Chapter 27
THINGS ARE BETTER
Ledger
Dinner goes by so quickly that less than two hours later, I’m in my board shorts in the hot tub. Bubbles froth around the three of us. Aubrey’s between us, her skin dewy in that skimpy pink bikini that makes me want to tear it off so I can play with her fantastic tits.
But first things first.
We’ve already broken our pre-trip rules. Time to lay down some new ones for the rest of the vacation.
Currently, Aubrey’s focused on enjoying the hell out of this bottle of Cristal, courtesy of Aiden, so I don’t press the topic yet. I’ll search for the perfect moment like I hunt for opportunities on the ice every game. She lifts her glass high. “To free champagne.”
“It just tastes better when someone else accidentally buys it for you,” I say after I take a sip of the Cristal, savoring the taste. Dinner, jacuzzi, champagne. The hallmarks for a good night.
With a satisfied post-sip sigh Aubrey declares, “I’m going to start a line of champagne and call the first one…I Never Liked You That Much Anyway.”
What a treat to see her laugh about the situation. I smile, getting in on the fun. “Let’s make it a whole collection.”
“The three of us will launch it,” Dev adds, then tips his glass my way. “It’ll also include the Thank Fuck I’m Single Again for you.”
I snort-laugh at his champagne name for me, then he points at himself and adds, “And we’ll add the So Glad I Didn’t Marry Her.”
“Ooh!” Aubrey sits up straighter, eyes bright. “Can we call it the Better Off Without Them collection?”
“Honestly, if this wine line doesn’t already exist, I’m going to be disappointed in all the entrepreneurs in the world,” I say.
“Me too,” she says. “There’s a whole cottage industry out there celebrating breakups. A friend of mine in the city is actually a breakup party planner. Juliet throws these fantastic parties to celebrate moving on.”
Briefly, I consider that kind of fete. The meaning behind it. Then decide I fucking like it. “You know, I think she’s onto something.”
“Hell yeah,” Dev says, then sets his glass down.
The look in his eyes says he’s trying to make sense of something.
He’s always trying to find connections and twists on the conventional.
“Think about it,” he says, getting excited.
“When you hear someone is getting divorced, what’s your first reaction?
I’m sorry to hear that, bro. But…what if we turned it around and said, ‘Congratulations! May things get better.’”
Aubrey rolls her eyes, but with obvious affection for him. “You’re so cute.”
Dev growls. “I’m not cute.”
“You are. That’s such a cute thing to say.”
“I’m a goalie. I’m programmed to be unhinged. I am not cute,” he insists with a grumble. She slides up against him, then threads her hand through his hair, and…hello.
That’s nice to see too. Her taking the lead with touch after the hike. Feeling free to do it. To give it. “I love that you see the positive in everything,” she says warmly. “It’s your gift.”
“Yeah, maybe time to rethink that whole I’m unhinged thing,” I say dryly, and that earns me a scowl from Dev. But I’m right and he’s wrong. “Look, if you threw tires in the parking lot before a game maybe you’d be unhinged.”
“Or ate a dozen raw eggs,” Aubrey puts in, getting in on the teasing.
“Then barfed them up before you went on the ice,” I add.
“But only after you had all your teammates punch you to prove how tough you are,” Aubrey adds.
Dev looks horrified. “Who does that?”
“Unhinged goalies,” I say with a grin.
He shudders. “Fuck that. Fine, fine. You’ve made your point. I’ll be hinged. Happily hinged.”
Aubrey laughs. “Like I said, you’re a positive guy.”
“Also, that whole ‘congratulations on your divorce’ is such a shrink’s kid thing to say, Dev.”
“News flash: I am a shrink’s kid,” he says, full of pride and self-awareness. “You can’t escape how you were raised.”
That’s too accurate. “Truer words,” I say flatly.
I am my parents’ son. My mom and dad wanted the best from themselves and from me. Mom’s an architect, designing beautiful buildings around the world. McBride Design is her firm name. Dad’s a hall-of-fame hockey player who believed in always climbing higher. Don’t stop. Don’t relax. Do, do, do.
That’s what Dad did. He retired at the top of his game, but that wasn’t enough for Ansel McBride.
He went on to coach juniors for a year, then became a legendary broadcaster, and he’s won awards for that too.
He thinks I should go into the booth with him when I retire.
Like father, like son. We can be great together, he’s said.
I shudder at the thought. All I want is to play a game. And to play it for a little longer.
Or a lot.
I think.
But I don’t want to get lost in my cloudy future tonight. I want to live in the present, here with Aubrey. When I catch her gaze, she looks like she’s elsewhere too, sadness flickering in those brown eyes.
“We are who we are,” she says, perhaps resigned to the weight of how she was raised as well.
This is getting far too serious for the hot tub. “All right. Let’s drink to hikes in the woods,” I say, taking back the moment for all of us, then my gaze roams to the water and to her body below it. “And to that sexy bird tattoo on your ankle.”
Aubrey’s smile spreads again, flirty and fun. “Glad you noticed,” she says, then pokes her foot high in the air.
She’s right next to me, so I take that offering, sliding my hand down her calf, then tracing the tiny stencil of a bird on her ankle. She lets out a soft gasp. I meet her gaze and run my finger along the outline once more. “So pretty,” I say to her.
“Thanks.” She sounds delighted, like she’s not used to compliments, even simple ones. Bet Aiden the Selfish Fuckcake didn’t dole them out. I dip my face, brush a kiss to her ankle, giving her a compliment in another form—the physical.
She shudders, then I gently let go of her foot.
“What’s it for? Your ink.”
“My dad.”
“Oh shit,” I say, coughing immediately over my faux pas. “I’m sorry I called it sexy then.”
“It’s okay,” she reassures me. “It was for him. But for me too. If that makes sense.”
Not entirely, but I go with it. “Sure.”
“And yours?” she asks, moving on as she nods to my wrist and the arrow wrapping around it, then the vines and leaves snaking over my shoulder. “I can figure out the vines and leaves, Plant Daddy.”
I hide my smile over how much I like her nicknames, from Stern Brunch Daddy to Plant Daddy.
“But the arrow?” she continues.
“Got that when I signed with my first team. Just to remind myself that even if I didn’t know where I was going, I wanted to keep going.”
“It’s a good reminder.”
Yeah, it is. And tonight I want to stay in the here and now and keep going with this. Drinking to hikes and to women who know what they want.
I lift my glass in that toast at last. She clinks her glass to mine and then Dev’s. Her gloss leaves a faint trace on the rim of the delicate glass as she sips.
I’d like to do other things with those lips than talk. I finish the wine in my own glass and then set it down on the edge of the tub. “We should set some rules,” I say finally.
I brace myself for her reaction. A lot of people don’t like to set rules.
“Rules?” she asks, like she’s confused or maybe surprised. Shit. I don’t want to ruin this night or this trip.
“I just think they’re a good idea,” I say diplomatically.
Aubrey gives me a skeptical look, her red hair curling in little damp tendrils by her face. “First you wanted to break the rules. Now you want to set them?”
This is why I’ve avoided relationships post-Marla. They’re fuck-all confusing. But I try to stay cool as I answer. “I think it’s a good idea.”
“You mean rules for the hot tub. Like we should be really careful when I get out of it?”
I release a huge breath. “I thought you were pissed.”
She tilts her head, smiling. “I get it, Ledger. But this is fun. I know it isn’t the start of a relationship.”
Even though it seems she’s on the same page we are, it’s better to lay out the expectations clearly. Learned that with Zahra. Everything was clear from the start. No one got hurt. Everyone had fun. “Maybe we can just do this for the honeymoon,” I add.
“I was going to say the same thing…but also, guys?”
Dev sits up straighter. “Yes?”
“This is between us,” she adds, firm. “We don’t need to tell Garrett. Yes, he’s your friend and your agent. But this isn’t a situation where my brother is overprotective of me. Or where he thinks you’re jerks and not good enough for me. He trusts both of you completely. I trust both of you too.”
“That’s what’s really important,” I add.
“It sure is,” Dev says, meeting her gaze. “We want you to trust us.”
Trust is vital in bed. It’s even more vital the more people that share the bed.
“This is a situation…” She pauses, perhaps to collect her thoughts, “Where there’s a start and an end date. That’s why my brother doesn’t need to know.” Her voice pitches up at the end, like she wants to make sure we’re on board.
I can only speak for myself, but I get Aubrey’s point completely given everything going on in her life. “That all sounds smart. You just got out of a terrible situation and deserve a good trip.”
“We can definitely give you a good trip,” Dev adds.
Besides, we’ve all got too much going on when the trip ends to continue anything. That’s no secret.
Dev’s focused on having the best season of his life starting next week. When we return, Aubrey will need to deal with the fallout of her failed wedding. And I’ve got all sorts of what-ifs weighing me down.
This can only be a fling.
“It’s a honeymoon deal,” she says, then smacks a quick kiss on my cheek, then his, before her gaze turns contemplative. “You know…I was just thinking about the waiter. How he kind of did a double take when he saw you two.”
I flash back to dinner, remembering that. “Right.”
She shrugs but not in resignation—more acceptance. “I suppose no PDA would be a wise rule too. You guys are kind of famous.”
Dev scoffs, then pokes his chest. “Kind of, woman? I was the star of the Hockey Hotties calendar.”
I laugh so hard. “So that’s like…D-level celeb?”
“Fuck you. I have a sponsorship with Ding and Dine, and my videos on healthy eats for them fucking rock. Another with Peak Fitness. And—”
I hold up a hand. “—Let me just stop you right there before you turn off Aubrey.”
Dev swivels his gaze to the woman between us. “Did that turn you off?”
“No, I kind of tuned it out, to be honest,” she says dryly, and fuck, I think I might fall in love with her for that.
I mean, not real love. Just momentary affection. Amusement. Yeah, that’s what this is.
I don’t mention my sponsorship with a watchmaker or a cologne company. Instead, I turn to Aubrey again. “Got any other rules?”
Her eyes twinkle. She stretches her neck from side to side, exposing soft skin I want to kiss and lick, then says in a seductive whisper: “Yes. I want you to take turns with me.”
I’m not about to correct her since that’s not technically a rule. It’s just a very good idea. So good that I’m out of this hot tub in seconds.
* * *
The best part of sharing a woman is watching her get turned on. If you do it right, she melts into your touch, into your mouth, into the two of you, falling apart in a new kind of exquisite bliss.
But every woman is different. Every woman has her own likes and dislikes.
Learning her is the fun of it.
I am here for all the exploration. I stand at the side of the bed with Aubrey then gently take off the towel that’s wrapped around her breasts, letting it fall to the floor.
I’ve still got a towel hooked around my waist. Well, undressing is part of the fun in bed. Dev is at the foot of the mattress, waiting for her.
“Lie back,” I say, and she complies, then I move her up to the pillows at the top of the bed. “Want to take our time with you. You want that, honey?”
“I think so,” she says, but she sounds uncertain.
I’m pretty sure we can help her along. I join her, lying next to her, stroking her hair as Dev climbs onto the foot of the bed, pressing light kisses to her calves.
“You’re not sure though?” I ask, kissing her shoulder.
She trembles. Yes, let the melting begin. “I just don’t know.”
“That’s fair,” I say, roaming my fingers down the soft skin of her arm, layering more kisses along her collarbone.
“You want us to take the lead, sweet thing?” Dev asks in between kisses along her shin.
“Yes. I think so,” she says, breathy, but there are those nerves again in her voice.
One way to quiet them. By soothing that busy head of hers. I stop, then lean over her, capturing her mouth in a hot, hard kiss that has her writhing, reaching for my face, tugging me close. She’s grabbing at my hair and revving my engine all at once.
But, I hope, relaxing too. As she cranks up my desire, I break the kiss to say, “You can tell us anything you like or don’t like. Anything you want more of or less of. Anything at all.”
She nods, faster this time, and I glance down. Fuck yes. She’s tilting up her hips, offering herself to us. Our girl is already turned on from his mouth on her legs and mine on her lips.
I spread a hand across the soft flesh of her stomach, then bury my face in the crook of her neck, kissing hard, then nipping on her earlobe.
As Aubrey stares down at Dev with amazed eyes, I whisper hotly in her ear. “How badly do you think we want you?”
She shudders, then gasps an “oh god.”
I grin wickedly. Good. So fucking good. She can barely even answer my question, she’s so aroused.
With noisy groans, Dev doesn’t relent his path up her calves, kissing her behind the knee now.
My hand travels up to her tits, squeezing one roughly. “Tell me,” I command as I pinch the nipple. She gasps. “Tell me. Scale of one to ten,” I urge. I want her to know, to really know, how much we want her. The more she feels worshiped, the more she’ll surrender to the pleasure.
“Um,” she says, but her eyes go glassy again.
“Aubrey,” I chide. “How badly?”
With a shudder she looks at me, then him, then she reaches for his towel.
“Ohhh,” she groans.
She feels wanted, and that’s the sexiest thing ever. Then, she’s even sexier when she falls back on the pillow, her back arching as she meets my gaze and lets out a feathery “one hundred.”
I groan approvingly, then slam my mouth to hers, taking her lips in a possessive kiss. “Good girl,” I tell her when I break it. “Now take mine off too.”
She shifts to her side, tugs at my towel, and her eyes widen. “Guys…things are definitely, definitely better.”