The Mighty Quinns: Thom (5 page)

When they got to the living room, he didn’t stop at the sofa. Instead, he carried her right into his bedroom and gently set her on the bed. “Stay there. Don’t move.”

Malin pulled the towel away from her head and was stunned at the amount of blood on the white terrycloth. She closed her eyes, fighting off another wave of dizziness but a few seconds later, Thom was back at her side.

He had a smaller washcloth and pressed it against the cut on her scalp. “I’m sorry to cause such a fuss,” she said.

“You are a handful,” he admitted.

“Has it stopped bleeding?”

“No. It’ll probably need a few stitches.” He glanced around the room, then reached for his cell phone sitting on the table beside the bed. After punching in a few numbers, he retreated to the hall to talk to whomever was on the line.

Malin tried to hear what he was saying, but in the end the effort was just too taxing. She snuggled down into the pillows, the cloth still pressed against the cut.

“Don’t go to sleep!”

Malin opened her eyes. “I—I wasn’t.”

“If you have a concussion, you don’t want to—”

“I don’t have a concussion,” she said. “I just cut myself.”

“How hard did you bump your head? You did lose consciousness.”

“From the sight of blood. Not from the injury,” Malin explained.

“I called a doctor. Until he checks you out, I don’t want you to sleep.”

He crawled onto the bed and sat down behind her, taking over the care of her wound. “Scalp wounds always bleed a lot.”

“I suppose you’d know. You’ve had your share of cuts over the years.”

“I bet I’ve had more than two hundred stitches,” he said.

Malin nodded. “I remember the cut you got last year, the one over your eye. That was pretty bad.”

He gently grabbed her chin and turned her to meet his gaze. “You remember that?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I was at that game. They took you in and stitched you up and you came back out and scored the game-winning goal. It was very impressive.”

“You were watching me?”

“Every person in the place was watching you. Especially the women. They all love you. That’s why I think it’s important that you stay with the team. We have a lot of female fans. And they like bad boys.”

He sighed, shaking his head. “Why is that? I mean, I’ve cultivated this reputation, and where has it gotten me? Maybe I ought to try being the good guy for once.”

“Or maybe you should just be a little less bad,” Malin said. She twisted her body until she faced him, determined to gauge his reaction to her suggestion. “I can help you with that. I can make you over into the kind of man that people admire. And not for fighting. You don’t have to fight anymore. You’re better than that.”

“So you want to fix me,” he asked.

“Not fix you,” Malin said. “Just polish you up a bit. Would you let me do that?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll have to think about it.”

Malin nodded, then placed her palm on his cheek. For the first time since she’d met him, she saw a tiny hint of vulnerability in his expression. Would he trust her enough to let her in? Or would he fight her all the way?

The doorbell rang, the sound echoing through the interior of the fire station. “That’s the doc,” he said. “Hold on to the cloth. I’ll go let him in.”

Malin had to wonder how he’d gotten a doctor to make a house call, especially so quickly. But when the doctor strolled into the bedroom, she froze.

“Malin!”

“Drew?” She directed her gaze at Thom. “You called the team doctor?”

Drew strode into the room and set his bag on the floor beside the bed. “Let me take a look.” Drew took the damp cloth from her hand and examined her wound.

“You shouldn’t have called him,” she said.

“Actually, he should have,” Drew said. “He’s right. You need stitches.”

“I could have gone to the emergency room.”

Drew chuckled. “And leave your wound to those hacks? I’m an expert at suturing. My work is infamous throughout the league.” He reached into his bag and removed a syringe already filled with anesthetic. “This is going to pinch a bit, but it will pass.”

Grudgingly she allowed Drew to tend to her, all the while holding her tongue. Malin’s father had told her to watch Thom, but she was sure he hadn’t intended for her to wind up in The Beast’s bed. And if Drew said something to her father, the project and her ambitions would all be over before they’d even begun.

3

“I
S
THERE
ANYTHING
I can get for you?”

Thom smiled as he smoothed out the edge of his bedspread. Malin was exactly where he’d wanted her all along—in his bed. But the way she was looking at him didn’t give him much hope that there would be seduction in their plans for the day.

“Why did you call Drew?”

“Who else should I have called?” Thom asked. “I had a woman in my apartment with a head wound. Some creative journalist could have turned that into an interesting story. Then add the fact that the woman was the team owner’s only daughter and you’ve really got something juicy.”

She hesitated for a moment. “What if Drew says something?”

“Do you really think he wants to be the one to spread a rumor about the owner’s daughter and the team bad boy?”

“All right,” she finally admitted. “You did the right thing. It was just a little uncomfortable.”

“Why? Drew’s a nice guy. Loyal to the team. Great doctor.”

“He asked me out a couple months ago, and I told him I didn’t date anyone I worked with. And then he walks in here and finds me in your bed. I’m still afraid he might say something.”

Thom had never been the jealous sort, but her admission definitely brought out those feelings now. Maybe it was envy and not jealousy. “If you hadn’t worked with him, would you have accepted?”

She shrugged. “Sure. He’s a good-looking guy. And he’s a doctor. Guys like him don’t come around very often.”

“Sure,” he murmured. Thom turned away from the bed and walked into the bathroom. Drew was a doctor. College-educated. Exactly the kind of guy a woman like Malin needed. Dependable. Trustworthy. He was a goddamn doctor.

Thom stared at his reflection in the mirror. And what did he have to offer Malin? Nothing. He’d never gone to college. In a few years, the only job he’d ever had would cast him aside as too old and too slow. He’d be left with joints that barely worked and scars that would be constant reminders of the pain he’d endured. And if he was lucky, the money he’d invested would last long enough to make a comfortable life for himself. If he wasn’t...he’d be as much of a failure as his father.

When he thought about his future, he’d always assumed he’d find a woman someday. But he’d imagined her as the puck bunny type, a girl who loved him for his fame as a hockey player and not for his prospects as a husband. But Malin was different. She’d never settle for less than the very best.

He raked his fingers through his hair, then examined the purple-and-yellow tinge of an old bruise above his eye. Maybe it was best to put any ideas of seduction out of his mind right now. After all, she was right to worry about Drew saying something. Thom was dangling by a very thin thread, and if anyone on the team found out that he’d kissed Malin, he’d be out the door in a heartbeat.

Malin had offered to help him, and he’d be grateful for her advice, but it had to stop there. Thom pushed away from the counter and walked back into the bedroom, a smile on his face. “Drew said you should spend the day resting. So just stay there and relax. Watch a little television, sleep, I’ll get you something to eat and—”

“I can’t stay here,” she said. “This is your...bed.”

“For now, it’s your bed.”

“There’s nothing wrong with me. Drew said I probably didn’t have a concussion.”

“He also said to be safe, you shouldn’t stress yourself today. Now, what would you like?”

“I’d love a cup of tea. With some honey.”

“I think I can get you that.”

Thom headed for the kitchen. To his surprise, he did have tea, left over from when he was last fighting a cold. He filled the teakettle and set it on the stove. Then he searched through the cupboards and freezer. If she had to stay in bed all day, he’d have to make a trip to the store for more food.

The teakettle screamed, and he poured the water over the tea bag in the mug and carried it to her. Her attention was focused on her iPad. “Do you have a lot of work to do?”

“Some,” she said as she took the tea. “Now that the season’s over, most of the players are tweeting about their summer plans.”

Most of the team had already scattered to their hometowns across the globe. His summer plans usually swung between time spent at his cabin on Mille Lacs Lake and completing renovation projects around the firehouse. But with his future in question, he wasn’t sure what lay in store for him this summer.

“Do you want to sleep?”

“I think we should talk,” Malin suggested. She patted the mattress beside her.

Thom circled the bed and sat down on the opposite side, stretching his legs out in front of him. “Is this all right? I’m not crowding you?”

Malin nodded. “I have some opportunities for you. The team won’t be setting up any publicity events with you until a decision has been made about the trade. But that doesn’t mean we can’t get out there and shake up your image a bit.”

“What is my image? Who am I supposed to be?”

“You could start by being friendly. More approachable. So we’re going to do a little makeover.”

“Oh, no,” Thom said.

“Just a good haircut. And start shaving. The scruffy look has to go, at least for the summer. And we’re going to get you some decent clothes.”

“I have plenty of clothes.”

“Go to your closet,” she said.

Thom did as ordered, standing in the doorway. “All right.”

“Find me something that isn’t gray or black.”

“I like gray and black.”

“When you dress like that, it makes you look...scary. Mean.”

“I’m Tommy the Beast. I’m supposed to look mean.”

“Not anymore. The Beast is dead,” Malin said. “You’re Thom Quinn, Nice Guy. The guy every girl wants to marry and every guy wants to call his friend.”

“I sound like a real asshole,” Thom muttered.

“I’ve made an appointment at a salon for tomorrow, and then a stylist friend of mine has agreed to see you. She’ll have clothes for you to try on. After that, we just let you go.”

“Let me go?”

“Yeah. You walk around the city, attend events, smile and pose for pictures. The pics show up on social media. We repost and retweet over and over. People say what a nice guy you are, how much they love you, and voilà! You become a different man.”

“But that’s not me,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Malin said. “Do you really think people know who you are now?”

Thom groaned as he stretched out on the bed, pulling a pillow over his head. “If I just stay here, maybe it will all just go away.”

She slid down beside him and gently pulled the pillow back. “Try to stay positive about this,” she said.

It was something his brother Tris would have said. He smiled at her, at the earnest expression on her face, at the notion that she could possibly turn him into a different man. Did she even realize the depth of the task she’d agreed to do? Thom reached out and cupped her cheek with his palm.

The moment he touched her, the impulse to take more was impossible to deny. He wanted to kiss her, to pull her slender body against his. Thom knew he should fight it, had just decided he wasn’t going seduce her again. But the desire between them offered a comfort and clarity he hadn’t known in far too long.

He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer, so close that he could feel the warmth of her breath against his face. “We probably shouldn’t do this,” he whispered.

“I don’t have a concussion,” she said. “I’m in full possession of my faculties.” She frowned. “That doesn’t sound right. My facilities? Is that it?” Malin paused. “Maybe I do have a concussion.”

He chuckled, dropping a quick kiss on her lips. “The doc said you don’t have a concussion.”

“So there’s no reason we can’t do this,” she said.

“There are a million and one reasons,” Thom countered.

“What if we can come up with one good reason to continue?” Malin asked.

“Oh, I can do that.”

“All right, what is it?”

Thom wasn’t used to talking about sex, and the idea of putting his desires into words was a bit intimidating. That was better left to poets and songwriters.

“Tell me,” she whispered.

“Because it would be as close to perfect as I could ever hope to come,” he said.

“You?”

“No, you,” he said. “You’re way out of my league, Ms. Pedersen.”

Malin stared at him for a long moment, then pushed him back into the bed and crawled on top of him. Her legs straddled his waist, and she ran her palms over his chest. Thom held his breath, wondering where she planned to take this next.

She urged him to sit up, then reached for the hem of his T-shirt. When it was off, she tossed it across the room. Malin wasn’t leaving any doubt about her intentions, because next she tugged her shirt off and threw it on top of his.

Thom had been with a lot of different women, but he couldn’t remember ever feeling so nervous about the prospect of a full-on seduction. In the past, it had always been about pleasure and release, nothing beyond a physical attraction.

But from the moment he’d first seen Malin in that conference room, he’d been intrigued. Was it simply because an affair with her was dangerous? If anyone found out, it would most definitely end his career with the Blizzard. Or was there something more complicated at work?

She wore a lacy white bra beneath the loose top, and he became fascinated by the delicate edge lying against the soft flesh of her breast. Thom wanted to take in the simple details of her skin, to appreciate the beauty of her body. For the first time, he wanted to slow down and enjoy every moment.

It took forever to get them both undressed, and yet he couldn’t imagine it any other way. They were too curious about each revelation. Her slender body reacted to every one of his touches, and her pale skin was like silk beneath his fingertips.

When she was completely naked, he pressed her back onto the bed and let his gaze drift down her body. He traced a line with his finger from her bottom lip to her neck and then lower until he circled the hard pink tip of her nipple.

Malin moaned softly and arched her back. He bent over and drew her nipple into his mouth, teasing at it with his tongue until she twisted beneath him. Her fingers found the hard length of his shaft, and she wrapped them around him.

The sensation of pure pleasure nearly sent him over the edge, and he clenched his jaw to try to regain control. This had never happened to him before. But then, he’d always been very focused when it came to sex. With Malin, he had no idea what he was doing and where it was all leading.

“Are you sure about this?” he whispered. He drew back and looked down into her eyes.

She nodded, pulling him into a deep and passionate kiss. “Are you?”

Thom was ready to give her the quick answer. Hell, he was always ready for sex. But he couldn’t bring himself to say it. He might get only one chance with Malin. He didn’t want to let it slip by so quickly. Instead he wanted to drag each step out. Yet the expectations were there. She’d probably heard all the rumors about his womanizing. Maybe she expected him to be some kind of sex god. And while the doctor had said she was fine to go about her regular activities, Thom was sure the doc hadn’t had this in mind. When they finally made love—as Thom was sure they would—he wanted it to be when he could take them both to the very limits of pleasure and beyond.

“I think we should stop,” Thom said.

“Stop? But why?”

“Drew told you to take it easy today. And the two of us together might...well, it might be too much for you to handle. After all, you do have a head wound.”

“We’re already naked,” she said.

“We could still enjoy that. Maybe you could show me your tattoos? I could give you a tour of my hockey scars.”

“I don’t have any tattoos,” Malin said.

He rolled off her and grabbed a felt-tip pen from the bedside table. “I could give you one,” Thom said. “What would you like? And where would you like it?”

She seemed puzzled at first, as if the sudden change in direction were the very last thing she expected. “Let me think about it,” Malin murmured. “Why don’t you start with your hockey scars?” She sat up and pulled the blankets over her lap, then brushed her tangled hair away from her face. “Go ahead. Begin.”

He crawled out of bed and pulled her up to her feet, then walked her over to the full-length mirror on the back of the door. As he stood there, looking at them both in their natural state, Thom was aware of one very simple notion.

This was the woman he’d been waiting for. And until this very moment, he hadn’t even known he’d been waiting.

* * *

I
T
WAS
,
QUITE
POSSIBLY
, the strangest day that Malin had ever spent with a man in her life. From the moment it had all begun, she’d thought that they’d toss aside all their inhibitions and indulge in wild, frantic sex. She’d been ready for it. In truth, she’d convinced herself that it was the only option.

But then they’d started talking and couldn’t seem to stop. The vulnerability of the two of them, curled up on his bed, completely naked and ready to surrender, seemed to open them to some crazy kind of confessional.

He’d told her that he’d started stealing to feed his family. That on his first day of juvie, he’d been so scared he’d cried himself to sleep. And that every time he laced up for a game, he was still worried someone would say it had all been a mistake and he didn’t deserve the chances he’d been given.

Malin had confessed that she felt like that, too, only in her nightmares it was her father telling her she wasn’t good enough. Would never be good enough.

Eventually there was a lull in their conversation and Malin grabbed her iPad. “I know what we should do,” Malin said. “We need to make you a Twitter account. And one for Instagram, too.”

“No,” Thom said. “I don’t want to deal with all that.”

“You don’t have to. I will. I do it for a bunch of the other guys. If they don’t send me something, I just make something up and post it. It’s always something positive, so it’s a good thing.”

“What difference would it make?” Thom asked.