“Tuesday late.” She heard more noises and a long string of obscenities from Cooper. “Hey, sorry about that. I need to knock a couple heads together.”
“Sure. Good night.”
“Yeah, sweet dreams.”
“They will be.”
She listened to the sound of dead silence and lay back on the bed with a sigh. She was getting in too deep with Cooper and his nephew.
This was so not supposed to happen. Each time she pulled away from him, life pulled her right back. He was too alpha, too controlling, too much of everything. His strong will butted heads with her need for independence. She couldn’t have that, no matter how much he attracted her. He’d smother her, she’d turn into a raging bitch, and they’d end up hating each other.
Only staying away from him wasn’t an option either—as stupid as it was.
* * * *
Something was off despite how hot the phone sex had been, but Cooper hadn’t been able to get to the bottom of it before the guys showed up. Izzy wasn’t telling him something, something important, and most likely something that would piss him off.
He’d pulled up his sweats at the first sound of the electronic key in the lock and thanked his good luck Cedric and the boys hadn’t arrived ten minutes earlier.
Cooper had been suspiciously panting when Cedric walked in with the dufus brothers in tow, which earned him a raised eyebrow from Cedric. Brick and Rush didn’t notice. They’d been too caught up in their latest scheme to pull a prank on one of the team’s top defensemen. Didn’t those two ever do anything without attempting to drag Cedric or Cooper or one of the other veteran guys into their schemes?
Brick balanced a box of pizza over his head and grinned at Cooper. Cedric just grinned as if he knew exactly what Coop had been doing and with who.
Cooper narrowed his eyes at Brick who was dressed in Hawaiian shorts and a bright orange tank that showed off his Playboy tattoo on one arm. On the other arm was a new tat of a goldfish or something equally lame.
Rush snatched the pizza out of Brick’s hands, dropped it on the desk, and dug in. Grabbing one piece in each hand.
Suffering from phone sex hunger, Cooper snagged a piece before it was all gone. Not bothering to chew first, talk later, he poked Brick’s tattoo. “What the hell is that?”
“Awesome, isn’t it.” Brick grinned proudly and flexed his biceps, making the fish grow bigger, like a bloated goldfish floating dead in a fish tank.
“It’s stupid as hell.” Cooper leaned in closer. The Space Needle was hooked in the fish’s mouth and a mountain suspiciously resembling Mount Rainier served as the background.
Rush pulled up his sleeve and revealed a matching tattoo.
“What the fuck?” Cooper scowled. The fish was a God damn Sockeye.
“All the guys got them to show our support for hockey in Seattle,” Brick said.
“And next year when they trade you, then what?” Cooper scowled. That was stupidest damn thing he’d ever heard.
“Doesn’t matter. Ve’re making history here. This is special. Ve are the first Sockeye team, and no matter where ve go or who ve play for, ve’ll always be Sockeyes,” Rush answered with his Russian accent thicker than usual.
Cooper rolled his eyes and tried not to gag. He stared harder. “What’s that empty space for next to the fish’s tail?”
Brick’s eyes lit up. “That’s for a picture of the Cup.”
“You guys are delusional.”
“Great confidence in your team, Cap.” Rush spit out some pizza accidentally and scooped it off the bed into his mouth.
“You’re disgusting.” He turned to Cedric who’d been oddly quiet. “Can you believe these idiots had Sockeyes tattooed on their arms, and we haven’t played our first regular season game?”
Cedric shrugged, not joining in on the razzing like Cooper expected. Cooper narrowed his eyes, suddenly suspicious. “No. Not you? You didn’t.”
The two idiots started laughing. Cedric shrugged and pulled up his sleeve.
“Ah, hell, you did.”
“Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“I’ll play my heart out on the ice, but I’m not putting any team’s logo on my arm until I win the Cup.”
“Everyone on the team did it but you,” Rush said, then backed up a few steps at Cooper’s murderous glare.
The guys gobbled up the pizza and rumbled out the door, leaving an empty box and the smell of cheese, tomato sauce, and pepperoni floating in the room.
Cooper threw himself back down on the bed. “How’d you end up with them?”
“My encore performance with the girls came to a crashing halt when I had to drag those two jokers out of bar before they busted some big mouth’s nose.”
Cooper nodded, fighting off a twinge of guilt. As team captain he should’ve been keeping those morons in line instead of having phone sex with Izzy. “Thanks for that.”
Cedric gave a small nod and stripped off his clothes, leaving them in a pile on the floor, he crawled into bed and turned off the light.
“I can’t believe you went along with the rest of the guys,” Cooper muttered, disgusted by his best friend’s betrayal.
“I like Seattle. It’s a beautiful city, the fans welcomed us with open arms, and I plan on being here a long time.”
“You do?” Cooper sat up and stared into the darkness at the lump on the next bed which was his former best buddy. They’d planned on staying together as long as possible because they had such great chemistry on the ice.
“Yeah. Ethan promised he’d make it worth my while.”
“So now he’s sucked you in?”
“No, he’s won me over. There’s a huge difference, and if you’d get beyond your stubborn ignorance and admit you’re wrong, you’d see what the rest of us see. I’m staying, Coop. With you or without you.”
Cooper grunted and rolled over in the bed, his back to Cedric. A few seconds later, Ced’s snores drowned out the traffic sounds on the street.
What started out as good night ended as a crappy one. Cedric betrayed him. He couldn’t fucking believe it. Ethan got to him, leaving Cooper the last man standing.
Well, he didn’t give a fuck. He’d be gone to sunnier pastures. These dumbshits could fight off the gray gloom all winter while he sported a tan year round.
Part of him recognized how unreasonable he was being, while the other, louder part didn’t give a shit. Disloyal bunch of ingrates. But disloyal to whom? Him? Definitely. The team? Not at all.
The part that bothered him was his own disloyalty to his current team. The old team didn’t need his loyalty. They didn’t exist anymore. His old city had moved on, and the handful of fans who mourned the loss of their team seemed few and far between.
Only Cooper couldn’t stay in Seattle, and no one could know why. It was his secret shame, his bad memories. He knew how unreasonable his behavior appeared. Hell, the fans had packed the stands for their first and only preseason game. They’d been noisy and rabid beyond what he’d seen in most arenas around the country unless that particular team happened to be a frontrunner for the Cup.
God. Those tattoos. Every member of his team sported those tattoos, while he, as the captain, hadn’t even known a damn thing about it. They’d done it behind his back. His team’s deception really stuck in his craw and twisted his gut. His fingers weren’t on the pulse of this team. For years, he’d been their heart and soul, the center of the team’s spirit. Now they were shutting him out.
He wasn’t sure how to take that.
But he sure as hell didn’t like it.
He was the team captain, dammit, and his team was keeping secrets from him.
The sooner he left Seattle, the better. This place held nothing but bad memories, except for Izzy.
Maybe he’d demand a trade during the season instead of waiting.
He knew they thought he was being a dick for hating Seattle as much as he did, that last summer he’d spent here haunted him. No one knew wh
at happened to him and his brother and sister as children. He’d never told his parents out of fear and later out of concern for his mother’s precarious health. That past lived in a tightly locked compartment, but living here ripped off that lock and brought back the pain, confusion, and guilt of a small boy. If only he’d confessed when it first happened, told his parents, done something, instead of shutting his mouth. Yet, his dad had been oversees, and his mom had been dealing with a flare up of Crohn’s disease. Not to mention the perceived threat hovering over him and his siblings. He’d only been ten years old.
Seattle was the one place on earth he swore he’d never live, and here he was in the shadow of the Space Needle, Puget Sound, and the Olympic Mountains, not to mention Mount Rainier.
Cooper squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to block out the memories, but his mind replayed those scenes over and over like a bad horror movie. He did the only thing he could do to distract himself from his past. He thought of Izzy.
Where did Izzy fit in his life? He wanted her. She wanted him. She’d never leave Seattle, and she wasn’t the type of forever woman he was looking for. She didn’t have the qualities his mother had, content to be in the background and concede control to his father. Izzy was so not a background person, and she needed to be in control as much as he did.
Despite the stupidity of it all, he wanted a temporary relationship with her, not just sex but also friendship because right now he could use a friend. He felt alone, separated from his team and disliked by his nephew—not that he blamed the kid. Regardless, he’d keep his distance, not wanting the kid to get attached to him and expect Cooper to be there for him. Cooper wasn’t that guy, and Riley needed to understand that.
Cooper’s life was hockey. He didn’t have room for any other number ones in his life, not Riley, not Izzy.
Maybe it sucked in some ways, but it was what it was.
He’d given his heart and soul to women too many times and been screwed. This Cooper was more mature, savvier, better at protecting his heart. This Cooper didn’t fall hard and fast for the wrong woman. He’d be damned if Izzy and Riley would suck him into a situation where he put himself out there only to have his heart chopped up in little pieces and fed to the circling sharks.
Nope, not him. He was smarter than that.
So why was he fighting so hard to get Izzy back?
Chapter 11—Off the Ice
Izzy stopped pacing long enough to check the clock on the dining room wall. It was past two AM on Wednesday morning. The team plane should’ve landed by now. Cooper would be walking through that door within the hour.
And then all hell would break loose.
She’d already paced a path around the dining room table, the kitchen island, and the big deck. At least she was getting some exercise. Izzy took her responsibilities seriously, all the more so when she was being paid good money to perform the task. At first she’d thought Cooper had overpaid her to find a “nanny” for Riley, but now that she’d been searching for an acceptable replacement for her aunt, she wasn’t so sure. Most nannies didn’t want to deal with a teenager or work around Cooper’s crazy schedule. Cooper would not be happy.
Izzy paced some more until she saw headlights from Cooper’s SUV coming up the driveway. A few minutes later she heard the door to the garage open and close.
She waited in the split-level’s retro foyer, wringing her hands and rehearsing one final time what she’d say.
Cooper opened the door connecting the garage to the rest of the house. He stopped in his tracks, his duffle swung over one broad shoulder, and that errant lock of dark hair brushing his eyebrow. He wore his travelling suit of black pants with a knife-blade crease and a black blazer. A light green dress shirt unbuttoned a couple buttons teased her with a view of that sprinkling of chest hair.
Maybe they could just hop in bed and forget about reality for a while.
“Izzy?” A slow, sexy smile crossed his face. Obviously, he thought he was going to get some tonight. The bad news she was about to deliver would wipe that smile right off his handsome face and most likely ruin any chance of an encore performance between the sheets.
“Cooper. I—uh—we have something to discuss.” It was best to get it over with now. Her carefully rehearsed speech retreated to the dark recesses of her mind and stayed there.
“Oh, yeah?” He grinned, misinterpreting her statement. “You want the real thing instead of phone sex?”
They’d had phone sex the last couple nights, and she did want the real thing. But first she needed to explain the “nanny” problem.
He shrugged his bag off his shoulder and let it drop with dull thud on the floor, followed by his jacket. With a confident smirk, he stalked her like a predator stalking its prey. She froze, a deer in his headlights so wanting to be his prey because the rewards would be oh-so awesome, but first her bad news.
He stopped six inches from her. Even though their bodies didn’t touch, heat radiated off him in waves, warming her body and wetting her panties. God, he was so gorgeous and so very male.
“I have it on good authority that in-person sex far surpasses virtual sex.” He didn’t touch her, just captured her gaze with his and wouldn’t let it go. His blue eyes darkened with promises of a carnal night of pleasure.
“I don’t know who that good authority is, but I love him.” She ran her tongue over her bottom lip, and he groaned.
“Dick. Dick is my authority.” He grinned at her, while his eyes smoldered.
“Ah, yes, I adore your friend Dick.”
“He’s led me astray a few times, but not on this occasion,” he chuckled.
“Dicks do that.” Izzy laughed, loving how his eyes lit up when he was teasing her. For just one night she could lose herself deep in those eyes and forget the rest of the world.
“Where’s Riley?” Cooper asked almost as an afterthought.
“He’s spending the night with his football coach’s son. They’ve become good friends.”
His grin grew wider, and she didn’t have to read his mind to know what he was thinking. “It’s just you and me.” He cocked his head in the direction of the stairs.
“And Dick,” she reminded him with a pointed look at the bulge in his pants.
“I love threesomes when Dick is the third party.”
“Dick’s always a party.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into him, deciding the nanny thing could wait. Oh, yeah, could it wait. “You’re a goofball.”
“So are you.”
“Takes one—”
“—to know one,” he finished for her.
The fondness in his eyes scared her while warming her insides as much as the lust, but lust she could handle just fine. All the emotional crap that came with caring about someone, trusting them, depending on them to do the right thing—that crap was what scared her. In Izzy’s world, the people who should care the most were the ones who hurt you the most, except for her sisters. Sure, they had their moments, but they’d take a bullet for her—even Avery despite her current unhappiness with Izzy.
Cooper, on the other hand, wanted out of the city she loved, the city that had been her home for her entire life, and he treated his nephew like an inconvenience at best. Sure, he was damn good in the sex department, but nothing else about him worked for her.
So why had she told him she’d give him a chance if he changed his controlling, jealous ways? Part of her didn’t think he could change; the other part wanted him to change. And what if he did? Then what? Where would they go with this? How long could it last considering their conflicting goals?
Before she could further analyze every detail of their relationship, his sinfully sexy mouth touched hers. He kissed her lips, starting in one corner and working his way to the other corner. The man could tease, and the man could kiss. Oh, Lord, could he kiss.
Nanny? What nanny? Right now she needed to get to know Dick a little better—maybe a lot better.
Izzy gripped Cooper’s shoulders and
lost herself in his smoldering eyes. Burning a deep blue, they peeled away layer after protective layer until she swore she’d bared her very soul to him or so it felt.
She didn’t bare her soul to anyone, not even her sisters, and definitely not a man. She was the child of free-spirit artists, and she’d learned a thing or two from them. She didn’t like to be tied down or held to anyone’s standards but her own. She did not need a man to make her complete, just to give her pleasure.
And if she just kept telling herself that, eventually the words might sink in.
Cooper was an uptight, play-by-the-rules guy who liked everything lined up neatly and planned out. He craved control, lived for it. As the eldest of the sisters, Izzy cherished her independence. Two people unwilling to relinquish control and trust each another were a recipe for failure. They were too much alike in a lot of ways.
Still, that didn’t mean they couldn’t have fun, and a lot of fun.
Cooper’s tongue slid along her upper lip, and she gasped. He took advantage, slipping his tongue inside, exploring her mouth with his lips and tongue. He paused long enough to suck on her lower lip and nip playfully.
Izzy clung to him, lost in his incredibly sensual kisses, and ready to do his bidding, at least in the bedroom. Elsewhere, not so much.
He picked her up as if she weighed nothing and carried her to the master bedroom, placing her on the bed. His handsome face split into a grin when he noticed some of her clothes draped across a chair and her suitcase near the door. One dark eyebrow spiked with smug amusement.
“Planning on staying the night?”
Now would be the time to tell him the truth, but Izzy didn’t want to ruin the mood. Tomorrow morning would be early enough.
She made a show of batting her eyes at him. “What do you think, big boy?” she asked in a sultry, forties’ starlet voice.
“I think this big boy likes you staying the night.” He lay next to her, brushing her hair off her face. His mouth turned up in a half-smile. “Good thing I slept on the plane.”
“Good thing I don’t work at the coffee shop in the morning.” Really good thing because if they both got their way, neither one of them would be sleeping tonight.
Crashing the Net Page 13
