I grip my stick tightly. “You never know with social media these days. This TikTok craze has made us all vulnerable. Anything for views, that’s their motto, even if it’s at the expense of scaring the piss out of us.”
Eli scratches the back of his neck. “You know, Penny was showing me some scare videos the other day.”
“See,” I say. “So pardon me for being prepared. You suckers are going to be the ones who are caught, and don’t come crying to me when your scared face becomes a meme for the internet to mock.”
I try to move forward again, but Pacey stops me once more. “That’s not it. There’s something else going on, and you’re not telling us what it is.”
I sigh heavily. “You’re right. Something is going on.” Pressing my lips together, I look between my friends and on a pained expression, I say, “I have a serious case of blue balls. Think one of you can take care of it for me?”
“Jesus Christ,” Silas says as he turns and moves toward the ice.
“Is that a no?” I call out as Eli and Pacey follow closely. They don’t bother looking back.
And that’s how it’s done. Distract and deflect.
As if I would tell them what’s going on. No fucking way.
They’d tease me relentlessly because being the intelligent man I am, I know that payback is a bitch. And what I teased them about will only come back with a vengeance.
They’d also be too loud and fucking obnoxious about something meant to be discreet. They have no filter and, within an hour, no doubt Coach Wood would find out about my crush and have me hanging by the balls in his office like a freshly butchered lamb leg.
Keeping them in the quiet, in the unknown, is the best decision.
Happy with myself, I head down the hallway behind them, smirking just as I hear my name. I look over to see Wylie, waving me down, her low-hanging shirt doing nothing to conceal her tits from the chilly arena air.
Either she has nipples of steel or that bra holds the girls up but doesn’t conceal because she’s clearly cold, if you catch my drift.
Being the lust-sick asshole that I am, a fleeting thought of holding her close to warm her up passes through my mind before it’s quickly squashed with reality.
Not going to happen, man.
“Hey, Levi, can I talk to you for a second?” Wylie says, waving me down.
“Sure. What’s up?” I ask as I skate over to her.
“Sorry to bother you,” she says as a few of the guys skate by us, skating annoyingly close so I have to move right in front of her.
“It’s fine, what’s up?”
She touches the front of my jersey, adjusting it against my pads. It’s very intimate, something a girlfriend would do. Not my assistant. From an outsider looking in, you’d think that she’s anything but my assistant, especially with her top being at my eye level and the way my eyes keep drifting down.
I know I talk about it a lot, but seriously, she’s so achingly hot.
“Your suits. Did you want me to get new ones for you, or get your current ones dry-cleaned?”
“A new suit,” I say. “Did I not put my measurements down?”
She shakes her head. “No.”
“Oh, sorry about that.”
She plays with the collar of my jersey, and I want to ask her what the hell she’s doing, but I get distracted by her gorgeous eyes instead.
Those stormy gray eyes.
“Not a problem,” she says, pulling me back into the present. “Should I just take one of your current suits in and have them match it?”
I swallow and wet my lips. God, what I wouldn’t give to fuck her on the bench right now. It’s always been a fantasy of mine. The bench, the locker room, and on the ice. A chilly feat, but I’d be up for the challenge.
“Levi?”
“Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, that would be best.”
“Okay, thanks. Don’t want your suits to be too tight in the crotch, right?” She winks.
You keep hanging out with me, and they’ll always be tight in the crotch.
“Yeah, definitely don’t want that.” I stare into her mesmerizing eyes, comparing them to the iciness of the ice. A foggy morning. A pair of newly sharpened—
“Posey!” Coach yells, scaring the living daylights out of me. “What the hell are you doing?”
Mother of fuck, I think I just piddled.
I turn toward Coach Wood, who looks like he’s about to shove his clipboard up my ass. “She had a question,” I say, pushing away from her. “It was urgent.”
Coach Wood glances at Wylie. “Did you get your answer?”
“Yes,” she says.
“Then I suggest you leave.”
Unfazed by her dad’s harsh tone, she walks up to him, places her hand on his chest, and kisses his cheek before twiddling her fingers at me and taking off.
Well, fuck, that didn’t look good.
I nervously smile at him and start to skate away when he says, “Get your ass over here.”
Yup, didn’t think I was going to get away with that.
I skate back to the bench and say, “What’s up, Coach?”
He leans in and talks in a very dark, very scary voice. “Tell me right fucking now, is there anything going on between you and my daughter?”
“No,” I say so quickly that I repeat myself just in case he didn’t hear. “No. Nope. Nothing. Nada. Nothing at all. I swear.”
“Then why the hell did it look like there is?”
“I, uh, I don’t know. But I promise, nothing’s going on. I wouldn’t cross that line. I told you I wouldn’t, and I haven’t.”
His expression softens as he leans back now. “Did you give her the list I gave you?”
“Yes, that’s what she had a question about. We didn’t really get to talk about it all too much, so I messed up and forgot to give her suit measurements.”
“Are you sending her to the shop downtown?”
“Yes,” I answer.
“Good.” He eyes me up and down. “You haven’t been updating me.”
“Sorry, just trying to focus on the game.”
“Then get the fuck away from me and focus.”
“Yup. Got it.”
I take off and skate toward the boys, where they’re all stretching. When I join them, Eli whispers, “So . . . nothing going on with her?”
I sigh and start stretching my inner thighs. “Nothing.”
Chapter Ten
WYLIE
“Is he going to be mad that I’m in here?” Sandie asks as we watch the game on Levi’s large-screen TV rather than my computer in my tiny bedroom.
“He won’t even know.” I scrunch down on the couch and lean my head back against the cushion. “Ugh, wearing that bra was absolute torture today. Sure my boobs looked great, but that was so uncomfortable.”
“Beauty is pain.”
“More like horniness is pain.”
Sandie chuckles. “But it worked, right?”
“Right. Not sure what else I can put him through. When I was talking to him while he was out on the ice, I was playing with his jersey, and he didn’t tell me to stop. It felt . . . real.”
“Real?” Sandie asks with a raise of her brow. “I thought we were trying to teach him a lesson.”
“We are.” I curl under my blanket. “But I don’t know, even with all of the running around I had to do today, I just felt like it was nice to help him out.”
“Those tasks aren’t from him. Those are from your dad. What’s happening to you?”