Tap Out: BTU Alumni Series Book #2

by Ciz, Alley

  “I don’t think so. Aside from Skye and Tuck, the rest of our group has maintained pretty close friendships with their exes.”

  “Yup, that’s true,” Griff agreed. “Ryan and Maddey are like besties,” he said in his best Valley girl accent.

  “Yeah and Ry proposed,” Vince added. “It’s just the way they're wired, I guess.”

  He should have been reassured by this information, but until it was blatantly obvious Rocky was his, he wouldn’t be satisfied.

  * * *

  “All right. Lose the pants, Donnelly, and get your ass up on my table.” Rocky gave Jase the don't fuck around voice.

  “You know I love when you take charge in the bedroom, Balboa,” he said with a playful smirk.

  She rolled her eyes at him. “You keep trying to talk dirty to me and I’ll tell your sister,” she threatened.

  “Low blow, Rock. Real low blow.” He shot her a scowl.

  “Relax,” she said, taking his left leg in her hands to inspect his knee. “You know I’m a member of The Coven—as you love to point out—I can handle you all on my own.”

  “Yeah ya can.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

  She pinched her fingers around his joint, causing him to let out a squeak of pain.

  “Behave. Keep making lewd comments and I’ll start to worry you took one too many pucks to the head.”

  “You know I only mean it as a joke,” he said.

  She knew he did. If she really thought he was serious, they wouldn’t have been able to remain comfortable with each other after they'd been together romantically. It helped that they'd been friends before dating.

  Looking back, she couldn’t pinpoint the precise moment when things transitioned from a romantic relationship back to a platonic one because it happened so naturally.

  In all honesty, Jase was the last person she wanted flirting with her, even if it was in jest.

  Gage was the one she wanted. The sexual frustration he instilled in her with every brushing touch and whispered dirty word in her ear was driving her insane.

  She wanted him so badly it was a miracle she hadn’t locked him in her treatment room and demand he relieve the blue clit he’d been leaving her with for the past six days.

  “So…Gage James, huh?” Jase asked as she continued to manipulate his leg.

  “What are the odds, right?” she said offhandedly, as if her crush on Gage wasn’t common knowledge in their squad.

  Jase knew her too well to fall for her nonchalance.

  “I take it you guys banged already?”

  Her head snapped up and she dropped his leg.

  “Really?” Her eyebrows flew up. “You want to talk about my sex life? Does that mean you want to tell me about the current bunny warming your bed?”

  His knee was fine. As she suspected from watching the end of his game against the Fire, it was only a minor tweak from the angle he hit the boards. She'd wrap it with some Kinesio tape for the game later that evening, but other than that, he was good to go.

  “Look,” he said as she grabbed the tape from the cabinet. “I know we don’t have the most conventional friendship but I’m only asking because, based on the way he was looking at me out there”—he gestured to the door with his head—“he thought I was trying to encroach on his territory.”

  “We will get back to the whole his territory thing in a minute.” She ripped a piece of hot pink tape from the roll. “But first”—she secured the tape in a semicircle around the left side of his knee, then looked him in the eye—“how exactly was he looking at you?”

  She exchanged the pink tape for a neon green one to encase the other side of his knee.

  “Like he wanted to use me as his personal punching bag.”

  She snorted.

  “He was not,” she protested. A strip of black tape went underneath his kneecap, a strip of purple above and he was all set to tear up the ice later tonight.

  “He was,” Jase countered. “I know I’m a big bad enforcer, but this guy fights—professionally.”

  He did make a formidable opponent on the ice. Standing somewhere around six-four with shoulders wide enough to fill a doorway, he was as physically intimidating off the ice as he was on. Add in the fact he was one of the toughest enforcers in the league, and most people wouldn’t dare step to him.

  Gage James, however, was not most people. Jase knew how to throw a punch, but Gage had built a very profitable career around fighting.

  She cleared her throat. “I am not banging Gage.” Yet.

  “Really?” It was his turn to arch a brow.

  “Really,” she said with a shrug. “Besides…I don’t date fighters.”

  “Okay, my turn to call bullshit.”

  Ignoring him, she gathered up the tapes and returned them to their cabinet.

  “Rock.” Jase waited for her to look at him before he continued. “Look.” He ran a hand through his blond hair. “I get it. I know why you have this thing about fighters—hell, it worked to my advantage in college—but I also saw the way you looked at him out there.”

  “Oh, yeah? How’s that?” The question came out with more snark than she intended but her defenses were at an all-time high.

  “Like JD looks at Jake.”

  Shit. Was that true?

  If it was, she was so screwed. She did not need feelings getting tangled up in this attraction.

  Fuck my life.

  * * *

  Gage was so distracted by the thought of Donnelly with Rocky, in her office, behind closed doors, that Vince was able to break out of every one of the holds they worked on. It didn’t help that no matter how much he tried to ignore it, his hip was giving him issues.

  He hadn’t had a performance this bad since he first started training with Tony back in high school.

  “Oh, man, Champ.” Vince smirked at him. “Guess it’s a good thing Rock isn’t out here right now, because I’m schooling you.”

  “Shut it, Steele,” he said, going for Vince’s legs for a double leg takedown.

  He managed to take him to the mat, but yet again, Vince quickly took the upper hand and reversed them so he was the one in control.

  “Dude,” Vince laughed as he reached a hand out to help him up.

  “Whatever, man. I’m having an off day.”

  “What I wouldn’t pay to see Rock get you in the ring right now. She would school your ass more than she did mine. Though…” His words trailed off as he looked across the gym. “Not sure if he would allow that to happen.”

  He followed Vince’s gaze until he spotted Vic Steele working with Deck. “Your dad mentioned she spars all the time.”

  “Yes and no. He’ll let her step into the cage with us, but he keeps a pretty tight leash on who he lets her spar with. No one can hurt his pumpkin.”

  Before they could continue their conversation, Rocky and Donnelly came up from the back hall, laughing and nudging each other as they walked.

  What was it about this hockey player that set him off? He'd witnessed Rocky's interaction with several men at the gym over the past weeks and the way she teased and played around never bothered him. But the obviously deep connection between these two had him utterly losing his shit.

  “You get our boy all hooked up so he can help block all of his brother’s shots tonight?” Griff asked Rocky.

  “Yeah, he’s all set. But I'm not sure even I can help him block Ryan. They’re seven games into the season and he already has eleven points. He’s looking to break his rookie season.” She smiled as she turned to Gage. “Sorry, I totally spaced on intros earlier. Gage this is Jase. Jase this is Gage.”

  When Donnelly reached out a hand for him to shake, he wanted to be a dick, he really did, but his mother would beat his ass—professional MMA fighter be damned— if she heard he refused to shake someone’s hand all because he was acting like a jealous baby.

  “I hear you had the honor of meeting my other half,” Donnelly said with the smile that'd launched many an endorse
ment deal. Gage wondered what it would look like if it resembled a jack-o-lantern, missing teeth and all.

  “Who?” Choking back his anger made him sound like he'd swallowed a box of nails. Is this jockhole really rubbing his relationship with Rocky in my face?

  “My sister told me you got suckered into taking yoga with the Covenettes last weekend,” Donnelly said as if it explained everything.

  “Your sister?” Now he was really confused.

  “Yeah. JD—Jordan. She was a Donnelly before my puckhead of a best friend put a ring on it and she decided to take his name.”

  Oh.

  He'd thought Jordan was connected in the hockey world between her husband and godfather, but with both her brothers as top players in the league as well, it was no wonder ATS was so entrenched in the NHL. And that was before you considered the BTU connections.

  “You call your sister your other half?” He might not have any siblings of his own, but that was a little strange, right?

  “Yeah.” Donnelly's smile never lost any of its wattage. “We’re twins—we shared a womb and all, so ya know.” He ended his statement with a shrug of his shoulders.

  Now that the haze of envy was starting to clear, he was able to see the resemblance to the tiny, force of nature blonde he'd met. Her hair was a lighter shade, and his features had a masculine roughness, but their eyes were a dead match.

  “Speaking of my wombmate…” Donnelly clapped his hands in front of him. “I better get to her house now if I’m gonna have a chance to love up on my nieces and get a nap in before the game.”

  “Kiss those babies for me,” Rocky said, giving him a hug that had Gage fighting back the urge to yank her out of his arms.

  “I will,” he agreed. “See you guys at Rookies after?”

  “Will someone end up in the sin bin tonight?”

  “Storm Blizzards?” Donnelly pretended to give it some thought. “Fuck yeah.”

  “Well, there ya go. Besides…who else is going to protect you from the bunnies?” The smile she gave him was full of hidden meaning.

  “You are the best BFBB,” he said with a matching smile.

  “Careful,” Becky called from where she helped a guest at the front desk. “Don’t let Madz hear you say that. Them be fighting words.”

  “No worries. I’ll proudly share the title with my girl,” Rocky readily agreed.

  “You guys are so corny with your nicknames,” Vince complained.

  “Says the guy who fights as 'Man of Steel,'” Donnelly tossed back.

  “And don’t you forget it, bruh,” Vince said, flexing so the Superman emblem danced on his shoulder. “You might hold your own in a fight on the ice, but we both know who would win if you were to drop the gloves with me.”

  “You know…” Donnelly turned back to face Rocky. “It’s probably a good thing we broke up after college. Because if we stayed together, I could have ended up with this asshole”—he hooked a thumb at Vince—“as a brother-in-law.”

  “Yeah,” Rocky scoffed. “Like you and Ry are a walk in the park for Jake.”

  “That hurts, babe.” Donnelly rubbed a hand over his heart.

  First, it was the nickname and the full-body hug when he got to the gym, then it was whatever inside joke they shared with BFBB, and now the endearment. Gage was one pet name away from raging like The Hulk.

  “Now, I say this with total love. Play good tonight, but I hope you lose.”

  After a round of goodbyes that wasn’t quick enough for his liking, Donnelly left the gym and Gage was taking Rocky by the hand, stalking toward her office.

  ROCKY DIDN’T PUT up a fight as Gage practically dragged her to the back. The way her hand felt engulfed by his much larger one felt too damn good.

  She only wished he didn’t have hand wraps on. She longed to feel the toughness and callouses earned from years of hard work to be the best of his weight class running along her skin, preferably bare skin, if she had her say.

  The concern her father would see and suspect something was going on between them pricked at her mind but she brushed it off.

  Not a word was exchanged as he led her down the hall. Or when he shut the door just shy of slamming.

  A tiny squeak escaped her as she felt his hands hook beneath her armpits and plop her unceremoniously on the massage table. Gage, however, was still silent as a mime.

  His eyes though. They were screaming. Those cerulean depths churned like the ocean in the midst of a category five hurricane.

  His hands came up to cradle her head between them, then he was crashing his lips to hers.

  This kiss was nothing like their kiss from almost a week ago. That one was driven by lust.

  But this kiss.

  This. Kiss.

  It was raw emotion.

  A primal declaration.

  An alpha claiming his mate.

  Holy shit.

  His tongue licked inside her mouth, not waiting for permission. No, this time he took her mouth like it was his mission in life to erase from her memory any mouth that came before his.

  His teeth nipped at her bottom lip before sucking it into his mouth. She moaned, then moaned again when he ground his hard-as-steel erection against her center. The way her knees were spread to accommodate his hips left her open for whatever he would give her.

  If he kept kissing her the way he was, like he would die if he stopped, she was more than willing to be a puppet for his pleasure.

  Her own hands got in on the action—scratching against the prickly fuzz of his buzzed scalp, curling themselves around the curve of his skull since there wasn’t anything long enough to hold on to.

  “Fuck, baby.” His words were spoken with a guttural intensity.

  Since her brain cells had hung up a sign saying out to lust, check back later, all she managed was a hum in response.

  Anchoring herself with her hands locked around the back of his head, she shamelessly closed the last remaining centimeters that separated them and rubbed her body against his.

  A crack went through the room, but it went unheeded as they tried to fuck each other through their clothes.

  One of her hands left its perch on his head to fist his workout tank, lifting it to expose the bottom ridge of his abs.

  When his mouth left hers to trail nipping kisses down the side of her neck, her head canted to the side and she caught a glimpse of those v cuts that made girls go stupid, as well as his very happy trail, if the head of his glistening cock peeking above the band of his shorts was any indication.

  The gleam of pre-cum had her licking her lips as a yearning to taste him flooded her.

  Before she got to quench her desire to have his dick in her mouth, another crack—this one much louder than the first—sounded, and a second later she was no longer in his arms. She was falling, dropping like a rock to the hard floor.

  Gage let out a surprised, “Oh, shit,” as he dropped down in front of her. “Are you okay, Blue?” he asked, tilting her face up to his.

  She nodded, stunned silent for a moment, her hand going to her now sore ass…and not for the reason she would want it to be sore either.

  “What the hell just happened?” he asked.

  Breaking from her stupor, she shifted around to face her new archenemy, the massage table. When she spotted the u-shaped pillow where a person’s face was meant to rest when they were lying on their stomach, she knew exactly what happened. In his haste to mark her, he had placed her on the one section of the massage table not meant to bear the full weight of a person. Eventually, the piece lost the good fight and dumped her on her ass—literally.

  “You should’ve used the treatment table.”

  “I didn’t want to be anywhere you were with him.” His vehemence confirmed her suspicions this was about him figuratively peeing on her to mark her as his own.

  Damn alpha men.

  Why the hell did she find it so hot?

  Not moving from her new home on the floor, she reached out to cup his cheek, h
er thumb moving along it in a soothing manner. “You do know there’s nothing between Jase and me but friendship anymore, right?”

  “So I heard.” His tone said he was anything but convinced.

  “You”—she gave his ear a gentle tug—"are the only person I want to sleep with. And if my friends and I weren’t so damn codependent, it would have happened almost a week ago.”

  His deep laughter warmed a place deep inside her.

  “That’s one way to put it.”

  “Another would be that you were too busy being a damn tease to finish what we started in your bathroom.”

  His eyes flashed at her.

  “I didn’t want to rush it and have you thinking it was going to a one and done for me.” It was his turn to cup her cheek. “Because, baby…once I get you in my bed…I might not ever let you out of it.”

  Holy shitballs.

  If she wasn’t already wet from dry humping him like a teenager minutes ago, that declaration would have done it.

  He talked a big game, but there was still this part of her, the deeply insecure part, that wondered if he meant it. Because if things progressing between them was really important to him, wouldn’t he have made it a priority? Or were they stalled because he was too focused on his training?

  She hated every one of those thoughts, the deep-seated unworthiness she’d always felt bubbling inside her.

  Her gut had told her Gage was different. That he’d be the exception. The first person to put her before fighting.

  But what if I’m wrong?

  “Come on.” He offered her a hand to help her stand, breaking her from her inner turmoil. “Let's get you an icepack for your ass.”

  She snorted out a laugh, pointing him to the cabinet where the squeeze-to-activate cold packs were located.

  As they made their way back to the training area, Gage leaned in to whisper his parting shot. “Now…the next time it hurts for you to sit down, it won’t have anything to do with faulty furniture.”

  Oh, my.

  Her heart might not be fully on board, but her body sure as hell was.

  Chapter Seventeen