Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

ORION

I ignored the roar of the crowd. The cheering. The shouting. The jeers.

Everything.

My attention was laser focused on one thing; the ice. On the edge of my awareness was Tiger, the left defenceman. Phoenix behind us, ready to defend the goal. Javey and Bray, ready to provide offence. Coast, as cocky as always, looking like he was on holiday. That was a pretence. The moment his stick touched the ice behind the puck he was ready.

A nanosecond behind the opposition’s centre, who took the face off advantage to slap the puck out of the centre circle, away from Coast.

Tiger moved to block it, but the Wattle Valley Dingoes winger got to it first, driving it deeper into our defensive zone.

My territory.

I growled under my breath. I didn’t question why I ended up in a team of fucking losers, but how I was going to help turn them around. My father would have said the head coach was too hard on them, on us. I thought he was too fucking soft. He must be. We had the talent, but the team was a mess.

The winger drove the puck in front of him, his whole posture certain he was going to walk all over us. The Dingoes beat the Demons the last time they played. Handed them their asses.

That was before I was here.

I skated backward, keeping my eye on the puck, moving closer to the goal and waiting for the right moment. On cue, the winger tried to take a shot at goal. He thought I wasn’t ready. That he’d get it past me while I was still occupied waiting for him to make a move. He was fast, but I was faster. I blocked his shot and sent the puck sailing back, right to Coast.

I almost caught the centre by surprise. Lucky for him, he managed to respond in time to smash the puck to Javey.

Javey took the puck all the way to the opposition’s goal, but the goaltender blocked the shot at the last second.

I resisted the urge to smash my stick into the boards. We should have evened the score with that play.

I skated back to the blue line and waited again.

Coast managed to take control of the puck, but the Dingoes took it back less than a minute later. The Dingoes’ right winger crowded me as the left drove the puck back towards our goal. I shoved him with my elbow.

"Fuck off," I growled.

He turned around and grinned. "You might as well give up now, you’re gonna lose anyway. The Demons always do."

"Fuck off," I growled again.

He laughed.

He stopped when I punched him in the face. He threw his stick aside and lunged at me. He swung, but I skated back, out of reach.

The Dingoes took the distraction as a chance to score, but Tiger was right there, blocking the shot again. The opposition tried to get around him but I managed to skate away from the asshole whose face was covered in blood, and whacked the puck away from the goal.

Coast regained possession of it and drove it to Bray who smashed it straight into the Dingoes’ goal. That evened the score right before the half-time alarm sounded.

I skated off the ice, right past the winger who pulled off his helmet and was having his injury looked at by his team medic.

Nothing a couple of stitches wouldn’t fix. I should have punched him harder.

"What the fuck was that?" Aidan snarled before I could even pull off my helmet and grab a water bottle.

He was tall. I was taller. My hair was darker than his, my eyes brown where his were hazel. My skin was a shade or two darker. My soul was probably darker too.

I picked up a bottle, opened it and took a swig. "Just doing my job."

"Your job is to make sure the puck doesn’t get past you." He pressed his fists to his hips and stared me down.

"That was exactly what I did," I said. "Did you miss me preventing them from scoring just now?"

He leaned in closer. "I don’t miss a fucking thing."

I resisted the urge to lean back away from him. "What’s that supposed to mean?"

"It means keeping an eye on you," he said. "And you’re off for the second period."

"What the hell?" I would already have incurred a five minute penalty for punching that asshole in the face, but not the whole second period. "I’m the best right defence the Demons have, and you know it."

"And I’m the head coach. A fact you seem to have forgotten. If I say you’re out, then you’re out." He started to turn away.

I curled my lip at him. "You wanna know why I punched that dickhead? Because he assumed we’re going to lose. That’s what’s going to happen if you keep me out of the rest of the game."

Yeah, I was as cocky as Coast, but I was also right. The team needed me. Aidan fucking Draeger knew it too. What was his problem? He couldn’t even keep his own wife from straying. Maybe the other guys didn’t notice what was going on with her and Finley Howard, but I did. I saw the way they looked at each other. If they weren’t already fucking, they soon would be.

Why did I care? Because Elenna was smoking hot and if anyone was going to screw her, it should be me. Thinking about her made my cock want to split the seams of my pants to escape.

I hadn’t even spoken to the woman. So what? She haunted my dreams. When I lay in bed with my hand wrapped around my dick, I thought of her. I imagined her mouth on me, licking and sucking. Taking my cum when I squirted it down her throat. On her hands and knees while I pounded into her pussy.

Aidan turned back to me, face full of thunder. Anyone else would have been intimidated, but I held my ground.

"You’ll go back on if we need you. Until then, my decision stands. Save your fists for the right time. If you let some dumbass prick get to you, which was clearly what he was trying to do, we’ll definitely lose. Pick your fucking fights." He gave me a long look before he turned away.

I wanted to hate him, but what I really hated was the fact he was right. That was exactly what happened. I let the prick get under my skin and distract me. That was stupid and unprofessional. I was pissed at myself and the opposition winger. The same winger who was grinning at me right now, even with an ice pack pressed to his face.

I ignored him, and dropped my stick before following the rest of the team into the dressing room and sinking down onto a seat.

I didn’t notice who sat beside me until I caught the faint scent of something floral. Perfume or maybe nothing more than soap or shampoo. Whatever, the smell went straight to my cock, making me half hard in half a second.

I glanced sideways. She was even more gorgeous up close. Close enough that if I shifted a little, my thigh and shoulder would touch hers. If that happened, I might ignite, so I kept perfectly still.

"You have an impressive right hook," she said softly. Her voice was like a match to my already raging inferno. Husky and precise, never skimping on syllables.

Not fancy, but careful, every word and nuance chosen. As though if she got them wrong, she’d provoke a war.

Those first few words told me a thousand things about her. Including the fact she knew all about the dark side of Dusk Bay. In the shadows, the wrong words could, indeed, provoke a war. Look at someone the wrong way and you could start one without trying to be provocative. She was provocative, but in a different way.

I looked directly at her and nodded. "Thanks." I had no particular, personal rule against smiling, it was something I rarely did. Not unless I had good reason to do it. She might give me a reason. My eyes lingered on her mouth. Her lips would be the perfect crown for my cock.

"If you’re going to say I should have walked away," I started.

Her lips dropped apart slightly. "I don’t think Aidan did the wrong thing in taking you off, but the Demons are playing better. Whenever people call the team losers, I want to punch them in the face too." She noticed where my gaze was and why. If she minded, she didn’t show it. If anything, her eyes got slightly darker. Anyone might try to tell me I was imagining it, but I wasn’t.

"And would you?" I raised my gaze. Her eyes were a shade or two lighter brown than mine. Deep enough to drown in.

She laughed softly.

My dick was promptly hard.

"I think I’d hurt my fist," she said.

I frowned. "Hasn’t anyone taught you how to punch?" She was right, she might hurt her fist, but I got the impression she never tried. "Boxing, I mean. It’s a good way to burn off excess."

"Excess what?" She cocked her head so her ponytail fell out to the side.

"Excess everything," I said. "Energy, anger, toxins. Fighting and sweating are two of my favourite things." I definitely didn’t imagine her eyes getting even darker.

"You box?" She seemed genuinely interested.

"Since I was twelve. I could have gone professional, but I chose hockey instead." I smirked. "And look how that turned out."

"So far, that’s turned out with the Demons playing better than they have in months," she said. "Usually the score is much worse at this point of the game." She looked slightly embarrassed. "Which you probably know."

"Yeah, but I don’t mind hearing it from you. It’s good to be reminded the move from Sydney wasn’t a complete waste of time." I stopped talking for a moment. "I want the Demons to win. Not just win. We should have been dominating by now."

The rest of the team was getting ready to go back on the ice. Tiger glanced at me but shrugged. He might argue with Aidan over his decision later, but right now his head was where it should be. In the game.

"You will be," she said. "The team’s biggest problem was that they weren’t playing as a team. You’ve been doing that all game. Maybe you should take them all for a boxing lesson."

"Do you want to be my guinea pig?" I asked. "I can teach them, but I’ve never taught before." It wasn’t exactly true, but teaching kids wasn’t the same as teaching adults. Kids wanted to learn. In my experience, adults thought they already knew everything. Except Elenna. She was different.

I wanted to get myself into her pussy, but I wanted to get to know her as a woman too.

"I…" She glanced in Aidan’s direction. He was watching us both. I expected to see him looking angry or suspicious, but instead he looked curious. What did that mean?

"I’d love to," she said finally.