Not a Player (Laketown Hockey Book 1)

by A. J. Wynter

  I could’ve sat and talked to Mr. Fitzgerald all afternoon, but with the addition of Tiffany to the mix, all I wanted to do was get the hell out of there. She had an edge to her, and I couldn’t figure out why. Did she and Kent fight the drive out to the cottage? They seemed to be walking on eggshells around each other.

  “They got caught in the rain.” Mr. Fitzgerald answered for me. “Kane, Jessie was just telling me about your sessions. It sounds like they’re paying off.”

  “She’s a good teacher.” Kane squeezed my thigh. I gave him a quick side-eye, wondering if it was subconscious.

  The coffee was some of the best I’d ever drunk, and part of me wanted to savor it, but instead, I gulped it back.

  Tiffany sipped with her pinky finger extended and set her lipstick-stained mug on the tray. “Where’s your cottage, Jessie?”

  I held the empty mug in both of my hands. “I live in town.”

  Tiffany’s lips quivered and then the smile disappeared from her face. “Oh,” she said. “I see.” She stood, slapping Kent’s knee out of her way. “I’m going to the club for the gala meeting. Tell Margie to make me a salad for dinner.” She leaned down and kissed Kent on the cheek.

  “Would you like a refill?” Kane asked, taking the empty mug from my hand.

  “I should get going too.” I stood up.

  “Jessie.” It was Kent who stopped me. “Please stay for as long as you’d like. I’m going to go play a round of golf this afternoon. You two will have the place to yourself.” Mr. Fitzgerald stood and shook my hand. “Thank you for helping out with the skating. I’m so happy that Kane has someone looking out for him.

  Kent and Tiffany left, and Kane held both of my hands in his. “Sorry about that.”

  “About what?” I pulled my hands from his. “Your father is lovely.”

  “He’s alright,” Kane smiled. “He’s just made some bad decisions in his life.”

  I couldn’t help myself. “Does one of them start with a T and rhyme with Biffany?”

  Kane snorted and I thought coffee was going to come out his nose. “She’s the worst. She hates me.”

  A breeze fluttered the napkins on the coffee table and sent a chill down my spine. I sat and pulled my knees up inside the roomy sweatshirt. “I can see that,” I said. “Why?” Before he could reply I added, “Is it because you look better in her housecoat than she does?”

  This time Kane did spit out his coffee. “I made that thing look good.” He wiped his mouth with one of the monogrammed napkins.

  I smiled and nodded. “Like it was made for you.”

  “If I had to guess, I’d say it’s because my dad made her sign a prenup, and I’ll get everything – not her.” Suddenly, I felt like the most selfish person on the planet. We had talked all morning about my family and my problems, and I just assumed that he didn’t have any.

  “Kane,” I whispered. “Where is your mom?”

  Kane glanced behind him, probably checking to see if his dad and Tiffany were gone. “She died when I was five.”

  “I’m sorry.” Those were the words I’d been hearing over the last two months, and I knew that they weren’t enough, but I didn’t know what else to say.

  “It was a long time ago.” He finished his coffee. “Jessie, I need to tell you something.”

  I reached out to hold his free hand. “I need to tell you something too.”

  “You go first,” we both said at the same time.

  THE STORM HAD PASSED, but every time the breeze picked up, raindrops fell from the canopy of maple trees that ironically surrounded Pine Hill. Fresh cups of Americano sat steaming on the table in front of us. We had shifted to the love seat and Jessie sat facing me, her feet tucked under her body. I handed her a fluffy throw blanket.

  “You’ve been trying to tell me something all day, Jess. I don’t think that I want to hear it.”

  I sighed and pulled my feet out from beneath my legs and draped them across his thighs. “Kane, I was going to tell you that we can’t keep fooling around.”

  “I know.” He didn’t look at me. “I mean, I know that’s what you were going to say, but I don’t agree.” He squeezed the blanket over the top of my feet. “I mean, technically I can’t date any of the guy’s sisters.”

  I blinked. “That’s your reason?”

  “Yeah,” he half shrugged. “I thought that’s what you were going to say too.”

  Not. At. All. How could he be so clueless? “Kane, I...” I couldn’t say the words. Maybe he was different. Maybe this whole townie-cottager class divide was in my head. When I looked at Kane, I didn’t see a rich guy who was going to lose interest in me as soon as the novelty wore off, I just saw... Kane.

  Could this be the moment that I looked back on years from now and pinpointed where it all went wrong? I didn’t care. My mind was made up. I was willing to risk it all for this hockey player. “I was going to tell you,” I emphasized, ‘was’, “but life is short. I like you Kane, but I think whatever we do, we should keep it between us.

  Translation: Maybe it won’t hurt as much when you break my heart if I pretend this is casual.

  “Jess, are you serious?”

  “As your slapshot.” I looked at him sideways and smiled. “Whatever this is,” I pointed at him and back at me, “we should keep it on the down-low. You know, because of Dylan.”

  That wasn’t the reason at all, but I knew it would make sense to Kane. Also, Dylan would probably murder him, so there was that too.

  He pulled me onto his lap and I wrapped my arms around his neck and for the first time, I kissed my secret maybe-boyfriend slash hockey player, Kane Fitzgerald – and it felt like I had just won a gold medal.

  But better.

  Chapter 23 – Kane

  I’ve never been what I would call a ‘morning person,’ but the last week that changed. When my alarm clock went off at 4:30 in the morning, I’d already woken up, and I knew it was because my body was ready to see Jessie. I woke up aching for her.

  Jessie had been riding me in my dreams. The imagery was so vivid I swore I could still feel where her figure skater thighs had been clamped around my thighs like a vice, my toes curling as I pushed up as high into her as I could. I woke up with a raging hard-on but didn’t have time to rub one out, so I hopped in the shower and high tailed it to the arena.

  She was waiting for me on the ice. “Metallica again?” She joined me at the boards, stopping with a spray of snow.

  “It’s my day to pick the music.” I like Metallica. Not only am I superstitious, but I’m a creature of habit. I listen to Master of Puppets before every game, it gets me nice and pumped up. “You subjected me to Elton John twice this week.”

  She slipped her fingertip into the waistband of my warmup pants. “You liked it.”

  I did, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. She tugged and I involuntarily glided toward her.

  “Professional on the ice,” I whispered in her ear and she snapped the elastic as she pulled her fingers out of my pants.

  “Whose dumb idea was that?” Her hands were on her hips and her face lit up with her wide grin. She had at least five separate ways of smiling at me, and each of them lit up her face in a unique way. Her joking grin brought a certain sparkle to her eyes that made me want to rip her damn Lululemon pants down to her skates and fuck her hard against the boards.

  She put me through another grueling training session, and today I was sweating so much that the front of my hair was plastered to my forehead. We met at the boards and she unplugged her phone from the sound system. “Coach Covington called me last night,” she said as she slipped her phone into the pocket of her warmup jacket.

  “He did?” I took a huge swig from my water bottle and passed it to Jessie who took a small sip.

  “Mmmhmm,” she nodded and handed the bottle back to me. “He wants to know if you’ve ‘gotten it’.” She used air quotes. I knew that our training sessions couldn’t go on forever, but they were the only time we coul
d legitimately get together without anyone asking questions.

  “And what did you tell him?” I leaned on the boards and balled my fingers into a fist to stop them from reaching out to her hips. She rocked her Bauer’s now, and even though she was sexy in her figure skates, Jessie Moss in hockey skates was the stuff of Maxim magazine dreams.

  “I told him that you were co-operating, but that you still have some work to do.”

  “I do?”

  “Sue me. I lied.” Her eyes glinted. My heart rate had just started to come down, but that joker smile revved it back up again.

  “You little devil.” I didn’t care if the coach thought I needed more work, I wanted to keep coming to the rink every day, just to see Jessie in those skates.

  Jessie skated off the ice and I followed her to the door of the visitor’s dressing room. She turned and leaned against the heavy metal door and I knew exactly what she wanted. She arched her back and pressed her hips against mine and I wrapped my hand around the back of her neck and kissed her hard. She pushed against the door, opening it with her ass, and pulled me into her dressing room. The Otters have a strict policy of no women in the dressing room, and I didn’t dare break that rule. It was another superstition, like sailors and having women onboard their ships back in the day. It didn’t matter, I’d just started joining Jessie in the Visitor’s room.

  She stumbled backward and I held her arms, so she didn’t fall. The momentum pulled us to the far wall where I pressed up against her, knowing that she wanted me to press my cock between her legs. She hadn’t told me as much, but she moaned into my mouth every time it came close to her warmth. She threaded her fingers behind my neck, and we pressed our hips hard against each other. We had been taking it slowly, well, slowly for me that is – and had somehow managed to keep our clothes on this past week. But today, she scratched my lower back with her nails and pulled my shirt over my head.

  I knelt and held each of her ass cheeks in my hands and kissed at the front of her yoga pants. She fingered my hair and I glanced up in time to see her breath hitch as the warmth of mine met her body between her legs.

  “Sit down, Jessie.” I pushed on her belly and she took a seat on the slatted wood bench.

  She played with my hair while I worked to loosen the laces of her skates and then pulled them off. She stood on the floor and wrapped her arms around me.

  “Hey, short stuff.” I bent to kiss her.

  There was a different glint in her eye today, one that I didn’t recognize. She stepped onto the bench, unzipped her warmup jacket, and revealed a bra with a pink bow that matched the color of the nipples that peeked out from behind the lacy pattern. She held onto my shoulders and wrapped her legs around me monkey-style and I held her tightly with one arm.

  As she inhaled, her chest pressed against mine, but even with the warmth of our skin to skin contact, we both had goosebumps. I kissed the spot on her neck where it met her powerful shoulders and let my lips linger, inhaling in as much of Jessie Moss’ scent as I could, vanilla with a little bit of icing sugar. I smiled to myself and lightly bit her shoulder.

  She inhaled sharply and squeezed the side of my body tightly between her thighs. “Kane.” Her words were breathy.

  “Being here, with you, it just...” she kissed my lips and then continued, “feels right.”

  “I know, Jess. This has been the best week of my life.” I ran my hand up the bumpy ridge of her spine, and she arched her back, grinding herself against me. I had been riding a strange line. I wanted to fuck her, but I also didn’t want to fuck her. And that’s how I knew that I was falling in love with her.

  “Make love to me, Kane,” she whispered, her breath hot on my ear. She let her lips linger and then took my lobe into her lips, and I almost came in my pants right then and there. We had been playing the long game, our touches slow, always pulling back before we went too far – but today, she didn’t have to ask me twice. “Let me get out of these skates.” I set her down on the bench and bent down to unlace them.

  “No,” she said. “Leave them on,” and hooked her thumbs into the waistband of her skating tights and started to pull them down. A man possessed, I shoved my fingers into the back of Jessie’s pants and yanked everything, her pants, tights, and lacy undies down to her ankles. If she’d been standing on the floor, the skates would’ve made what happened next impossible. She bent at the waist and held onto the coat hooks. I fumbled with the string on my pants, my cock ready for its breakaway, strained at the soft fabric. I pulled them down just enough to free my raging hard-on.

  Jessie kicked at her duffel bag that sat on the bench, “In the zippered part at the end, there’s a condom.”

  The lacy underwear and bra – the condom in the skating bag – Jessie knew what she wanted this morning and her take control attitude turned me on even more.

  “Are you sure, Jess?” I rolled the condom on and held her by the hips. “Don’t you want this to happen somewhere special?”

  She looked over her shoulder, a smile on her face. “This place is special to us, isn’t it?” She emphasized the word ‘us’ and it sounded so right. Us. Jessie and Kane; Fitzy and Jess.

  “Take me, Kane.”

  She never ceased to amaze me. “You’re the woman of my dreams,” I growled. She bent over further, and I dug my fingers into her hipbones, pausing at the opening to her warmth. Maybe she didn’t want it slow and tender, but I started to wonder if I did. She looked over her shoulder, her eyes flashed, and she arched her back a little more. “Fuck me, Fitzy.” And with those words coming out of those sweet lips, any second-guessing on my part flew right out the door of that dressing room.

  Chapter 24 - Jessie

  “Hell. Is there anybody in there?” A woman’s voice yelled over the sound of the gurgling grease. Sometimes, it was so loud that I didn’t hear people approach the chip truck. I took a deep breath and put on my imaginary patience hat.

  “I’ll be right there,” I pulled the basket out of the oil and shook some salt on the fries.

  No one could bring me down today, I felt like I was gliding around the world, high on a drug named Kane. Our mornings now consisted of skating hard and fucking harder. At the rink, we were animals but at home, our touches were softer. I winced as I turned, Kane hadn’t been gentle this morning. The bruising and tenderness between my legs a welcome reminder of our morning session.

  “Glad to see you’re alive.”

  Paige leaned in the window, her voice sounded angry, but she had a smile on her face.

  “Paige.” I smiled. I was genuinely glad to see her. “I could say the same thing about you. Ever since you got the Valerock job, you’ve been MIA.”

  “Let’s catch up,” she grinned.

  The morning dew had evaporated, and the picnic tables all sat empty. “I’ll be right out.” I unlaced my apron and tossed it onto the counter. As we hugged, I tried to mentally calculate how long it had been since we’d seen each other.

  We sat on the bench seat of a picnic table and I opened the umbrella to protect us from the strength of the morning sun.

  “You look good, Jess.”

  “So, do you, P.”

  “How’s the skating going?”

  It was the conversation of two friends that had let things slide; the small talk of once close friends now reduced to weather and generalizations – and I hated it. “I’ve been landing my lutz about fifty percent of the time.”

  “That’s amazing, Jess.” Paige’s eyes sparkled and I knew that she was genuinely happy for me.

  It was as though sleeping with Kane had changed me, shifted me somehow, maybe even relaxed me enough to let my muscle memory take over and give me back my hardest jump.

  “It’s getting there. It’s still not one hundred percent.” I didn’t want to think about it. “How’s the serving gig?”

  “It’s good.” She played with the tips of her blond hair. “I mean, some people are real assholes, but the tips make up for it.” Her gaze flitted beh
ind me to the chip wagon, “I definitely don’t miss this shithole.”

  “It works for me,” I shrugged. I hated the chip truck too. Smelling like fried fish and sweating my ass off for minimum wage sucked, but the schedule worked with my skating.

  “I could try to get you in at Valerock, I think my manager wants to sleep with me.” Her cheeks flushed scarlet and I knew that she had already slept with him.

  “Those hours wouldn’t work for me,” I sighed. “The money certainly would though. Did I tell you that the insurance company has been giving us the run around?”

  “No, Jess,” she exclaimed. “What the hell?”

  “It sucks.” I took a sip of water. “I’ve had to take on a coaching job, it pays really well, but I’m still not sure if it’s going to be enough to go back to the academy.”

  Paige rested her manicured hand on my freckled arm, “There’s got to be something someone can do.”

  “I’ll figure it out.” I didn’t want to dwell on the insurance or the academy. “Guess who I’m coaching?”

  My words didn’t seem to reach Paige, she was somewhere else. “That explains it.”

  I had been ready to drop a bomb on Paige. She was going to lose her mind when she found out that I had been spending every day with one of the Laketown Otters. “That explains what?”

  “Why Dylan is working that second job.”

  “What?” I screwed up my forehead. “Dylan doesn’t have a second job.”

  Paige looked at me like I had two heads. “Where have you been, Jessie? Your brother has been working nights at the marina. He never goes out anymore, all he does is work. We’ve hung out a couple of times and he’s been too tired to do anyth—” her voice trailed off and I guessed what Dylan was too tired to do. I shook my head to get that imagery from my brain.

  Dylan and I had opposite schedules, but how could I have missed this? Kane had been spending almost every night at my place since his dad moved back to the cottage. “I just assumed he was out partying.” I couldn’t believe that I had been so oblivious, that I hadn’t noticed my own brother, who lived under the same roof, had taken on a night shift job. My closest friend had a new job and was probably banging her boss, and I didn’t know about that either. My life had been filled with skating, but now that it was wrapped up in both Kane and skating, I had squeezed out the rest of the world.