by Amy Brent
“Scott just isn’t the same.” Manny groaned in a teasing tone, fully aware of why she’d chosen to leave his team. “How are these guys treating you?”
“It’s like a whole bunch of big brothers. Don’t mind the looks they might give you.” Holly told him, smiling brightly as he glanced around. “I think it’s a bit more hectic at times but I love it.” Her eyes met Aaron’s again and she sipped her drink, some fruity concoction that she’d forgotten the name of. She looked around the building, admiring the red material draped around the high ceilings and the general feel of the high-class place. She’d be getting used to this working for the clients that she was. Her phone vibrated in her purse that was draped over her arm, only holding what she needed.
Holly excused herself to use the restroom after she glanced at it with a small smile, walking out of the crowded dining room and down the hallway into a quieter area. She saw the bathrooms ahead of her as footsteps followed her, making her glance back. Aaron approached her, his eyes searching the area as they focused on one door and took her arm. He opened it, pulling her inside and closing it to darkness as she gasped. “What is this?”
“Storage closet. What is that asshole doing here?” Aaron asked her, slipping his hands around her slim waist and pulling her against him.
“Manny? Aaron, he’s my former boss and what happened isn’t his fault. Stop that.” Holly hissed, silenced as he kissed her hungrily. She tasted the whiskey on his breath and shivered as she thought back to the night he’d had too much. His tongue was inside of her and demanding as she pulled him closer, feeling him lift her onto something that seemed soft enough as she wrapped her legs around his waist. “I want you.” Holly moved her mouth down to his jaw, her body on fire as she nipped at him and heard him unzip his pants as she sighed in relief.
“I wanted you all night.” Aaron slipped a hand between them, moving her thong aside just from feeling alone and teasing her with his fingers as she moaned. “One look from you and I’m ready to go down on my fucking knees.” He slipped one inside as she dropped her head back, sliding in and out. “I knew that you were wet the entire time for me just by looking at you.”
“I like watching you behind the bench, all passion and power. I like it as much as I liked watching you play.” Holly told him, breathless in the dark, not knowing his next move. She knew that they were risking a lot sneaking away like this but couldn’t find it inside of her to care as he spread her legs and drove himself inside of her. “Aaron…oh…harder.”
“I am taking you to my room tonight and fucking the hell out of you tonight after this. I just can’t wait to be inside of you.” Aaron promised her as he took her slow and rough, pinning her body against his in the room. They stopped talking and moved together to find their needed release after a long night of want, with Holly breaking right before he did. Aaron thrust one more time before dropping back and letting her fall against him as his hands drifted down her thighs. “Garters? You’re wearing only those tonight, Holly.”
“That’s what I was hoping for.” She whispered back, feeling his kiss as she parted her lips for him.
They left the room separately and both went in to repair their appearance, feeling like they’d gotten away with it. Holly calmed her hair down and cleaned up the smeared lipstick before replacing it carefully. She blotted her face with a damp towel to even out the pink spots and fixed her clothes as she looked critically at herself. Aaron was standing right at the entrance of the dining room on his phone as she passed, her body still pulsing for him.
She returned to the table, happy to see that their food was being brought out. She was starving now. Holly sat by Phil and Walter as they got to talking, happily cracking and eating her dinner as she moaned over it. Aaron came back over and dug into his steak, glancing at her for a few seconds every now and then as he talked with some of the other guys. It was a very festive group, eating and drinking until they started leaving in pairs and groups. “Want to head out?” Tanner asked her, yawning from the few beers that he’d enjoyed.
“I’m going to enjoy one more drink with the guys but I’ll catch a cab back to the hotel.” Holly promised him, watching him nod and look carefully at the group before heading out. She looked at Aaron, standing up and saying his farewells to Pat as he shot her a look. Everyone seemed to be calling it a night and since nobody had heard her excuse with Tanner, she slipped out front with Aaron casually. “How do we do this?” Her voice was a whisper and he stared at her before replying.
“I’ll take the first cab and head up to the room. Follow me with your own.” She nodded, watching him step away and into a car before she did the same. Holly hoped that nobody was watching as she pulled away from the curb and her own hotel, ending up at his as she walked to his room ready for more.
CHAPTER FIVE
Their affair continued the same way for a couple of months. Aaron always managed to make time for them, be it after a game at home on somewhere on the road. He romanced her as much as anybody could without their relationship being known. They both hated it, but the season was busy and they made do with being satisfied by the time that they did have. Nobody seemed to be catching on and Holly felt both relieved and disappointed in that.
Some of the players asked her out along the way, after a little time had passed since she started. Holly always told them that she was flattered and that she didn’t feel right about that, given her position with the team. It was the stock answer but not the one that she could give Aaron, choosing to run back to his bed every chance she got so they could enjoy the way they knew and loved each other’s bodies.
They were on a week-long trip when she started feeling sick, assuming that she’d picked up a virus from one of the games. Though she kept herself really healthy, there were thousands of people at any given arena and it was bound to happen. She was resting in Aaron’s bed in Minnesota, smiling at the way that he was fussing over her and insisting that she eat. “I’m okay. I’ll kick this, Aaron. It’s just been busy with the couple of injuries and the traveling.” She’d tried to insist on sleeping in her own room but he loved having her in his, making her relent and find a cab after she’d passed on the team dinner. “I just need sleep.”
They both went to sleep snuggled against each other, making love slowly before she got up to go to the hotel to head home on a plane. Everything was going well apart from the secret that they were keeping and it worried her, making her restless in her seat beside Tanner. “You look a little rough.” He told her, causing her to scowl in his direction.
“I’m just tired and kind of sick, I think. Too much traveling.” Holly rested her head back on the seat and closed her eyes lazily, feeling thirsty.
“Rest up this week while we’re home. This isn’t your style, Holly.” Tanner teased her as she smiled wanly.
“Don’t I know it?”
They got home and she went home to sleep, still feeling unsettled a week later. Holly was doing everything in her power to get better but it seemed to drag on just enough to wear her down even as she felt hungry all of the time. She ate healthier food than usual and ended up falling asleep on Aaron faster than he was used to, finally suggesting she see a doctor.
Just as she was picking up the phone to make an appointment as she eyed the calendar for a good day, her heart dropped into her stomach, settling like a heavy lump. Holly wasn’t the most regular girl in the world, but it had been about six weeks since her last period. She’d been so busy that she hadn’t thought about it. Holly stared at the dates, thinking that there was no way she could be pregnant. She was great about taking her pills and had not been on any kind of medication to alter their effect.
Shit. She grabbed her purse and walked out of the apartment in her worn jeans and a sweater to the corner store, glancing around for any familiar faces. Holly wasn’t a celebrity by any means, but she’d gotten to know a few people working with the team. She didn’t want to explain this or have it get back to Aaron, since it had to be her mind run
ning on overtime. Holly let out a small sigh of relief and grabbed a few choices from the aisle, exiting it as she dropped the test kits into a basket and ducking her head. She chose self-checkout to stay discreet, paying and bagging everything as fast as possible before heading to the quiet apartment to suffer through this alone.
Holly locked the door behind her and drank a whole glass of water before she looked over her choices in pregnancy tests. She felt sick thinking about this but she picked the one that seemed easiest and headed into the bathroom to do her thing. The worst part was going to be waiting and she walked back out into the living room to grab the other tests and drop them onto her bed as she paced back and forth.
Holly was young and she was sleeping with her boss, which was the worst situation to have this happen to her…to them. This kind of news could tank Aaron’s reputation and bring scandal to the team all over again while she could apply elsewhere and disappear quietly from his life. It was the only answer if that test did come up positive. He couldn’t even make this a real relationship with her yet. How would he handle becoming a father from some fling that he was having?
After the given time, Holly walked back into the bathroom and sat on the cold toilet before she picked up her future. She took a deep breath and stared at the two lines that would forever change her life, staring at them as tears slid down her cheeks. She knew that anything with Aaron was over to save his position in the world that he loved, leaving Holly to decide where to go from there. She could end it herself and pretend that nothing had happened, continuing to work but knowing deep inside that she could never face Aaron with that kind of knowledge inside of her head. Holly didn’t even think she could consider that by herself. She might have to get another position and move away to do this on her own, or find a way to make him think it was somebody else’s baby.
Any one of those choices broke her heart as she cried for the loss of the man that had made her trust again, curling her knees against her body as she sat against the wall. Aaron had become everything to her, so much so that she couldn’t hurt him and his job with this news. He’d gotten too far.
****to be continued as PART 3****
PART 3
CHAPTER ONE
Aaron left the restaurant with a grin on his face, pleased to have scored another sponsor for the team. Since their games had been all wins and things were looking great, they were starting to step forward.
At least that was working in his life. It wouldn’t leave his mind that he hadn’t seen Holly in a week though it had been a busy one for all of them. Three away games, practices and some meetings on his end as well. She had a few small injuries with the team that she was working out but he hadn’t really even talked to her. Aaron hated to admit it, but he missed her. He missed everything about her, pushing away the feelings that he knew were cemented within him even as he did it. It made him wonder too much about their future. He stopped at the curb on the way back to his apartment, slipping his phone from his pocket and glancing down at it.
Nothing from Holly. He decided to take a chance and wrote a text about the lunch as well as asking to see her. The light changed and he strode forward, making it to his house in twenty minutes without any response. He took the elevator up, feeling restless with his free afternoon as he changed into workout clothes and debated which gym to head to. He didn’t feel like being home and the silence from his phone was eating away at him. Aaron decided on the team one and left his place again to walk over, using his key to get inside and into the huge room, happy to see a few players doing their thing. No redhead though, making him feel bitter inside.
Aaron had always enjoyed an intense workout when he had things on his mind, particularly after his depression. He had found himself doing it more and more these days, missing the daily exercise of the game. Aaron knew that he had replaced it with Holly, making love with her every chance he got. He hardened at the memories of it, glancing around as he set his bag down against the wall. There was some hard rock playing over the speakers as everybody greeted him in cheerful moods, feeling the positive spirit of the team fill the room. He loved it.
Holly was on her computer when her phone chimed, researching everything that she could about a healthy pregnancy. She looked sadly at the screen, seeing a text from Aaron that would go ignored. She didn’t know what to say, though the team had been so busy that it hadn’t been an issue yet anyway.
She missed him. She missed talking with him, cuddling with him and her newly awakened hormones missed sex with him when she wasn’t feeling sick. Holly had no idea how she was going to handle that knowing fully well that she couldn’t imagine being with anybody but Aaron. She loved him but she needed to protect him. She returned to the page about nutrition that she had pulled up, making a grocery list as she looked over it. All of her energy was going into this baby and work, something she was trying to tell herself was a healthy thing. She heard the front door open and glanced over to see her roommate walk in with a bag from a nearby store. “Hi Lisa. Shopping again?”
“Just on the way home from meeting with a client.” Lisa replied walking over to Holly with worry etched on her pretty face. Holly had been honest with her about everything going on and Lisa had even met Aaron once at the apartment when they were closer to it than his, seeing how happy her friend was in the smile on her face. “I saw Aaron walking back. He looks unhappy, Hol.”
“I got a text from him. I need to make up an excuse as to why it’s over.” Her tone was sad and Lisa read the page closely, realizing that there was going to be a lot of good food in their kitchen soon.
“You could tell him about the baby as well,” Lisa suggested, looking at Holly as she glanced up. “I love that you’re into the health aspect of this, but all of the physical work isn’t going to help your head. I mean, you are keeping it and he should know too.”
“He loves hockey, Lisa. He’ll probably step down and he can’t do that. Aaron needs it in his life too much.” Holly told her stubbornly, her hand dropping to her stomach. “This little one is going to have two awesome moms here and my family will love the time that they get too. There will be holidays and all of that fun stuff.”
There was a lot that Lisa wanted to say, but this was new to her friend and she allowed her to keep thinking that was for the moment. She walked into her room to pull out her clothes and hang them up as she pictured Aaron in her mind. She had been jealous seeing Holly with him in a good way, because the man was gorgeous. He’d be snatched up in no time if Holly kept being insistent about not wanting all of this and she’d be really hurt. Lisa was aware that they both said it wasn’t that serious but they were clearly in love when seen together. Not to mention how happy his family would be about the baby.
The next day at work, Holly stepped into her therapy room as she sipped the orange juice that she seemed to depend on to get her through the day. One of the guys was having some leg pains that she was working on. Every step in this place made her think about Aaron and her body ran with the thoughts as she heated up uncomfortably. She pulled her loose curls up into a ponytail and wiped down the chair that she used quickly before he came in. Holly heard the door open and glanced up to see Walter enter as she forced a smile on her face. “I saw you come in. Shoulder?”
“Sit down.” He’d pulled it during the last game and she watching him sit down as she took another sip of the organic juice. He was dressed in a tee shirt for a workout and she pressed into his skin with her fingers. “You see Todd about this?” She worked closely with the team medical staff and all of the guys knew that nothing would get by either of them.
“It’s mild. Just a little muscle pull and it will heal. Don’t even suggest my staying out of the game because it isn’t happening.” Walter told her, making her laugh as she massaged him hard and deep.
“Such the cocky center you are.” She teased him back comfortable as her stomach rolled, realizing how hungry she was. He did too, chuckling.
“Did you forget to eat?” Walter tea
sed her and she grimaced as she thought back to how she was throwing up nothing over eating.
“I was sleeping too late.” Holly glanced at the clock on the wall. “Mike should be here in about fifteen minutes. I can grab something after that.”
“Want some company?” Walter offered and she accepted easily. Despite his arrogance on the ice, she really liked him as a friend. She finished him up before grabbing a banana from her bag to eat before Mike came inside. Walter stayed in to chat as she pressed against his leg, laughing sadly inside as she realized that she was surrounded by hot guys every day and not tempted by any of them. That was reserved for Aaron. She checked on the intensity of it, choosing to ice it today after she was done with the intense massage. “We’re going to grab some grub at The Diner. Want to join us?” Walter asked Mike, who agreed as she glanced up with a frown on her face. “Is that cool, Holly?”
“Yeah, of course. I was just thinking about something.” She smiled at them to make it seem like everything was fine even as her head started to hurt as the thoughts invaded her mind.
An hour later, Mike was ready for the day’s practice and she was starving. They headed out onto the street to walk the short distance to the diner as Holly felt her mood rapidly changing, hating this part of pregnancy. Holly remained quiet knowing that she’d let loose on her roommate a few times in this state before she’d fed herself. It wasn’t pretty.
