Page 17 of I Could Be Yours (The Toronto Terror #6)

NATE

“ I cannot believe this shit,” I mutter as we board the plane.

“What are the chances, right?” Flip is all smiles.

“We’re not changing seats. The girls sit with the girls, and the guys sit with the guys, and that’s that,” I snap. “This is not a couples’ weekend.” I thought I was being all sly, keeping the destination of Tristan’s boys’ weekend under wraps. But here we are.

“I’m not part of a couple,” Flip reminds me.

“Neither am I.” Essie’s sunshine-and-rainbows voice comes from behind us.

“Or me!” adds Dred Reformer, Flip’s neighbor and firmly platonic friend.

“The rest of you better not pair off,” I grumble.

“Do you hear that, sweetheart? You sit with Tristan, and I sit with Aurora.” Lavender pats Kodiak on the chest. She’s his wife, and a tiny thing.

She’s wearing a dress the color of her name with lime green infinity symbols edging the hem and winding around her waist and over her shoulders.

It’s more like art than clothing. “I’m right across from you. ”

Kodiak frowns. He and my brother played hockey together for a summer when they were teens at the Hockey Academy .

“What’s the holdup?” Essie asks from behind me.

“Kodiak doesn’t want to be separated from Lavender,” Flip explains.

“Everyone needs to sit in their assigned seat so we don’t hold up boarding!” I call.

Lavender unwraps the scarf from her neck and winds it around his hand. “You’ll be fine. Until an hour ago, you thought you were spending three days away from me. You can handle sitting across the aisle for five hours.”

He sighs and flops into his seat. Aurora, also often referred to as Hammer because the hockey boys like to use last names, takes the spot beside Lavender, and they share a giggle.

Aurora works for the Terror; she’s also Roman’s daughter and Hollis’s girlfriend.

Roman and Hollis retired from the league at the end of last season, they’re best friends, so the levels of complication are high.

There are sixteen seats in first class, and we take up all of them. My group includes me, Kodiak, and my brother’s current and recently retired teammates.

The girls in Rix’s friend group have dubbed themselves the Badass Babe Brigade. Today they’re wearing shirts proclaiming them as Bea’s Babes . Two of them are pregnant, so we get them seated quickly. Rix and Essie end up across from me and Flip.

Everyone takes their seat, and because karma is clearly having a laugh at my expense, Essie makes eye contact while applying her lip gloss. I immediately want to take her to the bathroom so I can kiss it right off her perfect lips.

“What are the fucking chances, eh?” Flip says jovially.

I drag my gaze away from Essie. “Seriously.”

If everyone pairs off, I’ll be super pissed.

But at the same time…I sure wouldn’t mind getting my hands on Essie again.

Or having her hands on me. I’m also hella impressed that she single-handedly managed to wrangle all these women onto a plane without anyone finding out where they were going.

I fi nally had to cave a couple of days ago and tell Flip so I could get his help on a few things.

More passengers board the plane. It doesn’t take long for people to realize first class is full of professional hockey players.

The poor flight attendants keep redirecting people to their seats, and boarding takes way longer than it should.

Women and children shriek, and men turn into starstruck fools. It’s quite the experience.

Eventually everyone is where they’re supposed to be, and the flight attendants pass out glasses of champagne to our group, except for Shilpa and Lexi, who accept orange juice and crackers. People keep trying to use the bathroom at the front of the plane so they can get things signed.

Once we’re in the air, it turns into a freaking party. The girls clean them out of sparkling wine. I’m half-hoping they get plane drunk and all need a two-hour nap once we land in Vegas.

Rix gets up to use the bathroom.

I connect to the Wi-Fi so I can get free messaging and warn my brother to keep his mouth shut, but I have new messages from Essie, so I check those first.

Essie

This is super suss.

Did you find my travel plans while I was cleaning your jizz off my hands?

I shoot her a look.

She bats her lashes and refocuses on her phone.

Essie

Where are you boys staying?

Nate

Why?

Essie

Nate

You want me to play with your clit ring again?

I want to play with her clit ring again. And I want to get my mouth on her nipples.

Essie

My clit could be persuaded.

But also because Kodiak can’t be separated from Lavender.

Nate

I’m not telling you.

Essie

Hard for you to find out how pretty I look with my mouth full of your cock if you don’t.

She pockets her phone when Rix returns to her seat.

“What hotel are you guys staying at?” Rix asks.

I shake my head. “I’m not telling you.”

“The Drake,” Flip says at the same time.

I shoot him a look.

“They were going to find out eventually.”

He’s not wrong, but still. And Essie is right about not being able to play with her if I don’t know where she’s staying.

“Seriously?” Essie narrows her eyes. “How is this even possible? Did you go snooping around when you stopped by the other night?”

“You stopped by Essie’s?” Flip leans forward. “I keep telling you, I could be the one.”

“The one I don’t need,” she quips, batting her long lashes.

This trip is turning into a shitstorm. “Can you two stop talking around me?” The last thing I need is Flip flirting with Essie all weekend. “I had to drop something off because apparently it couldn’t wait twenty-four hours. I wasted a whole night running around,” I grouse .

But mostly I’m frustrated that I can’t get the sound, smell, and feel of Essie coming for me out of my damn head. And I really, really want to do it again. Soon.

“I really appreciated your dedication to seeing it through, though,” Essie says sweetly.

I give her a look.

She winks.

My dick wants to get involved.

This is going to be a long-ass flight.