Team Player

by Adriana Locke

  “It really is,” Alec agreed, earning him a smile from her that had me glaring at him. If it’d been Jason, I wouldn’t have cared as much since he was happy with Cee-Cee. But Alec was as single as I was and if anyone as going to be in Tamara’s good graces, I wanted it to be me.

  “With you running the drills, I’m sure we’ll figure it out,” I assured her.

  “Uh huh,” she hummed, giving me a doubtful look before smiling at the rest of the team. “That’s all for now, guys. As long as your coach doesn’t need you for anything else, you’re free to go and I’ll see you again tomorrow.”

  Coach gestured at the door leading to the locker rooms, and my teammates took that as their cue that practice was done. While they headed to the bench to grab their equipment, I skated towards Tamara. Coach shook his head as he passed me and mumbled, “Good luck with that. You dug yourself a deep hole there, Forrester.”

  He was right, but in my defense we mouthed off to each other on the ice all the time. We didn’t mean anything bad with the jabs we took at each other; not really. And I’d intended for mine to be aimed at my rookie teammate. Not Tamara. I just needed to make her understand that.

  “Look, Tamara—”

  “Do you call your coach by his first name?” she asked, cutting me off.

  “Sometimes.”

  “Just because you’ve seen me naked doesn’t mean it’s okay…” She paused and looked at me with confusion clear in her wide brown eyes. “Wait. You do?”

  “Yeah.” I glided a couple of inches closer to her. “I’m not calling you Tamara as a sign of disrespect.”

  “Are you sure about that?” she asked with a hint of challenge in her tone.

  Coach had definitely been right to offer me luck. I was starting to wonder if the hole I’d managed to dig for myself was too deep for me to get my way back out of it. It figured my fucking mouth would screw over my chances with the woman who’d killed my ability to get a boner for anyone else.

  I was willing to admit that I’d been an idiot who hadn’t bothered to look much beyond a woman’s appearance when it came to who I slept with. I hadn’t been interested in anything more than a night or two of fun, and they never bothered to get to know me beyond the fact that I was a pro hockey player, so it seemed like a fair trade. But after seeing for myself how having Cee-Cee in his life had made Jason both a happier man and a better hockey player and the way I couldn’t get Tamara out of my head, I’d started to rethink my view on relationships. Only it hadn’t done me much good when I’d had no idea how to find Tamara since I hadn’t even known her last name.

  If only I’d pulled my head out of my ass back in Anaheim and treated her like more than a one-night stand. She was worth way more than a night or two of my time, and that was before I knew she was an accomplished athlete in her own right. A hot as hell one who was as comfortable on the ice as I was. And she wasn’t willing to take shit from anyone, including me. For a guy who was used to women agreeing with just about anything and everything I said, no matter how ridiculous, it was a nice change of pace. Except for the part where she was pissed at me and didn’t care that I knew it.

  “Yes, I’m positive.” Her stance relaxed a little. “It fits you perfectly. A beautiful name for a gorgeous woman.”

  “Really? Do you really think I’m going to fall for your lines again?” she sputtered, shaking her head. “I’m your power skating coach; not some woman you’re trying to pick up in a club. Again.”

  “Shit,” I muttered to myself as she skated away. She was already through the door leading to the visitor’s locker room before I started to follow. I cursed myself for being too slow. And for managing to fuck up with her yet again.

  Chasing her into the locker room she was using would be an even dumber move, so I grabbed my stuff off the bench and headed into mine instead. After I set my stick against the wall, I shoved my helmet and gloves onto the top shelf, snagged a cold bottle of water off the table in the middle of room, and dropped down onto the bench. I stared down at my skates for a moment before I bent over to unlace them.

  “How’d it go?” Jason asked quietly from his spot next to me. Not that it did any good because the guys were worse than a bunch of bored high school students when it came to gossip.

  “How did what go?” Alec asked from my other side, his gaze shifting between Jason and me as he undid his shin guards. “Wait. Are you really going to try to go there with her even after the shit she heard you say?”

  “Are we even allowed to go there? I mean, technically she’s one of our coaches. There’s got to be a rule against it, right? Not that she isn’t worth breaking a few rules. She’s hot as fuck,” one of the forwards chimed in from the other side of the locker room.

  “Shut the fuck up about her,” I growled.

  “Shit. She’s not another one of those chicks that you guys don’t even want us to look at, is she? Like Alec was with that PT who ended up getting engaged to his brother?” our starting goalie asked.

  “Or her best friend, the hot redhead Campbell’s dating?” the backup goalie added.

  “Wait. We can call dibs on chicks?” one of the rookies asked.

  “The only thing you can call dibs on is your jock strap, at least until after you’ve paid your dues just like the rest of us had to do,” Alec answered before he turned his attention back to me again. “But the question remains, are you claiming her?”

  Considering how pissed I’d been when Tamara had given him even a hint of her approval, the answer was obvious. “Yeah, I am.”

  “Dude, you don’t have a chance in hell with her,” he chuckled. “But at least you don’t have to worry about one of us stealing her away from you. We’ll be too busy watching you go down in flames to hit on her ourselves.”

  “Fuck off,” I muttered as I stripped out of the rest of my gear and headed for the showers. I cleaned up and got dressed in less time than usual for me since the guys kept on giving me a hard time about Tamara. Nothing they said crossed the line since it was all aimed at making fun of me and how she wasn’t going to look at me as anything more than another skater on the ice while she ran us through drills. Little did they know I’d been inside her and planned to remind her how good it’d been between us before.

  As I was putting on my jacket, Jason came up next to me and grabbed my shoulder. “Don’t let them get in your head.”

  “What if they’re right?”

  He squeezed his hand tight before dropping it. “It’s not like you to be uncertain around women. You’re usually so confident, you’re basically cocky.”

  “Yeah, well, being cocky is only going to do more harm than good when it comes to Tamara,” I sighed.

  “Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Now’s not the time for it. Not if you want to get the girl. Learn from me and all the months I missed with Cee-Cee, man. Go after her. Now,” Jason urged.

  I hadn’t missed as much time with Tamara as Jason had with Cee-Cee, but it’d been enough for me to know good advice when I heard it. “Fuck,” I groaned. “You’re right.”

  I raced out of the locker room and pounded on the door down the hall. When she didn’t answer, I pushed the door open and groaned when I saw that the lights were all off. Turning swiftly, I raced down the corridor to the exit that led to the secured parking lot for the players in back of the arena. I was just in time to see an unfamiliar car drive past with Tamara behind the wheel. “That woman is too damn good at disappearing acts. It looks like I’m going to need to get faster off the ice as well as on it if I want to catch up to her.”

  Chapter 4

  Tamara

  When I spotted Ryan as he shoved open the rink door, I was doubly glad that I’d been able to get out of there as quickly as I had. Coach had slowed me down a little bit to give me directions and keys to the apartment the team had lined up for me. Between having a place to stay and a rental car to get around without having to depend on public transportation or an Uber, it was almost like being home. Except for th
e hot-as-heck hockey player, who’d been haunting my dreams for months, staring at the back of my car as I’d pulled out of the lot.

  After the way I’d shot him down on the ice, I hadn’t expected him to try anything again. I was familiar with guys like that—athletes who thought they were God’s gift to every woman they met. They weren’t used to women saying no, especially one who’d foolishly said yes before, so it sometimes came as a shock. But their interest quickly waned since there always seemed to be a never-ending supply of other women to take your place if you weren’t interested. I’d spent most of my life in rinks surrounded by them; which was probably why my mother continually complained to me about my lack of a dating life. The guys I met weren’t boyfriend material so I usually wasn’t interested enough to give them a chance...except for that one time with Ryan. But then I’d freaked out when I woke up because one-night stands weren’t my style, and I wasn’t sure how to act around him after the night we’d spent together. And that was before I’d known he was a professional hockey player.

  My brain knew that Ryan was no different than other guys who played off the ice just as hard as on it, but damn if my body would listen. When my gaze locked with his in my rearview mirror, my stomach clenched in a way that reminded me of how I felt before a race. I was filled with those excited nerves at the anticipation of what was about to happen; which was ridiculous in this situation since nothing beyond what’d already happened was going to develop between Ryan Forrester and me except for a professional relationship on the ice.

  It wasn’t like I was even going to see him outside of the power skating sessions I ran at the rink. Something that was probably for the best because it meant I had a good eighteen hours before I had to face him again—plenty of time to get over my reaction to seeing him again. Or at least that was the pep talk I gave myself as I stopped at the nearest grocery store and grabbed enough stuff to tide me over for a couple of days until I had the energy to do a full shop.

  By the time I made it to the apartment complex, I was almost ready to drop from exhaustion. Jet lagged wasn’t strong enough to describe how I felt. Between the time difference, arriving a day late and having to head straight to the rink, running the power skating session with the guys, and the shock of seeing Ryan again; my body was running on empty. I needed a hot meal followed by about a dozen hours of sleep, but I was going to have to settle for a huge sandwich and a solid eight in bed.

  “Maybe I’ll have time to stop somewhere for breakfast on the way to the arena in the morning,” I mumbled to myself as I hefted the two grocery bags, my suitcase, and carry-on out of the trunk of the rental car. I tried to knock it back down with the arm holding the groceries, but the damn thing wouldn’t cooperate. “Shit.”

  I bent down to set them on the ground, and when I popped back up a male hand was shutting the trunk for me. I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I was startled enough to yelp before I dug in my purse for the mace my mom insisted I carry whenever I was traveling. It was gripped in my hand, still in my purse, when I recognized the voice of the man telling me to calm down. My head jerked up and met familiar hazel eyes.

  Ryan held his hands up in a non-threatening gesture. “Fuck, I’m sorry for scaring you. I was getting ready to head over to the building”—he dropped his hands and jerked his chin in the direction of a silver Porsche SUV parked a few spots down from my rental—“and saw you struggling, so I figured I’d come over and help.”

  “What’re you doing here?” I asked him suspiciously. “Did you ask your coach how to find me? Because if so, you shouldn’t have bothered. We don’t have anything we need to talk about off the ice, and I’ll see you at the arena tomorrow.”

  “I’m guessing Coach didn’t tell you?” he chuckled, the raspy sound sending shivers through me even though it couldn’t mean good things for me.

  “Tell me what?”

  “A bunch of the guys live here.”

  “Including you?”

  “Yup.” His lips tilted up in a small grin.

  I wanted to bang my head against the car for jumping to the wrong conclusion, and then sharing it with him. “Sorry about that. I shouldn’t have assumed that you followed me here.” It went without saying that a guy like him didn’t need to chase down a woman, especially ones he’d already slept with before.

  “No worries. It’s not like I can be angry with you after how I managed to keep shoving my foot in my mouth in front of you earlier today. Right?” His hazel eyes twinkled with humor as his grin turned into a full-fledged smile. “And I’d be lying if I said I’m not thrilled as fuck that you’re going to be my neighbor since it’ll make it harder for you to stick to that whole spiel about how we’ll only see each other on the ice.”

  My cheeks filled with heat, and I shifted my carry-on strap on my shoulder because I wasn’t sure how to respond. Things were a lot more complicated now that I knew he wasn’t just a player I’d see on the ice during power skating sessions. He was an insanely hot guy I was still attracted to who I was bound to bump into off of it as well. One who was apparently going to use every opportunity he got—both on and off the ice—to flirt with me.

  “Here, let me help you with that,” he offered, grabbing the handle of my rolling suitcase and lifting the grocery bags off the ground.

  “Thank you.” I had years of my mom jamming manners into my head to blame for instinctively offering him my gratitude when a big part of me wanted to yank my stuff out of his grasp and run for my apartment. Wherever it was. Jackass Ryan was easy—okay, fairly possible—to resist. Polite Ryan? Not so much.

  “Which unit are you in?” he asked

  I told him the number his Coach had given me and walked next to him as he led me to the building nearest us.

  “If they got you an apartment, does that mean that your contract with the team is long-term? Coach didn’t mention how long you’d be with us when he told everyone about you.”

  “Probably because you guys were too busy whining about the idea of having a girl teach you how to skate,” I joked...sort of.

  “I’m sure you’re right,” he agreed as he unlocked the door to the building and held it open for me. “And I’m sorry for my part in it.”

  “Thanks.” And there went my mom’s deeply ingrained manners again. “And yeah, I’ll be here until the end of the season, however far into the playoffs you make it.”

  He nodded as he pressed the button to call the elevator. “It’s a good thing they set you up with an apartment here. It’s a popular location for those of us without families to worry about because it’s an easy drive to the arena and there’s a great workout room a lot of us use during the off-season. Plus, most of the units have a Jacuzzi tub in addition to a walk-in shower.”

  We stepped onto the elevator, and I let out a little involuntary moan at the thought of a hot bath in a Jacuzzi tub with the jets going at full power. The doors closed behind us, shutting me in with Ryan. His heated gaze dropped to my lips, and the elevator suddenly seemed much smaller than it really was.

  Chapter 5

  Ryan

  Fuck, I wanted to hear that whimper she made again.

  Repeatedly.

  While naked.

  In my bed.

  Not fully clothed in this damn elevator while she was thinking about the fucking Jacuzzi tub in her place that was bound to be an exact match for mine. A tub I wasn’t going to be able to look at without picturing her in it. Just thinking about it made me hard as fuck. I adjusted myself when the doors opened before I followed her off the elevator.

  “Which way?” she asked, with a glance over her shoulder towards me.

  If it’d been a split second earlier, she would have busted me with my hand on my cock. It would have been another strike against me—one I didn’t need if I wanted the chance to ever see her naked again. Schooling my face into an expression that I hoped was at least semi-innocent, I jerked my head to the left. “Your unit isn’t too far down. This one’s mine.”

  I r
eleased the handle of her suitcase and rapped my knuckles against my door with a smile on my face. It’d be virtually impossible for her to avoid me from such a close distance. But as I snagged the handle and moved past the apartment between hers and mine, my good humor quickly vanished. “And there’s a fireman in between us,” I grumbled. A single fireman. Hell, at least three quarters of the complex was filled with single guys. Firemen, cops, hockey players...this place had ‘em all. Something that I’d never minded; not until Tamara moved in.

  “A fireman, huh?” she echoed with a gleam in her brown eyes as she unlocked the door to her unit. “That’ll come in handy if I have any incidents in the kitchen, so I don’t end up burning the whole place down.”

  I peered into the grocery bags I was carrying for her and found the basics—a bunch of cartons of Greek yogurt, sandwich fixings, protein bars, almonds, granola, cherries, beef jerky, coffee, water, and sports drinks. “Doesn’t look like there’s anything dangerous in here.”

  She flipped on the lights as she walked inside the apartment. It was fully furnished; an option I hadn’t even known they offered. After she dropped her carry-on and purse onto the couch, Tamara turned around and reached for the groceries. I reluctantly let her take them from me, rolling her suitcase next to the coffee table before following her to the kitchen area. I leaned against the counter while she unloaded her items and put everything away except for the sandwich stuff.

  “Is that what you’re having for dinner?”

  “Yup. It’s been a long day.” Her gaze drifted over my shoulder at the door, and I had a feeling that she was about to ask me to leave—something I didn’t want to do.

  “Which makes a healthy dinner even more important.” I shook my head slowly and made an exaggerated tsking noise, hoping to distract her from wanting me to go. “I’m sure you know better than to skimp on meals, what with your gold medals and all.”