Cross Drop

by Elizabeth Hartey

  Epilogue II

  Nikki

  I’m glad we didn’t sit in the executive suite the wives and families of most of the players sit in. I love being this close to the ice when Dalt skates out with his new teammates for the first time. I have a huge goofy ear to ear smile covering my face. I’m so proud of him and his decision to free himself from his father’s shackles and do what he’s wanted to do since he was a little boy. When I point him out to Chloe as he skates by and glances over during their warm up, she nearly bounces off my lap laughing and clapping and yelling for her “Dada.” And when Dalt scores his first two goals of his professional career, I’m cheering so loud I’m grateful for the sparkly pink noise reduction headphones Trace bought for Chloe.

  As I watch him move up and down the ice, my heart races in pride and love. And lust. I’m fangirling hard for my guy. When he skates up to the boards after the game and places his hands on the Plexiglas for Chloe and me, I fall madly in love with him all over. I’m ready to climb over the boards and start peeling off his uniform on the spot.

  “Hurry up,” I mouth through the glass and lick my lips. His eyes go all dark and smoldering, telling me he gets the message. He pushes his way through the other guys already heading down the tunnel into the locker room.

  “We’re going to stop for food and a few beers at the Flying Puck before heading back to your house,” Dak says to me. “You want us to wait until Dalt’s done showering or you want to meet us there?”

  Everyone is staying at our house for the weekend. It’s one of the reasons I’m glad Dalt convinced me we needed the monstrosity of a house. It’s big enough for everyone to stay before they have to go back to school or work. At the moment, I’m even happier Dalt and I will have an hour or two before they get back to the house. What can I say? We never got to have an official honeymoon, and besides, I’m a sucker for a man in hockey pads.

  “No. We’re going to head home to get Chloe to bed. I’ll have a bottle of wine open and waiting for you guys and hopefully a sleeping two-year-old not waiting.”

  “Okay. See you in a few.” Dak gives me a hug.

  “We’ll take our time,” Tracey whispers in my ear when it’s her turn to hug me. She gives me a sly wink before bending and kissing Chloe on the cheek. What’d I tell ya? Us girls gotta stick together in this whole love thing.

  Even though Dalt takes what could be considered a record breaking quick shower, Chloe is already asleep in my arms when I meet him outside the locker room door. Dalt slips her into her car seat as gently as possible and hurries to get behind the steering wheel. I’m already buckled in and bouncing my knees with nervous anticipation.

  When we get to the house, I unlock the door and Dalt gingerly carries Chloe upstairs to lay her down in her crib. I don’t even bother to change her clothes because I had changed her diaper before we left the arena and she’s wearing a comfy fleece one-piece outfit. No need to risk waking her up. I turn on the baby monitor and we tiptoe down the hallway to our bedroom like two kids trying to be quiet enough to catch Santa leaving presents.

  “Get your pads,” I urge Dalt, tearing my clothes off. He needs no instruction from me, He’s already half naked, rummaging through the closet for his hockey pads.

  Just as we’re about to get into the roleplay we discussed on the way home, the sound of a darling little girl blasts through the baby monitor on our nightstand. If she could verbalize her thoughts I’m sure they would go something like, “Not so fast, you guys.”

  Dalt blows out a big breath. “I got it.” He takes a step toward the bedroom door.

  “Uh, babe…maybe you better…” I gesture toward my favorite part of his body which was just beginning to say hello to me. He’s standing there with nothing on but his hockey pads and I have to rub my legs together to keep myself from dropping him to the floor and having my way with him right this second. Told ya, I’m a sucker for a hockey player, but a hockey player in nothing but his shoulder pads, especially the one I happen to be insanely in love with…well, stick a fork in me and consider me done. My ovaries are jumping up and down like a cheerleader at a pep rally.

  “Oh, right.” He grabs his robe from the hook on the closet door and hurries to Chloe’s room.

  While he’s out of the room, I change into the new lacy bra and thong panties I was saving for a special occasion. Do we need to roleplay to keep things exciting? Hell to the no squared! Just the sound of his keys in the door gets my lady engine running. And if Dalt hears me make the slightest breathy sound he perceives to be a sigh or a moan, he’s on me like white on rice.

  I was on the patio the other day setting the table for lunch and I sneezed. I’m not sure where Dalt was at the time, but he came flying out of the house, threw me down on one of the lounge chairs and…let’s just say he had an appetizer before lunch.

  The role play was something we came up with in the car on the drive home tonight, when Dalt saw how hard I was crushing on my very own pro hockey player.

  “Hey, sweetheart. Shh, shh, Daddy’s here. I thought you and I had a deal?” I can hear Dalt with Chloe through the monitor speaker. Every few seconds I hear a soft kissing sound and quiet soothing words. Chloe’s no longer crying. She’s cooing, I assume in her daddy’s arms. Dalt has that effect on women of all ages.

  “I told you if you were a very good girl and stayed asleep me and Mommy would make you a baby brother or sister, remember?”

  Say what, now?

  Not that I’m opposed to the idea. Having tons of Dalt’s beautiful babies is fine by me. Well, not tons. Some, some of Dalt’s beautiful babies is fine by me. But I didn’t even know he was thinking about having another baby right now. I’m not sure I’m ready for another tiny human.

  Then when Dalt starts singing “Hush Little Baby” in a soft voice and I hear the creaking of the rocking chair as he serenades his baby girl, my heart melts and does its pitter patter skip a beat thing all at the same time. Bring on every one of those baby-making sperm. I’m telling you, Prince Charming has nothing on this man.

  A few minutes later Dalt comes rushing back into the room and closes the door behind him

  “That kid of yours is real cute, but she’s quite a little cock blocker. She’s finally sleeping.”

  “Eeew, Dalt. It’s just wrong to talk about cock blocking in the same sentence as your baby girl.”

  “Sorry. Just trying to stay in character. Now, where were we?” he asks, stalking toward me. He’s not usually in this much of a hurry, but between the possibility of Chloe waking up and our friends coming back from the bar, Dalt’s on a mission to get back to our game.

  “You found me waiting outside the locker room and when I asked you to sign my boobs you scooped me up into your arms, threw me in your car, and brought me back to your place to fuck my brains out.”

  “Right,” Dalt says, dropping his robe to the floor.

  Oh God. The sight of his muscled chest and thighs wrapped up like a sweet gift for me in hockey pads has my legs quivering.

  “Wow! Mr. Hockey Man. Do you think your big, hard, hockey stick can come out to play?” I purr in what I imagine is a sexy fangirl voice.

  “Mr. Hockey Man?” Dalt chuckles. “No puck bunny would ever say that, Nik. I love you, but you’re a terrible puck bunny.”

  “Oh, is that so?” I drop the robe I had slipped on while he was out of the room, revealing the lacy strings of fabric underneath.

  “Holy shit, Nik!” Dalt takes another step toward me.

  “Uh, uh, uh. There’s no Nik here, hockey boy.”

  “What? I’ve been demoted from hockey man to hockey boy, now?”

  “Yup. You said I was a terrible puck bunny.”

  “You are, but you’re my gorgeous, sexy, delicious, favorite wife in the whole world.” He closes the space between us and wraps his arms around my waist.

  “Very sweet, but you’re ruining the whole thing.” I pretend to pout because I’m already aching so hard for him I’m about to push him agains
t the wall and use his pads as leverage for climbing assistance.

  “Okay. Let’s see. I want you so bad…uh…what’s your name? Cathy? Kelly?”

  “Candy.”

  “Right. Candy. I’m so hard for you, Candy. Get down on your knees and suck me off,” he commands in faux Christian Grey style.

  There’s nothing faux about his cock being as hard as iron for me. It’s throbbing against my stomach hard enough to cause a bruise.

  “Oh, look whose big, hard, hockey stick is up off the ice and ready to take a slapshot.” I run my hand down his thick shaft.

  “Fuck, Nik…uh…Candy. You’re killing me here. Forget the game. I need you, so bad.”

  “Aww. Let Candy help you out with your big problem.” I gaze up at my perfect husband from my kneeling position and proceed to do just that. I assist his big, strong, hockey stick in shooting and scoring. In fact, Dalt has no problem in keeping it scoring over and over for the next two hours.

  As Dalt gazes into my eyes after sliding out of me for the third time he says, “I don’t need you to be Candy or Cathy or any other puck bunny. I just need you to be my one and only fan girl, Nik, because dammit, I love you.” He places a soft kiss on my lips.

  I glance at the infinity tattoo on his forearm, where the word ‘Chloe’ has been added to one of the curves. I kiss him back. “I dammit love you too.”

  “I mean it, Nik. I love you with all my heart. Thank you for being mine.”

  Did I mention how lucky I am? Have I changed my mind about there being no such things as happily ever afters and fairytale love stories? Absolutely. Because it may have taken us a few detours along the way, but Dalt and I have found our happy ever after. And we’re living a better fairytale love story than I could have ever even imagined.

  Cross Drop Playlist

  Pink - Julia Michaels

  We Could Be Heroes – Alesso

  Let’s Marvin Gaye and Get It On – Charlie Puth

  I’ll Make Love to you – Boys II Men

  Why – Bazzi

  Havana – Camila Cabello

  Drunk in Love – Beyonce

  Never Again – Kelly Clarkson

  Romeo and Juliet – Nino Rota

  Perfect – Ed Sheeran

  BEFORE YOU GO…

  DON’T MISS OUT!

  Would you like to be a part of our FREEBIE FRIDAY LIST and get 6 FREE eBooks and other exclusive sales sent to your inbox every Friday?

  One email every week packed with bookish goodies!

  We send out different genres such as Romance, Suspense, Thriller, Westerns, Paranormal, New Adult, and much more! If you’d like to join over 53,000+ subscribers, click below to be a part of FREEBIE FRIDAY…

  Join FREEBIE FRIDAY!

  Who doesn’t love a good eBook bargain?

  Now, imagine receiving daily eBook sales straight to your inbox…Bookworm heaven!

  Sign up for the BOOKSHARK NEWSLETTER and don’t miss out on epic eBook sales ever again!

  BECOME A BOOKSHARK

  Do you crave books that make your skin sizzle? Your toes curl? Your heart race?

  Do you crave the edgier kind of romance where the hero isn’t always the good guy?

  Join the CRAVE LIST and receive emails with exclusive giveaways and information on Crave Publishing’s titles that will have you glued to your Kindle, craving more.

  JOIN CRAVE

  Acknowledgements

  First, I have to thank the team at Limitless Publishing. You guys rock. Working with you on this series is a dream come true. But the level of efficiency from the team at Limitless makes the difficult job of writing an easier dream to achieve and I’m so grateful.

  To my editor, Felicia. Thank you once again for your feedback and attention to detail. You make me fall in love with my characters even more.

  To the team at Deranged Doctor Design, thank you so much for the beautiful covers. You capture the essence of my heroes perfectly.

  Thank you to all the bloggers who work so hard to help get the info about my books out there to readers. Your tireless efforts to help spread the word are amazing and I love you for everything you do.

  To my family, thank you for putting up with the hours I spend locked in my office creating my stories and characters. I wouldn’t be able to do any of this without your support and input.

  Finally, to my readers, I can’t say thank you enough for reading my stories and helping me fulfill a lifelong dream of sending the characters in my head out into the world. I appreciate each and every one of you and the time you take to talk about and review my books. Your support is inspiration for me to keep working diligently to make my writing stimulating and fun (and of course, swoony.) Stay tuned for bad boy Wolfe and sweet innocent, Heaven’s story.

  See you between the ‘covers’.

  Love,

  Elizabeth Hartey

  About the Author

  As a lover of the northeast United States, Elizabeth moved with her husband to the Poconos several years ago to open a Chiropractic Clinic. Four children and a menagerie of animals later, she has finally found time to fulfill her lifelong dream of writing novels. A dreamer at heart, romance is the genre she spends most of her time writing and reading into the wee hours of the morning. When not juggling work responsibilities and writing, she enjoys hiking the beautiful hills and woods around her home, swimming, knitting, travelling, and spending time with her family. She is an avid hockey fan, which means she has to compromise with her husband, one night of hockey for her, in exchange for one night of football for him.

  Facebook:

  www.facebook.com/EHarteyauthor

  Website:

  https://www.elizabethhartey.com

  Twitter:

  @drliz5

  Newsletter:

  http://eepurl.com/cZCEuL

  Instagram:

  Drelizabethhartey

  Author Central:

  www.amazon.com/author/elizabethhartey

  Author E-Mail:

  Elizabethartey@gmail.com