by Anya Nowlan
“And then there’s your injury, Dante,” Janice said, pulling him out of his ruminations. “I understand you have to take it easy, and that we have to keep it quiet. So, we need a way for you to do that while also attending the training camp put together in Shifter Grove.
“If you really want to be on their team, attending their open training camp will be a good way to see if you’d be a good fit. But I would keep you injured shoulder under wraps, Dante. It might affect their decision.”
Janice’s words were neutral enough, but he got the subtext. No one wanted an injured player on their team. It was nothing but a liability, even if it was just a separated shoulder, one of the more common injuries among hockey players.
“Wait, we’re getting shipped off to Idaho?” Dominic asked, deflating in his seat.
“You wanted to be a part of the Shovelers, didn’t you?” Janice countered, giving his brother a pointed look.
“Yes,” Dante quickly said, not letting his brother complain further.
“Alright. I’m sending Miss Marks here down with you. She’ll make sure Dominic doesn’t make a scene and that you don’t overexert yourself. If you can take part of some of the main training sessions without screwing anything up further, great. But don’t push it.”
Slightly stunned, Dante was already opening his mouth when Dom got to the question first.
“Chloe is coming with us?” he asked.
Looking downright shocked, Chloe’s mouth hung open as her gaze darted from him to Dominic, her hands gripping the chair she was sitting on tightly.
“Yes. I need someone to keep an eye on you two,” Janice sighed. “You’ll be staying together at a house we’ve rented for you. She’ll do her best to keep you out of trouble, won’t you, Miss Marks?” Janice asked, turning her attention to Chloe.
All Chloe could do was nod numbly, her eyes wide with evident worry.
With his bear roaring deep in his chest, Dante looked over at gorgeous little Chloe, now tasked with watching his every move. And who was going to be under the same roof as him.
This training camp is going to be a lot of fun, he thought, throwing Chloe a quick wink and enjoying the flush it brought to her cheeks.
Eleven
Chloe
“I’m going to be stuck with them! In goddamn Idaho! Living in the same house!” Chloe complained loudly, throwing things into an open suitcase on her bed and trying not to hyperventilate.
The clothes were mostly missing the mark and the hyperventilation was well on point.
Amy was sitting next to the suitcase with a glass of wine, looking far too calm for Chloe’s liking. With her blonde curls bouncing, she pulled her legs onto the bed and sighed dramatically.
“Oh woe is me,” she crooned, making her voice higher than it normally was. “Trapped in a picturesque little town with two hunks who both want a piece of me. Has a woman ever been so unlucky?” she said, lifting the back of her hand to her forehead for good measure.
“Was that supposed to be an impression of me?” Chloe asked, stopping in her tracks with a stack of underwear in her hands.
“Did you not recognize yourself? I took drama in highs school, you know. I think it was pretty spot on.”
Chloe suppressed a groan.
“That’s so not funny. These guys are a nightmare. I’m pretty sure they’re the reason Sally had to leave Wednesday meetings early so she’d get to her therapy session.”
“They made Sally leave meetings early? I’d think that was a good thing.”
“Did you even listen until the end of that sentence? The point was, they practically drove her insane with their… shenanigans!”
She’d done some haphazard googling the moment she got out of that meeting with Janice and the Kenner twins. The results were… well, she could definitely understand now why Sally liked her booze and had a monthly deposit with her therapist.
“I don’t know this Sally chick, but I think you’re making some leaps here. So they rented out an entire hotel floor for a bubble bath party. Sounds like harmless fun to me.”
“Wait, they did what?” Chloe asked, horrified.
Who the hell even does things like that? These guys are supposed to be adults.
Amy was barely listening to her, eyeing the pile of clothing in her hands.
“Is that what you’re taking along with you? A bunch of granny panties? Where’s your sexy stuff?” she asked, getting off the bed and sloshing the wine around in her glass in the process.
“Do you even hear what I’m saying? They’re arrogant, rude, spoiled assholes who want me just because they can’t have me.”
“You forgot hot.”
“What?” Chloe asked, stopping in her tracks for a moment.
“Like, super hot.”
Amy was practically licking her lips.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Chloe demanded, throwing the underwear into the suitcase.
The truth was, it had a lot to do with everything. Just being in the same room with the twins made her heart flutter and her knees go weak. Hearing that they had discussed her with each other should have made her uncomfortable or annoyed, as she guessed at the tone of the conversation easily.
Typical macho posturing.
Yet she was secretly pleased, as silly as that was. She had made an impression on them, as they had on her.
But that didn’t change anything. They were self-important jerks, and she would grit her teeth and go to this stupid training camp with them, but there was no way they were ever seeing her underwear.
I probably need better underwear, though, she thought, examining the selection a bit more critically now.
“I’m saying I’ve never seen you so hot and bothered over anyone before. Face it, they’ve gotten under your skin. And you can’t tell me you haven’t had any naughty thoughts about them. I googled the Kenner twins, and they are nothing but grade A hotties.
“No one says ‘hotties’ anymore,” Chloe grumbled, crossing her arms.
There had been thoughts, though. Naughty thoughts, like Amy had ever so eloquently said. She could barely sleep without dreaming of their strong hands on her body, running up her thighs, cupping her breasts until all she could do was moan…
Couldn’t they be just slightly less attractive? Wouldn’t that be fair? I feel like I’m losing my mind…
“So which one do you like more, Dante or Dominic?”
“What? I don’t like either of them.”
Chloe almost made it sound like that was the case. She couldn’t mentally high-five herself before Amy totally dismantled her hope of sounding like she meant it.
“Give it a break. I’m already on to you.”
“Fine. They’re ‘hotties’ as you say, but nothing is going to happen. And I don’t know which one I like or dislike more. They both have their… qualities.”
They were like the two sides of the same coin. Looking at them together, it was almost endearing the way they bickered and bitched at each other. It was clear they were very close. No one fights like that and then leaves with a friendly clap on the back and a cheerful ‘See ya later’ except for close family.
“So you like them both,” Amy grinned, like the cat that ate the canary. “I wouldn’t have pegged you for that.”
“For what?” Chloe sighed, sounding as exasperated as she could to hide what she was really feeling.
She had a pretty good idea what Amy was getting at, but she wasn’t ready to face it just yet.
“Are you going to help me pack or are you here to drink all my wine?” she asked, turning her back to Amy and rummaging around in her closet for the most modest, unrevealing clothes she could find.
Maybe if she hid away all her curves, she’d feel less sexy somehow? Because right now, her mind was all but filled with images of her in tight, skimpy clothing, getting slowly undressed by Dominic and Dante. The way they’d looked at her… well, she might as well not wear anything at all to their next meeting.
> “You’re changing the subject, Chloe,” Amy said in a sing-song voice. “You want them both, double trouble, two for the price of one, buy one get one free, twin pleasures?”
“Can you please stop talking now?”
“Why? Because I’m onto something?” Amy countered with a quirked brow, her green eyes glimmering mischievously. “And no one said you have to marry them. So they’re jerks. Doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time.”
“I’m their agent, Amy. Even if they refuse to act like professionals, I still have to. I’ve just been promoted, I can’t fuck this up.”
“Are you sure this isn’t about your dad again? I know he was a shitty husband to your mother, but you can’t keep carrying that with you.”
More like utterly useless, Chloe thought bitterly, before choosing to focus on the task at hand.
“I’m going to have to hit the road soon, I don’t have time for this right now,” she replied, a little more harshly than she had intended.
At least the mention of her questionable family relations had made her focus on something other than Dante and Dominic for a moment.
“Alright, alright. Let’s get you ready for Idaho. Now where’s the lacy stuff?” Amy said, heading for her underwear drawer.
Twelve
Dominic
Stepping off the small plane that brought them to Shifter Grove, Dominic quickly grabbed both his own and Chloe’s suitcases. Dante didn’t look too happy about that, probably wanting to help her with her bags himself.
Tough luck, brother, Dominic grinned, waving good-bye to the pilot, who simply smirked and shook his head slightly.
Dominic had half a mind to ask the man what that was about, but he didn’t want to fall too far behind his brother and Chloe.
Chloe descended the steps in front of him. She was bundled up in a wool coat, holding it close around her to fight the early-spring chill in the air. He had been pretty much entranced by her the whole way over, stealing glances at her every time she wasn’t talking to the other players on the plane.
Shifter Grove was a small, hard to reach place, which meant the tiny plane they came in on was pretty much the only way to get there, unless you wanted to take a long, arduous off-roading trip. That meant all the other guys hoping to make it onto the team were sharing the flight with him and Dante, chatting away amongst themselves as Chloe kept to a single seat by herself.
She had been markedly cold towards both him and Dante, talking no more than was strictly necessary and fidgeting with her phone most of the time. With all the extra company, Dominic couldn’t exactly ask her what was going on.
He might not care if everyone knew he was interested in her, but she was their agent, now. However much he wanted to kiss her until that furrow now so persistent in her brow melted away, he didn’t want to put her professional reputation or her job at risk.
And Dante had given him a long lecture along those same lines before boarding, so they were on the same page on that.
Dominic was still getting used to the fact that his brother was also interested in Chloe, more interested than he had been in anyone for a while. That was worrisome, but he didn’t let that weigh him down too much.
He was confident he had more of a connection with Chloe than Dante did, and he could be way more than charming if he wanted to. Little Peaches was worth the effort, and he was going to do whatever it took to make her his.
The air was filled with a low grumble as the rest of the men disembarked and took in their surroundings. Dominic’s bear was paying attention, as well. His thoughts drifted away from Chloe when he took in a deep breath of fresh mountain air, seeing the snowcapped mountains in the distance. He was sure he wasn’t the only one holding back a roar at the sense of freedom suddenly washing over him.
Looking over at Dante, sniffing the air with his jaw tightly clamped, he knew his brother was feeling the same thing.
Dominic might have preferred the never stopping, ever-revolving liveliness of big cities, but his bear was definitely more comfortable here, in rural Idaho. There was an excited calmness in him, which didn’t make any sense, but it was true nonetheless.
“Whenever you’re ready, the car is waiting,” Chloe quietly said, watching them all curiously.
A bunch of burly dudes growling and smelling the air was probably a weird sight to see, but then again, she should be used to shifters by now. Top Performance represented many of the big shifter names, after all.
“Yes, let’s go,” Dante said, brushing past him to walk Chloe to the SUV idling at the edge of the landing strip, leaving Dominic to lug the suitcases by himself.
I see what you’re doing.
Heaving the bags up under his shoulders, he hurried to catch up, not wanting to let the luscious Chloe out of his sight. Gravel crunching under his feet, he made it to the car a second after them and threw the luggage into the trunk. Dante had of course led Chloe to the backseat and was getting in next to her, making small talk with the driver.
Dominic was not about to let Dante monopolize Chloe while he had to sit up front by himself. So he circled around and got in on the other side, effectively sandwiching Chloe between the two of them in the backseat.
“Umm, what are you doing?” Chloe asked nervously.
“There’s a free seat up front,” Dante got out from behind gritted teeth.
“I know,” Dominic replied, scrunching Chloe up between himself and Dante as he put on his seatbelt and pulled the door shut. “I thought our agent might want to go over some things with us before training starts, and I don’t want to be craning my neck the whole time. I take my career very seriously, you know,” he said, shooting Chloe a polite smile.
“Riiight,” Dante drew out, entirely unamused.
“We all ready to go?” the driver piped up, raising a brow at the packed backseat but not commenting on it.
“Yup, let’s hit the road,” Dominic replied cheerily, making himself comfortable as his body pressed against Chloe’s.
“This is ridiculous,” Dante grumbled, his elbows pressed against his knees.
“What’s that, brother? You want to go sit up front?” Dominic asked with a grin.
“No, I’m fine,” Dante hurriedly answered, before smiling down at Chloe. “I’m good right where I am.”
Making herself as small as possible, Chloe reached down into the purse nested in between her feet, pulling out two copies of a printed out itinerary for the training camp.
“Here you go,” she said, handing one to each of them. “You can look these over.”
Her scent whirled all around him, and combined with how close she was, Dominic could have read that damn itinerary a hundred times and still had no idea what it said. The loose sweater she was wearing underneath her coat couldn’t hide the swell of her breasts or the dip of her waist, and just looking at her without grabbing her and making her straddle him again took more self-control than Dominic would have liked to admit.
So when he put his hand down on the seat and it inevitably made contact with her thigh, he had to work hard to suppress the roar threatening to rip out of his throat. Chloe kept her eyes squarely on the road in front of her, even as her breath hitched at the touch. He could see her eyes gloss over slightly as he moved his fingers, ever so slowly crawling up her leg.
A small dent in the road made Chloe jump and clear her throat, and Dominic pulled his hand away, as the moment was clearly over.
“I seem to have dropped my phone. How clumsy,” Dante exclaimed loudly, shooting him a downright deadly look. “It must be down here somewhere…” he trailed off, hunching over to check the floor mats.
Dominic couldn’t see exactly what he was doing down there, but his head was now suspiciously close to being nestled in between Chloe’s thighs. They way her breathing accelerated, she didn’t seem to be exactly opposed to it, either.
“Don’t worry, I’ll help you look,” Dominic said, leaning forward as well.
“Enough!” Chloe suddenly excla
imed. “I’ll look for it myself. You keep your eyes on the itinerary, misters,” she ordered, huffing. “Here, not that hard to find,” she said pointedly a moment later, handing Dante’s phone back to him.
Dante cleared his throat, looking slightly sheepish. It wasn’t an expression Dominic was used to seeing on his brother.
“Now both of you, shut up and leave me alone. I have some e-mails I have to answer, and Sally sent me her files on you. That should make for an interesting read.”
“To my defense, that thing about the…”
“What did I say?” Chloe demanded, shooting him an annoyed glare. “Zip it and let me get some work done.”
Dominic and Dante exchanged a surprised look over her head, both shrugging. It seemed Chloe was having none of it, and while seeing her all fired up and grumpy was adorable, maybe it was time to ease up a little, especially since they weren’t alone.
“Truce?” Dominic mouthed, getting a curt nod from Dante.
I’ll have plenty of time to get her to warm up to me at the house, Dominic thought, smiling to himself.
Thirteen
Chloe
The drive to the house Janice had rented for them was uneventful after Chloe had put her foot down. Engrossed in the files Sally had sent over, she had done her best to remain unaffected by the twins’ close presence, as impossible as that was.
Even thinking about the way they had touched her in the car sent a shiver down her spine, and she pulled her coat tighter around her, like a shield. Not that it would do her much good. Being bombarded by Dominic’s and Dante’s advances, she’d need at least a full suit of body armor to deflect their charms.
Shifter Grove was even smaller than she had thought, with the center of town boasting exactly one diner and one bar. At least that’s what it had looked like from the car window. And the house they’d gotten was remote, with barely any other buildings in sight.