"Rocco... Levy... you promised you'd behave," Julianne says in a quavering voice as she kneels beside the little girl and starts pulling at the tape. The little boys stand there, heads hanging low as they watch their mom attempt to unwrap their sister.
I can't help myself. The tone of the woman's voice, the utter fatigue and frustration, and the mere fact that these little hellions taped their sister to a chair has me moving. I drop to my knees beside the woman, my hands going to the tape to pull it off.
Her head snaps my way and she says, "Don't."
My eyes slide from the tape to her, and I'm almost bowled over by the sheen of thick tears glistening but refusing to drop.
"Please... do you mind just waiting out there. If any customers come in... just tell them I'll be out in a moment," she pleads with me, a faint note of independence and need to handle this on her own shining through the defeat.
"Sure," I say immediately as I stand up, not willing to add further upset on this poor lady with the beautiful tear soaked eyes. She clearly has enough on her plate without me adding to it.
She turns back to tearing at the masking tape, I notice being extremely gentle to the pieces on the little girl's arms. The two little boys I glance at and see that although their heads are bowed down in what looks like apology, they both have slight smirks on their face.
Little hellions for sure.
I back out of the breakroom and consider just leaving my snacks on the counter, but I dismiss it. For some reason, I want to make sure everything is okay because unless I'm mistaken, that beautiful lady is on the edge of a serious meltdown.
She doesn't keep me waiting long, just a few minutes, but she's backing out of the door and pulling it shut behind her. She gives a final plea to the kids inside. "Will you please just behave for the rest of the night and if you do, we'll go shopping for a new toy for each of you this weekend, okay?"
Nice. Bribery usually works with kids.
I don't hear any type of response from the inside and with a mighty sigh, she pulls the door shut and turns to me. She jumps slightly, maybe so lost in her thoughts that she forgot I was there, but then her eyes dart down to the items on the counter.
"I am so sorry you had to witness that," she says as she rushes to the register and rings up the rest of my purchases she hadn't gotten to before the hellions busted loose.
"Not a problem," I say with a chuckle. "You handled it well."
She blows out a gust of frustrated air upward from her mouth and her bangs lift slightly before falling down. "They can be trying at times."
Finally, she looks me in the eye and says, "That will be seven dollars and fifty-nine cents."
Wordlessly, I pull my wallet out, grab a ten and hand it to her. She just as wordlessly takes it, makes my change and then quietly puts my purchases in a plastic bag. It gives me an unfettered moment to study her face more carefully, which looks not only pale from what might be exhaustion, but with a blue tinge underneath her eyes clearly denoting lack of sleep.
I'm not sure why, but this tugs on my heartstrings a bit and I open my mouth to ask if she's okay but the glass door to the convenience store flies open and two teenagers walk in, one of them laughing loudly at something the other said.
The crinkle of plastic gets my attention and I turn back to find the woman behind the counter holding my bag of purchases across to me.
"Have a good night," she says with a tired smile and when I take the bag from her, she immediately dismisses me and her eyes go over my shoulder to watch the teenagers as they peruse the sodas in the glass coolers at the back of the store.
"Yeah," I say slowly. "You too."
She never even gives me a second glance, and I'm not being egotistical when I say that I usually get a lot more attention from the female persuasion than what I'm receiving right now. Mostly because I'm famous because I’m a goalie for the Cold Fury -but also because I've been told on more than one occasion that I'm hot.
Whatever.
The point being, this woman doesn't give me a second glance and I find that I...
Well, fuck... I like it a lot.
I think I might be a bit of an oddity. While a lot of the single guys on the team revel in bachelorhood and the never ending supply of puck bunnies who gladly give it up so they have a chance to be with a hockey star, that's not my way. Never has been. I get nothing out of a shallow woman throwing herself at me, with no real care as to who I am as a person. They see a hot goalie who makes millions and well, that's all they see.
But this woman... she doesn't see anything but an ordinary guy who is easily dismissed, and yeah... I totally dig that.
I turn from the counter and walk out the door, making a mental note to myself to stop back in the near future and see if I can talk to her some more. Unpeel a few layers. Maybe ask her on a date.
I chuckle.
Max Fournier—professional hockey player and one of the team's most eligible bachelor's—wanting to flirt with a convenience store cashier who couldn't give a rat's ass about me.
Totally like it.
♦
Thank you for reading the first chapter of Max, A Cold Fury Hockey novel, which will release in its entirety on December 13, 2016. It is available for pre-order at all major retailers which can be found at http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/534637/max-by-sawyer-bennett/.
About the Author
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Lauren Blakely
Nights With Him Bonus Epilogue by Lauren Blakey - Life for Michelle and Jack in Paris is about to get busier...
Forbidden Nights Bonus Epilogue by Lauren Blakely - The night before Casey and Nate's wedding...
1
Forbidden Nights Bonus Epilogue
By Lauren Blakely
EIGHT MONTHS LATER…
After the moo shoo pancakes and sesame chicken arrived, Casey settled in next to her almost-husband on her couch, diving into her favorite Chinese meal, with her favorite person, after their favorite activity.
If the Chinese delivery man had caught on to the fact that their long, hot, sweaty, romps in the hay made them both hungry for takeout, he never let on. And maybe their cravings for Chinese food after mind-blowing sex meant they had a routine, but if multiple Os and tasty takeout with the person you were crazy for felt routine, then Casey was more than happy to be a creature of habit.
Only she and Nate never felt like they going through the motions in the sheets. Every time with him felt new, and that was probably because she was wild for him and also because they found ways to spice it up. New toys, new lessons, new positions.
Tonight was a warm spring night in Manhattan, and a breeze blew through the window of her apartment that he’d moved into. It was now theirs, and she loved sharing this space with him. She draped her feet over his on the couch as they ate.
“So…tomorrow. Are we really doing the whole hideout from each other the night before?” she asked.
Nate nodded. “Of course. We gotta follow tradition.”
She swirled her chopsticks in the carton, and leaned against his shoulder as she brought a forkful to her mouth. After she chewed, she looked at him with a pretend frown. “But what if I miss you so much I go crazy?”
He nudged her shoulder. “Then sext me.”
She swatted him. “Maybe I’ll just want to cuddle.”
“Nah. You’ll want to sext me,” he said confidently, and that was another spice of theirs. Sometimes, okay, often, they’d send dirty notes during the day and act out them out at night.
“Then you shouldn’t deprive me on the eve of our wedding. It feels like cruel and unusual punishment to withhold now that you’ve turned me into an every-night-addict.”
Smiling, he took a bite of his sesame chicken. “I did, did I? I thought it was the Lola Ring?”
Their partnership had turned the toy into a soaring success, expanding profits wildly at Joy Delivered, and bringing countless pleasure to countless people. “Speaking of. How am I going to top that? I need a new product to wow the customers.”
He set down his carton on the coffee table, and placed hers there too. He turned to her, “Then we need to conduct more field work.”
She tapped a finger against her lip. “Hmmm. Good idea. Tomorrow night I’ll do that since I’ll have some time on my hands.”
When the next night rolled around, Nate knocked on her hotel room door. His gorgeous almost-wife opened it a sliver.
“But I thought there was a tradition to honor,” she teased.
“I was wrong. There’s no way I’m leaving you alone with toys the night before our wedding.”
“But you’re not supposed to see me,” she said playfully.
In the crack of the door, he dangled a silky scrap of fabric. “Problem solved. I can blindfold you.”
“You are so ingenious and determined,” she said, opening the door, and tugging him inside.
Quickly, he covered her eyes with the black silk. Then he led her to the bed, and broke tradition by making love to his bride-to-be the night before their wedding. The morning of too. And truth be told, he stole her away during the reception as well, and savored his first time with his wife, then many more later that night.
Really, what could anyone expect of him? He married his best friend, and his lover. He simply couldn’t be expected to keep his hands to himself then or ever. Nor did he want to.