Page 32 of Playoff (Toronto Blaze #4)

Swedish James Bond

Alek

It was fun to tease Jess but I reined it in. I didn’t want to say anything that would tip JJ off to the fact that I was spending time with his sister. Pretty sure that would upset him enough even without knowing about the naked parts.

The food was excellent, and we kept the conversation on places we’d eaten.

Hockey came up, though we tried not to dwell on it since it wasn’t Jess’s thing, and I didn’t want to think about being traded while she was around.

As the meal continued smoothly, I thought JJ and I might be able to have a civil relationship and work as teammates.

I had to give him credit—he was trying. Just as long as he didn’t know I was banging his sister.

We had to stop. I had to stop. But a glance at Jess revealed her lips closed over her fork as she enjoyed her lasagna. I didn’t want to stop.

We had the normal squabble over who would pay. JJ used his familiarity with the restaurant to get the server’s attention and slide his card over before Fitch or I had the chance to do the same, so he won. Then we grabbed our coats and headed back to where JJ had parked.

JJ’s Ioniq wasn’t sporty, but practical was his thing.

There was enough room that Fitch and I were comfortable in the back.

If Jess had been back here, it would have been too appealing to touch her, trying to rile her up without getting caught.

She tempted me to push the limits, and I really didn’t need help with that.

Hooking up in their storage locker? I shook my head.

Way too risky, but I hadn’t been able to resist.

The four of us went up the elevator together.

Fitch and I got off first, since we were a couple of floors below the twins.

I followed Fitch to the door and into the condo.

I was feeling good. That hookup with Jess, an awesome meal, and better hockey to look forward to without the tension with JJ—things were looking up.

When he got to the kitchen, Fitch pivoted to face me. “Where did you get that bread?”

I looked behind him to where I’d left it on the counter, in the bags Jess had packed it in. It was just bread. I met his eyes. “Why are you asking?”

“Because it’s a little suspicious that Jess made bread today, and you show up with some for the first time since we’ve been rooming together.

Bread in plastic bags with no price tag or store label.

You weren’t even wearing a fucking coat when you left and came back with it.

I hope to god I’m wrong, but I can’t help putting that together with your shy visitor, and… ”

What the fuck was I supposed to say? I couldn’t tell him the truth. I just had to come up with a reasonable explanation for where I’d found the baked goods. They were left at the desk downstairs by… Who would I accept unlabeled food from? Think, Alek…

He held up a hand. “Your silence says it all.”

My breath whooshed out. “It’s not what you think.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “It’s not?”

“Not exactly.” I shoved my hand through my hair, only I didn’t have long hair anymore, so I was mostly rubbing my head. Which reminded me of Weasel and his sister. “When I was traded—I got here the evening it was announced.”

“It’s three hours earlier in California, and the flight is five hours. How did that work?”

“Coach in LA had a family thing so they held off announcing it until he was back, but they flew me east as soon as the deal was done.”

“Okay. Then…”

I sat on a stool at the breakfast bar. “I didn’t want to sit in the hotel room.

With the time change, it was still early for me.

And I didn’t dare go into a sports bar with hockey news on, since no one was supposed to know I was here.

I walked down the street, found one place without any TVs showing and went inside.

With my hair shaved off, no one recognized me.

Including a woman at the bar who was staring at a glass of bourbon like it held the answers to the mystery of the universe. ”

“Jess?”

“We didn’t exchange names. I invited her back to my room, and she left after.”

Fitch frowned. “That doesn’t sound like Jessica.”

“Maybe you don’t know her as well as you think you do.” There was a part of her that wasn’t the good girl she appeared to be.

He folded his arms. “When did you find out she was JJ’s sister?”

“After the first game when we went out to the Top Shelf. It was a shock. I thought she was JJ’s girlfriend at first.”

Fitch nodded slowly. “Okay, that was an accident. But you kept hooking up?”

I rocked my head back and forth. “The night you came back and she ran into my room?”

He winced. “Oh hell, I can still hear the bed rocking.”

“We weren’t having sex. Just pretending in order to fool you.”

He shook his head. “What was she doing here anyway?”

“I freaked out when I found out who she was and told her we needed to talk. It had to be somewhere no one would see us, and here was better than at the place she shares with JJ. You returned unexpectedly, she hid in my room, so we pretended she was a hookup.” I held back a grin, remembering that night.

In spite of everything, it had been fun.

Fitch uncrossed his arms and relaxed against the counter. “And that was it?”

“Not exactly.”

He sighed.

“I know. It’s stupid, but there’s something there, between us. And a couple of times we’ve slipped.”

“Slipped. Like, she slipped onto your dick?”

“Sort of.”

“Do you understand what kind of shit you’re in if JJ finds out? Hell, if Cooper and some of the others find out? Jessica is JJ’s sister. If the team falls apart, they’re going to start trading.”

“I am aware.” I would be the first to go.

Fitch paced to the living room. “The team is starting to gel again. You can’t fuck it up.”

“I know. If I’d known who she was that first night, I’d never have started it.” And nothing else would have happened. I reminded myself that would have been a good thing. “I never intended for anything to happen after that first night, not once I knew who she was.”

“But you did.”

I was tired of being cast as the bad guy. “ We did. This isn’t the eighteenth century. I haven’t forced her. She’s been as into it as I have.”

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t have thought that about Jessica.”

No one did. She’d been running on guilt and playing it safe since my parents skipped out with her family’s money. Fitch was right though. We were messing with fire. This couldn’t keep going.

“I know it’s gotta stop. She doesn’t want to hurt her brother, and I don’t want to upset the team’s chemistry.

He’s trying to get past his history, which I appreciate after what my parents did, and I want to win.

” All of these reasons were true, but they’d always been true.

Still, we were adults, not hormone-driven teenagers.

Fitch expressed the thought I’d been trying to avoid. “You’ve known that all along.”

“But now you know, so it’s no longer our little secret. We’ll stop.” I’d just have to send Fitch down to get anything from the storage lockers from now on. Didn’t want to explain that to him.

Fitch rubbed his eyes. “You’re lucky you haven’t been found out. You have to end this before JJ hears about it.”

“I know. I know. It’s— I don’t know. Something about her.” Jess with her proper clothes and boring underwear that pulled at me, hiding the woman underneath. That woman who just worked with me. But it couldn’t be.

The smart thing to do would be to delete Jess’s number from my phone and avoid her whenever possible. But before I cut her off, I needed to warn her Fitch had figured it out. It wouldn’t be fair to let her be blindsided.

Once Fitch had gone to his room, I took a slice of the coconut bread, because it was good and because it was Jess’s, and went to my own room where I pulled out my phone.

Me: Remember giving me that bread?

Trouble: It was only a couple of hours ago. Of course I remember.

Me: Fitch noticed that I showed up with bread at the same time you were baking.

Trouble: …

I waited while she stopped and started a message.

Trouble: You denied it, right?

Me: I planned to.

My phone rang.

Jess was yelling before I had it at my ear. “What the hell? Why did you tell him?”

“I didn’t. I just paused too long before I lied to him and he picked up on it.”

I could picture the expression on her face. “Why did you pause?”

“Because I couldn’t think of a place I’d have gotten bread without a label on it and without going out of the building, since Mr. Detective noticed I hadn’t worn a coat.”

“You could have said you got it from a bakery. Small ones don’t have labels. And there are enough delivery options— Oh hell, it doesn’t matter now. Is he going to tell?”

“No. I told him it was an accident the first time and we wouldn’t do it again.”

“What?” Her voice almost shattered my eardrum.

“We aren’t doing it again, are we?”

“You said it was an accident the first time? Why did you tell him anything?”

“Jess, he’s my teammate. And my roommate, as well as being some kind of Swedish James Bond. The bread made it obvious something happened after that first night. I didn’t want him to think I was that kind of an asshole, so I promised it wasn’t happening again.”

She sighed, and her voice returned to normal volume. “You’d make a lousy spy.”

“Yeah, well, being a spy wasn’t on my shortlist of career options.”

“How am I going to look him in the face again?”

Why was she so worried about Fitch? “You can look at me, and I’ve seen you naked. More than once.”

“That’s different.” I wasn’t sure how she judged that, but I liked being different. “Okay. I don’t normally go to a lot of hockey things, so I’ll just continue with that. And if Fitch doesn’t say anything, we’re good.”

“Golden.”

“We pretend we barely know each other.”

“What’s your name again?”

I could hear the smile in her voice. “Sorry, I don’t share that with strangers.”

“Or with your hookups.”

“What?”

“I shouldn’t have said that.”

“You know, you didn’t tell me your name either.”

“I didn’t want you to know who I was.”

“Ditto.”

I settled onto my bed. “That’s got me a little curious. Why do you care if people you sleep with know who you are and that your brother plays for the Blaze?”

There were background noises, like she was settling on her bed. I forced my brain away from that image. “You can’t see it, but I’m rolling my eyes at you. This is a hockey town. People who know I’m Justin’s twin want to take advantage of that.”

“How?”

“Suddenly they’re all friendly. Asking me to events, lunches, whatever.

Then I mention anything about my family, and they ask, pretending they don’t know, or skip that step and tell me what big fans they are.

Do I go to games, what’s it like being the sister of a player.

Some flat-out ask for stuff. Some just have it in their expressions, waiting for me to offer. ”

I hated that for her. She was a great person on her own, but people would overlook that because her brother played hockey. “Yeah, I can see that. People want tickets and shit. But if you’re hooking up with a guy, being with you is better than a seat at a game. Can they not ignore it?”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?”

“Really? Someone got off and then asked for a ticket?” What kind of ass…

“One guy I’d started dating stayed over for the night, and I found him in the kitchen the next morning asking Justin for a selfie.”

I laughed. Then I laughed some more.

“It wasn’t funny.” But she sounded like she was trying not to laugh as well.

“I’m not laughing at you, I swear. I’m just imagining JJ, coming out with bed head first thing in the morning to get some coffee, scratching his balls and finding a fanboy there with a jersey and a pen.”

“Justin’s hair was a disaster.” She snorted.

“Tell me you broke up with that doofus.”

“Immediately.”

It was important that she knew that guy had been an idiot. “Well, as someone who’s had the good fortune to share your bed, I can say that guy was a moron.”

“Yeah?” Her voice was quiet.

Had she doubted herself? Did she have a hard time trusting people who knew who her twin was? I could at least assure her about that. “Yeah, being with you is worth more than a selfie.”

“Maybe that’s just you. Justin isn’t your favorite player.”

“Jess, anyone who thinks knowing your brother is a bigger deal than spending time with you deserves to be booted out of your bed.”

She was quiet for a moment. “Thanks, Alek. I think I needed to hear that.”

I’d never considered what it would be like to be close to someone who was famous for good reasons.

I knew all the reasons you didn’t want to share a name with criminals.

But with Jess, I could see where people might use her for her connection to her brother.

I wanted to shake those idiots, make them realize how lucky they were. They got to be with Jess. I couldn’t.

Fuck, this was not where this conversation was supposed to go. Time to end this on a lighter note. “I swear, cross my heart, that I did not sleep with you to curry favor with your brother.”

“Obviously. But you did talk to my parents.”

“That was for you.” Fuck . I shouldn’t have said that.

Another pause. “Damn it, why do you have to be a hockey player? Saying something like that makes me want to sneak into your place and thank you, and not with more bread.”

“I’d happily accept your gratitude. But…”

“Yeah, but. I should go. Enjoy the bread?”

“I will.”

She hung up, leaving me with nothing but blue balls and some excellent baking.