Taking Shots (Assassins) (50 page)

“
Yeah, baby, where is your room?”

“
Um, Papa, where is it?”

“
Right next to mine,” Bryan said without looking at her, as he took the suitcases out the trunk. Shea looked over at her, but she wouldn’t look at him because she knew he was trying to figure out why the hell she wasn’t sleeping in his room.

“
Alright,” she said, before looking up at him, “wanna meet down here in a few?”

“
I’m already dressed. I can come up with you and then we can leave,” Shea said, but wished he didn’t when Bryan’s eyes cut to him, basically killing Shea with his eyes. Elli noticed the look and shook her head.

“
It’s alright honey, I’ll be done in a sec.”

With that, she was gone, while Bryan still gave him death glares as he walked away. Shea stood there speechless as he watched Elli getting her room key before heading up to her room. He seem to always forget that she had to put on this good Southern girl act in front of Bryan and her daddy, but damn, it was annoying as hell. He hadn’t been with her in four days. He was hoping to get some before heading to the beach, but it wasn’t looking like he was gonna be getting Elli naked until good old Bryan left, which wasn’t til Saturday. Which was fine, at least she was there; he had missed her so much.

Elli came down about twenty minutes later in a cute little yellow sun dress with her flip flops on and a huge yellow hat. He could see that her bathing suit was black and he couldn’t wait to see it on her. She came straight to him, a small smile on her face, as she wrapped her arms around his middle, walking with him out the door.

“
I sometimes forget I’m dating a Southern belle,” he teased as they walked through the beautiful white sand, the sun was slowly making its way down, and the beauty of the ocean was breath taking, almost as much as the girl that was wrapped around his middle.

“
Oh hush, you don’t forget, you just hope to be the Rhett Butler of our time, and deflower this little Southern belle in front of God and everybody,” she said breaking apart from him, giving him a haughty grin as she backed away slowly.

He let out an arrogant laugh as he crossed his arms, “I don’t know if you realize this
darlin’
,” She glared at his failed attempt at being country, “but I’ve already deflowered you, many times.” He added the last part just for good measures. Her eyes narrowed before pushing him down in the sand, since she caught him off balance and promptly starting running down the beach. “Oh, you’re gonna get it now!”

And off they went, chasing each other across the beach. At one point, Elli’s dress and hat joined Shea’s shirt as he chased her into the water, grabbing her by her waist, pulling her to his dripping wet chest. The waves ran up against their legs as they held each other, basking in the feeling of each other and the warmth of the setting sun. Elli looked up at him, a small shy smile on her lips as the sun warmed her face. Shea couldn’t help but gently run his fingers along her cheek bone, then down her jaw before cupping her neck, and bringing his lips down to hers.

Shea held Elli’s hand as they made their way to the beach chairs he had requested for them. Elli threw her dress, shoes, and hat down before sitting down on the chair, looking over at him with grin.

“
I love the beach.”

“
Me, too,” he agreed as they sun started to make it way down, it was almost completely set, only peeking out a little above the beautiful bluish green water. When Shea felt Elli’s hand move into his, he looked over at her, admiring the look of peace that was all over face. “Can I ask you something?” he asked. The questions from earlier weighed heavy in his mind, since Shea wasn’t the one to keep things inside, he decided to bring it up.

“
Sure, what’s up?

She looked over at him and he got tongue tied. It was the whole rejection thing all over again, it was crazy how scared he was of her rejection, before he never cared, but with Elli, she could rip him apart with it. “What would happen if I got traded?” Elli’s eyes went wide, and he knew he should have gone with another way of asking her, “Not that I am, as far as I know, but what if?”

“
It’s just crazy that you asked that. Papa had asked me that same exact questions before dropping a bomb on me on the way here.”

“
What bomb?”

Elli pulled her hand from his, and started picking at her nails as she looked out at the ocean.

“
He asked me that because he’s giving me the Assassins when he retires.”

“
Say what?”

She looked over at him, and then shrugged her shoulders, “I’ll own the Assassins in five years tops from what he is saying.”

Shea sat there speechless, blinking a few times as he stared over at his girlfriend who, if he is still with the team, would be her boss.

What. The. Hell.

“
What did you say?”

“
I said, yes, of course. I love the Assassins; of course I would want to own them.”

“
What about the studio?”

“
I could still do that on the side, I was thinking of selling it to Harper, but then I don’t know because she is probably gonna go wherever Jakob goes, even though I would want to keep him when I come on, but he might get traded before that, so I don’t know. But anyways, if Harper didn’t want to buy it, I would probably sell it. I mean, own the studio or own a hockey team, it’s not a hard decision.”

She was rambling, which meant she was nervous, probably because she was gonna tell him that if he didn’t stay with the Assassins, they wouldn’t be together.

“
Yeah, it really isn’t,” he muttered as he looked out at the ocean. Off in the distance, he saw dolphins jumping out of the water, and he thought that would bring a smile to his face, but he sat with his heart slowly breaking from the mere thought of not being with Elli for forever. “So I guess that answers my question, huh? You can’t stay with me when you own the team I left,” he asked refusing to look over at her.

“
Well, don’t say that, that’s like putting an expiration date on our relationship, no telling what will happen in the next few years. What if you retire or God forbid Papa dies and I get the team tomorrow, because then you ain’t ever leaving.”

“
Yeah.”

“
Shea look at me,” she said, he took a deep breath before looking over at her, she reached over taking his hand in hers, “I’m not saying that we would be over if you got traded, but it’s not like I could have went with you before my papa asked me to take the team, I have a career here, I can’t just leave it.”

“
But you would sell the studio to own the Assassins but not to follow me to the next place I play?”

She exhaled loudly, and he could tell she was getting angry, good, he was already pissed. “We’re about to get into a fight about a ‘what if’ situation, you ain’t going anywhere at the moment. You are an Assassin, so why ask questions? Let’s wait till we get there.”

“
I don’t like the uncertainty, Elli. I know that you don’t love me, but I love you and each day I fall more and more in love with you, so I’m sorry that I want the reassurance that one day, if it happens, my girl will be by my side, going with me.”

Elli shook her head, frustrated, “I think you’re asking more than you mean to, Shea. We’ve been together for three months, and you’re asking for my forever. I don’t think you realize that.”

“
What’s wrong with that?”

“
So you are asking me to marry you?”

“
No!”

She stood up, glaring down at him, “Just what I thought, so come on, let’s go. I’m getting cold.”

“
Wait, we’re not done,” he said as he stood, grabbing a hold of her hand to keep her from walking away.

“
Oh, yes, we are, cause I don’t want to fight with you on our vacation, Shea. We’re happy, let it be, we’ll cross that bridge when it comes.” She dropped his hand to pick her things up, so he ran his empty hands through his hair, letting out a defeated sigh. Elli looked over at him, taking his hand in hers.”Do you want to do something else? Because if not, we’ll need to say our goodbye down here since Papa will be inside and won’t like watching you feel his niece up,” she gave him a cheeky grin and he nodded.

“
The guys are getting drinks, wanted us to join.”

“
Cool, let’s go then.”

So much for reassurance on their relationship.

Elli stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom, checking out the little black tube top dress she was paring with a beautiful pair of sparking Christian Louboutin heels. She looked over her body, liking the fact that she looked skinny in the dress. She actually thought she looked good, but then she looked at her face, seeing the red splotches that covered her cheeks, and shook her head.

She had been crying since she left Shea at the elevators.

Why did he have to do this to her? Why couldn’t he be happy with the way they were? Why did he have to bring up the things that could or would not happen? He wasn’t leaving, so why did he have to ask her if she would follow? She shook her head, trying to keep the tears that were welling up at bay. Lord, knew she wanted to follow Shea to the ends of the earth, but the truth was she couldn’t. When he left, he was gonna be leaving her too, she had too much in Nashville, and it wasn’t like they were married. She tried to get that point across to him, but he just didn’t get it.

It wasn’t like Elli wanted him to ask her to marry him, that wasn’t it; it would be nice, but not right now. They were still young in their relationship, and he wasn’t going anywhere! There was no need to stress about it! With that thought, Elli stomped out of the bathroom, pushing all her thoughts of marriage, Shea leaving, and her owning the team to the back of her head.

Shea was leaning against the wall by the elevators when Elli stepped out, he was wearing a nice button down grey dress shirt and black dress pants. His hair was sexily tousled and he had a trouble looked on his face, which meant he was thinking about their conversation that happened on the beach as much as she was. She didn’t want their discussion to spoil their night, so she gave him a seductive grin before pressing her body against his, claiming his mouth with hers. At first she was kissing him, but he soon joined in, wrapping her up in his arms, taking over the kiss as she pressed into him harder. When she felt his hands slide down to her ass, squeezing it lightly, she grinned against his lips before taking his bottom lip between her teeth. This time he gave her a sexy grin, before wrapping his arms around her tighter.

“
We aren’t going to make it into the lounge if you keep at it.”

“
Maybe that’s what I want.”

He gave her a skeptical look just as Bryan’s booming voice interrupted what could have been the start to a very great night.

“
Eleanor, what in the good Lord’s name are you doing?” Elli stepped back, rolling her eyes.

“
Obviously I’m making out with my boyfriend against a wall, Papa!”

“
Well, Jesus, honey, can you not do it in plain view of my team?”

Elli and Shea eyes cut to the lobby where most of the guys stood, gawking and laughing their ass off.

“
Sorry,” Elli said, pulling at the bottom of her dress.

“
I’m going up to my room; I’ll be waiting for you.”

“
Cock blocker,” Shea whispered against the back of her neck as Bryan walked away, causing Elli to burst out in a fit of giggles.

“
For once I couldn’t agree with you more,” Elli said as she looked back at him. He gave her a cocky grin before kissing her cheek and leading her towards his friends.

Her future team.

The Ocean View Lounge was amazing. The walls were painted a beautiful light blue with neat lights shining on the wall that made it look like waves. The bar was completely clear. Elli could see all the beers that sat in the ice chest, all the liquor bottles, and all the glasses that were in the cabinet. There was also a built in fish tanks above the bar. Each table had a bubble in the middle of it that held all kinds of pretty fish. Elli was able to look down into the tank, watching the little fish swim back and forth. It was what was keeping Elli entertained since the guys were acting like she was diseased.

Someone came in saying that Elli was Bryan Fisher’s niece and the guys were treating her like she was Bryan Fisher. No one would look her in the eye and when Shea tried to start up a conversation, no one said anything. It was as if they were nervous to talk about anything in front of Elli because of who her uncle was. It was weird, awkward, and Elli wasn’t having it.

She came for a good time and she damn well was gonna have one.

Elli slammed her hands against the table, causing everyone to jump as Shea spilled his drink all over the table. “Okay, guys, yes I am Bryan Fisher’s niece, but the guy y'all know isn’t the man I know. The man I know is amazing, sweet, and kind. The guy y'all know is an asshole, actually he was an asshole to me just a little while ago, since he won’t even let me share a room with my boyfriend, so quit, I’m not him, I don’t care what y’all talk about, I’m just here to drink and have a good time with my boyfriend’s friends. So, I mean, are y’all gonna live up to the stories I hear or what?”

Everyone looked at each other before they started laughing. “Fisher won’t let you share a room with her Adler? Guess she’ll have to sleep with me,” Sergei said, causing Shea to give him a look of death.