Chapter 10

I leaned to the right, snapping out my glove and letting the puck come to me. Like the catch was nothing, I tossed it back in Easton's direction. The puck slid across the ice to stop at his feet.

"You"re on fucking fire today." Cruz grinned at me and stole the puck from Easton before the other winger could move.

I shrugged. "I"m always on fire, bro."

Yeah, we lost the first game, but that was in the past. No more pucks were getting past me for the rest of the season. Okay, maybe one or two, just to make the opposition feel like they weren"t complete losers compared to us.

"You weren"t on fucking fire on Friday night," Elliott snarled.

"Did you go home to your hand?" Cruz teased.

Elliott growled and started toward Cruz, gloved hand curled in a fist. He shoved into him, pushing Cruz backwards towards the boards.

"Back the hell off," Kage Foster shouted. "Save the aggression for the opposition."

Cruz held his hands up to either side, stick hanging from his fingers. "Sorry, Coach."

Elliott grumbled under his breath and all but stomped away.

Easton muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "He"s a fucking dickhead," before skating over to the puck and slamming it toward the goal, trying to catch me unaware.

I stopped it with my stick and grinned. "You"re gonna have to get up much earlier to take me by surprise."

Easton grinned back. "You can"t blame a guy for trying."

"That, I cannot," I agreed. I shook out my arms and legs and fended off another attempted goal, this time by Cole Davies. Motherfucker almost got it past me, but I stopped it right before the puck slid past my left skate.

I sent it spinning back. Before I could blink, he"d flicked it past me and into the back of the net.

"Now that"s how you do it." Easton offered him a fist bump.

I grunted my annoyance. I wasn"t going to be a bitch about it; it was my fault he got the puck past me. I was quick, but this time he was quicker. I appreciated his skill. We"d need that to win.

"Take a break," Kage shouted.

I nodded and skated over to step off the ice.

"Glover," Elliott said, his eyes narrowed at me.

"Quinn." I barely gave him a glance in return.

"Who was that chick you were with the other night?" He opened a bottle of water and took a swig.

"None of your business." I picked up my own water and had a sip.

"Didn"t put out for you either?" He seemed amused, like he'd said something hilarious.

He didn"t see my fist coming until I planted it in the middle of his face. He reeled back against the wall, blood pouring from his nose.

"Fucking asshole." He lunged at me, but Cole grabbed him before he could take a swing.

"Do you both want to get benched for the rest of the season?" Cole hissed. He directed the question at me, while still gripping Elliott. His expression strongly suggested I should back down, Elliott wasn"t worth it.

"What did I say about saving your aggression for the opposition?" Kage stomped over and glared at all of us. "Quinn, go and have that seen to. As for the rest of you, save your fucking fists for the ice."

"Sorry, Coach." I could apologise for irritating him, but not for what I did to Elliott"s face. The prick had it coming. If I hadn"t punched him out, someone else would have.

Cole stepped back and let Elliott stomp away. "He"s only trying to get a rise out of you."

"I know, but saying shit like that about Marley pisses me off," I said. No one talked smack about her and got away with it. No one talked smack about any woman around me and didn"t hear about it. He could save being a dickhead for somewhere else. Guys like him were all fucking talk anyway.

"Me too," Cole said.

I picked up my water bottle and drank down what was left, my eyes on Cole. In just those two words, he caught my interest.

"You know Marley?"

"I"ve seen her around," he said, momentarily looking uneasy and cagey.

"And?" I prompted. If I had more competition for her, I wanted to know about it.

"And what?" he asked. "She didn"t notice me in high school, she"s not going to notice me now."

I took a good, long look at him. I won"t say I hadn"t noticed him before, I absolutely had. I was paying more attention now though. He was a good looking guy, but didn"t say much. An excellent hockey player, he kept to himself off the ice, except when he was stopping other guys from being dicks.

"Did you ever try to talk to her?" I asked.

His cheeks actually went pink. "No. Apart from one time when I asked her to pass me something in class. I don"t think she even remembers we went to the same school. I was the nerd in the corner."

I grinned. "Ain"t nothing wrong with being the nerd. Not that I was ever one." I was the guy who played every sport he could get his hands on until I found one I really enjoyed. School and I, we didn"t get along so well. I only passed because I needed the scholarship to a school with a hockey team good enough for the NHL to scout from.

"Of course you weren"t," Cole said. "You would have had your pick of women, while guys like me tried to avoid getting beat up." His gaze flicked towards the floor.

"And here you are now, playing professional hockey," I said. "Fighting off women left and right." Come to think of it, I hadn"t seen him with anyone. "Or fighting off men."

I watched carefully for his reaction to that. He was just the kind of guy I was into, if he felt the same way. If not, that was cool. I wasn"t everyone"s cup of java.

He twitched.

Yeah, that was what I thought.

"There"s no shame in being bisexual." I was blunt, but kept my voice down, if only to keep the rest of the team from hearing and being dickheads about it towards him. Although, if they did, I"d happily plant my fist in their face too.

"I know," Cole said quickly. "I"ve just never been good at relationships with…anyone."

I patted him on the back. "It"s never too late to figure out shit like that. Want to get a drink after training?" I"ve always been one to jump in with both feet and to hell with the consequences. Life, in my assessment, was too short to hold back.

He gaped at me for a few moments in surprise. "I…"

"No pressure," I said.

"I"d like that," he said finally. "Unless it"s going to cause a problem with Marley."

"Trust me, she"ll be cool with it," I said. I told her I wanted to be with her, but I wouldn"t rule out having other guys in this relationship with her. Maybe it would be Cole and maybe it wouldn"t. There was no harm in exploring and finding out.

"Great," he said. "I"ll look forward to it. But…there"s something you should know."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "What"s that? Don"t tell me you and your twin brother are a package deal, because if you are, I"m out of here." Saxon Davies was way too much of a meathead for me.

Cole grimaced. "No. I was just going to say I"m not going to cut you any slack. On the ice, I mean. If I get an opportunity to get the puck past you, I"m going to take it."

"You fucking better take it," I growled playfully. "I don"t want any special treatment from anyone. Not for any reason. If you get that puck past me, it"s because you played better than I did."

I pointed a finger roughly in the direction of his nose. "The same goes for you too. I"m never going to step aside and let anyone take a goal, no matter who they are. Something you should know about me, I"m as competitive as shit. I hate losing. All I"ve ever wanted, all my life, was to be the fucking best."

"Me too," he said softly. His eyes were suddenly glazed, his expression troubled, haunted, like this conversation opened a wound that never healed.

"Did you get beaten up a lot?" I asked. He"d mentioned trying to avoid that. I sensed there was a deeper meaning behind those words. Something both dark and painful. Raw.

He flinched at my direct question. "You could say that."

"Kids from school? Who do I have to beat the snot out of?" I was only half-joking. For some reason, he brought out my protective side. I hated nothing more in this world than a bully.

He glanced down at the ground. "Not from school." He barely spoke above a whisper.

My blood went cold. "Fuck. At home?" That was even worse. Home was the place everyone should feel safe, not bruised or broken.

He looked back up, eyes wide. "I"m supposed to be a big, bad hockey player…"

I put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed, trying to connect through the padding. "I"m guessing you weren"t a big, bad hockey player back then. You were just a kid. Anyone who lays a hand on a kid should have their balls ripped off and shoved down their throat."

"Yeah," he said. "He called me a sissy until I started playing hockey and got bigger than him. But it still sucks, you know?"

"I do know," I said. "You might be surprised how many guys out there grew up like that. People who do it, they"re nothing but motherfucking cowards." If I met the guy who did this, I"d do more than punch his lights out.

"Look at you now though," I said. "You"re a fucking wall of smoking hot muscle. I"d bet anything you have eyes following you everywhere you go and you just haven"t noticed it yet."

His cheeks were adorably pink. "I don"t know about that." He really was convinced no one noticed him, wasn"t he? There was something endearing about a guy who had no idea how attractive he was.

"I do," I said firmly. "I"m going to prove it to you. We"ll have a drink and I"ll point out every single person who stopped to stare at you. By the time we"re done, your head is going to be bigger than Cruz"s. If that"s humanly possible."

There was nothing wrong with his healthy ego. Cruz might even be competition for me in that department.

Cole looked like he didn"t think that was possible. "About the way I feel about Marley…"

"I"m not threatened by you," I said. "Women like Marley, there"s room in her heart for all the love. Hell, I"ll even set you up on a date with her. That"s how much I"m not threatened."

"You"d do that?" he asked. "What if we— I mean, you and I…"

He looked confused as hell, clearly trying to get his head around all of this. It was a lot, but like always, I saw what I wanted and went after it. If that was too much for him and he wanted to walk away, I"d understand. Sometimes, I was too much for myself.

"I see no reason why we can"t both be with her and with each other, if that"s what happens," I said.

This was way too soon for me to mention Oliver, especially with all three of Cat"s boyfriends standing a handful of metres away. If they overheard, she"d find out about thirty seconds later. That would be bad for everyone concerned. I wanted Marley and Oliver's relationship out in the open as much as they did, but for Cat to find out that way could destroy everything.

"If this is some kind of dream, I don"t want to wake up," Cole said. He looked a bit like a little kid at Christmas. I suspected he hadn"t had as many good Christmases as he should have. Once again, I was furious at whoever took that away from him. I was tempted to ask who, but that was something he"d tell me when he was ready.

I hoped.

I chuckled. "It"s not a dream, I"m just that awesome." I wasn"t known for being all that humble. Life was too short for that shit. I preferred to be myself, whatever the consequences. Even if it meant having a sore hand after punching Elliott. It would be a whole lot worse if I wasn"t wearing gloves. For him and for me.

"Yeah, you are," Cole agreed. His gaze dropped to my mouth. He swallowed audibly.

So did I. If we weren't in the middle of training, I"d kiss the hell out of him. I might have done it anyway, but the goalie coach called out my name for me to go and train with him.

"Later." I patted his shoulder again before walking back onto the ice.