Cold As Ice

by Paige, Violet

  “Order one of everything,” I whispered, unable to keep my eyes open.

  “Jack?” I heard her voice somewhere in the distance, but I was already asleep.

  * * *

  Two nights in Denver didn’t feel like enough. Noelle watched the game with the handful of family members who traveled with us. I loved seeing her in the stands. It was like having a little piece of home here with me.

  We fucked twice as much the second night. I didn’t care about my leg, or the pain in my wrist. I wanted to lick the sweat off her neck and bury myself inside her until it was time to check out and ride to the airport. And I did.

  We left with a road win, but when we touched down in Richmond, I wasn’t nearly prepared for what I had to face. I threaded my fingers through hers as we descended the stairs to the tarmac.

  “Do you think you want to travel with us again in a few days?” I asked. “It’s San Antonio. It will be warm. There are always some wives who fly with us.”

  “I’m not one of the wives,” she answered with a mischievous smile.

  “You should be.” I said it more absently than I meant.

  Noelle stopped at the bottom of the staircase. She maneuvered to the side when Roman and Luca passed us.

  “Was that a joke?”

  I was caught off guard too. “No. It wasn’t a joke.”

  She shook her head. “What are you saying? Is this—? Am I reading this right?”

  “Marry me.” I tried to read her eyes. “We’re both in. I’m committed to you and Phoebe. Marry me, Noelle.”

  She nodded. I thought she might cry, but she jumped to my waist, clasping her boots around my hips. “Yes. I’ll marry you. Right now, if you want.”

  I laughed before crushing her with a blistering kiss. I looked up when I realized half the team had circled us and they were clapping. A few whistled louder than the roar of the private jets.

  I lowered Noelle’s boots to the concrete. She blushed.

  “Congrats, Novak.” Sorrow slapped me on the back. “Welcome to the Dires.” He leaned to kiss Noelle on the cheek.

  “Thank you,” she replied.

  I shook a few hands and we hugged the guys who stuck around to congratulate us.

  I looked at her. “Honeymoon in San Antonio?”

  When she nodded, any fear or anxiousness I had never had a chance to survive. With her smile, she wiped out all the doubt.

  I pulled her into my arms. “Thank God you don’t want a big wedding.”

  She laughed. “It doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love the dress and the flowers. It just means I want to be your wife more.”

  We leaned against the staircase as I took her mouth. I kissed the corners and grazed her tongue with mine playfully. The pilot descended the steps. He cleared his throat.

  “I’m sorry, but the ground crew needs to move this to another space.”

  “Oh. Oops.” Noelle giggled.

  “Let me get the bags and we’ll get out of here. Sorry, sir,” I apologized to the pilot and scooped up our luggage.

  “You know we still have a few hours until school is out.” Noelle pulled her suitcase behind her as we entered the private terminal.

  “Want to go back to my place?” I asked. “There’s a tub there that you look especially sexy in.”

  She smiled. “I was thinking we could stop by the courthouse to pick up the marriage license paperwork.”

  I lifted our bags into the trunk. “Do you think we could get married today? Is that possible?”

  I opened the passenger door for her.

  “Want to find out?” she asked.

  I lowered my head inside the car to kiss her. “I want to marry you today, baby. Two days we’ll celebrate on the road. Maybe I can extend the trip an extra night.”

  She nodded. “Sounds perfect.” Her eyes suddenly flashed. “Wait, can we stop on the way to the courthouse at the mall?”

  “The mall?” I scratched the back of my head.

  “Yes. I don’t want to get married in jeans and boots.”

  I grinned. “We can stop wherever you want. Whatever you need, we’ll get. As long as you want to be my wife today.”

  I walked around to the driver side and slid behind the wheel.

  35

  Noelle

  I wasn’t nervous filling out the paperwork in front of the clerk of court. I was impatient. Jack and I wanted to be married. I wanted him more than anything. Why did paperwork take so damn long?

  I wore a silk slip dress that was ivory with stiletto heels that screamed my husband better fuck me tonight. Jack had bought a dark gray suit at my insistence. I added a rhinestone headband and a simple diamond necklace that Jack purchased from a jeweler in the mall. Jack stopped at a florist on the way to the courthouse to buy a bouquet of lily of the valley for me. It was all I wanted. I had the perfect dress. The perfect shoes. The perfect petals. And my groom was to die for.

  We talked about taking Phoebe out of school, but we decided this was a ceremony for us. Neither of us was religious, and neither of us wanted a big ceremony. Tonight, we’d have a special dinner at home with Phoebe and explain that Jack was now her stepfather. My brothers and dad might be furious, but I’d never wanted to be given away. Things with Natalie were awkward. She would try to plan an elaborate party, and we’d end up fighting. A private civil service solved all our problems. Thank God Virginia allowed same day marriage.

  It had been twenty minutes since the clerk had taken our paperwork.

  “What is taking so long?” I whispered.

  “I don’t know. Let me find out.” Jack rapped on the counter. “Sir?”

  A different man walked toward us. “Yes?”

  “We’re waiting on our marriage license. We’re trying to get married today, before 4 o’clock. There’s a judge waiting for us.”

  He saw the bouquet in my hands and the headband nestled in my hair. “Let me see what’s going on with Al.”

  A few moments later he returned with a worried expression. “I spoke to Al. I’m afraid there’s a hold on the license.”

  “A hold?” I squeaked.

  “Something to do with a pending criminal issue with the groom,” he explained.

  My eyes flew to Jack. “But I read all the requirements on your website,” I argued. “It doesn’t state anything about criminal activity being a problem. There’s nothing at all.”

  I could feel my stomach flipping backward and forward.

  Jack moved in front of me. “I have an attorney trying to get those charges dropped. There is no criminal suit. It must be a misunderstanding in your system. Can you check again?”

  Al, the man who had taken our applications, appeared. “I’m sorry, I don’t have the ability to authorize this license.”

  “Why not?” I scooted around Jack. He stood holding our application. “You have to. We’re here to get married. Look at me. I’m in a wedding dress,” I screeched.

  I must have struck a chord with Al. “The charges are the hold up. The person pressing charges are the hold up.” He glanced at Jack then me.

  “Charlie,” I seethed.

  Al nodded. It was clear he wasn’t going to confess that Charlie somehow had a hand in this, but he must have felt sorry for me.

  I felt my heart sink and the blood leave my face. I collapsed into a plastic chair. The lily of the valley laid in a pile.

  “Baby, I can fix this.” Jack knelt in front of me. “I can.”

  “How?” I exhaled. “He’s not going to let me go. And it’s out of spite. Not out of reality.” I had carefully applied all new makeup. It was one of the convenient coincidences of wedding shopping with my suitcase from Denver in tow. Now, my makeup would smudge with tears. Tears from pain. Tears from anger. Charlie wasn’t going to let me have the one thing I wanted—happiness with Jack.

  “The legal team at the Dires is trying to get the charges dropped. Woody Gates is working an investigation. Maybe he made some progress while we were gone. I’ll call him. Ca
n you wait here?”

  “You aren’t leaving, are you?”

  “No. I’m just going to step in the hallway, so Al doesn’t listen.”

  I nodded and waited for Jack to return with the news.

  “So, what did he say, Novak?” I wanted my tone to sound lighter than the heaviness worming through my body.

  He shook his head. “They just started the process. Charlie’s legal team is fighting every motion. It’s going to take time. Not something Woody can resolve today. He’s going to keep trying, though.”

  “He can’t do this to us.”

  “We’ll fight this. We will get married.” Jack put an arm around me.

  I looked at the clock ticking on the wall. We were running out of time. I didn’t want to go home and hang up a wedding dress I hadn’t been married in. I didn’t want to wash the bridal makeup off my face.

  “If I ask you to do something, will you do it and just trust me?” I asked.

  “I trust you.”

  I ran my thumb over his knuckles. “I need you to drive me to Charlie’s office. But you can’t keep inside.”

  I saw the anger well in his eyes. It wasn’t anger at me, it was for the man he despised.

  “Noelle, that’s not safe. I can’t let you anywhere near him.”

  “Do you trust me?” I repeated.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you want to marry me today?”

  “Hell yes,” he groaned.

  I stood in my slim silk gown. “Then drive me to Babcock Industries.”

  * * *

  The same security officer looked at me suspiciously when I marched into the lobby dressed for my wedding, but he didn’t argue when I asked him to take me to Charlie’s office.

  I surveyed the elevator. The clean lines. The sheen. The money that dripped from the walls. When the doors retracted, I stepped in front of the receptionist. It was a new girl, or at least she wasn’t someone I recognized.

  “I’m here to see Charlie,” I announced.

  “Oh, I like your jewels. It’s like a crown but a headband at the same time.”

  “Thanks.” I winced through a smile.

  “And that dress is sexy as hell.”

  “Um. Thank you. Mr. Babcock? Tell him Noelle Basham is here.”

  “Right.” She tapped the intercom and whispered into the receiver.

  Within seconds the double doors opened, and I stomped into Charlie’s office in my pointy shoes. I felt taller, stronger, and sexier in them.

  His eyes bulged when he saw what I was wearing.

  “Noelle,” he whispered. “You look like a goddess. Here to see me? I take it you and that dumb dick broke up? I always thought this was how you would come to me. You look quite virginal.”

  I put my hand forward to stop him from stepping a foot closer to me. “No, Charlie,” I barked. “I didn’t come to you. I’m here because I want out.”

  He folded his arms. The huge bandage had been replaced by a much smaller one. The mask that shield his nose had been removed. It made me wonder if he only wore it that morning for my benefit. To elicit sympathy. To try to make Jack look like a beast. To scare me into submission.

  “There is no out.”

  “There has to be.”

  He huffed. “Why don’t you consider what I’ve given you? All that I could give you? Think about that gift. The money. The endless gifts that come with it. I don’t think Jack Novak is capable of giving you what I can.”

  I let my palm slide to my belly. I looked at it, resting against the silk. I cupped it tenderly.

  “Jack’s given me an immeasurable gift.” My eyes rose to meet Charlie’s. “I’m pregnant. I’m having his baby.”

  Charlie paled. “You what?”

  “I’m going to have Jack Novak’s baby. Today, we tried to get married. Because that’s what people do when they’re in love and they’re starting a family. I’m wearing my wedding dress. I’m pregnant in a wedding dress, Charlie. And I can’t get married because of your sick and perverted obsession with me.” I glared the stare of a thousand daggers at his face. “Our marriage license is blocked because of you. So, I didn’t ‘come’ to you,” I hissed. “I thought that maybe if you saw me in this dress. That if you knew I was carrying another man’s child, that you would do the decent thing. Let me marry the father of my baby. I’m here to ask you for that.”

  “I didn’t expect this from you, Noelle.”

  “I didn’t expect it from you either. Can’t we call a truce? I’ll step down from the museum. You can choose a new director. Jack will cover all your medical expenses and whatever plastic surgeries you have planned. I’ll step away during my pregnancy to focus on my family. You can manage the museum however you want. I won’t stop you. I’ll even sign a non-disclosure. Just let me get married today.”

  I didn’t know how much longer I could stand in front of this man and beg for my life back. This was it. The only play we had left.

  He nodded. “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  He turned from me and slapped his hands on the long desk. “Fuck. I didn’t think you’d get pregnant.”

  I didn’t have words for this moment. “The county clerk is waiting for your call,” I explained. It was 3:30 pm. We could still make it.

  “I’ll call now.” He sounded defeated. There was pain in his voice, but I wasn’t sympathetic.

  I turned and walked out of Charlie’s office. As the elevator doors closed behind me, I wondered what would happen if he found out I was never pregnant. Would there be a price to pay?

  I opened the car door and smiled at my new husband.

  “Let’s get married.”

  36

  Jack

  The guys on the team gave me hell for having my honeymoon during a road game. But playoffs had started, and Noelle and I decided this was our honeymoon. I carved out two extra nights in the city with Coach’s blessing. I had to work out ice time with the San Antonio team, but they didn’t have a problem giving me a few hours each day. I swore to the Dires I would be back without having lost any of my edge.

  It was a deal Noelle and I both agreed to once everyone signed off on the plan.

  I lifted Noelle in my arms outside the honeymoon. She laughed when I kicked open the door with my foot.

  “This is a tradition, isn’t it?” I asked.

  She nodded, tightening her grip on my neck. “It is. Oh my God.” Her mouth opened. “Who delivered those?”

  I let her feet touch the marble foyer of the suite. In the center was a gigantic arrangement of roses. There had to six dozen in six different colors. Noelle pressed her nose to the center. “This is bigger than my garden.”

  I grabbed the card and handed it to her.

  “Congratulations and happy honeymoon from your Dires family,” she read. “This is sweet. And over the top. But I love it.”

  I tugged her toward me. “I think we’re both officially part of the Dires family.”

  She grinned. “They like to take care of each other. I like that about them.”

  “I couldn’t imagine playing anywhere else other than with the Ice. I didn’t want to. But there are some really great people in Richmond.”

  “Like your wife?” she teased.

  “Oh, I do love my wife.”

  She giggled. “I want to see the rest of this suite. It’s huge. Why is it so big?”

  “I think it’s so we can have sex in every room,” I walked up behind her. I kissed the back of her neck.

  “There are a lot of rooms.” She leaned into my chest.

  I wanted to inhale every part of her. Damn, I loved her.

  “Was the luggage delivered?” she asked.

  “Yes. The valet should have brought the bags to the master bedroom.”

  “Oh good. I have a wedding gift for you. It’s in my suitcase.”

  I followed Noelle to the bedroom. The bags were arranged along a wall inside the walk-in closet. She rifled through her clothes then emerged with a small b
ox. It was wrapped with white paper.

  “The ribbon got a little smooshed in my suitcase.” She pouted. She handed it to me. “For my husband.”

  “Hmm.” I sat on the edge of the king-size bed. I studied the small box. It fit in my hand.

  “Open it,” she urged.

  “Okay.” I tugged on the yellow ribbon and let it drop to the floor. I ripped into the white paper. When I lifted the small lid my voice almost cracked. “Noelle?”

  She wrapped her arms around my waist from behind me. “What do you think?”

  I raised the square black and white picture to my face. “Is this? Are you?”

  “I’m pregnant. I’m due December 25. We’re having a Christmas baby.”

  I spun, pinning Noelle beneath me on the mattress. “How? When did you find out?”

  Her eyes sparkled all the depths of blue sapphire I loved. God, I wanted our baby to have her eyes.

  “I went in this morning when you had practice. I was feeling a little strange. So I took a test in the drugstore bathroom. That is not an easy thing to do by the way. I was worried about flying and a hundred other silly things, so my doctor said I could come in just to be checked out. I begged them for an early ultrasound. It’s not a baby-baby yet. It’s just a circle on that picture. It’s really early. But I’m pregnant. There is no doubt that we made a baby that night in your apartment. I know that’s when it happened.”

  “The night in the tub?’ My chest growled with feral instinct. I knew it too.

  She nodded. “That was it.”

  “How do we celebrate news like this, Mrs. Novak?” I growled, staring at my wife with new admiration.

  She smiled slyly. “I think we start by trying out the massive shower. I saw bars and benches.” She winked.

  “Fuck. You’re going to kill me, and I won’t be able to play tomorrow night.”

  She laughed, scrambling out from under my body. I chased her to the bathroom. There was a trail of clothes beneath our feet as I caught her in my arms.

  “Have I told you how much I fucking love you?” I asked, blowing warm air across her nipples. They perked and hardened just as my cock lunged.