Crossing the Line (The Baltimore Banners Book 1) (14 page)

     Inwardly, he groaned. Those had to be the lamest words a man had ever said to a woman he liked. He reached for the bottle of wine and poured himself another glass, doing his best to not look at AJ. His resolve lasted for three seconds before he lifted his eyes to her face, expecting to see...well, he didn't know what he expected but it wasn't the sardonic half-smile and raised eyebrows aimed his way.

     "Gee, Kolchak, I like you, too."

     "I didn't mean—"

     "I know. I actually kinda like hanging out with you, too. It hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be." AJ smiled, then quickly grimaced and looked away. Alec knew instantly the grimace had nothing to do with their losing conversation, and everything to do with her headache. He pushed his chair back and walked around the table, reaching for her hand and pulling her up.

     "Go upstairs and lay down. I'll clean up down here and be up in a few minutes."

     "No, I'm okay. Besides, you cooked, I should clean."

     "AJ, no arguments. Go lay down before the headache turns into a migraine."

     "It's not—"

     Alec leaned forward and kissed her, stopping her in mid-sentence, enjoying the way she automatically leaned into him, enjoying her soft sigh against his lips, the tiny moan of disappointment when he pulled away. "No arguments. Now go."

     He gently pushed her out of the dining room, then leaned against the door frame, enjoying her rear view as she made her way to the stairs. She turned around and gave him a small smile, as if she knew exactly what he had been doing as she walked away.

     "Thanks Alec. And thanks for the dinner, too. It was sweet." She turned and walked upstairs, leaving him standing there, stunned.

     He pushed away from the door frame, frowning. Sweet? Had she just called him sweet? That hadn't been what he was shooting for.

     Alec turned and surveyed the dining room. Candles, music, wine. Pizza. So okay, maybe the pizza was a bit out there, but still...Sweet?

     He bit his tongue and began clearing the table, his mind whirling. He didn't want her to feel like one his buddies, and he didn't want her to think he was sweet. So what did he have to do to change things?

     He had no idea.

     AJ stood at center ice and rolled her shoulders, trying to adjust the fit of the pads as she fought off a sense of déjà vu. A photographer stood off to the side, leaning against the player's bench as he spoke with Tim. She still couldn't believe her editor was here. Hell, she couldn't believe he had come up with this insane idea. Part of her wanted to shoot a puck in his direction and hope it hit him upside the head. Another part—the largest part—just wanted to go home and soak in the hot tub.

     Wait.
She
didn't have a hot tub at home. The hot tub was at Alec's. And since when did she start thinking of his place as home?

     She turned her head toward the end zone and studied Alec, leaning casually against the net as he talked to Ian. Her heart did a quick drum roll in her chest and she mentally kicked herself. What had she gotten into? And she wasn't talking about this whole photo shoot fiasco. She wasn't even talking about the exclusive feature articles. A few weeks ago, all she could think of was getting her by-line on an exclusive, of the excitement and sense of accomplishment she would feel at reaching that goal. Somehow the excitement wasn't as great she thought it would be now that she had actually done it.

     In fact, the excitement pretty much paled in comparison to what she felt each night sleeping in Alec's arms. Just like last night, when she had come home—gone to Alec's, she corrected herself—and he surprised her with the dinner. She couldn't believe how much the sweet and thoughtful gesture had actually meant to her.

     It shouldn't have meant nearly as much to her as it did. And the fact that it did, just like the fact that she was beginning to think of Alec's place as "home", was bad news. Really bad news. As in starting with "L" bad news.

     AJ's stomach did a slow roll as her eyes again rested on Alec. He must have sensed her gaze on him because he turned toward her and smiled. In the brief moment that she allowed her eyes to meet his, enough heat seared through her that she was surprised she wasn't standing in a puddle of water from melting the ice.

     She was so thoroughly screwed. How could she have let this happen? He was Alec Kolchak, for crying out loud. They had done nothing but bicker during every encounter they had ever had since first meeting several years ago. What had changed?

     Maybe it wasn't the capital "L" trouble. Maybe it was just the capital "S" trouble. Because yeah, the sex was absolutely phenomenal. So maybe that was it. It had nothing to do with that "L" mess, it was just about the sex.

     Yeah, sure. And maybe she wouldn't make an ass out of herself during this stupid photo shoot. She still didn't know what Tim had been thinking. Was it really necessary to have a picture of her on the ice for next week's feature? No, it wasn't. Not as far as she was concerned, anyway. She had more important things to worry about...like convincing herself she was
not
in love with Alec Kolchak.

     "AJ, you almost ready?" Tim called from the player's bench. She jumped, startled, then turned and gave him as dirty a look she could get away with, which was pretty extreme. He either couldn't see her that well, or didn't care, because he didn't say anything, just eyed her impatiently.

     Like he was the one standing on display out in the middle of the ice, getting ready to make an ass out of himself.

     "Yeah, I'm ready." She tapped the blade of her stick on the ice and skated around in a small circle, then pushed off toward the player's bench. She wished she was skilled enough to stop with a spray of ice, but she didn't want to push her luck so she settled on just gliding to a stop near the boards. "Now what, exactly, is it you want me to do? Because I'm not really sure why everyone else is here."

     Maybe "everyone else" was overstating it a bit. Besides Alec and Ian, there were three other players on the ice, including Jean-Pierre Larocque and Randy Michaels, hanging out near the penalty box looking mostly bored. The Banners' owner and General Manager were also present along with some other suits, all seated up in the stands and looking mildly interested.

     And, of course, there were the fans and spectators who always showed up at practices, hoping to meet the players and get autographs. Not to mention the rink bunnies, who always hoped for more. There seemed to be more of the latter present today, which bothered AJ for some reason.

     Probably because more than a few of the rink bunnies were eyeing Alec like he was an all-you-can-eat salad buffet. Nope, she couldn't imagine why that bothered her at all.

     "AJ, are you even listening?"

     She turned toward Tim and gave him an innocent look, which got her an eye roll and sigh in return. He pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered something under his breath, shook his head, then looked up at her.

     "I want some shots of you actually playing. So just go out on the ice and skate around and hit the puck and Joey will take the pictures. Joey, make sure you get shots of the other players as well. We'll look at everything when we get back and go from there."

     "Wait. The other players, too? You want me to actually, you know, play hockey? With these guys? For real?"

     "Well what did you think I wanted?"

     "I don't even know why you want pictures at all, so I didn't give it much thought. I just figured you wanted some shots of me skating around the ice or something."

     "Exactly. Now go, do something." Tim made shooing motions with his hands then muttered something to Joey as she skated away. AJ could have sworn she heard someone yell out to make it look real, but when she turned back around, everybody seemed to be busy doing something else.

     Shaking off a sense of impending disaster, she skated back to center ice, not surprised to see Ian meet her at the face-off circle. He offered her a slight smile and a wink, then dropped the puck between them.

     "Ready on three?"

     "Oh God, are we really doing this for real? Seriously? Please don't hurt me."

     Ian chuckled as he placed the blade of his stick against the ice, waiting for her to do the same. AJ sighed then moved into position, noticing Joey sliding closer toward them, the camera to his eye. She let out a deep breath and listened for Ian's count, then scrambled for the puck. She muttered to herself when he slapped it away, then skated after it, knowing she had absolutely no chance of ever catching up to him.

     Ian looked back over his shoulder at her and made some kind of motion with his hand. She didn't understand at first, then realized he was letting her know he was passing it to her a second before the puck flew her way.

     AJ let it ease into her stick, then turned on the ice and skated toward the net, not caring if Joey was getting his pictures or not. Five feet from the net, she drew back with her stick and slammed the puck toward Alec.

     Who, of course, deftly caught it without having to move so much as an inch. He winked at her then tossed the puck back out to the ice.

     "C'mon sweetheart, you can do better than that."

     AJ skidded to a stop in front of the net and stared at Alec, her eyes wide in feigned shock. "Sweetheart? No, you did not. Did you just 'sweetheart' me?"

     Alec shrugged, a lopsided grin on his face. "It was either 'sweetheart' or 'babe'. I kind of liked 'sweetheart' but 'babe' works for me, too...babe."

     "Oh no. No, you did not." AJ shook her head, biting back her smile as she reached out for the puck. He winked at her again then pulled his helmet back down.

     "C'mon, sweetheart, show them what you've got."

     AJ laughed then skated away from the net, passing the puck to Ian, who passed it to Randy. They continued playing for at least thirty minutes, giving AJ every chance to shoot. Not a single shot got by Alec, but she didn't care—she was having too much fun. Even when Jean-Pierre tried to get the puck away from her, and "accidentally" ran into her, sending her flying across the ice on her butt so he could race over and eagerly help her back up. The only thing that wasn't fun were the heated words exchanged between Alec and Jean-Pierre after that, but even that incident was quickly quelled by Ian's calm interference.

     Tim finally called a halt to the mock "game", saying that Joey had enough photographs for them to go through. AJ had no idea what Tim was hoping for, or how he was even planning on using the pictures, but she wasn't going to argue. A half hour on the ice was enough to drain her.

     Because, for as much fun as she was having, her body was ready to call it quits. Her arms were sore, her shoulders hurt, her legs were rubber, and she was drenched in sweat. Even her hands hurt. She had no idea how the players did this for real, night after night, and knew without hesitation that she was going to use this in next week's article. The details were still vague, but she was definitely going to use it.

     AJ watched Tim and Joey head toward the suits in the stands, and let out a deep breath, grateful they were no longer paying much attention. With a heavy sigh, she lowered herself to the ice and laid flat on her back, closing her eyes and groaning as the muscles in her body stretched and screamed. No more than a few seconds went by before she heard the scrape of metal on ice near her head, and felt a presence hovering over her.

     "What are you doing?"

     "Dying."

     "Not funny. C'mon, get up. All you're going to do by laying there is cramp up."

     "Too late. I don't think I can move."

     "Yeah you can. If you don't, I'll be forced to call you 'sweetheart' again."

     AJ cracked open one eye and stared up at Alec, feeling her heart squeeze tightly at his teasing grin, at the warmth in his dark eyes. She closed her eyes again and cursed beneath her breath.
Too late
was an understatement.

     "C'mon, up you go." She felt a pair of hands grab her right arm, then opened her eyes in surprise when a second pair grabbed her left arm. Ian was also standing next to her, laughing quietly as they pulled her to a standing position. She didn't even bother to try skating away, just let them pull her across the ice. Which was a good thing, since she didn't think she could really do more than just stand anyway.

     "I think my legs have turned into Silly Putty."

     "You'll get used to it. You actually did pretty good out there," Ian told her. She looked over at him, waiting for him to add something else, but only saw grudging admiration on his face.

     "If you say so. I didn't even score once, though." She paused and gave Alec a mock dirty look. "The least you could have done was make it look like you had to work at least a little to make a few of those saves! It would have made the aches and pains more worth it."

     Both men laughed again, still pulling her across the ice. Alec crooked his hand further through her elbow and pulled her just a little closer. "I'll make it up to you later. After we get home and you take a soak in the hot tub."

     AJ's heart tripped in her chest and she stumbled just the smallest bit as they walked off the ice.
Don't read into it,
she told herself. He didn't mean it the way it sounded, she was sure of it. It was just a figure of speech, a meaningless phrase.

     Ian reached behind him to slam the door shut, momentarily throwing her off balance since he still had hold of her arm. Alec's own hold tightened and she turned her face toward his, surprised to see him leaning toward her, as if he was getting ready to kiss her. Her heart hammered some more then she noticed a flash from the corner of her eye, and knew that Joey was back with his camera.

     But she didn't understand why he was using a flash. AJ turned her head away from Alec, then felt herself being pushed to the side as a blur and another flash exploded in her vision. She stumbled and went down on one knee, almost taking Ian down with her.

     She was saved from doing a full face plant right there in front of everyone only because Ian tightened his hold on her and quickly pulled her upright. Alec had let go of her other arm, and she turned to see what was going on.

     Her body stiffened in disbelief. Alec had let go of her because he now had his arms full of a buxom blonde—one of the rink bunnies AJ had noticed earlier. Only maybe she wasn't a rink bunny, since Alec seemed to know her. At least, AJ thought he knew her, since he wasn't doing anything to push her away as she pressed against him.

     "Alec! Have you missed me?"

     AJ watched in stunned silence as the blonde wrapped her arms around Alec's neck then actually wrapped one leg around his before leaning forward and kissing him.

     And it wasn't just a simple kiss, either. It was a full-contact, tongue-down-his-throat spectacle. AJ closed her mouth with an audible snap and just stared as the kiss continued, both parties apparently oblivious.

     Oblivious to the small crowd. Oblivious to the attention they were drawing. Oblivious to the camera that was clicking and flashing away inches from them.

     "Shit." The word may have come from her, but she thought it was most likely uttered by Ian. AJ pulled her arm from his grasp and turned away, making her way to the locker room. She ignored the sound of her name being called, focusing only on getting away from the unfolding scene, and barely registered the sight of Gerry Brown standing smugly off to the side. She paused, then shook her head and moved on, no longer caring about anything but getting away.