Dirty Score, A Rough Riders Hockey Novel(45)

Rafe had no idea what to say to that.

They slid onto the ice and set up for a face-off with Tate muttering, “Shit, bro, pay her if you need to. The way you play after you do her is totally worth it.” He grinned at Rafe. “Look at it as an investment.”

“Shut up, Donovan.”

Tate swung in an arc, bent his knees, and readied for the play, grinning at Rafe. “Just sayin’. Anything for the Cup, right?”

For the Cup.

Rafe really didn’t care about the Cup. He wasn’t like the other guys who’d coveted the Cup since they first stepped onto the ice as kids. But he sure didn’t like the way Tate was referring to Mia. And if Tate knew he was talking about his own sister, Rafe would be bleeding out on the ice right now.

Tate’s perspective only clarified just how impossible it would be for him to accept Rafe and Mia together. But it also made him wonder if that was how Mia saw their relationship. Did she think that was the way Rafe saw her? Nothing more than another one of his hookups? Surely, she couldn’t really believe she was just another puck bunny to him.

Could she?

A fist of dread squeezed his gut.

“Play desperate, boys.” Tremblay’s order from the bench pulled Rafe’s thoughts back to the moment, and he threw all his frustrated anger into the last minutes of the game.



Mia knew both Rafe and Tate were vying for their chance to talk to her alone, so she made sure to keep someone close by at all times. She wasn’t ready to have a conversation with either of them. So she smiled and nodded as Nika, Andre’s adorable young wife, talked about her two-year-old, Dmitri, while her hand lay on her pregnant belly.

“You won’t have to count me in the pool of people bothering you for jerseys,” she said, her Russian accent milder than her husband’s. “I’ll have baby weight to lose before I buy anything new.”

“You look gorgeous,” Mia told her. “I’ll just add panels to the sides of the jersey to fit your belly, then take them out when you’re back to your normal size.”

Andre came up beside his wife and slipped a hand around her waist. “Are you ready to go, kisa? I promise Dmitri I read to him before bed.”

They said good-bye to Mia, and she hastily pivoted to join Eden as she ended a conversation with a couple of puck bunny dates accompanying other team members tonight.

Eden sighed and met Mia’s gaze. “Oh, yay. Someone I can have an intelligent, meaningful conversation with. Faith told me about your move. I’m so excited for you, but I’m sad for us. We’ll miss you. Will you be able to get back here for some of the games and the holidays?”

Another weight piled on the mountain of weights already on her heart. “Thank you. I’m not really sure. I don’t know what to expect at this job, but I hope so.”

“Well, tell me all about it. I haven’t been a Wicked Dawn fan, but that’s going to change now that I know you’re working on the costumes.”

Mia let her tension ebb as she told Eden about the job. And her own excitement for the future rose in tandem with the people she told, all of whom were overjoyed for the next step in her career. All except Tate and Rafe.

The thought of Rafe tied her stomach right back into a knot. She cast a quick look at him where he sat lazily on the arm of a sofa, two young women chatting with him. Two beautiful women. Beautiful, young women whose body language expressed keen interest in Rafe.

She forced her gaze and her mind back to Eden. “Tell me about the wedding plans. Have you and Beckett set a date? I’ll definitely put in for vacation so I won’t miss it.”

“No date yet. We’re letting Lily settle into the idea of all of us living together for a while.”

“I bet that was your idea, not Beckett’s. I hear he can’t tie the knot soon enough.”

Eden grinned, and when she spoke again, she lowered her voice. “Let’s talk about what’s going on with you and this rumor about Rafe.”

Her stomach chilled. “What rumor?”

“What do you mean what rumor? The one that gave him that black eye. I’m glad his stitches ended up on the other side of his face tonight, but it does sort of make him look like an MMA master.”

Mia laughed and glanced at him again. He was smiling at something the women were saying. “Probably one of the reasons he gets so many women.”

“He does have quite the reputation of a playboy,” Eden said, following Mia’s gaze. “But in my experience, that doesn’t mean they aren’t looking for the one woman who can make them want to throw in that towel.” She turned her gaze back to Mia, wearing a big smile. “It also makes them pretty damned incredible in bed.”