“Ready to get back to the stress of the playoffs tomorrow?” she asks me in a voice made husky by all the moaning and crying out she’d just been doing.
We’re flying to Phoenix in the morning and our first game of the conference finals will be that evening against the L.A. Demons. We’ll have home-ice advantage so the first two games are in Phoenix. The winner of this series will move on to the Cup championship.
It’s becoming real now, and I’m loving every fucking minute of it even if it’s beyond stressful.
“Totally ready for tomorrow night’s game,” I reply, grazing my lips over the top of her head. “But bummed to be leaving this little cocoon we’ve had going on for the last few days.”
“It’s been nice,” she replies, her voice getting low and sleepy.
I cock my head at her. “Nice?”
She meets my eyes, a sly smile creeping over her face. “Yeah… nice.”
“Woman, you’ve been screaming the rafters down when I make you come. Nice is an insult. Take it back.”
“I won’t,” she taunts, and it’s on.
I flip her to her back, straddle her, and commence tickling. She squirms her luscious and well-used body underneath me, laughing hysterically as my fingertips work her ribs.
“Stop,” she gasps as she giggles and claws at my hands.
I give her a brief respite, my palms now flat on her ribs. “Take back the ‘nice’ part. Tell me just how fucking fantastic these last four days have been.”
She bites her lower lip, smirking in challenge. When I dig the tip of my index finger against a rib, she jerks with a snort before slapping at my hand. “Fine. If your fragile ego needs to hear it, then the last four days have been stupendous.”
Frowning, I sit back on my haunches. “I’m not sure if stupendous is really the right word.”
Willow cocks an eyebrow. “What would you suggest?”
“Fucking fantastic,” I exclaim. “I already suggested that, as a matter of fact.”
“Fine,” she drawls in exaggeration. “This time with you has been fucking fantastic. You’re fucking fantastic. Your house is fucking fantastic, and your body is fucking fantastic. You make me feel all kinds of fucking fantastic things. Are you happy now?”
I grin before flopping onto the bed beside her. “Immensely so.”
Side by side, we silently stare at the ceiling. With Willow, I don’t feel any pressing need to fill every void with useless conversation. I like her as much in the quiet as I do when she’s screaming at the top of her lungs.
But a thought occurs to me and I roll on my side to face her, putting elbow to mattress and propping my head in the palm of my hand. “I assume your parents are coming in for the first two games?”
Willow nods. “My sister Meredith and her husband, too.”
“Even better,” I reply thoughtfully. “So, I’d love to have them all over to my house for dinner one night. Maybe in between games one and two?”
Willow’s head tilts my way and her brows are furrowed. “You want to invite my family to your house for dinner?”
“Yes,” I drawl.
“Why?”
“Why not?” I toss back.
Her eyes snap back to the ceiling and she worries at her lower lip, frowning in what looks to be consternation.
“Does your family know we’re dating?” I ask cautiously. “I mean, besides Dax, do they know, for example, that you’re here in California with me?”
Willow rises onto her elbows, turning to me. It makes her breasts push out, which is distracting, but I refuse to take the bait.
“They don’t necessarily know we’re dating,” she says hesitantly. “I mean, Dax knows we’re seeing each other. And my parents probably suspect it, given how you were on that call. But we haven’t really talked about it.”
“Well, me inviting them to dinner at my house will put that to rest. Then you won’t have to worry about announcing it to them,” I say.
“I’m not worried about announcing it,” she snaps. “It’s just… I’m not sure we should—”
“What? Make it official that way?” Her expression says that’s exactly it. Bringing others into our relationship will make it real to her, and that’s clearly still a wall.
Reaching over, I brush some of her hair behind her ear and the touch causes her to sag onto the pillows with a sigh, her gaze focusing on the ceiling. “Willow… I understand you’re averse to relationships. You’ve been clear about that. But since we’ve gotten closer, I guess I don’t understand what’s still holding you back.”
Again, she nibbles at her lip, a sure sign that brain of hers is spinning.
“Willow,” I say softly, and her eyes meet mine. “You have feelings for me. I know this, and so do you. Those same feelings are returned by me. We enjoy spending time with each other. Why can’t you just push past whatever hang-ups you have to admit we’re seeing each other in a real way?”
She briefly squeezes her eyes shut before opening them. I’m shocked at the pain and fear I see in them. “Because I was badly hurt by someone, and I’m afraid it’s going to happen again.”
I recoil, shocked by that admission. Willow always comes off so fiercely independent and courageous that it’s hard to think about her as even having the ability to get hurt. “What happened?”
She shrugs like it’s nothing, but we both know that’s not true. I reach out and take her hand, giving it a soft squeeze of reassurance. She studies our fingers where they’re laced together, her voice coming out hollow. “I was engaged a few years back.”
Again, a jolt of shock goes through me at this news. I had just assumed Willow had always been opposed to relationships. Sort of like me. It’s hard for me to form attachments because I went so long without them. It never occurred to me that she’d had a singular bad experience that put her off them.
“Look…” she starts. In what seems to be a wave of strength, she sits up against the headboard and looks me right in the eye. “I was serious about this guy. He was wealthy. Not billionaire wealthy like you, but he made good money. He was always buying stuff because he could. He had sort of an entitled sense about him. Thought he could have anything he wanted, which turned out to include his choice of whatever woman he wanted. He cheated on me. That’s all there was to it, and well… I’ve never really been able to trust since then. And frankly, you’re so much wealthier than he is. You could have anything or anyone your heart desired, so it’s hard for me to invest myself fully into this. I’m holding myself back because we agreed at the beginning this wouldn’t go any further than the playoffs, and—”
“Have I ever given you any reason to believe I’d be like him?” I can’t help but interrupt because it’s offensive to be lumped in with someone like that just because I’m rich.
Willow vigorously shakes her head. “No. Of course you haven’t. But still… When I gave my heart up to someone before, they abused it, and the pain isn’t something I ever want to feel again. So, in my mind, it’s easier to not allow feelings to become involved. If you’ve never had your heart broken before, you wouldn’t understand.”
“I haven’t had my heart broken before,” I admit. “Not by a romantic interest anyway. But I do understand loss. I guess what I don’t understand is how a smart girl like you can’t tell the difference between me and your former fiancé. Because surely you are a good judge of character. If I wanted someone else, I’d just flat out tell you that I didn’t want to be exclusive or I was ready to move on. You have to know me well enough by now to believe I wouldn’t cheat on you, right?”
She nods slowly. We’d laid out our expectations early on in a clear-cut way, and we’re capable of communicating what we want and where our boundaries are.
“Look…” I rub my thumb over the back of her hand in what I hope is a reassuring way. “Maybe you and I need to have a really clear talk. Let’s reevaluate what we want out of this.”
“What do you mean?” she asks, curiosity sparkling in her
eyes.
“Well, for instance, I really like you. I’m wildly attracted to you and certainly love fucking you, but I like just hanging out with you, too. Talking. Laughing. I like a lot more than just the sex. I genuinely enjoy getting to know you. I’ll just lay it all out there. I’d like to keep seeing you in an exclusive way, and I don’t really want there to be an end to this. I’d like to keep pushing forward to see where this goes.”
To my dismay, a tinge of panic seeps into her gaze. Thankfully, she doesn’t look away.
“Would that be so bad?” I ask.
To my relief, she shakes her head. “Not at all. It’s just… this is a big step for me.”
“We’ll take it slow,” I assure her. “We’ve got nothing but time and over the next few weeks, we’ll have the opportunity to spend a lot of time together. We can see where it goes.”
“But maybe we hold off on the whole family dinner thing for right now,” she says, and I have to laugh. If that’s what it takes, then that’s what we’ll do.
“Of course,” I say before leaning over to brush my lips against hers. “Although I don’t see your parents as being anything but pretty sharp people. My guess is they’ve already figured it out.”
“Perhaps,” she quips with a laugh. “But I’d still like to keep this to ourselves for a bit. Let me wade into these waters cautiously.”
“Agreed,” I reply. Ever the businessman, though, I need something in return. “But you have to agree to sit in the box with me for every game. Your family can sit there, too.”
“Then they’ll really figure it out,” she exclaims.
“I’ll keep my hands to myself. I promise.”
“Fine,” she pouts, then lets out another exaggerated sigh. “Oh, who am I kidding? They know. Just like everyone else does since you’ve hounded Dax mercilessly and people have seen us together. I don’t know why I’m suddenly so freaked out.”
“Not like I’m asking you to get married, Will,” I tease, gathering her in my arms and pulling her close. “And if it makes you feel better, when anyone asks, I’ll just tell them you’re a great lay.”
I get an elbow in the ribs for that, but then she settles into me. Her body goes all soft, her arms wrap around my waist, and she once again presses her cheek to my chest.
We lay in silence for several moments, and I feel like we’ve made progress.
And then, Willow softly clears her throat to get my attention. I go still, but when she doesn’t speak, I think she might not say anything at all when she finally blurts out, “And I know I didn’t come out and say it, but I really like you, too.”
And yes… that feeling right there. Like I just climbed Mount Fuji or won the Cup.
Total victory.
She likes me too.
CHAPTER 18
Willow
I’m not sure how I got roped into a girls’ night out, but I’m going with it. We’re congregating at Brooke’s house that she and Bishop recently purchased together. They’re not slated to get married until the end of June, but for all intents and purposes, they are pretty much like a married couple.
As one might expect, the house seems typical for most professional athletes. It’s in a gated community with over five-thousand-square-feet of room and the finest appointments. Brooke took us on a fabulous tour once we arrived and Regan, who has had no luck in finding something for her and Dax, asked a million questions as she’s a frustrated potential home buyer. It’s not like there aren’t homes available to choose from, but she can’t seem to pick one out without Dax’s approval and he simply doesn’t have the time to look at anything while the playoffs are going on. He has repetitively told Regan, “Just go buy something you love and I will be happy with it,” but my brother is a relative moron to think she wouldn’t have a problem with doing that. Of course, she wants to make sure he loves their home, too, so she decided to hold off on house-hunting until after the playoffs.
We ended up in the kitchen where Brooke has a Mexican feast laid out for us. Fish tacos, a spicy black bean salad, and sopapillas.
Best of all, there are margaritas.
She starts fixing up a large pitcher as we take seats around the massive kitchen island that seats eight.
There are only six of us—Brooke, Blue, Pepper, Regan, Nora, and me. The respective men to these women are out doing a guy’s night.
After filling glasses crusted with salt on the edge with the mixed drink, Brooke passes them out to us.
Holding hers up, she says, “First toast is to the Arizona Vengeance for taking game one against the L.A. Demons last night.”
The conference finals have indeed commenced, and the Vengeance went up 1-0 over the Demons in the race for the Pacific Conference title. It went into overtime, which adds an extra twenty-minute period. In playoff hockey, there are no shootouts and the teams keep playing twenty-minute periods until someone scores. Tacker ended it quickly last night, whipping the winning goal in just a little over two minutes into the overtime period.
We raise our glasses, giving cheers to our team. I take a deep sip of the margarita, my taste buds dancing around with joy.
“Ladies,” Brooke says as she waves her hand at the platters of food on the granite countertop. “Dishes and silverware are all right there. Help yourself.”
We pass around plates, load them with food, and sip at our margaritas as we chitchat. I was happy for the invitation because Dominik had wanted to invite my family over to his house for dinner this evening. Although he hasn’t mentioned it again, I wasn’t sure if he would spring another request on me. So when Regan told me to leave tonight free for a planned girls’ night out, I jumped on it despite the fact I’ve never had a lot of girlfriends before. My career makes it so friends are hard to come by. Frankly, it’s just too hard to make a lasting bond when I travel so much. Not having a home is also an impediment, as I normally just stay with my parents in between my travels. I’ve never really put down my own roots anywhere, which is sort of a requirement when building a community of friends.
Regan has become extremely close to these women since she moved to Phoenix to marry my brother. And since I’m now her legitimate and lawful sister-in-law, she pulled me into this group whether I wanted it or not.
The great thing about it, though, is that these women are pretty amazing and thus I count myself in good company. Brooke has a degree in fashion merchandising, which translates well into her position on the Vengeance commercial sales team. She’s also the coach’s daughter, so it has been somewhat of a delicate balance with falling in love with one of the team’s star players. Blue is a flight attendant for the team, but she also takes care of her adult disabled brother, Billy. She has an incredibly hectic schedule, but still manages to devote a lot of time to him. Bonus points to her, too, for scoring the team’s biggest playboy when Erik fell in love with her.
Pepper may have the craziest story of all. She fell for our goalie, Legend, in the midst of him finding out he had a secret baby daughter from a woman he had dated in the past. That woman actually dumped little Charlie—when she was just a newborn—on his porch steps one evening with a note. Said baby mama turned out to be nutty as hell and she’d actually shot Pepper, who is recovered now. Pepper and Legend didn’t waste any time in starting their life together afterward. They ran off to the courthouse and got married, and now they are a ready-made family. And, of course, the most recent addition besides me is Nora, the therapist who got Tacker to engage in life again after he had spiraled following the death of his fiancée in a plane crash.
Like I said… it’s an amazing group of women. I feel a little dull compared to them.
But hey—fish tacos and margaritas. Not a bad way to spend the evening, especially considering I’m not at Dominik’s house entertaining my family and realizing how very serious this thing between us has turned out to be.
“Why aren’t you drinking?” Pepper asks Blue, and we collectively turn our heads to focus on her.
Sure enough, B
lue’s glass is filled to the brim and untouched. A pink flush creeps into her cheeks, and her voice pitches high. “Oh, no reason. Just don’t feel like it.”
“But you love margaritas,” Brooke points out, her brows knitting together.
Blue’s blush turns from pink to red, and it hits me. Her expression is one of excitement, yet she seems a bit uneasy, too.
“Oh my God,” I exclaim, giving her a knowing look.
Blue’s eyes snap to mine, her face slightly panicked.
“You’re pregnant,” I say, taking a wild guess that’s why she hasn’t touched her drink.
“No,” she squeaks, waving me off.
Brooke puts her hands on her hips, leaning toward Blue with a suspicious glare. “Something is definitely going on.”
Blue lets out a sigh that lifts her hair slightly away from her face. She throws her hands out. “Fine. I’m pregnant. We just found out yesterday and I wasn’t going to tell y’all because Erik and I haven’t discussed when and who to tell. And then when you served up the margaritas, I was totally caught off guard and didn’t know if I should speak up. But you know what…I’m glad it’s out. I’m glad you all know. That’s way too big a secret to keep.”
We jump from our stools in excitement of her admission, crowding around to give her hugs of congratulations.
“Were you trying to get pregnant?” Brooke asks as she moves back around the island. Ever the gracious hostess, she’s been eating while standing so she can continue to serve us if we need anything. Everyone else returns to their seats.
Blue shakes her head. “No. It was an accident, though we’ve obviously talked about having kids after we get married. But Erik is totally psyched about it and well, so am I, to be honest.”
I pick up my fish taco but before taking a bite, I ask, “What does it do to your wedding plans?”
Blue and Eric got engaged a few months ago.
Dominik Page 12
