14. Astrid
ASTRID
“It’s time for us to go.”
I give Declan a questioning look, but he just meets my gaze and gives no further explanation. Still, I feel a little tingle go down my spine.
This damned bossy side of him does it for me.
I hate that.
Beckett straightens on his stool. “What? No. We haven’t finished talking about the joust. The sticks are lighter weight than our regular hockey sticks.
And we’re thinking about making the pucks look like little knights too so when you shoot them into the net, it’s like you just jousted another knight.
” He pauses. “Is that the term? Do you joust another knight?”
“I think you kill the other knight,” Lawson says dryly.
“Nah, you just break your lance on their armor,” Hudson says.
Quinn nods. “Or you knock them off their horse.”
“That’s it?” Beckett asks. He looks disappointed.
“I’ve seen Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” Zeke interrupts. “They definitely kill each other in that.”
Hudson shakes his head. “Not in the tournaments.”
“For sure,” Zeke insists. “At the end? It was brutal.”
“That was a Trial of Seven,” Quinn says. “Not a tournament. That was a fight-to-the-death trial.”
Beckett studies her. “Did you and Hudson watch it together?”
She looks at Hudson. They both nod.
“And Teddy,” Hudson says.
“Did you have themed drinks and snacks?”
They nod again as Quinn fights a smile.
“Do you both have swords?”
“And stuffed dragons,” Hudson says.
Beckett gasps. He looks around the table. “Who else was there?”
“Jasper came over a couple of times,” Quinn says, mentioning her best friend from high school. He doesn’t live here now but comes home to visit from time to time.
“And Everly,” Hudson says of Quinn’s boss and other best friend. “But she wasn’t as into it.”
“Too gory for her,” Quinn agrees. Then she slides Declan a look. “And…uh… Miles came over a couple of times.”
I press my lips together. He is a big Game of Thrones fan and loves all of the spin-offs. He was thrilled to find people in Rebel who were into them and, of course, loves a themed watch party.
Declan doesn’t respond. I wouldn’t be surprised to know that Declan has no idea what Game of Thrones is.
“How does someone get an invite to this amazing event?” Beckett asks, reaching out and taking Quinn’s hand in one of his, then taking Hudson’s with his other. He strokes a thumb over both of their knuckles. “I’ll do anything.”
“You’re invited,” Quinn says, shaking her head. “But you have to watch season one.” She looks at Hudson, who nods, then says to Beckett. “Twice. So you know everything before you show up. Because you cannot talk while we watch. That’s what got Jasper booted.”
Hudson is suddenly serious. “We mean it. Jasper would not shut up.”
Beckett holds up both hands, sitting back slightly. “Of course. I’d never.”
Everyone around the table laughs at that.
“Okay, so we agree there need to be little knights on top of the pucks we shoot for this, right?” Beckett asks the group. “Otherwise it doesn’t make any sense.”
Wes and Lawson snort, and Alex says, “Right, that’s the part that doesn’t make any sense.”
“Okay, we can go over all of that practice,” Declan says in his I’m-the-boss-and-you-will-agree-with-me voice.
I tingle a little.
Beckett nods. Predictably. Beckett Moore is very used to charming his way into and out of most situations, but there’s no way he’s going to win with Declan.
Then he brightens as he realizes what Declan said. “So you’re into this? Seriously?”
“Of course,” Declan says smoothly. “And you can tell me where in the George R.R. Martin timeline we are placing our joust.”
Several mouths at the table drop open as they stare at him.
“Um…why?” Beckett asks.
Declan looks around. “So I know if we’re going to incorporate dragons in the game, of course.” He pauses, then says, “I think we should.”
There are grins and gasps in response to his answer.
I roll my eyes.
So he does know Game of Thrones. And more, he knows it well enough to know when the dragons appear and disappear.
I need more than a spray bottle. I need a damn fire hose.
“Okay, let’s go,” he says, his voice lower for me.
“I should probably hear more details about…” I motion at the table at large. “All of this. So that I can pass them on to Nora.” I barely resist the urge to grab onto the table and hold tightly.
The idea of being alone with Declan has not gotten easier. In fact, it’s more tempting than it was before. And more nerve-wracking. I can’t predict a damned thing about this man. And now, for some reason, I feel like I’ve waved a red cape in front of a bull.
I should not have told Beckett to not leave Andi alone.
That had slipped out.
It doesn’t make sense. I wanted space. I needed distance between us. I left because our marriage was fake, and it was driving me nuts. Leaving was supposed to make things easier. It was supposed to make him divorce me.
If he had not left me alone, if he’d come after me, we might have…okay, we probably would have…kissed a lot sooner. And that might have led to other things. And I would have had to admit that I’m a failure sexually.
To Declan O’Grady. The sexiest, most tempting man I’ve ever met.
I did not want that.
I wanted him to divorce me because I’m difficult and a brat, and I spend all his money, and I don’t take hockey seriously.
Any reason other than that I’m a disappointment in the bedroom.
But he didn’t divorce me for those other reasons.
So now we’re still married, and now he’s here, and if I can’t stop tingling every single time the man breathes in my direction, I might have to tell him the most personal, vulnerable secret of my life.
Declan grips the back of my barstool and pulls it away from the table, making it clear that I am leaving now.
Crap, that’s kind of hot. Now if he threw me over his shoulder…
“Don’t make me throw you over my shoulder,” he says in my ear. “I’ll do it. It will make it onto the website. Win-win from where I’m standing. But you might not like the spectacle.”
The thing is, I visibly shiver. In a good way. In an I’ll-very-much-like-it way. And he notices. I know he does.
Crap, again.
“Oh, Nora already knows all of this,” Alex says, responding to my suggestion that I need to stay.
“Excellent,” Declan says as his hands go to my waist and he lifts me off the stool and sets me on the floor.
It’s not over his shoulder, but my pussy still flutters.
Yeah, he definitely made a note of the whole me liking him taking charge thing.
That is terrible.
And potentially excellent.
In a very terrible way.
“I promise not to be a hindrance at practice,” Declan tells the table.
He keeps one hand resting on the dip of my waist, and I have an equal urge to press closer to his body and to pull away and put as much distance between us as possible. Like a few blocks. Or a few thousand miles. Again.
“Oh man, I didn’t think that,” Beckett rushes to reassure him. “I just want to be sure that we have a solid idea. Like I don’t know how to secure the knights to the pucks and—”
“Man, read the room,” Hudson says. “The guy’s been apart from his wife for a while. Now he wants to go home…” He trails off.
Hudson's meaning hits Beckett immediately, and he turns wide eyes to us. “Oh yeah, of course. You guys should totally go home. Together. Alone. Like right now. Sorry. That was really stupid of me. Of course, you want to be alone. Definitely. I’m surprised you were here with us in the first place.”
Declan gives my waist a squeeze, and I can practically hear him saying, Me too. “You’re all very important to Astrid,” he tells the group. “We’ll always make time for what matters to the team.”
Well, dammit. I think he means that, and it makes me want to squeeze him back. And not in the hands-around-his-throat way.
We finally manage to say goodbye to everyone, which takes a few minutes as we make our way through the restaurant. Especially when Declan stops at the front counter to settle the bill. For everyone. And I mean every single table in the restaurant.
Typically, people pay their bills at Bruce’s by simply depositing cash and checks for the right amount next to the register.
Bruce pauses periodically throughout his day to tuck the money into the register, but he doesn’t worry about whether the amounts are correct, and he doesn’t worry about someone skipping out on paying or other people pilfering from the stack of money.
Declan covering everyone’s tabs, however, means Bruce has to come out from the kitchen.
“I don’t know what each of the totals are,” he tells Declan as if confused by the question.
“Can you give me an estimate?” Declan asks.
Bruce pauses, frowning as if trying to add things in his head. Then he shakes his head. “Not really.”
Declan waves that away, reaches into his pocket for his wallet, and pulls out three thousand dollars in cash. “Will this cover everything for tonight?”
Bruce looks at him like he’s lost his mind. “The most expensive thing on my menu is fifteen bucks.”
Declan smiles. “I’m going to take that as a yes, but if it’s short, find me tomorrow.” He hands the money over, then turns us both toward the door.
“That probably won’t get you Team Declan points,” I tell him as he holds the door open and waits for me to step through. “Bruce won’t tell anyone that you did that. I mean, he’ll tell them their bill is covered, but he won’t tell them how much you overpaid.”
“I didn’t do it for Team Declan points.”
And somehow, I already knew that.
We walk across the park toward my house. I’m braced the entire time for him to ask about what I told Beckett. But he says nothing. He also doesn’t touch me again. Both things leave me wound tight by the time we hit my front path.
Like last night, I don’t think I can handle being enclosed in my house, my safe haven, with this man.
Declan doesn’t make me feel unsafe. At least not in bad ways. But he is dangerous.
To my sanity. To my determination that abstinence is fine and my forever choice. And maybe, to my heart.