Page 131 of Pucking Around

Saatana, it makes me angry just thinking about it. I can’t watch her laugh with another man or share her smiles as he shamelessly flirts with her. I’m already within an inch of flattening Compton. He looks at her like he’s seen her naked. I’ve watched them together. He’s so obvious with his intentions, the way he finds excuses to touch her as he brushes past. He wants her too.

I finally let myself glance down at our joined hands. She hasn’t tried to pull away. Not once. At this angle, I can see the tattoos on the inside of her forearm. One is an electric guitar with a signature tattooed along the neck. She likes tattoos. She likes talking about them. Maybe she’ll talk to me…

“What does this one mean?” I mutter, the finger of my free hand brushing over the signature.

She glances down, and I don’t miss the way she shivers slightly at my touch. “Oh, um…okay, well this is my dad’s favorite model of Gibson Les Paul,” she explains. “And this is his signature,” she adds, tracing over the jagged script.

“Is he a musician?”

She fights a smile. “Yeah, Mars. He’s a musician.” She turns to face me more squarely. “Actually, my father is Halston Price. He’s the lead singer of—”

“The Ferrymen,” I finish for her.

Her smile curls up on one side. “Yeah…you know them?”

Know them? The Ferrymen are my favorite rock band. I grew up working out to their music. I’ve seen them in concert in different venues across Europe over a dozen times. Rachel Price is Hal Price’s daughter. How did I never put that together?

“Listen, Mars.” She shifts in her seat. “There’s something else I’ve been meaning to tell you. Something I think it’s only right that you know before we—before we land,” she finishes.

We both know that’s not how she ended that sentence in her mind.

“Tell me,” I say, not letting go of her hand.

“I’m with Jake Compton,” she says on a breath, her dark eyes wide and hopeful and she gazes up at me. “We’re together, Mars.”

Her fingers go like ice in my hand as I pull away, leaving her open hand resting atop my knee. She’s with Compton. They’re together. And now everything makes sense. He laughs with her, teases her, looks at her like he’s seen her naked…because he has. Jake Compton kisses Rachel. He fucks my Rachel. And suddenly my world is crashing down. She’s taken. Of course, she is. She was never going to be mine. I was deluding myself.

“Mars—”

“It’s fine.” I drag a calloused hand over my face, stroking my beard. “It’s not my business. Please, let’s not discuss it.”

“I think itisyour business,” she replies. “You deserve the truth, Mars. I don’t want to hide anything from you or lead you on when I can’t offer you what you want.”

Why the hell is she still talking?

“And Jake and Caleb agree with me,” she goes on. “You deserve to have all the facts. If you really think you’re interested in me, you better know what the heck you’re walking into. Because I can’t offer you exclusivity, and the guys are pretty sure that’ll be a deal-breaker for you. You know, because of the whole ‘goalies work alone’ thing—”

“Caleb?” I say, cutting her off. “The equipment manager? You and Compton spoke to him about me?”

She nods, biting her bottom lip as she holds my gaze. “Yeah…cause that’s the other thing. I’m sort of with Caleb too.”

59

This is a disaster. Oh god, why did I do this? Why did I try to have this conversation now in the middle of a crowded airplane?

Because if you didn’t pump the breaks, you were gonna start snogging him right here in the seat, comes the snarky voice in my head.

She doesn’t know anything. I’m totally in control. It’s not like I’ve been sitting here, heart racing, memorizing the shape of Ilmari’s mouth as he speaks. I’m not holding his hand, our legs brushing from knee to hip, wondering if he’ll notice if I just rest my cheek on his shoulder and breathe him in.

Yes, you are.

Oh, god-fucking-damn it. I totally am. I don’t know what it is about this man, but he completely unravels me. His strength inspires me, his calm quiet makes me curious. What happens behind his thick outer walls? Who is Ilmari inside the defenses he wears? The man is a living, breathing goalie, and he’s quite literally never off the clock. He keeps out everyone and everything all the time. It must be exhausting. And lonely.

Maybe it’s just my damn stubborn streak, but I want to take a shot on his goal. But the more contact we have, the more I learn about him, the more hesitant I am to take my shot. Because I have a strong feeling that, if Idoget inside this man’s net, there’ll be no getting out again.

Caleb is calling this a recon operation. I have questions, and I need answers. Is this just about physical attraction? Or is it more? I think he and Jake still see Mars as the quirky goalie. They see his silence and his tics, and they believe this is only about sex for him. He wants me, and I want him, and we’ll both feel better when we get it out of our systems. One wild night.

Now I’m not so sure.