by RJ Scott
Kat’s eyes widened a little. If Ryan didn’t know her so well, he would have missed it.
The scarlet dress hugged every part of her small, shapely body; simple material that highlighted every one of her assets: the flare of her hips, her full breasts… he focused momentarily on the pulse he could see at the base of her neck.
Right where he wanted to kiss her.
Right where he’d wanted to kiss her for a very long time.
Get your hands off her.
The surge of lust and need blindsided him. He ignored Evan, and after no more than a moment’s hesitation, he held out a hand, which, after her own pause, she took.
“I need to talk to you,” he began, tugging her away.
She left with him, allowing him to lead her away.
As they passed a waiter, he snagged a glass of champagne as smoothly as possible from the man’s tray. He headed right to the corner where he had hidden before. It was blissfully empty—Loki’s meds must have worked, allowing him to go back to the event.
He indicated she should take a seat.
Kat sat without argument, stretching out one leg and rotating her ankle before doing the same thing with the other one.
As he handed over the champagne, Ryan blurted, “I thought you were done.”
She frowned and sipped at the bubbles. “Not until midnight.”
“I didn’t mean the event. I meant with him.”
She didn’t even pretend not to understand him. “I’m not with Evan anymore. Didn’t Loki tell you?”
He snorted with disbelief. “Evan was all over you.”
“He’s… it’s….”
Ryan crouched down next to her, just so he’d be on her level. He hated that Evan had touched her when she’d told him they were done. “You need to tell him. Don’t give him the wrong signals.”
She frowned. “I’m not… I wasn’t. He’s a friend.”
“You didn’t exactly push him away.” His anger was building—not at Kat, never at her—at Evan who had touched way more of her than he would ever be allowed to again, but still hadn’t been top of the list for coming to rescue her from a cop precinct. The thing is he was losing control of himself, and saying all the wrong things. Of course Kat wasn’t encouraging anything; he didn’t even see it that way. He was just freaking jealous and he knew it.
Somehow he, Ryan, was the one who’d been friend-zoned.
“You wanted me to cause a scene? Ryan—”
What didn't she understand here? “You can’t be friends with a man.”
“Last I saw you’re a man, and I’m friends with you,” she snapped, and then frowned as if she realized she’d said it too loud and regretted the volume, if not the words.
He stood up and left before he said something stupid, leaving the champagne and grabbing another bottle of water, bypassing players and guests and heading for the bar. If he couldn’t bring himself to talk to Kat, then he needed to go right to the source. He spotted Evan moving toward the bathrooms. He didn’t even hesitate, following him in so fast that the door hadn’t even closed when he pushed in.
Evan looked back, startled as the door smacked the wall, and then he paled, cowed just as Ryan liked his adversaries. Ryan didn’t feel one moment of guilt.
It was what he did. Intimidation was his thing. But this was more than that; this was making sure Kat was okay.
“Flynn.” Evan, eyes wide, choked the name out on a cough.
“Evan.”
They stood in a face-off until Evan cleared his throat and scurried into the nearest stall.
Ryan waited. Taking the time to wash his hands, as though he had every reason to be in here in the bathroom.
When Evan came out, he had more color in his face and he actually looked Ryan in the eyes. “You have something to say?” he said. Which was kind of brave, actually, given Ryan was bigger, angrier, and physically inclined to shove men into walls.
On the ice, that was.
“Sorry to hear you and Kat broke up.” Ryan placed his hands under the dryer.
Evan’s jaw dropped, and the noise of the dryer drowned out whatever he wanted to say back.
After Evan had washed his hands, Ryan held the door open for him, gesturing for him to go out first. Straight into the path of Loki, who first glowered at Evan, then looked past him and half smiled at Ryan.
Evan ran—or walked very fast, at least—and Loki shifted his weight from one crutch to the other.
“I didn’t see any blood,” Loki remarked.
Ryan shook his head. “I didn’t hit him. Just looked at him and gave him my condolences on breaking up with Kat.”
“You just looked at him?” Loki asked, disbelief in his tone. “Kat came over and said she was worried you were beating on him. I had to pretend to care.”
“Nope, no killing. I told him how sorry I was he and Kat broke up.”
Loki stared at him and then over at Kat. Ryan followed his look. Kat, her back to them, was talking to her paramedic partner, Ally, and the same two guys who had found Ryan in the corner and talked hockey to him.
“Well played, my friend,” Loki said with a smirk. He awkwardly fist-bumped Ryan. Then he sighed. “What she saw in that asshole, I’ll never know.”
Ryan didn’t imagine that Loki was actually looking for an answer to that because he just carried on talking. “She needs to find a nice surgeon or something, have kids, get out of that damned ambulance.”
Ryan winced. The idea of Kat with a surgeon, or hell, with anyone, had him feeling out of sorts.
“What about a nice hockey player?” he suggested with a shrug.
“There is no such thing as a nice hockey player,” Loki grumped. “Just guys wanting to get off in between games.
“There are some nice guys you know.” Me, for instance.
Then Loki narrowed his eyes. “What the hell Ryan? You see something? One of the guys on her? Was it one of the twins? Simba? I’ll kill them.”
“No, just, fuck, Loki, hockey players grow up.”
“Not with my sister they don’t.”
“Loki—“
“We’ll find her a surgeon or something,” Loki said, and with that, the conversation was at an end.
A group moved their way, opened the conversation about the new season and Loki’s charity, so Ryan eased himself away, taking note that Evan was leaving.
Score one for the intimidating bad guy with a veneer of polite.
He mingled a little, keeping to the edges of the crowd, nodding politely, chatting to some briefly, but it seemed his ability to only snap out one-line answers was enough to have people backing off.
And at all times, without trying to make it look obvious, he had Kat in his sights. When he finally made it to her side, she was smiling, her eyes bright with humor.
“This is going so well,” she murmured, and Ryan couldn’t help but smile back.
A tall, skinny man, all hard angles and big round glasses, stopped by her side.
“Kathryn, what a wonderful evening. I am so pleased you talked me into this.” Tall and Skinny laid an arm over her shoulder, like he was allowed to, like he had a right to touch her as intimately as Evan had done. He didn’t even acknowledge Ryan was there at first, but then did this awkward and obvious second look as though he’d only just noticed six four of hockey player right goddamn there.
Something inside Ryan snapped into place; he could handle this. Too often he’d be chatting to a girl and a boyfriend would turn up. This was the crap he faced, the boyfriend making sure that the hockey player with a reputation knew exactly what was going on with the girl in the triangle. Tall and Skinny wanted Kat, and Ryan saw red.
Scarlet splashed vividly on his brain, and that scared him.
“So this is one of your hockey players,” Tall and Skinny said patronizingly. “Which one are you?”
They were the same height, and the guy extended his free hand to shake.
Ryan took it.
“This is Ryan Fly
nn, a defenseman for the Dragons,” Kat said. Ryan really couldn’t mistake the pride in her voice. “Ryan, this is Bennett Sutherland, a surgeon at the hospital.”
As she spoke, she shook this Bennett guy’s hold away, but she didn’t do it obviously, more as a small sidestep to the left that looked as if she was just reaching for a passing drink. Ryan wasn’t normally the most observant with facial expressions, but he was an expert in body language from years on the ice, and Kat’s was telling him one hell of a lot.
“Heart surgeon,” Bennett added with obvious self-importance. He moved close to her again, and Kat shot him a sideways glance.
She didn’t want this guy touching her. She wanted to get away.
And in Ryan’s head that translated as one thing: she needed his help. Ryan briefly looked for Loki, without making it obvious, but couldn’t see him straight off, and this was happening right now.
She hadn’t asked for help, but Ryan was one of the good guys. He might not stay with a woman for longer than a night, but he could step up and be their hero for as long as it lasted. And hell, he was happy to be Kat’s hero just for tonight. He’d already done it once with Evan, and that had gone well enough.
He fumbled with the glass of water, caught himself, and knocked into Bennett, getting his attention away from her. Everything happened in a millisecond, and between him and Kat, they were dealing with the guy and his touchy-feely shit.
“My bad,” Ryan said, placing his drink very deliberately on the nearest table before straightening his tie.
“Hmmm.” Bennett brushed at an invisible mark that he evidently felt Ryan had left, before he narrowed his eyes. “Kathryn here interned with me for a few weeks some summers ago.”
Ryan didn’t have to be an expert to see her stiffen at that, nor the way she wouldn’t look at Ryan.
Ryan interjected, “It must be nice having an older mentor.” He couldn’t fail to see Kat’s lips twitch at that. “Now, if you’ll excuse us. Kathryn, your brother was looking for you,” In a smooth move, he placed a hand under Kat’s elbow and guided her away, ignoring the tension in her and heading straight out of the main door and into the bar.
Ryan dived in immediately. “Do I need to kill him?” She didn’t answer, so he forged ahead. “Does Loki know he had his hands on you? Wait, hell, is he your new boyfriend? Is that why you split up with Evan?”
She just looked up at him and said nothing. A hundred things passed between them, but all he could focus on was the way the tip of her tongue moistened her lips and her brow furrowed in a frown.
“You just can’t stop, can you?” she said with a rather vague, sad smile. “I can handle him like I handled Evan,” she murmured. Then she slipped free of Ryan’s hold and went back into the room.
Ryan returned to his seat at the bar. Life was a confusing mess of caring too much and not caring enough, and he was angry and tired and stupidly, pathetically jealous, and he wanted to kiss Kat. It was only ten, and he’d already seen off one ex, restraining himself from pummeling said ex after the guy laid hands on Kat.
Then Ryan had gotten territorial over that surgeon idiot.
But in the middle, right in the damn middle of it all, was Kat.
Two more hours of this… at least. And no game tomorrow.
“Vodka,” he announced to the bartender in the quiet bar. “And make it a double.”
CHAPTER 9
The itch between her shoulder blades was enough to have Kat looking behind her. Ryan was lurking, watching her like he’d done all night, and she’d had to deal with Evan flouncing off stating that Ryan Flynn was nothing but a Neanderthal. That offended her because that was her word for Ryan and no one else was allowed to use it.
She now had Bennett the Touchy-Feely Surgeon looking at her as if she’d pissed in his Wheaties.
“It’s not like they save lives,” he was saying. Again. “I get they are paid a lot of money. I heard your brother’s latest deal was for $17 million.”
“I don’t know,” she lied. This wasn’t a conversation she liked to have. What her brother did or didn’t earn was none of her business, but of course everyone knew anyway, given it was on the Internet for anyone to find.
“For pushing a puck on ice.” He snorted and swallowed the dregs of his eighth or ninth wine.
“The players are marketing machines,” she said. Then wished she hadn’t when she realized she’d engaged with him. “And they work damned hard at what they do, and also for their charities.”
He began talking at her, statistics and money, and she couldn’t find a polite way to interject and get away, until finally he paused for breath and quickly she said she needed to find Ally.
Anything to get away.
God save her from boring men who felt like she needed their opinions on anything and everything. She was ten minutes from midnight. Ten long minutes to wrapping this up. She spent the time checking in with various groups, aware of Ryan watching her every move.
The fact he watched her made her half-nervous and half-angry. She hadn’t asked him here to be her silent protector, but ever since the gas station attack, she’d had either him or Nicky worrying about her. Earlier she’d seen a very serious conversation between Nicky and Ryan, with narrowed looks cast her way. She knew exactly what Nicky was saying. “Keep an eye on that surgeon and the ex, okay? Look after Kat. Don’t let anyone touch her.” Because that is what her brother did best. She understood he’d been left with the responsibility of a younger sister, she knew he was protective, but sometimes she just wanted to poke at him and shout that she was capable of looking after herself.
Even in the gas station she’d had it under control.
Kind of.
At least she’d been talking the assailant down; he’d been listening to her, and then he’d kissed her.
Nicky left at eleven, Simba helping him to the car and driving him home. Two hockey players down.
Ally was still there, chatting to one of the waiters, curling her long blonde hair around her fingers and smiling at him in that suggestive way she did best. When she left with him, passing Kat a wink, Kat was relieved. Ally hadn’t gone home with one of the twins, or god forbid, Ryan. She didn’t want Ally to be another notch on a very busy goalpost.
The twins came over, said goodbye, hugged her and left, and it seemed as soon as they’d gone people began to leave. She couldn’t even see Ryan; he was probably lurking in the bar, or behind a plant. Who knew.
Finally, with everyone gone, she took off her heels and stood in the middle of the room as staff cleared away the event.
“You probably need this.”
Ryan’s voice at her side, and she turned to face him, another three inches lower than she had been and at a distinct disadvantage.
“I thought you’d gone home.”
“Without saying goodbye?” He placed a hand on his chest. “I’m wounded.”
“Go home,” she ordered, then took the water bottle from his hand.
“I’ll call us a cab. We’ll share it home.”
“We live in opposite directions Ryan, I’ll be fine.”
He shrugged, but he didn’t move, a wall of sexy right there, front and center.
She sighed noisily. “Did Nicky ask you to take me home?”
Another shrug.
“How the hell I manage without my bonehead brother and his stupid friends when I’m on duty out there in the big bad world, I don’t know.” The words were a mutter, but she saw the twitch of a smile on Ryan’s lips. Ryan’s beautiful full lips. The lips she’d like to taste again.
They had a ten-minute wait for the taxi, and she replaced her heels to walk out to the front of the hotel. The midnight air was cool, and she was thinking about them heading back inside when Ryan’s jacket settled on her shoulders. She automatically attempted to shrug it off. “You’ll get cold.”
“I work on the ice,” he said.
Evidently no arguments tonight.
She snuggled into the warm fabric ea
sily enough to wrap it around her. The jacket fell almost to her knees. Ryan had always been big, way bigger than Loki, and wider, but she recalled him when he’d been skinnier, before he put on the weight that he needed for the game.
They moved away from the brightness of the hotel light to the small seating area off to one side, but neither of them sat there.
“Tonight went well,” Ryan stated.
She nodded. She’d been thrown into this without much notice when Nicky had taken the hit and ended up in the hospital, but between her and Ally they’d actually managed the event. Of course, she hadn’t done the legwork—Nicky had done that the year before, and it remained the same—but the small details, like selling the final tickets at the hospital, had been all her. “Thanks.”
“You look beautiful tonight,” he added. He reached out a hand and cradled her face. “So determined and controlled.”
She wasn’t sure whether that was a compliment. “Controlled….” she repeated.
“And beautiful,” he pointed out again.
“Thank you.”
“All I wanted to do was stand next to you.”
“I didn’t need you watching over me all night.”
“I wanted to watch the most beautiful woman in the room.”
“That is the worst line,” she began to tease, but she stopped because his expression had changed from playful to something else altogether.
He glanced at her lips and then back up to meet her gaze. “The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
He moved his hand a little, and the roughness of his palm skimmed her skin.
Kat didn’t know what to say, pressing her cheek to the palm in a kind of silent thank you. Only that might have been the wrong thing to do because his eyes widened and his breath hitched a little. “Ryan?” She said his name because words just weren’t forming in her head.
“You remember that kiss?”
“Yes. It helped, thank you.” Why was she thanking him? She was losing her mind.
“Not the one you needed after the attack, the first one after your prom.”