Page 183 of Breaking the Pucking Rules

Jesus. I’m a fucking mess.

I haven’t played with the intention of impressing a girl since I was in high school. “Ah but you want it to be, don’t you, Big D?”

“Can you leave it?”

“Who is she?” he pushes. “Someone I know?”

“She’s…” I hate myself before the next words even leave my lips. “No one.”

“Uh-huh,” he mutters, seeing right through me. “I’m gonna figure this out.” Panic shoots through me.

We’ve been careful—if you forget about the pool groping and fucking her in her childhood bedroom—but that doesn’t mean that someone won’t work it out if they look hard enough.

“Good luck with that.”

Thankfully, the second we walk into the bar, Linc is distracted from asking me questions about my mystery woman and happily accepts one of the shots that’s waiting for us.

“About fucking time,” Handsy mutters.

“Storm was having a bad hair day,” I explain as I lower my ass to a free chair, avoiding the shots and ordering a beer instead.

I meant what I said to Linc earlier: I don’t want to finish this stretch on my knees. I’ll celebrate with the guys, but I draw the line at two beers.

Everyone is excited and boisterous as we celebrate the best possible start to the season we could get. As the night goes on, the married and taken guys disappear—I’m assuming to get some alone time with their other halves—leaving the single guys to work their way through the bunnies who have discovered where we’re drinking until they make their choice for the night.

Linc seems to have chosen a redhead. She’s hot, but she’s got nothing on Casey.

Standing, I make my way over to tell him that he’s going to need to find somewhere else to bang her because I’m going to bed. At least if he’s distracted for a while longer, I might just get a little quiet time with Casey.

Pulling my cell from my pocket, I glance at the time.

“Shit,” I hiss as I make my way over. It’s late in LA. I might have already missed her.

“Alright?” Linc says as I approach.

“I’m calling it a night,” I tell him. “Please be quiet when you decide to join me.” I’m hoping the hard glare I give him is enough of a warning to keep the bunny as far away from me as possible.

To be fair to him, he’s only brought a girl back twice, and that was at the beginning of last season when he was hoping that despite my attitude I might have been interested in joining.

Hard no.

Back in the day before I was a father, I’d been known to party just as hard as the rest of the team. But everything changed the day I learned my life as I knew it had ended. I made myself a promise right there and then to be the kind of man that my future child would look up to and be proud of. No way in hell would they be reading articles online that I was out fucking any bunny who looked my way just for the fun of it. Sure, if Sutton looks back far enough, she’ll find some. But nothing past the day I learned of her existence. There are enough people in the world setting bad examples for the next generation; I wasn’t going to be one of them.

“I’ll do my best,” he says, turning to look at his bunny. “You got a room here, baby?”

She slides her hand up his chest before biting her bottom lip and shaking her head.

Of course she hasn’t gone to the expense of a hotel room when she knows the men she’s trying to bag have more than enough to splash around.

“Well, we’d better see what we can do, seeing as my roommate isn’t up for a party.”

His comment has her attention turning my way.

Her eyes bounce between mine before dropping to my lips.

Oh, hell no.

“Shame. We could have had some fun.”