She wondered why her mother couldn’t go there. “I don’t really mind. Just as long as you didn’t make out like teenagers and plug in ‘Sexual Healing.’”
Valerie waved away her concern. “Pavel gets too engrossed in the game and can’t manage to pull himself away,” she said.
But the very next night, the two headed to Valerie’s bedroom during the first intermission.
“What are they doing?” Jules asked as he walked into the kitchen and reached for a section of the three foot-long sandwiches Faith had picked up at a local deli.
There was a large thump on the wall followed by deep laughter and a little giggle. “You don’t want to know.” Faith shook her head and bit into a deli pickle. “My mother and I have adopted the ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.” She took a sip of her margarita and moved back into the living room. “At least I’m trying to make her follow it.” Pebbles lay in Faith’s spot on the couch with her feet sticking straight up in the air. “But like her dog, she doesn’t follow commands very well.”
Jules sat beside Pebbles and scratched the dog’s belly with his free hand. “You missed a good game the other night.”
She sat on the arm of the couch and looked across her shoulder into his green eyes. “I was at a benefit.” She thought of Landon and frowned. “Unfortunately, I won’t be going to many charity events. Landon and his friends have made me persona non grata.”
“If you want to participate in a charity event,”
Jules said between bites of his sandwich, “you should play in the Chinooks Foundation charity golf game this summer.”
“I’ve never heard of the Chinooks Foundation.”
“They have a charity golf game every year. I know they’d welcome you and it would be fun.”
Big boobs and golf didn’t go together. “No thanks. I’m better at chairing events and writing checks.”
“I know the foundation does other things to raise money too. I’ll look into it if you want me to.”
She might actually really like that. At least it was something she knew about. “Okay.”
“Has Darby talked to you?”
“No.” Faith glanced at the television and the remaining few minutes of the second intermission. After the first two periods of the game, the Chinooks were ahead by one goal, but they had the third period to go, and anything could happen. “Why?” she asked.
“He wants you to do an interview with a local reporter, Jane Martineau,” he said.
Faith had heard of Jane. Had read her columns in the Life section of the Post Intelligencer. “Doesn’t she write about life in Seattle?”
“Yeah, but she used to be a sports reporter for the Seattle Times. That’s how she met her husband, Luc Martineau. I don’t know if you remember, but Luc was the Chinooks goalie until he retired a few years ago.”
Faith only had one question. “When?”
“As soon as Darby can set it up. Probably sometime next week to coincide with the new billboards of you and Ty.”
“Which photo is going to be used?”
“I’m not sure, but we’ll find out at tomorrow’s PR meeting.”
Pavel and Valerie walked back into the room, and to fill the awkward silence, Jules asked, “What do you think of Dominik Pisani?”
“Pittsburgh defenseman? He’s fast and can feed the puck.” Pavel and Valerie sat in the love seat and Pavel laid his hand across the back of the small sofa and stroked Valerie’s hair. “Why do you ask?”
“If we play Pittsburgh in the final round, he’s going to go hard after our offense.”
“True. How do you feel, Faith?” he asked as he looked at her through blue eyes so much like Ty’s.
“About Pisani?”
Pavel shook his head. “The last time I saw you, you had just returned home early from San Jose because you weren’t feeling well.”
Oh yeah. The day she’d seen him naked. The morning after she’d made out with his son at the Marriott. “I’m better. Thank you.”
“Who Let the Dogs Out” blasted from the sound system on the jumbo tran, and Faith turned her attention to the players lumbering out from the tunnel. Their awkward gaits became smooth and gracefully athletic the second their skates hit the ice.
Ty was one of the last players to step onto the ice. This was the first time she’d seen him since he’d kissed her, and she felt a strange little pinch in her chest and a restless tumble in her stomach. On the sports screen, the camera zoomed in on Ty as he and the Sharks captain faced off at center ice.
The two men glared at each other from beneath their helmets and got into position with their sticks across knees. Their mouths moved as they spoke to each other. Each smiled and nodded, but somehow Faith doubted they were discussing the weather.
She raised her glass to her lips. “What do you think they’re saying?”
“Just exchanging pleasantries,” Pavel answered, and Jules laughed.
“What’s the matter?” Ty asked the Sharks captain as he stared into his eyes. “Got period cramps?”
The other man laughed. “Shut up and eat me, Savage.”
“Funny. That’s exactly what your sister said the last time I saw her.”
The ref skated to the circle and Ty turned his attention to the puck the man held in his hand.
“I hear your new owner has turned you all into pussies,” the other captain taunted.
Now it was Ty’s turn to laugh as the ref dropped the puck. The two captains battled for it and the third frame started with a sprint to the Sharks goal.
Ty played a three-minute shift before he skated to the bench and grabbed his water bottle, and his gaze lifted to the owner boxes inside the HP Pavilion. Faith hadn’t traveled with them. Thank God.
He wiped off his face with a towel, then hung it around his neck. It had been four days since he’d kissed Faith and he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Couldn’t stop remembering every detail. He remembered the pressure of her soft lips and the taste of her in his mouth. She’d tasted good, like beer and hot passion and sweet sex. He’d pulled her body against his, pressed her breasts into his chest, and about lost his damn mind. She must have lost hers, too, because she hadn’t exactly protested. She’d kissed his neck and asked him to touch her all over, and God, he’d wanted to. Everything inside him had urged him to take that card key from her hand and push her inside her room. To shove her onto her bed and bury his face in her cleavage. “
I want to lick your tattoo,” she’d whispered, all hot and sexy, and damn if he hadn’t wanted to let her run her warm mouth across his skin.
She was beautiful and he’d wanted her. He was honest with himself enough to admit that he still wanted her, and walking away had been one of the toughest things he’d ever done.
A whistle blew and Ty turned his attention to the game and the icing call. He took his captaincy of the Chinooks seriously. The twenty-four guys on the team looked to him. He was an example and a leader, both on and off the ice, and he didn’t even want to think of the guys’ reaction if they ever found out that Faith had given him that sucker bite on his neck. He hadn’t even known it was there until Sam had pointed it out during practice Sunday morning. He’d made up some bullshit lie about hooking up with a waitress in San Jose, for the love of Christ. Not that that had never happened before, just not when he’d been captain and had just lectured the guys about hooking up.
Walker Brookes skated to the face-off circle in the Chinooks defensive zone and waited for the puck to drop.
The guys had harassed him about getting drunk and picking up a waitress, but they’d believed him. Of course they’d believed him. It never would have even occurred to any of them to suspect the owner of the team had put her hot mouth on his throat and left a mark. He was still having a hard time believing it himself.