And for the life of him, he couldn't explain why. He was attracted to Natalie, sure, but he liked her enough - from what little he did know of her - to want to spend time with her and get to know her more.
"Why do you want to hang out with me?" she asked. "This is your weekend, or however long you intend to stay here. This is your moment to party with your team and really live it up. Who knows if you'll ever win the Cup again. You should enjoy it all and make the moment last."
"I intend to," Chris insisted. His hands ran up and down her back. He felt her shudder underneath his touch. "But I want you to be there with me. We're supposed to be married, right? And that means that you're technically supposed to be my wife. What married couple wouldn't be celebrating together? Half my team has their significant other with them. Even Dean Morgan, resident bachelor, has his new girlfriend." He nodded behind him only to see Dean and Clara making out against the wall on the pool supply shack, completely oblivious to the fact that there was a party going on around them.
"Okay, fine," Natalie said, shifting her weight. "Let's celebrate your win."
"Let's celebrate our marriage," he said and pulled her in for a deep, passionate kiss.
Chapter 12
Natalie stiffened when Chris's lips hit hers. She wasn't expecting him to kiss her. They said no feelings for a reason.
It's not feelings, she thought to herself. It's a simple kiss.
They were married. They would have to kiss, especially if they wanted to their marriage and their relationship to be believable. She forced herself to relax under his touch and opened her mouth just enough so the kiss did not appear to be platonic. Her arms raised and locked behind Chris's neck and she pulled him closer to her. He took his hand and placed it on the back of her head, tilting her head back and opening her mouth so he could deepen the kiss. Her breathing quickened as his tongue explored her mouth, and her heart kept jumping against her chest, like it was on a trampoline.
Kisses should not make her feel this way, especially fake kisses that didn't mean anything. Yet, she could not help but feel as though this meant something. And that scared her.
When they finally broke apart, both seemed to need to suck in air. Chris didn't step back from Natalie. Instead, he dropped his hand from behind her head and grabbed her hips as though he wanted to keep her close to him, afraid she might slip away.
"Are you ready to go party, wifey?"
Natalie felt herself smile. "Let's do it."
- - -
The rest of the weekend went accordingly. Chris would join her and her friends as they attended shows, saw exhibits, partied at clubs. He always had a lot of his team with him and they were all good sports, buying drinks, food, tickets, everything the bachelorette party needed in order to make this a night to remember. Chris was always near Natalie. It felt nice to have someone who wanted to spend that much time with her, though she knew it probably had more to do with the fact that he was pretending to be a married man than anything else.
Oh well.
It felt nice regardless.
Sunday evening came, and the ladies piled to the airport. Chris promised to meet her at her place so he could help her pack and get her things over to his place before Monday morning.
"Well, I work Monday so I won't be able to be there and I don't want to stay up too late," she told him. "Recovering from this weekend is my priority. All I'm going to do is pass out. Could you stop by Monday after five and we can start moving things then?"
He seemed surprised to have his idea rejected but nodded his head.
"Absolutely."
When they flew back into John Wayne airport, Natalie hugged each woman individually and thanked them for letting her come on the trip. They teased her about getting married before the bride, how they would need to throw her a bachelorette party, and how they all needed to get together soon.
As Natalie drove home, she couldn't help but shake her head, smiling. If she hadn't broken up with Bruce, she wouldn't have gone on this trip, which meant she wouldn't have met Drew and Cam's friends. Now, she couldn't imagine not knowing them. They were fun and sweet and always up for a good time - something Natalie needed to do more often.
After returning to her apartment, she took a shower and crashed. She was too tired to do laundry, especially since she didn't have a washer and dryer in her unit, promising herself she would wash after work. The alarm went off earlier than she expected, so she started a cup of coffee, showered again, and nibbled on toast before brushing her teeth and getting dressed.
Work sucked. Not because it was hard and not because she was hungover from before. Rather, when everyone saw the ring on her finger, they automatically assumed Bruce had proposed or that she and Bruce got hitched in Vegas. Each time she had to explain that that wasn't the case, judgment flashed in their eyes and they would abruptly end the conversation or they would plaster a smile on their face and remark how they didn't expect something like that from her.
As much as Natalie hated to admit it, their concern wasn't wrong. Natalie wasn't the sort of person who would typically go to Vegas in the first place unless it was for some conference. Now, that all changed. Everything changed because of Bruce.
Cam and Drew conveniently called in sick today, so the day dragged further and further along. By the time five o'clock hit, she was on her way home, her palms clammy as they gripped the steering wheel, nervous about Chris coming to her place. She didn't know why she was nervous, but she felt a little embarrassed. This professional hockey player, who probably had a mansion in Newport Beach, was coming to her tiny little apartment she shared with Bruce in Orange. Orange wasn't a bad place to live - but compared to Newport Beach, it was more industrious and compact.
When she got home, Natalie dropped her purse on the couch and headed into her bedroom, preparing to grab clothes, when she was confronted with Bruce, sitting in a chair in the kitchen, looking at his phone. He looked up when he heard her purse hit the floor.
"There you are," he said with a lopsided grin.
Natalie narrowed her eyes. Under previous circumstances, that smile would always twist her heart and make her grin back. Now, she wondered what he wanted.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. No preamble, no small talk. This was her apartment now. He had no right to be sitting in her kitchen like he owned the place still, like he was welcomed here.
"What do you mean?" He seemed genuinely confused. "I live here."
"No, you don't." Natalie was rooted in place. She didn't want to take one step inside. She didn't want to be anywhere near him. "You left."
"Technically," he began as he stood up, "I didn't leave. You kicked me out and never changed the locks. My name is still on the lease."
"What do you want?" Natalie demanded. She didn't shout, but there was an edge to her voice.
"Is this a bad time?"
Natalie looked behind her, only to see Chris standing in her doorway. How could she have been so consumed in her thoughts that she had completely forgotten to close her door? She had completely forgotten about texting Chris her address earlier, must have lost track of time since they said they were meeting at five thirty.
"Who is that?" Bruce asked. Now there was an edge to his voice. Natalie saw Bruce tense and she scrunched her brow, wondering why in the hell Bruce thought he had any right to question who the people were that she invited over to what was now her apartment.
"I'm her husband," Chris said before Natalie had a chance to explain.
Bruce walked around the kitchen table and into the connecting living room so he could get to the door. It was almost as though he was trying to size Chris up. Again, Natalie had no idea why Bruce thought he had any right to do just that.
"Who are you?" Chris asked, crossing his arms across his chest.
It was almost comical, the sight of Chris in her doorway. He was so big, so filled with muscle, that it made the doorway look small in comparison.
"I'm her boyfriend," Bruce said with the s
ame attitude Chris replied with.
"Ex," Natalie insisted, coming up behind Bruce and positioning herself in front of Chris, almost as though she was protecting him. Which made no sense at all, since Chris was the last person on earth who needed any sort of protection. Especially from someone like Bruce. "You are my ex-boyfriend, Bruce."
"Who is this guy, Natalie?" Bruce asked, turning to whisper at her. 'I mean, come on. A man-bun? You? You didn't like when I grew out my playoff beard."
"Bruce, you do not get to judge me," Natalie said. "You do not live here anymore. You were the one who decided to cheat on me, okay? You were the one who left."
"I left because you kicked me out," Bruce said. "Who is this guy?"
"He already told you." Natalie took a breath. This was going to be hard. Telling Bruce she was married and it had been a week since they broke up. What did that make her? It didn't matter. "That is my husband."
"No." Bruce shook his head, eyeing Chris more and more. "I know who that is. That's Chris Worthington. He's on the third line on the Gulls. This is a hockey player. What the hell is he doing at our place."
"My place," Natalie quickly put in. "Not our. Mine."
"I've come to collect my wife and move her into our place," Chris said before Natalie could say anything more. "Our."
Natalie shot him a look. Being snide wasn't going to help things. When his blue eyes sparkled in response, she ripped her eyes away from him and focused them on Bruce.
"You know who he is," Natalie said. "Now tell me what you're doing here."
"I don't believe you," Bruce said.
"Mind if I come in?" Chris asked Natalie. "I don't particularly want to hang out in the doorway while this guy takes forever to figure this whole situation out."
"No," Bruce said.
"Yes," Natalie insisted.
Bruce went to close the door, but Natalie stepped in his way and the edge of the door caught her forearm, causing her to hiss. The pain was minimal - if anything, it surprised her more than hurt her - but the second Chris heard it, he stomped in and grabbed Bruce's wrist.
"Did you just hurt my wife?" Chris asked. All playfulness had immediately vanished from his body, leaving nothing but tension and anger. Natalie wasn't sure if anger was, perhaps, a slight exaggeration, but she liked the feeling of Chris being concerned.
"Not on purpose," Bruce said, his eyes locked on Chris's hand on his wrist. He could crush his wrist if he wanted to. "And she's not your wife."
"I am." Natalie stepped back and clenched her teeth together. She didn't know why she had been nervous telling Bruce before. It wasn't as though he took her concerns seriously - or anything she told him before seriously, for that matter. "His wife, I mean." She extended her hand out so Bruce could see the rock on her finger.
"You told me you didn't want to get married," Bruce pointed out.
"I told you I wasn't ready yet," Natalie said.
"Wow." Chris released Bruce's wrist and Bruce held it in his hand, glaring at Chris. "I must have really hurt you for you to have run off and gotten yourself hitched. Do you think that'll make you feel better? You know you're probably going to have to put out for the guy, right? Especially if you really are married. God, you're pathetic. This whole thing makes me realize I didn't do anything wrong. Now, I'm glad I cheated on you. I'm glad you found out. Who knows what would have happened if I didn't." He looked at Chris. "I respect you as a player, but fuck, you might want to reconsider this whole marriage thing. I mean, if she was ready to hitch herself to you after, what a night, what other crazy thing is she going to do. That's not my Natalie."
"You're right," Chris said. "Because she's mine." He slammed the door shut behind him, squaring his shoulders. "Did you have anything else you wanted to say?"
Bruce cleared his throat. "Mediation," he said, speaking directly to Natalie. "Since you were too busy with this that you couldn't pick a date, expect one to be picked for you. Prepare for two weeks from now."
He pushed past both of them and slammed the door behind him.
"He was a prize," Chris said, placing a hand on her shoulder and easing the tension out of her muscle. "Now, let's get you the fuck out of here."
Wedding Rings & Champions: A Slapshot Novel (Slapshot Series Book 8) Page 8