FORCE: A Bad Boy Sports Romance by Vivian Lux Read Free Book Online Page B

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    I had almost invited him in. I’d only known him for forty-eight hours, but I very nearly slept with him last night.
    And as I lay awake afterward, I knew I couldn’t go very long without seeing him again.
    I actually might be that kind of girl.
    I needed to see him again.
    As soon as possible.
    Like...right now. At five in the morning.
    As I got dressed in my tiny studio apartment, I looked out of my single window and wondered how there was traffic, even at this early hour. I hurried to the door so I could be on the road with time to spare, and only once did I wonder if he would be freaked out by me showing up at his practice this morning before work.
    “I just want to see him skate,” I told the air. “I’m not stalking him.”
    Any doubt I had in my head about whether this was a good idea was banished when I remembered the feel of him, hard and unyielding, sliding against my thigh to press into my belly.
    At first I was surprised to see that the door to the Icehouse was unlocked. But there in the bleachers were a few bleary-eyed guys, clearly stopping in to watch practice before work. Their suits were rumpled, but their eyes were keen as they watched the action down on the rink.
    Sports fans. I was completely out of my element. I sat down nervously, looking everywhere at once.
    Then I looked down at the rink.
    At first there was no sound, except for the shush-shushing of skates cutting across the ice. Big, bearded men, padded out to nearly twice their size, moved with the grace and precision of ballerinas. They twisted and turned on the ice in an intricate, winding dance that held me mesmerized in my seat.
    Then a whistle blew, and precision gave way to savagery. Suddenly, it was mayhem—bodies slamming into one another, coarse voices crying out harsh commands. I sat on the edge of my seat, watching raptly, trying to find Ian, and then…over there, I saw him hurtle into the fray, seemingly everywhere at once, moving so fast that he streaked past the glass like a lightning bolt.
    I felt a twinge of pain and looked down to see that my fingernails were digging into my thighs. I unclenched them, and then just as quickly grabbed a hold to the underside of my seat, gripping tightly as I swiveled my head this way and that, my blood pounding in my ears, my heart racing with the action.
    Until the whistle blew, and it was all over, and I slid back in my seat with a sigh, feeling something very close to release coursing through my bloodstream.
    “ Holy fuck ,” I muttered to myself. “ I think I like hockey. ”
    The whistle blew, and mayhem ensued two more times, before the whole crush of them moved as one towards the locker rooms. I stood up and moved to the front, pressed against the glass, watching Ian head into the locker room with the rest of them. He hadn’t seen me.
    I sat back with a smile on my face and waited for him to reemerge.
    The suited fans got up, hushed with reverence like pilgrims leaving their shrine. I watched them go, and then turned to see the players emerge, freshly showered. They straggled out of the exit in bunches of twos and threes, but Ian was not among them. I strained my neck, watching for his dark form.
    “Hey, Blue? Is that you?”
    I turned to see Ian’s blond friend from the bar the other night. And I knew he recognized me, too, because he winced.
    “Hey listen, I had already had a few. Shouldn’t have said those things to you. Sorry about that. I’m Brad.”
    “Candace. Thanks,” I said shortly.
    He licked his lips nervously. “Hey, Candace. Uh, are you here for Ian?”
    I hesitated, then decided who, was I kidding? “Yes. I wanted to say hi.”
    Brad chuckled. “The guy always makes it his mission to use up all of the hot water in the building. If you want to, you can go in and wait. There’s no one in there but him.”
    He said it very innocently, but there was a definite suggestive waggle to his eyebrows.
    I shot him a look. “That’s okay, I’ll just wait