Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
“Like hell you don’t,” Darcy was saying when the noise died down. “How many, Hayden?”
Suppressing a tiny smile, she finally caved. “Five.”
“Five!” Darcy went silent for a moment. Then she offered an awe-laced obscenity. “You’re telling me that dude gave you five orgasms last night?”
“Last night? Four. Plus one this morning.” The memory alone brought a spark of heat to her still-exhausted body. Muscles she hadn’t even known she had were still aching, thanks to the man who could definitely give the Energizer Bunny a run for its money.
“I’m stunned. You realize that? I’m utterly stunned.”
The light ahead turned green and Hayden drove through the intersection. A group of teenagers wearing blue-and-silver Warriors jerseys caught her attention. She groaned at the sight of them. She was so not in the mood to watch a night of rowdy hockey with her father.
“So how was the big goodbye and ‘thanks for the five Os’?” Darcy asked.
“Awkward.” She made a left turn and drove down Lakeshore Drive toward the Lincoln Center, the brand-new arena recently built for the Warriors. “Before he left, he asked for my number.”
“Did you give it to him?”
“No.” She sighed. “But then he left me his number.”
“It was supposed to be a one-night stand!”
“Yeah…but…he looked so dismayed. I made it clear it was a one-night thing. You’d think he’d be thrilled about that. No strings, no expectations. But he was disappointed.”
“You can’t see him again. What if things get serious? You’ll be going back to the west coast in a couple months.”
Darcy sounded surprisingly upset. Well, maybe it wasn’t that surprising, seeing as Darcy found the idea of falling in love more petrifying than a flesh-eating virus.
“Nothing will get serious,” Hayden said with a laugh. “First of all, I won’t see him again. And second, I won’t allow myself to develop a relationship with any man until I figure out where things stand with Doug.”
Darcy groaned. “Him? Why do you continue to keep him in the picture? Turn your break into a breakup, before he mentions the intimacy bridge and—”
“Goodbye, Darce.”
She hung up, not in the mood to hear Darcy make fun of Doug again. Fine, so he was conservative, and maybe his comparison of sex to a bridge was bizarre, but Doug was a decent man. She wasn’t ready to write him off completely.
Uh, you slept with another man, her conscience reminded.
Her cheeks grew hot at the memory of sleeping with Brody. And somehow the words sleeping with Brody seemed unsuitable, as if they described a bland, mundane event like tea with a grandparent. What she and Brody had done was neither bland nor mundane. It had been crazy. Intense. Wild and dirty. Hands down, the best sex of her life.
Was she a complete fool for sending him away this morning?
Probably.
Fine, more like absolutely.
Brody made it clear he wanted to see her again, and sure, that would be nice…
Okay, it would be incredible. But sex wasn’t going to solve her problems. Her issues with Doug would still be there, lurking in the wings like a jealous understudy, as would the stress of her father’s recent struggles. And if Brody wanted more than sex, if he wanted a relationship—as unlikely as that was—what would she do then? Throw a third complication into her already complicated personal life?
No, ending it before it began was the logical solution. Best to leave it as a one-time hookup.
She reached the arena ten minutes later and parked in the area reserved for VIPs, right next to her father’s shiny red Mercedes convertible. She knew it was her dad’s, because of the license plate reading: “TM OWNR.”
Real subtle, Dad.
Why had she even bothered coming home? When her father asked if she could take some time off to be with him during this whole divorce mess, she’d seen it as a sign that he valued her support, wanted her around. But in the week she’d been home she’d only seen him once for a quick lunch in his office. The phone had kept ringing, so they’d barely spoken, and it was unlikely they’d get any time to talk tonight. She knew how focused her dad was when he watched hockey.
With a sigh, she got out of the car and braced herself for a night of watching sweaty men skating after a black disk, while listening to her father rave about how “it doesn’t get better than this.”
Gee, she couldn’t wait.
“Watch out for Valdek tonight,” Sam Becker warned when Brody approached the long wooden bench on one side of the Warriors locker room. He paused in front of his stall.
“Valdek’s back?” Brody groaned. “What happened to his three-game suspension?”
Becker adjusted his shin pads then pulled on his navy blue pants and started lacing up. For thirty-six, he was still in prime condition. When Brody first met the legendary forward, he’d been in awe, even more impressed when he’d seen Becker deke out three guys to score a shorthanded goal, proving to everyone in the league why he still belonged there.