But in this moment, I fall in love with him, deeply and knowing there’s no coming back from it.
Moving my mouth to his, I give him a soft kiss. “Thank you for saying that. I truly don’t know what I want, and I have no immediate plans to do anything in the near future except spend time with you. But… thank you for always wanting the best for me.”
“That will always be my first priority,” he assures me. “Always.”
CHAPTER 15
Kane
The high of winning our first game of the pre-season lasts all the way to the hotel the team is staying at in downtown Denver. The mood on our bus is jubilant. As we disembark, groups of players take off down the streets in search of a few beers and a lot of fun. The team plane won’t be returning us to Phoenix until morning.
When I step off, I head into the hotel, Jim Steele on my heels. I glance over my shoulder. “Not going out for beers?”
“Nah,” he says with a chuckle. “I’m too old to hang with those young pups.”
“Too old, my ass,” I reply with a bark of laughter. “You ran circles around everyone out on the ice tonight.”
Jim may be one of the older players—not that thirty-three is old by any means—but he’s probably in better shape than ninety percent of our team. He’s an amazingly hard worker.
As it stands, we routed Denver, winning 6-1. I had an assist myself, and I’m pleased with my performance. But pre-season is all about working out the kinks. Letting our lines come together to gel even more in the heat of battle.
I do have to say, Riggs played exceptionally well. Regardless if he’s a standoffish dick away from the game, he had a goal and an assist tonight. Our second line seems to be flowing well.
“How come you’re not going out?” Jim asks as we reach the elevator. He actually happens to be my road roommate. When the doors open, he precedes me, but as the doors close, he adds with a sly grin. “Oh, wait… never mind. I get it. You’re a kept man now, so no going out to party.”
Rolling my eyes, I jab the button to floor three. “Just because Mollie and I are in a relationship now, it doesn’t mean I can’t go out with the boys.”
At least, I don’t think it means that. We haven’t talked about it, but I’m fairly sure I know Mollie well enough to be safe thinking she would have told me to go out if I felt like it.
Truth is… I just don’t feel like it. I’m tired from the game. I’d like to chill with maybe a beer from the mini bar, a call with Mollie, and a movie to fall asleep to. Luckily, Jim is a chilled, laid-back dude so he makes a great roommate. He’ll be up for the same thing; except he won’t have a call with his estranged wife.
We get into the room, taking turns in the bathroom to complete our nightly routines. We’d showered at the arena after the game, but there are still teeth to be brushed and clothes to be discarded. Jim and I roomed together last season as well, so we are comfortable around each other in only our underwear. Hell, it’s not like we haven’t seen every member of our team naked at some point between the showers and locker room.
Beer in hand, I settle onto my bed while Jim’s in the bathroom, shooting Mollie a text. It’s nearing eleven at her parents’ home in California, so I’m not sure if she’s still awake.
She texts back immediately. I’m finishing up a rousing game of Scrabble with my dad. Call you when we’re done. You played great tonight, by the way.
I smile as I reply. No rush. If I don’t answer, it either means I’m asleep or Jim’s asleep and I don’t want to disturb him. Such is life on the road.
Learn something new every day, she replies.
I set my phone on the bed, then take a sip of my beer. As much as Mollie and I know about each other, there is still so much to learn. This is a prime example. I’d love to talk to her tonight, but if Jim falls asleep before she calls, we’ll just have to resort to texting. And if I happen to fall asleep, I’ll just have to settle with seeing her tomorrow when we return.
As my girlfriend, these are the things she’ll have to learn about dating a professional hockey player.
Not that Mollie will be bent out of shape at all. She’s too laid back to worry about such things. Just as I’m too laid back to care she can’t talk right now because she and her dad are dorks and playing Scrabble.
That makes me chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” Jim asks as he comes out of the bathroom. He moves to the fridge, peeks in, and pulls out a beer.
“Mollie’s playing Scrabble with her dad and said she’ll call later, and it reminded me of when Aaron and Clarke started dating. The first time she invited him into her house after a date, Clarke had suggested he come in to play Scrabble. He had thought it was code for “let’s have sex,” but it turned out… she just wanted to play Scrabble.”
Jim laughs. “It’s a multi-purpose game. Lucy and I play sometimes. When she’s talking to me, that is.”
“I know that’s tough,” I commiserate.
Jim shrugs. “I guess it’s what thirteen-year-olds do when they can’t understand why their parents aren’t together, and they need to blame someone.”
I hesitate before asking, not wanting to pry too much. “Is Ella trying to poison her against you?”
Shaking his head in empathic denial, he says, “No. Quite the opposite. She’s constantly correcting Lucy’s surly behavior toward me, and actually encouraging her to treat me with the same love and respect she gives Ella.”
“Then what do you think the problem is?” I ask.
Jim takes a sip of beer, twisting to look over. “Because Lucy’s a smart kid. She knows damn well it’s my fault Ella and I are separated.”
I blink in surprise. I’ve never heard Jim talk about the reasons he and Ella are no longer together. I just assumed life with constant separations became too tough, but that’s so general. Now, I realize there has to be something more to it.
And in an effort to make sure that I don’t fall into the same pitfalls, I poke deeper with my curiosity. “Mind me asking what you did?”
Jim gives a bark of mirthless laughter. “It’s what I didn’t do, Kane.”
“What didn’t you do?”
“I stopped paying attention to my wife. I got caught up in being a professional hockey player. Loved the fame and the high of recognition. The traveling for away games she understood, but it was when I was home and hanging out more with teammates than with my family that she couldn’t forgive. And what little time I had left, I gave to Lucy. I think I just stupidly assumed Ella would always be there for me, no matter what. I mean, she knew what it was like to be with a professional athlete.”
I let out a low whistle, in disbelief that Jim could let things get so bad. From what I know of him, he’s an upstanding guy. He has integrity, as evidenced by the fact he’s shouldering the blame for his marital failures.
But I’ve only known him since he’s been separated. I didn’t know the man he was before.
“Was there any infidelity?” I ask. It’s something that can be a rampant problem in professional sports since women will literally throw themselves at our feet for a bit of attention. They don’t care if we’re married or not. Many of the married guys don’t seem to care either.
Without a doubt, I know that will never be me. Mollie is more than woman enough.
Once again, Jim shakes his head hard. “No way. Ironically, my sex life with Ella didn’t diminish. We were always combustible in bed. My mistake was in thinking that was enough for her, so my advice to you is don’t ever let that be your mistake. Make Mollie your priority, even over hockey. It’s a lesson I learned too late.”
The melancholy in his voice hits me hard. “Is there no way to salvage your marriage?”
Jim shrugs. “Maybe. I don’t know. But man… you saw her in that restaurant. She was clearly on a lunch date with someone. They were fucking holding hands.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” I point out. “Take her back.”
He blinks in surprise. “What
…you mean fight for her?”
“Well, yeah… sure. I mean, you have to know what you’re fighting first. I would suggest doing some investigating into this guy. Find out how serious it is. Would Lucy know?”
“Even if she did, she wouldn’t tell me. Her loyalty is to her mother.”
“Then you might have to do some reconnaissance of your own,” I suggest with a sly grin. “I’ll be glad to help.”
“Like we follow her or something?” Jim asks.
I shrug. “Or something. Figure out more about the guy she’s dating and what he’s doing for her that you didn’t do, then figure out how to do it.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s paying attention to her,” Jim mutters.
“Listen, man… if you want to save your marriage, get off your ass and make it work. You said you two are great in the sack… maybe you just need to fuck some sense back into her. And lots of flowers and nice romantic dinners out, too. I hear poems are nice. Compliments. Chocolate.”
Jim laughs. “Okay, okay… I get it. If I want this to work, quit sitting back and lamenting over her seeming to have moved on and put myself back within her notice.”
“Maybe even recruit Lucy to help,” I suggest. “You’ve already got bonus points by letting her watch Samson. You said she wants you back together with her mom. Make her part of the plan.”
Jim scratches his chin. “That idea actually has merit.”
“There you go,” I say, pointing my finger across the distance between our two beds. “And, if you buy her a fucking dog, she’ll be in your hip pocket.”
“Christ,” Jim mutters, finishing off his beer. “This is going to be hard work.”
“I got your back,” I assure him.
“Speaking of backs,” Jim says, his tone saying he’s changing the subject. “What’s going on with this thing with Mollie’s stalker?”
“No fucking clue,” I grouse. “The police are stuck. He could be anywhere, but they can’t go search the world for him. He’s in some criminal database with an outstanding warrant, so if he gets stopped anywhere, he’ll be arrested. But past that, it’s wait to see if he’ll show up.”
“You could find him,” Jim suggests.
My entire body jolts upward as I turn to face him. “What do you mean?”
Jim sort of frowns, as if he can’t believe I’m this thick when I’d just given him a huge amount of advice on how to fix his marriage. “Locate the fucker. You’ve got huge monetary resources at your disposal. Hire the best investigator out there. In fact, you should hire that security group out of Pittsburgh—the one Willow knows. She was embedded with one of their groups in Syria. I bet they can help.”
Comprehension crashes over me, and a burgeoning feeling of hope fills my chest cavity.
Fucking, yes.
I have the ability to find the douche. Or at least I have the money to pay the people who have the ability to find the douche.
I grin. “You’re goddamn brilliant. Not at your marriage, mind you, but at helping me take down Mollie’s stalker.”
“And you suck at figuring out how to take down a stalker,” he quips back. “But you’ve got some good romantic ideas that seem workable.”
“We make a good team,” I say, leaning across to his bed with my fist out. We tap knuckles, blow it up, and settle back into our beds.
Jim turns on the TV and within moments, he’s sound asleep. When Mollie calls, I decline and shoot her a text that Jim’s asleep.
We end up texting each other for about an hour—until my eyes can barely stay open. She’s having a great time at her parents, but she’s eager to fly home tomorrow to be with me again. I don’t mention Jim’s idea to find Matthew. I’m going to do that on the sly. I don’t want her to be pissed at my meddling or perhaps worried I’m getting in too deep myself. If I find him, I’ll let her know and we can decide what to do. Tomorrow, I’ll get in touch with Willow and ask her about this security company she worked with.
We end our exchange with mutual, “I miss you’s,” and it leaves me wondering why we don’t just say we love each other.
I know we both do. We did before we became intimate. While I can’t exactly speak for Mollie, I know within myself that the feelings have intensified.
And yet, we’ve haven’t ever said it with the intended meaning.
Perhaps we’re still taking it a bit slow to make sure this is will work. Maybe saying the actual words might jinx something.
Or maybe it has to be said at the perfect time.
Regardless, Mollie is on my mind as I go to sleep, and it’s her I dream about that night.
CHAPTER 16
Mollie
Kane has a fabulous walk-in closet, which is impressive given this is an apartment, but it’s pretty sumptuous. I open the door, positioning it at an angle where I can see myself in the long mirror attached to the inside.
Looking into it now, I decide I’m either the sexiest or the most foolish thing he’s ever seen.
Frankly, I don’t care which.
If he thinks it’s sexy, I’ll get some amazing “glad to see you again” sex. If he thinks it’s foolish, we’ll both have a great laugh and still have fantastic sex.
It’s because of how much I trust Kane and the bond we share that I don’t care if he finds my outfit silly. We may laugh, but he’ll never do so in a way that’ll make me feel stupid.
I glance over at the clock on the table beside the bed. He texted as soon as the team plane landed to say he’d be home around ten AM. It’s just a few minutes past ten, so he’ll be walking in any moment now.
I had taken the first flight out from San Diego to Phoenix this morning so I could be here to welcome him home from his first road trip. The idea I had—how I’ll be greeting him soon—was born at my parents’ house, so I’d raided my mother’s craft supplies before I left. She asked me what I needed so much ribbon for, but I made up some lame excuse about starting up scrapbooking.
Not that it was a strict lie. I’ve always wanted to make prints of some of my best travel photos to make actual scrapbooks one day.
It’s just that today is not that day.
Instead, I lay crosswise on Kane’s bed, on my side with one leg bent. My elbow is in the mattress with my head resting in the palm of my hand. It’s a casually reclined look, but sexy at the same time.
Except… my hand starts to go numb because of the angle it’s bent at, and, apparently, my head weighs forty pounds.
I let my arm fall to the bed, resting my head on it for a bit. Sitting in a sexy pose is exhausting. Who knew? But then I hear the click of the lock turning. Knowing it’s Kane coming in, I feel my belly start to flip in excitement. He doesn’t have to compete with an excited Samson as we’re not picking him up from Lucy, whose mother graciously agreed to let him stay at her house since Jim was on the road trip, until this afternoon.
“Mollie?” Kane calls.
I hurriedly return to my original position, glancing in the mirror on the door one more time to ensure nothing needs to be tweaked, before I answer. “In the bedroom.”
A thumping sound in the living room says Kane dumped his travel bag there. Within moments, he’s in the doorway, surveying what’s laid across his bed.
Doing an incredibly slow perusal of my body, he starts at my feet and works his way up to my face, then back down again.
There’s no smile to indicate he likes what he sees, but I can gauge by the heat and intensity in his eyes, as well as the thick ridge along the front of his pants, that he’s incredibly turned on.
Ergo, he likes what he sees.
“What is this?” he asks thickly, taking another slow sweep up and down my body.
“Well,” I say with a dramatic flourish, waving a hand down my body. “You won your first game. I thought that deserved a present, and so… here you go.”
I don’t need to glance in the mirror to know what Kane sees—his woman with three-inch-wide silk ribbon wound around her body in intricate patterns th
at hide much of her goods while leaving enough showing in between to be incredibly sensual.
I’d started at my left ankle, spiraling the soft red ribbon up to my hip, around my waist a few times, and then in between my legs to cover my crotch. Up the back of my ass, around my hips once more, then around my stomach, before finally making three passes around my breasts until I finished it off with a tiny bow at the center of my chest.
“Want to unwrap me?” I ask coyly.
“Fuck yes,” he growls, hurriedly starting to undress. He’s wearing a suit, which is required for all travel, and the pieces go flying. By his serious expression, he most definitely does not find me foolish.
“You know,” I say casually as his underwear comes off, his thick cock jutting upward. “This is the first time I’ve ever really tried to seduce a man.”
“Well, you’re fucking fantastic at it,” he mutters, kicking his underwear free before prowling to the bed.
I roll to my back as he climbs up, then straddles me. It puts his erection right within my grasp. I don’t hesitate, taking it in hand and stroking. Kane groans, tips his head back, and seems to revel in the feeling. A pearly drop of precum emerges from his slit, and I gently wipe it off with the base of my thumb. Kane opens his eyes up, staring down.
“How do I start unwrapping you?” he asks, lightly tugging my hand from his cock.
I point with one finger to the bow on my chest. “Give it a tug, unroll me a few times, and it should come right off.”
“Uh-uh,” he says with a shake of his head and a sly smile. “Going to unwrap you very slowly. Taste every inch of skin revealed to me.”
A thrill pulses through me, mostly between my legs. “If you insist.”
Kane moves back a little until he sits over my thighs, but he holds his weight off me. Reverently, he undoes the bow at my chest and pulls.
He frowns when he realizes I do have to be unrolled, so straddling me isn’t going to work. Flipping one leg over me, he kneels at my side and gives me a tiny push—more of a command to roll. The ribbon loosens as I slip from my back to my stomach. I shift my body more toward the center of the mattress, prepared to roll once more, but he stops me with a press of his hand into my back.
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