Kings of Denver - COMPLETE BOX SET 1-4

by Sheridan Anne

  My heart begins to race. How the hell did this happen? Sophie continues laughing as she takes her phone back. I grab my own to find it filled with text messages and Facebook comments. I bring up the admin page of the Dragons and go about deleting the post. “There’s no point deleting it,” Sophie says. “It’s been shared too many times.”

  “Damn it,” I groan. “Do you know who posted it?”

  “Nope, you gave the login to nearly all the guys. Any one of them could have put it up. Besides, you were all pretty wasted, so I’m not sure the culprit even remembers doing it.”

  “How do you know we were wasted? Weren’t you busy meeting with your ‘friend’?” I ask.

  “I ran into a very satisfied looking Miller coming out of your room last night. Did you finally give it up to him?”

  What? Was Miller in my room? I think back over the night trying to put the pieces together. Crap, I threw myself at him after telling him about my relationship with Brett. Damn it, he probably thinks I’m damaged goods now.

  “No,” I groan. “I tried to but he tucked me in bed. Apparently, screwing me while I was drunk out of my mind isn’t his thing,” I explain. “But doesn’t matter anyway, I told him about Brett so he probably thinks I’m a loser.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, that guy is head over heels for you. Nothing you tell him could make him think less of you. I’m sure he probably spent his night trying to hunt him down.”

  “Would this be before or after Brett cornered him at Micky’s?”

  “Shit, you had an interesting night,” she laughs.

  “Sure did,” I grumble. “How’d your night go? You’re usually in bed until at least 12 on a Saturday,” I question.

  She lets out a confused huff and makes herself comfortable in my bed. “I sort of had a date,” she says.

  “Yeah, I figured, but don’t you mean booty call?”

  “What makes you think it was a booty call?” she asks, narrowing her blue eyes at me.

  I curl up into her side. “Babe, you’ve been my best friend for three years. When you come to me at ten o’clock on a Friday night saying you're meeting up with a friend, I know it’s for wild sex. Besides, apart from me, you have no girlfriends because they’re all whiny bitches which only leaves guy friends, who you only allow to be your friend if they come with the benefits.”

  “Damn, you know me far too well,” she laughs.

  “Sure do,” I tell her. “So, who was the lucky guy you faked an orgasm for?”

  “It was Robbie,” she says. “And I didn’t need to fake anything.”

  “What? Did Robbie finally figure out what to do?”

  She laughs. “No, I couldn’t go through with it,” she says.

  “What?” I screech. “What do you mean? You’ve never turned down a good screw in all the years I’ve known you.”

  “I know,” she whines. “It’s Tank. He’s ruined me. It’s like my pussy has made a home out of his dick and won’t accept anything else.”

  “Shit, babe, you’re falling for him.”

  “No, tell me I’m not. I don’t fall for guys, I love em and leave em.”

  “Sorry, Hun. Your pussy has spoken,” I laugh.

  “Damn it,” she groans. “So, what do we do now? I think we’re both screwed here.”

  “I’m going to stay right here and avoid Miller as much as possible while you go out and find Tank to put the poor guy out of his misery.”

  “That sounds like an awful idea,” she moans, burrowing her face deeper into my pillow. “I say we fake our deaths, move to Australia and never talk to them again. We can spend the rest of our lives living it up on the beach, getting naked with hot surfer dudes.”

  “I heard that,” Jared says as he walks past my room.

  “Shit, we’re going to have to take him out,” I laugh.

  “I’ll do it,” Sophie declares.

  Jared laughs from the kitchen and calls out to us. “Just make sure you cremate my body and let my ashes go at sea so I can spend the rest of eternity with sailors.”

  We spend the rest of the day, curled up in bed, nursing my hangover, debating different destinations that we could possibly use to start our new lives.

  ---------

  “Sophie, Danielle,” Professor Whitaker says as the bell indicating the end of class sounds. “Can I see you both for a moment?”

  We give each other a brief look and shrug as the class begins to clear out. We make our way down the stairs and wait by her desk as she finishes collecting her notes.

  She makes her way over to us and puts her things down on the desk. “I just wanted to commend you both for the work you’ve done on the assignment so far. The article you submitted was fresh and exciting, and worked in favor of drawing a new crowd whilst simultaneously keeping the regular fans appropriately updated.”

  “Thank you,” we say in unison.

  “I heard some good things from Coach Harris. He’s quite impressed, and apparently your efforts have already created a positive effect on restoring their reputation. I believe he’s quite taken with you both.”

  “Really?” Sophie scoffs. “He certainly didn’t give us that impression.”

  “Oh?” she laughs. “You know how these athletic types are. Coach Harris is certainly no exception to that,” she comes around the side of her desk. “He mentioned you were selling a calendar?”

  “Oh, yes,” I say, pulling my phone out and showing her a few of the promotional images I have.

  “Wow, you seem to be taking this assignment quite seriously. Do you mind if I ask which venues you’re using to promote this?” she asks as she flicks through the images.

  “Well, we created a Facebook page for the Dragons and have managed to get quite a following, so we’ve posted about it there and on their website, then we set up a stall at their game,” Sophie explains.

  Professor Whitaker hands my phone back to me. “Excellent work,” she encourages. “What do you plan to do with the proceeds?”

  “We aren’t too sure yet, but we believe Coach Harris would like to donate it to the Denver Youth Hockey Program, we’ll probably award it to them at one of the games,” I tell her.

  “I think that would be a fantastic idea, maybe you could invite some of the children to come and skate with the Dragons,” she suggests, leaning against her desk. I see the excitement in her eyes and realize she loves this just as much as I do.

  I get into a lengthy conversation with her as I bring forward all my ideas and plans for the next few months. She goes through all the pros and cons with us and I eat up her advice.

  “I won’t keep you any longer,” she says. “I’ve got a heap of work to get through.”

  “Ok, sure. Thank you,” Sophie says as I give her a grateful smile.

  “I look forward to your next article,” she says as we exit the room.

  We make our way out into the hallway giving each other smug expressions. Yep, were killing this assignment. Sophie hands me her bag and pulls her hair up into a bun, high on her head. “So, what do you say we do for the afternoon? Head to the gym? Lounge out watching a movie? Or perv on the guys?” she grins.

  “Um… do you even have to ask?” I smirk as she breaks into laughter. We head over to the ice rink and sneak in through the side entrance before quietly make our way up the grandstand. We take our seats and I glance down to the ice, smiling as my eyes land on Miller and taking in the way he dominates the ice.

  Tingles take over my body, the same way they have done every time I watch him skate. He’s amazing, there’s simply no other way to put it. He glides across the ice like he was born to lead that team. He rushes forward with his hockey stick in his hand and effortlessly steals the puck off another player and shoots it forward. My eyes follow the puck as it sails through the air, past the goalkeeper and slams into the netting of the goals.

  The need to jump up and cheer for him crashes through me, but I do my best to reign it in. As if sensing my gaze on him he turns and looks
up into the grandstand, his eyes instantly find mine. He gives me a smug, wicked grin and gets on with his training.

  I haven’t seen him since I drunkenly attempted to seduce him on Friday night and I’ve got to be honest, I was sure he was avoiding me, but there’s no way after the look he just gave me. God, just thinking about it does all sorts of things to me.

  “They’re so sexy when they’re training,” Sophie sighs from beside me.

  “I know,” I reply, equally as dazed by the scene unfolding before me. He’s like a God on the ice, as fast as lightning and lethal, you wouldn’t want to get in his way. He draws the attention of the room, whether it’s on the ice or at a party, and damn him, I am no exception to that. I’m the moth and he’s the flame.

  Sophie giggles beside me and I follow her gaze down to Tank who’s got Jaxon by his ankle, dragging him across the slick ice with a childish grin plastered on his face. Coach Harris roars his disapproval as the rest of the team work together to bring Tank down.

  “You sure about this whole Tank thing? I mean, it’s not too late to back out,” I joke. “We could hijack the funds from the calendar, make our great escape and be sipping cocktails at Bondi by tomorrow afternoon.”

  “Fuck, that sounds good,” she muses then smirks. “But so does stripping him naked and blowing his mind.”

  Oh geez. She has it bad.

  Forty minutes later, Coach wraps up the training session and sends the boys to the locker room.

  “Let’s get out of here before they want to talk about their feelings,” Sophie says.

  “Done,” I laugh as we hastily make it out of the arena before it’s too late and were doomed to face reality.

  We walk home, stopping to grab a coffee on the way when a bouquet of flowers greets us at the front door.

  “Please be for me,” Sophie says reaching down to pluck the card from the top. Her face falls when she reads my name. “Here,” she grumbles handing it over.

  “What? There for me?” I ask, taking the card and flipping it over to find it completely blank.

  “Who’s it from?” Sophie asks as she picks up the flowers and heads inside.

  I follow behind her. “Don’t know, there’s nothing on the card, but I have a pretty good idea,” I tell her, knowing there’s only one man in my life at the moment.

  We head into the kitchen and I get busy arranging the flowers in a vase. I take a quick photo and open a new text to Miller

  Dani – Thanks…?

  Miller – For what? Where did you disappear to? You’re not avoiding me, are you?

  Dani – The flowers? And no, I’m not avoiding you at all ;)

  Miller – Go out with me?

  Dani - …

  Miller – I’m not going to hurt you, Dani.

  Dani – I’m starting to see that.

  Miller – Good.

  Miller - By the way, I’m going to kick the guy’s ass that’s sending my girl flowers.

  Chapter 12

  Miller

  It’s three weeks into the season and we’re killing it. The Dragons are absolutely kicking ass, and of course, we remain undefeated. Coach Harris is doing an amazing job busting our balls every training session and clearly, it’s paying off. The championship is ours this year.

  I turn off the shower and wrap a towel around my waist as I head back into the locker room after yet another brutal training session when I hear Dani’s voice coming from outside the door. “Are you all decent in there?” she asks.

  The boys all murmur a ‘yeah’ even though the majority of them are as undressed as I am. She pops her head into the locker room and rolls her eyes at the state of my men and groans. Sophie, however, doesn’t give one single fuck, she strolls right past her and makes herself comfortable on a bench.

  Dani follows behind and catches my eye, immediately looking away from my wet body. I smirk as I watch her clench her thighs together, trying to relieve the ache between her legs that she knows only I can relieve. It’s been weeks since I last tasted her and fuck, I would do anything to get back between those perfect legs again.

  God, this woman is driving me crazy. The need I have for her grows more intense every day and I know without a doubt that I’m beginning to fall for her. If only she would come to her damn senses and let me in. She is mine, hell, even the boys know she’s mine and I’m pretty damn sure she knows it too, she’s just too damn stubborn to admit it.

  “To what do we owe this pleasure?” I ask, forcing her eyes back to me.

  She smirks when she realizes I’ve noticed her clenching thighs and her obvious need for me. “I, ah, kind of had an idea I wanted to pitch to you guys,” she explains.

  “Go on,” Tank says cautiously, after all, her last idea ended up with us all naked in a calendar, that I’m pretty sure Tank’s mom ordered.

  “Well, with the calendar doing so well, we wanted to keep the interest going. So, how many of you guys are single?” she asks.

  All the guys raise their hands apart from me and Tank. Dani’s eyes narrow curiously on me, clearly trying to figure out why the hell my hand isn’t raised. I give her yet another smirk and hurt flashes behind her eyes as she looks away. Her eyes lock on Sophie’s and they grin at each other, the wheels in their heads spinning with whatever idea they’re about to hit us with.

  “Let’s hear it,” I say.

  “We’re going to auction you off,” Sophie grins as the guys start cheering around us.

  “Care to clarify?” Tank asks.

  “Well,” Dani says, stepping forward to make sure they can all hear. “For those of you who are single,” she starts, giving me and Tank a hard stare. “And as long you’re comfortable with it, we’re going to hold an auction where the highest bidder can win a date with you,” she explains. “All proceeds will be added to the funds that will be donated to The Denver Youth Hockey Program.”

  The boys cheer once again when Jaxon ask about the kind of date he’s going to have to take this girl on. “I don’t care what you do on your date as long as you show them a really good time,” she says. “Oh, but you can’t sleep with them, or have any sexual relations while on the date.”

  “What?” they all protest.

  “Your dates would have paid for your time. If you flop your dicks out or perform any sexual favors, that is technically prostitution. If you’re that interested, take her home and ask her out for the next night, take her on a proper date,” Dani says. Far out, this woman makes sure all her bases are covered.

  “So, what kind of women are going to be at this auction?” Shorty asks.

  Sophie grins and meets him right in the eye. “Who said it would be just women invited to bid?” she says with an evil smirk.

  “What are you trying to say?” he asks.

  “The auction is open to all students on campus. We wouldn’t want to discriminate against anybody by closing the auction off to women only,” she tells us, still with a smirk as she enjoys breaking the news to the boys.

  They all groan in protest but agree to be auctioned off, knowing it’s for a good cause and for our own reputation.

  The girls go to leave and I follow them out in my towel. I gently take Dani’s elbow and turn her to face me as we stand out in the hallway.

  “What are you doing?” she gasps. “You’re practically naked.”

  I roll my eyes at her nervous worry. “Its fine, the ice rink is closed for the next few hours, nobody but you and the boys will get the pleasure of seeing my naked ass,” I tell her.

  She tries her hardest not to smile as her cheeks flush. Unable to stop myself, I reach up and run my fingers across her soft skin. Her face melts into my palm and I pull her closer, leaning in and inhaling her addictive scent. “Go out with me?” I whisper.

  She leans back out of my hold and watches me curiously. “But you just admitted in there that you’re not single,” she tells me.

  “I know,” I smirk, reaching out for her once again. “Because I’m not. I’ve got a girl, she j
ust won’t admit it.”

  She glances away, but I catch the faint smile on her lips. I wrap my fingers around her jaw and bring her face back to mine. “Go out with me,” I say once again but this time it’s not a question.

  She takes a deep breath and searches my face and sighs. “You can take me to dinner, but it’s not a date,” she demands.

  I grin back at her, relieved she’s finally letting me in and giving me a chance to break down her walls. I drop my hands to her waist, pull her body hard against mine and smash my lips down on hers. She kisses me back eagerly as if she’s as hungry for me as I am for her.

  I pull away, leaving her wanting more. She gasps at her suddenly empty mouth and does her best to right herself. Her heated eyes lock on mine as I hold onto her tightly. “Fuck, it’s definitely a date,” I tell her, dropping my hands and heading back into the locker room before she has a chance to take it all back.

  I find Tank as soon as I walk in, dressed and ready to go. “Where the fuck did you go?” he says, eyeing me still in my towel.

  “Just got myself a date,” I smirk.

  His face lights up in understanding. “Fucking A,” he cheers, reaching up and giving me a high five as I pass by him.

  I get myself dressed, pack up my shit and head home with Tank hot on my heels.

  ---------

  “Cain,” Coach says as he makes his way into the Locker room. “Great game.”

  “Thanks, Coach,” I say with a nod as the boy's cheer and chant around me for yet another victory to add to our belts.

  “As for the rest of you, it was sloppy, we barely got by. I saw far too many suicide passes, it’s no wonder Jaxon got body checked. I expect more. I’m scheduling an extra training session this week, so be prepared and keep checking the notice board for session times,” he explains. The boys groan but after a sharp look from Coach, they snap right back into their celebrations. “Get out of here,” Coach orders.

  The crowd waiting for us on the other side seems to have doubled over the last few weeks and I know that is solely because of Dani and Sophie making us look like the Gods we pretend to be. I push my way through the crowd, getting slaps of approval on the back as I search out the one face that I desperately need to see.