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Her hand shook as she stretched to put the laptop on the coffee table and turned to embrace him.
The shift of her stellar attention to focus only on him, shoved through his barriers, and the eagerness mixed with adoration in her gaze caused a visceral reaction in his body. “Calista.” Empowered and powerless, he dropped his lips to hers.
* * *
Calista stood at the wall on the visitor’s side of the rink and waved in Ronan’s direction.
She could not be doing this now, not here. Ronan stood huddled with his men, trying to focus on Coach’s insights about the upcoming Geels game and not his lover. His shoulders tensed, and he told himself the scent of vanilla was not filling his lungs, and he could not taste maple syrup on his tongue.
“Someone’s calling their favorite over.” Kiernan used his sing-song voice which had earned him more than one punch on the ice. “But I’m not exactly sure who she’s looking for?” He pointed to his chest. “Could it be me?”
“Or me?” Liam asked in a voice that couldn’t carry a tune.
Ronan kept his face neutral, not letting them know they were getting to him. Did they suspect? He’d been really careful not to draw notice to him and Calista. Well, not that careful.
Coach glanced over his shoulder and back at his men. “Owners.” He shook his head. “Have yet to meet one who can wait. We’ve got twenty minutes left before the Geels take the ice for their practice, but something’s more critical than our number one rival.” He stared straight at Ronan. “Who’s going to handle this interruption?”
Damn.
Ronan gave a short nod, though he didn’t really want to go over to her. Washington was looking secure to the point where his agent was touching base with Dodo, and though Dodo was the official owner, negotiating with him seemed unfair to Calista, like he was going behind her back, which he wasn’t, not professionally, no one should know until they needed to know. Signatures on dotted lines and packing boxes would hopefully happen before the Amvehls and Applebaums settled their ownership decisions. Until then, he needed to determine what he was going to say and ask from Calista on a personal level. Long distance had never appealed to him, but the thought of letting her go wasn’t working for him. At minimum, he owed her the truth that he was moving. So damn complicated.
“What are you waiting for, Stromkin?” Coach clapped. “The rest of you, take a lap,” he said to the men.
Ronan skated over to Calista.
Her cheeks were flushed and excited, the way she looked when he kissed her. His groin tightened, and he clenched his fists to keep from reaching for her. He needed distance, bad. He had discipline, he could do this.
Calista leaned against the wall and motioned for him to come closer. “I want to show you something. Can you come with me?”
Yes, his energy shot fully below his belt. Alone time with her was exactly what he needed. And continue what was becoming a lie by omission? No. He was a stronger man than that. He stiffened his resolve. “You can’t call me over during practice, Calista. It puts me in an awkward position. It’s not discreet, it’s saying to the team I’m …” Important, your love, have seen you laying naked against my pillow. His heart thumped hard in his chest. “…your favorite,” he said instead.
“Everyone knows you are.” Her eagerness remained undimmed. She fluttered her fingers over the twenty-two on her jersey. “I’m not surprising anyone.”
“You know what I mean.” His tone was gruff, but his mood wasn’t really about her, it was about what he needed to tell her, about the decisions they’d have to make. About the expression he didn’t want to see on her face when she learned he was leaving the Snowers. His chest rose and fell harder than this conversation warranted. What would she even wear for a top once his jersey was obsolete? “Does it have to be now? Dahlia should have warned you; Coach hates when people interrupt his practices.”
Calista nodded. “Yes. Now. Yes.”
He had no idea what she wanted to show him, but there was an intriguing sparkle in her clever green eyes. Not the sexual shine he put in them when he touched her, but a mischievous ingenious light. Damned if he wouldn’t give his right skate to know what was behind that glow. All the freaking more reason to resist. But how? Every coach he’d ever had had screamed that women would mess up their games, to slam love lives and professional lives in separate boxes and lock them up. With Calista and her ties to shares and ownership, he needed that division most of all, but where Calista was concerned, he had less sense than a first-year rookie. He flattened his palm over the upper left shoulder of his practice jersey, feeling the embossed letter C, reminding himself he was the team captain. He had to man up and act like a leader who knew what play to call next.
They weren’t even alone. The men skated laps behind him, no doubt watching their discussion. A flash of movement on the stairs reminded him they were in the stadium on a workday. Right now, Dodo was descending the stadium steps, heading their way, as if one owner at practice wasn’t enough to tumble Coach’s temper.
He’d tried to give Dodo the benefit of the doubt, but every time they’d had a meeting, his undercutting Calista had been clear. The dude wasn’t trying to work within the proposed new structure. Ronan gave Calista a warning look and slid his gaze toward Dodo. Damn. Dodo could mention his negotiations with his agent before he got a chance to speak with Calista about his move. Ronan’s hands grew sweaty inside his gloves.
Calista’s expression smoothed and went neutral. Whatever she was excited about, she didn’t want Dodo to know. That made her offer even more interesting.
Dodo reached them. He hooked his hands in his belt loops and nodded at Ronan, but his focus was on Calista. Ronan relaxed, this wasn’t about him. Dodo got within two feet of her. “Look, Calista, I know you don’t know how things work, but we have a rivalry with the Geels.” He spoke to her like her IQ wasn’t twice his.
Ronan tensed back up. He’d heard Dodo use the disrespectful tone with her before, had never cared for it, and was hating it in a new way now. To add to the tension, Liam and Kiernan skated over. Kiernan slid to a stop and angled his blade to spray ice. “Two owners walked into a bar,” Kiernan said.
Liam snickered.
“Men,” Dodo greeted them, not put off by the teasing. “I was just informing Ms. Amvehl about the nuances of our relationship with the Geels.”
Liam bulked his arms out. “They pretty much hate us.”
“No,” Kiernan corrected, “They envy us.” He tilted his head. “Ah, no, you’re right, after you dated Beast’s sister, they definitely hate you.”
Liam nodded, owning it.
