The Season: Rush (Austin Arrows #1) (7 page)

Though condescending, I know my brother is joking. If he weren’t, I would punch him. “Is that right?”

“Come on, Ell. You’re the only one we trust with this. This is serious.”

“And that’s my problem how?”

“It’s not your problem,” Spencer explains, his eyes smiling. “But you’re my favorite sister and we need your help.”

“I’m your
only
sister.”

“Touché.”

I shoot a quick look at Kingston, noticing the way he’s eyeing me. His dark gaze makes a slow perusal over my neck, my chest, then comes to rest on my boobs, which are currently hugged by a snug white T-shirt that has the name of my sports bar scrolled across the front in hot pink.

“Be right back,” Noelle broadcasts cheerfully.

Great, now I don’t even have backup. Then again, I don’t think Noelle is on my side, anyway.

“Are you listening to me?” Spencer prompts, drawing my attention back to him.

“I’m trying not to,” I say truthfully, putting the finishing touches on the drink I’m making. “You’re speaking stupid, a language I don’t understand.”

Spencer huffs. “It’s only for a little while. You’ll just need to be at his side, be seen with him out in public, go to the games … keep the bunnies at bay. Simple shit like that.”

“Simple shit,” I echo. Not a single thing about this whole scenario sounds simple. Especially the pretend part.

“Maybe an interview or two,” Spencer tacks on.

Of course.

“In case you haven’t noticed”—I gesture around us at the nearly empty restaurant that will be hopping in just a couple of hours—“I’ve got a bar to run. And the other, you know,
little
detail you seem to forget. I’ve got a twelve-year-old daughter to raise.”

Spencer does a slow three-sixty on his stool, pinning me with a get-real look when he makes it back around. “I’m sure Noelle can handle this place for a while. Plus, it’s not like you’ll have to be away every night. And you can bring Bianca to the games. She loves that shit.”

“Is that all I need to do?” I say snippily, screwing the lid back on the bottle. He makes it sound so easy. A hell of a lot easier than it actually is.

“Come on, Ell. Pretty please.”

I roll my eyes. Spencer isn’t going to quit. I know that. Still, I say, “Let me think about it.”

“Really?” Spencer’s eyebrows shoot up into his hairline, the hope on his face amusing.

“No,” I tell him. “I thought about it. And the answer is still no.”

A warm body presses up against my back, and I suck in a breath, realizing that Kingston has ignored my instruction and snuck behind the bar again and is now flush against me.

It’s a signature Kingston move, one he considers
harmless flirting
. His words.

It doesn’t
feel
like harmless flirting.

“What if I promise to make you that dessert you like?” he suggests, his words a rough whisper in my ear.

Mmm. His famous chocolate sin mousse. It is my favorite.

A nice bribe, sure. Everyone knows I’m a slut for chocolate.

But it isn’t going to work this time.

I know Kingston is fucking with me. He always does. Blatantly flirting in front of Spencer because he thinks it’s funny. Little does Kingston know, but every time he touches me, I go up in flames. Every seductive word he whispers in my ear reminds me that I haven’t had sex in…

Not last year. Or the year before. Or…

Oh, damn.

It’s been three years. At least. Wow. That is a little too long.

Perhaps I should try to remedy that soon.

But definitely not with Mount Rushmore. No matter how gorgeous he is, he’s off-limits.

I’ve endured this sort of game playing for as long as I can remember, so in an effort to turn the tables on him, I pivot to face Kingston, my boobs brushing against his torso as I stare up at him. I ignore the fact that my nipples are doing a little happy dance.

Stupid nipples.

Since the bar is dimly lit and I know my brother is far enough away that he can’t see behind it, I boldly slide my hand down between us and inadvertently brush my knuckles against Kingston, grazing his dick through his jeans. “You think you can bribe me with chocolate?”

I hear Kingston’s sharp inhale, but I doubt Spencer did. I hope he didn’t, anyway, because this … whatever stupid idea I had to fuck with Kingston Rush is a monumental mistake.

The gleam in his eyes promises retribution, and I suddenly wish I could take back the last forty seconds or so.

7

Kingston

I’ve been waiting for this day since the first time I laid eyes on Spencer’s sister and realized Ellie Kaufman is, by far, the hottest woman on the planet. I can still remember that day—all those year ago. She had come with her parents to visit Spencer shortly after he was approached about being drafted. Eighteen and stunningly gorgeous, the girl took my fucking breath away. My first reaction to her was unlike any woman I’d met before her or since. A truly visceral response that consumed me.

At the time, she blew me off completely—treating me as though I was just another one of her brother’s friends—but my dick didn’t give two fucks about that, then or now. My brain registered her on the hotness Richter scale as a dime, and ever since, I’ve fantasized about banging her.

Since that day, I’ve hidden my unbridled lust—concealing it as harmless flirting—because I respect her brother too damn much. And because Spencer has, in no uncertain terms, told me to stay the fuck away from Ellie at all costs, I don’t have much of a choice.

“Bros before hos, man,” Spencer told me once, back when we first started out in the NHL and I inadvertently mentioned how hot his sister was. “The last thing I need is for you to mess around with my sister and fuck up our friendship. To play it safe, just stay the hell away from her.”

Bros before hos.
Now that I think about it, that is quite possibly the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Who in their right mind prefers his friends over a chick as hot as Ellie?

No one I know.

Which brings me back to the fact that Ellie’s knuckles just did a slow glide down the semi-hard ridge of my dick, causing me to roar to life.

Maybe her hand lightly grazing me, making me harder than diamonds, is only fair. I’ve teased and tormented her for years, secretly wishing she would take the hint, give me a chance, tell me that she doesn’t need her brother telling her whom she can and cannot date. Only she never has, and based on the way she is shooting daggers from her eyes, I suspect she isn’t going to start today.

Still doesn’t mean I don’t have the urge to bend her over the bar, pull those sexy-as-sin jeans down to her ankles, and fuck her until neither of us can breathe. Fuck. I can practically feel her perfect little ass in my hands.

After another quick glance at Spencer, I realize my friend is otherwise occupied looking at his phone. Thank Christ. The last damn thing I need is for Spencer to be paying attention to this.

Leaning down, keeping an eye on Spencer as I do, I put my mouth against Ellie’s ear. “Little girl, I highly suggest you don’t tempt the beast. It’s not safe.”

I feel Ellie shudder, but I manage to stand up straight when she steps back. I see the exact moment she realizes I’m not making idle threats. She nibbles on her plump bottom lip seconds before she rolls her eyes and—“
Oomph
. Fuck.”—punches me in the stomach.

I draw in a breath as she spins back around to face her brother, her denim-clad ass brushing against my now throbbing erection.

Okay, so maybe I deserve that, too.

If I was smart, I would stick to bribing her with food, because one thing I’ve learned about Ellie, she can’t resist when I cook. If it weren’t for hockey, I would’ve easily gone the chef route. I got the love of cooking from my grandmother, no doubt. No one knows that, though. It’s a secret I’ll take to the grave.

“Why can’t you get one of his old girlfriends to help?” Ellie asks, her full attention back on Spencer.

It doesn’t go unnoticed that she hasn’t succumbed to my bribe for her favorite dessert.

Then again, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that for the past few months, Ellie has been pretty much ignoring me completely. Ever since I broke up with Cheryl, I’ve become aware that Ellie hasn’t been at all receptive to my harmless flirting.

Okay, and maybe my flirting with Ellie isn’t entirely harmless, but still. It might’ve started out that way, but as time went by, I started craving her for real. Only she doesn’t seem to feel the same, and I’m beginning to think she isn’t going to give me the time of day, even if I put real effort behind my advances.

Doesn’t mean I’m going to stop.

“If you can find a willing woman from his past, I’ll approach her,” Spencer says, chuckling as I make my way back around to my barstool. “I think it’ll be a hell of a lot harder than you might think.”

What Spencer
isn’t
saying is that there aren’t any women in my life. Mainly because I’m not boyfriend material. The women from my past will attest to that, if—as Spencer so kindly pointed out—they’d even be willing to talk to me at all.

“What about a friend?” Ellie asks, her eyes sliding to mine briefly. “Surely you’ve got a girl
friend
you haven’t slept with.”

I shake my head.

“Really?” Her lip curls in disgust.

“Only you,” I say with a grin.

She frowns.

Great. And now she thinks I’m a horndog. Not exactly the impression I want to leave her with.

“We don’t want him to have to lead some girl on,” Spencer tells her.

“How very noble of you,” Ellie quips.

That is sort of the truth.

I can’t lie and say that at some point in my life I haven’t had a woman in my bed in most cities I’ve visited. I’ve had a long, lucrative career, and during my twenties, I didn’t give two fucks about much of anything other than making a name for myself. But I’m not that same punk kid anymore.

Now, I also won’t say that I’m a saint by any means, either. I’ve never kicked a chick out of my bed the next morning, and I’ve never promised to call if I didn’t intend to call. But, aside from Cheryl, I haven’t
dated
a girl in years. Slept with my fair share in the past, but that doesn’t usually require much more effort than dinner and a night in my hotel suite. And that really isn’t ego talking. It’s the truth. Any hockey player will tell you that money makes his dick as valuable as diamonds.

“It’s just a small favor,” Spencer pleads with his sister while I sip my beer and stare at Ellie.

I love watching her work. Her crooked smile and big, ice-green eyes draw me in every damn time. Because she wears a ball cap every single day, her long hair pulled into a ponytail and dangling through the hole in the back, I get an unobstructed view of her cute little ears and the soft line of her jaw. On top of that, the woman’s curves should be illegal. And that shirt… It should be outlawed as well. The way the white cotton hugs her tits makes my mouth water and my dick throb. Watching her as she gracefully moves behind the bar makes me wonder (not for the first time) if she’s as lithe when she fucks.

I shoot a quick glance at Spencer to ensure her brother isn’t watching me as I mentally undress Ellie. The things I want to do to her… I can’t even count how many fantasies I’ve had about her over the years.

You don’t know how bad I want to take that hat off, let down her hair, and twist my fist in the long, silky strands while she wraps those sweet lips around my dick...

Or push her up against that bar, gripping her curvy ass while I fuck her into oblivion from behind…

And then of course there is the other fantasy…

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentally gone through about ten gallons of chocolate syrup over the years, because, yes, the one where I drizzle it over her entire body and lick it off slowly just happens to be my favorite one. To be fair, that one is her fault. Almost every time I see her, she asks if I will make her dessert. I can only hear that so many times before my brain transposes it to mean making her
my
dessert.

The one thing that has stopped me from pursuing her has been my best friend’s wishes. Spencer and I go way back. Back before I earned the nickname Mount Rushmore even. We are tight. I wouldn’t do that to him.

Well, technically it was Spencer’s rumbled warnings
and
the fact that, thirteen years ago, Ellie found herself single and pregnant after a weekend in Las Vegas that has me keeping my distance. So, as I’ve watched Ellie raise her daughter, rarely dating or even acknowledging her own sexuality, I’ve pretended that I’m not willing to give my left nut for one night with her.

Except I don’t want only one night, but I doubt Spencer or Ellie will believe that. I do, after all, have a reputation. Being that Spencer is my best friend, he knows exactly who I am, knows that I don’t have a track record for lengthy relationships, so it only makes sense that he doesn’t want me anywhere near his sister. However, he does know that I’m not the man-whore the media portrays me to be. So, in that regard, Spencer shouldn’t be worried.

Regardless of Spencer’s wishes, it doesn’t stop me from thinking about her. Imagining her laid out on that bar top, my tongue buried between her thighs, licking her while she writhes and pleads for me to make her come.

“Kingston!”

Yanking myself from my carnal thoughts, I shift on the barstool as I attempt to hide the raging hard-on that is currently establishing an unwelcome friendship with my zipper.

“’Sup?” I look from Spencer to Ellie, then back.

“Probably a good idea if you join the convo, man.”

Right.

Which means I have to stop thinking about sex … with my best friend’s sister.

Ellie

I can feel Kingston’s eyes on me, and I can tell by his expression that he doesn’t have a clue what we’ve been talking about. As for what his warped and twisted mind has been focused on, there is no telling. The guy does that from time to time. He wanders off somewhere in his head, which I figure is the reason he’s so quiet, so mysterious.

In fact, of all Spencer’s teammates, Kingston is the quietest. Perhaps that’s because he’s a goaltender, a position that requires him to focus on every little detail. He is equally dark and brooding off the ice. He probably knows everything that is going on in the room because he opts not to talk most of the time. It’s rather sexy, actually.

And perhaps that is my biggest issue with this favor my brother is asking of me.

I’m not so sure I can pretend when it comes to Kingston. As it is, I’ve perfected the art of pretending
not
to be attracted to him. Going back on that now will likely screw up my friendship with him. We’ve made it this far and I don’t want to lose what we do have.

Then, of course, I have my daughter to think about. I’m not sure she’ll understand what’s going on, and if I have to guess, Spencer won’t want me to be straight with her for the simple fact that she’s twelve and she would probably tell her friends. I don’t like the idea of not being truthful with her. Which means, if I’m going to consider it, there had better be something in it for me. Something more than heartbreak at the end.

Keeping my expression masked as I pour another drink, I decide to ask exactly that. “What’s in it for me?”

“What do you want?” Spencer replies.

I shrug. I haven’t had time to give it much thought. “Depends. What does this entail? I know you said going to games and blah, blah, blah, but I already do that.” In fact, I haven’t missed a single Arrows home game in years.

“We’ll have to talk to Amber,” Spencer says.

That got my attention. “Amber who?”

“The PR chick,” Kingston adds, sounding unimpressed. “Amber North.”

My eyes widen as I flip my attention back to my brother. “Amber North? Is that the same Amber North you dated in high school?”

My brother’s eyes narrow, but he nods.

“Yep, looks as though his past popped right back up, ready to fuck his life up for the second time,” Kingston mutters as he stares at my brother.

Holy shit. This is certainly an interesting turn of events. How did I not know that the public relations person for the Austin Arrows is none other than the girl who broke my brother’s heart by dumping him not long after he left for college? And she had the audacity to do it by voice mail.

“What’s she doing back here?” I ask, curious.

Kingston tosses out his own questions. “Yeah. Did you sit down with her yet? Chat it up over coffee?”

“It’s not important,” Spencer says with a huff.

“I have to disagree,” Kingston replies, resting his elbow on the bar.

Spencer frowns. “I don’t want to talk about it. What’s important is that my sister say yes to helping you.”

I glance between the two men. If this really is important to Spencer or to Kingston, I know I have to do it. Spencer is my brother and Kingston is a friend. That’s what friends do; they help each other out. It won’t be easy, but shit, my life hasn’t exactly been easy up to this point. Being a single mom is the hardest of all, but also so worth it.

“So, say I do agree…” I keep my attention on Spencer. “What’s the first step?”

Spencer’s eyes hold that sparkle again, the one that says he is about to get what he wants. “We’ll sit down with Amber, see what she suggests. I can’t imagine it’s much more than leaking the details to the media, letting them know Rush is in a serious relationship and he’s happy, plus backing up that claim by being out and about with him.”

That makes sense. Kind of. “You don’t think this’ll cause issues? I am your sister. Will they give him a hard time because of that?”

Spencer glances at Kingston. “Of course not. He’s a good guy. Why wouldn’t I want you and him to be together?”

Considering he was adamant about the no-sex part in the beginning, I know there is at least one reason, I just don’t know what that is. Nor am I going to ask, because I have absolutely no intention of sleeping with Kingston.

Fantasizing, sure. Actually doing it…

I’m strong enough to resist.

I hope.