Chapter 27

Coleson

Of course I married a walking ray of sunshine.

After her little stunt in the truck, I’m no longer dreading hanging out with my teammates or even wanting to leave after dropping off the gift.

Like I had planned.

Her fingers thread through mine, and when she looks back at me, grinning widely over her shoulder, I’m speechless. My hand dwarfs hers, and she is such a cute little package of perfection. The sun catches her eyes, making them shine like a majestic pond as her hair blows around, getting stuck against her lip gloss. I stop her, pulling her up against me. She looks up at me, and the gift smacks against my hip. I reach out, removing the hair from where it’s stuck. Her eyes are full of such excitement, and crap, that nagging feeling of loneliness is gone.

I know my wife is beside me.

Damn it, I shouldn’t like that feeling as much as I do.

As I pull the hair from her lips, she grins up at me. “Thanks.”

I smile back, and she tugs me along toward the big group of people in the party pavilion by the ice rink. I see Maverick Evangelina and his pregnant wife first, and I guide her toward them. Maverick meets my gaze and grins widely as he holds out his hand to me. I take it with my free hand, while my other still holds my wife’s. “Katz,” Maverick draws out. “I didn’t think you’d come.”

“I told you I would,” I say softly before I offer my hand to Nora. “Congratulations.”

Nora gives me a tight grin, brushing her hair off her shoulders before taking my hand. “Hey, Coleson. Thanks for coming.”

She seems to have a hard time saying that, and I know it’s because she gossips with the other hockey wives and girlfriends. I swallow uncertainly, feeling out of place, until a small ball of energy leans into me.

“Of course we’re here. A new baby is such a blessing!” my little wife chimes in beside me. I can’t help but smile at her as she beams up at us all. Everyone is taller than her, but I don’t think she cares. I love that about her.

Maverick and Nora look at my wife and then back at me in confusion. “Mav, Nora, this is my wife…” I pause. Shit, I have to say her name. “Eliza,” I say as normally as I can, but it sounds all breathy and gravelly. Like I don’t know how to say my own wife’s name.

Beside me, she just giggles. “It’s so great to meet you. Coleson has so many kind words to say about you two. Congratulations.”

She holds out the gift, and Nora takes it hesitantly. She looks at her husband, and Maverick looks at me. “I didn’t know you were married.”

I nod, looking away and noticing a few eyes on us. As quickly as I take in my next breath, anxiety eats me alive. I don’t want anyone to make her feel like she’s trash for being with me. Nora’s eyes are already scrutinizing my little wife, and anger bubbles within me. I bite the inside of my lip, trying to control my anger, when my eyes fall to hers. Warmth travels up my arm as she grabs my wrist, holding it tightly and sending me a small smile. “Yup, I locked him down in a quickie wedding since I couldn’t bear the thought of him going anywhere without me.”

I chuckle at her words. “Oh, so you locked me down?”

“You know it,” she says with a wink. “You’re all mine, Coleson Katz.”

Her words burn through my body and go straight to my cock. I’ve never wanted words to be truer in my life, but I know that smile, that little smirk and glint in her eyes. She’s being playful, and I love it. I bring her hand to my lips, kissing her knuckles. Our eyes lock over the motion, and she beams happily at me. God, she’s pretty. I drop our hands and meet Evangelina’s confused gaze.

“I guess congratulations are in order for you two as well. Welcome to the Bears family, Eliza.”

My wife grins at him, and then I notice more people are coming closer. I’m slapped on the back, my teammates welcome my wife, and they congratulate us. It’s entirely too easy, and no one says anything out of turn or even anything sly. At least, not to our faces. Something about that doesn’t sit well inside me, and the apprehension in my chest only grows. I feel like she knows, because my wife doesn’t let go of my hand, nor does she leave my side.

I’m thankful for that, more than I could ever express to her.

Once we’re alone, standing to the side, she murmurs, “It’s going well.”

I draw circles on her lower back with my thumb. We’re still a part of the party but not in the middle of it, as everyone gushes over Maverick and Nora. I didn’t want to steal their thunder. It’s their party, not ours.

I look down at her and shrug. “I wish they’d get on with it, so we can head out.”

She gives me a look. “Aren’t you having fun?”

“I don’t trust anyone here,” I say honestly, my stomach in a knot. “I don’t want anyone to say anything to hurt you.”

She squeezes my hand, and I glance down at her. “Nothing anyone says about you matters, Coleson. I’ve told you that.”

I swallow, my heart aching in my chest. I don’t even know what to say, so I don’t say anything. Instead, I lean down to take her bottom lip between mine. She tastes of punch and frosting and all things…Eliza. God, I adore her name. I suck on her lip, releasing it to run my tongue over the sting I left behind before I kiss her lips. I press my nose to hers and then meet her gaze. Her eyes are full of heat and desire, only for me. I’m lost in her eyes, and against her lips, I whisper, “I want to take you to the nearest private spot and devour you in all the ways I’ve thought of since our first time, Wife.”

Her lips part, and her cheeks flush. “There is more than one way you’ve thought of taking me?” she teases, and my lips curve.

“At least a dozen.”

She squeezes my hand and then presses her other hand into my chest, clutching my shirt. She leans in, her lips right there for the taking as she whispers back, “Is one of them your cock deep in my mouth?”

Her question has me panting against her lips. “That’s number one.”

Her lips tip up, her eyes devious as she whispers again, “Good, it’s number one on mine. Now, greet our new visitors.”

I hold back from saying fuck them to see Andrews’s girlfriend coming toward us, with Elliot McDavid not far behind her. I don’t know if my wife’s sister is heading for us, but Payton’s eyes are homed in on my wife and me, and she looks like she’s on a mission.

Yippee.

Before I can warn my wife who she is, Payton stops before us, her arms crossed over her chest. I meet her gaze as her blond hair flows in the wind. She’s a beautiful girl, Andrews is a lucky dude, but she has nothing on my wife. “Eliza, this is my linemate Kai Andrews’s girlfriend, Payton. Payton, this is my wife, Eliza.”

I watch as Payton looks down at my wife and then up to me. “So, it’s true. You got married?”

I go to answer, but my wife does it first. “Yes. Which is why he said, ‘my wife, Eliza.’ Hi, I’m the wife.”

She waves, and fuck if I don’t like the little jut of her chin. I want to bite it. I don’t, though, ’cause that would be weird. Payton meets her gaze. “Like truly married?”

My wife’s eyes narrow as she looks up at Payton. “Yes. Why are you questioning that?”

“Well, for one, Katz doesn’t know how to be with one woman,” she says, looking back to me, and boy do I want to call her out. It wouldn’t help my case to say how she was trying to sleep with me at the same party I was caught in the closet with her friend at. I haven’t said a word since she was very drunk and I don’t believe she truly wanted me. But now, I wonder. Not that it matters. But her snippiness is catching me off guard, and I don’t like it one bit.

“He is now,” Eliza says, snaking her arm around my waist and cuddling into my side.

Payton tsks. “You couldn’t get her a ring?”

Payton lifts Eliza’s bare left hand, and my stomach drops. Why haven’t I gotten her a ring? I haven’t even thought of it, but now, fuck, I wish I had. Before Payton can look at my wife’s bare hand, Eliza pulls it away. “They’re being designed, not that it’s any of your business. But since we got married quickly, we didn’t need rings to establish this marriage. We just needed each other. Right, babe?”

Babe.

She just called me babe.

And I haven’t put a ring on her finger.

My stomach clenches, and my cock strains against my slacks. “Right, Wife.”

Payton looks between us, and I know she wants to say more. But then Elliot approaches, pulling my wife away from me and into her arms. Her warmth is missed almost immediately, but I don’t miss the way her shoulders sag in relief as she hugs Elliot. A smile pulls at my lips. That is, until I feel Payton watching me.

I meet her gaze, and she shakes her head. “We’ll see how long it takes for you to fuck up this marriage just like you did the other.”

My eyes narrow, but once more, my wife is right there. Her eyes are wild, her shoulders back as she shoots daggers at Payton with her eyes. “Excuse you. Don’t speak to my husband that way.”

“Eliza,” Elliot warns. “Let it go.”

“No,” my wife says, stepping to Payton, which, on any other day, would be comical with their height difference. But not today. My wife is shaking mad. “I don’t care what your thoughts of him are. You will not speak to him like that. Do you understand me?”

“Excuse you, but you don’t have a leg to stand on. You don’t know him like I do.”

“Actually, I know him more than you ever will,” she fights back, and I’m in awe. No one has ever stood up for me like this. Not even my parents did anything close to this. I’d get called names, and my parents would be too involved with each other to care that people were tearing their child down.

My wife…well, she is different.

“You know of what he did. But you don’t know how hard he has worked to make up for his mistakes or how he has grown. Something you clearly don’t know how to do since you are living in the past.”

“He’s a?—”

My wife throws up her hand, stopping Payton’s words. “Before you finish that insult, know that while my husband only threw his shoulder into your boyfriend’s, I don’t have nearly as much restraint as he does. I may be small, but I’m not afraid to get dirty.”

Payton’s eyes widen, her mouth forms an O, and beside us, Elliot snorts. I’m so confused that Eliza knows about what I did to Andrews, but I can’t help flashing Elliot a look since she’s not helping in the least. But my wife’s sister only grins, obviously enjoying the show. I glance around and notice that people are watching, so I snake my arm around my wife’s waist, pulling her back into my chest. Against her ear, I say, “Let it go. She’s not worth it.”

My wife relaxes against me, but her eyes are still fierce as Payton mutters something and walks away toward where Andrews is watching with disdain in his eyes. Asshole. I tighten my arms around my wife and lean in against her ear. Her breath catches at the press of my hard cock against her ass, and I can’t contain my smirk. My lips move against the shell of her ear as I whisper, “My spicy little wife. You like driving me crazy, huh?”

She turns her head, our eyes locking. “I think it’s the other way around.”

She’s right. I do like driving her crazy, but I like it more when she does it to me.

I shake my head, kissing her temple. “How did you know about me and Andrews? See it on the TV?”

Her brows knit as she glances up at me, confused. “No. I was there.”

My jaw slackens a bit but doesn’t fall open. Surely I heard her wrong. “What?”

Her eyes search mine. “I’ve been coming to all your games. Well, except the away ones.”

My heart stops in my chest. “You have? Why?”

She slowly nods. “You’re my husband. I want to be there.”

Her words hit me like a million pucks as I gaze into her eyes. Each imaginary puck is a different feeling, and I don’t understand any of them. She wanted to be there. For me. She stood up for me against my teammate’s girlfriend. For me. I don’t know what this tightening in my chest is, and I don’t know how to ease it. I don’t even know if I want to. One thing is for sure. I’m starting to realize it’s going to be really hard to walk away from her.