Cage's Misconduct (NHL Scorpions #3) (9 page)

I wasn’t so sure about that. The “guys” were mostly young, adventure-seeking kids, and I wasn’t. I’d seen it before. Those kind of guys—the young ones who got rich quick and had girls hanging all over them—were blinded to anything other than a night of quick, hot sex. Not that there was a damn thing wrong with hot sex, but like Lacey said, I wasn’t that kind of girl.

“Yeah, um, I don’t think so.”

“Good answer, sis …and stop helping, Lace.” Jody stood between us with his usual scowl in place in order to scare off any potential one-night stands that I could be interested in anyway.

I was about to exert my independent status on my brother, once again, when I saw Cage standing at the bar with his arm around what I could only assume was the girl du jour. No sooner had I turned back around than I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Hey, Karen. Jody. Lace. What’re you guys doing out?” He pulled his date closer and lazily ran his fingertips up and down her arm, looking me in the eye. It was apparent that he wanted me to know he wouldn’t become a monk just because I wouldn’t go out with him.

Lacey answered for us. “Vlad and Crystal are having Daddy/Daughter night, so Zoe offered to babysit. We weren’t going to say no to a chance to get out for a few hours.”

“I figured I’d tag along.” For some reason unknown to me, I added, “But I’m leaving shortly. I can’t wait to get out of these clothes and into a hot bubble bath with a good romance book. What are you two up to?” Why did I deliberately bait him? Ugh. Making him think about the last time I was in the tub was a stupid idea. I mean I was the one who always ended our flirting.

“Oh, sorry about that.” He belated realized he’d not introduced his date. “This is Kyrissa. She’s visiting her cousin over there at the bar. Kyrissa’s in the Marines and her cousin’s in the Navy here in San Diego.”

At the mention of her name, the stacked brunette looked me up and down. She quickly decided I wasn’t a threat and ignored me. Right in front of us, she moved herself to stand in front of Cage and stroked his thigh. And not really even his thigh, if you catch what I’m saying. “Actually, I’m in the Air Force, not the Marines.”

Still holding my gaze, he smiled and gave me a wink. “That’s right. Air Force. Well, it was nice seeing you. I think we’re going to get out of here now. We need someplace a little less crowded.”

Before he had a chance to leave, Dan Wyeth, the equipment manager, sauntered up to our group. I’d met him the night I went to see Cage play, but hadn’t seen him since. “Hi, Dan. It’s nice to see you again.” I put my hand on his arm, and he trapped it with his.

“Hey guys.” Dismissing the rest of them, he looked at me with his typical “come fuck me” look. Dan was a major player. Lacey had told me all about him. He’d tried to pick her up before she started dating Jody. If someone kept track, he’d gotten as many bunnies, if not more, than Cage. He was eye candy supreme, with his sandy blonde hair and a slight cleft in his chin. Even though he was a bit on the short side at a couple of inches under six feet, he had huge muscles, and I’d always loved those. I doubted they made a t-shirt big enough to fit around his biceps.

His green eyes bored into mine like I was the only girl in the room. That was, until a willowy, long-haired blonde in thigh-high boots walked by, which was all of approximately two seconds later. I pulled my hand out from under his, the movement causing him to turn back to me.

“Hey, Karen. I was wondering if you’d like to go somewhere else and get a drink with me. Somewhere quieter maybe?”

Cage snorted at the question. “She’s not your type, Dan.”

Well, yeah. He was right. I wasn’t Dan’s type, but who was Cage to answer for me? “Sure.” Shit.

Cage took a step forward, but was instantly tugged back by his date. Between clenched teeth, he growled out, “Great. Have fun, kids.” As he walked away, I watched him slid his hand down to cup Kyrissa’s rear end. His statement was obviously not heartfelt, but it didn’t bother me a bit. Why would it, right? Anyway, I had my own agenda.

***

To my surprise, Dan took me to a classy upscale bar complete with a piano player. It was close to midnight, and I really would have preferred to be in a hot bath with a good book like I’d said earlier, but since I’d agreed, I might as well enjoy myself.

A pretty waitress in a skimpy yet classy uniform sashayed her way over to us. Whoever designed those outfits was an outright genius. They were snug and short, but everything was covered except the tiniest hint of décolletage. If you wanted to, you could peek in there to see a bit more, but if not looking for it, it was a respectable amount of skin showing. Best of both worlds. Something for the men, but the women couldn’t really object. Of course, Dan was the type who went for the extra look, causing me to laugh at his obvious player style.

His eyes snapped up at my chuckle. “What’s funny, gorgeous?”

And there he went with the charm. “Nothing, really.”

“It had to be something.”

I was saved from answering as our waitress gently interrupted. “Good evening. My name is Natalie. Can I get you two something from the bar?” Her eyes lingered on Dan for a second longer than appropriate, but really, I could hardly blame her.

“Karen?”

“I’ll have a Jack and Coke, please.”

I could swear dear Natalie’s voice lowered an octave when she addressed Dan. “And you, sir?”

“Whisky. Neat.”

“Thank you. I’ll come soon. Back. I’ll come
back
soon. With your drinks.”

Well, so much for Natalie’s professionalism. I was going to have to say her particular uniform was meant to be skimpy, not classy. I laughed again as I watched Dan’s eyes follow her all the way over to the bar. How on earth did this guy get so many dates? “You don’t date the same girl twice, do you?” I wasn’t mad, and smiled at him to let him know. He didn’t owe me anything, and I wasn’t interested in him anyway.

“Huh? Why do you say that?”

“Because you haven’t taken your eyes off of Natalie yet.”

With a frown creasing his forehead, he asked, “Who’s Natalie?”

I didn’t just chuckle then. A nice, loud laugh came out of my mouth. “Oh, you’re precious, aren’t you? Natalie. The waitress? The one with the big boobs you were staring at not more than a second ago?”

“Oh, no. I wasn’t. I was …yeah, okay. Sorry about that. I’m all yours. I promise.”

Natalie came back with our drinks. She plunked mine down in front of me, and it spilled over her hand. When she handed Dan his whiskey, she looked him in the eye as she licked her Jack and Coke soaked fingers. His eyes widened a fraction, but to his credit, he looked back to me, giving me a nod as if to say, “See? I can ignore her.”

“You know what? I think it’s time to go. Natalie, what time do you get off work?”

She turned to me with a jerk, surprised I was talking to her, I guess. “I’m done now, why?” Understanding swept through her and she tilted her head back as her brows shot up. “Oh. You mean …” She made a circular motion with her index finger (the one she’d just licked) encompassing the three of us. “A threesome? Oh, yes. I’m in.”

“Oh, God. No. That is not what I meant.” She sidled over to me and brushed my hair back.

“Are you sure, kitten?”

Jesus. Honestly, all I wanted was a hot bath! Alone. I chugged my drink down, enjoying the burn, and stood up. “I’m going to go.” Dan started to protest, but I stopped him with a finger. “Three reasons. Number one, no offense Dan, I didn’t really feel like going out in the first place. I’m not sure why I said yes.” I held up finger number two. “Secondly, I think you and Natalie here have more in common than you and I do. And third—actually I don’t have a third.”

“Karen, I’m sorry. This isn’t how I planned our night out to go. I’ll take you home.”

For the first time all night he was being genuine. Maybe there was hope for him yet, but not with me. “It’s fine, Dan. Really. I’m just going to grab a cab.”

I walked out of the bar and went across the street to an all-night convenience store. All of the sudden I was in the mood for a KitKat. Yeah, I won’t examine that too far.

It was kind of ironic. When I was a kid, there was a boy I used to play with, Malcolm, who loved KitKats, too. Malcolm and I used to run down to the corner store after school where they had penny candy and buy as many as we could. We’d save for weeks to be able to afford some KitKats. They weren’t just a penny like the other candy, though. They were on the top shelf where the expensive candy was.

I swear, it was magical. We’d walk into that corner store after saving and searching for every penny available, and you could hear angels sing when our eyes landed on that shiny red and black wrapping. Any money left over after we bought what usually amounted to three whole KitKats went to penny candy. Most often Swedish Fish. Good times.

Anyway, I told myself that was why I had a craving for KitKats, and it had nothing to do with a certain wayward hockey player I know. And then …speak of the devil. “What are you doing here? It’s after midnight.”

Cage was straightening out some crumpled dollar bills at the front counter. When he saw me, he put his hand over his purchase to hide it from view. “Didn’t know I had a curfew, Mom, but I’m buying condoms if you really want to know. Kyrissa and I ran out.”

Mom? I had no idea what had happened to cause Cage’s about-face. I thought we were really making headway in my bid for friendship, but it was apparent that he was not happy with me at the present time. His smart ass attitude was out in full, but I still didn’t totally buy it. It hadn’t been all that long since we’d both left the bar. “Yeah? What kind? I like Trojans the best.” Two things were wrong with me at that moment. First, I had no idea why I was still taunting him, and second, let’s face it—I hadn’t needed condoms in so long it was depressing. Lucky for me I could even come up with the name Trojans. Shit, did they still even make them?

“Good to know. Me too. Magnum Trojans to be exact.”

Of course. Magnum. The devil had a hold of me and my mouth. I scanned him from head to toe, pausing at his button-fly. “Huh. Really?”

“Really.” A smile was playing about his lips. He knew I was just egging him on now, but as soon as it appeared, it vanished. “Your date over already?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t really in the mood to be out after all. My body’s so stiff. I just want to go home, get naked and relax in some bubbly, hot water. You know how I love to sit in the tub.” I added a big stretch, and even moaned a little. Seriously, I had no idea what was wrong with me.

Cage’s hand tightened on his alleged box of condoms. After he paid the cashier, he asked for a bag.

“You want a bag to put the bag in?” The cashier looked at him like he had just made an outlandish request.

“Just give me a bag, huh?”

Quick as can be, Cage put his package in the bag and turned to leave. “Good night, Karen.”

“Night.” I shook my head as he walked out. The bag was so thin, not only could I see the red & black of the KitKat wrapping, but I could also see he got a fifty count. Trojans, my ass.

Cage

I’d only seen Karen twice more since we ran into each other at the convenience store a few weeks ago. I knew I acted like a dog, but fuck it. Since then I’d been dating Kyrissa a bit, but I think our time was about up. She wasn’t interested in me any more than I was in her. Turned out she was too much like me. She only wanted me for sex. I know—it sounded like I was complaining. The sex was good, but it was like I was just doing it to do it, you know? We both got the ultimate reward, but there was no big over-the-top explosion. I wanted to be in a frenzy with the woman I was with.

Whatever. I was tired of thinking about it. The old me was more fun and let loose so easily. I seemed to have lost him. Now I wanted—well, that was the problem, I didn’t know what I wanted. For now, I needed to concentrate on my game anyway.

Things around the rink got a lot more intense as the playoffs rolled around. During playoffs, I tended to keep to myself even more than usual. I’m sure you’ve heard that goalies can be a bit unbalanced, right? There could be some truth to that.

Back in the locker room after a pretty intense practice, the guys were making plans for the night. Most of them were going home for a quiet night since we had another early practice tomorrow, but some of them were going out to grab dinner. It was a commonplace thing, but as you may have suspected, I didn’t participate too often. And tonight was no exception. I wasn’t just blowing the guys off tonight, though. I was going to break things off with Kyrissa, and then I was going to see if Karen wanted to grab a bite to eat. I missed talking to her, and I probably owed her an apology.

After taking a quick shower, I threw on some old, broken-in jeans and a well-worn t-shirt, then grabbed my cell phone out of my locker so I could call Kyrissa. A brief scan of the room confirmed that I was alone.

“Hi, Cage.”

“Hey, Kyrissa. How’s it going?” I hated this part.

“Good. What’s up? We didn’t have plans for tonight, did we?” I could hear a man in the background calling out to her. Maybe she wouldn’t be too mad after all.

“Actually, I was thinking that maybe we ought to call it quits.”

“Oh, okay. Sure. Well, it was fun.”

That was it? Kind of hurt the old pride. Where were the waterworks? Where was the begging? Maybe I wasn’t as big a player as I thought. Could it be? Nah.

“You sure you’re okay?”

I heard a lot of giggling and a muffled “stop that”.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. See you around. Good luck in the playoffs!”

And that was that. I looked at my phone and shook my head. Then I made another phone call.

“Hi, Dalton.”

Now that was a voice I wanted to hear on the other end of the line. “Hi, Karen. How are you?”

“I’m fine.”

Pretty stimulating conversation, don’t you think? My A-game had plain old disappeared.

“Great. So I was wondering if it would be possible to forget the way I’ve been acting for the past week or so.”

“Well, why were you such an ass? I certainly can’t remember doing anything to justify your anger at me.”