“Jesus, Keller,” I mutter as I squeeze the back of my neck, trying to release the tension sitting there.
“What? Is that not what I just walked in on?”
“We weren’t…” I grit my teeth. “Nothing was happening.”
“Really? Because it looked like she was humping your leg and you were seconds away from kissing her.” He arches a challenging brow. “You telling me I need to get my vision checked by Doc?”
I sigh, then sigh again. Because no, he doesn’t need Doc to check him out. That’s exactly what he saw. How stupid could I be? Pressing Nessa against the wall like that. Nearly kissing her. Letting her ride my leg. What the hell was I thinking? I wasn’t thinking. Or maybe I was. I don’t know. All I know is it can’t happen again. Itwon’thappen again.
“Fuck,” I say, running my hand through my hair.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Keller huffs out something as close to a laugh as he gets, which, to be fair, isn’t close at all. “You want to talk about it?”
“I…” I don’t want to talk about it, not really. But I should. I exhale heavily. “It was an accident.”
“You accidentally almost fucked her?”
The look on my face must say it all.
“Oh, shit,” he says, eyes wide. “You actuallydidfuck her?”
“Stop saying it like that!” I snarl. “That’s not how it was.”
“Then how was it? And when the hell did it even happen? We just met her last week at the party.”
I wince. “Not all of us. I, uh, I met her a while ago.” Five months and nineteen days ago, to be precise, but who’s counting? “In New York.”
“New York? But we haven’t played them since…”
“April third.”
I can see it all click into place.
“That was the night you disappeared on us. We had no idea where you went. I guess now I know. You were with the stepsister.”
“Vanessa,” I correct, more heat in my tone than necessary, and Keller’s brows rise at my reaction.
But she’s not just “the stepsister” or “the sister,” and she especially isn’t the fucking “evil stepsister.” She’s Vanessa.MyNessa.
No.
Not mine. Not really. She’s just a girl I knew for one night. That’s all.
“I take it you had no idea who she was,” Keller says.
“Do you really think I would have slept with her if I had? Siblings are off-limits. Everyone knows that.”
It’s an unspoken rule for all teammates in every sport, not just hockey. Sure, there might be a few exceptions, like Cameron Lowell and Collin Wright on the Carolina Comets. They’re brothers-in-law now after an accidental pregnancy. So, it can work out, and that’s great for them, but I highly doubt Hutch would be okay if he found out about me and Nessa.
Fuck. I didn’t even think to make sure she’s okay. She ran out of here so fast, I couldn’t even gauge where she was after…well, whatever that was. Is she mad? Is she embarrassed about being caught? Is she okay? I want to ask her, want to leave Keller and his judgmental face right in this hallway and go find her.
But I don’t. I stare my teammate down, waiting for his next question that I know is coming.
“Are you going to tell Hutchinson?”
Am I going to tell my fucking captain I had the best night of my life with his sister? Tell him I not only know what she looks like naked but also how she sounds when she comes? Am I going to tell him that even though I had no idea who she was, it doesn’t make me feel any less damn guilty?
No. No, I am not telling Hutch a damn thing.
