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“That’s not my goal in life, no,” I said stiffly, causing her features to scrunch up. For the first time tonight, she looked ugly.
Before she could say anything else, the door in front of us flew open, and a woman with her hair held up haphazardly with a pencil, tortoise shell glasses that framed big blue eyes, and Dallas sweats burst through. I immediately liked her.
“What’s taking so long?” she snapped, peering over her glasses like she knew exactly what Ashley and I had been talking about. “Daniels is asking for her.” Her tone gentled as she glanced at me. “Monroe, come with me.”
I didn’t bother saying goodbye to Ashley. She didn’t seem to be in the mood for niceties at the moment.
“Ignore her,” the new girl whispered as she held her hand over a clipboard for me to shake. “I’m all about not slut shaming, but that girl has a screw loose when it comes to these hockey boys. She believes in verypersonalservice, if ya know what I mean…”
I’d gotten that vibe from her…
“Anyways…my name’s Tenley,” she said as we shook hands. “And I want you to know that despite whatever she was saying out there to you, Daniels is actually a good guy. And he’s never done anything like what he’s set up for you tonight. Not for anyone.”
Hearing that she liked him, and that I wasn’t the latest in a long line of girls to get the VIP treatment,didmake me feel better. .
Not that this had impressed me at all. Or that I cared about other girls.
Or at least that’s what I was telling myself.
Tenley chatted away as we walked down the hall. She stopped in front of a metal door. “Are you ready for this?” she asked.
“What do you mean? Ready for what?”
“It’s always a bit of a circus around Daniels. I just didn’t know how prepared you were for all of it.”
Not prepared at all.
“What kind of circus?”
“I mean, with how good he is, and how good he looks, and who his dad is…it’s a pretty lethal combination.”
“Yeah,” I whispered, remembering everything I had googled about him before tonight.
What the fuck was I doing?
Tenley’s eyes softened as she tilted her head slightly, a small frown forming on her lips. She held my gaze for a moment before giving me a gentle smile, wordlessly conveying her sympathy, like she knew something about what lay ahead that I did not. And then she opened the door, the scent of sweat and dampness hitting me like a wave. The musky odor permeated every corner of the room, mixing with the faint scent of Icy Hot and an odd splash of male cologne. My nose wrinkled as I took a deep breath, but I was immediately distracted from the smell by the sight of the locker room full of hockey players.
Half naked hockey players.
My cheeks blushed as two guys lounging around in nothing but their hockey pants whistled as I passed by, and Tenley shot them a middle finger.
“Behave. Daniels will kill you,” she snapped.
“She’s Linc’s?” one of the guys muttered. “Lucky fucker.”
She grabbed my arm and pulled me further, around a corner, and then…
There was Lincoln. Wearing nothing but a pair of tight gray briefs. I tried not to stare…I really did. But there was nothing I could do. All that smooth, gold skin. I’d never seen anything like it. His abs were like chiseled marble, each muscle perfectly defined, his chest broad and powerful. I found myself fixated on his shoulders, the way they moved as he pulled his pads out of his jersey, the flex of the tattoo inked across his skin. And then there was the one he’d given me a sneak peek of before…the butterfly.
A massive butterfly tattoo that spanned the expanse of his pectoral muscles. The butterfly was larger than life, its wings outstretched and seemingly ready to take flight.
The tattoo was rendered in stark black and white tones, a stunning piece of art, its wings spread wide in a graceful pose. The detail in the tattoo was incredible, each individual vein and contour of the wings expertly rendered. It seemed to almost come to life, its delicate beauty standing out in stark contrast against his rugged physique.
A flush crept up my cheeks as my gaze danced across his features, unable to tear my eyes away from the spectacle before me. It was as if the world had faded away, leaving only him and me in the room, and for a moment, nothing else mattered but the beauty of his body.
Finally, as if he’d sensed my presence, his gaze met mine. A jolt of electricity raced through my core as I stared into the pools of molten gold, blazing with a fiery intensity that was impossible to ignore.
The way he saw me. No one had ever seen me like that.
