by Piper Rayne
He goes through more tunnels, then comes out at the entrance to the arena, but he looks up and realizes he’s in the wrong section. The crowd laughs, and he goes back through the opening. He comes out in two more wrong sections and the crowd thinks it’s hilarious, but I just want him next to me. The wait feels excruciating.
I watch the camera intently, and when he pops on screen again, he’s holding flowers, chocolates, and a big teddy bear wearing a shirt with the number thirteen on it. I sigh, but I search all over for him, unable to see where he is in the arena. Then he taps me on the shoulder, and I turn to see him.
My breath catches in my throat. “Hi.”
“Flowers, candy, a teddy bear, and…” He looks for a place to set them down and the woman behind him takes them. “My jersey?”
He holds it up, and I raise my hands so he can put it over my head.
“I was a complete asshole, and I promise you, it will never happen again. If I don’t have you, none of the rest of it even matters.” He takes my face in his hands. “You are my life. Hockey is just what I do.”
“Kiss me,” I say.
“Every day for the rest of my life.” He places his lips on mine, and all the issues we’ve had to get to this point fade away.
Deep down, I knew it the first night too—this is where we need to be. Once he closes the kiss, the crowd roars and we look over to see that we’re on the Kiss Cam.
“Log into your account.” I hand him my phone.
“Why?”
“Just do it.” He only ever went back onto social media to get me to stick around and I’m not going anywhere now, so this is the least I can do for him.
He types in his password and logs in… then I press Delete Account.
* * *
There is no user ID AidenDrake13
“So I finally got you into the therapist chair,” Paisley, the Florida Fury psychologist, says when I sit down.
“Yeah, but I don’t really need any help. I don’t wanna brag, but I kind of figured out my shit all by myself.”
“Is that so?” she asks, jotting something in her notepad.
“Yep. Don’t you watch ESPN?”
“Oh, are we talking about your public declaration of love?”
“I suppose you have to keep up with hockey and stuff if you’re going to try figuring us out.” I tap my temple. I lie down on the couch because after the night I had with Saige, I got no sleep. She’s insatiable and I love her for it. “Actually, I do have one question, doc. Do you think there’s a time when it’s too early to ask someone to move in with you?”
“Do you want to ask Saige to move in with you?”
I laugh. “Well, a moving van is showing up at her place right about now.”
It’s been two weeks and I’m still on a winning streak. We may not make the Cup, but we have the points to make the playoffs. Regardless, I’m done waiting. I want Saige with me all the time.
“And you never told her or even asked her?” Paisley asks.
“Well, no. I should have, right? Probably.”
She taps her pen on the paper. “You know what I find amazing with all you hockey players? You think you can just do whatever and suffer the consequences later.”
“We’re professional athletes. Plus, I know Saige wants to live with me. She barely goes home. I thought I was romantic, sending a truck to surprise her.”
“And the fact she now has to pack all her stuff without warning?”
She’s clearly a woman, thinking of all these issues.
“They’ll pack for her. All she has to do is drive over to my house.” My phone vibrates in my pocket. “Should I answer? It’s probably her. We’ll put her on speaker.” Before waiting for a response, I answer and smile, seeing her name on the screen. “Hey, babe.”
“Don’t babe me. Why is there a moving company here?”
“They’re going to take your stuff to my house.”
“Aiden,” she says in that tone I know will make her a great mom to our kids someday. “We didn’t discuss this.”
“Do you not want to move in with me?” I ask. “By the way, Paisley is here if you have any concerns.”
“Paisley? Aiden, what the hell is going on?”
“Oh no, Paisley’s the team psychologist. She thinks I should’ve asked too.”
“Glad to see someone there has brains. God knows your locker room is just full of egos.”
I laugh because my girl is funny. “So you’re packing up? I’ll meet you at home?”
She sighs and says nothing for a second. “Yes.”
“See, I knew she’d say yes. Okay, babe, we’re just wrapping up. I’ll be at home waiting for you.” I cup my hand over the phone. “Naked in the hot tub.”
Paisley rolls her eyes.
“Bye, Paisley. Good luck with the job,” Saige says with a laugh.
“Thanks, I need it.”
I hang up with my girl. “See? I’m great. My life is fantastic.”
“Well…” Paisley says.
“So I’m gonna go.” I stand from the couch.
“We still have forty-five minutes,” she says, eyeing her watch.
“I hate to waste time. Plus, I told the next guy his time is now.”
She looks baffled.
“Maksim Petrov.”
“You got him here?” she asks. “Impressive. I’ve been working on the two of you.”
“I was really busy winning my girl back. See you later, nice talking to you.” I stand and leave, keeping the door open for Maksim, who’s waiting.
Getting him here took some heavy bribing, but I made him a bet and he lost. That’s the one thing hockey players don’t renege on. If you lose the bet, you do the time.
Maksim blows out a breath and sits on the couch, looking irritated.
“Have fun, you two,” I say with a wave.
“I’ll be here, but I’m not talking,” Maksim says as I shut the door.
Poor Paisley’s in for a boring hour.
I rush out of her office and into my SUV because I’d rather be home with my girl on the first day of us living together forever.
Need more Saige and Aiden? Don’t forget to read an extended epilogue BONUS SCENE! CLICK HERE
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We’re pretty sure you guessed which Hockey Hottie is next! Maksim, Fury’s Russian defender, is about to find himself in a therapy chair across from a woman who drives him crazy… with lust!
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Freebie
BOOK ONE, Lessons from a One-Night Stand (CLICK HERE) in our much loved BIG FAMILY ROM COM series, The Baileys, is FREE on all retailers!
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Cockamamie Unicorn Ramblings
This is our second crack at a sports romance series. In the first one we wrote snowboarders, and the stories were much shorter. We decided we wanted to write sports romance since a lot of our readers were asking us to and knew we wanted to write either football or hockey. After a poll in our reader group, Piper Rayne’s Unicorns, it was close, but hockey won out. This posed some problems. One being that neither one of us knows a ton about hockey. Not even Piper and she’s from Canada. I mean we can appreciate the suits as the players come into the arena, the chiseled abs under the jersey, and follow along with the game but that’s about it. Thankfully, her husband does and was at our beck and call for any questions we had about ways to describe the game in a way that we didn’t sound like complete amateurs. I mean feelings, humor, love story we got covered, but play by plays in hockey, um… not so much.
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So, once we knew we had Piper’s husband on board, we set up to write our first book. We purposely wrote a prequel to go in an anthology in January with the first three guys from Florida Fury, so we knew where Aiden and Saige’s story was going. We had to put the final touches
on but not much came as a surprise to us. Maybe this means we’re actually evolving into the authors who have their shit together. Probably not. Lol.
* * *
Rayne loved writing sports romance again. Athletes are her go to one-click keyword and she fell hard for this new world we’re writing. So much so, she might just push for us to write a lot more than the Hockey Hotties. In our true nature, family is always at our core of our stories and if you’ve read The Baileys or The Greenes, we hope you’ll see that the Florida Fury are no different. The team is a family, just a found family.
* * *
We hope you fell in love with our guys. Each one brings something different to the table. Book boyfriends for everybody! :P
* * *
Without our team you wouldn’t have any of our books! Seriously, they take on a lot of the work off our hands so that we can write!
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Danielle Sanchez and the entire Wildfire Marketing Solutions team.
Cassie from Joy Editing for line edits.
Ellie from My Brother’s Editor for line edits.
My Brother’s Editor for proofreading.
Hang Le for the cover and branding for the entire series. Love! (Wait until you see the rest. *swoon*)
The Cover Lab for supplying the vision of Aiden for us.
Bloggers who consistently carve out time to read, review and/or promote us.
Piper Rayne Unicorns who love our characters like as much as we do!
Readers who took the time to read our story when there’s so many choices out there.
* * *
Maksim is next and we cannot wait to unfold his layers—and his Russian curse words. You just know there’s something behind this tough Russian who keeps everything sheltered inside. We’ll be sitting there right next to Paisley as she uses her therapist techniques to get him to open up!
* * *
Xo
Piper & Rayne
About the Author
Piper Rayne is a USA Today Bestselling Author duo who write “heartwarming humor with a side of sizzle” about families, whether that be blood or found. They both have e-readers full of one-clickable books, they're married to husbands who drive them to drink, and they're both chauffeurs to their kids. Most of all, they love hot heroes and quirky heroines who make them laugh, and they hope you do, too!
Also by Piper Rayne
Hockey Hotties
My Lucky #13
The Trouble with #9
Faking it with #41
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The Greenes
My Beautiful Neighbor
My Almost Ex
My Vegas Groom
The Greene Family Summer Bash
My Sister’s Flirty Friend
My Unexpected Surprise
My Famous Frenemy
* * *
The Baileys
Lessons from a One-Night Stand
Advice from a Jilted Bride
Birth of a Baby Daddy
Operation Bailey Wedding (Novella)
Falling for My Brother’s Best Friend
Demise of a Self-Centered Playboy
Confessions of a Naughty Nanny
Operation Bailey Babies (Novella)
Secrets of the World’s Worst Matchmaker
Winning My Best Friend’s Girl
Rules for Dating your Ex
Operation Bailey Birthday (Novella)
* * *
The Modern Love World
Charmed by the Bartender
Hooked by the Boxer
Mad about the Banker
* * *
The Single Dad’s Club
Real Deal
Dirty Talker
Sexy Beast
* * *
Hollywood Hearts
Mister Mom
Animal Attraction
Domestic Bliss
* * *
Bedroom Games
Cold as Ice
On Thin Ice
Break the Ice
Box Set
* * *
Charity Case
Manic Monday
Afternoon Delight
Happy Hour
* * *
Blue Collar Brothers
Flirting with Fire
Crushing on the Cop
Engaged to the EMT
* * *
White Collar Brothers
Sexy Filthy Boss
Dirty Flirty Enemy
Wild Steamy Hook-up
* * *
The Rooftop Crew
My Bestie’s Ex
A Royal Mistake
The Rival Roomies
Our Star-Crossed Kiss
The Do-Over
A Co-Workers Crush
