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“Mmm,” Sadie murmured.

I reached for the phone and turned it off, meeting her sleepy brown-eyed gaze when I turned back to her.

“What time is it?” she asked softly.

“Early. 7:30.”

“What time did we go to sleep?”

I smiled and kissed her bare shoulder. “Two hours ago. I have to get moving, I’ve got a flight. But you sleep. I’ll lock up.”

“You’re leaving?”

Her tone sent a surge of guilt through me. After the way I’d treated her after our first night together, she was probably wondering if I planned to blow her off.

“I don’t want to, but I have to,” I said, kissing her neck. “I have to fly to Canada for a game. But I’ll be back tomorrow. Can I take you to dinner tomorrow night?”

“Mmm-hmm,” she said, half-asleep.

“I’ll text you to remind you. And you should text me to keep me company while I’m gone.”

A sexy smile spread across her face. “I’m not sending you dirty pics, Vereshkova.”

“I’ll send you some. You blew my fucking mind last night, Sadie.”

She wrapped a leg around mine and moaned softly. “Can’t you stay?”

“I wish. I can’t miss this flight.” I nibbled on her neck a little longer before forcing myself out of the bed.

Fuck, it was cold. I scanned the room for my clothes and saw them in scattered wet heaps around the apartment. I scrubbed a hand down my face. I was about to get colder by dressing in wet clothes and going outside in the dead of winter. Not to mention that I was exhausted from fucking like a porn star for several hours. But even as I pulled my icy, soaked t-shirt over my head, I couldn’t keep the smile from my face. Last night had been so fucking worth it.

Orion turned up the volume on the TV and the blare of a replay on ESPN broke my train of thought. I looked up from my phone and glared at him.

“What? You’ve got your nose in your phone anyway,” he muttered.

Our hotel room in Nashville was close quarters. Or maybe the problem was that I was rooming with Orion. If Sadie was in this room instead of him, no quarters would be too close.

A new message from her popped up on the screen of my phone and I smiled. I was trying to let her know through regular texts that I’d never ignore her again.

Sadie: what’s ur fav color?

Me: mmm…red, I guess. Why?

Sadie: no reason

Me: tease

Sadie: u r so fun to tease, tho…

Me: tell me

Sadie: I want to buy lingerie in your fav color

Me: hell yeah. txt me pix from the dressing room

Sadie: I will. Tomorrow.

Me: I miss u. Not just the sex. I miss ur laugh. And ur smile.

Sadie: I liked waking up next to u.

“Hey, asshole.”

I looked up and saw Orion holding up a pair of large, hot pink panties.

“You cross-dressing now?” I asked.

“No, douchebag. We’re gonna get Luke back for pranking you. Ryke’s gonna help us hold him down and put these on him later. Then we’re gonna duct tape his hands behind his back and send him down to the lobby on the elevator. You can’t get back up here without a key.”

I howled with laughter at the image and set my phone on the bed. “Hell, yeah.”

“What should we do to these before we tackle him?” Orion glanced around the room. He arched his brows and grinned. “Maybe I’ll put ‘em on. Leave some pubes in there for him.”

I held out my hand. “Give ‘em to me, I owe that motherfucker. I’m gonna rub my balls around in them and leave some fucking skid marks.”

He tossed me the panties and I went into the bathroom to change. I got a chuckle out of the words written across the ass of the stretchy fabric in black letters - ‘Boy Crazy’. This prank was gonna be epic. Whatever Luke dished out in return would be worth it.

The briefs were tight, squeezing my junk like compression wear.

“You got ‘em on?” Orion asked from outside the door.

“Yeah, I’m putting my jeans on now.” I left my shirt off and walked out of the bathroom. The waistband of my jeans hung down just enough to expose the top inch of the hot pink panties.

I’d almost made it to the bed when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Dark figures were on me before I could react. I was flat on the floor, face down, and I knew the voice I heard laughing. Luke.

“Get his jeans off,” Ryke said. I craned my head and glared at Orion.

“You fucker. I’m gonna beat your ass for this.”

He shook his head and joined Luke in laughing at me.

“You’re one dumbass rookie if you don’t know you’re being set up when someone gets you to put on panties, asshole,” Orion said, pulling on the legs of my pants.

I squirmed beneath Luke’s weight and he grunted with the effort of keeping me down. I got a hand free and sank my fingers into his thigh, pinching hard.

“Ow! Get his fucking hands, Ryke!” Luke cried. With both of them holding me down, I didn’t have a chance. Damn, I hoped the hotel lobby would be empty at this late hour.

They held my wrists behind my back and wrapped what felt like an entire roll of tape around them. I could tell by the sound of it that it was duct tape.

“That shit’s gonna take the hair of my arms,” I muttered. “You guys are assholes.”

The next piece of tape went over my mouth. They rolled me onto my side and Orion sat on my legs while Luke pulled a black permanent marker from his pocket and drew on my chest. Of course, they all pulled out their fucking phones and snapped photos of me.

When they helped me to my feet, I looked down at my abs and saw the word ‘Tool’ scrawled across my skin. Luke had drawn hearts around my nipples. I wanted to beat his ass in the worst way right now.

The three of them cackled and I leveled an evil glare at Orion.

He raised his hands in mock surrender. “Don’t look at me, man. You’re a rookie. I’ll have your back next season.”

I planted my feet, refusing to move when Luke grabbed my elbow. Within a few seconds, they’d picked me up, Ryke holding my shoulders and the others each getting a leg.

“He’s fucking heavy,” Ryke grumbled. “Hurry up and open the door, Luke.”

I closed my eyes and resigned myself to my fate. This was some bullshit.

They hustled me down the hallway and set me down while the elevator rose to our floor. I seized the chance to head butt Luke as hard as I could.

“Quit it, asshole,” he grumbled, smacking the back of my head. The doors opened and they shoved me in, all three of them waving. I wished I had a free middle finger to wave back at them.

The descent to the lobby only took a few seconds, and it was quiet when the doors opened. I stepped out, glancing around tentatively. Head down, I made my way to a hallway that I hoped would be deserted. I’d almost made it when a voice made my feet freeze in place.

“What the hell?”

I looked up and met the stunned gazes of two front desk clerks. My instinct was to offer a disarming smile, but I couldn’t with the tape over my mouth.

“Is he drunk? Should we call the police?” the male desk clerk asked the young woman next to him. I shook my head and walked toward them.

“Damn,” the woman said softly, her eyes wandering up and down my body. “He’s … yeah. He looks like an athlete or something.”

The guy’s eyes lit with recognition. “Maybe one of the hockey players staying on three?”

I nodded vigorously and made what noises I could, which was pretty much just “mmmm”. He came around the desk with a pair of scissors and I instinctively pulled my face away as he waved them near me.

“Just pull it off,” the woman said. The guy grabbed the corner of the tape and ripped. I growled at him from the pain.

“Motherfucker,” I mumbled. “Thanks. Can you cut my hands free?”

He snipped the tape and I worked it away from my skin slowly, which still hurt like hell.

“I’m in 314,” I said. “Nikola Vereshkova.”

The clerk typed into the computer and met my eyes.

“Do you have some ID?”

Was she serious? I arched my brows at her and she smiled. Her gaze wandered down to my package and I cleared my throat to get her attention.

“Oh … right. I can’t give you a room key without ID,” she said. “I could lose my job for that. Can you call your roommate and have him let you in?”

I gestured at my bare, drawn-on chest. “Who do you think did this to me?”

Two couples emerged from the round, spinning door that led into the lobby. They took one look at me and erupted into laughter.

“Can I get a robe or something?” I asked the male clerk, who’d walked back around the desk.

“Sure.” He left and I smiled at the woman, reading the nametag on her chest.

“Listen, Meg, can you help me out here? I’d really appreciate it. If you look up my team website, you’ll see photos of me. I’ve gotta be at the rink early and I just want to get some sleep. Please?”

She gave me puppy dog eyes. “I wish I could. Can we get your coach on the phone, maybe? If he’d come down and confirm you’re you, that’d be good enough.”

My lips parted a little in horror. If I woke Butch Price up in the middle of the night over this, I’d end up worse off than I was right now.

“You want me sleeping in your lobby?” I asked, hoping she’d see reason.

“There are couches in the business lounge,” she offered.

The short male clerk returned with a robe and I snatched it.

“Fine. I need woken up at seven,” I said, putting the robe on as I walked away. It came to my knees and stretched taut over my shoulders. The sleeves only made it halfway down my forearms. This was gonna be a long night. And the worst part was that Sadie would think I was ignoring her since I hadn’t responded to her last message.

I missed her, too. And I’d planned to tell her that. Hell, I missed her like crazy. I was like one of the married guys I always teased for being whipped. I wasn’t ready to get married, not even close, but I definitely wanted Sadie to be all mine. It was time for us to have the conversation I’d never wanted to initiate with any woman before her.

When Sadie opened her door, my mind went right to the other night, when she’d let me in soaking wet and bleeding, and given me what I needed. She hadn’t questioned or judged, and now I wanted a chance to be the one giving instead of just taking.

“Hi,” she said softly. Somehow, she managed to look pretty all the time. Just out of bed, all dressed up, or like tonight, just wearing jeans and a sweater.

“Hey.” I smiled and held out the roses I’d picked up. Never in my life had I brought a woman flowers. Hopefully I didn’t look like a fucking tool right now.

“Thank you,” she said, her cheeks pinking a little. “They’re beautiful.”

She put the bouquet to her nose and inhaled, flashing a wide smile at me.

“What?” I asked, arching my brows with amusement.

“I was just wondering what color your panties are tonight,” she said casually.

“Isn’t that my line?” Realization dawned just then, and I rolled my eyes. “What’d you hear?”

“It was more what I saw that I’m still smiling about.” She grabbed her cell phone and pulled up a photo of me in the panties.

“Fuckers,” I muttered. “Where’d you get that?”

“From Dell.”

An alarm sounded in my head. “Does she know about us?”

“Yeah, but she won’t tell Luke. Chicks before dicks and all.”

“I don’t mind him knowing anyway,” I said, shrugging. “He thinks he can kick my ass, but he’s wrong.”

“Well, I very much enjoyed the photo. You’re sexy no matter what you’re wearing. And I knew when I got it that you probably couldn’t text me back. I was going to tease you about it by text, but I thought it would be more fun in person.”

“I can tease, too,” I said in a low, serious tone. My cock stiffened at the flash of desire that passed over Sadie’s face. “But not until after I take you out. Ready to go?”

“I’ll just put these in the kitchen,” she said. In her tiny apartment, that was only about ten steps from the front door.

“I like your place,” I said. It was the first time I’d really looked at it. The other night I hadn’t seen much of anything in here but her from the moment we walked through the front door.

Several bookcases were lined up on a living room wall, all stuffed full of books. Her wood desk only had a stack of paper, a magazine and a turquoise laptop. Colorful photos and framed articles she’d written were artfully arranged on the walls. The apartment was one big open room, and I could see her fluffy white bedspread and the wrought iron posts of her bed frame from the front door. I had a thought about wrapping my hand around one of those posts for leverage while I was fucking her, and I cleared my throat and turned away.

Tonight was not about sex. I looked into the kitchen and there was the table. And
fuck
, it was impossible not to look at it without picturing her spread out on it, ankles over my shoulders and tits bouncing.

Sadie’s light, sexy laugh pulled my attention to her. “What are you thinking about?” she asked.

“The other night,” I admitted.

“That was the most incredible sex I’ve ever had,” she said.

“Me too.”

It was true; something had happened between us that night. We’d connected in an unspoken way. Our first time had been hot, but that night had been something much more. I’d never
felt
during sex like I had that night. My anger and frustration and worry had poured out of me, and Sadie had opened herself to all of it, accepting more than just my body. Wanting more.

She approached me, placing her arms on my chest and gazing up into my eyes.

“Mmm,” I said, smiling. “I’d love to, Kitten, but we’re going out for dinner first.”

“I didn’t even say anything!” she cried, stepping back. “And did you just call me Kitten?”

“You didn’t have to say it. I know what you want. And yeah, I did.”

Her glare was an admission that I was right. Hell, I wanted it, too. But not until after this dinner.

She crossed the small kitchen and grabbed her wool coat from the back of the couch.

“Here,” I said, holding my hand out. I took the coat and held it open for her. When she turned, I bent down to kiss her. I couldn’t wait til the end of the night.