Crashing the Net

by Jami Davenport

  Riley frowned. Okay, partially happy because Uncle Coop was still being a shit to her. Riley wasn’t sure what happened with them, but he was pretty sure it had something to do with him, and that made him sad.

  Izzy and Cooper made a good pair. He liked them together. He didn’t want to be the one who’d torn them apart.

  Riley sighed. Just when stuff started going good for him, he managed to screw stuff up, no matter how hard he tried to make things work.

  Somehow he’d screwed up things with Riley and Izzy, which made him feel like a first-class shit.

  No wonder his uncle wanted to send him away.

  * * * *

  This road trip had been brutal. The Sockeyes won three out of five, but not without fighting for their lives in every one of those wins. Cooper had aches in places he didn’t know a guy could ache. He had bruises on top of bruises, and he was bone-dead tired. Two more games, and they’d be flying home. Or to Seattle, because he’d never call Seattle home.

  Even though he just had.

  Jesus.

  He must have moss on the brain already—or his brain cells had molded in the Seattle rain.

  “Are you still a full-time dad?” Brick asked, interrupting Cooper’s inner dialogue.

  Cooper glanced up from taping his stick for the night’s game. “Just for a short while longer.”

  “Yeah, he’s been saying that for a few months now,” Cedric interrupted.

  “I’m not right for Riley. I’m never home, and I’m not good with him.” Cooper concentrated on his stick and tried to block them out. He didn’t need his teammates butting into his business.

  “If I was a fourteen year old, I’d love living with you,” Brick noted.

  “Seriously?” Cooper snorted. “You don’t know me very well then.”

  “Well enough.” Brick shrugged and sat back against his locker space, stretching his long, bare legs out in front of him. “He gets along with Izzy, and you two are practically married. So what’s the holdup?”

  “Izzy and I are over.” Cooper’s stomach twisted when he said those words. Hell, he’d been denying it ever since she’d broken it off with him, but facts were facts, and pretending it didn’t happen didn’t alter the facts.

  “What’d you do to screw that up?” Matt LeRue asked, turning this into some kind of team interview session, and Cooper had no intention of becoming fodder for these idiots.

  “We both want different things.” And why was he even answering these questions?

  “That means she gave him his walking papers,” Drew Delacorte snorted.

  “Whatever happened to that cute redhead who had you wound up so tight you couldn’t find the puck on our last road trip?” Cooper shot back.

  Drew colored bright red, while several of the guys chuckled.

  “She dumped him,” Mike Gibson happily answered for his buddy. Drew shot him a murderous glare, but Mike kept smiling. Not much bothered Mike. The guy had nerves of steel and ice in his veins. Sometimes the guys called him the Robot because he never got riled. Hell, even in the few fights he’d been involved in, he’d thrown his punches with mechanical precision and very little emotion.

  “She did not,” Drew argued, “and what about Candy? Huh?”

  “We were never an item, just fooling around.”

  With a smirk, Cooper went back to his stick. He’d safely deflected their questions about Izzy and Riley by pitting them against each other. He was a great captain.

  Cedric raised an eyebrow at him and grinned. Cooper just shrugged. Cedric knew, and Cooper didn’t try to bullshit him.

  Cedric leaned close to him. “You’re in love, you dumbshit. Glad it’s you and not me.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t exactly plan on it.”

  “No guy ever does, but a lot sure fall prey to a pretty face and a hot body. I’ll never be that guy, but you, buddy, are screwed. You might as well beg her forgiveness because your play isn’t up to par when you’re pining for her.”

  Cooper glanced up at Cedric. “My play has been pretty damn good lately.”

  “Yeah, but I know you, and something’s off. You know it, too. Maybe you’re still good enough to be better than most, but you aren’t you.”

  “I’m fine,” Cooper growled, denying Cedric’s statements. He’d been scoring, and he’d been playing good hockey, even though he knew Cedric was right.

  At least he had everyone else fooled.

  * * * *

  It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Cooper was supposed to come home early in the morning, and Izzy would go to Betheni’s with nothing more than a hi and bye.

  Only it didn’t work that way.

  Izzy had packed her bags, left them by the front door, and fallen asleep on the family room couch watching a sad movie with Joker on her chest, purring loudly.

  She startled awake when Cooper bent over her, his blue eyes dark with a little concern and a lot of lust and affection. She knew that look. It was the same look that’d gotten her into trouble on too many occasions with this man. He was all sorts of trouble, and her body loved his brand of trouble.

  “Izzy?” His big hands rested on her shoulders, and she could smell the soap he used after the game that night.

  She opened and closed her mouth, unable to clear her hazy brain enough to form words. It wasn’t sleep that fogged her brain, it was the nearness of Cooper and his incredibly hot body. Yet, her attraction to him went beyond that body and that sexy lopsided smile, and she’d be a fool to deny the chemistry between them.

  She’d be a bigger fool to let that chemistry drag her back into a relationship with him a fourth time.

  He knelt down next to her and cupped her cheeks in his hands, his stormy blue eyes searching her face for answers she couldn’t give him. When his lips touched hers and ignited her body and soul, her ability to resist sizzled and burned with the rest of her body.

  One more night couldn’t hurt.

  She slid her fingers into his hair and pulled his mouth harder against hers. Their kiss deepened and intensified, while Cooper’s strong hands slid under her shirt and up to her bra. Izzy moaned as he rubbed little circles around her nipples.

  She whimpered and tried to press her body closer to his, an action which rolled her off the couch. Laughing, she fell on top of him onto the floor. A second later, he’d swapped their positions and straddled her, all the while kissing the hell out of her.

  Finally coming up for air, he propped himself up by his arms. His gaze roamed her upper body, resting on her breasts, which were heaving.

  “You’re killing me, baby,” he panted. “I just want to bury myself inside of you and forget the rest of the world for a while.”

  If he was asking for her permission, she gave it by sliding her hands down his ribcage and cupping his ass, squeezing hard.

  “Oh, God,” he groaned. “I’ve been dreaming about this for two weeks.”

  “I have too,” she admitted, even if it made her an idiot to do so. They were supposed to be broken up, but right now she flipping did not care.

  “Good.” With a slow, satisfied smile, he pushed her shirt upward until he could see her lacy bra. He grinned, obviously liking what he saw. It was her sexiest bra, and she’d put it on today for reasons she refused to admit to herself.

  “You like?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

  “I bet the drool was your first clue.” He chuckled. “You wore this for me.”

  “Maybe.” She refused to admit the truth because it gave him power, and Izzy was all about power and keeping it, even though there were times like this one when she couldn’t remember why it mattered.

  Cooper pushed her bra upward and feasted on her breasts, kissing and licking, even nipping at them until Izzy cried and writhed beneath him. The man was a master at knowing her body and just the right way to drive her to sexual insanity.

  Two could play that game. She unzipped his dress pants and pushed them down. His erection bulged against his underwear. S
he cupped his balls in her hand through his briefs.

  “Izzy, I—”

  “You want to be inside me. Now.”

  “How did you know?”

  “I know you, and I want the same thing.”

  Cooper didn’t wait for a second invitation; he shucked his clothes and the rest of hers in world-record time. He positioned himself between her legs and smiled down at her, like a kid who’d just opened the best Christmas present ever. His cock tickled her opening, and Izzy bit her lower lip to prevent herself from crying out.

  Cooper’s intense blue eyes held hers captive, along with her heart.

  “Cooper,” she gasped.

  “Honey, I need you so badly. I swear I need you like I need breathing,” he said.

  She couldn’t deny she felt the same way so she kept her mouth shut.

  Just as Cooper was about to slide into her warm, happily willing body, he groaned and withdrew.

  “Cooper,” she whined pathetically.

  “I need a condom,” he said, sounding as if he were in physical pain.

  “No, you don’t.” She tried to stop the slow smile from giving her away.

  He stared down at her, open-mouthed. “I don’t?”

  “I’m on birth control.”

  “Birth control?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me this? Damn, honey, you have to know that I would love nothing better that feel us skin to skin with nothing between us, to empty myself into you. Do you have any idea how much that turns me on?”

  “I was saving it. My little gift to you. Then we—well, it was over, and I never got the chance.”

  “But you’re giving it to me now?”

  “Yes, I am.” Because it might be their last time? She didn’t know. What she did know was that she might not be strong enough to make this their last time.

  “I love you.” He looked at her with such love on his face, the realization that no man could ever love her like him struck her hard in the chest.

  “I love you, too, Coop,” she said, meaning every word.

  He slid inside her with a happy groan and began to take her to heaven and all places in between. When he came inside her, and she could feel his seed filling her, she came, too, with an orgasm so powerful it scared the crap out of her.

  Cooper rolled onto his side and hugged her close to him, not speaking until his breathing returned to normal and so did hers.

  “Where do we go from here?” he whispered in her ear.

  “Your bedroom before Riley finds us like this,” Izzy quipped, knowing full well that wasn’t the answer he wanted.

  “Izz, you should be punished for toying with me like that.” He grinned as if the thought of punishing her really appealed to him. It should, because it appealed to her.

  “Is that a promise?” she teased while running a finger along his jaw.

  “Oh, yeah. So answer my question, naughty girl.”

  Izzy blew out a breath. “We take it one day at a time.”

  “Been there before.”

  “Yes, we have, but we have unresolved issues that we may not be able to resolve.” Such as his hatred of Seattle, her refusal to leave her hometown and her family, and his stance on Riley. Especially Riley.

  “Yeah, I know,” he said grimly. He held her that much tighter, as if he couldn’t let her go.

  But the day might come that he would have to let her go, but Izzy didn’t want to think about it.

  She loved that damn man and believed if they were truly meant to be, they’d find a way to work it out. She loved him too much not to try.

  Chapter 20—Gut Feelings

  Cooper couldn’t shake that dark, niggling feeling something bad was going to happen. This deep sense of foreboding lodged in his gut, and he couldn’t get beyond it. It’d hung over him all morning like the stormy gray clouds on Seattle’s horizon.

  He called Izzy that morning, making up a stupid reason just to hear her voice, not that he needed one. She’d spent the night with her sisters, and God, he missed her. Missing her probably explained the dread coursing through him like some crazy-assed premonition. Cooper didn’t believe in that BS, except on the ice. When he was in the zone, he could see where the puck was going before he hit it with his stick. He could feel a defenseman bearing down before he saw him. He knew when a shot was going in before it left his stick.

  But this had nothing to do with the ice and was just his mind playing tricks on him, jerking him around because he’d let Izzy walk out of his life twice, and he was about to let Riley do the same. Only both of them were still there, and he could salvage this. He had time.

  When he’d arrived back from his first long road trip yesterday morning and found Izzy fast asleep on his couch, he had to have her, had to find a way to keep her in his life. The next thing he knew, they were naked and all over each other, just like old times. Even better he’d made love to her without a condom, which was the purest form of heaven known to man, skin to skin, nothing separating them, and emptying his seed into her body had been the most sensual bonding experience he’d ever had.

  Then she’d told him she was spending the evening with her sisters, and he’d spent the night alone in his bed, which probably explained why he was feeling a little out of sorts and full of dread.

  Her sisters? She’d rather spend the night with her sisters when he’d just returned from a two-week road trip? That seemed so wrong. But in an effort to show her how supportive and laid-back he’d become, he told her to have fun and watched her go, hoping she’d come back to his house after a night with her sisters and change her mind about giving him another chance, but she didn’t.

  This morning he drove Riley to school, and the closer he got, the more his gut clenched. He couldn’t explain his reluctance any more than he could explain why he hadn’t sent Riley to live with his parents yet. When they came out to meet Riley, they’d assumed Riley would be going back with them. Only Cooper hedged, claiming that he didn’t want to uproot Riley in the middle of a semester and would wait until winter break.

  The sooner Riley moved out, the sooner Cooper’s life would get back to normal. Only he wasn’t sure he wanted that normal anymore. He used to answer to no one, had no responsibilities except to his team, and had the house all to himself.

  Only there was a big problem. The old normal didn’t appeal to him anymore.

  God, he was so messed up in the head right now.

  “Uncle Coop, are you okay?”

  Cooper jerked himself back to the present. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  Riley’s gaze dissected him as Cooper pulled up in the front of the school.

  Shit.

  Cooper broke out in a cold sweat. His hands fucking shook. His breath came in short gasps, as if he were on the verge of a panic attack. Disgusted with himself, Cooper shook it off, but it took every bit of control he’d learned from years of hockey to do so. He glanced at Riley, whose brow was furrowed with worry.

  Just as his nephew was about to get out of the SUV, Cooper grabbed his arm.

  “Riley.” His voice broke in a rare display of emotion.

  “Yeah?” Riley had his hand on the door as if ready to bolt.

  “Why don’t you play hooky, and we’ll hang out?” The words rushed from Cooper’s mouth before he could stop them.

  Riley stared at him as if he were nuts. “I have a test today, and we have a big pep rally.”

  “Oh, okay. I just—I just want you to know that—” Cooper swallowed. The words stuck in his throat.

  “What?” Riley said with typical teenage impatience.

  “I—uh—I—” Cooper raked his fingers through his hair. “Have a good day.”

  Riley frowned at him, then glanced around quickly as if to make sure none of his friends noticed Cooper being clingy and weird. “Sure.”

  The kid literally leapt from the car.

  Cooper sighed. He couldn’t blame him. Cooper hadn’t exactly been the doting uncle, or even much o
f an uncle at all. Somehow he’d make that up to Riley in the time they had left together.

  Yeah, that’s what he’d do first chance he got.

  * * * *

  Riley sat in the cafeteria surrounded by his buddies, wishing he could bottle this memory and save it forever. It was such a normal kid moment, but it wouldn’t last because Uncle Cooper didn’t want him. He was going to send him away. Even though he was acting all emotional and weird today, Riley refused to get his hopes up. Cooper and Izzy were on the skids, which explained his uncle’s strange behavior more than it explained any feelings Uncle Cooper might have for him.

  Riley wasn’t sure why Cooper hadn’t sent him away yet, especially when his grandma and grandpa came to visit. He’d been certain they’d come to get him. Only they left without him. They were nice people, but they weren’t Cooper and Izzy.

  If Riley were staying, he’d find a way to get those two back together. They’d been missing each other ever since they split up. It was stupid. They were meant for each other, but they were too stubborn to admit it. Riley had caused all this somehow. His mom had always told him that he was in the way, and everything bad was usually his fault.

  Riley looked over at the next table. Gina caught his eye and smiled. Riley’s heart thumped in his chest.

  Gina was hot, like the hottest girl in his class and lately she’d been paying attention to him. At first, he’d been confused because girls like Gina never paid attention to him. Besides, he was still stinging from the rejection of his former girlfriend. Okay, so he’d only actually met her once at the party Izzy took him to, but they’d had a virtual relationship ever since. Until a few nights ago when she’d told him she liked another guy who went to her school.

  Tonight the varsity team had a playoff game, and the cafeteria buzzed with excitement, especially at the jock table where Riley sat. Freshman jocks, that is. The older guys sat at a table nearby, joking and laughing, and being general dicks. When Riley got to be a senior, he’d never be a dick. He’d be a nice guy to everyone and not be mean to anyone.

  Riley heard a pop like some joker was popping a plastic bag. Next to him Gabe clutched his chest and fell to the floor, clowning around like he always did. Riley rolled his eyes and glanced around at his buddies. Wide-eyed, they were staring at the seat that Gabe had been sitting in. A couple of them looked at something over his shoulder, horror on their faces. Riley frowned, feeling like he was missing something.