Cage's Misconduct (NHL Scorpions #3) (28 page)

“Want to go sit outside?”

“Sure.” I grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch while Karen poured a glass of wine for herself and grabbed me a beer. We always ended our nights like that. It was nice having a routine with her. I felt like it was a special time just for us.

When I sat down on the double swing, she immediately snuggled up next to me. I looked down into her pretty face and she kissed me. I always loved kissing Karen, but when she kissed me first, it was even better.

One of her hands was in my hair and the other was rubbing my chest. She pushed herself closer to me and deepened the kiss. My head was swimming as her scent washed over me. The feel of her soft body in my arms was almost my undoing. I tried hard to remember that she wasn’t ready for anything more, but when I squeezed her hip, she moaned—not in pain, but in pleasure.

My hand slid over the curve of her breast. I could feel her heart pounding in an erratic rhythm. It was hypnotizing. Her reaction was swift and almost violent. Her hand made a fist in my hair as she pulled herself even closer, arching up, pushing her breast more fully into my hand.

I shifted to lift her onto my lap and she cried out. This time it was
not
in pleasure. “Oh shit. I’m sorry, Karen.”

“I’m okay. Just give me a sec.” She settled herself on my lap, but couldn’t find a comfortable position.

“No. We should stop.” I wouldn’t hurt her for anything. But she wasn’t done with me.

She gingerly got up from the swing and settled herself back down by straddling me. It was heaven and hell at the same time. I could feel the heat of her through her pants as she rested so close to my own indisputable arousal.

“That’s better.” She bent slightly toward me, and her lips were back on mine. Her hands were all over me now. It was all I could do to keep myself still. I fastened my hands on her hips and kept them there. If only she would have kept hers from wandering. She was slowly killing me.

Her lips were now on my neck. She bit me and I jumped, pushing my cock against her, searching for some form of relief. “Karen, we have to stop.”

“Not yet.” Her hand traced the lines of my pecs as she continued her wandering. When she cupped me through my jeans, I’d had it. I was only a simple man.

“Karen.” I hardly recognized my voice. I didn’t sound strong and cocky. I sounded rough and like I was a prisoner of my own body. “Please.” I had no idea what I was even asking for.

She continued to rub me until I was sure I would explode right there in my pants. I grabbed her hand and pressed it down onto me to stop her rubbing motion. “You have to stop. I’m seconds away from embarrassing myself. I don’t want our first time to be like this.”

Her eyes were glazed over, her pupils dilated. She was as far gone as I was. I don’t think she even fully realized what she was doing to me. “Oh, okay. Yeah.” But instead of stopping, she latched onto my lips again, sucking them hard. I was seconds away. Seconds.

I grabbed both her hands in mine and held them wide until just our lips were touching. Fighting each other almost. Gently, I pulled away and eased her back off of me a bit. She came back to herself in miniscule increments of time. We were both breathing like we’d just crossed the finish line of the longest marathon in the history of the world.

“Holy cow. Oh, Cage. I had no idea.”

Yeah, me neither. I could hardly stand to look at her lips. They were so rosy and swollen from our kissing. I licked my lips and watched as she started to lean toward me again. “Oh, no. You back off.” I slipped my hands up under her arms and lifted her off of me, placing her on her feet. My hands brushed her breasts in the process and she gasped at the contact.

“You know, we could still satisfy each other. I can do a lot more now.”

“Jesus, Karen. Help me out here. I’m trying to wait so that our first time together is incredible.” We were both standing now with a good foot between us. I gestured back to the swing. “Like that, only with a better finish.”

There was a flash of anger in her eyes at my refusal. “I’ll bet you never said no to any of your puck bunnies.”

Her comment shouldn’t have made me so happy, but it did. She was jealous. “You’re right. I didn’t, and do you know why?”

“Because I don’t have all of my parts anymore? It does turn you off, doesn’t it?” Her arms were crossed now, daring me to disagree with her.

“You can’t mean that. You just had me literally seconds away from coming in my own fucking pants. So, no—that’s not why.” I took a breath to calm myself before I continued. I needed her to understand what she meant to me. “It’s because none of them mattered to me. I didn’t care if I gave them the best night of their lives. I never gave myself over to them. When we make love, I want it to be perfect. I want you to know that you have all of me.”

Her eyes filled at my words. “God, I’m sorry. I know better. I do.” She shook her head as a small smile appeared on her face to erase the harsh lines of her previous frown. “You said ‘make love’. You are such a softy, you know that?”

With my devilish grin firmly in place, I informed her, “Oh, believe me, I’ll be fucking you, too. We’ll be doing it all.”

I watched her as she shivered at my words. It was going to be well worth the wait. I just hoped I could hold myself in check the next time she threw herself at me. Because let’s face it, she would.

***

“This truck is awesome, Dalton. Aren’t you glad your Beemer got torn to pieces now?”

Jaden and Ethan talked a mile a minute. I’d forgotten that part. They hadn’t shut their yaps since I met them at baggage claim.

“Not particularly, no. The process of it getting torn to pieces almost cost my fiancée her life.” Fiancée. I liked the sound of that. When I’d told my mom about Karen and me, she screamed in excitement. She couldn’t wait to meet her in person.

“Well, yeah, sure. I just mean it was nice to be able to buy a new car. I didn’t mean anything bad.”

I reached over and ruffled his hair. “I know you didn’t, Sport. Karen’s still sore from the accident. I guess I’m a little sensitive about it.”

His voice got a sing-songy quality as he teased me. “That’s because you loooooooooove her.”

“Yup. I do.”

Ethan spoke up next to Jaden. “You know you’re crushing the hope of millions of chicks, right? Not to mention us guys who looked up to you as the chick magnet.”

“Well, when you get older, you’ll understand. I had fun being the, as you say, chick magnet, but I want something a little more meaningful now.” I wanted to be a better role model for those boys. More of a father figure who could teach them right from wrong, but what did I know about what a father would sound like?

“Are you going to get all boring now?”

I was truly offended. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? Just because I was with a bunch of different girls I was fun? Now I’m boring?” Okay, maybe not exactly what a father should say.

“I knew it! You always said the papers exaggerated. You
did
have a different chick in your bed every night, didn’t you?” Jaden and Ethan high-fived each other like they’d just discovered a state secret.

“No, I did not. I never loved anyone like I do Karen, but I wasn’t with a different girl every night.” It wasn’t a complete lie. I wasn’t with a different girl
every
night. Just most nights, but they didn’t need to know that.

Ethan snorted. “Yeah, okay Dalton.”

Where was the respect a man of my caliber deserved? That was the thing, though. And truthfully, it was refreshing. They didn’t see me as a hockey star. They just saw me as Dalton. Jaden’s sometimes overbearing brother and father figure.

“Whatever. Just make sure you show Karen the respect she deserves. And no talk about me with other women, got it?” Neither one answered me until I slapped them both upside the head.

“Got it. Got it, geez.”

***

“You guys having fun?” Karen addressed the two boys while we walked along the gorilla enclosures at the San Diego Zoo.

Jaden’s eyes lit up in pleasure. “Yeah, this is awesome!”

Ethan’s response was a bit more subdued. “Yeah, it’s cool.” They were at that age where they weren’t sure if they were supposed to enjoy the things they did or look down their noses at everything so they appeared too cool for school. Ethan was better at it than Jaden. Jaden had always worn his heart on his sleeve. I worried about that, but Ethan would never let anyone pick on Jaden—and he was definitely the tougher of the two.

Jaden was more of a thinker, and he loved animals. All his life, from when he was a little guy, he’d loved animals. Every birthday was animal themed, his room had animals on the wall, and he was still slated to be a zoologist. I thought it was pretty cool myself, but then I wasn’t a sixteen-year-old-wanna-be zoologist in a high school filled with alpha males. “Jaden would like to work in a place like this someday.”

Karen put her hand on Jaden’s shoulder. “Yeah? That’s great! I’ve always loved animals, but I don’t have a head for science. And I think it would be too hard for me. I’d want to have them all live in my house with me.”

Jaden latched onto the subject. “It is hard sometimes. I volunteer at the SPCA as part of a school program, and I beg Ma to let me bring home animals at least once a week. So far we just have one dog.”

Ethan added to the conversation, more animated than he’d been so far that day. “She’s a really cool dog, though. She’s part sheep dog. Her fur’s so shaggy, sometimes you can’t even see her eyes, but she gets around just fine.”

The rest of the day went along in a similar fashion. Even though Jaden was my brother and not my son, I got a sense of what things could be like as a family with Karen. It was miles away from my life so far, but I liked the feeling of being part of a unit.

I’d spent so much of my life apart from everyone. When you played hockey like I did, it was your life. I even lived with my coach for a while when I was training up in Canada before I hit the big league. Being in a family setting again, walking Jaden and Ethan through the zoo with Karen’s hand wrapped in mine felt right.

The Saturday before we were leaving for Dallas, Karen and I hosted a barbeque at my place. We commandeered a section of the beach by putting out multiple chairs and blankets. Next to that, we put up a volleyball net. There were already pits marked out in the sand with poles in place, so we just needed our own net. I made the kids wake up early to secure the court closest to the house.

“How do we put up the net?” Jaden had it in his arms, still perfectly tied right out of the box.

“I don’t know. Go look at the posts. Figure it out, you’re smart kids.”

Jaden and Ethan grumbled as they made their way out to the beach. I wondered if I was ever like that. At their age, I was playing hockey every waking moment that I wasn’t in school. Come to think of it, I’d spent my sixteenth summer in Canada. And had loved every minute of it.

The kids had the net up and all the chairs and blankets strewn around our spot by the time Karen showed up with Jody and company in tow.

“Hi, Babe.” Karen kissed me while Jody glowered disapprovingly behind her. I gave her ass a tight squeeze, simply because I could and Jody was watching. Neither one of us was ever going to give the other a break, I don’t think.

“Hey, Sweetheart. What did you bring?”

“I have about four pounds of potato salad, a ton of pasta salad with salami like you asked for, and a cucumber and onion salad. Lacey made baked beans and deviled eggs.” She handed me not one of the platters, but Addie. “Here. Take her while we bring the rest of the stuff in.”

Jody continued to glower at me while I cooed to his little girl. She gifted me with a big, toothless grin and bubbles. “You like me, don’t you, honey? Yes, you do.” I blew raspberries on her stomach, making her squeal in delight.

“Don’t drop her, Booker.”

“No dropping the baby. Check.”

“I’m not kidding, Booker. Be careful with her.”

“Come on, man. Lighten up, will you? It’s a picnic. Enjoy it. Just give it a try. I swear it won’t hurt.” He didn’t exactly smile at my razzing him, but his frown evened out a little.

“What can I do?”

“You could check the volleyball net if you don’t mind. The kids put it up earlier, but I haven’t had a chance to see if it’s going to stay put yet.”

“Sure.” He snagged a beer out of the cooler on the way out, and I was alone with Addie. She sure was a cute little thing. I could see me and Karen having a few of these. I didn’t care where they came from either. Black, white, Hispanic, it didn’t matter to me. As long as Karen was happy, I was up for anything. I could even see us adopting some older kids maybe. Who knew? We hadn’t discussed kids yet. Sometimes I felt like I was jumping the gun.

I was busy talking to Addie and disengaging her sticky fingers from my hair when I heard the door open again. Karen caught my eye, took in the picture of me playing with the baby, and gave me a disarming smile that warmed me clear across the room.

“You look like a natural.”

“Me? No. I haven’t held too many babies, but this one likes me.” Addie took that moment to slap me on the nose. “Ow. See?” I laughed at her and she laughed back, moving her arms frantically up and down. I was quicker this time and she only bopped me in the chin. “Lively little thing.”

“Here, Cage. I’ll take her.”

“No, that’s okay.” Then I smelled this god-awful stink. I looked into Addie’s angelic face that was contorted with concentration and realized what she was doing. “You know what? You can have her. She’s doing her business. Holy hell. How can something that cute stink that bad?” I passed her off as quickly as I could and got the hell out of there. I was sure Jody could use my help out in the clean, fresh air.

***

Karen

I had Addie all cleaned up and smelling like a little lady again in no time. It was a double-edged sword, being with my tiny niece. She was such a reminder of what I was unable to do anymore. Holding her was getting easier, although I still got a pang in the pit of my stomach watching Lacey hold her. Maybe someday I wouldn’t feel that anymore.