His kiss was a little bit longer than Cole’s, which felt intentional. I liked the light competition I felt between the two men’s affection toward me. Like I was a prize they both intended to keep.
I was on cloud nine the rest of the morning. I floated around my apartment, catching up on chores while thinking about last night. Having a threesome with two men had always been one of my deepest fantasies, but I never actually thought it would happen. Those things only happened in porn movies. In real life, men were always too competitive to share a woman.
But Cole and Rhett had done it easily. Like they were born to do it.
I guess that was the benefit of sleeping with two men who were teammates. Their teamwork came naturally.
It was a chilly, windy day, so I drove to the arena for practice that night instead of walking. I worked with Elias first, helping him go through a series of stretches that would hopefully relieve some of the tension on his oblique muscle. The massive goalie did everything I asked of him without complaining and politely thanked me when we were done.
Coach Jay was waiting in my office when we were done. “What are you and Nystrom doing?” he asked. “Anything I need to be aware of?”
“Just some stretches,” I said, which wasn’t technically a lie. “Working on his range of motion.”
Coach Jay bought the story, nodding once. “Question for you. What were you up to last night?”
My entire body froze in fear.I was getting double-teamed by two of your players. Did he know? Was he trying to get me to confess? If I was in trouble…
“You weren’t here at the arena, were you?” he added.
“Um. I think I left around five? I had to rush home. I had a date last night.” Even though I was omitting the fact that my date was with Cole, it was the truth. I felt like I was walking a tightrope,not wanting to tell Coach Jaytoomuch, while also not wanting to seem like I was hiding something.
“Thought so, but wanted to make sure.” He glanced at the locker room behind him, then turned back. “Gonna have an all-hands team meeting when Cole gets here. You might be shocked by what you hear, but I just wanted to tell you that you’re safe, June.”
“Uh… why wouldn’t I be safe?”
“You’ll hear about it in the meeting.” He glanced at his watch. “Where the hell is Cole…”
For the next half hour, I catastrophized about the team meeting. Cole and I had gone out in public. Maybe someone had seen us. Coach Jay might be announcing that relationships between players and staff were strictly prohibited. Maybe I was going to lose my job.
I wanted to ask Rhett about it, but he was sitting in the corner of the locker room, chatting quietly with some teammates.
The whole team was sitting around, waiting, by the time Cole walked into the locker room. “Where the hell were you?” Coach barked at him.
“Optometrist. Had to get new contact lenses.” He glanced at me, but only for a heartbeat. “What’s going on?”
Coach Jay waited as everyone gathered around. He held up a piece of paper dramatically, then gazed around the room.
“Yesterday,” he announced, “someone slipped this note into Rhett Lawson’s locker.”
“What is it?” Cole asked.
Coach glanced at me, then back at the captain. “A death threat.”
22
Cole
Despite being late for practice, I was having anamazingday. I floated through my obligations as if I didn’t have a care in the world. I didn’t even mind that I had to go to the optometrist and get an emergency order of contact lenses. The only thing I thought about was my date with June, how perfect it had gone, and the sizzling events afterward.
But in the blink of an eye, it was ruined by Coach’s announcement.
“A death threat?” I blurted out.
Coach Jay cleared his throat and read from the sheet of paper. “If Rhett Lawson plays in the next game against the Edmonton Oilers, a bomb will go off in the locker room.”
This created a commotion in the room, everyone jumping up and looking around.
“STOP!” Jay shouted through the chaos. Everyone returned to stillness. “The police have already been here. The locker room, and every other inch of the arena, are clean.”
