Page 170 of Hockey Halloween
“Ohhhh. Wait!” Ares comes in wearing what can only bedescribed as black snugs. They’re barely covering his dick, and I’m sure if he turned around, I’d see nothing but ass. I’m seeing way more of my teammates junk right now than I’d like, but he’s a stripper and doesn’t give a shit. If we have a problem with his cock, it’s our problem. “Let me get my camera out. Can’t miss recording Rico getting his ass handed to him by Pennywise.”
“Why are you here? You have your own apartment.” I try not to talk to his crotch, but dude ishungand it’sright fucking there.
He shrugs. “I needed to bang my girl and this place was closer.” ThankGodwe get a cleaning crew in once a week. Joys of having rich teammates, they don’t let us dissolve into squalor. All surfaces that have had Ares’s hairless ass cheeks on them in the past twenty-four hours will be cleaned in two days.
“Who’s banging?” Tate saunters in, low-slung sweats that show his impressive Adonis belt, but nothing else. Good. I’m about to go full neanderthal on this room and beat everyone’s ass for showing skin in front of my girl.
“There’s banging?” A shirtless Scott joins the group, leaning over Lilith’s shoulder to steal a slice of bacon from the plate she’s filling from the pan. She spanks him with the spatula she’d just threatened Rico with.
Scott winks at her. “I love a feisty woman.”
“Speaking of, doesn’t yours own her own building or something? Couldn’t you have stayed with her?”
He makes his pecs dance, and Lilith rolls her eyes on a laugh. “She came here after the game, remember? Where my good lady goes, so goeth I.”
Lilith covers her forehead with the back of her hand and makes a swooning noise. “So romantic.”
Athena walks in right as Lilith pretends to faint against Scott’s bare chest. “Is there an orgy happening that I wasn’t invited to?” She stutters to a stop before holding a flat palm up to Ares’s face. “Jesus Christ, man. Do you have to just… let it all hang out like that?”
Amusement lights up Lilith’s face as she finishes making breakfast. Everyone who’s in the hockey house sits around the enormousdining table, and Scott and I take over cooking from my girl so she can get a hot, fresh breakfast. She’s reluctant to hand over the frying pan and spatula, but once she’s sitting between Athena and a still barely clad Ares, she looks right at home.
I could watch her all day, the way her head tips back, that glittering sparkle in those expressive eyes, and the slightly uneven tilt of her mouth.
“Dude.” Scott bumps my hip with his. “You have it fucking bad.”
I can’t deny it. I hold my hands up in surrender. “Guilty as charged. She’s bewitching. I’ve been bewitched.”
He snorts. “I get it.” He looks at Athena like she hung the fucking sun, the moon, and every star in the sky by hand. “It’s so good to see that smile back though, Mac.” He doesn’t call me beast, and come to think of it, neither did Athena last night when she told me to look after Lilith.
“Personally, I think your smile is hotter now you have that wicked cool scar.” He winks at me. “But what do I know?”
“Would you assholes stop flirting and finish cooking already?” Athena drums her knife on the table. “We’re going to be finished before you even start!”
Lilith doesn’t cower or shy away from the chaos around her at the table, she laughs and chats to the gang like she’s been here all along. I don’t know how that prick Johnny White didn’t know what he had, but now that he’s let her go, now that I’ve found her, I’m so grateful that he was such an epically dumb fuck.
Lilith catches me staring at her. “What?” She tips her head to the side.
I shake my head, a slow smile spreading across my face. “I never thought I’d see the day I was grateful to JW.” I swallow hard, as everyone’s eyes turn to me in stunned silence. “If you two hadn’t broken up, I’d never have found you.”
The group erupts into ‘awwws’ and ‘pukes’ and there’s a ripple of ridicule over pancakes and eggs, but when I sit across the table from my girl, everything just feels fucking right.
Epilogue
LILITH
Two months later
“That was ah-may-zing.”Penelope clinks her glass against the side of mine as she plonks on the oversized loveseat to my left.
Everything in the de la Peña’s home is opulent, gorgeous, elegant, and timeless. Gabriela de la Peña looks like a fifties movie star as she glides through her home making sure no one’s glass is empty.
It’s their annual Christmas party, and despite hiring staff to cater and serve the feast of the year, Gabi is doing a lot of the heavy lifting herself.
Everyone is dressed to the nines. I’m told every year they have a dress code or a theme, this year is gold and red, and everywhere I look, I’m surrounded by my smiling friends looking a million bucks.
“What she said.” A very round-bellied Tori agrees, clinking her glass against mine as well. “You raised a fucking fortune last night, Lil. That better not be sparkling apple juice in your glass. You earned the real stuff tonight.”
“Tori, I like you and all, but I’m begging you with my wholeheart, please don’t go into labor here. Please.” I glance down at the cream rug under our feet. “We can’t afford to replace Gabi’s rug.”
