Page 1 of Gloves Off

CHAPTER 1

ALEXEI

The morningof the Vancouver Storm’s season opener, I wait for the elevator up to Coach Tate Ward’s office at the arena when I hear it—heels clicking.

She steps into my periphery, and a familiar scent washes over me—vanilla, violets, and sandalwood. My shoulders tighten.

Here we fucking go. My blood starts to hum. On my wrist, my watch beeps in warning as my heart rate rises above resting rate, and I silence it.

She looks up from her phone, those warm whiskey eyes cooling. “Oh. You.”

I reach for the elevator call button and press it again. I don’t want to spend more time with this spoiled brat than I have to.

I cannot fucking stand Dr. Georgia Greene.

“Thanks, Volkov.” She offers me a mock grateful smile. “I don’t want to spend more time with you than I have to.”

Like always, her auburn hair is down around her shoulders, loose, wavy, and thick like one of those laughing women on shampoo commercials. It’s not red, it’s not brunette, it’s something in between, with gold strands that catch the light. A crop of new freckles span her nose and cheekbones, probably from sunbathing on a yacht all summer, lounging topless while being served drinks on a silver tray by some employee whose name she doesn’t know. My teeth grit.

She stands next to me and faces the doors as we wait, still reading emails on her phone while I try not to inhale her.

“I’m surprised you’re back at work this season.” Apparently, I can’t stop myself from provoking her. “I thought you would have bagged a rich husband by now.”

I give her a sidelong look, taking in her flawless hair, her makeup, the outfit she has chosen to fit her every curve. Her skyscraper heels. The expensive handbag dangling from the crook of her arm. The Greene family is notorious for owning half of Vancouver. She’s exactly like my ex—superficial, self-centered, and obsessed with wealth and image.

“I’m ignoring you,” she says, eyes on her phone.

I’ll never get married, I heard her say last year. Still, it pisses her off when I talk about her wanting to find a rich husband, and the only thing I love more than pissing off the doctor is hockey.

“Isn’t that your deepest desire?” I ask. “Land some old guy on the brink of death and cash in when he crosses over to the afterlife so you can quit your job and live out the rest of your days doing what you love most, spending money on yourself?”

I don’t know why I act like this around her. I don’t talk to anyone the way I talk to this woman.

At the wordsold guy,her lips curve into a sick smile. “Maybe I’ll marry you.”

“When hell freezes over.” I would never marry, let alone marryher. “And I’m not old.”

I’m thirty-six. For an enforcer defenseman, I’m old, but I’m still in incredible shape. The Norris trophy is awarded to the NHL’s best all-around defenseman. I haven’t won it three times because I let myself go.

“Hellfire,” I add.

She stiffens, and I fight the urge to smile. She hates that nickname.

“Don’t call me that.”

“That’s where you’re from, isn’t it? Forged in the fires of hell?”

A feeling expands in my chest, like the moments before a game starts, and the air between us crackles.

“You want to know what my deepest desire is, Volkov?” She whirls on me, eyes flickering with fire, and my heart hammers harder. “My deepest desire, which I wish for every birthday, is that you’ll fall down a very narrow, very deep hole. You won’t have your phone on you. It’ll be in the middle of nowhere, and I’ll be the only person around.” She puts on a high, sad voice. “Help me,you’ll call up the hole.Please, Georgia, help me.”

“I’d never ask for your help. And I don’t sound like that.”

“You will, because you’ll be starving, thirsty, and very scared. It’s a hundred feet deep, and there are snakes at the bottom.”

“That’s what you wish for on your birthday? That’s kind of pathetic, don’t you think?”

“You know what else I wish for? That you’ll finally retire.” Her gaze trails over me, cataloging every injury, every pin and steel plate in my body from seventeen years in the NHL. “And I never have to see you again.”

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