and put them up against the house under the eaves so they would dry out.
“I’m fine,” I lied.
“That’s what all the dude bros say. I can give you a back rub if you want?”
Yeah. I want.
I gave her a knowing look. “What about your rules?” I asked, and made a show of looking around. “I don’t see any press around to convince we’re in love.”
She shrugged and quickly glanced away. “You’re right,” she said and bent back over her guitar. I’d embarrassed her and I hated that. She wasn’t to blame for this situation.
“Hey, there’s a natural hot springs about a mile up the mountain, if you want to go check it out?”
She perked up. “Yes, please.”
“It stinks like rotten eggs but it feels great,” I told her. “You’ll need a suit under your clothes and sturdy hiking boots.”
“I have sneakers.”
I made a mental note to get her shoe size. If she was going to spend time on the mountain, she really needed boots.
“That will do for today. Hike’s not too bad.”
She popped inside to put away her guitar and I put my shirt back on. I had a list of chores I could do. However, what I really wanted was to take her back into that cabin, press her into that comfortable queen size bed and show her what this body she was staring at could really do.
I knew playing by her rules would be hard, but that was before that kiss. And that car ride.
Now, I knew her favorite movie was Love Actually. I knew she loved eggs with or without ketchup, but not with hot sauce. She drank her coffee black. She liked the way I looked when I chopped wood. I knew the way the sunlight hit her green eyes and turned them to emeralds and her voice was pure sex and pure heaven combined.
And…she needed a friend.
I wondered if she realized that. Not a paid half assistant/half mother figure. Not a manager telling her what to do. Not some sham of a fake boyfriend.
Not a fake husband either, I supposed.
She was so open and honest and curious. About me, about hockey, about the places we drove through, the people we met. She talked non-stop, like she’d been bottled up for years. She was a woman who just wanted to love and be loved.
Could I be her friend? I didn’t know. I didn’t want to fuck any of my female friends.
“Ready!”
She jumped out of the front door in her tennis shoes and one of my old Peaks ball caps. Which I liked, way too much.
Yeah, it wasn’t friendship I felt for this girl and I was going to need to rein that in.
“Let’s go.”
“I’m not really a nature girl. I don’t like snakes, spiders, mountain lions or bears,” she said as she followed behind me on the trail, careful to put her foot where mine had been. Chatting. Always chatting. She’d be scaring off all the wildlife for miles.
“No one likes bears,” I pointed out, holding branches out of her way.
“But I do like panda bears.”
“Noted.” The air smelled like sunbaked pine and I breathed deep.
“Like I have a whole collection of saved Tik Tok videos of nothing but panda bears.”
“I thought you stayed off social media?”
“I have an extremely curated feed. It’s funny pet videos and that’s it, ” she huffed and puffed. “How much further? I think I’m more out of shape than I realized.”
“It’s the altitude,” I said, stopping so she could catch her breath. “Gets everyone for the first few days. It gives our whole team an advantage when low-country teams like the Bruisers have to come to Colorado for a game.”
“You say Bruisers like you hate them. But Liam plays for them.”
“I can love Liam, and hate his team,” I snorted. “Besides, everyone hates the New England Bruisers. They win too much.”
“Wait.” She stumbled and I reached for her hand to steady her. It was because I didn’t want to let go, that I let go as fast as I did. “Don’t you want to win too much?”
“Of course I do. And everyone will hate us too when we do. It will be joyous.”
“Athletes are weird,” she said, shaking her head.
It was easy to know when we’d reached the hot springs. The smell gave them away. Mine wasn’t the only cabin on this mountain, so I checked for signs of neighbors as we approached, but there were none. It wasn’t ski season and I was one of the few non-locals who came here year-round, so the spring was all ours.
Most of Colorado’s hot springs were on an official map, and many of them were full of tourists. This one, not so much. First, it was real skunky. Second, it was only big enough for two people. Two people if one was huge and the other one was tiny. The spring was more like a crack in the earth than an actual spring.
We spread our towels out on bushes next to the steaming blue green pool.
I looked at her sneakers. She was going to have to take them off, because they weren’t designed to walk in while wet, she’d slip and slide down the mountain. But I couldn’t have her putting her bare feet on rocks that might cut her.
I clearly did not think this through.
“You’re going to have to sit on me,” I explained.
“You sure that’s a good idea?”
Fuck no and it was the best idea ever, all at the same time. “I’ll get in first. Then climb in, but put your feet on my thighs. I’ll lower you down. Can’t risk the bottom of your feet getting cut on the rocks.”
“Okay. But what about your feet?”
“The boots are made to get wet and dry quickly. Your sneakers aren’t. Look, if it gets uncomfortable, we can always leave.”
She sniffed at the water’s edge and grinned at me. “I think we’re fine. It’s too stinky for impure thoughts.”
The thought of her perfect round ass in my lap was about as impure as it could be and I was having that thought plenty.
I shucked off my shorts and shirt and submerged myself first. Careful to find the ledge I knew would fit my body. The hot steamy water immediately worked its magic on my sore back muscles.
I turned my head and caught her taking off the t-shirt and shorts she’d put on over her two-piece suit. The same one she’d worn the other day. The same one I’d slid my hands into to touch her skin.
“Fuck.”
“What?” she screamed. “Did something bite you? Is there a snake in there?”
Something like a snake.
“No,” I snapped. Then struggled for a reason to say I couldn’t look at her any longer without making the future lap sitting impossible. “Get in quick. Uh…I…uh. I don’t want you to get cold.”
“It’s like seventy degrees outside.”
“Tink,” I gave her my don’t argue with me eyes and she stepped to the edge and dipped a toe into the water.
“Oooh, is it too hot?”
“No, you’ll get used to it in a second. Watch your feet.”
I grabbed both her hands and she stepped one foot at a time onto my thighs until I was able to put my hands on her waist and settle her down on to my lap. She was nearly submerged to her shoulders, her ass pressed against my thighs. There was some fidgeting, but eventually she settled down. She sighed and went utterly soft in my arms.
“Wow, that feels good,” she whispered.
“It really does.”
I tilted my head back against the rock surface behind me, closed my eyes and tried not to think about her cute little ass. Or how well she fit against me. Like I’d always had this missing puzzle piece and I hadn’t even known it.
I could stay like this for hours. Days.
“Wyatt,” she said quietly.
“Hmm?”
“What happened?”
I opened my eyes only to find her staring at my chest. “Here,” she said, and touched the small scar on my shoulder.
“Surgery. Labral tear.”
“And this one?” She touched the scar on the other shoulder.
“Rotator cuff.”
She ran her finger down the scar and then back up. Her fingers were cool against my hot skin. It was those butterfly wings all across my chest.
“What happened here?” she asked, running a finger across my collar bone.
“I broke it wrestling with Liam when we were kids. It healed with that bump.”
“Like your nose?” she murmured, sliding her finger down my nose. She was killing me.
“Tink. What about the rules?” No touching unless the P&P’s were around.
“I know,” she said. “It’s just, I’ve never really been so close to a man like you.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. Should I be offended? I was too turned on to be offended.
“These muscles,” she said, and traced a finger across my bicep. “This hair.” She put her hand flat in my chest hair like she was going to pull it. Her thumb grazed my nipple and my whole body felt electrocuted.
Was she serious right now? Was this some kind of backwards seduction? A game? Like she was going to tease me and when I tried to do something she’d remind me of the rules? That didn’t seem like her. It felt, and I know this is weird…innocent. Like she was just curious?
“What kind of men have you been close to?” I asked, my voice coming out of my chest. She had to feel my dick, hard against her hip. I was trying to be a gentleman but that was beyond my control.
“Not the kind who throw me on a bed and make me go blind from sex,” she said with a laugh.
Testing the waters, I reached up and pushed a curl away from the edge of her eye. “Are you interested in that?” I asked.
Her tongue came out and touched the edge of her lip and I groaned in my throat. “I don’t know,” she whispered.
Well, I did. She was. She was extremely interested in it.
Before I could stop her, she took both her hands and ran them down my sides and I jerked away, bashing my elbow against the rock.
“Did that hurt?” she said, looking up at me with round worried eyes. “Do you still have bruises from the season?”
I still had bruises and bumps and sore bones from the season. From all my seasons in the NHL. It was just a part of being a professional athlete. Pain. But that wasn’t why I flinched.
“Wait a second,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “Are you ticklish?”
“No,” I lied.
She ran her fingers along the same spot. Where my side met my back, right under that last bit of rib. I jerked away again.
“Don’t do that,” I told her.
She did it again and laughed. When I reached for her hand, she was quick and escaped my grip.
“I said no.”
“What’s the matter? Afraid people won’t think you’re big and scary if they know you’re ticklish like a baby?”
“You sound ridiculous.”
Her fingers found that spot again and I practically collapsed that side of my body to escape her touch.
“Wyatt is ticklish! Wyatt is ticklish!” She said it over and over like a chant. I had to put my head on a swivel to make sure we were still alone up here on this mountain so no one could hear her blabbing my secret.
I grabbed her hands and pressed them flat against my chest. I gave her my meanest defenseman hockey face. The one any offensive player coming onto my ice saw right before I slammed them against the boards.
She laughed in my mean defenseman hockey face.
“I’m not ticklish,” I growled. “I’m…sensitive.”
That only made her cackle more.
I scowled even harder.
“You don’t scare me,” she said.
“Many, many grown men, seasoned athletes, big dudes in hockey pads, have been intimidated by this face.”
She wiggled her hand free from my grip and placed her palm along the side of my cheek. “Not me. I can only see Wyatt.” She leaned up and pecked me on the cheek. “Your secret is safe with me.”
I let go of her, risking more tickling, but I cupped her face in my hands, holding her like she was precious. Like she was all I wanted. Her pupils got big and her breath caught in her throat.
“Are you going to kiss me?” She asked, breathlessly.
“Are you going to let me?” It was like waiting for the puck to drop. Every muscle in my body was on the edge of action, waiting for the go ahead. All the atoms in my body were focused on her and nothing but her.
She nodded and it was game on.