"Thank you, thank you." The bride reached her left arm out and wiggled her fingers so Chris could see the ring. He had to admit that it was impressive. "I've been planning this day since I was seven years old."
"What about you?" It had to be the alcohol talking because there was no way he just asked the brunette about her plans regarding marriage. This was the second time he talked to her. He shouldn't care about wedding plans. He didn't. And yet he couldn't stop staring. He realized that this was something he wanted to know. Or maybe he just wanted to hear her speak. "Do you have your whole wedding planned out?"
Peter smacked him on the arm. "You don't ask that on the first date, man," he said as though it was obvious.
"This isn't a date?" The brunette finally spoke, looking between Chris and Peter, a confused furrow in her brow. "Is it?"
"Don't listen to him," Cam said, leaning back in the booth and crossing her long legs. "The guy clearly has no idea what he's talking about."
Peter opened his mouth to counter the insult but nothing came out. Chris bit his lip to keep from laughing. This never happened to Peter. He always had something to say about everything. He was one of the wittiest players on the ream. While Kyle Underwood was known for being a pest just with his presence and his play, Peter had this ability to get under people's skin with his quick mouth. Maybe it was the beer that was slowing him down.
"Honestly, I never thought I would get married," the brunette said. She leaned closer to Chris from her seat. She had to shout so he would hear her but he appreciated that she did and found himself moving toward her as well.
"Oh, yeah?" Chris asked. "That's surprising. I would have expected someone like you to already be settled down by now."
"What does that even mean?" Cam asked. Now, she turned her attention to Chris. He could detect a protective undertone in her words. "Do women have a marriagable look?"
"That's not even a word," Peter pointed out.
"And you're barely a player but somehow, you have a Stanley Cup ring," Cam shot back.
"I apologize," Chris said, putting his hands up. "I didn't mean to offend."
"You have nothing to apologize for," Peter said.
"You didn't," the brunette told him. "My friend is just being protective." She hesitated, and even through the darkness, he could see a light pink blush cascade over her cheeks. "I was in a long-term relationship and we, well, we just broke up. So, to get my mind off of it, my friends took me here."
"Is it working?" Chris asked. He wished he had grabbed a beer before coming here. At least it would give him something to do with his hands.
"What do you mean?"
"Is your mind off of your breakup?"
"Oh." She tilted her head to the left then the right, as though she was thinking about it. "Yeah, actually. This is my first time here so I'm enjoying myself."
"She's on the rebound," Peter said, coming in close like he was going to tell a secret but instead shouting in Chris's ear. "This is your chance, man. Go for it."
"You're an idiot," Cam said. "We all heard you."
Peter flipped her off and she returned the gesture.
"I don't even know what he means by that, if I'm being honest," Chris said. "Listen, can I buy you all a drink? Whatever you want. To celebrate your impending nuptials? And I'll get you an extra shot because break ups fucking suck and you're in Vegas and why the hell not?"
Chris easily detected the hesitation in her warm, brown eyes. It almost seemed as though this wasn't something she did under normal circumstances and, for some reason, that endeared her to him even more.
"Sure," she said finally, nodding her head. Her brown hair spilled over her shoulders and she gave him what seemed like a shy grin. He felt his heart palpitate at the sight of it. "I'll take an extra shot. Vegas, right?"
Chris nodded in return.
Vegas, indeed.
When Natalie woke up the next morning, her head pounded. It almost felt as though someone was playing the drums and using the inside of her head as the instrument. She let out a groan, reaching up with her hands and clutching the sides of her head, but even touching it was painful.
There was no light in her hotel room, nothing that would have woken her up, which meant this was the pain.
“I knew I shouldn’t have drank so much,” she muttered to herself, shaking her head in frustration. That only made the pain worse and she groaned once more.
Slowly, she sat up in bed and threw her legs over the side. There was a soft purring sound that penetrated the silence hanging across the room, but Natalie figured either Drew or Cam snored. It wasn’t a big deal.
She needed to figure out what time it was, and, in order to do that, she needed to find her phone.
Natalie stood up and started to walk around the room. Each step sent a little shockwave to her head, and she tried not to focus on it, tried not to dwell, because it seemed as though that only made it worse. She bumped into the small coffee table that was placed next to the couch in the suites and she clenched her teeth together as an uncharacteristic FUCK came out of her mouth. She stopped what she was doing and reached up to gently touch her head with her fingers but that did little to relieve the pain and she still hadn’t found her cell phone.
Maybe one of the girls had it. Maybe Drew or Cam took her phone to prevent her from doing something stupid. Had she been willing to drink call Bruce? Maybe she was willing to drunk text him? Natalie didn’t know. She had never been this drunk before and she had never been cheated on either.
The snoring got louder and something shifted, as though the sleeper was turning in bed. Except, as Natalie listened, she realized that whoever this was did not have their own bed. The sound was coming from the bed she just got out of. Natalie furrowed he brow and let out a whimper. That was not the sort of gesture she should be making right now. Not with a throbbing head that did not seek to have any end in sight.
Someone was in her bed? It had to be one of the girls. Maybe they felt sorry for her and crawled in to offer her company after so she wouldn’t be alone. Maybe they didn’t trust her with not only with her phone but anyone else’s - including the hotel phone - so they did something drastic by sleeping with her to ensure that she wouldn’t do something stupid. She dropped her hands from her head and mentally scolded herself. Regardless, someone was in her bed. The fact that she hadn’t noticed before was completely unlike her and she couldn’t help but mentally lecture her carelessness. The last thing her friends needed to do was be her babysitter. They should have been out, enjoying Vegas and celebrating Celeste’s bachelorette party, not watching over Natalie because she needed supervision.
God, could she really be that selfish.
She groaned again.
What she needed right now was a hot shower. Maybe that would help. At the very least, it would wake her up.
She nodded to herself and padded over to the bathroom, pushing open the door and sliding inside. She was hit with the temptation of sitting on the cool, tiled floor and taking a quick nap. For some reason, the main part of the suite made her feel hit and uncomfortable. The bathroom, on the other hand, made her feel relaxed.
She reached into the shower and turned on the water before slowly undressing. It was only then that she realized all she wore was a button down shirt. She looked at herself in the mirror, trying to remember if she had even grabbed a shirt like this when she was packing. She didn’t think she had, and yet, here she was, wearing one. It must have been Bruce’s. He had a lot of these for work, and he liked to wear blue because it brought out his blue eyes.
But would she really have grabbed Bruce’s shirt. She grabbed the material and pressed it to her nose. It didn’t even smell like him. It smelled like cologne and sweat. The word she could best describe it was masculine, but Bruce was masculine in his own way. He just didn’t smell like this.
Natalie let it drop to the floor before sliding down her lacy black body shirts. This was the only pair of sexy panties she had and she wore them
during her first-ever night to Vegas. She was proud they got some use from her since she bought them a year ago and hadn’t worn them before. Maybe she should have. Maybe then, Bruce wouldn’t have -
But no. Bruce chose to cheat. If he had had an issue with Natalie, he should have communicated this to her way before now. This wasn’t her fault. This wasn’t her fault.
By the time she stepped into the shower, the steam fogged up the mirror and the room was nice and warm. The water hit her back in all the right places, matting her hair to her face. She used the hotel shampoo and conditioner to wash her hair, hoping to get the lingering scent of booze and cigarettes out of the locks so she could start fresh today. If she had to, she would delete Bruce’s number from her phone. She didn’t want to be tempted again. She didn’t want her friends to have to coddle her or keep a close eye on her, like she wasn’t capable of taking care of herself. She would enjoy the rest of the trip.
Once she finished scrubbing her body with soap and rinsing everything out, she turned off the water and wrapped the large, luxurious off-white towel around her body. Her hair dripped with water. She walked over to the mirror, noticing that her head wasn’t pounding as much but there was still a slight pulsating near her eyes. Instead of elephants stomping around in there, it was nice. She could live with that. All she needed was a strong cup of coffee and food and she would probably be all better.
Natalie wiped the dog from the mirror to inspect her appearance. Her eyes looked like they had bags underneath them - she wasn’t particularly happy with that discovery but she understood why she looked that way. Her cheeks looked a little shallow. She needed to eat more. This breakup business was killing her appetite and she didn’t want it to affect her overall health.
She rolled her shoulders back, stretching out the tension in them, and did the same to her neck. At that moment, something reddish-blue caught her eye and she leaned in closer to the mirror to see it. She tilted her head to the side and there, right there, was a small but nasty-looking bruise.
Natalie’s eyes snapped wide open. A hickey. Somehow, she had a hickey on her neck. Who would give her a hickey? And why? What happened last night? She tried to wrack her brain for answers but it was fuzzy and only caused her head to hurt even worse. She took in a deep breath before releasing it. She took another and then another until all of her anxious thoughts slowly disappeared - at least, for now.
Maybe Drew or Cam would know how she got the hickey. She didn’t want to wake them, however, so she would get dressed, find her phone, and grab breakfast before she asked them. That sounded like a good plan. It was something Natalie could do.
When she reached for the doorknob to get out of the bathroom, however, a flash of gold on her left hand caught her eye. She stopped herself from touching the knob and brought her hand closer to her face. There, on her ring finger, was a gold band with the biggest diamond she had ever seen. Why was there a goddamn ring on her finger? What the hell wad that about? Was this some sort of sick joke? Because if it was, she was not happy.
‘“You know how you keep yourself from thinking about getting together with your ex? You get married. You’re not the sort that would cheat on her husband. It’s the obvious condom.”
“Condom?” Despite the ridiculousness of the statement, Natalie couldn’t help but be amused by it.
Chris was more adorable than she realized.
“Yeah, you know.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Protection.”’
The memory took her by surprise, and after it finished, she was hit with a rush of pain. She groaned and clutched her head once more, trying the deep breathing. When it stopped, she stood back up. She wanted to pull the ring off of her finger, but she didn’t. Natalie didn’t know why she refrained but something inside of her wouldn’t let her remove it.
She couldn’t be...
There was no way she was actually married, right? This was a fake ring. When Chris said protection and to get married, even in her inebriated state, Natalie wouldn’t actually do that, right? She would buy a cheap ring that prevented her from actually going through with the deed. Yes, that was it. And, truth be told, it was a genius idea. Every time she looked down, she was confronted with the thing and she was instantly reminded what a skeazeball Bruce was and there was no desire to even consider returning to him. Granted, it wasn’t as though he indicated he wanted to get back with her, but that was besides the point anyway.
Her phone. She needed her phone and then she could get dressed and eat breakfast. Maybe once she had food in her, she would remember things more. At least her headache had eased up a bit.
She headed back into the room and noticed the sky turn a Misty blue. The sun was coming up and she could see patches of light on the floor, which gave her more light to see in the room. She paced quickly around the coffee table, by the television, and finally found it on the nightstand by the bed. How she hadn’t seen it before, Natalie wouldn’t know.
But, it didn’t matter. She had it now.
A loud snore interrupted her thoughts and her eyes snapped toward the bed. There was no way that snore had gone from one of her friends. No way.
It was still dark next to her bed but she did manage to make out a mop of blond hair spilling around a face. At first, she thought that was Cam but as she watched the body attacked to the head turn in bed, she knew it wasn’t.
Natalie stopped her phone in surprise, placing her hands over her hips as a gasp came out. No, definitely not Cam or Drew.
It was Chris.
He was in her bed.
Which meant the shirt belonged to him.
Natalie took another breath - she didn’t think she had deep-breathed this often in such a short amount of time - but she did. He was in her bed. Her eyes dropped to the floor. Her dress, his clothes from last night...
Okay, they had had sex. Natalie would have to schedule a doctor’s appointment when she got home because she couldn’t remember whether they had used protection or not.
Another deep breath.
It was fine. Everything was okay. She was entitled to sone fun after what happened with Bruce. She was allowed one one-night stand.
But what about the ring? Was it a fake? Had Chris gotten it for her as some joke or a tool to be used to forget about Bruce? And if he had, why wear it on that finger.
She needed coffee. Now.
She grabbed her phone, ready to text Drew and Cam to see if they were awake, but stopped herself. She nearly dropped the phone again. On her lock screen was a photo of her and Chris together, kissing. She wore white, he was in a suit. It almost looked like an actual wedding ceremony.
Her headache returned with a vengeance like a herd of stampeding buffalo and she dropped to her knees. This time, the breathing did not work.
Chapter 7
"Wake up." A grunt. Hands on his body, shoving him. "Come on. Wake up."
Chris scrunched his brow as he came to consciousness. Slumber slipped away from him and he tried to reach out a grab it, hoping to cling to it as best as he could. He was not ready to wake up yet. The season was over. He didn't need to be up early anymore. Who was forcing him to be up early? Who could be so cruel?
"Chris, right? I think." The voice was soft, feminine, and unsure. "I really need you to wake up. I have questions. Maybe you could answer them?"
"Are you on fire?" he mumbled, flipping on his side, away from where she seemed to be.
"Excuse me?"
"Are you on fire?" he asked again. "If you aren't, there's no emergency and I can continue to sleep."
"It is kind of an emergency," she said. "At least, I think it is. Hey, do you mind if I check out your left hand? There's something I want to see really quick."
Soft hands took his left hand and twisted it backwards. Chris bit his lip from yelping and adjusted his position so his arm wasn't turned awkwardly. He opened his mouth, ready to snap at her, when a vision of last night crept through his mind.
Her hands were soft as they traced his so
lid body, running up his torso, dragging across his abdomen. She seemed fascinated with the way he was built and he could not help but watch in awe as she continued to touch him innocently.
He could feel his cock tremble, and he had to restrain himself from ripping her lacy black bra into two, refrain from doing the same thing to her panties. He wanted to bury himself deep within her slick, wet walls and feel the way she clung to him. He wanted to feel those soft hands as they sank their fingernails into his back and pulled downward, leaving marks he could be proud of.
But he didn't. He waited. Because that feeling she gave him was something he hadn't ever felt before. Women had been excited to be with him, especially when they knew he was a professional hockey player, but it was almost as though they expected him to be this way.
Wedding Rings & Champions: A Slapshot Novel (Slapshot Series Book 8) Page 4
