Page 11 of Game Misconduct

Tanner hadn’t sabotaged him on purpose. He hadn’t known there was going to be a scout from the Boston Harriers there for the game. He hadn’t even been the one to sneak in the booze. He’d just encouraged Leif to let loose for fucking once.

And hehad. That was the most annoying part. He’d totally had fun that night.

In the hours they’d all spent in that hotel room, laughing, joking around, drinking … Leif had looked happier than Tanner had ever seen him.

And later, when it was the two of them alone in Tanner’s room, when Tanner had been on his knees with Leif in his mouth, his face had looked fucking soft for once.

He wasn’t the ice princess Tanner saw most of the time.

His cheeks had been flushed with color, his hair had been a mess, and he’d looked relaxed andhappy.

It had made Tanner feel really fucking good to get a guy like that to finally unwind. Hell, Leif had even kissed him after. Hadn’t minded the taste of himself in Tanner’s mouth.

Tanner had gone back to his hotel room that night thinking that maybe he and Leif were finally gonna befriends.

But it had all gone to hell the next day.

Leif had been all bitchy ice princess again, all snarly and mean, blaming Tanner for why he felt like shit and played even worse.

And so Tanner had kept goading him and goading him. Leif had flubbed something on the power play and it had all gone downhill from there. They’d lost the game badly.

After, they’d ended up tussling in the locker room. And not in a horsing-around way. Leif hadlegitlooked ready to murder Tanner that day.

But still, Tanner had thought it would blow over eventually. Leif would cool off and they’d go back to the fun kind of arguing they’d done before.

Maybe Leif would even be up for fooling around again.

But no. Boston had lost interest in Leif and that had enraged him.

The stupid part was that they hadn’t lost interest just because of thatone game—Leif had been struggling for a while there—but Leif had blamed it all on Tanner. He’d said he’d deliberately sabotaged him.

Which,dude. What the fuck?

Leif was giving Tanner way too much credit for his planning skills if he really thought Tanner had, like,orchestratedthe whole thing.

That was fuckin’ nuts.

Tanner was lucky if he could plan what he was going to eat in a day or remember to do laundry, much less sabotage a guy’s entire fucking future NHL career.

No. It had been bad luck and bad timing and, duh, some of Leif’s own fucking fault.

But it was easier for him to blame Tanner than take responsibility for his own mistakes. Or, that’s what Tanner’s mom had said, anyway.

“You’re up next, Clayton. Get your ass out there!” Coach Rasmussen shouted, pulling Tanner from where he’d been lost in his head. He was over the boards before he could really think about it. Before he could even make a choice.

Coach said jump, he jumped.

Tanner and Leif might have a beef, but the Harriers’ assistant coach was solid. Even if he was Leif’s dad.

Shit, I need to be paying more attention, Tanner thought as he hurried to catch up with his D-partner, Luke. His mind did kinda tend to wander.

Tanner couldn’t let the stupid-ass bitchy ice princess distract him even more than he already had.

Tanner managed to focus for the rest of the period, although New York scored twice. Thankfully,neitherwere Tanner’s fault.

The first was on a power play after Crawford got into it with Mirsad Renner.

But Tanner would swear that after Leif fired the puck into the net over Jesse’s shoulder for the second goal, he turned to look at Tanner on the bench with a smirk.