His eyes widened, and I thought I could feel his heart speed up. “You… You really think so?”
“Mmhmm. Which means we’ll probably be teammates sooner than later.” I chewed my lip. “Dating while we’re temporary teammates is one thing. What about if we’re both on the Rainiers?”
He seemed to give it some thought. “I don’t mind. We’d hardly be the first.” He paused. “What about you? You’re the one who’s had a bad experience with it.”
I couldn’t help grimacing at the reminder of my ex. At the same time, mentally comparing Taylor and Drew settled something in me. They were so different, and had been from the start—even if things didn’t work out with Taylor, I couldn’t imagine them playing out the way they had with Drew. “Somehow, I don’t think you’reanythinglike him.”
“From what you’ve said about him?” Taylor made a face. “God, I hope not.”
I laughed softly and reeled him in close. “You’re nothing like him.”
“Thank God.” He paused. “Though, he probably wasn’t that way right from the start either. So, I’ll understand if it takes time for you to trust me.”
I thought about that. “It will, just because we don’t know each other very well yet, but I don’t think you’ll ever be like him. The red flags—they were there with him. I didn’t want to see them, but they were there.” I smoothed Taylor’s hair. “I don’t see any of them with you.”
“I should hope not. I have my own damn red flags, thank you very much.”
I burst out laughing, and so did he, and of course, that devolved into lazily kissing and touching. It was hard to believe this was the first time we’d been in bed together. It felt new and exciting, but it also just felt… right. Normal. Like this was where we should’ve been, and somehow, almost like we’d been here all along.
After a while, I drew back and gazed into his amazing hazel eyes. “Do you, uh…” I cleared my throat. “I mean, you’re already here. We’ll have to go find food and whatever eventually, but after… Do you want to sleep here? Tonight?”
Taylor chewed his lip. “My roommate will notice I’m gone.”
My heart sank. “True. I suppose…”
“Ishouldstay in my room tonight.” He lifted his chin and kissed me softly. “But I don’t have to leave right this minute. Not unless you want me to.”
Grinning, I pulled him in close, sliding my hand up his back. “I definitely don’t want you to leave.”
“All right.” He brushed his lips across mine. “Then I won’t.”
CHAPTER 13
TAYLOR
By some miracle, I could still concentrate on hockey the next night. Though I could feel everything Vasily and I had done—and God knew he could probably feel plenty too—my focus was sharp. So was his.
Hell, maybe wecoulddo this without fucking up our game.
That being said, if the Orcas ended up beating Winnipeg tonight, it would be by the skin of our teeth. They’d been on a so-so streak lately, winning one or two games, then losing one or two. In just half a season, they’d racked up more penalty minutes than the Orcas did this season and last seasoncombined. Tonight promised to be a hell of a fight, that was for sure.
Possibly with some literal fighting, too.
“Holy shit, these guys are scrappy,” Brown muttered as we sat on the bench during the first period.
“No kidding.” I squirted some water into my mouth, and we kept watching one of their defensemen antagonizing Nix. “Dude’s gonna get his ass kicked.”
“And the refs will give us the penalty,” Brody grumbled.
I rolled my eyes. Wasn’t that the truth.
Lucky for us, Nix kept a cool head. As my line went out, though, he was heading back for the bench and growled, “Gonna lay that fucker out, I swear to God.”
“Don’t let him draw a retaliation penalty,” I told him. “Their power play is better than our penalty kill.”
“Fuck!” he shouted.
Yeah. I agreed.
