Page 15 of Shootout
His glower was skeptical. “I’ll be watching. If my daughter’s skill level deteriorates, Pete and the entire Sockeyes admin will hear about it.”
I bit my tongue and nodded, pasting a pleasant expression on my face. “It’s been a pleasure to meet you.” I skated away to pick up a few loose pucks while fighting to control my fury toward that arrogant man.
I heard a low whistle and spun around. Banks sat on the boards wearing his street clothes. He grinned when I approached. I smiled back in spite of myself. He wore his arrogance like a privilege, not a cloak, and I had to admire that about him.
“What’re you doing here?” I sprayed ice as I came to a stop in front of him. He grinned.
“You look better in those skates. More at home on them.”
“I am. So what are you doing here?” I repeated.
“I’m here to make your day and let you take me to dinner. I’m starving. Are you done for the night?”
“Make my day?”
“Sure, after all, we are dating, right?”
I rolled my eyes. “Only pretend.”
He held his hands over his chest, right where his heart was. “You wound me. You just shot an arrow right through the middle of my ego.”
“I doubt I did any damage. Your ego seems pretty healthy to me.”
“Let’s go.” He jumped off the boards and opened the gate for me to walk through.
“Sorry, I have plans.” I walked down the tunnel, and he fell into step beside me. As we turned down the hallway, Jason came out a door and stopped.
“Ready to go home?” He pointedly ignored Banks.
I went from zero to pissed in one second. My brother hadn’t learned his lesson about pushing me around. “No, I’m not ready.”
His accusatory gaze slid to Banks and back to me. “You’re not going out with him, are you?”
“As a matter of fact, I am. We’re going to dinner.”
ChapterSix
EXCLUSIVE
~~Banks~~
When I arrived in the locker room for training camp that morning, it quickly became evident that Jessie hadn’t told her brother the truth. Wild sent daggers my way as he walked past on his way to the workout room. He didn’t trust me with his sister. With my rep, I couldn’t honestly blame him. When he discovered the depths of our deception, he’d hate me even more than he already did. I had sisters, too, and I was overprotective of them whether they liked it or not, so I got how he felt.
“Hey, lover boy. You have more guts than I do by hooking up with Wild’s sister.” Bryce Wilcox, one of our cocky young guys, snorted and chucked a puck in my direction. I sent it sailing back and missed his head by inches.
“We’re not—” I protested, but no one was listening.
“Slate obviously has a death wish,” joined in Ziggy, a.k.a. Gage Ziegler, a winger on the second line.
“You better not ever hurt her, or you’ll be buried in the concrete of that high-rise they’re constructing next door.” Brick, our goalie and reformed bad boy himself, threw back his head and laughed uproariously as though burying me in a concrete suit was funny.
“I’m not really…” I stopped when I noticed all heads turn toward the doorway. Hands on hips, Wild swung his gaze around the room until he locked onto me. I held my breath as he crossed the room in long strides.
“I’m not happy that you’re seeing my sister,” he growled. The room had gone silent as my nosy teammates leaned in to listen.
“I’m not…”
“You’re not what, serious about her? Because I swear, I’ll kick your ass so hard you’ll be in the Pacific Ocean.”
