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When he finds out the truth, he'll never look at me the same way again.
And I already know losing him will break me.
Warning
When this OTT hockey star falls for a hot mess, there's danger on the ice. Just kidding. But there is a lot of steam, which is basically the same thing. If you enjoy laugh-out-loud comedy, adorably sweet hockey stars, and hopeless heroines, you'll love Theo and Charlotte! As always, Nichole Rose books come complete with a sticky sweet and guaranteed HEA.
Chapter One
Theo
"You start community serviceon Monday."
"Hold the fuck on," I say, coming to a dead stop halfway through my front door. The abrupt stop causes my gym bag to swing away from my body where I'm holding it behind me in one hand. When it swings forward again, it clips me in the back of the knees, sending me lurching forward. I spin to the right to keep myself from face-planting in the middle of the foyer. Another head injury is the last thing I need right now.
It's already pounding, and I'm exhausted. Jackson Hurst, the biggest asshole in the NHL, has been extra salty since my teammate, Weston Davies, got him suspended a while back. Hedecided to try his luck tonight. It didn't end well for him. Didn't end well for me either.
"How is it that Wes starts a fight, and I end up with community service and a concussion?" I ask Kelsey Lane, our team publicist.
"Uh, because you pulled Jackson's helmet off, punched him in the face, and then called him—what was it again? A mf'ing vagina butt biatch? Which was an insult to vaginas and female dogs, by the way," she says. "Neither vaginas nor female dogs claim him."
"A mf'ing vagina butt biatch? Pretty sure that's not what I called him, Kels." I drop my bag by the front door before it kills me, smiling despite myself. Kelsey is a mess. She threatens our lives on the daily but adamantly refuses to say most curse words.
"You have a dirty mouth, so I was paraphrasing," she says. I can practically hear her eyes roll. "The point remains the same. You did the crime. You do the time."
"Punching Jackson was my community service," I mutter, not thrilled with this new rule of hers. I much preferred when she punished us by throwing shit at us. But Gray Larsen just had to go camping with the Boy Scouts and get poison ivy on his ass a few weeks ago, much to Kelsey's great amusement. Now we all have to suffer.
Any misdeed means we get community service…and each project is carefully hand selected by Kelsey to ensure optimal suffering. I'm pretty sure she worked for Satan in a previous life because she's impressively good at thinking up the worst community service jobs possible to torment us. Coach thinks it's hilarious that she runs all over us, so he refuses to intervene.
Last week, Jonas had to clean the bathrooms at the stadium. I think he may be traumatized. If the man hears a fart, he has a flashback and starts yelling about respecting the cleaning staff. The week before that, Kellan had to teach a bunch of little girlshow to ice skate. He's since sworn off ever having children. I'm not sure exactly why. Whenever anyone asks, he goes on a rant about how the world is bullshit and guys are assholes.
Punching Jackson was worth whatever torture Kelsey's going to dole out, though. It was worth the minor concussion too. The asshole was talking shit about Weston's wife again. The entire team is protective of Laney, but Wes is an absolute beast when it comes to his pregnant wife. And Jackson has been pushing his buttons since news first broke about him and Laney.
If I hadn't jumped in, Wes would have done some serious damage to the prick instead of simply breaking his nose and knocking out a front tooth. That's not really why I jumped in though. I've only been with the Predators for a couple years, but these guys are family. And you don't fuck with my family. Plus, Jackson grates on my damn nerves. Getting to punch him in the face is never a bad thing if you ask me.
"True, but I can't put that in a press release, now can I?" Kelsey asks. "Besides, your community service should be easy. You practically live at the stadium, and you can't skate right now anyway. It won't kill you to give a tour or two while you're riding the bench."
"You're shitting me."
"Okay, it's four. Four tours," she says.
"Fucking seriously?" I groan, pulling the phone away from my ear to glare at it. The tour groups that come through the stadium are loud and obnoxious. The women try to fawn all over me, which I hate. If I ever find out which asshole dubbed me the Ice Prince, I'm punching him in the face next. My life has been a parade of ridiculous attention ever since. If I get asked to do one more underwear campaign, I'm going to snap.
"Suck it up, buttercup," Kelsey says, completely unsympathetic as always. "You know more about the stadium than anyone. And since I can't pimp out that pretty face onWina Datesince we called it off, this is a suitable alternative. You'll make a bunch of little kids and their parents happy; I get new pictures to use on team social media, and the fans get to see that you're doing fine. Win, win, win."
"I hate you."
"No, you don't."
She's right. I don't. Kelsey is like a sister to me. An infuriating, bossy, potentially evil little sister, but a sister, nonetheless. She's only bossy because she cares. She gives us nine kinds of hell, but she'd fight to the death for every single one of us if it came right down to it. Kelsey doesn't have any family, so she's fiercely protective of us.
If our captain, Kristján Jónsson, doesn't claim her soon, I'm staging a protest. They've been in love with each other since she joined the Predators family not long after I did. But Kelsey is delicate beneath that ball-busting exterior. She's been on her own for most of her life. I think she's afraid to admit how she feels about him because she's afraid it won't last and then she'll lose all of us. So she ignores his existence. It drives Kris crazy, but he knows she needs that sense of security, so he lets her get away with pretending he doesn't exist. Which is dumb, if you ask me, but it's not like I have room to talk.
My own love life is a disaster. I know everything there is to know about hockey. The one thing I don't understand is Charlotte Mabry. She's a curvy little goddess who makes my dick hard just by smiling at me. I've been in love with her since I set eyes on her a little over five months ago. But she's my future stepfather's favorite niece and she's painfully shy. Whenever I'm anywhere near, she always finds a reason to be somewhere else in a hurry.
So instead of fucking her raw and then marrying her immediately like I really wanted to do when I met her, I hiredher to clean my house. I thought maybe she'd warm up to me once she got to know me.
I would just like to be the first to say…it was a stupid fucking decision.
