by Ellen Devlin
Zee looked at him oddly but let it go. Zee played right-wing to Chris’s left-wing. They played well together and were usually paired on the same line. There was a bit of an age difference—Chris was twenty-eight and Zee was twenty-two—but they had both joined the Guardians last season, and their playing styles had meshed well right away.
The first period came and went, ending with the Carolina Tempest up one-nothing. In the locker room during the first intermission, Zee asked Chris again what was going on. “You’re not all there, Becks. What the fuck is up?”
Chris looked at the younger player, shook his head, and said, “So help me God, Zee, if you give me shit about this, I will kill you slowly, but I met someone, and I can’t stop thinking about her.”
Zee’s face registered total shock. “Are you fucking kidding me?” He laughed out loud, hard enough that some of the other players looked over. “Shit, man.” He clapped Chris on the back. “That’s fantastic. Does she have a sister?” Chris stared daggers at him, and he laughed again. “Okay, okay. So, old man, call her after the game.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Decide now to call her after the game. That way you can get your head out of your ass and fucking play while we’re on the ice.”
Chris blinked, laughed, and said, “Every once in a while, you say something that isn’t impossibly stupid.”
“And for that comment, you get moved up to the top of my ‘next to prank’ list.”
The team played well for the rest of the game, but it wasn’t enough to win, and the Guardians went down in a tough three-two loss.
Zee met up with Chris on their way out of the locker room and asked, “Did you call her yet?”
“What? Oh. No, I didn’t.”
“So, call. Right now.” Chris just looked at him. “Seriously, Becks? This girl has you tied up in knots. Would you just fucking call her? Look, let’s go out for drinks. Call her and ask her if she wants to join us. There. I just gave you a reason.” When Chris sighed in response, Zee threatened with, “Don’t make me take your phone and do it myself. You know I will.”
“Shit.” He would. Zee had no concept of boundaries when it came to that sort of thing. Chris got out his phone and called Paige’s number, while Zee stood by, supervising.
***
Liz saw the phone ring on the kitchen table and saw Chris’s name pop up. Paige called from her bedroom, asking who it was, but Liz simply picked up the call.
“Hey, Chris! It’s Liz. Paige has her hands full right now, but I knew she wouldn’t want your call to go through to voice mail.” Paige had run out to her as soon as she heard Liz start talking. She had a look of horror on her face. “Yeah, I saw the game. That was a tough one.” A pause. Paige had her hands out, trying to take the phone from Liz, who kept turning and pushing her away, using the advantage of being seven inches taller to make things difficult. “Really? That sounds great. No, we’re both free. We can meet you there in about thirty minutes or so. See you, Chris.” And then she hung up the phone.
“What did you just do?”
“We’re going to meet Chris and at least one of his teammates for drinks in thirty minutes.” Paige stared at her. “It’s gonna be fun, and you’re gonna thank me.”
“I hate you.”
“I know.”
“Why do you do this?” Liz looked at her with a small smile on her face. Paige’s shoulders slumped. “I know why.” Liz’s smile got bigger. “I still hate you.”
“I know. Now go cute-ify yourself. You have like ten minutes.”
Chapter Four
The guys were already waiting seated at a booth when Liz and Paige walked in.
“Shit, Chris. You weren’t kidding.”
Chris looked over at him and said, “For the love of God, Zee, do not fuck this up for me.”
Zee laughed and gave his best, “Who, me?” look. Chris glared, which just made Zee laugh harder.
They both stood up to welcome the women. Liz gave Chris a big hug. “I’m a hugger,” she explained. “You get one handshake, and then you get hugs.” She turned to Zee, who grabbed her in a huge bear hug, making her laugh. “Or we skip the handshake altogether. That works too.”
“Jake Zimmerman, but please call me Zee.”
The introductions between Paige and Zee were calmer.
Paige and Chris greeted one another almost shyly. Zee and Liz looked at each other, recognizing kindred spirits, and Zee took the lead and squished the four of them together in one big hug. Liz couldn’t stop laughing.
“Shit, please stop encouraging him. You’ll only make it worse.” Chris was smiling as he said it, though, and so was Paige, so mission accomplished. “Oh, sorry about the language. It’s hard to leave the locker room vocabulary behind after a game, sometimes, especially after a loss. And especially if I’m still hanging around with this idiot.”
It was Paige’s turn to smile. “Please, don’t worry.” She looked at Liz, who was grinning broadly. “You have no idea what I hear from my roommate on a daily basis. I’m fairly certain nothing you could say would shock me.”
Zee looked at Liz, wide eyed, looked over to Chris and Paige, and said, “I think I’m in love.”
“Shut the fuck up, you asshole.” Liz thought about making it even more colorful but decided to stick with the basics. Zee threw back his head and laughed.
Paige looked at Chris and said with a smirk, “I’m finding this combination frightening.” Chris grinned at her, and her insides flipped over again. It was probably the first easy-going, genuine, completely non-nervous look he had given her, and she liked it. A lot.
He was clean-shaven, and his thick, dark hair was still damp from a post-game shower. Once again he was wearing slacks and a button-down shirt, open at the collar, looking unreasonably like a photo from the cover of a magazine.
Paige and Chris sat down on opposite sides of the booth. Liz and Zee were still standing and talking.
“Well, in good news, if he’s occupied with Liz, he will be less of a pain in the ass to us.” He looked at Paige and smiled warmly in a way that crinkled the corners of his eyes and made the butterflies zoom around again. “I’m really glad you could come out tonight on short notice.” His voice lowered a bit as he added, “It’s really great to see you again.” Her heart was beating a little faster.
“You too.” Paige’s voice was a little breathy, and she cleared her throat. “So, I watched the game with Liz today.” Chris looked so pleased that she blushed. “She’s trying to explain things to me. Some are easier to understand than others.”
“Like what?” Chris looked thrilled by this development. “Anything I can help explain?”
“I think the hardest one was icing. Oh, and offsides. You guys are always skating all over the place, so I don’t understand how there can be such a thing as ‘offsides.’”
Chris chuckled and said, “That’s a good point. Let’s start with offsides, then.” He was in his element now and took the time to explain the basics, using menus and utensils and condiments to demonstrate. He was calm and clear, and an excellent teacher, making sure she understood what he was talking about before he moved on to the next point, without ever sounding condescending. Seeing him like this, confident and knowledgeable, was more attractive to her than pretty much anything else he could have done.
They had all ordered drinks by this time. When Chris finished teaching Paige about offsides, he realized that she was staring at him with a small smile on her face. He felt his chest squeeze and noticed an increasing need to adjust the front of his pants as he smiled back at her.
“So, how did you like your first hockey lesson?” He tried to keep his voice from sounding like he was thinking about sex. He was only moderately successful.
“Very educational.” She smiled at him again. Neither one of them had noticed that Liz and Zee had left the table to play pool a while ago. She looked at him from under her lashes and said with another small blush, “So does that mean there wil
l be more lessons? I still need to learn about icing.”
Chris closed his eyes briefly and willed himself to calm down. He opened his eyes, reached across the table, and took her hand. Electricity. He thought she must have felt it too, because her eyes got wide suddenly. “There can be as many hockey lessons as you want, Paige.”
Paige’s heart was beating too fast, and she felt the color flooding her face. The feel of him holding her hand had sent little sparks shooting up her arm, spreading to the rest of her. “I’d like that.” Her voice was rough. She cleared her throat again and took a drink. His eyes were deep, dark, and gorgeous. They looked a little playful right now, and she was having trouble thinking, especially while he was holding her hand.
Zee and Liz reappeared, and it was a sudden, boisterous, laughing distraction. Paige breathed a bit easier. Chris sat back but didn’t let go of her hand. Zee and Liz both noticed and raised eyebrows to each other but said nothing.
“She’s a pool shark, Chris. Do not play pool with her.” Zee pointed at Liz, who was laughing at him.
“Did you bet with her?” Paige asked. “Because that’s never a good idea.”
“Now you tell me. Thanks ever so much for that heads-up. Of course I did.” Chris and Paige were both laughing now.
Chris asked Liz, “What did you win?”
“Game tickets. Of course.” Liz grinned and finished her drink. “What else?”
“She kept making me laugh when it was my shot. Cheating.”
“Really?” Chris was impressed. “Usually he’s the one doing that to other people.”
“Ah ha! I knew it!” Liz crowed, and Zee glowered jokingly.
“All right. Fine. But you have to give me your phone number.” Liz looked at him curiously. He was twenty-two, and that was a little too young for her. Seeing her hesitation, he added, “You’re my new post-bad-game person. I will call you after a bad game, and you have to tell me something funny.” Liz laughed. “Deal?”
“Deal.” She put out her hand to shake his. Then she grabbed a pen from a passing waiter and wrote her phone number on a napkin, laughing the whole time. “I will gladly pay you in funny stories.”
She then looked at Chris and Paige, paused for just a moment, and said, “Hey, Zee and I settled the tab so far, and we’re going to head over to another bar. Chris, would you mind giving Paige a ride home?”
Paige put her hand over her eyes. “Jesus, Liz.” Chris smiled broadly. Paige uncovered her face, which was now a rather impressive shade of red.
“I might be a while. I’ll text before I come home. Say, a half hour before I will be home.” She winked and blew a kiss to Chris and reached over to give Paige a hug.
“I hate you.”
“I know.”
Chris couldn’t stop smiling.
***
Zee looked at her as they headed for the exit. “What the fuck, Williams!” He was laughing. “Not that I mind heading out to another bar with you, but where the hell did that come from?”
“Their date needed a shove in the right direction, and I’m a pain in the ass,” she said as she was settling their tab with the server. She turned to look at him. “I thought you would have figured that out by now. It usually doesn’t take very long.” She winked at him, and he laughed.
“Oh, we’re gonna be good friends. I can tell.” He put his arm around her shoulder as they made their way out the door.
Chapter Five
Chris looked at Paige, thinking that the deep blush made her look, if possible, even more beautiful. He simply couldn’t help the smile on his face.
“She’s a pain in the ass.” Paige looked at him. “Sorry about that.”
“You’re kidding, right? She’s one of my very favorite people in the world already.”
Paige sighed and shook her head. “Yeah. She does that.” She smiled at him, and he felt it, physically. In his chest, in his gut, in his groin.
“So, do you want to stay a little longer,” he asked, his eyes beginning to smolder, “or would you like me to take you home now?”
Paige’s heart was racing from the heat in his eyes. She wasn’t sure how to answer. “I…” She took a breath and tried to steady herself. Chris had started gently rubbing his thumb on her hand in a slow caress, and it was systematically disconnecting her brain cells. She put her other hand on top of his to stop the movement so she could focus. “I believe I would like you to take me home, please, Chris.”
She smiled at him, and he was fairly certain his heart stopped.
He flagged down their waiter and found out that Liz and Zee had, indeed, paid the entire tab. Chris didn’t want to pull his hand from between hers, but she had just asked him to drive her home, and at the very least he felt confident that he would have the opportunity to kiss her goodnight again; the thought of that was enough to drive almost every other thought from his mind. He smiled at her, stood up, and offered her his hand, which she took.
They walked slowly to his car, holding hands, with Chris continuing a gentle caress with his thumb. He opened her door and took her hand again immediately after starting the car. He wanted to maintain contact with her as long as possible. The drive to her apartment was quiet, but comfortably so, and the times when Chris glanced over at Paige, she was looking at him.
“What?” he asked finally, with a smile at her.
She simply answered, “It’s my turn to stare.”
His heart started beating much more rapidly again, and he felt blood racing around his body. A good amount of that was headed south, and he was suddenly glad he hadn’t asked earlier. They were close to her apartment now; if she had flustered him this much ten minutes earlier, he would have gotten lost. Or driven off the road.
Chris walked her to the door of her apartment, and they stood there for a moment. Then, once again with his hands in his pockets, he leaned down to kiss her.
Electricity.
Sparks.
His lips touched hers in a soft kiss, and the feel of it sent shocks through her body, just like the first time. She brought her hand up and placed it on his cheek, not wanting him to move away after one kiss as he had the night before.
Her hand on his cheek was a multiplication of the sparks between them, and he leaned into their gentle kiss, trying to control his breathing. She slid her hand up along his jaw and gently stroked the short hair on the back of his neck, feeling the softness against her fingertips.
He shivered, broke away from the kiss to lean his forehead against hers, and whispered, “Please tell me you feel this too.” He still had his hands in his pockets. Not because he thought they would shake, but because he was afraid to touch her.
“It feels like lightning,” she whispered in return, stroking his neck gently.
“Yes.” He kissed her again. “I’m almost afraid to touch you.” He looked at her and smiled in that shy, sexy way. “I’m glad you feel it too. I would hate it if I felt this and you didn’t.”
Paige looked at him, her heart twisting in a way that shouldn’t be possible with someone she just met. “Me too. I was afraid that I was somehow imagining this.” She took a breath. “I feel like my heart is going to beat out of my chest.” She smiled, took another breath, and stepped back from him. He smiled and tilted his head a little, questioningly. “Would you like to come in?”
“I would love to.” The rough sound of his voice sent shivers down her spine.
Chris followed Paige into the apartment. She invited him to sit on the couch and then sat down next to him and then remembered manners and started to ask him if she could get him anything, but he captured her mouth with a kiss before she finished the sentence.
Chris cupped her face gently with his hand and gave himself up to the sparks between them. He softly cradled her face in his large hands and parted his lips to gently touch hers with his tongue. The small sound she made at this contact caused a surge to his groin that was almost painful. He was unbelievably aroused, and they had barely kissed.
&nbs
p; Paige was drowning in sensations. She parted her lips when she felt his tongue touch them and put her hand on his chest, feeling his heart beating, feeling the heat and strength of him. She touched his tongue with hers and felt him slide his hand behind her neck and into her hair as his other hand moved to hold her gently around her waist. The hand behind her neck held her as he shifted to deepen the kiss, their tongues now moving together in a sliding dance. Paige felt his hand move up her side and graze her breast, and she gasped.
Chris still held his hand at the back of her neck but moved his lips so they were resting against her cheek and said, “I’m sorry. I don’t want to move too fast. I’m afraid to touch you, but I don’t want to stop touching you.”
“No, it’s okay. I just…this is intense.” He chuckled, and she smiled, pushing back from him just slightly to look at his face. “I don’t want to stop touching you, either.” Her voice was quiet and breathy, and Chris felt a new surge of arousal.
Paige was wondering how much of this she was going to be able to take and how she was going to be able to stop. Because she didn’t want to stop. This was just their second date, but every nerve ending in her body was ready for her to do a lot more with this man than sit on her couch and kiss him. When his hand grazed her breast, she felt such a rush; her nipples contracted, and she was already slick with desire. She wanted him to touch her. She wanted to know what the electricity between them would feel like if he slid his hand between her legs. The thought made her shudder.
Desire was starting to overwhelm her senses. She took Chris’s hand, placed it on her breast, and whispered, “Touch me.”
Chris moaned quietly, closed his eyes, and gently squeezed her breast, running his palm across the stiffness of her peak through her shirt, shifting to capture and roll it gently in his fingers, listening to her gasps and sighs. He shifted his other hand to slide under her shirt, reveling in the softness of her skin, and then moved both his hands up under her shirt. He captured her mouth again as he fondled her breasts through her bra.
