He drops the bomb, and all of us freeze, drinking ceasing mid air, Levi’s head twisting to us so fast I’m surprised he still has it on his shoulders.
Ezra’s worried gaze slides over to me, as do mine to him. Everyone in the hockey world and fucking outside knows that Kyle Turner is bad news. He’s reckless, violent, and an aggravator with no sense of fucking bedside manners.
I still haven’t forgotten what he pulled with my guys the last time we played. If I ever got my hands on that guy off the ice ever again, I don’t even know how far I’d go. I rarely get violent, but when I do, God save the target of my wrath.
“But that can’t be true, right?” Oliver looksamong us, slightly on edge. Yeah, Kyle has that effect on most people.
“Of course, not. The team to sign him would be stupid,” Levi comments, slapping the table and laughing awkwardly at his own joke. Because it’s not. Any team to sign himwouldbe certifiably stupid.
“But what if it’s true and the Bandits sign him?” Seb, ever the shit stirrer, cracks his untimely joke, with his arm sprawled over the backrest of the seat, gulping his drink as if he didn’t just say what we all heard he did.
What did I say? Jokes, funerals.
“Don’t tempt the fucking fate, Rookie!” Lucas spits at him, his drink forgotten as his eyes turn to slits and he glares at Seb.
Seb raises his shoulders, unbothered. “What!? You were the one who thought it would be a good idea to share it with us.”
Ezra and I look at each other and cock our eyebrows, because for once the rookie is right. Lucas’s face turns a shade of red as he scoffs, “Whatever.”
“For your sake, I hope you’re wrong,” I direct my words at him, before taking a sip of my own drink.
He swallows an audible gulp, probably cursing himself for bringing this up. Drowning his drink in one go, he’s off to bore someone else to death. Dude needs to learn what to speak and when.
Ezra jabs his elbow into my side, causing me to grunt and look at him in surprise. “Stop scaring the guys, man,” he says, looking at me with pointed eyes and using that captain voice of his.
I grunt again in a begrudging agreement.
Seb’s arm slides over my shoulder as he dares to speak to me in God knows how many days. But all attention is soon snagged by the women walking through the front door of the bar as the bell rings over their heads.
Kaeli is the first one to spot us and starts making her way to her boyfriend, who’s now lit up like a Christmas tree. Never saw the man wearing this big a grin before.
But that’s the least of my concerns, because like a moth to a fucking flame, my eyes collide with the ocean ones. The ones that had tears the last time we were together.
My body sizzles with awareness with every step she takes, heart begging to leap out of my chest and lay at her feet, because that’s what she does to me, makes me want to drop to my knees at heraltar.
The distance in her eyes, though, that’s what kills me. She looks at me like she doesn’t recognize me. Like, I don’t know what she tastes like. I have no one else to blame for it but me. I put that look there, and so now I gotta be the one to bear it.
Ezra pulls Kaeli straight into his lap, smashing his lips to hers as she wraps her hands around his neck, giving a show none of us asked for. The guys hoot and clap at the table as if their captain just won the cup—though Kaeli’s better than any trophy for sure, while he continues to kiss her, giving them his middle finger.
My eyes dart back to Andie and find her already looking at me. She averts her eyes as if I didn’t just catch her with her eyes on me. That gives me the tiniest of hopes.
Her averted gaze and occupied brother give me free rein to take her in as her wavy hair cascades down her shoulders. I’ve never seen Andie Moore in a dress as tight and tempting as she is wearing tonight.
The red fabric is molded to every full curve of her body, the off-shoulder dress showing enough cleavage that I need to subtly adjust mypants under the table. The knowledge that she has piercings under that has my nerve endings firing at each other.
And those milky thighs—fuck, those milky thighs are all I can see and want to bite in with how short her dress is.
I bring my fist to my mouth, biting into it to stop the groan that’s fighting to surface. She knew what she was doing when she wore this tonight. And I couldn’t be prouder of her for embracing her body.
One day, she’ll realize what I see when I look at her, and when she does, that day will surely be the end of me.
When Ezra and Kaeli’s kiss turns to one suited for bedroom walls, Andie makes herself known. “That’s enough, Ezra. Your sister is here, and you’re in public,” she taunts good-naturedly as she rolls her eyes at their rather public display of affection.
My thoughts instantly go back to Andie on her knees for me, taking my cock in her hot mouth so well on the beach where anyone could’ve seen us. When heat flares in her eyes as she looks at me, I know that’s exactly what she’s remembering.
My cock twitches in my slacks, and I have to mentally remind it that we’re right next to her brother, who’ll skin us alive if he finds out.
Kaeli pushes on Ezra’s shoulders and detaches her mouth from his, lightly slapping him when he follows. “Behave,” she scolds him, and that makes a pout appear on his face.