GAME MISCONDUCT (The Dartmouth Cobras) (26 page)

Max picked up the white sheet folded at the bottom of the bed and wrapped it around Oriana, cuddling her against his side as she shivered. Vanek stumbled away from the bed and almost fell twice while trying to pull up his pants.

“Max, Coach just called. He wants you to . . .” T.J. paused in the doorway and shook his head. “What happened to giving the poor girl the day off?”

“She apparently didn’t need it.” Sloan pushed off the bed and leaned over Oriana. “I’ll go pour you a bath so you can clean up. Then you can come meet my dad.”

She grabbed the front of his boxers when he backed away. “Ask me, Sloan.”

Needed another lesson, did she? “Oriana, you don’t want me to—”

“Stop right there. I’m fine being submissive in bed, but I won’t let you boss me around all the time. Not for stuff like this.” She released his boxers with a snap and sat back on her heels. The blanket covered her enough that he could focus on her face. On her warm smile.

God, she was gorgeous. He realized he’d rather her come because she chose to anyway. “Will you come with me to Digby to meet my father? You can see his boat, and I’ll bring you to the lighthouse and—”

She pressed her fingers to his lips. “Yes. I’d love to.”

The tail end of T.J. and Max’s conversation wiped the goofy grin off his face.

“He wants to talk to me?” Max bared his teeth in a smile. “Good, ‘cause I’ve got a thing or two to say to him.”

“Max, don’t.” Oriana reached out, but Max rolled out of reach and off the bed, then grabbed his clothes.

In that state of mind, there’d be no talking to him. He didn’t even look at her before walking out.

“Shit, I didn’t realize he’d act like that.” T.J. glanced at Oriana. “I’d go with him, but I promised my daughter—”

“Your daughter . . . how old is she?”

“Just a few years younger than you.” T.J.’s lips slanted. “Which I hadn’t really thought about until she called.”

“Too weird for you?” Oriana gave him a sympathetic smile.

T.J. shrugged, then looked at Dominik. “Wanna make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid?”

“Sure.” Dominik took a step toward the door, then paused. “You know that little coffee shop around the corner from the forum?”

Oriana nodded.

“When you get back, I wanna take you there . . . if that’s okay?”

Master Mason, nicely asking a sub to go out with him. Would wonders never cease?

“I’d love to.” By the way she fought not to smile, she’d caught the effort Dominik put into asking and not telling. “But only if I get to choose my own clothes.”

“To the coffee shop? Done.” Dominik pointed at the clothes he’d given her earlier. “Today you wear these.”

When Dominik left to catch up with Max, Oriana stuck out her tongue, giggling when Sloan made a grab for her.

“I’m going to take a quick shower.” She evaded him at the last second. “Getting a bit tired of being manhandled.”

He crawled across the bed, slowly so she’d think he’d given up. “You’re a horrible liar. If you were tired of it, you’d stop tempting us.” He lurched forward, hauled her onto the bed, and pulled her under him. “Tell me when you’ve had enough.”

“I’ve had enough!” She gasped when his fingers grazed her ribs. “Really, Sloan, I need a break.”

“You sure?” He nibbled along her jaw, then kissed down her throat. “‘Cause I can keep you in this bed all day.”

“No, you . . .” Oriana let her words trail off. “I want to meet your father. He sounds great.”

Sloan’s brow furrowed. He pushed to his feet, then helped her up.

“He is,” Sloan said. “But he’s nothing like the snobs you’re used to.”

“The snobs I’m . . .” Oriana threw up her hands and stomped across the room. “I’ll have you know, most of the people I hang out with are students, and none of them are snobs.” Her chin jutted out. “And neither am I.”

When she slammed the door, Sloan winced. Now why the hell had he said that?

So much for having a pleasant day getting better acquainted. He thought of the three-hour drive ahead of them.

It was going to be a long trip.

“S
o he said, ‘Look, you little punk, if you don’t want your brains splattered all over the ice, you’ll stay the hell away from my goaltender.’”

Leaning forward, Oriana gave a sharp inhale. “Thornton? From Minnesota? He’s what, almost a foot taller than you? Weren’t you worried that you’d get creamed?”

Vanek draped his arm across the backseat and toyed with Oriana’s hair. “Naw, I knew I could take him.”

“So what did you do?”

Sloan couldn’t help but grin as Vanek embellished the tale. The tension between him and Oriana had grown slack at some point between Vanek’s excited minor league chatter and his colorful retelling of his first days as a pro. The boy made it very hard to stay in a bad mood.

“. . . well, then Thornton picked my pocket and shot toward the net. Giroux had him covered, and he didn’t have any backup. I could tell he was gonna plow our goaltender—like a revenge thing. So I sped up, overtook him, and rammed into him with a good, solid hip check. Never seen such a big man fly so high. He landed in a heap, and Giroux gloved the puck.”

“Nice.” Oriana rubbed her hands together, then motioned for him to go on.

“Well, the ref blew the whistle, and Thornton came at me. He dropped his gloves and tore off my helmet. I didn’t have time to react before his ham-sized fist was in my face.” He paused for effect. “But he didn’t get one hit. Mason spun him around and clocked him right between the eyes. One punch. KO. Callahan and Perron had to drag Mason back before he kept hitting the guy. He completely lost it.”

“I wish I could have seen that.” Oriana ducked her head when Sloan arched a brow at her through the rearview mirror. “I don’t mean Dominik losing it. I mean the game. Sounds like good, old-school hockey.”

Hell, could a man fall in love with a girl just for sharing his greatest passion? He could almost laugh at the notion, if only he didn’t feel something building between them.

Whatever it was, it would go nowhere if he kept acting bipolar around her.

“What Vanek fails to mention is what a cocky rookie he was. And still is.” Sloan drummed his fingers in time to the music, which was turned low so as not to drown out conversation. “I don’t usually have patience with new kids being that arrogant, but he plays good enough to back up all the bragging.”

“It’s too bad the Cobras don’t have more than one good scoring line. You might be cup contenders.” Oriana sighed and fiddled with the buttons on her jacket. “If Nova Scotia had the population, the team would thrive.”

“Aw, none of us is really worried about it. If the team goes belly up, we’ve got the stats to get picked up by a bigger team.” Vanek took her hands and kissed her knuckles. “I’d give my left nut to get a contract with the Habs.”

“But you’ll be separated.”

The look on Vanek’s face would have been comical, if the fact that the kid had been deluding himself wasn’t so freakin’ sad. Much as a game might be old-school, the league had taken on the mentality of any big corporation. Players were moved across the board like chess pieces. Playing for the team in the city where you were born was a brief treat rather than a lifetime commitment.

By next season, Sloan would be playing with strangers. And his linemates would become rivals.

Turning off the dirt road onto a gravel one, Sloan gazed up at the quaint log cabin in the center of a semicircle of recently pruned white cedar trees. Movement between the branches caught his eye, and he slowed the car and cut the engine.

“Hey, Oriana.” He waved her over. “Come here.”

Oriana wiggled between the seats and leaned against the dashboard. “What is it?”

Setting his hand on the small of her back, Sloan pointed. “See that?”

She squinted and moved forward so her face was practically pressed against the windshield. “A deer?” She looked down at him and smiled. “Do you think it will run off if we get out real quietly? I’ve never been this close to one before.”

“You can try.” He slid his hand over her butt, loving the snug fit of the tights Dominik had chosen for her, and loving even more that she didn’t object to his casual touch.

Actually, she didn’t seem to notice as she eased the car door open and moved away from him. He heard the gravel crunch under her shoes and watched the startled buck dash out of sight.

He got out of the car and walked around it to stand at her side. “Maybe next time. They eat the foliage from the cedar trees—my dad had to put gates around these ones when they were saplings to keep the deer from killing them. Actually, if you want to try some deer steak, my dad’s probably got some in his freezer.”

“Deer steak?” Oriana stared at him like he’d just told her they were going to have puppy tartare. “You eat that?”

How to answer without her thinking he was a monster? He decided he better not tell her he preferred the meat of a deer he’d shot himself. She probably wouldn’t take it well.

Thankfully, the door to the cabin opened, distracting her. His father came out, looking like a lumberjack in his red plaid shirt and ragged jeans. Sloan watched Oriana fiddle with the hem of her dress and wondered what the rich girl would think of the most important man in his life. Vanek came out to join them, and Sloan decided to intercept the pair as they approached his father.

“Dad, this is Vanek, the rookie I told you about.” He let Vanek shake his father’s hand, then pointed to Oriana. “This is Oriana Delgado.”

Oriana winced at the emphasis he put on her last name. Then she squared her shoulders and skirted around him. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Callahan.” She took his father’s hand and leaned close. “You seem like a nice guy. How did you manage to raise such an uptight kid?”

Sloan’s jaw dropped.

His father laughed. “My son’s got issues with your father—which I’m sure you know. I hope he hasn’t given you too much grief about it.”

“Oh, he makes sure I pay for the sins of my father.” Oriana’s lips quirked. “But I’m dealing.”

“Good for you.” His father’s ruddy cheeks crinkled as he looked Oriana over. “Well now, that outfit’s got to go. Me and my buddies planned a game for Sloan’s visit. Do you play?”

“Not since I was a kid.” Oriana shoved her hands in the pockets of her jacket. “But I’d love to, sir. Are there going to be other girls?”

“Of course.” His father hooked Oriana’s arm with his own. “And I have a feeling you’ll fit right in. But don’t call me sir. My name’s Jim.”

They disappeared into the cabin. Sloan leaned on the hood of the car and pulled a pack of cigarettes from the inner pocket of his open sports jacket. He didn’t smoke often because he needed his lungs clean for speed on the ice, but he needed to steady his nerves.

Vanek held out his hand, and Sloan passed him a cigarette. Not the time for a lecture, and he didn’t have it in him to play hypocrite.

“If you were worried about how she’d act around your dad—” Vanek took the Bic lighter Sloan handed him and flicked it. The slight breeze forced him to cup his hand around the flame “—why’d you bring her?”

“Last time my dad docked, he asked me why I don’t introduce him to the ‘special’ ladies in my life.” Sloan sucked at his cigarette and shrugged. “Figured it was about time I did.”

Vanek pushed up onto the hood of the car and hunched over. “I think my mom would like her. Do you think I should introduce them?”

Oh, boy, this could get awkward. After a few hot nights, Oriana was being passed around for the dreaded “meet the parents” thing. Only Max really had the right, but it was easy to forget. Oriana was just as affectionate with him and Vanek as she was with Max. And then there was Dominik.

T.J. was the only one who could really be considered a one-night stand. And he hadn’t even fucked the girl.

But had any of them really? Sloan had a hard time pinning the crude word on what had passed between them. He had made love to her. The inevitable aftereffects were creeping up on him.

When Oriana came back out with his father, the “aftereffects” cracked him upside the head.

Dressed in clothes his packrat dad had kept since Sloan was a teen, Oriana was transformed. Snug black Levis, the jersey from his days playing for the Hamilton Bulldogs, her hair up in a simple jaunty ponytail, Oriana looked young and vibrant. A pair of his old hockey skates slung over her shoulder, she hopped in place and giggled when his father poked her in the ribs, motioning for her to go on while he locked the door.

She tripped on the last step, and the skates fell off her shoulder. Sloan lunged to catch her. Vanek was a step ahead of him. He watched the boy twirl her around. They fell onto the grass, and Vanek bent to kiss her.

“Well, now.” His father joined him and arched a brow at the cigarette. He smiled when Sloan dropped it and ground the cherry into the gravel with the heel of his shoe. “I expected to meet your sweetheart, not your boy’s.”

“It’s . . .” Sloan shook his head and combed his fingers through his hair. “Complicated.”

“I can see that.” Dark green eyes fixed on his face, as all-knowing as they’d always been. “But you don’t like things simple. You planning to make a bid for her?”

Seeing her like that with Vanek, all playful, after seeing her bond with Max and her intensity with Mason, despite the fact that they’d been platonic all week, he almost put himself out of the running. But the inclination felt wrong.

He had a place with her. He just had to figure out what it was.

“You two coming, or do you need some privacy?” He went to his open driver’s side door and planted a neutral smile on his lips. “‘Cause I’m itching to hit the ice.”

Oriana scrambled to her feet. “We’re coming. I’ve got some moves to show you, Captain.”

“I take it you’re not planning to play on my team?” Sloan rested his forearms on the hood of the car as she circled to the other side.

“No way.” She blew at the bangs that had come loose during her roll in the grass and grinned. “I fully intend to knock you on your ass. Only fair that I’m not the only one sore.”

A blush spread over her cheeks when his father chuckled.