by Toni Aleo
She laughed once more, shaking her head, her brown mane falling off the couch some. “I don’t know, Bo. He seems to be digging you.”
I was worried she was gonna say that.
But before I could come up with some kind of excuse why that would never happen, that she was delusional, there was a frantic knock at the door.
Lizzy giggled. “He’s really ready to pound ya.”
Glancing back at her, I made a pfft sound as I reached for the door. When I opened it, I cried out in shock.
Because standing on my doorstep was Gus.
Blood dripped like mad from his hand, and there was a pitiful-looking dog under his arm.
“Gus!”
He shook his head, panic in his eyes. “I had to save her!”
Chapter Sixteen
Gus
Right back to where I was used to being.
On a gurney.
But unlike where my mom or dad would sit, Bo was beside me and a doctor stood at the end of the bed. I moved my good hand as I spoke. “The poor girl dog was being attacked by three other big dogs. I thought if I went up, made a few loud noises, I’d scare them and they’d run away, but obviously, I was wrong.”
I held my hand up for the example that I probably didn’t have to give but did anyway. The doctor did not appear to find me amusing. I felt Bo’s gaze on me. When I glanced over at her, she was looking at me like I was insane.
Maybe I was.
But that sweet girl dog was gorgeous, and I couldn’t let her be treated like that.
Clearing his throat, the doctor asked, “So you tried to separate them?”
I threw my good hand up. “Yeah. I mean, they were big! She was all hollering and crying. I couldn’t just ignore it. I had to save her.”
The doctor blinked once more, total disbelief on his face. “So you risked getting rabies to save a homeless dog from being attacked?”
“We don’t know she was a homeless dog,” I corrected. “She is so sweet, and I couldn’t tell if she had a collar. It wasn’t a fair fight! I couldn’t stand by and let her get torn to shreds by three big old dogs. It was truly sad, and I had no choice—”
“You could have let dogs be dogs.”
I shook my head. Why was I being scrutinized here? “I couldn’t. I felt awful, and I didn’t think twice. I had to save her. Anyone would have stopped them.”
“I wouldn’t have,” the doctor corrected. “They could have seriously injured you—torn ligaments, nerve damage. You’re lucky you only have a few bites and need just a couple of stitches. It could have been much worse. You could develop an infection, you could lose your hand, or even worse, die.”
I waved him off. “Please. I’m good. I got bitten like twice. I was fine until they got my hand. I was kicking like a ninja, and I got her up in my arms before she got hurt more.”
This time, it was the doctor throwing his hands out toward me. “What if she had bitten you?”
I shook my head. “Nah, she loves me.”
More blinking from the doctor as Bo giggled beside me.
I shot her a wink before I looked back at the doctor. “What if it was your dog? Would you want her to suffer like that when some guy could have jumped in and helped her?”
Exhaling hard, the doctor wrote in his chart without even looking at me.
Asshole.
He was older, though, and didn’t understand I was trying to impress the hottie beside me. And man, did she look good tonight. I mean, I thought she was fine all the time, but tonight, whoowee. With tight shorts, a little belly showing, and those tits that were mouthwatering, it was almost unfair that our date was starting in an ER. I wanted to show her off to everyone. I wanted to honestly just sit there and stare at her. Her eyes were darker, probably from the makeup, but I sort of liked it. I really loved her lips, though. They were a dark red and so damn plump. I wanted to smear that lipstick with my mouth, eat away every bit of the color and devour every inch of her.
But before I could, the doctor was speaking once more. “Okay, we’re going to run some antibiotics through you, and then you can go. We’ve contacted your team doctor. That’s protocol. If he wants to see you, you’ll have to wait for him.”
Well, that sucked. “So you’re saying I’ll be here a bit?”
“At least another three hours. If you’re lucky.”
I groaned slightly as he in return rolled his eyes and left. Bo was watching me. “So, I suck.”
She shrugged, shaking her head. “You don’t.”
“I do. I ruined a perfectly good evening with a super-hot chick.”
Her face filled with color as she looked away, swallowing hard. “It’s fine. You saved a dog.”
I smiled. “You don’t think I’m dumb?”
She laughed a little. “Dumb, no. But crazy, yes. I wouldn’t have the balls to do such a thing. You could have lost your hand.”
I shrugged. “If that’s the way it would have played out, then that’s that.”
Her gaze narrowed as she looked over at me. “It’s your career though, everything you’ve worked for.”
“Yeah, but if it wasn’t meant to be, it wasn’t meant to be. I live in the now. I work my ass off in the hopes that I’ll be rewarded, but nothing is promised. Everything can change like that.” Snapping my fingers for emphasis, I held her gaze. “I probably should have thought that through before I saved the dog, but if I worried so much about every move, I’d be full of anxiety. I don’t want that. I want to be happy.”
She blinked a few times and then slowly shook her head. “It’s like you’re out to prove every single thing I assumed about you wrong.”
My grin grew, and I shot her a wink. “Ah, you’re onto me.”
The curtain opened, and in came a nurse to start my antibiotics. As she was hooking everything up, I asked, “Hey, can I eat?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
“Cool, thanks,” I said before looking back over to Bo. She was sitting straight up, her hands in her lap as she moved her fingers along one another. She was picking at her nail polish, and I loved that I was driving her crazy. “Hey, you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”
She smiled, slowly lifting her shoulder. “I want to.”
Flashing a grin, I nodded. “Cool. Let’s order some food, then.”
“That sounds great. I’m starving.”
“So am I,” I decided as I pulled my phone out, but before I could suggest something, the doctor popped his head in.
“Hey, your team doctor is coming in, so it’s going to be a bit.”
“Awesome.” It sucked that I was stuck in the ER, but glancing over at Bo, her lips glistening in the horrible hospital lights, I couldn’t think of a better person I’d rather share the time with. “Pizza or noodles?”
“Pizza.”
I nodded in agreement. “A girl after my own heart.”
I didn’t miss the look on her face, probably because she thought it was a line.
But the more time I spent with Bo St. James, the more I realized the words were true.
And the funny thing was, she wasn’t even trying.
She was just being her.
“No way.”
I grinned, catching the cheese that was trying to escape from my pizza. “No really. They took all my clothes and froze them to the ice.”
She sputtered with laughter, covering her mouth with one hand as she held her slice with the other. “What did you do?”
“What any confident and hung man would do.”
“Jesus,” she groaned.
I cracked up and continued. “As I was saying, I went out there, naked as the day I was born, but of course, a lot more hung.”
She nodded, holding her hand out. “Of course.”
I held back more laughter. “I peeled my clothes off the ice, put my boxers on, and left.”
She was holding her belly, giggling hard. “You weren’t even the least bit embarrassed?”
I thought tha
t over for a moment. I’d been only sixteen and already the best in town. Everyone thought I pissed gold, and I wasn’t going to correct them. Nor was I going to allow my team to try to bring me down from my high. “Nope, but let me tell you, my balls stuck to those shorts, and boy, did that hurt.”
More laughter, and I couldn’t hold back, joining in with her as she leaned back in her seat, shaking her head. “I am floored. I would have been so embarrassed!”
“Eh, I learned very early that other people’s thoughts of me can’t bring me down. Only I can.”
Her light mood eased a bit as she eyed me. “Yeah?”
“Oh, yeah.” I took a bite of pizza and talked around it. “I was the best early on, and really fast. I had that raw natural talent people just want so bad. With that comes the nasty jealousy. Everyone hated me. They hated my mom and soon my dad, when he started coming around, especially since he was loaded.”
She held up her hand, confusion evident on her beautiful features. “Huh?”
I took another bite. “Huh, what?”
“Your dad ‘came around’? I’m confused. Back up a bit.”
I grinned. “No way. That’s my deep dark secret!”
Her face lit up. “Not fair! You have to tell me.”
“I don’t have to tell you anything,” I shot back.
Her eyes narrowed, and she pointed a finger at me. “I have been sitting here with you—”
“Um, excuse me, Bocephus, but I sat with you.”
“After you broke my ankle!”
“Beside the point. I sat with you, and I bought you food.”
She bubbled with laugher. “I don’t care! Tell me your ‘deep dark secret’! I know darn well it isn’t!”
I held her gaze. “It is!”
“Please. You’re an open book.”
She wasn’t wrong, but I wanted to know more about her. This was an opportunity to get her to open up, even if I wasn’t really giving her personal info. “Either way,” I said. “I’ll give you some if you give me some.”
Her eyes turned to storm clouds, her cheeks dusting with color. The flush trailed along her throat, and within seconds, I was hotter than hot. I couldn’t see straight. I wasn’t even sure how those words and those eyes brought on the kind of lust that was rattling me at that moment, but it was happening.
I wanted her.
Bad.
“You make everything dirty,” she exclaimed.
I laughed out loud. “Me? That’s all you! You’re giving me the sex eyes.”
She sputtered, shaking her head. “I am not!”
“You are. Your face turns red and then your neck, and I know those tits are all red and splotchy! It isn’t fair.”
More giggling as she waved her hand. “You are insane.”
“Maybe,” I said with a shrug, mostly to calm myself. I couldn’t take her here. I knew I couldn’t. Not with the team doctor coming to check me out. Chet ran his mouth a lot. Lived for the drama, and I didn’t need people knowing I was caught banging an ice girl at the ER. Not because I would be embarrassed, but I was sure Bo would be, and I couldn’t have that. “But nonetheless, you gotta give something up if I’m going to.”
She eyed me, her eyes swirling with all things hot as she shook her head. “Fine.”
“Fine?”
“Fine,” she answered before she blew out a breath. “I’m sure I’ll regret it though.”
“No, you’ll love it.”
She shook her head and reached for another piece. She liked to eat, and I loved it. Usually girls I went to dinner with ate absolutely nothing, which I thought was bullshit. Especially when they sucked down two bottles of wine. Sex with a drunk chick wasn’t fun. I was all for her eating. Plus, I loved the way her mouth moved when she did.
“Can you stop staring at me?” She leaned back and crossed her legs. “And tell me about your family, please?”
I wasn’t feeling the least bit guilty. “Maybe I love staring at you.”
She flushed. “Gus.”
“Bo.”
She set me with a look as she chewed. “Start talking, or I’m zipping my lips.”
I could have fought with her on that, I really would have liked to, but instead I reached for another piece and slathered it in ranch before I took a bite. “Okay, so,” I started before I chewed and swallowed. “My mom got knocked up at like fifteen, maybe? By my dad.”
She widened her eyes. “Oh. I thought they were married and stuff like that.”
I laughed. “Oh God, no. I think my mom wished that was how it played out because she didn’t even like my dad at first. They were just friends who got drunk at a street party back home and then afterward they found themselves banging.”
She tried to hold in her laughter but couldn’t. “She told you that?”
I nodded. “Yeah, they’re young and sometimes treat me like a friend instead of their kid.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, but at the same time, I like it because they understand me, I guess.”
She thought that over. “Yeah, I can see that.”
I smiled. “But yeah, Dad knocked up Mom, and since his family was so well-off, old money—and I mean old—they sent him off to boarding school and tried to pay my mom off to get an abortion. She wouldn’t, which pissed my grandparents off, and they kicked her out. So she went to stay with my great-aunt and somehow raised me.”
She looked down at her feet. “Wow, she must be one hell of a woman.”
“She’s something,” I said with a grin. “But my dad came back when I was six-ish, maybe right around my sixth birthday. I don’t remember, but he bought me an Xbox, and I thought he was one cool dude. My mom hated him, for obvious reasons. He claimed he wanted to be in my life and hers, and she kicked him to the curb. That went on for about a year, but he was there for me. At every game, cheering me on, and he bought me whatever I needed for the ice and off the ice. He bought her things, helped fix up our trailer since she wouldn’t let him buy her a house. He was trying so damn hard, and I felt bad for him when she would reject him and slam the door in his face.”
A smile played on her face as I laughed.
“But finally, he somehow convinced her to give him a chance, and they got married the next week.”
She gasped. “The next week!”
“Yeah, I guess the sex was awesome ’cause I wasn’t allowed to leave my boy Jack’s house for a whole weekend.” I laughed at the memory. “But once they were married, it was awesome. We were a family, and my mom didn’t stress about money. She did her thing, she still worked, but she was happier. My dad takes credit for that, and I guess he should because I was happier too. She didn’t cry anymore, so that was nice.”
“Wow,” she said softly. “That’s amazing.” But as she said the words, it didn’t seem like she was thinking about them. It was like she was in her own world, her eyes glazing over as she looked down at her hands. She inhaled hard as she scraped the cheese off the crust. Letting it out slowly, she shook her head, and I wanted to know so bad what she was thinking. But I knew she wouldn’t tell me.
“Yeah, so while you want to believe I was some stuck-up rich kid, I was, but only from like eight and on,” I teased.
She laughed, though it didn’t reach her eyes.
“No silver spoon, I guess,” she muttered.
“Nope. I never got to use it, but my grandmom says I have one, which is cool. I’ve never seen it.”
She giggled, shaking her head. “I guess I owe you an apology.”
I scoffed. “Please, don’t. You didn’t know me.”
“I didn’t.” The words came out in a whisper. My fiery ice girl showing a soft side.
“And now that you do, please don’t rush to fall in love with me. Let’s go slow.”
That made her laugh out loud. I leaned back and threw the crust in the box as I watched her.
“You’re insufferable.”
“But hot,” I reminded her, though I didn’t think she needed
the reminder.
She tossed her crust into the box before picking a slice of pepperoni off another piece.
“Your turn,” I pressed. “Tell me something, Bocephus, that no one else knows.”
The look of panic that filled her eyes as she glanced up at me was something I would never forget.
But then, I was finding that there were a lot of things about Bo that were hard to forget.
Chapter Seventeen
Bo
I swear the pepperoni I just threw in my mouth was lodged in my throat. Between the revelation about his parents that rattled my soul and the fact that it was becoming very hard to hate this guy, I felt like I was having a small panic attack. As I worked to dislodge it, I tried to come up with anything that would count as a deep dark secret—but not my real one. Though his family history wasn’t really a secret, I knew I couldn’t come out with something silly like I don’t like carrots! He’d call me on it within seconds. But I couldn’t tell him my real story.
I just couldn’t.
But even though I was nowhere near ready to trust him, I admit I felt like things were shifting for us. Even against my better judgment, I couldn’t ignore the fact that I liked the person I was getting to know. Would it last? No, he’d do something, or better yet, he’d be gone before I could ever utter the words that scared the living shit out of me. Not that I was thinking them, but it was hard to ignore the fact that I could actually feel those for him. Even if I was idiot for it—because, hello, I had a fucked-up history and had sworn off men—as I sat there looking at him, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something real could happen. That alone should have had me hightailing it out of there. He could find a ride home. His buddy, Maxy, could come.
But the thing was, I didn’t want him to.
I wanted to be the one to take Gus home.