Page 39 of Wild Pucker

"Ah, so this isthe Lilyyou talked so much about when you lived with us." Anna smirks, pretending to be friendly, while hiding the viper inside. "I've been following your little dating experiment online. It's cute. Although I must admit, I never thought Chase could be a one-woman man."

"You don't know me, Anna," I snarl. "You knew a very angry young man looking for an outlet for his anger."

"Yes, well, you did like it rough if I recall correctly," she purrs and leans into me, smiling coyly. Lily stiffens at my side and I want to drag her away. "Darla misses you. You broke her poor little heart."

I very much doubt that. Darla is a replica of her mother. She was a young girl looking for a meal ticket, hoping to snag a rising hockey star. She wasn't even angry at me when she found out I was fucking her mother on the side. She didn't care. And when the story went viral and made her look like the victim, she lapped it up. She was the heartbroken girl, and I was the heartless bastard. And maybe that's who I was back then, but that's not who I am now.

"If anyone broke your daughter's heart, it was you," Lily bites out, murder in her eyes. "You slept with her boyfriend. You took advantage of someone you were responsible for caring for."

"Semantics." Anna brushes Lily off.

"One year," Lily snaps back, her voice like a whip.

"One year what?" Anna takes the bait.

"One year younger, and what you did would have been a crime. Chase would have been under the age of consent, and you'd be in prison."

"Think what you want, little girl, but a leopard doesn't change his spots. Chase has certain tastes, and eventually he'll crave the things you can't give him." I grip Lily's arm harder than I realize, and she squeezes back. "When you tire of vanilla, Chase, come find me."

Anna turns and walks away, leaving the heavy scent of her musky perfume. It's the same scent she wore when we first met, and the smell makes me sick.

I turn to Lily, scared to see the repulsion in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Lily," I start. "That was—“

"I know who that was, Chase," Lily cuts me off, eyes blazing in anger. Not anger at me, I realize. Angerforme. "She took advantage of you. She may not have forced you, but she knew what she was doing, and it was wrong."

I don't bother mentioning that Anna Munro could have been charged with statutory rape, but I lied to the police and told them our affair started after I turned sixteen and not when I first arrived in London a few months before my birthday.

The buzzer sounds to mark the start of the second period, and we walk back in silence. I don't know the right words to say to Lily. I knew this would happen, and yet I hoped it wouldn't. I let Lily walk into the box alone, making an excuse about having to get back down to the locker room. We both know I'm lying.

On the elevator ride down, it's all I can do but pray I can prove to Lily I'm not the same miserable, broken boy who left home all those years ago.

12

Reaching New Heights

Lily

The BUZZ By: Cassidy Tippett

Cougars on the Prowl Looking to "Chase" down Northmen?

Ladies, hide your young gentlemen. You've officially been warned. Last night a cougar was spotted prowling the hallways of The Vault—the home arena of the Toronto Northmen.

Perhaps some of you will recall that several years ago, before Chase Wilder was an NHL superstar, he was a young phenom chasing his dream as a major-junior hockey player. And until recently, Mr. Wilder also loved chasing women—granted, women love chasing him too. One woman in particular, twenty years his senior and a former billet mom, caught him in her clutches. Or I should say, she was caught with him while Wilder was also dating her daughter.

It was quite the scandal—soap opera and telenovela worthy. Wilder quickly and quietly left junior hockey to join his NHL team in Florida, where he promptly continued his playboy ways, thankfully, with women his own age.

These days, Wilder is trying to mend his wild ways by setting his sights on his best friend's little sister: girl-next-door and team chef, the very sweet Lily Valentine. If you subscribe toThe Blue and White Bachelorette—and why wouldn't you?— then you already know how that drama is unfolding.

But things got even more interesting last night, and the plot thickened.

Cradle-robbing-billet-mom, please enter stage left.

A woman, who we will refer to as A.M., made an appearance at the Northmen's preseason game—Wilder was scratched and cozily watching alongside Ms. Valentine from the WAG box.

And if you think running into an ex with your new lady love is awkward, imagine doing it when your former lover was a handful of days away from being hooked on some jailbait. No one wants to read that age-gap romance.