by RJ Scott
I know the drink came back, and I know that he sat with me for a while before saying he had to move to the back of the room as it filled. I fought the need to get him to sit with me. What was the point? I had a life to live and I couldn’t always have him by my side.
But… what if what we’d said to each other in the room, in the heat of the moment was true? Had I really fallen in love? How was it possible that love had sneaked up on me like this?
Maybe we could work, but now I had to think about tonight. Bidders were being allowed in, I could see Kyle in the corner fretting over his hands and where to put them, all flustered at thinking about whether he should put them into his pockets or not. I weaved my way through the tables to the back of the stage, attempting to look as if I wasn’t losing my shit.
Show time.
Chapter Thirteen
Booker Blake, the MC of the event, had everything under tight control, and I didn’t even register how the first of the players had done out there.
“Everything okay?” Kyle asked as he waited his turn.
“Yeah,” I gave him my trademark grin, punched his arm lightly. “Go get ’em tiger.”
He muttered something under his breath, probably along the lines of what a bastard I was for persuading him to do this, but he was at least smiling when he went out to the cheers of the crowd. I peeked through the curtain at the side, saw the sea of waving paddles, and I knew we would raise at least a hundred dollars on each of us, given that was the minimum bid, but I also knew we’d all bring in more. Wine was flowing, people laughed and cheered, and the bidding on Kyle was robust.
It wasn’t all about the money though, I’d said that to Jason and I’d meant it. Out there in the crowd were journalists taking notes on the out hockey players all putting themselves in the limelight. All of us played at the NHL level, and we could be an inspiration for a ton of kids out there who were only just coming to terms with who they were.
“You know I’m not the guy on the ESPN cover, right?” I heard Kyle say, and people laughed at his joke. Well, if they were waiting for me to come out naked then they’d be waiting a long time. The way things were going in my head, they were lucky I was even going out at all.
“Nine hundred.” Someone bid on Kyle.
I was overcome with pride, and for a moment I even forgot my fears.
“Yeah, Kyle! Go, man,” I shouted, probably loud enough to be heard without a mic, because I saw his shoulders stiffen and knew he’d heard me. The bids jumped up to fifteen hundred and that was it, Kyle had his date.
When he came off the stage he was wide-eyed and flustered, but we fist bumped and I waited my turn.
I would go out there, strut my stuff, work the crowd, and find my equilibrium. If only I wasn’t so hot… I ran a finger under my bow tie, the collar felt like a noose, and I couldn’t catch my breath as I needed, so I shut my eyes, let the noise of the event wash over me, and counted slowly, matching my breaths, and wondering if I could ask to take someone on stage with me. The idea of Jason at my side was on the one hand humiliating, and on the other empowering. Think what I could accomplish with Jason next to me, as long as people didn’t take one look at me and think I was some coward who—
Stop it. Stop. It. Now.
“Last, but by no means least, star of the ESPN Body issue, and unfortunately ladies and gents, he’s wearing clothes tonight, I give you Garrett Howell from the Burlington Dragons.”
I sucked in air, pasted on a smile and stepped onto the stage, cameras flashing, there was whooping and cheering from the audience, and I strode with as much confidence as I could muster to the middle of the stage. This was what we were supposed to do, and I knew my steps, after all, we’d practiced. Only, my smile hurt, my eyes hurt, everything hurt. The noise was getting louder, whoops and cheers, Booker churning the crowd up into a frenzy, and I tugged at my bowtie, pulling it loose and undoing the top button of my shirt.
For me it was so I could breathe.
“And look at this folks, seems like he can’t stay in his clothes for long.”
I should’ve laughed, I should’ve posed sexy. I turned in a circle likely wooden as fuck, and then carried on to the end of the catwalk as Booker whipped up the bidding.
“Two thousand, let’s keep it coming, anymore?”
“Two, two!”
“Three!”
“Four!”
The noise grew deafening, and sweat slicked my skin. I felt dizzy.
What if Jason and Colby were wrong, what if they hadn’t got the man who wanted this event done, what if the biggest statement was to kill me where I stood?
“Five!”
“Six!”
“Ten!”
People whooped and cheered, and I looked past the lights, but I couldn’t see Jason, and I swear my heart stopped.
“We’re all done at ten? Are we all done at ten?”
There was a pause, then someone shouted, “Eleven!”
Booker laughed, and the mic crackled, startling me. “Is that all done at eleven, come on everyone, this is the man with the body, let’s make it eleven thousand five hundred.”
Please make this stop.
“Twenty thousand!” Jason shouted and strode through the lights to the stage as the audience let out a collective gasp. My world narrowed on the owner of that voice as Booker banged the gavel and everyone clapped and cheered.
Booker was talking about money raised, and he looked at me, handed over the mic, and I had to be focused. Jason was only a few feet from me, watching, and this was important. No one was there to hurt me, or ruin what we’d set out to do. Behind me the screen over the stage showed a grand total raised, and the target aim of the event, and I don’t remember giving a speech, but I must have.
I do recall Jason helping me off the stage. I know we made our excuses, blamed food poisoning, apologized, and that he helped me to the elevator. I know we ended up on a different floor than the one I was expecting, and I know that when the door of a new room shut behind us, he helped me to bed, and took off my clothes.
And I know for sure he held me close and kept me safe, and that finally as he talked to me about all kinds of nonsense, the panic subsided.
I woke up to an empty bed and the noise of the shower, and it took me a few minutes to work through my thoughts. The panic and fear were gone for now, but I pushed myself to recall yesterday. My chest tightened, but my breathing stayed steady, I sat up in bed and swung my legs to the floor, bare feet on the soft carpet. I had two messages from Kyle, but I wasn’t ready to answer questions about what had happened last night. I did scroll to the NHL app and the event was front and center, highlights included money raised, something to do with Layne, and details about the charity alongside All-Star weekend, along with links and help line numbers.
That was what we wanted, and it had worked.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at photos of me because I’d acted like a rabbit in a snare, and I turned my phone facedown, then padded toward the bathroom. I caught Jason’s gaze, and he smiled, but I didn’t join him in the shower, because I genuinely thought our first conversation today should be with both of us dressed, or at least with him using a towel. He was way too tempting, and I was being tugged one way by desire and the other by fear.
What we had was intense, and not just the sex, because there hadn’t been a ton, even if what we had done was just a precursor to what I thought might be the best sex of my entire life. It was the little things. The way he made me coffee, the way he held me and cared for me, the way his dry sense of humor made me smile. All of this added up to something way more.
“Are you ready for the All-Star hockey game?” he asked when he came back in the room, a towel tied around his waist.
Lucky towel.
I’d almost forgotten we were only halfway through the weekend, with the three-on-three hockey game this afternoon.
“I guess I am,” I said, because there wasn’t any other way. I was on the Metropolitan team, and we
were up against Atlantic to start, a good matchup. It was going to be fun with our usual rivals from Washington and Columbus in the lineup next to us, playing alongside each other. “We should talk,” I murmured, half hoping he wouldn’t hear me.
He glanced at his watch. “You get a shower, then breakfast and we’ll go the arena for the game.” He cradled my face even as disappointment settled in my bones. “We’ll talk after the game.” To me that sounded as he had all the awful things to say to me. Probably including an assessment of how everything had been in the heat of the moment, and that made me feel gutted. It would appear, from that reaction, that inside I’d hoped for more, and now I was being let down.
“What’s going on in there?” he asked, and rested his forehead on mine. I loved the way he did that. I loved his voice. I loved his smile. I loved him.
“Huh?”
“When we talk, we need to decide if there’s room in your apartment for me to move in, or whether we buy something else?”
I moved back a little, and he smoothed his thumbs on my cheeks, looking at me with that smile I wanted to see every day.
“You want to move in?”
“Or we buy something between us? That might be fairer.”
“Can you… do you… that money last night.”
“I have savings for a house. Last night was all Colby—he’s a trust fund baby,” he murmured, and kissed me deeply. Enough so I stopped thinking all together. “He has more than enough to give to charity and pay for my date with Mr. ESPN.”
“I’ll have to thank him.”
I was off my game in the matchup with the Atlantic team. Not in the way I was playing, or because of the shock of yesterday, or even because of the previous weeks when I’d had a stalker and a bodyguard and everything was too much.
It was Kyle who spotted my stupid-ass grin, and caught the way I was staring over to the bench where Jason stood in his suit, with his earpiece, looking a hundred kinds of hardass.
“You and the bodyguard, huh?”
“Yep. All the way.”
We fist bumped, but when we were back in the game Kyle was part of a two-man push and the puck flew past our goalie. We lost by four goals, but it didn’t matter. Our team clowned around on the ice, snowing the other team, sliding on our asses, having fun. We watched Pacific win against Central, leaving an Atlantic/Pacific final. Kyle didn’t manage to pull a win out of the hat, but I’d not had as much fun playing and watching hockey since the days on the pond outside Mamma P’s house.
And it helped that every time I glanced over at Jason he smiled at me.
And that with every smile I fell for him a little bit more.
Epilogue
One Year Later
“Kyle said he’d meet us at the restaurant.” I tossed the phone onto the bed and struggled getting my shirt on without undoing the buttons. I didn’t know why I was even doing it this way, because it made way more sense to undo the buttons and slip the shirt on neatly.
“You’re an idiot,” Jason smiled, and helped with the twists in the material, before kissing me soundly. He kissed me all the time. Last thing at night, during the night, in the morning, when I smiled, when the Dragons lost a game, when we won, when it was raining… all the time.
I loved it. I loved him.
“But I’m your idiot,” I deadpanned.
He kissed me again. “Colby called when you were in the shower, he’s up in Vermont on a case.”
Our place in Burlington was a real bachelor pad, nestled on the shores of Lake Champlain, and with water views from almost every room. I missed being there today, which was stupid because I was often away from home on road trips. Only today was special, a year since the bachelor auction, and a year of being in love with the sexiest man I’d ever met.
He’d compromised and learned to love the Dragons, although I knew he retained his soft spot for the Detroit Arsenal because Kyle had told me so. At least he was wearing a jersey with my name and number, so that was a step in the right direction. The same jersey that he was wearing to our breakfast meet-up with Kyle, along with the other bachelors from the auction. After the success of last year’s auction we’d be meeting up today to talk about the charity, more fundraising ideas, and just catching up. Each of us had found love at last year’s event, so I wasn’t sure how we were going to top it. Filming one of our weddings maybe? Talking of which, was now the right time to…
“Earth to Garrett,” Jason said and tapped my nose.
“Will you marry me,” I blurted, and scrambled out of his hold to head for my suitcase, crouching next to it and rooting around my socks, yanking out the ring box and turning to face Jason.
Only he wasn’t standing, he was actually down on one knee, and he had an identical box.
“Only if you say you’ll marry me first,” he said, and smiled up at me.
I went to my knees as well, not that easy on the hard floor, and we swapped boxes, both quiet, until I looked up, he caught my gaze, and we fell back on the carpet laughing like idiots.
He rolled me onto my back and yanked at the side table until the lube fell off and landed near my head, and we made love as if the world was ending and we were desperate for touch.
And of course, we were late for breakfast.
THE END
Linked books in the bachelor bid series
Hot hockey players on the auction block
Win a date with a professional hockey player during All-Star weekend in Chicago. From leading scorers to fan favorites to guys you love to hate, watch the players strut their stuff in support of the Hockey Allies charity. Place a bid. You just might find someone to keep you warm.
One night. One bid. One hockey bachelor auction...could change everything.
Don’t miss the other stories in
The Hockey Allies Bachelor Bid Series:
Loving Layne - VL Locey
Keeping Kyle - Jeff Adams
Scoring Slater - Susan Scott Shelley
Absolving Ash - Chantal Mer
Series currently in Kindle Unlimited
Single Dads
Single | Today | Promise | Always (coming soon)
Lancaster Falls
What Lies Beneath | Without a Trace | All That Remains (coming soon)
Montana (Cowboys, Ranchers, Mystery)
Crooked Tree Ranch | The Rancher’s Son | A Cowboy’s Home | Snow In Montana | Second Chance Ranch | Montana Sky
Texas
The Heart of Texas | Texas Winter | Texas Heat | Texas Family | Texas Christmas | Texas Fall | Texas Wedding | Texas Gift | Home For Christmas
Legacy (spin-off from Texas series)
Kyle | Gabriel | Daniel
Harrisburg Railers (Hockey Romance)
Changing Lines | First Season | Deep Edge | Poke Check | Last Defense | Goal Line | Neutral Zone | Hat Trick | Save The Date
Owatonna U Hockey (Hockey Romance)
Ryker | Scott | Benoit
Arizona Raptors
Coast To Coast | Across the Pond | Shadow and Light
Bodyguards Inc
Bodyguard to a Sex God | The Ex-Factor | Max and the Prince | Undercover Lovers | Love’s Design | Kissing Alex
Sanctuary
Guarding Morgan | The Only Easy Day | Face Value | Still Waters | Full Circle | The Journal of Sanctuary 1 | World’s Collide | Accidental Hero | Ghost | By The Numbers
Sanctuary Box Set (including Books 1-5 in the Sanctuary Series)
Sapphire Cay (Tropical Island Romance)
Follow the Sun | Under the Sun | Chase The Sun | Christmas In The Sun | Capture The Sun | Forever In The Sun
Kindle Unlimited Master List
For an up to date list of all RJ Scott books in KU please click here
Standalone books in Kindle Unlimited
Guarding Garrett
Christmas Prince (Christmas Romance)
Alpha Delta (Hostage on an oil platform, Deltas)
Seth & Casey (Snowstorm)
All The King's Men
(Forest Fire / Earthquake)
Retrograde (Plane Crash)
The Road to Frosty Hollow (YA/NA)
The Gallows Tree (Paranormal)
Spirit Bear (Contemporary)
Last Chance (Hockey)
The Decisions We Make (YA/NA)
Kindle Unlimited Master List
For an up to date list of all books in KU please click here
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Meet RJ Scott
RJ is the author of the over one hundred published novels and discovered romance in books at a very young age. She realized that if there wasn’t romance on the page, she could create it in her head, and is a lifelong writer.
She lives and works out of her home in the beautiful English countryside, spends her spare time reading, watching films, and enjoying time with her family.
The last time she had a week’s break from writing she didn't like it one little bit and has yet to meet a bottle of wine she couldn’t defeat.