Page 36 of A Vegas Crush Collection #2

naked storytime

Boris

Ally rattles off the schedule for the week.

I’ll pack tonight for a short flight to Anaheim tomorrow morning.

We’ll condition, do a press event, and then chill for a bit before our first game.

We then travel to Los Angeles for game two on the road.

We’ll finish two nights later in Portland.

I’ll be gone for four days and it feels like forever, knowing Talia will be left here alone.

I approached Viktor at practice yesterday and asked if he could point me in the right direction for hiring private security to watch over Talia when she goes to and from her office.

He told me to call the same guy Vlad mentioned, Saul Heisenberg, local fixer of all problems—for a price.

I told Viktor price is nothing to me compared to peace of mind for the safety of my krasotka.

He slapped me on the back and typed Heisenberg’s number into my phone himself. I considered our fences mended.

“Do you want to try for the Saturday morning session?” Ally is asking.

I give her an apologetically quizzical look.

“The dyslexia session?” she asks.

“It sounds really awful, Ally.”

“It’s a mix of cognitive stimulation and introduction to some cheat tools they’ve developed,” she says. “It’s up to you.”

“I’ll think about it.” And I will. “But thank you for doing the research.”

We’re nearly to the arena. I thank Ally again and tell her I really appreciate her assistance with my schedule. She nods and starts to walk away before turning back. “Boris?”

“Yes?”

“Things are different between you and Talia now, aren’t they?”

“They are.” I gave her an answer, but I don’t feel like I owe her more than that.

She nods again, a small smile playing on her lips. “All good. I could see it coming a million miles away. Talk to you once you get on the road.”

“You guys were a machine out there,” Coach is saying. “Bring that same energy and organization on the road and I can’t see us doing anything but heading to the playoffs by season’s end. We have to keep the momentum going. We have to play with purpose—every single game.”

Our owner and GM are both here, too, and they’ve given us the same pep talk.

Coach’s came with a few notes first, of course.

The reality is that these first few games are all pre-season.

What will really matter is our true home opener in two weeks.

We have to win there in order to keep the momentum going into our long season.

We finish up the meeting and a few of us head to the gym to get a light workout in. I follow mine with a trip to the physical therapy rooms. My shoulder’s a mess again, so Pam has me hop up on the table so she can dig into the muscle.

“Wow, what did you do, get in a fight?” she asks jokingly.

I just grunt a response because that’s exactly how I jacked it up again. Clearly, telling her I had to enlist a group of shady dudes from Vegas to rescue the woman I love from another group of shady fuckers from Russia is not happening.

“Not talking today?” Pam asks. “Fine. I’ll do the talking.

I met your lady at the game the other night.

Talia Wentworth, big-glasses-wearing financial genius.

She hit it off with the First Wives Club right away, so they know about her now.

She’s no longer your secret dream girl anymore.

Still just friends, are we? Oh…sorry, professional colleagues? ”

I snort at this because her tone is so ridiculous. “You’re nosy.”

“You started it by pouring your guts out and asking for advice. Plus, we’re family.

You and Georg are blood relations. I’m your cousin now, too.

” She pokes my shoulder a little over hard to get her point across.

“Family shares shit about their lives with each other. So, spill. How did she go with the grand gesture? Did she go big?”

I would say being kidnapped and nearly raped going a little too big …

“Okay. Yes. We had a breakthrough and are on the same page. Happy?”

“Very. Good for you, Boris.” She sticks her tongue out at me.

I leave with a stupid grin on my face.

I brought Talia to my place on the guise of helping me pack for my road trip, but I have a few other plans for us tonight in addition to the packing.

I just got her, and now I must leave her behind and here alone while she’s still healing from what they did to her in the abduction? It’s fucked-up and I hate it very much.

She’s in my closet right now choosing shirts and ties to go with the two suits I’m taking on said trip I don’t want to take.

“What do you think of this green tie to go with the windowpane check and this blue shirt?” She’s sexy as fuck with her legs for days in gray shorts, and a tiny pink top with no bra; standing at the threshold of my closet, my clothes in her hands, (which she chose for me) asking for my opinion.

A dark shadow of a bruise is visible on her cheek and her hands still show the many scratches and cuts, but her beauty is not diminished even in the slightest.

Not to me.

I stalk over to her, take the hanger with the shirt from her hand and toss it on my bed.

“I really like the green tie for the blue shirt,” she chatters, “but what do you think?”

I take the green tie from her and loop it behind her neck, tugging her against me. “I think I like it best when you are wearing it, krasotka.”

“Oh yeah?” she says with a smirk. “Maybe the tie and nothing else, probably?” she teases.

“I won’t say no to that, but I was thinking more about sneaking you along with me for this road trip. I don’t like leaving you alone so soon after—”

“I will be fine right here with LuLu and my books.” She shakes her head at me, not entertaining any discussion on the matter.

“I’ll be watching every game and we can even FaceTime after if you want to.

” She wiggles her eyebrows at me suggestively.

“That could be fun. But at the end of the day, you have a job to do and so do I.”

I groan in frustration because even though I don’t like it, I know she’s right.

I have to help the Crush win hockey games on the road, and she has to help people manage their money here in Vegas.

“Okay, so the sooner we get me packed, the sooner I can take you to bed and have you read some more from the Iain Cooper book.”

“Whoa there, dragon man. You’re taking me to bed to have me read to you?” She wrinkles her nose at me, unable to hide her disappointment.

“Oh yeah. It will be days and days before you can read to me again, so I want to make the most of our night here together.”

“Umm, okay, if that’s what you want to do…I guess I can read to you.” She doesn’t look convinced but she’s trying her best to be. She’s adorable.

“I do have one request though, if you don’t mind.”

“Yes? What would that be?” Her eyes flash up at me curiously.

“You’re going to be naked while you read to me—well, you may wear this green tie if you like, but that is all.”

Many hours and orgasms later, when I have her warm and naked beside me in my bed, I know that Talia is set apart from all other women I have ever known in my life.

She’s this nerdy math and money girl who can be bold and shy at the same time.

She loves books and eats meat like it’s going out of style.

She’s always got something spilled on her clothes.

She’s got a mouth worse than my teammates, sometimes.

She’s strong and bold and sexually unafraid.

Talia Wentworth is amazing. And I am in love with her. I’m sure of it.

But I also know I have to be content with just this for now, because she’s not ready for more than this. To hold her, to share my bed with her, to hear her breathing as she falls asleep, that will have to be enough…for now.

Our first game on the road at Anaheim is a win.

I score one goal to Evan’s two. He’s playing the best I’ve ever seen him this season, and that’s saying something because he is a legend.

I’ve heard rumors he might retire in the next season or two.

He’s still young, but he has two kids now, a wife.

He’s talked about coaching somewhere. I think he’s ready to change the pace of his life.

We go for a beer after the game and when I ask him about it, he gives a vague shrug.

“My wife would like me home more, I’m sure, but I’ll always love playing the game. Coaching would still require a lot of traveling, so maybe broadcasting might be more of a future goal. I still have time to think about it, but the wheel keeps on turning, you know? Not getting any younger.”

“I wondered. I just started seeing someone and I feel bad leaving her behind already.”

Evan’s eyebrows shoot into his hairline. “You’re dating someone? Really?”

“Is it so hard to believe?”

“No, I mean, I guess…never mind. Who is she?”

“My investment manager,” I say with a chuckle. “Talia.”

“Wow, she’s some investment manager.”

“She’s a genius when it comes to managing my ‘puck-money’ as she calls it. She’s smarter than me by a mile.”

He smiles. “Those are the really special ones. Good for you, man. I hope it works out.”

I have a hard time sleeping after the Anaheim game. Thoughts of what could’ve happened to Talia the night she was kidnapped creep into my headspace at odd times. It’s too much to stomach when I delve too deeply down the rabbit hole of what-ifs and why nots.

My mind is not in the game when we lose to Los Angeles. I admit, I do not play my best, and I hear it from Coach after the game. Back at the hotel in a funk, I decide to call Talia.

“How are things in Sin City?” I ask.

“Same as before you left. How are things in the City of Angels? Did you know you’re in my hometown?”

“Ahh, yes, I do remember you saying your family was in LA. Maybe I would have played better tonight if you were here in the stands. I think you are my good luck charm, krasotka.”