by Amber Malloy
“No.” While Hawk walked to the kitchen, Lexi gravitated toward the lake view. “I didn’t want to know anyone who would give up a kid like that, but the older I get, the more curious I’ve become.” Lexi glanced over her shoulder at Hawk, who pulled down two glasses from the cabinet. “Maybe after I retire,” he said, opening the refrigerator, taking out the pitcher of iced tea and pouring a glass. “I’d have more time on my hands, I guess.” Hawk put away the pitcher and grabbed an open bottle of wine. The effortless way he moved in the kitchen, told Lexi that Hawk obviously knew his way around Knox’s house.
She faced the window again. There wasn’t a star in sight, but the lake waves hadn’t frozen near the shore. The view was amazing. Unfortunately, she was dead tired, and it had felt like a million years since this morning. Lexi wished she were more awake to enjoy the place.
“The older I get, the more I want to know why,” he said. Soft in his steps, Hawk held out a glass.
Regardless of her current exhausted state, Lexi welcomed her time with Hawk and the kids, and she accepted the wine. It helped take her mind off all this SugarTech mess.
“They could be looking for you,” she offered.
“Doubt it.”
Lexi slid her glance from the calm lake view over to the big man. Hawk seemed to unconsciously clench and unclench his jaw. During his hockey game, she’d spotted his tell. Did I hit a sore spot?
Putting his arm around her shoulder, he pulled her into his side. “Life doesn’t generally work like that, at least not for me,” he admitted, placing a kiss onto her forehead.
* * * *
The Knoxes’ night view didn’t hold a candle to the morning sunlight that poured into the house. Lexi had barely slept. Josh had sent her another video, this time from a different angle. He’d even managed to bypass her phone’s home screen. If she’d left her phone unattended, anyone at the bar could have seen it.
While the bacon sizzled in the pan, she flipped the pancakes on the hot plate and considered giving up her shares of SugarTech. She didn’t want to live her life in constant fear, always expecting the other shoe to drop.
“What is that smell? Is that home cooking in my house?” Remy stepped into the kitchen. Lexi caught the cat who ate the canary smile that spread across her hot-girl face.
“Walk of shame looks good on you.”
Remy shoved her hair back and did a little twirl. “It’s been forever. Thanks.”
“Is that bacon?” Knox stepped into the kitchen, bedraggled and sexy as ever. He grabbed his wife by the waist. “Who knew the stove worked?”
“That’s all I’m saying,” Remy replied.
Lexi turned her attention back to the food with a chuckle. She needed something to keep her mind busy, and cooking was the only thing she could think to do. Lexi transferred the bacon to a platter, then poured the eggs into the frying pan.
“Is the big oaf still asleep?” Knox asked.
“Yes, and in his own room, no less,” Lexi pointed out, amazed at the closeness of the childhood friends.
“Hawk is here so much he might as well live here.” Knox tossed his jacket over his shoulder. “Besides, he’s always been a hard sleeper. I’m going to go slap his ass into the waking world, but first I’ll check on the girls.” He bent down to peck his wife’s cheek before he walked toward the playroom.
“Are you staying with Hawk for the weekend or the whole convention?”
“Ah, I think the week.” Lexi sprinkled seasoning on the eggs, then the cheese.
“Word of advice?” Remy offered.
“I’ll take it any way that I can get it.” She grabbed the pan’s handle and scraped the eggs onto the platter with the bacon.
“Sports wives are tough. If it gets hard, promise you’ll call me.”
After flipping off all the burners, she turned to face Remy. “I’m sure I’ve dealt with worse.”
“Trust me.” The pretty woman reached for a grape out of the fruit bowl and popped it into her mouth. “This will be a brand-new experience for you.”
“That bad?”
“Take it from someone who came into the wife game late… Watch your back.”
“Come on.” Lexi tugged at the sleeves of Hawk’s sweatshirt. The cotton number fell to her knees, but she kept it cute by wearing her black leggings. “These women couldn’t possibly be that bad.”
“Have you ever seen any of the Real Housewives…I mean New York, Beverly Hills, Texas even?”
Lexi shrugged in reply, she honestly couldn’t remember. “Maybe once or twice.”
“Times all that bat-shit crazy by ten and boom, you’ve got the hockey wives. The only group that can top them is the baseball wives—and that’s for totally different reasons.”
A moment of panic rolled through her stomach, causing a flood of spit to coat her mouth. Lexi used the back of her sleeve to wipe her lips. On top of everything going on in her life, she didn’t need another complication. “But we’re just…you know.”
“No”—Remy shook her head with a crazy ‘I smelled poo’ frown—“I don’t know.”
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “We’re just fuck buddies.”
As Remy made her way around the kitchen island, she snorted. “Yeah.” She grabbed a plate from the pile Lexi had set out. “Hawk doesn’t bring fuck buddies to watch my kids. Sorry, sweetie. You two have something, whether you’ve labeled it or not.”
If Lexi added everything together—the bar, SugarTech and Josh—there was no room for a relationship with a hot-ass hockey star on her plate.
“Technically, Knox asked me to babysit.”
“Of course he did. How else would he have gotten Hawk to come? Mmmhmm-m.” Remy groaned. “This bacon is delicious, and I don’t even eat meat… Must be the alien gestation happening inside of me.”
“Baby, right? You meant baby?” Lexi nodded at Remy’s growing belly.
“Potatoes, pa-ta-toes. Oh shit! Are those hash browns?” she squealed once she saw the golden-brown shreds on the counter behind the bottle of maple syrup.
While one of the most gorgeous momma-bears mauled her Top Chef breakfast presentation, Lexi seriously reconsidered her poor life decisions.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Everything in Aspen was blinding white displayed with twinkling lights. From the top of the mountains that lorded over the city, down to the slick streets, there wasn’t a speck of color. If Lexi had thought Chicago winters were bad, nothing had prepared her for Aspen.
Santa Claus had shit snow onto the entire town. Aspen, Colorado’s winter season was on a whole other freaking level. Lexi had taken the week off to spend with Hawk.
With no expectation for the wives’-girlfriends’ itinerary past shopping, she’d immediately been thrown into a meet and greet. Different marketing franchises had taken over the pretty city, pitching their products to the professional players. Fans crushed the resort town during market week to get a picture with the teams—or even catch the latest technology revolving around their favorite sport.
Hawk had explained all this to Lexi before she’d left the bar in the capable hands of Simone and her father. Since Moe had been feeling better, he’d been happy to babysit the bar for her.
Dressed in a form-fitting, ribbed, cream turtleneck dress, she stuck out worse than a sore thumb amongst the 1950s-styled wives. Lexi strolled into the girly tearoom of the ritzy boutique house and instantly felt out of place. Instead of requesting sexy winter gear, everyone was expected to dress for high tea, huh?
“Ladies!” A statuesque platinum blonde clapped her hands. “We have an itinerary to stick to. If you would please follow me to the China Room and sit with your team wives.”
What the hell is a ‘team wife’?
As Lexi darted her gaze around the room for the Northern Royals table, a quiver of nerves twisted her gut. Remy had warned her to skip this part, but she figured what would be the harm. Perhaps she could learn something about hockey, since she wasn’t exactly a
n expert on the subject.
“Sorry, hon. This table is for the Royals… You might want the Florida table.” The woman mostly made up of variant shades of blonde, yellow, platinum and one or two strawberries all laughed in unison. Not getting the joke, she did a quick scan of the tearoom to find she was the only black woman there. Probably in the whole damn city.
Lexi bared her teeth in an awkward smile, hoping it would help her fend off these psychotic mannequins. While she was preparing to slowly back out of the event, a cute brunette grabbed her arm.
“Lexi, right? This is Hawk’s girlfriend,” she announced to the table.
Friend, she almost corrected her, but realized she not only lived with Hawthorne Maze, she also dicked the sexy man down on a regular basis.
“I’m Tanya and this is…” Everyone’s name went by in a blur since they appeared to be octuplets of some sort.
After she took her seat, she found herself heavily zoning out. The main Stepford wife spoke at length about the hockey wives’ roles including marketing and how they could help their hockey player-mate with long-term career moves.
“Boring as fuck, right?” Tanya leaned over and whispered in her ear about a half hour into the worst tea party ever. Lexi snickered. She honestly couldn’t wait for this to be over.
Twenty minutes later, the ridiculously boring luncheon had finally ended. The ladies mingled around the tearoom, chatting it up with one another. Lexi found herself at the bar in the swanky little boutique downing a martini.
She checked her phone, hoping she could meet Hawk back at the cabin to rub one out. When the hell did I become this horny? Has my libido always been like this or does Hawk play a part? Damn, Hawthorne Maze had definitely gotten under her skin. In the past she couldn’t remember pulling her head out of her techie hole long enough to care about this stuff, but then again, a sexy-ass hockey player hadn’t been factored into the equation.
“It’s usually not that bad.” Tanya popped onto the stool next to her.
“Are you kidding? 101 Marketing for Wives was adorable.”
“And what is it that you do, not a wife?” Brandi, unnatural blonde number one, asked with a smirk. “Bartender, right?”
The dig at her wifeless status didn’t bother her. However, she did wish she’d never been married to shithead Josh in the first place. “Yes, ma’am, I provide a supply to a demand.”
“A booze slinger. Cute,” Jessie or Jelly chimed in. Oh hell, blonde number two. Who was Lexi fooling? Tanya was the only one she would remember after this event.
“There’s nothing wrong with serving drinks.” The main speaker joined them. “She can take away from our tutorial and apply the same logic to her job.”
“Except”—Lexi sipped her drink, savoring the little bit of alcohol she had left. Clasping the stem of her glass in her hand, she resisted the urge to get shitfaced on such a wonderfully colorless day—“instead of waiting for your agents to bring their clients sponsors, or continually using the same ones,” Lexi said, “for example like Nike or Gatorade, who saturate the market, the wives can create an app featuring the leading companies in the stock market and startups. Go through these businesses and create a marriage of sorts”—she used her hands and interlocked them for visual effect—or she was more drunk than she thought—“where the wives could provide a need with their player spouses. Also, you can work in a charity aspect with the partnership and include into the deal whatever your agent hammers out. In other words, it’s a fast and easy way to make a buck while merging a charitable aspect to the players, which is the type of sponsorship that is a good look for everyone all around.”
As her phone went off in her left hand, Lexi chugged the rest of her drink. Since she didn’t recognize the ring tone, she didn’t bother to check. Instead, she scanned the faces of all the women who had joined her at the bar. “Yeah.” She nodded her head at them, not entirely sure if what she’d said had sunk into their super-tanned heads or not.
“This is a joke, right?” Brandi scoffed. “I mean, showing a bit of tit and selling booze doesn’t exactly mesh with the type of work we’re doing here.”
“Ah, actually”—the guest speaker held up her finger—“it’s a solid idea. Would you mind if I talked to you about it more later?”
“Sure,” Lexi told her. “But first I need to”—get laid, she omitted—“grab a nap. I have jet lag. The high altitude here is doing a number on me.” She set her glass on to the bar. “Nice meeting you guys. It has been a pleasure.” Hoping the sarcasm came across clearly enough, she headed for the coat rack and out of the dainty boutique shop.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The early part of Hawk’s day had been spent shaking hands with team sponsors and fans. He opened the door to the three-level stunner made up of wood and warm earth tones. With a bit of time between events, he wanted to see Lexi… Correction, he needed to lay eyes on her.
“Lexington Waters, where’s your pretty little ass?” he yelled, stepping into the cabin. Usually he breezed through these functions without much socializing. Unfortunately, the Northern Royal’s management wanted him to participate with team activities all week long. That’s why he’d rented this cabin and the two next door for the gang. His team was one thing, but the people he considered family were something else entirely. Knox, Andre and their crew would join them later in the week.
“Lex?” While Hawk jogged up the winding wooden staircase, he loosened his tie. “Hey.” She slipped around the loft area into the main bedroom and saw that the remains of the sun brightened the bedroom from the west. Brilliant gradients of red, burnt orange and hazy purple flooded into the open door from the balcony.
“Amazing, huh?” Lexi poked her head out of the closet, wearing nothing more than a meager slip that barely covered her athletic body. Her small breasts, tiny but perky, caught his eye.
“Depends… Are we talking about the sun or you?”
“Ah, tell me more.” She disappeared into the closet with Hawk close on her heels.
“Totally and completely truthful.” Short on time, Hawk didn’t want to waste this small window convincing Lexi with words. Flipping off his suit jacket, he tossed it on the granite island.
“How was your meet and greet?” she cooed. Ducking her head low, she threw a saucy smirk over her shoulder.
“Lame as fuck,” he nearly panted. Hawk could hardly wait to be inside her. “And what about your meeting?” he asked. Super horny, he still wanted to appear thoughtful.
Lexi provided him with a healthy chuckle. “Probably lamer.”
He unbuttoned the sleeves of his shirt and rolled them up his arms.
“Now don’t tell me you came here thinking you were going to get—”
“What?” he pushed, attacking the first four buttons on his shirt with every intention of getting messy. He hoped she would say filthy things to him.
“Laid, pussy—or just your general ‘some’. Did you think any of those things were going to happen?” She plopped her little fist on her hip.
Hawk rubbed his hand against his medium-sized beard. A superstition among players, they let their hair grow out during the season. By the time spring rolled around, he would be a full-blown mountain man. He honestly couldn’t wait to get the thick shit off his face.
“Actually”—he closed in the gap between them, gently tilting her chin up with his index finger—“I was hoping for all three.” Pecking her pouty lips, he eased his tongue into her mouth and tasted the tingly sting of alcohol.
Fuck, he couldn’t get enough of her. That’s why he’d rushed back to the cabin when he had little-to-no time between events. Lexi was more intoxicating than any drug, and he needed a good dose to keep his blood flowing. She tilted her head to the side, allowing him to drag his lips across her lovely neck before he sucked on her smooth skin.
“Turn around, baby,” Hawk murmured, licking the spot on her neck that pulsed with her heartbeat. Obliging his request, Lexi faced the island, planting her han
d on the granite top. Since he didn’t have long, he tickled his fingers north to pull her slip over her pert bubble ass. “No undies?”
“Easy access.”
“Dammit, Lexi, I believe you’re the most considerate person I’ve ever met.”
“Show me how much you appreciate it…”
“Gladly.” Hawk sank to his knees and squeezed her ass. Starving, he ran his hand over her plump pussy lips. Lexi hummed low as he reached up and slapped her cheek.
“Oh,” she cooed.
Dipping his head low, he dove between her pussy lips to feast. Hawk sucked her lips into his mouth.
“Mmmhh,” he groaned at the salty sweet taste of her. Hawk tilted his head up and dragged his tongue through her core. Reaching up, he flatted her back with the palm of her hand, forcing her to raise that beautiful ass even higher.
Accepting the delicious treat she presented to him, Hawk spread her pussy lips with his fingers and leisurely licked her nub. Back and forth he spanked her clit with the tip of his tongue before he went all in to devour her wet pussy.
Lexi bounced her little ass gently on his mouth as her breathing quickened. Sucking hard on her clit, Hawk suctioned his lips onto her pussy to tickle, nip and tease her channel.
“Oh wooow!” she screamed, while going limp on top of the closet island. Wasting no time, he stood up while he fumbled with his pants. The need to be inside Lexi overrode every one of his senses. Splayed for him like in a pornographic picture, Lexington Waters checked every erotic box on his list. He wanted to feel her body wrapped around his cock ASAP.
Hawk licked her wetness from the edges of his lips and gripped his thick rod in his hand. Tapping his tip against her lovely ass, his pre-cum dribbled onto her brown cheeks.
Positive at any moment he would embarrass the shit out of himself and come too quick, he plunged into her wet folds.
“Sooo damn good, baby.” He moaned. Hawk grabbed the back of her neck to plow her pussy. While he rode her from behind, he reached underneath her slim body to cup her perfect-sized breast and drive into her hard.