Melting the Ice(107)

            She’d definitely had fun. She always had fun with Drew. And the sex, of course, had been phenomenal. But the underlying emotion of the day and night they’d spent together had been unexpected. She didn’t know what to make of it, and had tried her best to push it aside, to concentrate only on the hot and fun aspects of her relationship with him.

            And now her deadline loomed even closer, and she had spent a week buried with her team, finalizing clothes and making subtle changes to a few of the designs.

            Gray had stopped by for a fitting during the week, so she at least had his clothing figured out now. All of the models had received final fittings, so everything was being settled.

            She wanted to do a test shoot with Drew for the ad campaign, and she’d gotten permission from the Garden to do that with him after one of his practices this week. She wouldn’t need the professional photographers until the day of the shoot. She just wanted to get positioning right, to make sure this idea in her head would actually work. That she could do with her own camera.

            Drew had agreed to stay after practice and meet with her at the rink. She brought the clothes and met him outside the locker room after everyone had left. She hadn’t seen him in two weeks. He’d had a few road games, his schedule had been packed tight, and she’d been over her head with post-holiday catch-up.

            Though they had talked on the phone and texted every day.

            She’d finally had to admit to herself that, like it or not, this was a relationship. Surprisingly, the idea of it hadn’t panicked her as much as she thought it might.

            She smiled as she saw him walking down the hallway to-

ward her.

            He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, thoroughly, until she went limp, content to let him work his magic on her mouth.

            When he pulled back, his eyes had gone dark with desire, and every nerve ending in her body was zinging.

            “It’s been a long damn time since I held you in my arms. I missed you.”

            She smiled and looped her arm in his as they headed down the hall. “I missed you, too. How did practice go today?”

            “Practice went good. It always does. If only we could figure out how to transfer those kick-ass practices into winning games.”

            “Your record isn’t that bad.”

            “At home we’re awesome. It’s only on the road we’re having problems.”

            “You’ll figure it out, Drew.”

            “Yeah, we will.”

            He led her into the locker room. “Okay, what’s the deal for this shoot?”

            She laid her bag on the bench. “This is the underwear line I’ve created. I’d like to start with you in the briefs and T-shirt, and then just the briefs.”

            “And you want me on the ice in these?”

            “Yeah. I know it’s going to be uncomfortable, but I want you with your hockey stick in your hand, near the net. Did they leave the net up?”

            “Yeah. I asked the crew to leave the net up. They’re going to come back later and take it down and lock up.”

            “Okay, great.”

            He kicked off his boots. “I can’t believe I’m going to freeze my ass off for you.”

            “I really appreciate this.”

            “Yeah, yeah.”

            He changed into the boxer briefs and T-shirt that Carolina had provided him.