Bound (12 page)

The coffee brewed and I brought Mimi a cup. She looked up from her grocery list and reached for the mug, sipping it slowly. I stirred cream and sugar into the coffee I’d poured into Kate’s Ryan Gosling mug in front of her usual spot at my table. Would she notice if I had some shirtless actress on my coffee mug?

I’d downed half of my coffee before I walked over to the wall of windows to stare out at the lake. I usually waited for Kate so we could drink our coffee together, but I was wound up today.

“Where i
s she?” I said, watching the water’s waves. “I need to get to the rink.”

“I’m sure she’ll be here soon,” Mimi said in a soothing tone. “You can leave any messages for her with me if you need to leave.”

I shook my head and went back to the counter for more coffee. “That’s okay.” It wasn’t that I was aggravated with her, it was that I was eager to see her, but I didn’t want to tell Mimi that.

After another ten minutes, I couldn’t stand it any longer. It was 20 minutes later than the time Kate arrived every morning. Now I was worried, dammit. I couldn’t leave for the rink.

I dialed her phone and crossed an arm across my chest, waiting for her to answer.

“Ryke.” She was breathless, and I wondered why. “I know I’m late, I’m sorry.”

“Am I interrupting something?” My tone was gruff and pissed, but I couldn’t help it.

“Not really . . . I know you need to get to work.
Don’t forget that you’re going to that youth hockey league practice tonight. They asked if you’d bring your skates and skate with—”

“Are you on your way up?” I heard cars in the background and knew she was outside. “I can wait til you get in.”

“No. I’ll be a little while yet. I’m sorry.”

“I’m
not pissed, Kate. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

The blare of a loud car horn nearly drowned her out. “I’m fine.”

I didn’t want to pry. If she’d woken up in some other guy’s bed, I didn’t even want to know.

“Okay,” I said. “I guess I’ll see you—”

The sound of a muffled man’s voice made me stop talking. I strained to hear what he was saying.

“I don’t know,” Kate said
to him. “It was smoking really bad, but I don’t know why.”

I ran a hand through my hair, my heart pounding with jealousy and curiosity.

“Who is that?” I demanded. “Are you with Quinn?”

“Quinn?” Her voice rose with indignation. “No! It’s a guy who pulled over to help me because I’m having car trouble.”

“Car trouble?” I practically yelled into the phone. “Why didn’t you call me? Christ’s sake, Kate! Where are you?”

“I’m maybe three or four miles from your place. But you don’t have to—”

“I’m on the way.” I reached for my keys and jogged to the door.

By the time my Jeep’s tires squealed to a stop behind Kate’s hunk of junk, there was another guy there trying to help her, too. I saw relief on Kate’s face when I approached
, and the guy hustled back to his car.

“Hey,” I said. Her face was lined with worry and she was biting her lip.

“I thought my car was about to catch on fire,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do.”

“Let me look at it,” I said, taking her arm to lead her away from the traffic flying by on the crowded expressway. A middle-aged guy was scratching his head as he looked under the raised hood of the car.

“Uh . . . well, it’s not smoking anymore,” he said. He didn’t have a fucking clue about cars.

“We’re just gonna have
it towed,” I said when I got a look at the old engine. This car needed major work; probably more than it was even worth.

“Jason Ryker?” The middle-aged guy’s
eyes bulged.

“Yeah,” I said. It was hot and I wasn’t in the mood to talk hockey, but I offered my hand.

“I’m a big fan,” he said.

“Thanks, I appreciate it. And thanks for stopping to help . . . my assistant. How about some tickets to our home opener?”

The man grinned at me and made a whooping sound. “Yeah!”

I scrawled a name and number for the front office on a scrap of paper he handed to me and told him how to get the tickets.
He snapped a quick photo of me with his camera phone and scrambled away.

Kate was leaning against the short concrete wall on the side of the road. “You have any stuff in the car I need to grab?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I’ve got my purse.”

“Okay, let’s go,” I said loudly so she could hear me over the noise of the cars. “You can drop me off at the rink and take the Jeep.”

“You can just drop me off at your place,” she said. When she climbed into the door-free Jeep and sat down, I reached up to grip the roll bar and leaned in to her. It was the closest we’d been in a long time, and it got my blood flowing. The sheen of sweat on her face made her glow.

“Take the Jeep,” I said, letting myse
lf get close enough to smell her. The subtle scents of freshly fallen rain and vanilla had the same effect on me they’d had at the dinner event we went to. One word from her, and I’d blow off practice to spend the day in bed with Kate. Damn the consequences.

“Alright, thanks,” she said with a small smile. I forced myself to lean back and walk around the Jeep to drive to the rink.

“I’ll call a tow truck when I get to practice,” I said.

“I can do it. You’ll be busy.” Her long hair whipped up in the wind and she tried to hold it down.

“I’ve got it, Kate. Let me rescue you properly.”

She smiled and happiness swelled
in my chest. “Can we ride to the meeting together tonight?”

I was trying to be Prince Charming and she was thinking about the grief support group?

“Sure. Let’s get dinner after. Tell Mimi not to worry about making anything.”

She nodded, and
hope surged through me for the first time since that night several weeks ago. Maybe something could happen with us. I’d go as slow as she needed me to. This beautiful, vulnerable woman was winding her way to a place in my heart no one had ever been before.

***

Kate

The whiny beep of a car horn behind me caught my attention. I pushed my foot onto the Jeep’s gas pedal, feeling pain in the lip I’d been unconsciously biting down hard on. When I pulled up to the door Ryke had told me to pick him up at, I shoved the gear shift into park and gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles burned. I had no right to be pissed, none at all, but I was. I had been all damn day, and now I was about to boil over.

Ryke’s perfect white grin when he strolled out a few minutes later just incited more anger. Damn him. Even though it was my own stupid fault.

“Hey,” he said as he got in.

“Did you want to drive?” I looked straight ahead, knowing I’d blow if I let him turn those caramel eyes on me. Or worse, melt and forget how mad I was.

“No, go ahead. How was your day?”

“Fine.” I focused my attention on traffic in the parking lot. “I dropped off the stuff you’re donating to that auction, did your shopping and worked on your schedule.”

“Is everything okay?” he asked. I must not have been masking my hostility very well. I’d never been a good liar.

“Yep. Oh, and you got an email from a Krista Grayson. She sent the address for your date this weekend. Should I add that to your schedule?”

Silence.

That’s right, fucker. Busted playing both sides.

“Ah . . . It’s not a date. Krista’s married to Dan, one of my teammates.”

I actually felt my heart slow a little with relief. “Oh. And you’re having dinner with her?”

“Her and Dan, yeah.” I looked over and he was rubbing his jaw. “And, uh . . . one of Krista’s friends.”

My heart went back to its pissed off pace. “So a double date?”

“No. It’s not a date, Kate. It’s not. They just asked me to come, and I didn’t want to, but Dan talked me into it.”

“Maybe it’ll be fun,” I said, trying to keep my tone level. “Maybe you’ll like her.”

“It’s not like that.” I’d stopped at an intersection, and I felt him looking at me. “Kate . . .”

“What?” I said, an edge in my voice.

“Come with me.”

“Go with you?” I glared at him. “On a date? Why, in case you need your water refilled or your mouth wiped off? Will I be assisting your date, too?”

“It’s not a fucking date!”

“What is it, then?”

He sighed, clearly agitated. “A favor for a friend.”

I pulled into traffic and the sound of whip
ping wind and other cars kept us from talking about it any longer. I turned sharply into Ryke’s parking garage and shoved the Jeep into park again.

“Kate,”
he said. “Come on, Kate.”

“I’m tak
ing a cab home. I’ll take my mom’s car to the meeting tonight.” I had to stay angry here, in front of him, because if I didn’t, he’d see what I was really feeling.

“Please don’t go,” he said. We both stood next to the Jeep, and the sensation of his hands on my shoulders made me tingly. I took a deep breath and worked up the courage to look into his eyes. They were warm and imploring.

“I’m just your assistant,” I muttered. “I have no right to be jealous of your date.”

“You aren’t just my assistant. I wasn’t trying to sneak anything past you. I just told Dan I’d do this to get him off my back. I won’t go if you don’t want me to.”

I shook my head. “You should go. I’m being stupid.”

“
Dammit, Kate!” he roared, turning and pounding a fist into one of the parking garage’s support beams. “Can’t you give me something? Anything?”

“What?” I said, utterly confused.

He turned back to me, his eyes soft now. “I like you. A lot.  And there have been moments in the couple months we’ve known each other when I thought maybe you liked me, too. Am I off?”

I just looked at him. He was hands-down the hottest, most beautiful man I’d ever laid eyes on. Rich. Successful. Perfect. “You like me?” I couldn’t hide my shock.

Ryke’s eyes widened and his lips parted with surprise. “I kissed you. Or tried to, anyway. And it made you cry, which was a first for me.”

A woman with
a dark pixie cut stepped out of the elevator and eyed us, looking uncomfortable. Her heels clicked across the concrete and we waited in silence until she got in a white SUV and pulled out of the garage.

Ryke came closer, and my heart thundered in my chest. This wasn’t just light flirting anymore, and the thought sent a wave of panic through me.

“I can’t keep my eyes off you, Kate,” he said softly. “I make you coffee every morning because the best part of my day is those few minutes with you. I’m no fucking good at this stuff, but I’m trying.”

The swell of emotions inside me was overwhelming. I wanted to reach around his wide shoulders and sink into him. Feel all the parts of him I fantasized about nightly. I had a mad crush on this man, and I was s
tunned speechless by the hope of him wanting me for more than a quick lay.

“I wish . . .” My voice wavered and I took a deep breath. “I wish I could have met you before. I’m different now, Ryke.”

“I never even knew you before,” he said, stepping so close I felt his breath on my lips. “This is the Kate I know and this is the Kate I like.”

This was
crazy
. For one, he was my boss, and I needed this job. And at some point, if I decided to ease back into the dating game, it needed to be with someone a little more average than a panty-soaking NHL player who modeled underwear. Resisting the urge to have sex would be impossible with him.

He reached for my hand and took it in his. “Just give me an ounce o
f hope, Kate. I’m patient. This thing Saturday night is nothing. I have to do this shit all the time, for the team and for friends. I just meet people, mostly talk hockey, and leave. It’s not any different than signing autographs or doing appearances. But if you don’t want me to go—”

“You
should
go!” I said fiercely, meeting his eyes. “I’m neurotic and depressed. Find someone normal. It’s just . . . it’s crazy. I tell you I don’t want you to go Saturday night, and then you’ll be out with someone else the next Saturday night. It’s not fair to either one of us.”

“Don’t tell me what you think is best for me.” He twined his fingers into mine and just that felt so good I wanted to cry. “Tell me what you want.”

I swallowed and let my forehead rest against his rock-hard chest. “Don’t go,” I said, so softly I wondered if he’d hear me.

“I won’t.
What else do you want from me, Kate?”

I couldn’t answer, though
I wanted to say that I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready for more than this. Fully-clothed hand-holding in a parking garage was the equivalent of dirty sex for me now. But he felt so good against me, and I didn’t want to ruin the moment, so I just closed my eyes and breathed him in.