by Anya Nowlan
The Shovelers hadn’t won a title in six years, despite all the infrastructure, the fanbase, and the insane support they’d gotten in Chicago when they were still the Chicago Bluehawks. But this season, having come to the middle of nowhere Idaho, also known as Shifter Grove, playing most of the season on a damn lake that was about as smooth as the surface of the moon, and barely having a support system in place, they’d soared. Despite even missing a couple of games in the middle of the season, they’d made it to the national playoffs and were one game away from bringing home the title.
In any world, that was insane. In the world of shifter hockey, it was unheard of.
“It’s nothing,” Jax commented, masterfully dodging Heath’s blazing gaze.
“It’s the girl, huh,” Heath commented, straightening up a bit in his position as they waited for Coach’s whistle.
“What girl?” Jax asked, trying to play dumb and knowing he was destined to fail.
“The hot blonde in the stands, staying away from the rest of the girlfriends like they’re the plague,” Heath said, motioning toward Alice sitting on the top of the stands by Wolf’s Eye Lake.
Even though the Shifter Grove Ice Arena had been built about a month ago now, Coach still preferred to do most of their practices on the lake ice. Jax thought he would never say anything quite so ludicrous, but he was sort of glad for it. Not knowing whether the stretch of ice you were skating on was going to be smooth or not had really improved his ice awareness, and being out in the fresh air made it double appealing.
“Alice, right? Saw you talking to her during drinks yesterday. Anything I should know?”
“Long story,” Jax huffed.
For once, it wasn’t a simple brush-off. It was a long story.
Heath and Jax got down low, clamoring over the puck and when the whistle sounded, they both tried to win the faceoff as quickly as possible. Heath grabbed the puck but Jax grabbed Heath and they got to go through the same song and dance one more time, with Heath’s bitching and moaning reaching untold heights. After a few more drills, Coach called them in for the evening and after a browbeating talk about how they were all barely good enough to wear their jerseys, they were excused.
Jax hadn’t thrown off his skates and pads so fast in his life. A minute after being released, he was in his hiking boots, with his gear bag over his shoulder, walking toward the stands with pep in his step and a grin on his lips. It wavered only a little when he caught the less than enthused expression Alice was wearing as she stared into the distance, her face going slack for a moment when she finally noticed Jax standing at the bottom of the stands.
“Hey. Catch you at a bad time?” he asked, grinning despite her perplexing mood.
He’d invited her to come watch them play so she’d come to understand his team dynamic a bit better, if for no other reason than to discourage her faith that the Carnivores were going to eat them alive, though Jax would be the last guy to claim that it was going to be an easy victory. Mostly though, he wanted her there because she was like honey to his bear, making the unruly beast complacent and happy to work with the man, as well as brightening up Jax’s day overall.
She was a surly little thing at times but that only added to her charm, he thought.
Damn, she looks good today.
“Oh, no, sorry! Must have gotten sidetracked with something,” she said, getting up and scaling down from the high perch she’d chosen.
As she fell into step with him, Jax’s hand found hers in a soft grip almost without thought, simply doing that which felt natural to him. Having her close felt like the most natural thing he could do, it seemed. He could feel the way she tensed a bit, but still, she let him take her hand and hold it, soon relaxing into the touch as they walked to Jax’s truck.
“So you really love hockey, hmm?” she asked after a small lull.
“I do,” Jax admitted with a grin. “Only thing that ever really made sense to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an intelligent guy and Harvard tells me I can do ‘whatever I want’ with my life. But honestly, all I want to do is skate and play.”
He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, giving her hand a slight squeeze.
“What about you? What makes you tick?”
Alice pursed her lips in thought and it was all Jax could do to keep from leaning in and kissing her right then and there.
“Well, for me, the one thing that always made sense were numbers. And math. No matter how muddled everything was in my life, when I sat down to chew through a math assignment or later financial sheets, everything seemed to fall into place, you know? Like me and the numbers had this little conversation amongst ourselves and everything would be fine because we got one another.”
From the corner of his eye, Jax could see her blushing slightly and it was incredibly sweet and vulnerable. Despite knowing that it was probably the worst idea he’d ever had, he felt himself becoming more and more attached to this enigmatic, sarcastic woman who could be at the same time feisty and exposed.
Yet the feeling that something wasn’t entirely right that day didn’t leave him. She seemed a bit distant, even if her words were all present. Something in her eyes told him that not everything was quite all right and he couldn’t keep himself from digging around to see if he could find the reason for this. His bear was very adamant about making sure that she was happy and at peace and at the moment, she didn’t quite look the part.
“Something wrong, Alice?” he asked, keeping his tone of voice as unobtrusive as he could.
She looked up at him, her lips slightly parted. They made it to the car, and she looked like she was going to say something. Jax stopped short at opening the door for her, giving her whatever time she needed, but finally, Alice looked down, biting her lip and shaking her head.
“No, there’s nothing. Must just be hung over a little from last night. So, what are we going to do now? Dinner?”
“Shower first, then dinner. I don’t think Cerise would let me in the diner in my current state.”
“Aw, come on, a little musk is sexy on a man,” she teased, hopping into the car as Jax deposited his bag on the back seat.
He grinned, shaking his head as she seemed to bounce out of her spell of sadness.
He was having far too much fun. Every fiber of his being was telling him that this was going to blow up in his face one way or another. But this time, he didn’t even care. If it meant more time with Alice, hell, he was ready for a bit of trouble. The risk was definitely worth the reward.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Alice
“So this is how billionaires live,” Alice mused out loud as she kicked off her boots and took off her jacket in the hallway of Jax’s house.
“Millionaires only,” Jax replied with some dryness, chuckling. “I haven’t been taking my father’s money for as long as I could avoid it. This is all me. You can still smell the fresh paint.”
Alice followed Jax into the wide halls of his home on the outskirts of Shifter Grove. He wasn’t lying; there was a very evident scent of newness to the whole place, which made sense since most of the homes built for the Shovelers had very recently been prepared and some of the guys were still bunking together from what Alice had heard.
“Nice,” she commented as he led them to the kitchen-living room, dropping his gear bag on the couch.
It was very earthy and manly, simple colors, with brick, wood, and hard tile. Cozy but masculine. Jax went to the fridge and grabbed two sports drinks, padding back almost soundlessly, which still freaked her out considering what a big man he was. Those bears could sneak up on a girl and she wouldn’t even know it.
He handed her a bottle and their hands brushed against one another for a moment. Instead of recoiling, Alice smiled. His touch felt good. Too good. Almost good enough to put all of the weirdness of the last few days out of her mind.
Her cell was blessedly getting no reception again and it might have been a fool’s hope, but she was clinging to the passing possibility that maybe they’d just�
�� you know, leave her alone? Frankly, she wasn’t sure what she thought about the creepy guy who had called her the previous evening, but she did know that now was not the time to think about it. Not when she had much more pleasant options to fixate on.
“So, shower and then dinner, right?” Alice asked, as Jax seemed to have forgotten himself by staring at her, a soft look in his eyes.
“Right,” he said, shaking out of his stupor. “We should go get that shower, then.”
He smiled wide, a devilish glint in his eyes.
“We?” she echoed, quirking a brow. “Aren’t we being forward here.”
“Maybe,” Jax said with a shrug, taking a sip of his drink before putting it down on a nearby counter and turning to her again. “But I’m going to kiss you now and you’re not going to argue.”
Alice opened her mouth in time to start doing just that, but then his warm, callused palms brushed gently against her face, his thumbs on her cheeks as he leaned in and kissed her on the lips with all the reverent affection she could imagine. It kicked the air right out of her lungs, and instead of fighting against it as she thought she would, Alice found herself putting her hands on his wrists and getting up on her tiptoes to meet him deeper in that heavenly kiss.
Raw desire flashed through her and she felt it roiling inside her, moving from her lips and along her arms and legs before balling up tightly in her core, making her knees buckle. She was only loosely aware of the moment when Jax took the bottle out of her hand and placed it aside and even then she was pretty sure that the only reason she noticed was because for that instant, his hand was not on her.
“You know,” Jax murmured, running his thumb along her chin now and making her meet his gray gaze. “If you wanted to get with me this bad, I would have said yes even without the arranged marriage.”
Alice’s mouth opened in a shocked smile and she took in a quick breath, ready to curse out the damn cocky man right there and then. But she never did get around to it before he picked her up like she was barely more than a feather, flung her lightly over his shoulder, and trudged straight down one of the corridors of his home, heading gods knew where.
“Jax! Where are you taking me!” she protested through laughter, heaving herself up on his back by laying her hands flat on his lower back.
Wouldn’t you know it, all she could feel was solid muscle underneath her fingers. It really didn’t help to bolster her resolve to be upset with him about anything.
“Shower. Didn’t we say we needed it?” he asked casually, opening a door and taking them both into an expansive bathroom that was about as big as her whole apartment.
He didn’t set her down before he’d turned the knob on the large steam shower, starting the water. When she was placed back down, completely unharmed, save for maybe her pride, and completely turned on, he grinned down at her like he had just done the most reasonable thing in the world. Because what girl didn’t like to be swept off her feet and carried off by a burly hockey bear, right?
Okay, so she couldn’t actually complain.
Alice searched for words but none were forthcoming, and when Jax pulled off his jersey and shirt in one smooth move, standing half-naked before her now, she made even fewer words that held any sort of sense to them. He shucked off his pants next and Alice had to lean back against the sink to keep from stumbling over her own feet, her eyes wide and unbelieving at the sheer perfection that was being presented to her.
She knew he was big; any fool could understand that by looking at the polar bear shifter. But he was big. Not only was his body sculpted perfection—though she could count plenty of scars on him pulled taut by his muscles—but his cock was also the kind of perfect that made her want to pinch herself.
Thick, cut, hard and obviously made for her. She wasn’t aware that she was staring before Jax’s chuckle roused her from her self-imposed daydream. She looked up, startled, catching his amused grin as he stepped into the shower, beckoning her to follow.
“Come on, Alice. In or out?”
In or out. Could he make it sound any dirtier?
The decision was easy enough. In.
She undressed so fast she almost popped a button on her top, tearing it off of herself. Alice slipped into the big shower stall and closed the door behind her, feeling ten kinds of awkward right up to the point where Jax’s big arms scooped her up. He pulled her to him underneath the warm spray of water, pushing her up against the cool tile wall and trapping her there with one thigh between her legs.
He hovered over her, that insufferable smile on his lips, and Alice’s hands couldn’t stop themselves from gliding up his firm, powerful biceps. The shock of his hot body against her and the cold tiles behind her made a small shiver run through her, but it only got stronger when he slipped one hand between them, sliding it down her belly and between her legs.
This is insane, she thought.
“This is insane,” Alice echoed out loud, clamping a hand over her mouth a second later as she realized she’d said it out loud.
“Why?” he asked, leaning in so close that his lips were inches from hers, inviting her to kiss them again. “I don’t think there’s anything insane about this. I mean, we are supposedly getting married in a few weeks, right? Wouldn’t want to get hitched without knowing whether you’re compatible with your future husband…”
Alice snorted in response, a dozen comebacks sparking up and then swiftly dying on her lips as his fingers found their target, flicking over her clit gently before pressing against her wet pussy. The warm water sprinkled over them, though Alice felt like she was under a waterfall when against Jax, his wide shoulders protecting her from the spray. She let out a throaty moan as he pushed his fingers deeper, pressing against her slit.
“Right?” he asked, a bemused glint in his eyes, though the way his cock throbbed against her stomach told her that there was far more self-control involved here than the man would have perhaps like to let on.
“Right,” she agreed breathlessly, crushing her lips against him at the same moment as he pushed two fingers into her and made her twitch forward and into his arms.
Slowly, he worked his fingers in and out of her as she kissed him passionately, her tongue forcing its way between his lips. Their tongues slashed together as his rhythm hastened and she spread her legs wider, giving him more access while her nails scrabbled against his body, exploring all of him.
He was so strong and solid against her touch that the thought of ever being without him again seemed immediately ludicrous to her. It was only later that she would realize how silly that thought was about a man she had barely kissed and known no more than a few days.
But she’d come to know that kiss well enough, and Jax right along with it.
Her hands wrapped seamlessly around his neck as he started plunging into her harder and harder, every motion of his fingers coming with a small whimper from her. But the size of his cock against her delicate flesh made her realize the need well enough. He was preparing her.
“Fuck, you’re gorgeous,” he growled when he put his hands on her hips and lifted her up so her legs could wrap around his waist.
Alice could only mumble half a reply to that. What could she say, really, that would have made any sense at that point? Only when he moved her so she was right above his thick cock, ready to be impaled, did she find her words again.
“Then fuck me,” she hissed, as much a command as it was a plea. “Now.”
He grinned, rocking her back hard against the wall and thrusting forward, so whatever she might have wanted to say next came out as nothing more than a strangled mewl. Her nails scratched his shoulders now as she fought to catch her breath and keep what modicum of sanity she could. He stretched her wide, slowly filling her up with that rigid, veiny cock of his that it seemed to be almost too good.
When he had finally fit into her completely, working himself in inch by inch, Alice was clinging to him tightly and his arms were wrapped around her body in a protective cocoon, the
hot water licking at their skin. She buried her face against his neck, small gasps escaping her lips as he started pulling back and then stroking into her again and again, their bodies twisted and needy for one another.
It wasn’t like anything she had ever experienced with any man, let alone one that she thought she could actually come to like, if not love. Jax was rugged, rough, but there was an air of gentleness to him that loomed above it all, like he’d only take her as far as she could, or would, want to go and her feelings and sensations came before his.
He laid small kisses on her neck and shoulder as he plowed into her, his hands now under her ass, squeezing it, making her back arch. Alice fell back slightly, so much that she could look him in the eye as her own blue gaze seemed to glaze over with lust. The heat she’d been cradling in her was burning like an inferno soon enough, pulsing through her with every thrust, her throat getting dry from the moans she let out, even though water kept moistening her lips.
“Don’t you dare stop,” she begged as he slipped one hand up to support her lower back, changing their angle so she was tipped forward a bit.
Jax bent down, a growl in his throat that rumbled through her as he caught one of her nipples in his mouth, his teeth gently capturing the nub, and he sucked and lapped at it. She groaned, her fingers coiling into his hair now as she rocked against him, her leg muscles twitching in protest as she clung to him.
Her entire body seemed to be pulsating with desire now, and the way he shuddered and groaned as she touched him and pulled on his blond hair made her feel certain that it wasn’t only her who was losing her mind in the most delicious way.
When he suddenly set her down, pulling her off his cock, Alice gasped in surprise. Looking up at him, she could see the fire burning in his eyes, clearly ignited by her, and she couldn’t help but smile. That was how she wanted to always be looked at. Like she was the sexiest woman alive. Like she could make his blood boil with need just with one look at her.
Alice bit down on her lip as he spun her around and pushed her against the wall again, this time so her palms were flat against the tile, and then spread her legs with his foot. He slapped her ass once as she pushed down toward him, eager for more, and she stifled a whimper. When he entered her again, this time from behind and forgetting all about that gentleness from before, she didn’t even try to stop the scream that came to her lips.
