Page 34

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

brEE

M y stomach dipped and rolled on the drive to the airport, and I couldn’t figure out why. Jaycee had become a good friend. I liked Chesney, too. We spent less time with her because she always seemed a bit shy and didn’t accept all the invites that Jaycee sent out. Still, I knew her.

The car dropped us off at a private airport. Reece took our bags from the trunk. Jaycee walked toward us with her arms out.

“How’s my favorite goalie and his better half?” she called out, and I couldn’t help but smile at Reece’s low, rumbling laugh. “Hey, girl…” she whispered as she wrapped me in a big hug. “I’m so glad you’re joining us. The others are already on the plane.”

“Where’s my hug?” Reece asked, and for someone who used to be so quiet and withdrawn, him asking for a hug felt kind of huge. Jaycee let me go to hug him.

“ Someone’s in a good mood,” she quipped.

He shrugged. “Getting laid while on the road? Fuck yeah, I’m in a good mood.”

“Grant used almost those same exact words. ”

Jaycee and I began laughing. I bent forward, my hand on her shoulder, we fell against each other, until Reece started walking toward the plane wheeling the bags behind him and I took that as my cue to get my butt moving.

A man in an airport uniform approached Reece, taking the bags from him.

I should point out that this was a smallish airport, where chartered flights took off from and landed at.

Boy, and the perks of living with your hockey star fake boyfriend just kept on coming, just like me—because of the fake boyfriend.

The orgasms were definitely real, and I had to admit, if only to myself, that I loved the idea of getting laid while he was on the road.

When we reached the stairs, Reece stopped me, spinning me into his arms. “This is where I leave you. I have to travel with the team.”

“Then I’ll see you when we land.”

“Woman,” he rumbled, pressing his lips to mine, “you better prepare because when I get you to the hotel”—I sifted my fingers through the thick hair at the back of his head and he groaned—“I’m gonna fuck every hole on your body, Bree.

” My face heated, equal parts turned on and scared that Jaycee might’ve heard that.

“Everywhere you walk with Jaycee and the other women, my cum will be leaking into your panties.” He dragged his lips to my jaw.

“Every step you take, you’ll think of me. ”

Whoa. My heart sped and my chest heaved. “Reece,” I whispered, and he slapped my bottom. The quick movement and sudden light sting jarred me, and I jumped.

“What’s my name?”

I snickered through my sigh. “ Baker .”

“Damn straight, Baker.”

“Right. But now I get to explain something. You are very lucky that we were embroiled in some sort of long-term foreplay when you slapped my ass, because if you ever slap me when sex isn’t involved, I’m gone. Forever. ”

“Babe,” he said.

“ Babe isn’t an answer, Baker.”

“I’ve never raised a hand to a woman in anger. Ever. You know that. I know how you like your ass slapped when we’re fucking and I went with it. Won’t happen again.”

“Except in bed, right?”

This time, he snickered. “In bed. On the floor. In the shower. Against the counter. Anywhere and everywhere. Work for you?”

“Uh… yeah. I think that works.”

“Good God, man,” someone yelled across the tarmac, “let her get on the plane already. We’ve got places to be.” Antonov. His accent set him apart from all the other players.

“Jaycee’s waiting,” Reece said, forcing me to tear my eyes from him to search her out. Jaycee stood on the third step up, waiting. Or watching. A bit of both, I think. Seeing Reece in a steady “relationship” still entertained his teammates and all those attached to the team.

“Until my holes get filled,” I said, moving away from him because what else could I say? He waited, watching me, smiling the whole time as I walked up the stairs. I knew because I kept turning around to smile back at him.

“Damn,” Jaycee whispered. “Seeing Baker in action is a thing of beauty. It’s a good thing we have a long flight ahead of us.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“Because I’m so turned on by that little display of yours, I might let my husband knock me up again.”

I shook my head at her while she led me to the seating. “Is that something he wants?”

“He keeps saying LJ needs a sibling. I remind him that LJ isn’t even three yet, and if he wants another baby so badly, he better find himself a sister-wife to marry.”

“I doubt you’d stay if he came home with a sister-wife.”

“No. I wouldn’t. He knows that, too. ”

“Good play.”

And I looked from Jaycee to the seats filled with women, a bit nervous, to be honest. “Don’t puke,” Jaycee said, and what? Was I that transparent? “They don’t bite. You already know Chesney.” She gestured to the woman. “This is Lexi Jones.”

“Nice to meet you, Bree,” Lexi said. “I’ve heard so much about you from Tony.” Her golden-blonde hair rested in an artfully messy pile on top of her head, and she smiled at me through glossy, pink lips. A stunner. Wow. Good for Jones.

“I hope only good things,” I replied.

“Girl, you snagged the grumpy goalie. Now the men don’t have a nickname for him because ‘the gleeful goalie’ just sounds stupid.”

I liked knowing the men thought of Reece as gleeful because of me, especially given his mother’s condition, but Lexi was right, it was lame.

“He’s never been grumpy with me.” It might not have been totally true.

He was pretty awful when we first started this thing.

But I couldn’t let that slip. What kind of woman continued to have sex with a man who treated her so poorly?

In this case, the little white lie seemed like the best course of action.

“Yeah, but you give him blowjobs,” Jaycee replied and we all laughed again. This was a good group of women, and my nerves fled in that moment.

“Not when we first got together,” I defended myself. Not a lie. He took control from the very first encounter and a blow job from me wasn’t on his to-do list.

Jaycee continued to introduce me to the other women until we reached our seats in the back, and she offered me the window.

My phone rang, reminding me that I needed to put it on airplane mode.

When I pulled it from my purse, Dane’s name showed on the screen.

I let that go to voicemail. He didn’t get to dampen this trip for me.

After all this time, all the calls I’d placed to try to talk to him about Benny’s child support for his therapies, now he decided to call me back? Asshole.

“What’s that look about?” Jaycee asked.

Sighing, I turned the phone on airplane mode as I answered, “Nothing really. Just Benny’s sperm donor. He’s a tool, which always makes for a fun conversation whenever we have to talk.”

“Would it make me a bitch to say I’m glad I don’t know what that’s like?”

“Not even. I wish I didn’t know what it was like, so I wouldn’t wish it on anyone else.”

“Well, you’re embarking on a quasi- girls’ trip where you still get to bump uglies with your man, so I’m officially decreeing that you must put all thoughts of tools out of your head for the duration of your time away.”

Hear, hear! “Done,” I replied, and I meant it.

We gossiped about celebrities and talked game stats and laughed the whole way.

We were a bunch of women on a luxury jet.

The flight attendants doted on us. For lunch they brought me and Jaycee Wagyu beef burgers served with thick-cut fries fried in wagyu beef fat.

Bad for the arteries? Probably. Delicious?

Definitely. There were a few options available, but I was in the mood for a big, juicy burger. That hit all the spots.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by a chauffeur, who led us to a shiny, black limousine bus. The thing was huge and had an open bar and snacks set up, with room enough to stand. I had no idea limousine buses existed until this moment, and now I got to ride in one.

When the bus finally rolled to a stop at our destination, the chauffeur opened the door for us, and I just about keeled over from the shock. Throwing a hand to my mouth, I squealed a jumbled, “ohmygod” before realizing how noob I must’ve sounded and got a grip on myself .

The Bellagio. We were staying at the mother of all Vegas hotels. The quintessential fountains behind us, and the classic architecture welcoming us to the front.

“Turn your phone on,” Jaycee reminded me.

I pulled it from my bag to switch off airplane mode.

And as soon as I did, I noticed an app that I hadn’t seen before.

Reece must’ve downloaded it last night after I’d gone to sleep.

I’d given him my passcode. It had made sense when he explained it.

Something about emergencies. Stranger things had happened in the world.

He’d given me his passcode for the same reason.

Neither of us had anything to hide, or so I thought.

Now I knew why he needed it. To surprise me. “Open the app,” she directed.

I opened the app, and Reece had shared a digital key with me. We didn’t even have to check in. It’d all been done for us.

Now I didn’t want to be one of those first-time tourists gawking at everything I passed, but here we were. One of us had never been on a vacation, and that one of us was me. Seasoned travelers would just have to deal.

“We’re all on the same floor, but given Baker booked you two last minute, let me see your room number,” Jaycee said.

I showed her my phone. Reece and I were located a few floors up from the rest of the group.

We took the elevator up. I kept going when the rest of the women stepped off onto their floor.