SOMEHOW DOC and Nate managed to secure the spots on either side of Dani on the couch. I’m stuck in the armchair across from them. There’s an entire ocean of coffee table between me and my girl, while those two have hands all over her. Michael is making inroads on her thigh under her skirt and Nathan has his hand at the base of her neck, massaging her. I’m not jealous. Just envious. I want to touch her, too and it makes me antsy. After bouncing my knee up and down vigorously and shoveling a handful of popcorn in my mouth, I need to take action.
While they’re discussing what movie we should watch, I shoot a piece of popcorn at Dani’s cleavage. It bounces off her tit and rolls onto her stomach. She picks it up and puts it in her mouth with a smile.
“You missed.”
Then she looks at Nathan.
He says, “See? I told you.”
She laughs softly and now I wish that she and I had a private joke as well.
“What?” I ask, striving for casual nonchalance. I toss my feet up onto the coffee table to emphasize that I don’t care, even though I very much fucking care.
“I told Danielle you would be the one throwing popcorn at her cleavage.”
Rubbing my chin, I try not to be insulted and fail miserably. The implication is I’m immature, which I am, in a way. Not immature for my age, because I am only twenty-two. But younger than Michael and Nathan in some key ways. Sure, I’ve been living on my own since eighteen, playing pro since nineteen, but I have a chaotic, mobile lifestyle being on the road constantly.
I haven’t learned how to cook or do my laundry and I don’t need to. There’s takeout and laundry services in my building. Not to mention the three lovely ladies at the Racketeers who keep my uniforms crisp and clean, my number 17 stitched to perfection. I love those women, they’re like a trio of grandmas wishing all of us luck on the ice every game.
“You don’t want to get salt and butter on her tits and lick it off?” I ask Nathan. “Because I do.”
His eyebrows shoot up. “I wasn’t saying it was a bad idea, just not one I would have thought of. We all have our own style.”
“Which is what I love about us,” Dani tells me.
That is all I need to hear. She’s right, of course. She wants each of us for different reasons.
Doc is watching me carefully. “You need to talk this out, McNeill? We should always clear the air if something is on our minds. That’s how this needs to work.”
I shake my head. “I’m good.”
I don’t want to say what I’m thinking out loud. I’m not great at expressing my deeper emotions. Happy, proud, excited, celebratory… sure, bring ‘em on. Anything else is a little foreign. I’ve had a lot of opportunities for happy, positive emotions in my life, I can admit that. And when I try to express more complex thoughts and emotions, it comes out a jumbled mess that sometimes makes the situation worse.
I just need to work shit out in my own head, which I’m confident I will.
Hughes studies me for a second, but then he turns to Dani. “This is the perfect time to share your latest scene with the guys. I’m sure they’d love to hear your writing.”
I see what he’s trying to do. The writing and love of books is something he and Dani share privately, and now he’s offering to share that slice of her with me and Nate.
It makes me feel like a prick for feeling any hint of jealousy. Here Doc is willing to share and I’m throwing popcorn at her to get her attention.
“You don’t have to do that,” I protest. “That’s your thing, the two of you.”
“Yes,” Nathan agrees. “Only share if you want to, Danielle.”
“You don’t want to hear my writing?” Dani asks.
Her look of vulnerability shocks me into action.
“What?” I blurt out. “Babe, that’s not what I meant.”
Now Nathan and I are both falling all over ourselves to reassure her.
“Danielle, that’s not what I meant either,” he says.
“Of course I want to hear your writing!” I tell her, actually standing up, though I don’t know where I’m going. “I just didn’t want to interfere with your thing.”
“Exactly,” Nathan says, taking her by the chin and turning her toward him. “I would love to hear what you’ve written but I don’t want to intrude on what you and Michael have.”
“Do you mind?” she asks Michael.
“I think they should be allowed a peek into your creative process as well.” He grins. “Besides, you’re steadily building a readership on Habanero. I’m not the only one reading it.”
“I don’t understand,” Nathan says.
I’m only half-listening as they both take turns explaining what Habanero is.
Which is why Dani needs all three of us. Nathan looks like he’s trying to be supportive, but doesn’t entirely grasp the concept.
“You just let random people on the internet read your book for free?” he asks, brow furrowing.
“Yes, to build a readership so eventually I can make money on my writing.”
Nathan looks ready to launch into a whole business Q&A session so I jump in. “Can you read it now? We’ve got the popcorn and everything.”
I give her an encouraging smile.
“Yes, it’s on my phone.” Dani pulls her phone out and swipes on it. She clears her throat and then opens her mouth. But then she abruptly shoves her phone at Michael. “I can’t. You read it. Please.”
“Sure thing, babe.”
Doc has a nice voice and while he does read it with expression and emotion, it’s not over-the-top.
“But if you’re not a bodyguard, how did you lose your hand?” Divine asked Sturgeon in confusion, staring at her lover anxiously as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Why have you been guarding me?”
She paced around the hotel room, mind swirling with the implications of what Sturgeon had told her. This was all so much bigger than it seemed.
“I lost my hand in an explosion. And I’ve been guarding you while you were caged because since your birth you were promised to me. I infiltrated your kidnappers and took your virginity so they couldn’t.”
Divine felt tears prick her eyes and she blinked hard so he wouldn’t see how much that hurt her. “It was just to protect me, nothing more?”
All that passion, all that tenderness, was fake?
She’d begged him for his cock and he had given it to her out of duty, nothing more. It was humiliating.
“Your father knew the value of your purity, that’s why he kept you locked away all those years. He needed to find the highest bidder to pay back his debts.”
“That’s impossible. He would never do that. It was for my protection.” Divine couldn’t believe the lies that were coming from the tempting mouth of the man she loved.
He was a stranger.
Yet even now, she craved his touch. She wanted him to toss her on the bed and fuck away all the doubt she felt, to make her so crazed with need she would believe anything he said.
“Oh, but he did.” Sturgeon raised his hand and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Now your father is dead and tomorrow you’ll marry me.”
Divine gasped. “My father is dead?”
“Yes, by my own hand.”
The story continues for several minutes until Michael pauses and Dani bites her lip, waiting for our reactions.
To be totally honest, I’m not sure what the fuck I just heard.
Was the writing good? I think so. But I don’t read stuff like that, so I’m not sure, and I’m also very confused. Why doesn’t Divine just get the fuck out of there?
I realize that I am damn lucky that Doc and Boss are here to say the right thing to Dani, because if I open my mouth right now, something stupid is going to fall out.
I clearly don’t understand romance novels.
Sturgeon needs a punch in the nuts, and yet, Divine seems all into him. I’m also not sure if the caging was literal or a kink, but at any rate, there were at least three opportunities for sexual innuendos in there and Dani left me hanging in the wind.
Not to mention the line “by my own hand” when the dude’s only got one hand. Dani laid down a joke and then never picked it up. It’s a more serious style of writing than I expected from her and I don’t know what to make of that.
Either that or I’m incapable of being serious unless I’m on the ice, which is very possible.
This is why Cookie & Co. works. Because we back each other up, we make up for each others’ shortcomings, we can all step forward with what we’re best at and give Dani everything she needs, at all times.
Right now, with my schedule, I can’t give her the time and attention she deserves. I’m on the road fifty percent of the time and when I am in town I have practice, PR events, and games. I also can’t be the one to critique or praise her writing.
“That’s fantastic, Danielle, thank you for sharing with us,” Nathan says. “You’re so creative. I’m really impressed. How do you come up with the plot?”
Right. The plot. Smart move on Nate’s part. That’s easy to discuss.
“I don’t know. It just sort of pops into my head when I’m lying in bed. Alone,” she adds with a grin.
“These twists and turns keep coming, babe,” Michael says. “The readers will eat it up.”
“The billionaire is hot, huh?” Nathan asks.
“The bossy, dominating guy?” I ask. “That tracks.” I walk over to Dani and force my way in between her and the coffee table. I sit on it so I can lean in and kiss her. “You’re awesome,” I say, simply.
“Thanks, guys. That means a lot to me.”
She looks genuinely pleased.
Together, we give her what she needs and that eases my mind.
“Can you read a sex scene?” I ask. “Do you write those?”
“Oh, she writes those,” Doc says. “Scorching hot.”
Dani blushes. “I have lots of inspiration.”
“Maybe we can work on that now,” Nathan says, his hand shifting over her and teasing at her clit.
Dani sighs. “I think that sounds like Divine is going to get fucked so good in the next scene I write.”
