Page 32 of Pickled
“I’m game.” Riley smiled and cast a glance at the courts. “The scenery is too good to leave right now.”
My fists balled again, but what could I do? Piper wasn’t mine. Sure, I could stop Riles from getting to her, but the dating pool was filled with guys like him. Guys who would lie, use her, ghost her, and talk about her in the dressing room. I couldn’t protect her from all of them.
If I could, I would make sure that no man, especially a hockey player, would ever hurt her.
My stomach dropped. What was happening to me? Piper made damn sure that this wasn’t and never would be my role.
“Are you going to stay, Giddy?” Riley pointed to my empty mug.
My mind raced. I needed to get home to meet Ace and Goldie. But… Piper. Could I stay and make sure that Riles didn’t approach her? I shook my head. Piper was a grown woman, and I wasn’t a stalker.
Tomorrow’s game was important. It needed one hundred percent of my focus. “I’m going to go. I want to be fresh for the morning skate.”
Was I making a mistake? Like me, Piper was free to do whatever she wanted. So why did I feel like the pints of beer were going to make a vomitus exit?
Closing my eyes,I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair and tried to think about something, anything else, other than Piper’s tennis outfit. The way her perfect nipples pressed against the insanely tight shirt. That imagery, combined with endlessreplays of her perfectly executed tennis serve, was totally doing it for me.
Every damn time my eyes blinked shut, the pink top flashed in my mind, and my cock pulsed accordingly. He had witnessed the perfection that lay underneath that pink shirt and wanted to see it again. I did too, but unlike the throbbing member between my legs, I had a brain and had promised her that it would be a onetime thing.
That promise didn’t mean I couldn’t think about her while I jerked off. Thankfully, that was one thing my brain and my dick agreed on. Water beat down on my face, and I grabbed my veiny cock in my fist. I rested my free hand on the marble tile and adjusted my grip accordingly. Piper was tight. While I stroked, I tried to remember what she sounded like when she screamed my name.
“Oh fuck.” My voice was guttural. Water dripped into my open mouth as my breathing came harder and faster. When I closed my eyes the next time, Piper was there, looking over her shoulder at me, biting her lip, arching her back… and dinging at me?
I paused, the erection in my grip poised to explode. The dinging was my doorbell.
“Fuck it.” Ace would have to wait. I closed my eyes, and this time, the pink shirt was in a pile on the floor, and Piper was kneeling in front of me, her hands squeezing my ass as she…
Ding dong, ding dong. Ding…My eyes snapped open. “Goddamn you, Ace.” I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around my waist. The doorbell continued to ring nonstop. There wasonly one annoying asshole in the world who would jab at the button to the tune of “Dirty Deeds.”
C.C. was already at the door, his ears pressed back in annoyance. “I’m coming,” I shouted and whipped the door open.
“Nice outfit.” Ace grinned. Goldie averted her eyes. “Are we interrupting something?” He stood on his toes to peer over my shoulder.
In an attempt to conceal the tent pole action in the terry cloth south of my waist, I stepped behind the door. “I was in the shower. Come in and make yourself at home. I’m going to get dressed.”
The second she stepped inside, Goldie squealed and dropped to a squat. “Is this your kitten?”
Biting my lip, I cast a glance at my smart-aleck brother, knowing that a wisecrack was coming. “No, that’s his new alligator.”
“Stop it.” Goldie swatted at Ace but missed. “What’s his name again?”
“CC.” I was halfway up the stairs, my hard-on fading but still bulging out of the towel. “I’ll be down in a minute. Help yourself to drinks in the fridge.”
“Take your time, Romeo.” Ace pumped his eyebrows and made a jerk-off motion with his hand. Luckily, Goldie was occupied with CC. I responded by giving him the finger. We were in our twenties but, like most brothers, reverted to the teenage versions of ourselves when we got together.
When I came down, dressed and completely decent, Goldie and Ace were sitting in the lanai. A blast of cold water in the showerhad taken care of the dick situation, and as long as I didn’t think about Piper in pink, I was going to be okay.
“Nice to see you, sis.” I opened my arms and gave Goldie a huge hug.
“It’s been too long.” She squeezed me back.
“It’s only been a few months.” Goldie was a lot more sentimental than me.
“Yeah, like I said, too long.” She smiled. “You should buy a cottage in Laketown. Miami is way too far from Toronto.”
The two of them had been trying to get me to buy a place on Lake Casper, in Laketown. The area had too much of a Hamptons vibe for me. Celebrities and sports stars flocked there for the fancy restaurants, exclusive golf courses, and overpriced boutiques. It wasn’t exactly my “scene.” “Maybe,” I replied. “But why would I buy a place there when I can just stay in your boathouse?”
“Still the same cheap bastard.” Ace leaned back in his chair, took off his Tigers hat, and wiped his brow. “How do you handle this heat?”
