Page 41 of Only for Tonight (Only For #1)

thirty-four

Jaxon

I pull out the chair and sit down, leaning back into it as Kirby looks around. “You good?”

“Not really,” he admits to me, “but it’s fine, I guess. You look…” He shakes his head. “I’m fucking jealous of the way you look.”

I look down at myself. “How do I look?”

“Like you don’t have a care in the fucking world,” he states, laughing. “I’ve never seen that look on you before and I like it.”

“Not going to lie,” I say, “never had this feeling before and I got to tell you, man, once you get this feeling.” I shake my head. “It’s a feeling you are going to fight to keep.”

“I bet,” he finally replies. “I’ll let you know when I’m even remotely close to that.”

“You keep dating the wrong people and you’ll never get to this feeling.”

“All of a sudden he’s the love doctor,” Kirby jokes, leaning back in his chair.

I laugh with him as I look around and my eyes find her coming out of the bathroom. I know right away something is off because she shakes her hands as if she’s shaking something away.

She looks down at her feet and I see her breathing in and out. She puts her hand on her stomach before she mumbles something to herself. “What the fuck?” I curse and Kirby’s eyes look at what I’m staring at.

She looks fucking pissed by the time she realizes I’m looking at her, and I see her put on a fake fucking smile. “Hey,” she greets, pulling out the chair beside me and sitting down, “did you guys grab something to eat?”

“What happened?” I ignore that she’s smiling, and my body goes on alert.

“Nothing happened.” She shakes her head. “It smells good.” She rubs her hands on the thighs of her jeans. “Is it cold in here?” She glances around, avoiding looking at me. “It’s a bit cold in here.” She’s having a conversation by herself, which means something is up.

“Ariella,” I say her name and she looks back at me, “what the fuck happened?”

“Nothing.” She tries to play it off and I can see something happened. I just don’t know what it is, but I’ll be fucking damned if she feels uncomfortable here.

“You were fine when you went into the bathroom.” I look around, not seeing anything that would have made her switch like that.

Until I look over to the bathroom and see Angela coming out with two of her cronies who follow her around everywhere.

They aren’t even dating anyone on the team, but because of Kirby, they let them in all the time.

She is in the middle of the two and she’s saying something and the other two just nod at her the whole time.

“Did she say something to you?” Kirby is the one asking her now, and his look isn’t one I want to mess with. It’s a look I’ve seen often over the years, especially on the ice. “Ariella,” he says her name, his voice tight, “what did she say to you?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “It’s nothing.

” She tries to avoid even prolonging the conversation by looking around.

Then she spots them coming closer to the table.

“Can we not do or say anything? I swear I’m okay.

” She looks at Kirby, nervously giving him a fake-ass fucking smile and then she reaches for my hand.

“It’s okay, I’m fine. We should eat.” She looks around nervously.

“Let’s go eat.” She then looks at Kirby.

“Do you want to eat with us?” He just stares at her, then looks at me, then his look goes to the three girls.

Kirby pushes away from the table and I watch him with his eyes straight on Angela, who is now laughing with her friends as she makes her way over to us.

Her face goes white when she sees Ariella sitting at the table and Kirby in front of us on his feet.

She quickly puts on her mask, no doubt for the sake of her friends.

“Hey, baby,” she coos, “are you going to get something to eat?”

“We’re leaving,” Kirby declares, staring at her.

His glare is making it known that he’s fucking pissed, and he’s pissed at her.

Angela looks at him as if she’s not bothered at all, but I can see the nervousness in her stance.

Kirby breaks eye contact with her, turning to Ariella.

“I’m sorry for whatever bullshit she said to you. ”

“She didn’t say—” Ariella quickly tries to cover up for her and Kirby moves behind his chair and tucks it in.

“I promise you,” he vows to Ariella, “it will never happen again. I give you my word; it will never, ever happen again.”

“It better fucking not,” I cut into the conversation.

“Jaxon,” Ariella cries and I feel her hand on mine.

“No,” I quickly say, my eyes on Angela, who has turned her glare to me. “Fuck that. I’ve held my tongue for far too long.”

“You and me both,” Kirby seethes, walking to Angela. “Turn your ass around and walk out of here with me or”—his voice goes even lower and it’s filled with so much anger, it’s a surprise the room hasn’t iced over—“I’ll get fucking security to drag you and your posse out of here.”

“Kirby,” Angela defends, shaking her head, “you heard her. I didn’t say anything.” She points to her chest, trying to be all brave.

“Okay, well, I’m leaving,” he states, smiling, “and if you aren’t behind me, we know what decision you made.

” He walks out of the room. I look over at Angela, my eyebrows going up and I secretly fucking hope she doesn’t follow him.

It would be my absolute pleasure to get security to drag her ass out of here.

“This place is lame anyway.” She flips her hair off of her shoulder. “Let’s go back to my place and chill.” She looks at her girls, who look like they want the floor to open up and swallow them. They turn and walk away, and only when they are out of the room do I relax a bit.

“You going to tell me or do I have to call Kirby and ask him to ask her what she said?”

“You will not do that,” she scolds. “That’s just adding more fuel to the fire.”

“Baby.” I shake my head. “I don’t know if you saw what I saw, but that fire is already half burned to the ground and she”—I point to where Angela was sitting—“was the one adding more fucking fuel to it than needed to be added. So the ball is now in your court.” I raise my eyebrows and wait for a split second. “I’m waiting.”

“Why are you like this?” She rolls her eyes. “I said I was fine.”

“Wow,” I say, getting up, “you got on my ass about communicating with you, and now you are the one shutting me out.”

“Can we be more dramatic?” She reaches for my hand and pulls me back into the chair. “I’d rather talk about this at home. Can we do that?”

I shake my head. “No, because the minute I get you home, I’m dragging you to the bed and fucking you senseless,” I tell her. “Or maybe I’ll do you in the SUV; either way, I’m not wasting my alone time with you talking about them.”

“Wow, you forgot about my hot chocolate.” I roll my eyes. “And not for nothing, but I was really looking forward to that chocolate syrup.”

“Ariella,” I groan, my cock twitching in my jeans, “spill it.”

“Okay, fine, but just so you know, I handled it myself.” I just glare at her and she holds up her hands. “They didn’t know I was in there.” I sit up, putting my arm around the chair and pulling the chair to me. “They said things that bitches say.”

“Which are?”

“I don’t want to repeat it,” she says softly and she finally lets me see how much the words hurt her.

I get up. “Let’s go,” I urge her. She gets up, and with her head down, we walk out of here. Only when we are in the SUV do I look over at her. “I let you down,” I finally say and she whips her head toward me. “I brought you here and I didn’t protect you.”

“Don’t you fucking dare,” she hisses at me. “Honestly, it’s nothing.”

“It was something,” I counter her. “It was something that made you look like that.” I point over my shoulder. “This was supposed to be a fun night. With you meeting the guys and their families. With us skating and just enjoying being out together.”

“It was that,” she says softly, leaning over the console.

“It was all that. I’m not going to let what she said turn me away.

I mean, let’s be honest, we all know there are the bitchy wives in the group.

” I turn my head on the headrest and look at her.

“We’ve met our share.” I can’t help but laugh at the way her nose scrunches up.

“Even if she’s there the next time, I’m not going to let what she said turn me away.

This is where my man works, and I’m going to come and support him. ”

“Your man?” I raise my eyebrows.

“It sounded better than my baby daddy.” She moves back into her seat.

“Now, you promised to give me anything I want, and I want a hot chocolate with whipped cream.” She gasps.

“Whipped cream and chocolate syrup.” She nods her head like she just came up with the answer to the million-dollar question.

“I don’t need hot chocolate.” She’s deflecting and I know she’s deflecting, and I’m going to let her have this.

I start the SUV. “Okay. Take my phone and order the stuff.” I decide not to push her because I want to be able to hold her when she tells me what those bitches said to her.

She grabs my phone and puts in the code and then opens the app, adding things to the basket. “Done.” She puts the phone in the cupholder. “It should be there in about forty-five minutes. Just enough time for us to get home and for you to warm me up.”

When we walk into the house, I take off my sweater and watch her take off her shoes and then her jacket, walking farther into the house.

The whole ride home, she said not a word.

I also said not a word, and the longer the silence was lingering in the SUV, the more mad I got.

“I’m starving,” she declares. I stop, grabbing her around her waist, and pulling her to my chest. Her back is tucked into my front as she crosses her hands and places them on my arms while I bury my face in her neck.

“What did she say? I can’t let it go,” I admit to her. “I need to know.”

“That you are with me because you feel guilty,” she finally shares the words and my hold on her tightens. “And that you’ll get bored,” she continues. I have to admit, it’s best that she didn’t tell me there because I think I would have strangled Angela with my bare hands.

“If I ever see her again—” I start, my voice so tight it takes everything in me to not call her and rip her a new asshole.

“Hey,” Ariella says, turning in my arms, my arms still wrapped around her waist, “look at the bright side.”

“What fucking bright side?” I ask her and she smiles at me.

“Did the words sting?” she asks me and I just look at her.

“Yes,” she admits to me. “But look at where I’m at.

” My hands move from her waist to her ass.

“Are you here with me?” she questions. “Are we not going to spend the night on the couch?” She looks over at the couch.

“Well, maybe not the couch because there might be chocolate syrup that could leak on the cushions when I take your cock down my throat.”

“We weren’t going to do that. I was thinking you would be on your back and my face would be between your thighs,” I refute, “but we are definitely doing that now.”

“Exactly. So she can spew whatever shit she wants to spew. But in the end, we’re here together and we are going to have a baby together. So as much as what she said stings, I’m choosing to ignore it because in the end”—she smirks—“I win and she doesn’t.”

“You shouldn’t have to be in a position to choose to ignore anything. I have treated her with respect because of Kirby, and I expect the same respect to be given back.”

“Jaxon.” She rolls her eyes. “You can’t honestly stand there and think she has any idea how to fucking behave. She’s a spoiled child who thinks she’s better than everyone else. Just like Tiffany who stormed into your house and then called your mother to complain about you.”

“Tiffany acts like my birth mother,” I finally admit.

“That is how she used to act with the other wives. Like she was entitled because my father wore the C on his jersey.” I close my eyes.

“It’s why she didn’t want to divorce him.

Tiffany was just like Angela…” My voice trails off.

“Fuck! I was with a carbon copy of my birth mother.” She puts her hands on my chest. “I would have been miserable,” I confess to her.

“She would have used my baby as a pawn.”

“Can we not talk about her anymore? She doesn’t matter. And as crazy as it is, I’ve never been more grateful for a tampered condom.”

“Fuck, you’re right,” I say, chuckling. “Let’s get you something to eat and then let’s get my cock in your mouth.” She shakes her head and walks away from me, going to the fridge.

“This man, always worried about where his cock is going to be,” she mutters as my phone beeps, and I look down to see Kirby sent me a message.

Kirby: Hey, man, I’m sorry about before. Please extend my apologies to Ariella. Angela isn’t going to bother her anymore. It’s over.

I answer him right away.

Me: You okay?

Kirby: I will be.

I’m about to put my phone down when I see I got a text from the photographer for the team. I open it up and see he sent the pictures he took of us. There is the picture that we posed for, but then he added the three pictures he took I had no idea he’d done.

She’s skating beside me, her hand in mine, as she looks up at me and smiles, and I’m saying something to her. It’s when we were talking about our memories.

“What are you looking at?” She comes over and looks at my phone.

“Those are so cute,” she says as I press on them and save them to my camera roll.

“I’m posting these to my social media. Is that okay?”

“I mean”—she shrugs—“if anyone else posts pictures, we might be in the background.”

“Don’t sound so happy about being on my Instagram,” I tease her.

She grabs my phone from me and then does something as she hands it back to me.

Her phone pings and I see her pull her phone out of her back pocket.

“What are you doing?” I ask her and she ignores me.

The next thing I know, I look down and see, “Ariella Weber has tagged you in a post.”

“There, happy now?”

I open up the app and right there on the top is the picture of the two of us skating side by side, her laughing, but my eyes go to the caption. “I guess he’ll do.” I can’t help but laugh at the caption. “All of a sudden, she’s a comedian.”

“I was always a comedian”—she wraps her arms around my waist—“it just took you a while to notice.”

“Touché,” I tell her as I put up my own picture and my own caption before turning it to her. “Now I feel better.” I see her smile getting bigger as she reads the caption. “Making her laugh since day one.”