Page 11 of He Has MVP (Boston Brawlers Hockey)
She looks at me. “It’s all right. Good job driving.” She reaches a hand over and touches my arm. “Thank you.”
Embers everywhere inside me combust at once, sparking the banked desire I’ve been dancing around with since last weekend. I want this woman. For what, I’m not sure, but I know she’s not one-night-stand material. She’s made that perfectly clear.
So what’s left?Go easy, Cav. Don’t get yourself into trouble over a hot nice girl in a storm. Just because we’re alone and trapped for the weekend. We have one or two nights before we get off the island. If it goes longer than that I’m fucked because preseason starts Tuesday and I need to be in Boston by Monday night and on the ice first thing Tuesday morning.
“Oh my God, this is my worst nightmare,” she says.
“Which part? Being trapped with me or—”
She flaps her hand around dismissing my concern. It shouldn’t give me and my dick a jolt of thrill, but it does.
“It’s not you—for once. I have so much work to do and I can’t contact anyone to let them know. I can’t believe we’re stuck here. With no Internet and no power.” She glares at me as if I’m the one who pulled the plug.
“Hey, I thought you said it’s not about me?” I know I should hold in my amusement at her distress, because really, I’m just as fucked as she is, but it’s too much damn fun seeing her all undone.
“Don’t you dare laugh.” She says more loudly than the noise of the rain and hail warrants. Then swats my arm for good measure. Of course I laugh. But I fully intend to fix things.
“Look, tomorrow we’ll find a place to charge our phones or get one of those portable phone chargers from a drug store,” I say. “It’ll be fine babe.”
“Don’t call me that.” She opens the car door as I turn into the drive, before we’re stopped. Once we get the pups and provisions inside, I watch her create order, putting things away, everything in its place, while I take care of drying the pups.
Then she surprises me when she turns to me and says, “You’re right. Maybe the power will be restored by morning and we won’t need to worry about a thing. I’ll only have lost a day of work.” She scowls. “I can handle that. I’ll pull an all-nighter tomorrow.”
Not if I can help it. I’m smart enough to keep that thought to myself. At least she’s moderately settled down. I watch her, looking around, at odds without her work.
“Forget how to relax?” I ask. She pulls her scowl together meaner and cuter than ever and aims it at me as if she could actually shoot lasers from her eyes. Not those eyes. There’s too much vulnerability just beneath the superficial gruff she tries to protect herself with.
“Tell you what, I’ll make a fire. That’ll help get you in the mood.”
“It’ll be good for light and heat,” she shoots back. “Good idea.”
On an exploratory mission, I step outside to check on using the grill. Steak for dinner is out the window. Not that the grill isn’t working but the rain and wind make it impossible to use it. I wouldn’t mind standing out here, but the meat would be drenched before I could turn it.
“Umbrellas are fucking useless in this wind,” I say. Coming back inside with the mangled umbrella, I take off the soaking wet jacket I found in the closet—the only one that I could squeeze into.
She snorts. “No kidding.”
I laugh at her taunt.
We eat sandwiches in front of the fire. Hers are peanut butter and mine are salami. We sit on the floor with the dogs around us. I have her exactly where I’ve wanted her—in a position to seduce me.
So why am I more worried about her feeling safe than sexy?
