***
“If Cage doesn’t close up the gap in that fucking corner over his left shoulder, they’re done. What is it with that spot for him?” Vlad was more heated about goalie moves than the rest of us, being that he was the former number one.
“Language!” Zoe reprimanded him as Crystal laughed at her father’s outburst.
“Sorry. Chances are you’re going to have to deal with it when I watch this kid play.”
I liked to listen to the games on the radio when I attended so I didn’t miss anything from the announcers, but I’d had about enough. I took out my ear piece long enough to engage Vlad in Cage’s defense. “Hey! That’s not fair. Cage has one of the best records in the league. He’s got an incredible goal against average. Be a little more supportive. I seem to remember you dumping some pivotal games, Vlad.”
Zoe threw back her head in laughter, and grabbed Crystal’s arm. “Oh, she’s so right. Your father had his share of screw ups. It’s par for the course. Being a goalie is tough—he’s just conveniently forgotten that part.”
“Yeah, fine. He’s doing a good job. Whatever.”
“The green monster rearing its ugly head again?” I liked Vlad, but that chip on his shoulder regarding Cage was a bit much for me to take at the moment. And I have to say, I was surprised my dear, sweet brother hadn’t uttered a word. “No comment from you, Jody?”
“Nope. Kid’s doing a stand-up job.”
My eyes about flew out of my head. “Are you serious?”
Lacey gave him a smile that promised untold treasures. He smiled back. “Yup. Good job.”
You know what? I didn’t care that Lacey was pulling Jody’s strings. It was a start.
With my ear piece back in, I listened to the play-by-play as I watched the action below. “And what do we have here?” The announcer was referring to Rush being put on the ice against the Coyotes’ top line. “They’re sending a message. Must have been that sneaky hit on Lambert. No one messes with the Scorpions’ captain and gets away with it.”
I couldn’t deny that Carl Rush was pleasing to look at. Okay, pleasing isn’t the right word. He was pretty damn hot. Not Cage hot, but hot enough for me to wish I was the kind of woman who would jump in the sack on the first date. My heartbeat quickened, and I sat on the edge of my seat as he dropped his gloves and tore off his helmet. I loved a good hockey fight.
Rush and Henrique circled round and round, each waiting for the other to make the first move. They were right in front of Cage’s net. Henrique had just gotten a hold of Rush’s jersey when Rush went down without either of them throwing a punch.
Cage’s stick went flying across the ice after Rush pulled it from beneath his skate.
“What the hell was that?” Vlad was on his feet again. I waved my hand to shush him so I could hear the radio better.
“Well, that’s a new one. It looks like Booker took down his own player! Surely he was aiming for Henrique, but none the less, Rush is down with no punches thrown on either side. Quite a waste of a five minute penalty, if you ask me.”
Zoe grabbed my arm and gasped. “He did not just do that.”
“Oh, he sure did.” I was shocked.
“I like this kid even more tonight.” Jody sat back with a smile on his face and nodded to me. I was sure it wasn’t surprising to find out that Jody didn’t like me going out with Carl any more than Cage did.
“Oh, shut up.” What was I going to do with him? At this point, I was wondering if it would be best to avoid Cage altogether. He was responsible for his own actions, of course, but I couldn’t in good conscience add to his irresponsible behavior. He was definitely a doer, not a thinker. And dammit, I had been feeling bad for him earlier.
The others were looking at me, eyes raised. “What? Maybe it was an accident.”
“Oh, God. Rush is going after Cage now. Coach is going to slay them alive.” Jody was standing now too in order to catch all the action, a wide grin on his face. Me? I covered my eyes.
“This can’t be happening. It’s the playoffs! They’re grown men.” I peeked through my fingers and saw Cage skating off and walking down the tunnel into the locker room, throwing his stick against the wall as he went. I sure didn’t blame the coach, but damn, I hated seeing Cage get pulled in such an important game. Guilt filled me. I should never have told him about my date. Not now, during playoffs. Why didn’t I just say no? I didn’t have a burning need to go out with Carl. What a mess.
I relayed what I’d heard the announcer say about the whole situation. “They said since the penalty against Cage would have been against his own team, the officials are letting it go. They’re sure Cage will, at the very least, be fined though, and possibly have a hearing with the disciplinary board, although I’m not sure about that. I’ve never seen anything quite like that.”
We watched the rest of the game, but my heart wasn’t in it. With a score of four-to-two, the Scorpions took the win without their number one in the net.
***
I was sitting on my deck enjoying a glass of wine when, once again, I saw Cage walking down the sidewalk in front of me. I wasn’t even sure if I was mad at him or not. Part of me wanted to be and part of me didn’t. Being angry took too much energy. Maybe I was a sucker, but I felt bad for him. Like I said, he had such a hard time controlling his anger.
“Hey.” He stood on the ground looking up at me. I don’t know how he could even see me in the dark of night.
“Hey yourself. You want to come up?”
“You’ll let me after tonight’s performance?”
“Yes, Dalton. I’ll let you.” I used his real name to lighten the mood. He thought it was funny now when I called him Dalton since it most often meant that he was in trouble.
“Uh oh, we’re back to Dalton again.”
After I let him in and he grabbed one of Jody’s beers out of my fridge, we made our way back outside to sit around the small table. When I went to put my feet up, I hit Cage’s leg. “Whoops. Sorry. I was trying to put my feet on the table rung.”
“Here.” He turned his chair so that he could grab my feet and put them in his lap. “How’s that?” His hands were gently squeezing and rubbing my stocking feet. Such strong hands.
Heavenly. “Great, thanks.” The more I was around Cage, the harder it was to want to stay in the friend zone with him. Every time he touched me now, I got tingles all over the place. From my head to my toes. It was more than just his looks. I genuinely liked him. A lot. Much more than was good for me.
“So, I wanted to apologize.”
Wow. That was not what I was expecting. The surprise must have shown on my face, because he looked up at me from rubbing my feet and laughed out loud.
“What? I know what I did was stupid and childish. Not to mention what it could have cost my team.” He paused to run a hand through his unruly hair. It stood up a bit on the sides and flopped over a little on his forehead. “I just …I lose my mind about you, Karen. And to tell you the truth, I don’t know what to do about it.”
“Cage, I—“
He held up a hand to halt my words. “Don’t. I know what you’re going to say and I understand. If I were you, I wouldn’t like a guy like me sniffing around either. I can’t deny the number of women I’ve been with. I can’t deny that I didn’t care about anything more than getting laid. I can’t deny that I didn’t respect most of them. Hell, I don’t know if I respected any of them. I get it. I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry, and I’m going to try harder to control my anger.”
I sat there speechless while I watched Cage rub and rub my feet. His hands were getting more forceful in his agitation.
“You’re such a good person, Karen. I like being around you. Seeing how you interact with people, how you genuinely care about them, makes me want to try harder to be more like you. I want to see the good in others that you do. I want to be open to that, and most of all I want to be the man you seem to think I am. And then maybe you’ll give me a chance. Do you thin
k you could ever do that?”
My brain was frozen. See here was the thing. At first I knew I was just a piece of ass to Cage, and I wasn’t going to go there. And that worked for a while, but then we got to be friends, and I found out how really great he was. Now, I felt like I would be willing to explore something more, but why bother? We both knew I had to leave in a short couple of months and Cage would still be here. I was afraid that he had the potential to break my heart. Maybe even shatter it completely. I was going to miss him enough as it was.
“Never mind. Your silence speaks volumes.” He gave my feet one last pat, finished what was left of his beer and placed my feet on the floor. “I’m going to go.”
“No. Wait.” I didn’t know what to say to him, but I didn’t want him to go on that note. “It’s not that I don’t think you’re worth the effort. It’s not even that I don’t think there could be something between us, but Cage, it just wouldn’t work. I’m leaving soon, you know? And I’m not a simple roll-in-the-hay kind of girl. You know I’m not.”
He walked over to me and kissed my forehead. “I know you’re not. It’s okay. I’m just lucky to have you as my friend.” It would have been so easy to lift my face up and let him kiss me—and it was so very tempting. But to what end? Everything I said was true.
Chapter 13
Cage
“Yeah! We did it, boys!” High fives and fist bumps went all around the locker room. It was mid-May and, after six games, the Scorpions were moving on to the Western Conference Finals to face Chicago.
I was yelling like a maniac and smiling wide, celebrating with my teammates in the locker room after the game. If anyone noticed that my emotions weren’t quite as real as my actions indicated, they didn’t let on. But fake it till you make it, right?
“Awesome fucking game, Booker.” Rush whacked my pads with his stick. I still couldn’t think about him without a burst of jealousy—and acute rage. I was glad I never heard the details of his and Karen’s date, but deep down I knew they hadn’t slept together. Karen wasn’t that type of girl, and I should have remembered that before I went off on her that night. But remember the motto—fake it till you make it.
“Thanks, Rush. Nice takedown on Schmidt.” Schmidt was what we called an instigator, but his instigating got a bit out of hand and cost us one of our top defensemen to a nasty boarding incident. Concussions were a tricky thing. There was no telling how long he’d be out, and we needed him.
“Yeah. He never even touched me. Well, except for his face on my fist! Fuck yeah!”
Rush bumped into our captain as he flitted about the room, chest bumping and smacking backs. “Celebrating with Karen tonight, Booker?”
“Nah. I’m a little sore tonight. I’m going to head home and hit the hot tub for a while.” I’d been avoiding Karen for the past few days. My thinking was that space would get her out of my head. I think I might be wrong about that working, though. So far, no good.
“No way, man. We’re going over to my place. Come with us. We have the whole day off tomorrow.”
The next round wouldn’t start for four days, so Coach gave us another rare day off. I was looking forward to it, and I wanted to start my time off now. “Thanks for the invite, but I think I’m going to call Kyrissa and see if she wants to join me in the hot tub, you know?” Fake it till …
“Kyrissa? I thought you were really into Karen.”
“She’s just a friend.”
Keith lowered his voice so that only I could hear him. “Come on, man. Come celebrate with your teammates. If you really want her there, Kyrissa can come, too. I’d like you to be there. Our team’s done great in the playoffs, but Cage—man, without you, I’m not sure we’d have made it this far.”
Wow. I was astonished by his admission. Keith was a strict believer and preacher of hockey being a team sport with no superstars. I guess my surprise showed on my face.
“Hey. It’s not something I would broadcast in the locker room, man, but we all know defense wins championships. And our defense starts with our goalies. You’ve been doing an unbelievable job, Cage. Come celebrate with your team.”
With Keith’s words, the shadows on my heart lifted just a bit. I felt …happy. Such a simple emotion, but there it was. Finally, some real, true acceptance and acknowledgment from my teammate—my captain no less. “Okay, Captain. I’ll be there.”
He smiled and turned to make another circuit around the locker room. I grabbed his arm before he could get away. “Thanks. It means a lot to me that you want me there.”
“Aw, Booker. You’re not getting soft on me now, are you?” He punched me in the shoulder as he walked away, and I couldn’t help feeling that yes, maybe I was.
***
Keith’s place was jumping by the time I got there. I’d taken a couple of minutes to stop by my place to give Charlie some love and restock my KitKat supply in the car. With playoffs being my biggest focus, I felt like I’d been neglecting my loyal chinchilla. That was me. Big, badass Cage.
“Hey! Great game, Cage.”
Karen gave me a quick hug almost as soon as I walked in. I had no idea she’d be there and my traitor of a heart did an actual flip. I had it bad. It was so much more than wanting to get my rocks off with her.
“Thanks. I didn’t know you’d be here. Is big brother here, too?”
“Nope. Just me. As an apology for being …well, himself, Carl invited me.”
Before I could voice my objection to her being with Carl again, she put her hand up to stop me. “We’re not having this discussion again, and not that it’s any of your business, but I’m not here with him. We’re just friends. I’m simply helping to celebrate.”
Nothing there I could object to. Her hands were empty, and I was on my way to get a beer so I asked she’d like to join me.
“Sure. I wouldn’t say no to a glass of Pinot.”
Girls and their wine. It seemed almost as important to them as, well, boys and our beer. I grabbed a beer and a bottle of white out of the fridge. I poured her a healthy glass of white and popped the cap off my Molson.
We were standing with a group of my teammates and their miscellaneous wives and girlfriends when Matty asked Karen what her plans were when she went back to Canada.
“Wish you could stay, KareBear.” KareBear? How the hell did he know her well enough to call her that?
“Me too, Matty, but it’s just too hard. I’ve looked at ways of staying, but the only way that would work for me right now is marriage. Want to get hitched?” She laughed and took a sip of her wine.
“Aw, KareBear. You know I would, but I’m Canadian, too. Wouldn’t do you much good.”
“Ahh, too true.”
“You know, Booker here is American. Good ole Texan boy, aren’t you?”
I didn’t bother giving him an answer. I wanted to know how those two got so chummy. “What’s with the KareBear thing? Is that your nickname or something?”
Matt answered first. “Nah. I help out now and then with Zoe’s misfit kids. I’ve seen Karen there a few times. She’s so sweet with the kids, the name just came to me.”
“Misfit kids? I’ll let that go since you’re so good to them, but pick a different way to describe them, would you?” She had a slight smile on her face, but I could tell she didn’t care for Matt’s description of the kids.
“Oh. The Big Sisters’ group?” I remembered hearing Zoe mention working with them before.
“Yeah. I’m sure you’d do great if you wanted to volunteer to help the Big Brothers, Cage.” She batted her eyelashes at me, most likely knowing I’d do just about anything for her.
“Anytime.” Anytime? What the hell did I know about being a big brother? Okay, I was a big brother, but that was just for Jaden. He was easy. I’d known him his whole life.
“I’m going to take you up on that.” She reached her hand over and gave mine a squeeze. “Thanks. You showing up will really mean a lot to those boys.”
And it was that easy. I wasn’t s
ure if there was anything I’d deny her. She was still holding my hand, so I gently rubbed her palm, and guess what? She rubbed the back of my hand in return. Could it be? Was she finally giving in to this attraction between us?
I tugged gently on her hand, pulling her along outside to the big deck looking out over the water. I continued to haul her behind me over to a dark corner that was blessedly empty. Without saying a word—and choosing to totally forget about our last conversation stating yet again that we were friends without benefits—I took her glass, set it down on the rail with my beer and pressed my lips to hers.
As soon as I did, I felt her hands on my chest. In anticipation of her shove, I loosened my grip on her hips, but low and behold—she dug her hands into my shirt and pulled me closer. Jackpot!
Not one to ask questions, I slowly and calmly led the kiss. My hands were still on her hips, and I gave her a tiny squeeze. I didn’t want to do anything to cause her to rethink her actions, but within milliseconds, my calm was shattered by the hunger in her response. She returned my kiss with abandon. Daring to risk it, I pulled back.
“How much have you had to drink, Karen?” I wanted her more than my next breath, but not if she was intoxicated.
“Including this glass of wine—half a glass of wine.” She then pulled me back in close and gave herself over to the passion of our kiss. When I was confident she wasn’t going to back away, my lips left hers to explore the soft ivory flesh of her neck. At the feel of the flick of my tongue, she moaned and lifted her head to give me a better angle.
“God, Cage. You make me feel so many things.”
“Good things?”
“Yes, good things and crazy things. I don’t know if this is right, but I’m tired of thinking about it. I’m tired of sitting home at night thinking about you. I don’t want to have any regrets when I go home to Canada. I just know that I like you—a lot, and I want to be closer to you.”
“I want that, too. Like you wouldn’t believe.” My lips had a mind of their own as they trailed over her delicate cheekbones, her deep pink lips, her rounded chin and then back to her neck which was still bared to me. I pushed my luck and went back down again, ever lower to press hot wet kisses on the swell of her breasts. I slid my tongue directly between them, drawing a delighted gasp from her parted lips as her hands cradled my head.
Cage's Misconduct (NHL Scorpions #3) Page 11
