Naughty Or Ice

by Sylvia Pierce

  But for some reason, she couldn’t get her mind off Walker.

  “Some” reason. Oh yes, it’s a real mystery!

  Eva checked her phone, but there were no missed calls or texts. She tried not to be disappointed.

  Eva wasn’t particularly experienced when it came to men, but it’s not like she’d never hooked up before. Gracie was proof of that. Still, being with Walker had been unlike anything she’d ever experienced—anything she’d ever even imagined. His touch was so hot, so electric. She was still reeling from his every kiss, his words, the gravel edge of his voice. And the way he’d made her feel… she’d never before felt so certain, so confident about her body and what she needed, about how good it felt to be touched, to be held. Walker had not only given her that pleasure, but had made her feel—without so much as a word—that she deserved it. That she should embrace it. When they’d locked eyes… damn. She didn’t know him well—not really. But in that moment, they’d shared something so intimate, so rare.

  All she could think about now was whether she’d ever have a chance to look into those eyes like that again.

  The thought made her knees weak, her insides burn in the best possible way.

  God, the things he’d said to her… the way he’d taken control, thrusting so perfectly inside her as she wrapped her legs around his waist and rode him, hard and fast, their bodies matched as if they’d been made for each other…

  Pull yourself together, woman!

  Eva took the salad out of the fridge, then stared at the bottles of salad dressing on the door rack, trying to remember which one Marybeth had asked for. Ranch? French? It was pointless. Her thoughts were consumed with Walker. With the things they’d said and done. With the fact that he hadn’t called.

  You are so sentimental and crazy.

  It’s not like they’d made any promises. It was just a one-time thing, and anyway, she’s the one who’d bolted out of there like a scared little mouse.

  Eva chewed on her thumbnail, her gaze flicking between the blank phone screen and the blustery snow swirling outside the kitchen windows.

  You’re being ridiculous. Just send him a text!

  Relenting, she pulled up his name in the contact list.

  Hey, it’s Eva, she texted. Roads look pretty bad… just checking that you got home okay.

  His reply was immediate, sending a little zing through her stomach. Miss me already, princess?

  Ha! Just protecting my meal ticket! You staying warm?

  Your concern is touching. Pretty sure I won’t be cooling down any time soon—your fault.

  Heat crept up Eva’s neck. She knew the feeling.

  Are you home? she asked, wondering for the first time where he lived. What his house looked like. Whether his bedroom smelled like him.

  At Mom’s place w/ Roscoe to put up her tree, now crashing here till the roads clear. Mom & her friends insisted. They’re all here singing Christmas carols & causing a damn ruckus.

  Eva smiled, picturing the scene. Old folks, twinkling white lights, lots of laughter. They probably loved Walker and Roscoe.

  Aww, that’s sweet, she texted. Sounds cozy.

  Cozy? Have you ever spent the night with a bunch of old women drunk on spiked eggnog?

  No, but that’s definitely going on my bucket list now.

  When they’re not singing, they’re giving me sex advice, Eva. There’s not enough rum in this eggnog.

  Haha… take good notes!

  Are you saying I need pointers? Walker asked. I don’t recall any complaints earlier. Or were you screaming my name for some other reason?

  Eva nearly melted at his words. Her mouth was watering for his kiss, for his touch, everything inside her going fizzy at the memories. I think you know the reason, 46.

  Hmmm. Where are you right now?

  Home. Kitchen. Getting dinner ready.

  Are you still pantyless? he asked.

  Ah, yes. Pantyless skating coach by day, pantyless chef by night. It’s my superhero power.

  Don’t suppose you want to come save me?

  What about the roads?

  You can sleep over.

  Eva laughed out loud. At your mom’s place? Will we have to sleep in separate rooms?

  Yeah, but we could sneak down to the rec room after the oldies go to bed.

  You are definitely going on the naughty list, 46!

  I’ll save you a seat, he texted. A BENCH seat. I hear you like those.

  !!! You are—

  A sudden, piercing wail tore through the house, cutting Eva off mid-text. Only then did she look up and notice the gray haze filling the kitchen.

  “Eva! What are you doing?” Marybeth rushed past her, yanking open the oven door and flicking on the exhaust fan. Smoke poured from the oven, the blackened remnants of the garlic bread visible behind her.

  “You could’ve burned the house down!” Marybeth said, cracking open the window over the sink. Snow blew in through the gap, swirling onto the countertops. The smoke detector continued its warble, Bilbo Baggins howling right along with it, running into the kitchen with Gracie on his heels.

  Gracie mashed her hands over her ears. “What happened?”

  “Your mother was texting when she should’ve been cooking,” Marybeth said, shooting Eva a glare that meant they’d be discussing this later. Her sister was practically a mind reader; Eva was surprised she’d held out this long without bringing up Walker. Eva suspected she’d be getting an earful the moment Gracie was in bed later.

  “It’s fine,” Eva said, grabbing a dishtowel and waving it around the room to dissipate the smoke. “Garlic bread is no longer on the menu, though.”

  “And it’s snowing in our kitchen.” Gracie pointed to the window, the curtains billowing out in the icy breeze as the smoke detector screamed and the dog cowered under the table. Eva, Marybeth, and Gracie burst out laughing.

  As Eva climbed up on a step stool to reset the smoke detector in the archway, she looked down at her family crowded into the small yellow kitchen—her daughter, her sister, her sweet dog—and was overcome with a sense of love and gratitude so powerful, it brought tears to her eyes. No, her situation right now wasn’t perfect, but she’d been so, so blessed in her life. Blessed with love and abundance, blessed with a passion for ice skating, blessed with opportunities to find meaningful work, and blessed especially with this family. Looking at them now, their big smiles, the music of their laughter a harmony to her own, Eva felt both hopeful and determined, buoyed by their unfettered joy to work hard to secure that job with Doug McKellen, to make life better for all of them.

  The phone in her back pocket buzzed with a text, and her heart gave a little start, but she didn’t dare check her messages.

  She didn’t quite know where Walker Dunn fit into the picture.

  She just knew—in that moment, the realization coming so fast and furious it nearly knocked her off the stool—that he did.

  Chapter Fourteen

  After cleaning up the dinner dishes and getting the rest of the ornaments on the tree, Eva finally got Gracie settled into bed. She was uncorking a nice bottle of Merlot one of her students’ moms had given her when Marybeth—nearly bursting at the seams—finally brought it up.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s going on,” Marybeth asked, “or do I have to resort to blackmail?”

  “You blackmail me?” Eva teased. “Not unless you want Nate to find out about your mime phase in college.”

  “Oh my God! Ben wasn’t a mime! He was a street performer.”

  “I can’t imagine what he was like in bed.” Eva held out her hands, pushing against an invisible box that was getting smaller with each passing second.

  Marybeth cracked up. “Don’t quit your day job, sister. And quit stalling! Just tell me what’s going on with the hockey man.”

  The hockey man.

  Eva still hadn’t been able to return his texts, and judging from the vibrating in her pocket, he’d sent a few more. The phone was pra
ctically burning a hole in her pants, but Eva kept her face neutral, her eyes focused on the task at hand.

  She filled their wineglasses, then set the bottle on the coffee table and settled back on the couch next to Marybeth, clinking their glasses in cheers. “To mysteries.”

  “To sisters before misters,” Marybeth amended.

  “To one sister killing the other and making it look like an accident.”

  “To the dead sister rising up out of the grave and calling Mom to come over and help bake cookies.”

  Eva’s eyes went wide. “You wouldn’t!”

  “Why test me? I’m unreliable when I drink.” Marybeth chugged her wine, trying not to laugh and shoot it out her nose.

  Eva sighed. Might as well rip off the Band-Aid. “We had sex.”

  Marybeth jumped up off the couch so fast, she nearly dropped her glass.

  “Watch it!” Eva said, laughing. “That’s expensive stuff!”

  “I knew it! I knew you looked different after the practice. Your hair was a wreck, for one thing. And your lips were puffy. And you’ve been completely distracted ever since we picked you up. I can’t believe you! I so called this one.” Marybeth sat back on the couch, a self-satisfied grin stretching across her face. “That was him you were texting before, right?”

  Eva rolled her eyes. “Nice detective work, Sherlock.”

  “So…” Marybeth tucked her feet up underneath her, covering her legs with the red fleece blanket from the back of the couch. “How was it?”

  “Hot as hell, that’s how.” Eva’s cheeks flamed. What had happened with Walker… damn. It’d felt intimate in a way that sex never had before, crazy as that sounded. It was intense, it was rare, and the details were something that Eva wanted to keep to herself.

  She sipped some more wine and turned away.

  For all Marybeth’s teasing, she knew exactly when to push, and when to back off, and Eva was grateful for the momentary silence.

  It was still snowing like crazy outside, and Eva’s thoughts drifted again to Walker, wondering if he was having fun at his mom’s place. She tried to picture him there with Roscoe, hanging out with his mother and her friends, but she didn’t know what the woman looked like. Did Walker resemble his mother, or his father? Did she ever attend his hockey games? What were his brothers like?

  The fact that Eva was pondering all of this should’ve been a red flag right there, but she couldn’t help herself. She wanted to get to know him. To know about his family and the people who loved him. To know what his life was like off the rink.

  She sipped her wine, her gaze wandering away from the window, landing on the stack of mail at the end of the coffee table. There were a few Christmas cards from neighbors and friends, but the rest of the envelopes were bills, including the year-end notice from the health insurance company about rate hikes. Her premium was going up by three hundred dollars a month next year.

  More than ever, she needed that job with McKellen to come through. Getting involved with Walker put that job at risk, which was completely stupid and reckless.

  And yet…

  The fire popped and crackled before them, bringing Eva back to the moment. She stretched out her legs on the couch, her feet seeking Marybeth’s under the blanket.

  “Soooo,” Marybeth said softly, her eyes dancing mischievously in the glow of the firelight, “do you like him? Or was this just a fling?”

  “I barely know him, Marybeth. What do you think?”

  “Oh, you totally like him. It’s so obvious!”

  “I…” Eva let the denial die on her lips. She did like him. Which was not only bad for the job situation; it went against every one of her personal survival instincts. “It’s a bad idea, right?”

  Marybeth grabbed the bottle of wine and topped off her glass, then said, “I’m your sister and best friend. Do you need me to talk you out of this… or into it?”

  “I need you to be honest with me. Am I nuts?”

  “You tell me. I mean, you always said that hockey players were off limits. Like, no way, no how, nuh-uh, seriously off limits.”

  “They are. They should be.” Eva shook her head, flustered at the tug-of-war raging in her heart. “There’s just… there’s something about him.” She knew it sounded cliché and ridiculous, but that didn’t make it any less true. “It’s like we bicker constantly, pushing each other’s buttons, and then he looks at me and smiles and…” Her skin heated at the memory, her thighs clenching, her mouth watering. “Marybeth, being with him…. Everything about it was absolutely incredible. Not just the physical stuff.”

  “So you guys connected,” Marybeth said. “A spark. Maybe it’s just really great chemistry.”

  Eva nodded. Yes, they’d had a connection. But it was more than a spark, more than a release of pent-up sexual tension. She and Walker had been amazing together, from the very first touch, the very first kiss.

  From the first time she’d seen him on the ice, all swagger and sex-on-skates, she’d felt it. That fire between them. The one that went beyond attraction, beyond chemistry. Beyond anything even remotely explainable.

  It had felt familiar. Warm.

  It had felt like coming home.

  Which was precisely why she needed to shut it down.

  They had a professional arrangement—one she couldn’t risk losing. The notice from her insurance company drove that message home loud and clear. Like it or not, Eva needed that full-time job to come through more than she needed a man—even one as intriguing as Walker. Getting involved with him in any capacity off the ice—even just for one more sinful, delicious night—could put her entire future in jeopardy. What if things went bad between them? What if he decided to trash her reputation to his coaches and McKellen? One bad word from Walker, and she could kiss that job in Saint Paul goodbye.

  And as much as Eva wanted to keep an open mind, to treat every person as an individual with no judgment, she couldn’t help but be jaded by her past. The last and only other hockey player she’d ever gotten involved with had given her Gracie… and then he’d broken her. The painfully sharp contrast still threatened to tear her heart apart, and that pain was a near-daily reminder of how dangerous love could be.

  That wasn’t love, and you know it…

  Eva closed her eyes. No, that man had never loved her, despite his promises. But he was the first and only man she’d ever opened up her heart to, and the agony he’d caused was more than she could ever bear again. Some days, she wondered how she’d survived at all. If not for Gracie, she honestly didn’t think she would have.

  As far as Eva was concerned, only a fool would set herself up for that kind of devastation again.

  “Maybe you’re right,” Eva said. “I haven’t been with a guy in so long, and Walker is so… hot,” she trailed off, hating the lack of conviction in her voice.

  “That look in your eyes is more than just infatuation with a hot guy.”

  Eva couldn’t deny it.

  “Did you tell him about Gracie?” Marybeth asked.

  “What? No. Why would I? My personal life is none of his business.”

  “Eva. The man knows what you sound like when you—”

  “Marybeth!”

  “I’m just saying.” Marybeth laughed. “That’s pretty damn personal.”

  “It’s not the same, and you know it.” Gracie was Eva’s. She wasn’t about to share her with any old stranger, to expose her to anyone who could hurt her. Eva was having a hard enough time drawing her own boundaries with Walker—she didn’t need to add Gracie to the mix. “Besides, just because we had sex doesn’t mean I want him involved in my life. We work together. And today was just a one-time thing. It has to be. Because… reasons. End of story.”

  “I’ve read stories like that,” Marybeth said. “They never end how you think they’re going to.”

  “Well this one will. It already has. I can’t be with him again—not like that. It’s totally unprofessional.”

  Marybeth considered this
, then shrugged. “If you’re that concerned about it interfering with work, can’t you just hook up at the end? You’ve only got, what, five more weeks with him?”

  Eva picked up a snow globe from the end table, giving it a good shake. It was one of her favorite Christmas decorations—a gift from her father when she was five, the first year she’d won a local competition. Inside, a tiny figure skater balanced on the ice before a swath of evergreens, all lit up for the holidays. The blue-and-silver snow fell down around her, catching in the trees, and Eva smiled, remembering how badly she’d wanted to live inside that snow globe when she was a kid. How badly she’d wanted a perfect fairytale life, suspended in time, where the snow never stopped falling, the ice never melted, and it was always Christmas.

  “It’s not just the sessions with Walker.” Eva set down the snow globe and took a deep breath, steadying herself. She hadn’t planned on telling Marybeth about the job offer—not until it was more certain—but she didn’t want to keep it a secret any longer. Not from her sister. If it all worked out, Eva and Gracie would be moving out of state in a few months. She wanted Marybeth to know. She wanted them to spend as much time as possible together before everything changed.

  And, Eva admitted to herself, she wanted Marybeth to be happy for her. Her sister’s opinion meant more to Eva than anyone else’s on the planet, and Marybeth would never lead Eva astray. If Marybeth thought it was a bad move, Eva wasn’t going. It was that simple.

  “There’s something I haven’t told you yet,” Eva said.

  Marybeth reached for the wine bottle. “Do I need more wine for this news?”

  “Maybe?” Eva sighed. “There’s actually a pretty big job offer on the line here.” She told Marybeth about McKellen’s offer, and Marybeth’s whole face lit up with excitement. “The thing is,” Eva said, “it’s in Saint Paul.”

  “Minnesota?” Marybeth asked. Her mouth hung open in shock.

  Eva let the silence drift between them again, giving Marybeth a moment to process. Of course Marybeth would want her to stay in Buffalo, but Marybeth wasn’t their mother. She wouldn’t manipulate Eva. Wouldn’t lie to her about what was truly the best choice.