3. Sassy

3

SASSY

I’m honestly not sure what just happened. I was on the date from hell and trying to escape the octopus hands of the guy that Becca’s boyfriend set me up with. He’s an absolute ass. For some reason he seems to think that even though we just met, I should be putting out because Becca and her boyfriend are touchy-feely to a PDA level that makes me uncomfortable. Which certainly means that I’m not interested in it for myself. Especially with a total stranger.

He grabs me one last time and then all hell breaks loose as a growly, gigantic guy yanks him off of me and then they get into it, and I blink, surprised to see Mr. Handsy lying on the floor of the bar, holding his jaw and moaning.

I look up and up and into the green eyes of the guy from the hockey game and for some reason, my belly just flips, my insides melting into a puddle of goo and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth.

“Let’s go, angel.”

And then I’m walking out the door with the guy I’ve been dreaming about for the last week. He looks back at me, his lip turning up at the corner and giving him this sexy, quirky vibe that I have to admit, I like a lot.

“I can manage to get home by myself,” I say softly, putting my hands in my pocket to keep from touching him. The impulse to touch him is so damn strong that my fingers curl inside my pocket, wanting loose to get to him.

“Not gonna happen. I’m going to take you.” He looks around the jammed parking lot at the Summit. “Where’s your car?”

“I walked.”

“Great! ’ll walk with you.”

“Then you’ll have to walk back here to get your car!” I protest.

“Doesn’t matter. A little walking won’t hurt me. Extra exercise.”

“Right,” I mumble under my breath, peeking over at him while he’s looking down at the ground.

Dang, he’s gorgeous! And so big!

“So what do you do?” I jerk up as his green eyes shoot to mine and I gasp, looking away, unnerved by how his eyes are looking at me. So intense and focused.

“I work in the library in town.”

“A librarian?” He seems stunned and I’m not really sure what he’s trying to say.

“Do you have something against librarians?” I ask harshly.

“No, no. I’ve just….” He pauses and cocks his head. “You just don’t look like any librarian I’ve ever seen.”

“What are librarians supposed to look like?”

He shrugs his broad shoulders and my eyes follow it, completely captivated by every dang thing he does. He’s just so blasted perfect!

“I don’t know. Just not like you.”

“Well, I know what you do and you look exactly like what I thought you would.”

His dark brow quirks. “I feel like that was an insult just now, Angel.”

“Don’t call me Angel,” I snap, my face heating.

“Why?”

“It sounds very personal and we’re not personal. At all.”

He grins. “You’ve got a lot of bite for a librarian. I like it.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m so happy that you’re happy. But I’ve really got to get home. I’ve got an early morning and there’s so much to do.”

“At the library?”

“Yes.” There’s a brief pause and I feel compelled to fill it in. “So what to do you do every day?”

“Oh, you know. Sleep, get up, eat, go to the gym and work out than every other day go to practice. Then every other day I’m getting ready for a game. Then I’m icing down my body parts after the game.”

“Sounds exciting…” I huff and he laughs because he knows I’m not serious.

“What about you? What do you do every day?”

“Oh, you know.” I wave my hands around. “Just ordinary stuff. Nothing like playing hockey in front of thousands of screaming fans.”

He nods his head. “But what is your day like? You look tired.”

My brows lift and I turn to look at him. “Are you trying to say that I look terrible?”

He almost physically backtracks. His hands go palm up in the air. “No, no! Absolutely not! You’re gorgeous and you have to know it!”

I narrow my eyes at him, not sure if he’s messing with me or not. I know what I look like. I’m not gorgeous. I’ve got hips that they used to call breeder’s hips. I’ve got a slimmer waist and a lot of boob that attracts attention wherever I go.

Nobody would call that gorgeous. But I’m alright. Nothing like this guy though. He’s so tall and broad. Muscles for days and a body like Thor. He should be pictured up on Mount Olympus scowling at humans and pitching lightning bolts at them. Zeus with a thunderclap reverberating around him and a pair of green eyes that practically glow at you they’re so dang bright. Every stride he takes, his jeans cling lovingly to his muscles and I can see them shift under his clothes.

My heart jumps and I groan under my breath. This guy just thinks of me as some kind of project. There’s no way a girl like me gets a guy that looks like him. It’s insane.

But there’s also the fact that this guy sticks his foot in his mouth every other word to me. I can’t imagine what he’s like giving an interview! His coaches must try to hide him whenever there are reporters anywhere around.

He’s a mess. An adorable, grouchy, sexy as heck mess. I don’t even know what to think about him.

We walk in silence for a while and then he kicks a rock and glares at me. “You’re a very quiet woman.”

I giggle. “I’m a librarian. Perhaps you haven’t heard but it kinda goes with the territory.”

His mouth drops open and I see his eyes lock on my mouth. My belly flips and I suck in a breath, not sure that I really saw in his green eyes what I thought I saw.

“I guess that’s true. I’ve never been a library or book kind of guy. I was always busy with practice and working out.”

I nod my head. “I get it. My thing was always books. If I wasn’t at school or doing homework, I was always sitting reading. I used to hide in the corners of the classroom when everybody went out to play on the playground. I’d sit there with a book and be happy as heck.” I glare at the ground and kick a bunch of rocks out of my way. “Until the teacher found me and made me go out to play because ‘it was good for me’,” I air quote the heck out of that saying.

“So what did you do then?”

I smile up at him. “I took my book outside and hid out in the big tires that they had to play with on the playground. Just hid in one and then was perfectly happy reading my book.”

He chuckles and stares at me. “Of course you did. I bet you were a stubborn little girl!”

I cock my head, my smile growing. “Ask my parents. I definitely gave them a run for their money. Even though most of the time I was lost in a book.”

“So becoming a librarian was your life’s dream?”

I sigh and shake my head. “Nope. I wanted to be an author. But my dad told me that that wasn’t a real job and I’d never make money at it so the best thing to do was become a librarian. Close enough.”

He stops and holds his hand out, grasping my arm. “I’m sorry they did that to you. They should have supported you if that’s what you wanted to do with your life.”

My heart jumps at the sweet, sad, soft look in his eyes. “It’s okay,” I say breathlessly. “I like my job.”

“Like… not love. You should love what you do.”

“Do you love hockey?”

He grins mischievously. “What’s not to love? I get to take all my aggression out on guys who do the same thing I do. We all love being out there and just letting the sport take us into this place that is hard to describe. It’s gritty and dangerous and harsh. But it’s also so purely freeing that I love it. There’s no faking it in hockey. If you suck, you won’t get very damn far. You’ve got to be on your A-game and know what the hell you’re doing or you’re gonna get hurt. Most people don’t make it very far if they’re not good.”

I stare at him, my heart locked in my throat. He looks so dang happy when he describes the sport he obviously loves. It changes the harsh lines of his face and he’s freaking beautiful to look at. He almost glows. Like a man in love.

“Are you good?” I ask breathlessly.

His head drops and once again he gets this heated look in his eyes that makes my belly clench and my whole body tighten, burning with a fire that I’ve never felt before.

He stares at my mouth so hard that it feels like he actually touches me. I can feel the soft pressure of his mouth on mine and the tingles in my belly wash over my whole body.

“I’m good, Angel. Good but bad.”

My eyes clear and I flush when I realize what we’re talking about.

I stop moving when I look up and realize that we’re standing in front of my little house. “This is me.”

He glares at the house like it personally offended him. “Oh. Ummm. I guess I’ll see you later.”

“Sure,” I say quietly. I know dang well this guy isn’t gonna come looking for me so the odds of me seeing him again are astronomical.

He backs away, his hands in his pockets and his eyes locked on my face. “Thanks for letting me walk you home.”

I laugh and smile at him. “Shouldn’t I be telling you that? You’re the one that has to walk all the way back to the bar.”

“Pfft! That’s nothing. But I really enjoyed talking to you. I’ll see you around. Have good dreams tonight, Angel.”

There’s something there in his words that I don’t really understand. Something soft and pure and hopeful.

“You too, Emile.”

He grins at me and backs away until he reaches the corner and then he turns around and walks away.

I shiver. The cold of the night finally waking me up to the fact that I’m standing around outside my house instead of going inside.

I take one look at the dark corner he just walked around and then I unlock my door and walk inside, closing it on the night and the weird longing to follow him wherever he goes.

I have to remind myself that he’s nothing to me. I’m alone and that’s the way I like it.