Page 19 of Breaking the Pucking Rules (LA Vipers #1)

CASEY

H is large hands wrap around my upper arms as he catches me with ease before I crash into his big, hard, muscular body.

Memories of the first night this happened flicker through my mind.

Oh for a repeat of that…

Damn him.

How is it fair that he’s so hot?

Heat burns down my arms from his touch, shooting straight to my core.

I shift my thighs together as the ache intensifies.

Coming here tonight was a bad idea. But it’s too late to do anything about it now.

He pushes me backward, righting me on my feet again.

But the second I look up, I discover that this isn’t a happy reunion.

There is no joy on his face. None of the lightness from that night. Just anger.

His lips press into a thin line before he rasps, “What the fuck are you playing at, Casey?”

I blink up at him as the sound of my name rolling off his lips hits me full force.

God, I wish I could have heard him moaning that in my ear.

Desire pools between my thighs.

I was wrong.

One night with Kodie Rivers wasn’t enough.

I need more.

So much more.

“I-I’m not playing at anything,” I shoot back. “I came out with Parker for a drink.”

His jaw ticks with irritation, and the urge to lean forward and lick the pulsating spot is almost too much to ignore.

“I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”

Irritation flashes across his face.

His eyes hold mine captive. I don’t know what he’s looking for, or if he finds it.

The team is right inside. One of them could come out at any moment and catch us like this.

My heart rate continues to increase as his familiar manly scent flows through my nose.

“I’m leaving. This…This…” He gestures between us as he fights for something to say.

Behind me, the door opens and the loud music from inside the bar spills out.

My heart jumps into my throat, but I don’t react as fast as Kodie.

His giant hand grips mine tightly for a beat before he drags me around the corner.

All my breath rushes from my lungs as my back crashes against the rough wall.

“What are you—” His burning palm covers my mouth, and my eyes widen.

“Shush,” he hisses, his expression tight and panicked as we wait.

I’m not sure what he’s expecting. Surely, one of his teammates isn’t going to come out to find him?

He’s a grown-ass man who can do whatever the hell he wants.

They were probably expecting him to leave ages ago. I know I was.

My heart flutters as I consider that he might have hung around because I was here.

It’s silly and naive, but I can’t help it.

Our eye contact holds as silence falls around us.

No one calls out for either of us. No one does anything.

My heart pounds so hard, blood whooshes past my ears, and my head spins, but it has nothing to do with the alcohol I’ve consumed tonight.

A car races past before blaring its horn. My entire body flinches, and I swear Kodie moves closer.

The thought of him trying to protect me is almost too much.

Long seconds pass with nothing but eye contact before he finally lets his hand slip from my mouth.

His warm, beer-scented breath rushes over my face. He’s so close that all I’d have to do is stretch up on my toes and our lips would collide.

“What are you doing?” I whisper, needing to know where this is going.

Please let it be where I want it to be.

His eyes bounce between mine as if he’s battling some kind of internal war.

My breath catches when his arm lifts and his hand wraps around the side of my neck, his thumb resting on my jaw.

“Kodie,” I whimper, unable to keep it in.

I wanted to moan his name so badly that night, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t let him know the truth.

His chest heaves, the heat of his body searing the front of mine.

I swear time ceases to exist as I silently beg him to kiss me.

Me.

Not the woman in the mask, but me .

Casey Watson.

The forbidden daughter of his?—

He leans forward, and my eyelids lower as my tongue drags along my bottom lip in preparation.

Kiss me. Please.

Kiss me.

His lips are a hair’s breadth from mine. He’s going to do it.

He’s going to?—

“Casey?” My best friend’s voice pierces through the air, and he jumps back as if I burned him.

No.

“Kodie?” I whisper as ice quickly replaces the lava that was filling my veins only moments ago.

“Go,” he instructs, his voice hard and commanding.

He sounds just like he did that night when he was making dirty demands, but this is a very different situation. It takes everything I have not to sob in disappointment.

“Case?” Parker calls again.

“This isn’t over,” I state quietly before I step out of the alleyway he’d pulled me into.

“Hey, what’s up?” I ask, attempting to sound innocent and failing miserably.

Her eyes hold mine for a beat before they jump to the darkness behind me.

“What were you—Oh my god. Were you with him?”

“Shush,” I hiss, glancing back over my shoulder as if he’s going to walk out and make his presence known.

He’s not. He will hide as if he’s ashamed of being anywhere near me.

I know that’s not true—hell, I hope it’s not. His hiding and not wanting anyone to know what happened between us is a hell of a lot more serious than a little bit of shame.

His entire career, his life as he knows it, is at stake.

And yet, he was about to kiss you…

My eyes fill with tears, and I look away, embarrassed that I’m getting emotional over this.

It must be the alcohol.

“Casey?” Parker whispers in concern.

“I’m just going to call an Uber and head home.”

“I’ll do it,” she says, pulling her cell from her purse.

“No,” I say a little firmer than before. “You stay, enjoy the rest of your night. That guy was into you. You should?— ”

“I’m not interested in him, Case. I’m worried about you, though.”

She taps the screen, ordering a car. “Two minutes,” she says before putting it away again.

“I’m fine. I’m just being silly. Coming here tonight was a mistake,” I confess.

“Was it?” she asks, linking her arm with mine as we wait. “Case, that man has barely taken his eyes off you from the moment you walked in.” Her words are spoken quietly so that no one else would hear, but they hit me with the force of a defenseman slamming someone into the boards.

I shake my head, refusing to believe her words.

“He was probably wishing I’d leave,” I mutter dejectedly. “He thinks I’m playing games.”

“Pfft,” Parker huffs. “Then he needs to get to know you better.”

“He can’t. We can’t. I just need to forget it ever happened.”

Her hopeful expression dies. She knows that isn’t going to be possible.

She knows just how much that night meant, how much he means to me.

Even if I don’t really know him. Even if he’s only a figure in my fantasies.

He’s still a part of my life. One I never expected to be within touching distance of. But he’s here now.

I set all this in motion, and I’m going to have to deal with the consequences.

“Casey,” she sighs.

“It’s fine. I just need to pull my big girl panties on and move on with my life.”

She smiles sadly at me as our car pulls up to the curb.

She climbs in first, and just before I follow, I look behind me at the alleyway he’s loitering in.

He’s watching me. Electricity shoots through me the second our eyes connect, and I wish it was enough for him to step out of the shadows and stop me from leaving. But no matter how much I pray for that to happen, I know it won’t.

A heavy sigh rips from my lips a second before I turn away and climb into the car.

Parker doesn’t say a word. She doesn’t need to. A lifetime of friendship means she knows. So instead of saying anything, she reaches over and takes my hand in hers, squeezing in support.

The journey is mostly in silence, and when we pull up outside of my apartment building first, I tell her that I’ll call her in the morning before climbing out and heading inside.

If it were a different night, I might have invited her up. But right now, I just want to be alone.

Maybe we can have a do-over of our night out tomorrow.

My limbs are heavy as I plod through my apartment to my bedroom. The second I’m there, I drag my jersey from my body and throw it down on the bed.

My eyes snag on the name and number printed across it.

I wore this one tonight as a test. It was stupid.

I have a full roster of the Vipers jerseys, and I rotate them.

Of course, since Kodie signed, I’ve secretly favored his.

I’ve never really thought much of whose I’m wearing. Or at least, I didn’t until the first exhibition game on Monday when I made a point of selecting Kodie’s. I wanted to see his reaction to me wearing his jersey after discovering that I was his mystery woman.

Just like I wanted to see if he would react to me wearing Linc’s tonight.

Maybe he was right earlier when he accused me of game-playing. Maybe that is exactly what I’m doing.

I strip the rest of my clothes off and pull out a t-shirt to sleep in before making my way to the bathroom to take my makeup off.

The second I look at myself in the mirror, I let out an exhausted sigh.

We shouldn’t have gone to The Fractured Compass tonight. We should have gone to one of our usual places away from the team.

It was a risk. One that didn’t pay off.

Or maybe it did, if you consider getting close to Kodie again winning.

He was going to kiss you.

Damn Parker for coming to find me when she did.

I brush my teeth and climb into bed, running those few minutes with Kodie over and over in my mind.

If Parker hadn’t come out, if we hadn’t been interrupted, where could tonight have gone?

Probably nowhere , a little voice pipes up.

But that voice doesn’t stop my imagination running on overdrive and I picture us stumbling into my apartment, his lips locked on mine, his hands on my body.

My hand slips down my stomach as I picture exactly what I’d want him to do to me. How he’d command me to do his bidding and I’d love every second of it.

It doesn’t take me long to find my release, and I fall asleep with filthy thoughts of Kodie still buzzing around my head.