Page 94 of Her Coach

The guys erupted. I raised my voice over them. "And if you play like that every game and listen to me — even when you don't agree with me — we'll take this entire thing by storm and leave them bleeding in the dust."

Thunder. That was the only word for what went through that locker room. I hadn't heard a room erupt like that since my early years with the Titans. If one win was this big of a deal to them I had a whole world to introduce them to this season.

The noise gradually dropped and Rhett looked around the room. "Hey — where's Miss C?"

Jett craned his neck like she was supposed to be somewhere in the room with us.

"I didn't see her go up to the box before the game," Frank said.

"Wait, she wasn't in the VIP box?" Rhett asked.

Moose shrugged. "We usually see her head up there before warmups."

I furrowed my brow. "Does she come to all the games?"

The entire team turned to face me at once. Rhett cleared his throat. "She hasn't missed a game since her husband died. She's usually in here with us when we win."

Something shifted in my chest that I didn't have a name for yet. I cleared my throat. "All right boys. Get cleaned up. Practice is at seven."

The collective groan that went through the room only tugged a smirk across my face.

"What? You think championship teams take breaks?" I pointed at Moose on my way to the door. "Sharpen those blades tonight and bring them to practice. You and I are doing different endurance drills tomorrow."

He nodded. "Can do, Coach."

I slipped out of that locker room on cloud nine. Opening game. New team. Two weeks of practice. And we won. That play Rhett and Jett pulled off in the third — I'd seen it maybe a handful of times in twenty years and they ran it like they'd been doing it their whole careers. I needed to get into my playbooks. I had so many things I wanted to teach this team now that I knew what they were actually capable of.

I pushed into my office and closed the door behind me.

And stopped.

Because right there in front of my desk, kneeling on the floor, was Brynn. Her curves on full display. Her hair a wild, untamed halo around her face and shoulders.

She gazed up at me with the most trusting, most disarming smile I'd ever seen in my life.

Wearing nothing but my hockey jersey.

I was going to need to get her one with my name on the back.

38

BRYNN

There he was, in all his glory. The man of the hour. The coach that aided our team in pulling off a long-awaited victory.

The man who had gotten further under my skin than I ever planned.

My eyes scoured him, watching as he unzipped his windbreaker. “You know, you’ve really got some lungs on you.”

He grinned as I gazed up at him from my knelt position. Jesus, his office needed more comfortable carpet. “Yeah?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Heard you bellowing all the way down here from the locker room.”

He finished rolling up the sleeves of his button-down before reaching behind him and locking his office door. My nipples puckered against the taut fabric of the jersey I wore. I hadn’t worn it in a while. It fit a little too snug, if I did say so myself. But with the way Colton stared at me, I put all those thoughts out of my mind.

I watched as he stalked toward me. As he hiked a leg over my head. I watched as he eased himself down into his office chair, his long legs spread with his clothed, meaty thighs on display.

I swear, I could’ve eaten an entire buffet off that body of his.