Outside the Box

by Rochelle Paige

  “What?” he asked. “Was I supposed to pretend like I didn’t hear your whole conversation?”

  I looked down at the floor, torn between the desire to die from either laughter or embarrassment. “That works me for me.”

  “Go,” Lexi ordered as she pointed at the door. “You’re stuck on honey-do duties after that.” She handed him the shopping list from the fridge and shoved him towards the door.

  He went along with it but stopped before leaving. “I get why you don’t want me to be part of this conversation, Aubrey, because it’s kind of awkward for me too. But for what it’s worth, I don’t think you need to worry about anything with Luka. Just give him the green flag and go along for the ride. Guys aren’t super complicated. He just wants you to say yes.”

  “Drake—” Lexi spit out as she pointed at the door again.

  “No,” I interrupted her. “Thanks, Drake. It is super awkward, but I appreciate your sharing a guy’s point of view with me.”

  “Well, then I’ll leave you with one more word of wisdom. Lingerie,” he said as he walked out the door, shutting it quickly so Lexi didn’t slam it in his face.

  “So, that was awkward,” Lexi sighed. “Sorry. I should have warned you that he was still here and has really good hearing.”

  “Well, at least we know my advice to you last year when you went to his parents’ for Thanksgiving was good and he appreciated what I told you to pack,” I said in a feeble attempt to stop myself from thinking about what just happened.

  “Oh, I had no doubts about that,” Lexi said dreamily.

  “So what type of lingerie does one wear to a hockey game?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure, but my guess is the sexy kind,” Lexi offered.

  I could practically feel the wicked gleam that was shining from my eyes as I thought about what I would wear tonight. “Then I guess it’s a good thing that that’s the only kind I own.”

  “Tonight’s the night for sure?” Lexi asked.

  “Oh yes,” I agreed. “Tonight is definitely the night.”

  ****

  By the time I made it to the hockey rink, I was incredibly turned on. I’d spent the last two hours thinking about the upcoming night and getting ready to blow Luka’s mind. I took extra time in the shower making sure I shaved all the important parts and then some. I massaged in my favorite Victoria’s Secret body lotion so my skin was super soft and smelled sexy. I repainted my toes with another coat of the bright-red polish I’d used last and decided to do my fingernails in the same color. I’d caught Luka staring at my toes this morning, so I thought he liked it. And that he’d like it even more when my nails ran across his skin and my hand wrapped around my cock. Guys were visual creatures, and I wanted to send him into sensory overload tonight. I was dying to make him lose control.

  Plus, the color went very well with the bra and panties I’d selected. They were cream silk with red-lace trim. They were incredibly sexy but not very practical, which was perfect for what I had in mind for tonight. The panties had cream ribbons that tied on each of my hips, and the clasp on the front of my bra had a small matching bow. It made me feel like a present Luka could unwrap later.

  Each selection I’d made while getting ready tonight had turned me on even more because I knew I’d been making them with Luka in mind. Any lingering uncertainties had already been wiped away as I pulled on the tight-fitting Blythe College hockey shirt I’d bought at the bookstore on my way to the dorm from Lexi’s. The combination of my bra and the V-neck of my shirt did excellent things to my tits. I’d have to be careful bending over at the rink or I might accidentally flash someone with more boob than I’d intended.

  I paired the shirt with my favorite jeans and knee-high boots. I’d seen Luka staring at my boots before, and based on the fact that Jackson had insisted on calling them my ‘stripper boots,’ I could guess what had been running through his head when he’d been doing it. By the time, I’d been ready to go, I’d felt ready for anything tonight threw at me.

  I’d decided to walk to the rink since I planned to ride back to Luka’s apartment with him after the game. It was a beautiful night out, and I had hoped the walk would allow me to cool down from being so hot and bothered. My ticket was waiting for me at will call just like Luka had promised, and he’d managed to get me a seat right behind the bench on the glass.

  “Hi,” a pretty redheaded girl who was already seated greeted me. “Are you Aubrey by any chance?”

  “Hello,” I said, returning her greeting with a smile. “Yes, I am.”

  “It’s so nice to meet you,” she replied. “I’m Lucy. My boyfriend is the goalie who’s playing in net tonight.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I said as I offered her my hand to shake.

  “I usually drag one of my friends out to the games, but I was so excited when Alex asked me if Luka could have one of my tickets tonight,” she said.

  “I appreciate you letting me steal your friend’s seat.”

  She waved away my thanks. “Oh, trust me. It’s nothing. You’re probably doing me a favor because most of my friends prefer to come to games when Alex is riding the bench because I’m always a nervous wreck when he’s in the net. Now I don’t have to worry about pissing one of them off. Or try to pretend like I’m not freaking out all night so they don’t get mad at me and end up biting all my nails off or something.”

  “Feel free to be as worried as you’d like with me here,” I reassured her. “I don’t mind. I’ve never been to a game before, so I won’t even know when to be concerned for Luka.”

  “A hockey virgin?” Lucy squealed and then looked at me apologetically. “Sorry. I tend to be inappropriate from time to time. Feel free to ignore me as much as you’d like or let me know if my big mouth starts to get to you.”

  “Now why would I do that to the girl who’s going to help me pop my hockey cherry?” I teased.

  “Oh thank fuck you aren’t prissy. A lot of the other girlfriends are, so I never hang out with them. It just sucks that it took Luka until his senior year to find you or I could have had someone fun to hang out with all this time,” she lamented. “But at least we met so early in the season.”

  “Is Alex a senior too?” I asked.

  “No, we’re both juniors,” she replied. “We’ve been together since freshmen year, so I’m not one of those hockey bunnies who moves from player to player.”

  “Hockey bunnies?” I quizzed, surprised by the reference.

  “Yup,” she quipped. “And boy oh boy, am I excited to see the looks on their slutty faces when they realize that Luka is off the market again. Not that he’s given them the time of day before, but with him finally being single this year, I know some of them were hoping to get their nails into him.”

  I lifted my hands in the air in and made a cat-claw gesture with my pretty, red nails. “Too late. I’ve got mine in him already and he likes it that way.”

  “I’m sure he does,” she replied as the team got ready to get onto the rink.

  I didn’t have to wait long to find Luka amongst his teammates. He had a big “A” stitched onto the front of his jersey, and when he turned to say something to one of the guys, I saw that his number was five. It made me chuckle because it turned out to be a very lucky number for me since he was my fifth tutor. He flashed me a grin when he looked towards where I was sitting in the stands and I felt my panties melt just a little bit more.

  “Oh yeah. He definitely likes you right where you’re at,” Lucy said, drawing my attention away from the ice. She turned her head to look farther up to a group of girls who were glaring daggers down at us. “And the bunnies already seem to know who you are. You definitely disappointed lots of girls tonight who had their sights set on catching Luka now that he was single.”

  “Too bad for them that I’ve snapped him up seeing as his ex was stupid enough to let him go,” I muttered, returning their glare for a moment.

  “Yeah, I heard from Alex what his slut-bag ex did to him. Never got
to meet her, but the girl had to be crazy to pull a stunt like that on a guy like Luka,” she gossiped.

  “Lucky for me though,” I reminded her.

  “True enough,” she agreed.

  “You’ve been coming to games for the last two years and never met Kat?” “I know it sounds weird, but from what I heard, she never came to campus for any of his games. Never went to any of his away games, even when they weren’t too far from her school. And never went to any of the tournaments, which are a hell of a lot of fun,” Lucy answered.

  Her answer blew me away and gave me a little more insight into Luka’s relationship with his ex. I’d wondered how he could possibly have put their breakup behind him so quickly, but it sounded like they’d already started to grow apart way before then. It made me sad for him while it also made me feel even more hopeful for what was building between the two of us, because there was no way in hell I’d ever take him for granted like that.

  “I hope I can make one of the tournaments then,” I said.

  “You’re here tonight and have only been dating Luka for what a week?”

  I nodded in response.

  “There you go, then. I bet you will,” she said before turning to blow kisses at a guy on the ice. “That’s my Alex.”

  I watched the guys skate during warm-ups. Luka was a tall guy, but he looked huge out there on his skates with all his gear on. Every once in a while, he’d glance up at me with a grin on his face, making it clear that he was very happy I was there to catch the game. Knowing that his ex hadn’t bothered to come to any over the last three years and seeing for myself that it pleased him for me to be in the stands cheering him on, I made myself a promise to catch as many games as I could.

  Lucy proved to be a godsend because she was able to explain all the rules to me because they were so confusing. The refs blew the whistle so often that it was hard to tell why they did it each time. Lucy tried to tell me about not being able to cross the blue line when the puck wasn’t in the offensive zone or else you’d be called for being off-sides. Since Luka was on defense, that didn’t seem to be a problem for him. But sometimes he would send the puck all the way across the ice and the other goalie would wave his teammates off so the ref would call Luka’s team for icing. So many darn whistles blowing.

  I was impressed by how well everyone skated. They were so fast on the ice, but I was stunned by how hard they hit each other. Luka seemed to be particularly good at checking other players when they came onto his side of the ice with the puck. He spent a lot of time on the ice with Jason, skating out at the same time as him. You could tell they’d played together for a long time because they seemed to know what the other one was going to do before it happened. They switched sides of the ice, back and forth, depending on where the puck was and who could get to it fast enough.

  By the end of the second period, the score was tied 2-2. None of the other team’s goals had been scored while Luka and Jason had been on the ice, which Lucy explained was a good thing. She was fidgeting in her seat, upset that Alex had let two goals slip past him.

  “Dammit,” she muttered as the final period started. “I hope they don’t lose this one. Alex will be so mad at himself for letting that last goal get in. He was screened for the first one so he couldn’t see it coming, but that second one was all him.”

  I reached out and held her hand as the game continued, pulled into the action just as much as she was. There were a lot of close calls both ways. Alex seemed to be on fire as this period started to wind down, stopping shot after shot on net.

  “He’s doing well, right?” I asked her.

  “Hell yeah he is. He’s practically standing on his head now,” she agreed. “Our offense just needs to get the puck in the net so we can win this one.”

  The clock kept winding down as we cheered the team on. Luka and Jason were on the ice while the other team was killing a penalty with less than two minutes remaining on the clock. They were on the other side of the ice, passing the puck around, trying to get a goal. They’d taken a few shots already, but the goalie kept deflecting them.

  “C’mon, Luka!” I screamed. “Get me a power play goal!”

  Just as I yelled out to him, one of the offensive players passed the puck back to Jason at the blue line. He sent it across the ice to Luka, who wound back his stick and hit the shit out of it, sending it straight towards the goalie. I watched in amazement as the puck soared over the goalie’s shoulder and into the back of the net. I jumped to my feet and screamed wildly, celebrating his goal.

  “Holy shit, that boy has one hell of a slap shot!” Lucy crowed as we both bounced up and down with excitement.

  There was only about one more minute left, and we watched as the ref dropped the puck. Our guys kept control of it while that last minute wound down, and then the buzzer sounded.

  Luka skated back to the bench and stopped to look up at me. Taking a page from Lucy’s book, I threw him a kiss. He reached up and pretended to grab it, making me laugh, before he skated off the ice to join his team in the locker room.

  “Wanna wait downstairs with me until our guys are ready to go?” Lucy asked.

  “That would be great,” I answered. “I have no idea where to go or how long it will take. Just like I had no idea what hockey was all about. Thanks so much for taking me under your wing tonight.”

  “Are you kidding me?” she scoffed. “This is the most fun I’ve had a game in like…well, forever! Why don’t we trade numbers so you can let me know whenever you’d like to go to another game? I’d love to sit with you again.”

  “How about you sell me your extra seat and I’ll just come to all of them?” I asked.

  “Oh, you don’t need to do that. I’ve already got the seats and you really are welcome to join me for the rest of the season if you’d like.”

  “Okay, but only if you let me buy our drinks and snacks from here on out,” I countered.

  “Deal,” she said, and we shook on it before going outside to wait for the guys.

  chapter 8

  luka

  I’d enjoyed looking up in the stands to see Aubrey cheering me on all night, but walking out of the rink to the sight of Aubrey resting against my car and talking to Alex’s girlfriend was fucking incredible. She looked insanely hot tonight, and each time I looked up, I couldn’t help but be satisfied that she was mine. I hadn’t planned for her to overhear me calling her my girlfriend this morning. Hell, I hadn’t even planned to call her that, but it’s the way I’d been thinking of her in my head ever since we started dating. If Jason hadn’t pissed me off, the whole conversation wouldn’t have happened. I guessed I owed him one since it meant that I’d been able to pin Aubrey down to a commitment.

  Most guys would be scared shitless about being in a serious relationship so soon after the clusterfuck that had happened with Kat. Hell, sometimes I figured I was nuts to even consider it, but there was just something about Aubrey that pulled me in. It was so very different from how my relationship with Kat had grown over time and developed into us dating. It reminded me a little of the tortoise and the hare fairytale my mother used to love when we were little children, only in reverse. It was one of the first children’s books they had bought us that was written in English, and she read it to us over and over, trying to make sure we understood that life was a marathon and not a sprint.

  In this case, it seemed the opposite was true since my marathon with Kat had ended badly, but I felt like I was sprinting towards a goal with Aubrey and I was going to win. She was the prize at the end of the finish line, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let anyone else win her. And based on the way she leapt into my arms as soon as I reached my car, she didn’t want anyone else other than me anyway.

  “You blew me away tonight,” she whispered in my ear. “I had no idea hockey was so exciting.”

  I gripped her ass in my palms as she wrapped her legs and arms around me and held on tight. “It was one hell of a game, especially with you in the stands.” />
  “Great job on the winning goal,” she congratulated me. “How cool is it that I got to see you score on the ice at my very first game?”

  I set her down on the ground to pull a memento out of my pocket and pressed it into her palm. “Very cool. Coach even gave me the game puck.”

  “Really?” she asked, looking down at it. “This was the puck you scored with?”

  “Yup,” I answered. “And I want you to keep it.”

  “But, Luka, you should have it. Not me. You may not score another game winning goal, and it’s your senior year,” she argued.

  “And you brought me good luck by coming to my game,” I countered. “How about you agree to keep it but also to come to the rest of my home games? And some of the away ones too if you can swing it.”

  “I was already planning to do that,” she replied sweetly.

  “Then I’ve gotten exactly what I want,” I whispered against her lips before stealing a kiss.

  “Not yet, but you’re going to tonight,” she murmured back, looking up at me with eyes that flared with desire. “Tonight really is your lucky night, because you scored on the ice and you’re going to score off it too.”

  My cock jumped at her words like it had heard and understood what she’d insinuated. That he was going to finally get inside her hot body tonight.

  “Fuck,” I grunted, glancing around at all the people surrounding us. “I need to get us out of here as quickly as possible. Normally I’d say we should celebrate the win with everyone, but I’d rather have a private celebration with you. In. My. Bed.”

  “If we just get in the car and go, we may hear about it later, but would anybody try and stop us?” she asked.

  I looked over at Jason to get his attention. He must have felt my stare because he turned his head pretty quickly and caught my nod in Aubrey’s direction. My thoughts must have been transparent because he flashed me a shit-eating grin before giving me the thumbs-up sign and turning back to his conversation.