The Sleezers had the lowest staff and player payrolls in the league—the cheap bastards. While they wined and dined in expensive restaurants and chased around the country with models and wannabe stars, their staff held it all together, and the league bailed the Sleezers out so they could make payroll. Those days were coming to an end.
With an exasperated sigh, she sat back and sighed. Numbers weren’t sticking in her head even though she’d kept at it until late afternoon, like a cat chasing its tail, round and round and getting nowhere. Ethan wanted a salary report, along with recommendations on who would be paid what if they were on a premier team. She almost smiled as she remembered his orders: I don’t deal in details. I pay staff to do that. I want a summary. I’m interested in your high-level assessment based on your data.
Finally, Lauren headed downstairs to the hotel bar for a beer and a happy-hour appetizer. She didn’t see Ethan sitting alone in a booth surrounded by messy piles of paper and numerous electronic devices until he caught her attention and waved her over. By then it was too late to cut bait and run like hell. Her feet carried her where she didn’t want to go, and she slid into the booth seat across from him.
“We have to stop meeting like this.” He smiled, showing off two dimples she’d never noticed before, and she was a sucker for a man with dimples, just like she was for a man with deep blue eyes, dark hair, and a long lean body. He had this one unruly lock of hair that insisted on falling over his forehead, but other than that nothing was out of place. Even though he wore jeans and T-shirts as opposed to business suits, he’d probably look just as at home in a suit. Today he wore his usual faded pair of jeans and a Giants sweatshirt. For a businessman, his manner of dress was curious at best, but she assumed he might be playing down his role to make the staff more comfortable around him.
He signaled to the waiter, and they ordered beers and nachos. He stacked the papers into a haphazard pile with his iPad and cell phone balanced precariously on top. Looking up, he caught her watching him and winked. “You should see my office at home.”
“I’m not sure I could handle that.” Lauren liked things neat and tidy, everything in its place. “A bit messy, are we?”
“Actually I like things tidy, I just pay other people to do that for me.”
She nodded; that seemed to be a common theme with him. “Paying others to do the detail work for you means missing out on the journey and just arriving at the destination.”
“And that’s a problem?” He was still grinning, still making her heart throb. No shit, it was actually throbbing. And her panties, well, she didn’t even want to think about what was going on between her legs.
“It could be because I suspect that once you arrive, you schedule another trip. You never sit back and enjoy the ride.”
“Pretty much.” His eyebrows furrowed, as if she’d pointed out something he hadn’t considered. “My mom always tells me to stop and smell the roses, but I’m too busy climbing the next mountain.”
“Your mom’s a smart lady. And what mountain will you tackle after this one?”
He shrugged, suddenly shutting down, his blue eyes shielded and wary. He did a quick subject change. “Ready for game two?”
“I don’t have to be ready. The guys do,” Lauren said. As much as she hated to say it, the few playoff series the guys played in since she’d been with the team pretty much sent her over the edge, as if she wanted something badly enough she could somehow fuel their ability to win.
It hadn’t worked two nights ago.
“I’m sitting in the box tonight to get the big-picture view.”
Lauren nodded. Ethan could sit anywhere he pleased. The way the league was bowing down to him, he could probably sit on the players’ bench if that’s what he wanted.
“I want you to join me. Any progress on the payroll stats?”
“I’m working on them. We have the lowest payroll in the league for staff and players. I can tell you that much already. That’s why we lose free agents and competent staff left and right every year. This isn’t exactly a destination for elite players.”
“Except Cooper.”
“Yes, except Cooper. He’s an anomaly. Loyal to a fault. I often wonder if he wouldn’t prefer to go elsewhere.”
“But he doesn’t. Why is that?”
Cooper stuck around while every other decent player packed up his sticks and skated out of town at the first opportunity. “Like I said, he’s loyal, which is probably not to his advantage.” She thought for a few more seconds, as she sipped the beer just deposited on her table. “He’s done a lot of work with kids over the years at the Children’s Hospital and sponsors a summer camp every year for underprivileged kids both here and in his hometown of Detroit. He’s a fixture in Gainesville, lives here year round.”
“A regular hero, is he?” Ethan nodded, looking almost as if she wasn’t giving him the news he wanted to hear, which made no sense.
“To a lot of people, yes, he is.”
“And to you, personally, what do you think of Mr. Black?”
“Me? I think he’s wonderful. He’s the consummate captain, and he keeps his nose clean off the ice, which is really important when it comes to public perception. Keeps an eye on his guys, too.”
Ethan nodded, rubbing his chin, a habit he seemed to do when asking the tough questions. “So, Lauren, where do you see yourself in ten years or so?”
“Doing essentially what I’m doing now.” Her answer was honest and without emotion. She’d long ago accepted that she might have gone as high as she could, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t keep fighting.
“You don’t want to be the director of player personnel or the GM?”
“Of course, I do, but I’m realistic, too. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do, but I’d like more responsibility, more say in how the team is built and run. Regardless, I can’t imagine doing anything else, anywhere else.”
“They don’t take you seriously, do they?” Obviously, he’d noticed, not that it was difficult to figure out.
She met his gaze and shook her head.
“What if another team offered you a big salary increase?”
“What can I say? I’m loyal, like Coop. This team hired me when no one else would.” Yeah, she’d come running back with her tail between her legs after Max dumped her, leaving her destroyed and destitute, and begged the Giants to take her back.
“You’re a rare woman, Lauren.” Ethan’s voice lowered an octave into that sexy range that had her squeezing her legs tightly together. Seriously, how stupid. She wasn’t even sure she liked the guy, let alone enough to sleep with him.
Kaley’s words came flooding back to her. You don’t have to like a guy to screw him. It’s even better if you don’t because then it’s all about the sex. No one has any expectations, and there’s none of that awkwardness afterward because one person thinks there was more to it than the other.
Easy for Kaley to say. She scored in bed more than Cooper scored on the ice. Lauren rarely scored at all. She just did her job, minded her manners, and dated occasionally. If Lauren could have Kaley’s guts for just one night, she’d hop into bed with Ethan and not think another thing about it in the morning.
This never happened to her. She’d been surrounded by hot hockey players from birth, and none of them did this to her. Why Ethan? A guy who didn’t fit in this world any more than she fit in his.
Sure, she’d lost her virginity at sixteen to one of her brother’s minor league hockey teammates—a fact her brothers and father didn’t know or they’d have castrated the poor guy. It wasn’t all Max Price’s fault. He hung around the house a lot, and he was hot. Really, really hot. Melt-your-panties hot. And he’d melted hers right off of her. She’d flirted shamelessly with him until he agreed to meet her outside the rink, and they’d done it in the backseat of his car that first time.
His rookie year he played for the Giants, and he charmed the pants off of her again. Several times. On a drunken whim, they flew to
Vegas and married. Lauren had been in an entry-level position with the Giants, and they immediately fired her for breaking the cardinal rule—no fucking the players. Max was traded to Buffalo, and Lauren went with him. She learned pretty quickly that Max was the ultimate man slut, and he spent every penny of their money on parties and women, walking out and leaving her bankrupt emotionally and financially. She begged the Giants to hire her back, and spent the next few years in financial and emotional recovery.
Sure she’d gone out with a few guys since, but nothing serious, nothing that lasted, and she liked it that way because getting attached hurt too much when it didn’t work out. She’d never fall for a handsome face, sexy smile, and ripped body again.
Besides nothing came between Lauren and her passion for hockey. Nothing. She’d derailed her career once for an unworthy man.
Then there was Ethan. If the glitter in his eyes was any indication, he’d jump in bed with her given half a chance. He’d be out of her life in a few months, despite his hints that he might stay on with the team assuming his group purchased them. She couldn’t see him sticking around. He had to have a life elsewhere. Hell, as far as she knew, he had a wife and kids at home, a home he never talked about.
“Lauren?” His voice brought her back to the present.
“Sorry, thinking about the game this evening.”
“Are you nervous?”
She nodded. “I’m always nervous before a game.”
And even more so when Ethan pinned her with his intent stare and fingered his napkin as if he wished it were a specific part of her body.
Oh, God, she wished it were, too.
* * * *
Cooper watched Ethan Williams chat it up with the Sleezers after the game, like they were old buddies.
He’d just walked out of the locker room after a close win that he didn’t feel nearly as good about as he should. He hadn’t scored a goal, but at least the rest of the first line picked up his slack. Cedric played inspired hockey, all over the ice as if there were three or four of him.
Now it was back home with the series tied one-one.
Speak of the fucking devil, Cedric, stopped next to him. He followed Cooper’s gaze. “You got a real issue with that guy, don’t you?”
“The Sleezers or Williams?”
“Everybody hates the Sleezers. I was talking about Williams, our savior.”
“He’s not our fucking savior. What was your first clue?”
“You look like you’re ready to drop the gloves every time you catch sight of him. Why don’t you duke it out, get it out of your system?”
“That’d go over well with the league. They’re salivating all over the guy. That’s the problem, Ced. Why? If he’s who he says he is, what’s the big deal?”
“The big deal is the big bucks behind him. The commish trips all over himself when guys with deep pockets want to buy into the league.” Cooper narrowed his eyes as Ethan threw back his head and laughed out loud at something one Sleezer said. The ass was totally faking it.
“Yeah, I know, but it’s more than that. There’s a damn good reason why we don’t know a fucking thing about them.”
“Man, you’re a distrusting soul, buddy. Let it go. Take him at face value.”
“And what is that?”
“He’s here to vet the team for prospective owners. Simple. To the point. As long as the Sleezers are out of our lives, what do we care, ya?” Cedric liked to throw in a ya once in a while to make sure everyone remembered he was from Sweden even though he didn’t have much of an accent anymore.
“You’ll care if they move the team.”
Cedric shrugged. “Not really. I spend most of my life inside an arena. It’s all the same to me where it is. Come the offseason, I can go where I please.”
“I wish I felt like you did, but I’m a part of this community, and I want to keep it that way.”
“Let’s get to the bus. Everyone’s waiting. You know how cranky Coach gets when he’s tired and ready to sleep in his own bed.”
Cooper nodded and had to laugh. “Yeah. He’s already pissed at me. No reason to make it worse.”
Cedric winked at a couple puck bunnies standing just outside the doorway. They squealed when they saw him, but security kept them back. He turned to Alex and Brick. “Watch and learn, children.”
Ced stopped to sign their programs. One of them wanted her chest signed, her low-cut tank not hiding much. Ced gladly obliged, and Cooper had to drag him away by the arm, but not before the blond scrawled her number on a card and tucked it in his pants. Ced grinned as she copped a feel.
Ced loved women. Women loved Ced. The guy needed one of those take-a-number machines installed on the door of his condo to accommodate the steady stream of women in and out—often more than one a night. Coop had his share of women, and he could flirt with the best of them, but right now it was all about the playoffs for him. Women came later, after the playoffs. Hopefully much later.
Cedric sighed as if he were the most maligned guy on the team.
“It’s the playoffs. Get your head in the game and forget about the women.”
“The women are part of the game. Without the women, I wouldn’t be able to wind down.”
Cooper shrugged. “Whatever works, Ced.”
They were the last two on the bus and got the evil eye from the coach as they kicked a few young guys out of their preferred seats.
“I’m going to look into that guy.” Cooper muttered for only Ced’s ears.
“What guy?” Obviously, Ced had moved on to another subject, a subject most likely with a nice rack.
“Williams. I want to know his story.”
“Whatever. I wouldn’t put much energy into it. Whatever happens, we don’t get a vote. Consider it a grand adventure.” Cedric pulled his baseball cap down over his eyes and tipped his seat back.
Cooper glared at his buddy. Sometimes Ced irritated the hell out him. Beating the crap out of the team’s second highest scorer probably wasn’t an option.
He sighed and stared out the window. He had good instincts, and right now his instincts didn’t trust Ethan Williams.
Chapter 6—Check to the Head
The excitement of the playoffs sucked Ethan in like nothing ever had in his life—not even making his first billion on a gamble that paid off came close to the euphoria of watching his team win a playoff game, and they were his team—damn it.
He was walking on air after the Giants split the next two at home, losing the first and winning the second, tying the series at two-two. The playoff atmosphere in the finally sold-out arena didn’t match the din of Montreal’s arena, but he’d take it. For now.
Lauren had cast several strange looks at him during those games even as she was jumping up and down and screaming her lungs out. Maybe he’d been a little too excited for a guy who supposedly didn’t have a horse in this race and hadn’t been around long enough to develop an affinity for the staff and players or to feel part of the team.
Ah, Lauren. Somehow, he’d managed to keep it strictly business between them even though his dick protested like a mother, and the rest of his body joined in on the torture. He could not and would not go down that road again. His family and his partners counted on him to maintain a professional atmosphere, and screwing one of his management personnel didn’t exactly breed confidence in his abilities, especially since he’d succumbed to a female employee a few years ago with near disastrous consequences for the family business. Yeah, so technically no one knew he owned the team, and the staff still worked for the Sleezers. But the justifications he’d worked over and over in his head still didn’t make it right.
But Lauren was so fucking hot like a sexy librarian, and so attractive to him. Her hockey knowledge alone gave him a raging hard-on. Throw in her cute body, pretty face, and take-no-prisoners attitude, and he was all in, even though he couldn’t be. He needed her as an employee, and a temporary fling would change their relationship irrevocably. In addition, he was slow
ly earning her trust, even though on so many levels, he didn’t deserve it.
Tonight they were back in Montreal and sat in the guest owner’s box. Conspicuously absent were the Sleezers. Ethan didn’t miss the constant bickering and whining of the brothers and their ladies du jour.
Lauren looked around the small box then at Ethan. “Where is everyone?”
“I haven’t a clue. It’s like we missed an important memo or something.” Ethan popped the tops on two beers from the small bar in the corner of the room. “Might as well drink their booze.”
“I like nothing better than spending the Sleezers’ money.” She smiled up at him and his heart did this little thump-thump which had become par for the course around her lately. She was dressed uncharacteristically in a Giants jersey and a pair of jeans, her long, silky milk chocolate hair tied in a sassy, though neat, ponytail rather than her usual prim bun. Ethan like sassy. Hell, he liked her. Too much.
“Coop’s not having the best series.” Ethan commented, trying to distract his libido, but in this case, not even hockey did that.
“Coach is playing him too much, not giving him a chance to rest his legs. He’s no good to us tired. The team has other guys who can skate, but Coach is too conservative, too afraid to give them their shot.”
“I was thinking that myself.” Ethan hadn’t been overly impressed with Fur so far. When the team lost, they lost because of the man’s decisions, the matchups he put in the ice, his game management, and when they won, they won in spite of him. Or so it seemed to Ethan, but he needed more information. He never made knee-jerk decisions, especially when it came to a man’s job, until he had all the facts.
He glanced at Lauren. She sucked her lower lip into her mouth and chewed on it. He took a long pull on his beer to stop himself from groaning but he choked.
“Are you all right?” She studied him with concerned brown eyes.
“I’m fine, I just—just. Nothing.”
Skating on Thin Ice: Seattle Sockeyes (Game On in Seattle Book 1) Page 6
