Page 14

Chapter Fourteen

“Local hot spot, Sugar Squared, broke out a new recipe this week. She’s calling them Apricot Puffs. I’m here to put my stamp of approval on these heavenly treats. Sweet and irresistible.” Penni’s Puckleberry Tea

Boh

I fell onto my back and stared up at the white ceiling paint. At the slowly spinning blades of the fan. I wouldn’t fall back asleep. Not with my dick hard as a crosspost. I should just get up. By the sounds of things, my chipper little roommate was already playing with pots and pans in the kitchen.

I let out a low groan before shoving my feet to the floor. Bracing my forearms across my thighs, I leaned into my hands before scrubbing them over my face, through my hair, wiping away the memory of having a sensual bundle of woman in my arms just moments ago. The remnants of the painkillers I’d taken last night were wearing off.

Waking up to Novy had been an unexpected treat, though.

Not one I needed to repeat, of course. Just the sort of trouble I didn’t need—getting wrapped up with a woman ostensibly on the team’s payroll on the heels of all the other drama.

Feminine voices reached me from the front of the apartment. I grinned. She’d jerked out from under me like the house was on fire. Then stood at the bedside, bouncing from foot to foot, her guilty conscience prodding her into an unnecessary apology. An apology to my dick.

I wrapped my fist around him and gave him a gentle stroke. The bright pink in her cheeks put a grin on my face, but I don’t think she’d noticed. Too distracted at the idea of getting caught beneath me by her friends. Too flustered by what we’d been doing in my bed.

I had an ego, true. But it wasn’t just my ego speaking when I say she wasn’t the first woman to get flustered by me. Hockey players weren’t as well known as other sports celebrities, but we were still pro athletes. And some women chased after the jerseys. Aubrey Canfield’s unwanted face popped to mind.

But one stark difference between those women and my roommate stood out.

I liked flustering má meruňka . Getting a rise out of her sent a bolt of masculine satisfaction through me.

I wanted to fluster her some more.

A lot more.

I pushed to my feet, grabbed a pair of shorts from the dresser, and strode through the bedroom door. Curiosity carried me down the hall and into the kitchen and in the next instant, I stood before Novy and two strangers.

How had I forgotten the reason she’d bolted from my bed? I frowned at the unwelcome guests. Their startled gasps morphed into snickers. Kurva . I closed my eyes.

“Well, good morning, Mr. Zacha.”

I cracked one lid to see a redheaded woman, her elbows propped on the kitchen’s center island with an unrepentant, sadistic grin. Undeterred and obvious, she dragged her gaze from my bare chest, down to my cast and up again. Let her smirk spread until even the corners of her eyes wrinkled with humor.

I sighed, big and gusty, and lodged my fists on my hips. Novy stood just behind the stranger, her eyes wide, while a third woman dug around in the open fridge. I focused on the cheeky redhead. “Was a good morning until you three woke me up. What the hell’s going on?”

Novy shifted, her cheeks flaming again, her gaze directed over my left shoulder. “I’m going to film some content.”

I moved half a step to the left. “Thought we agreed no filming?”

“No,” she said, her eyes flashing and finally meeting mine. “You said you didn’t want to be in any of my videos. That’s an entirely different thing.”

I nodded. I’d figured out she filmed while I did my workouts some evenings. The extra bowls of food a big clue. “Right. And it takes all three of you up at dawn to do these videos?”

The woman behind Novy closed the fridge and settled into a lean beside the redhead. “It’s nearly ten. No where near dawn.”

I glanced toward the window, the sparkling sunshine shining through the glass. “How long are you going to take?”

The flush traced up from beneath the collar of her pale pink top to the soft skin of her neck, to fill her cheeks. My fingers itched to follow the color. She had the softest skin, sweet as meruňka beneath my lips—

“Are we interrupting?”

I tore my gaze from Novy to find the redhead grinning at me. I looked back to Novy to find her staring down at the counter. “Who is this person?”

She spoke to the cherry tomatoes on the counter. “Kitty.” Without looking up, she kicked her thumb toward the woman I recognized from the bout. “And you should remember Seeley.”

“Sugar Rush. Right.” I stared a hole into the top of Novy’s head, but when she still didn’t look up, I moved toward my office. “I’ve got someone coming. Let me know when they get here.”

She jerked her head up. “Because of the noise from the bout last night?”

“No.” Sakra. Did she see me as weak now?

“Oh.” She nodded. “I’ll let you know.”

The moment I turned away, their whispered giggling filled the kitchen and I couldn’t help but grin. I’d give my favorite hockey glove to hear their conversation.