Page 30 of Married Into Love

ChapterEleven

Alessia

Without the evictionor my firing to worry about, Alec convinced me to spend the next few days sight-seeing with him. We did a lot of the usual touristy things. On Tuesday, we hit up the Freemont Street Experience—with a quick stop at the chapel where we got married to pick up the photos from that night. When we were done, we spent a few hours exploring the Strip, including a romanticgondolaride.

Wednesday was all about the outdoors when we went to Red Rock Canyon. Alec found a tour through a western-style ranch that included a huge breakfast, horseback trail ride of the canyon, and a tour of a wild west town. Then we followed it up with a dune-buggy tour of the canyon in theafternoon.

I thought we were just going to chill out on Thursday, but Alec flashed me puppy dog eyes and got me to agree to a driving experience at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Not that he had to work too hard at getting me to say yes once he told me there were Lamborghinis involved. We started out our session at the track in a 3D simulator, complete with a roll cage. It was a little bit intimidating, but I was glad for the practice when I slid behind the wheel of the Lamborghini Gallardo GT they let me drive. I had no idea how much Alec spent, but it was well worth the money to accelerate down the straightaway and fly through asharpturn.

By Friday morning, I didn’t want to open my eyes when I rolled over and found the bed empty. Between all the sight-seeing and the hours we’d spent in bed togethernotsleeping, I was exhausted. Half-listening to the sound of the toilet flushing and the water running in the bathroom, I snuggled deeper into the pillows until Alec padded back intotheroom.

“You promised me a lazy day,” I murmured, patting the mattress nexttome.

“I was thinking you could be lazy watching me while I got some time ontheice.”

That wasn’t the response I’d been expecting, and my eyes popped open. “Theice?”

“Yeah, I got a text this morning from a guy I know who was traded to the Golden Knights. He heard I was in town and wanted to know if I was interested in doing some skating since I’ve been here longer than I originallyplanned.”

“Oh.” That was my brilliantresponse.Oh.

But in my defense, I was busy thinking about how Alec had put his life on hold to stay in Las Vegas with me and feeling horrible for letting it happen without even acknowledging the sacrifices he was making for me. For someone who’d spent years going above and beyond for the people in my life, I’d somehow turned into a taker in our relationship without giving back in equal measure. But that was going to stop. Immediately. “I’d love to watch youskate.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely. I’m a hockey wife, after all. I should probably learn something about the sport,right?”

“Damn straight.” He dropped a quick kiss on my lips. “And I’m just the guy toteachyou.”

“Just so long as there isn’t a quiz later on,” I joked as I flung the covers off me and crawled off the mattress. “Because I’ve never even been inside an ice rink, let alone watched ahockeygame.”

“So what you’re telling me is you’re a hockey virgin, and I get to pop yourcherry?”

I winked up at him as I walked past him on my way to the bathroom. “Sounds like a good timetome.”

“Fuck yeah, it does,” he groaned as I closedthedoor.

We only had an hour before we needed to leave for the arena, so I skipped my usual bath and took a shower instead. After a quick breakfast of waffles for me and an egg white omelet for Alec—some might have said we were already turning into a boring married couple when it came to our morning routine—we headed over to the arena they’d built for the new hockey team. It didn’t take long to get there since it was only a few blocks away, next door to the New York-New York Hotel andCasino.

“Hey, man. It’s good to see you.” Alec’s friend greeted him with a hand shake before flashing me a grin. A growl rumbled up Alec’s chest, and his friend burst into laughter. “It’s like that, is it? I never thought I’d see the day when Alec Rourke would be jealous over a woman, but seeing you I canunderstandwhy.”

Alec yanked me closer to his side and glared at his friend. “Stop hitting on mywife,Greg.”

“Wife?” Greg echoed. “I’d heard a rumor but had a hard time believing it. No wonder you haven’t left Vegas yet. You were too busy breaking hearts in hockey arenas across the country by gettingmarried.”

This time, I was the one who growled, making Alec chuckle before he introduced me to his friend. “Greg, this is my wife, Alessia.” Greg stretched his hand out to shake mine, but Alec slapped it away. “I know how much of a player you are, dude.Handsoff.”

Greg smiled at me. “We’d better get your husband on the ice. It sounds like he could use theworkout.”

My cheeks filled with heat at the thought of the workouts he’d been getting between the sheets with me. Alec chuckled again, and gave me a squeeze that let me know he was aware exactly where my thoughts had wandered. My blush just barely died down by the time we made it through the arena and I followed Alec into the visitor’slockerroom.

“Are ice skates like bowling shoes? You can wear whatever they give you as long as they’re the right size?” I asked when he sat down and picked up a pair of black skates from the floor. There were three pairs sitting out, next to a locker filled with pads and ahelmet.

“Hockey lesson number one,” he began, holding up one of the skates and turning it to the side so I could see the Bauer logo on the side and “Vapor” towards the back. “All skates are not created equal. This is my favorite brand. I haven’t played a game in another kind of skate in years. It would’ve sucked to skate in something else today, but I would’ve handled it since I need the ice time and didn’t bring my equipmentwithme.”

“It was nice of your friend to make sure you could wear your favoriteskates.”

He half-laughed half-snorted as he stripped out of his shorts and started to pull on another pair with Velcro straps on the bottom. “Nah, that was a purely selfish move and one I’m betting the owner or coach put himupto.”

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