I stared at the plain white box in my hand with no little trepidation. Something about this felt different to last year, and all the years past that we both indulged his littlehabit. Something off.
Ha. Because there could be something off about what we did, that bordered on the edge of abuse, well past kink play that we never talked about with anyone.
Discarding the thoughts that fast diverted into filthy territory at way too early an hour of the morning, I flicked open the lid and found myself staring at…
A plastic rose bracelet.
A snort erupted from me in force.Thiswas what I got for throwing his last present away. A dime store knock-off worthy of a kid’s party bag. Not that I would have kept his offering, even if he’d spent a fortune on me. Plastic, and a crappy morning’s rest.
My punishment.
I tossed the box and its desecrated wrappings into the spare room off the hallway, and shut the door with a bang. “I don’t have time for games, Ward,” I muttered.
No. I had a job to do, just like him. Where he was no doubt on the ice, training the team both our lives revolved around hiding the smile he rarely showed anyone.
Not his stupid gifts. Not his hide and seek games.
Not our anniversary.
And yet stupid, stupid me still couldn't wait for him to break into my home,ourhome, like a dark knight with all the wrong sorts of intent and give me what he promised last year.
I walked out the door with my head held high and pretended that my panties weren't soaked before I reached my car.
Fuck you, Ward Bishop.
This year, I wanted to change the game, but I knew I wouldn’t. I liked his too damn much.
***
Glass covered my office. I could see that from the hallway lined with similar doors as mine, right through the hole where mine stood. Or, where the door used to stand as it bent in half as though someone attacked it with a battering ram. That would be during the quiet hours while I listened for my stalker of an estranged husband jogging past my townhouse like the needy little wife he wanted me to be.
Or a strapping hockey player, of whom the club was in no short supply, all of whom would be able to effectively wield said battering ram.
Double damn it, Ward.
My thumb hovered over his greyed out name in my phone. I had never blocked him, and he never called. But I kept his number, in case I needed it. Out of desperation, like today.
Out of hope.
”Fuck it,” I muttered, and hitcall.
“Jesus Christ, Sia.” A deep voice that didn’t come from my phone and wasn’t Ward’s at all echoed along the corridor. “What the hell sort of office party did you host last night?”
My thumb fumbled the redendbutton, but I caught it before the call went through. At least, I thought I did. I twisted about to face Valentine. “No. This is not something you get to see. Shoo.”
He smirked. “A little pre-anniversary party, then?”
My vision narrowed to the tall, dark and predatory Chimeras defender. “What did you say?” My mouth dried.Who told you?
I knew he and Cora had their own kinks, something about him chasing her while they played hide and go seek, but that was as far as I’d listened to the club to gossip mill. Apparently, my love life was the stuff of public interest no matter the fact thatit was meant to be a motherfuckings-e-c-r-e-t.Fuck knew what Ward was saying in the locker room.
Valentine’s gaze never left my face. “Ward will want to know—”
Speak of the devil. But I didn’t want to invoke him today.
“Don’t bring him into this.” I waved my hand at the broken door and my ruined office behind. “This isn’t something he’d do.”
The tall hockey player’s concerned face said he thought otherwise, but he held his silence.
