Misconduct (Hot Ice series Book 6) (14 page)

I glanced away, feigned interest in a hummingbird and hoped
no one saw the sadness in my eyes.

“So, son,” Dad said, “what is it we need to discuss about
your contract?”

“Well, sweet che— I mean Miss Gunner and I already did have
a conversation about it. I’m hoping the issue is resolved and I’ll be staying
with you for the next three seasons.”

“Excellent.” Dad rubbed his hands together. “We need you,
and great play the other day, you blocked Todd Carty on shots no other
goaltender in the NHL could. We can’t afford for you to go anywhere.”

“Well, I really think—” I started.

Dad held up his hand. “Gina, if you’ve found some middle
ground to keep this guy on board, then for goodness’ sake, stake your claim.
He’s gold dust, not many like him in the world. You need him.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” I said quietly.

“So we have a deal, boss?” Dustin asked, standing and
looking at me.

I nodded. “Yes, that will work for me.” And it would, it
would put him on the same salary as Price, they’d be equal, it wouldn’t balance
the books but it would help.

He stepped forward and held out his hand.

I took it, but instead of pulling me up for a kiss, like he
maybe would have had we been alone, he shook it formally, sealing our deal.

“I’ll go and pack,” he said, releasing me and turning. “Get
myself to the airport.”

“I’ll tell the driver to wait then,” Giselle said, dashing
to the door. “The island cabs have a habit of just disappearing even when
you’ve told them not to.”

Alone now, I turned to Dad.

He was studying me closely.

“What?” I asked, feeling suddenly exposed in my bikini and
with Dustin gone.

He smiled. “Nothing, I’m just glad you worked it out with
Speed, he’s a great player. The best.”

“He is, but just damn expensive.”

“It’s an expensive hobby, running a hockey team.”

“Tell me about it, and…” I hesitated. “The money is running
away like water down a mountainside, to be honest. I’ve been studying the
books, it’s not good.”

“Oh, it goes up and down.” He waved his hand in the air as
if it were nothing, this few million deficit. “Two years ago we were making,
now we’re losing. It’ll swing around again. Get inventive. See what you can do
with it.”

“But, Dad, we need the money…”

“Need the money!” He scoffed. “Buttercup, we don’t
need
the money from the Vipers. Like I said, it’s a hobby. I’ve immersed myself in
it, sure, but only because my other businesses run themselves. They don’t need
me. I have the best people in place at the top so I get time for the fun
stuff.”

“So you’re not worried that the team is in the negative each
month?” I was shocked by this revelation. I’d thought it was one of his sources
of income yet he called it a hobby.

“I can afford to bleed a little red, don’t sweat it.” He
leaned forward. “But I would like to see you use that business head of yours.
Turn it around, experiment. Not with the players of course, that’s not your
expertise, but try new capital ventures, think out of the box, have fun with
it. See what your modern brain can come up with.”

“You want me to have
fun
with it?”

“Sure, but don’t give yourself a damn heart attack over it,
for God’s sake. Just go, see what you can do. There’s plenty of money in the
pot, but it would be great to see your sharp business mind pull the team
finances around. And I know you enjoy a challenge, always have.”

I sat quietly. I’d been worrying myself silly about the
state of the Vipers’ bank balance yet it seemed it had been given to me for
fun. Dustin had said right at the beginning that the team was my new toy. I’d
been mad at him for that, but now it seemed it was true.

“But why?” I asked. “Why would you give it to me to play
with?”

“Call me selfish,” Dad said. “But I like having you in
Orlando, with me, and not in France. France is too far away. I was worried sick
you would fall in love with a soppy Frenchman and I’d barely see you, and if
grandchildren came along, well, they wouldn’t know their Grandpa, would they?”

“Grandchildren are a long way off. I need a husband first,”
I said with a laugh. “And I like being in Orlando too. Being able to spend time
with you is great.”

“Good, that’s settled then. No more money worries. It will
all add up in the end. And don’t stress the players out, they need to be made
to feel valued, special, like they’re your most cherished possessions.”

“Yes, I know, I get that.” One was more cherished by me than
the others, but I wasn’t about to say that out loud, for that was a feeling
that needed to be put in a hole six-feet deep and covered with earth.

“Good.” He was quiet for a long moment. “So are you going
back with him?”

I glanced into the shadows of the villa. I knew the answer
already despite the fact I was just torturing myself. Because where Dustin was,
was where I wanted to be, even if I could only be
with
him for another
few hours. “Yes, I think I will. There’s lots of work to get on with. New ideas
to set in motion and all that.”

Dad smiled. “He’s a good guy, Speed.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Got his heart in the right place. I’d been watching him for
a while before I signed him. He does a lot of charity work.”

I nodded. “Yes, he does.” My eyes were stinging. Dustin’s
heart was in the right place, which was how he’d wheedled into mine.

Quickly I stood.

“Hey, are you all right?”

“Yes, fine.”

Dad scraped back his chair and walked over to me. “Sure?”

“Yes, really. Just… I’m just glad everything is okay, with
you.” I batted him on the arm. “Stop scaring me, all these urgent trips to the
doctor.”

“I’m fit as a fiddle. A warning to slow down is what they
keep saying and I have slowed down. I intend to continue at a much lower gear
and enjoy whatever life blesses me with.”

“That sounds a good plan.” I gave him a peck on the cheek.
“I should go pack.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

I put on my best smile. He hadn’t paid for all of those
drama summer camps for nothing. “Absolutely, never better.”

He nodded, apparently satisfied that I was indeed
never
better
.

How could I tell him that I felt as though I was on a
runaway train, and while the journey was fun, crazy, exhilarating, soon I would
reach the end of the line and hit the wall.

Pain was guaranteed.

“You’re quiet,” Dustin said as the plane took to the air.

“Just thinking.” For once I wasn’t thinking about the wings
falling off or the wheels getting stuck in the undercarriage. I was thinking
about Dustin, and how I would be able to face him every working day at the rink
and not let one shred of my feelings for him show. I was supposed to be his
boss, not one of his groupies.

“About what?” he asked.

“Er…Dad.”

“He looked well.”

“I agree.” I turned to him. “Do you think they guessed what
we’d been doing?”

Dustin pulled his lips downward. “I hope not. I wouldn’t
like to get on the wrong side of him, and I reckon sweet-talking his daughter
naked and making love to her on his Bali bed would get me some kind of dressing
down.” He reached for my hand and drew my knuckles to his lips. “Was good
though, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, perfect.” I looked into his dark eyes, held them for as
long as I could and then glanced away.

“When we get back,” he said, “that’s it.” He paused and when
he spoke again his voice was a fraction higher, the last word inflected upward.
“Isn’t it?”

“That’s what we agreed?” I tried to make my answer sound
like a question.

He swallowed. We were silent for a moment, then, “Do they
ever come out of there?” he asked, nodding at the cockpit door.

“No, not when we’re in the air. They sometimes speak over
the intercom but I’ve never known them to leave the controls.” I paused. “Why?”

“Because I want to do this.” He reached for my safety belt,
clicked it open and then tugged me onto his lap.

“Dustin?” His arms wrapped around me and I landed on his
knees.

His thighs were hard, his chest too, and I pressed my hands
onto his wide shoulders. “I shouldn’t have my belt off.”

“I’ve told you before, rules are meant to be broken.” He
slid his hand into my hair and pulled my face to his, grinned sinfully and then
kissed me.

“Mmm…” I murmured, holding him tight. I needed to memorize
his flavor. Seal this snippet of time into my memory so that late at night I
could bring it out and recall how his lips moved, how his body was so in
synchrony with mine, how he tasted and smelled.

He was a little breathless when I pulled back.

“You okay?” I asked.

He shifted on the seat, tipping me slightly and then
squeezing me closer.

“Yeah, just…” He gave a lopsided grin. “I really shouldn’t
have kissed you, I’m paying for it now.”

“What do you mean?”

He pulled a pained expression.

“Oh…” I said. “I get you.”

“All very well for girls,” he said, twirling a strand of my
hair between his fingers. “Tight jeans don’t give you a space issue.”

“Would you like me to help you out with that
particular…issue?” I asked, licking my lips.

He glanced at the cockpit door again. “Fuck, really?”

“Well, no, not that, but I can offer this.” I untangled
myself from him and slid between his legs so I was kneeling on the hard floor.
As I lowered, daringly folding my body before him in the small space, I felt
all sense of perspective leaving me. There was only this, us.

He swallowed and I watched his Adam’s apple bob beneath his
darkly stubbled neck. “Sweet cheeks, I don’t know if…”

I grinned. “Come on, don’t be a sissy.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Sissy? You really just called me a
fucking
sissy
?”

I reached for his fly, a sensation not unlike when I’d been
bungee jumping coming over me. “Yeah, come on, show me what you’re made of.” I
popped open the buttons and explored within the warmth of his soft cotton
jersey underwear.

His shocked expression dropped and instead he chuckled,
lifted his butt and shoved at his jeans. “Okay, you asked for it.”

The sight of his velvety erection had the last shreds of
sense racing from me. All I could think of was becoming closer acquainted with
it, with him. The sounds of the plane faded and thoughts of the pilots
discovering us faded into the background of my lust-addled thoughts.

What the hell, you only live once.

Dustin slid his hands firmly into my hair and directed my
face into his groin. The gesture was so confidently intimate yet also wildly
dominant that a heat of desire rose within me. I opened up, took him in, felt
him push my scalp, forcing me to take him deeper as my lips molded to the
circlet of his shaft.

“Ah fuck, that’s wickedly good,” he groaned, his heavily
expired breath breezing over my head and neck. “Jesus, sweet cheeks, you really
fucking know how to work your mouth on a guy.”

Only on you
, I thought, I’d never felt so
enthusiastic or turned-on giving oral before, it wasn’t really my thing. But
with Dustin it was different, every gasp, groan and whimper of pleasure he
released went straight to my clit, satisfying a need in me too. I wanted, no
needed, to hear him give it up to me, take what he wanted and satisfy that very
base masculine need to release his seed. It was primitive, instinctual, I
longed for more.

“Ah, yeah, just like that, fuck…so good.”

His words increased my enthusiasm and I picked up the pace,
used my hands on him as well as my mouth. His thighs tightened around my
shoulders, a tremor ripping through his body and vibrating into mine.

Saliva dribbled from my mouth, smearing my chin. It was
mixed with the hot taste of pre-cum now. Dustin was bone hard. Dipping the end
of my tongue into his slit produced yet another moan from him, one that went
right through me, settled in my chest and in my heart. I had to make this
count, be an experience neither he nor I would ever forget.

My pussy was swollen and hot, my clit bumping against the
seam of my capris with each bobbing movement. I wasn’t sure but I wondered if I
might come from that alone. Fabric on flesh. I was a little dizzy, slurping and
breathless, getting wet, wet and wetter.

Dustin increased the hold on my head, fucking my mouth as
much as I was taking him in deep.

“Ah, ah, yeah…” he groaned, “Get ready, sweet cheeks, I’m
gonna fucking erupt in your mouth. So fucking deep in your mouth. In you, take
me, please…”

I increased the suction and pulled him deeper still,
ignoring my need to breathe and the potential to gag. In the fog of my desire
none of that mattered. It wasn’t appropriate, what we were doing, but I was
past caring.

A wash of salty fluid filled my throat. I impaled myself as
far on to the root of him as I could possibly manage, swallowed and worked him
frantically with my hand, knowing I was slurping, gasping, my noises worryingly
loud.

Who cared? This was our plane. Lust had dropped my standards
of etiquette but I really didn’t give a shit.

He tensed, flinched, shoved me onto him then almost off him.
The taut drag of my lips on his shaft was clearly exhilarating in his moment of
climax. I cupped his balls and pulled harder and faster with my mouth.

He seemed completely lost in the moment, jerking his hips
up, pressing them down, owning me. Any precariousness of our situation seemed
to have taken flight in his mind too.

I sucked in oxygen, gulped again, enjoying the moment of
drinking him into the very heart of my throat.

The very heart of me.

My potential orgasm receded as Dustin stilled and breathed
through his release. I slowed right down and swirled my tongue around the
ridges of his cock.

“Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah…” he said, the words tripping over
themselves, as though there was nothing else in his brain that he could think
of to say.

I shifted my head, fighting against his hold, and instantly
he released me, allowing me to lift off his cock.

Breathlessly, I looked up at him, swept my tongue around my
lips and failed to suppress a grin as he watched me with blown pupils and a
damp red face.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get over…” he gasped.

“What?” I wiped the back of my hand over my mouth and pulled
myself up so my face was level with his. “Get over what?”

“Getting blown by the boss,” he said, a cocky smirk winding
its way over his face and balling his cheeks. “Top fantasy come true.”

I could have been mad at the reminder of reality, could have
scowled because of my sadness that we were nearly over, but I couldn’t. Sucking
Dustin into my mouth, feeling his pleasure, knowing I was the catalyst of that
pleasure, was too precious an experience to tarnish with negative emotions.

No, I didn’t regret any of my sexy times with my hotshot
goaltender. It had all been just perfect.

But like everything, all good things came to an end.

And this was our ending.

* * * * *

For once I didn’t panic when the plane’s wheels
clunked
from the fuselage. My stomach lurching on descent didn’t make nausea swell
within me. I was too preoccupied with the swirl of emotions stealing my
thoughts. The last few moments of sitting next to the man who’d stolen my heart
in such a short space of time was not something I wanted to be distracted from.

He was dozing in the seat next to me. After tucking himself
away, he’d rested his head back, closed his eyes and within minutes the soft
sound of his breaths told me he was sleeping. This was a habit of his
immediately after sex, I’d noticed.

But I wasn’t complaining. I stared at him, indulging in
being able to do so for as long as I wanted without him knowing. He hadn’t
shaved that morning and the bristles on his chin, jawline and coating his
throat were thick. It gave him a wild caveman look and I remembered the time
he’d thrown me over his shoulder and then ravished me on the outdoor bed.

Crossing and uncrossing my legs, staving off a tug of
longing in my belly, I studied his closed eyes. His long lashes were almost
girly, though I would never dare tell him that. I reckoned I’d seriously pushed
my luck calling him a sissy. His heavy brows were far from feminine though.
They were thick and heavy and he had a slight crease between them, as though he
might frown at any moment. I wondered what he was dreaming of to make him feel
that way.

The plane tipped to the right heading for the small private
airport we used just outside Orlando. Dustin shifted slightly and I continued
to drink him in with my gaze. His t-shirt was taut over his chest. I could make
out the square shape of his pecs and the hard dots of his nipples. My mouth
watered and I wished I could taste his skin one more time, have his smooth,
hard flesh against my tongue for just another moment. Our stay at the villa had
initially stretched in front of me like a torturous nightmare, but as it turned
out, I’d have happily stayed many more nights if it meant I could still be with
Dustin.

Suddenly the plane touched down with a jolt. I gripped the
armrest and gasped.

“You okay?” Dustin asked, placing his hand over mine.

“Yes, fine. I didn’t think we were so close to landing,
that’s all.”

He yawned, lifting his hand off mine to cover his mouth.
“Sorry, I must have dozed off.”

“Yeah, you did.”

The plane thrust to a slower pace and then taxied to a halt.
As the engines faded and stopped completely, silence enveloped us.

“Home again,” Dustin said, unclipping his belt.

“Yep, back to real life.”

He looked at me, his gaze intense, the frown between his
eyebrows no longer a suggestion but a deep groove. He opened his mouth and I
held my breath, wondering what he might say. Did he want more? Was there any
part of him that thought maybe we could continue whatever this was between us
back in the real world?

The cockpit door opened.

“Welcome back to Orlando, Miss Gunner, Mr. Reed,” the
copilot said, grinning and rubbing his hands together the way he always did
after a flight. It was as though he was pleased with a job well done. He’d got
us here in one piece. “I’ll just get this door open and you can be on your
way.”

I tore my gaze from Dustin, unclipped and stood. I grabbed
my bag and pressed my lips together. I wanted to tell Dustin that I was
prepared to keep seeing him, that I wanted him in my life not just on my team.
But the vibes he’d given me made me pretty sure it would have to be a secret
relationship. Seeing the boss was clearly a problem for him and I didn’t want
to be an affair. Clandestine meetings weren’t for me, and neither was being a
woman a man wasn’t prepared to jump up and shout to the world that he was
seeing.

No. I wouldn’t be a dirty little secret. That wasn’t how I
operated. I was Gina Gunner, daughter of Fergal Gunner. No one kept me hidden
away, not even the great Dustin “Speed” Reed.

I headed out into the sunshine and as always the humidity
caught in my lungs after the beautiful sea breeze of the island. But I didn’t
let that stop my race to the small terminal. I could see Clifford waiting for
me, leaning against the sleek black car reading a newspaper, his peaked cap
shading his face.

Dustin’s big footsteps banged behind me.

I sped up.

“Sweet cheeks,” he called. “Hold on.” Suddenly at my side,
he touched my shoulder.

“You’ll really have to stop calling me that,” I said, not
slowing down. I needed to get out of there before my willpower disintegrated
and I offered myself to him on any terms.

“Er, yeah, I will, sorry, Miss Gunner.”

That stopped me. I turned, looked up at him. “I don’t know
if you need to go that far, everyone really will be suspicious that we had
something going on if you get all formal on me. Perhaps just Gina will do,
since that is my name.”

“I liked what we had going on, Gina.” He swallowed and I
stared at the movement in his throat, at the way the neckline on his t-shirt
appeared stretched to the max.

“Me too. It was fun.”

“Fun, yeah, I guess that’s one word for it.” He gave a
twisted smile and narrowed his eyes farther against the glare of the sun.