Page 111 of Pucking the Team

Within minutes, I was stomping up the stairs and visualizing my packed case being zipped closed. Soon I’d be onto the next chapter in my life, which I would keep simple and clutter-free. No men. No best friends who’d trick and deceive me. No reason for the press to write stories about me. I’d work, work, and work some more and then…

After dragging my suitcase from the walk-in wardrobe, I threw it on the bed and opened it. I started with jeans, then added hoodies, shoes, t-shirts, and underwear. I moved on to sorting my toiletries, packing them from beside the sink into a wash bag. Suddenly, I sensed a looming presence behind me.

I looked up into the mirror.

The reflection showed not just me, but four beefy guys standing shoulder to shoulder behind me. Their matching red practice sweaters complete with Viper logos made the room glow scarlet.

They were messed-up, gritty, and their expressions grim and determined, but that didn’t scare me.

“What are you doing here?” I spun to them, hands on my hips. “You should be at practice.”

“Yeah, we should.” Theo frowned. “We’ll get our asses kicked for walking out.”

“But some things are more fucking important,” Dylan added gruffly.

“More important than hockey, Dylan? What happened to your Big Love? Wasn’t that what you said? Hockey was your Big Love.”

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Maybe I have a new Big Love.”

“Don’t fuck with me.” I turned and reached for my Clinique moisturizer. “I’m just another game to you, a prize to win, a challenge to get me to pick you. That is what I am to you all, nothing more than a prize to try for. A Stanley Cup with long blonde hair and a twenty-four-inch waist.”

“What?” Ben reached for the moisturizer and took it from my hand. “Is that really what you think?”

“Isn’t it the truth?” I stared up at him. “You all fancy me, you all want me, and you’re all in competition for me, I’m just a puck to you.”

“You are not just a puck or a fuck.” Eduardo crowded in next to me. “It is true we all have feelings for you, strong feelings, but we do not see each other as competition, not if you don’t see us as a choice.”

“Yeah, why choose?” Ben said. “When you don’t have to.”

I looked from his blue eyes to his brother’s almost identical ones, and then Eduardo’s dark ones and Dylan’s that were almost hidden by his heavy brows and brooding expression. “Surely youwantme to choose one of you?”

“No,” Theo said, “not if that ain’t what you want.”

“But…why? How can you be happy with me seeing all of you?Beingwith all of you?”

“You’ve seen our lifestyle,” Dylan said. “We’re practically married to the team. Slaves to the rink.”

“Yeah, we live and breathe hockey,” Ben said, “and we get paid well for it.”

“It’s not a career that lasts forever.” Eduardo kind of shrugged. “We have to make the most of it while we are the best of the best.”

“Andyouare the best of the best.” Theo slipped his arm around my waist, his big, solid body coming up against mine.

“And we figure between us,” Ben said from behind me now, “we can make you see that, feel that.” He touched the nape of my neck with the tip of his finger. “Maybe that’s a job that takes four guys; you’re not the average chick. You’re hot stuff. A woman half the men on the planet would give ten years of their life to have just one night with.”

“Huh, I don’t think so.”

“It is true.” Eduardo nodded seriously. “I did read that online.”

“What?” Was he being serious? That couldn’t be true.

“But we want more than the nights,” Theo murmured. “We want the days, too, we want the laughter, the tears, the wonderful nows and the exciting tomorrows.”

I wanted to lean into him. The urge was magnetic. I couldn’t resist. I did.

“Stay,” he whispered by my ear. “And we’ll prove that we can share nicely.”

Despite myself, an amused huff burst from my chest. “Instead of beating each other up?” I turned to nod at Ben’s swollen lip. “’Cause that’s really not cool.”