BrickWall_Kobo (4 page)

“Me too.
I live with one of the guys on my team.
But he’s home for the holiday.”

Something sparked in her eyes.
“So I guess, if we wanted to go back to your place for drinks later…”

He tried not to let his mouth drop open but… Damn, this girl made him feel like he’d won the fucking lottery.
He needed to thank Cary for twisting his arm to come tonight.

“There’d be no problem with that.”

Damn, he hoped they ate soon.
Her smile made him want to skip dinner but that’d be rude.
Totally worth it but rude.

Besides, she hadn’t exactly said she wanted to go home with him.
She could just be flirting.
He honestly didn’t have enough experience with girls to know.

Maybe he should just resign himself to a few hours of foreplay and eventual blue balls.
At least he wouldn’t be disappointed.

Luckily, Lori announced that dinner was ready and everyone headed into the kitchen for food.

Small talk got a little easier then, mainly because there were other people around to carry the load.
He wasn’t good at making conversation unless they were talking about golf, working out, video games, or, of course, hockey.

Which made the fan meet-and-greets torture.
He’d learned to cover his awkwardness to some extent, but most people still found it hard to draw him out.

But Bliss didn’t seem to be put off.
He didn’t think she had trouble talking to anyone.

As everyone came together to fill their plates then retreated back to the great room or the dining room to find somewhere to sit and eat, she chatted up several people but never left his side.

By unspoken agreement, he and Bliss found space in the great room, where another woman sat next to Bliss and began to run at the mouth about her upcoming wedding.

Bliss didn’t seem to mind.
Probably because they were talking about wedding stuff.
A subject Shane had absolutely no interest in.
At least, not at this point in his life.

No way did he have time for a wife or even a steady girlfriend.
He had to concentrate on his game.
Or he’d be ending his career sooner than he expected.

But he could listen to Bliss talk for hours.
And then he wanted to spend a few hours with Bliss
not
talking.

“So, Shane, how’s it going?”

Shane turned with a smile for Lori, who’d sat on the arm of his chair.

“I’m pretty sure you know the answer to that already.”
He grimaced.
“I pretty much suck right now.”

“I know that’s not true.”
Lori smiled that cool, mysterious smile that had reeled in Cary like a trout with a hook in its mouth.
“I’ve seen you play.
You’re just having a rough patch.
It’ll pass.
You need to get out of your own head for a while.
Enjoy life a little and not always be so focused on work.”

If only it was that easy.

Nodding, he forced a smile for her.
“You’re right.
Cary’s always telling me to keep my head up.
But when you play, your moves have to be instinctive.
The game’s too fast to stop and think.
I need to be able to see the move before it happens and react before I think about it.”

“Very true.”
Then she leaned closer and her voice dropped to a whisper.
“But the advice wasn’t only for hockey.”

Ah.

He might not be the sharpest blade on the ice but he was no fool.

Lori squeezed his shoulder but Bliss’s laughter grabbed his attention.
She was still talking to the other girl, but now it was about veils and lace and some other shit Shane had no clue about.

Didn’t much matter, though, so long as he could listen to Bliss talk.
The sound of her voice made him hard.
Maybe he
had
been concentrating a little too hard on hockey lately, especially if he got a boner just listening to a girl talk.

As if Bliss had heard him thinking about her, she turned and smiled at him.

He nearly swallowed his tongue.

When the hell could they leave without looking suspicious?

Now.
Ask her back to your place for a drink.

Yeah, all he had to do was open his mouth and get the words out.

But he kept getting distracted by the sight of all that red hair falling down her back in perfect waves and a pretty face that put some actresses to shame.

And her body… Christ, he was salivating.
He wanted to put his hands on her breasts then slide them down her body to her gorgeous ass.
Then he’d lift her so she could wrap her legs around his waist.

Naked.
He wanted her naked and under him.
Or over him.
He wasn’t picky.

Lori made a soft sound, almost like a muffled laugh, and his gaze shot back to hers.

Shit.
She knows exactly what you’re thinking.

“Have a good time tonight, Shane.”
Lori stood, smiling down at him.
“Tomorrow will take care of itself.”

Then she left, but not before ruffling his hair with her fingers.
Like his mom would’ve done.
Made him feel like a kid but not in a bad way.

Smiling, he turned back to Bliss and found her watching him.

“Are you enjoying yourself?”

Her question barely registered because her expression made every muscle in his body tense in anticipation and a strange hum sounded in his ears.

Then her adorable nose crinkled.
“I know I’ve been monopolizing your time and—”

“Please.”
His smile disappeared, replaced with deadly serious intent.
“Monopolize me.
All night.
I’m begging you.”

Her smile faded but he saw the heat in her gaze increase.

Leaning closer, she put her hand on the cushion between them, almost touching his thigh but not quite.
“I’m going to take you at your word.”

“I really fu—hope you do.”

Her smile returned, slowly, and with enough sexual heat to make his heart pound against his ribs.

“Um, I think my fiancé needs me.”
The woman who’d been talking to Bliss also had a smile on her face as she rose to her feet.
“Nice talking to you.”

Bliss’s nose wrinkled as the other woman walked away but did nothing to stop her.

And when she turned back to him, her lips had curved in a tiny smile that made his heart race.

Okay, maybe he really had gotten banged around at practice and this was a hallucination.
And wouldn’t that totally suck.

Then Bliss put her hand on his knee and a jolt of electricity poured through him.
Nope, definitely not a hallucination.

“So how many are on your team?”

Amazingly, he could still talk.
“We’ve got twenty-two guys on the roster.”

“Does everyone get along?
I can’t imagine that many guys spending that much time together and getting along all of the time.
My brothers were always fighting over something and there were only four of them.”

“For the most part, yeah.
We’ve got a good group of guys.”

And that was no bullshit.
He really enjoyed the hell out of his teammates.
At least, the ones who’d been around for most of the season.
There’d been a few guys who’d been traded or moved up or down but mostly, they’d hung together.
And were a stronger team because of it.

“Sounds like you enjoy what you do.”

“Can’t imagine doing anything else.
Even when—” Shit.
Probably better not to finish that sentence, especially to a girl he’d just met.
She didn’t want to hear about all the gross shit guys did to one another in the locker room.
“Even after we’ve lost three straight on the road and the coach is chewing our asses and we’ve got a seven-hour bus ride home.”

She laughed, low and soft.
“You’re right.
That sounds like hell.”

“Yeah.
You don’t want to be in a locker room full of hockey players after a losing game.
We’re barely human.”

Bliss laughed and Shane swore every guy in the room turned to look.
He knew if he weren’t sitting here with her, he would have looked because, damn, her laugh made his gut clench with lust.

Shane was pretty sure he could fight off anyone who attempted to poach her.
He was one of the biggest goalies in the league.
He looked like a brawler and he wasn’t afraid to take a hit if he needed to.

And if he had to move someone out of his crease…

“I’m sure that’s an exaggeration.
Some men look great sweaty.”
Bliss leaned closer, her voice dropping into bedroom territory.
“Makes a girl want to lick him.
All over.”

Shane had to fight hard to swallow his groan, but he couldn’t do anything about his rock-hard erection.
That bastard refused to stand down.

Staring into Bliss’s beautiful hazel eyes, he said the first thing that came to mind.
“You can lick me anywhere you want.”

Jesus Christ, he hoped like hell no one else had heard that.
Not exactly dinner party conversation.

Good thing Bliss didn’t seem to mind.
In fact, he thought her gaze actually got hotter.

“Don’t be surprised if I take you up on that.”

Her voice had dropped to a husky whisper and her breath brushed against his cheek.

Oh fuck.

With one last, hot look in his direction, Bliss turned her attention back to her meal.

Since he couldn’t take his eyes off her, he watched as she slid her fork from between her lips.
Moaning, she closed her eyes.
The look of utter…well, bliss on her face made his lungs feel like they’d been gripped in a vise.

“Oh my gosh.”
Her eyes snapped open.
“This is amazing.
Have you tried this?”

He had no idea what she was talking about because he had no idea what she’d put in her mouth.

“I can’t wait to see what’s for dessert.”

Shane seriously hoped he was on the menu.

Chapter Three

Half an hour later, Shane was ready to climb the walls to get to the door.

He’d spent the last half hour talking to Cary, who’d been true to his word.
They hadn’t mentioned hockey once.
Instead, they’d been tasting and discussing the new beers Lori was considering adding to the taps in the bar she ran.

Well, Cary was talking.
Shane was pretending to listen but was really obsessing over Bliss, who was talking to Lori.

Until a few seconds ago when she turned to him with a smile as Lori walked in the opposite direction.

Now he fucking ached.

And beside him, Cary laughed under his breath, like he knew exactly what Shane was thinking.
Bastard probably did.

“Have a good night, Shane.”
Cary clapped him on the shoulder and gave him a little shove in Bliss’s direction.
“Call me tomorrow and let me know you survived.
I’ll let you know about the ice time.”

Shane held onto his manners long enough to say thanks to Cary before he walked to Bliss’s side.

When she looked up at him and her lips curved in a smile, he swore everyone else in the room vanished.

“Do you want to come back to my place for a drink?”

He wanted to smack himself on the forehead for just blurting that out but at least he hadn’t been stupid enough to add “and hot monkey sex” to the end of that question.

Yeah, it’s exactly what he hoped would happen but still.
Three hours of foreplay had given him a massive case of perma-erection and he knew exactly how he wanted to lose it.
Buried deep inside Bliss.

His hands itched to touch her and he practically had to bite his tongue so he wouldn’t lean down and kiss her.
Like he’d been fantasizing about for the past hour.

And then he’d strip her down to her skin and—

“Would you like to leave now?”

Bliss’s quiet question and her slight smile hit him low in the gut and nearly made him groan.

Holy fuck.
He wasn’t sure he’d make it all the way back to his place without embarrassing the hell out of himself.