by Savanna Fox
He scowled. “I’m not violent. But I’m not gonna come across like a wuss. Hockey players are tough, Georgia. It’s part of the sport.”
“All that whacking into each other, bashing each other into the boards, it’s uncivilized,” she protested. “Other sports aren’t like that, are they?” She’d caught only glimpses of sports like basketball and baseball as she changed channels, but she’d never seen the kind of violence she’d noted in last night’s hockey game.
“Hockey’s a Canadian game.” He grinned. “We’re tough guys up here, north of the forty-ninth parallel.”
His grin was infectious, but she resisted. “I can’t believe that’s the image Canada wants to present to the world.”
“Yet hockey’s our unofficial national sport.”
“Unofficial? What’s the official one?”
“Lacrosse.”
“Lacrosse?” No image came to mind. Had she ever channel-surfed past a game of lacrosse?
“See, you don’t even know what it is. Fans go for hockey. They like seeing guys getting bashed into the boards by a good, fair hit.”
“That doesn’t say much for the fans.”
“I’m sure there’s a psychological explanation. Bottom line, better they cheer for me smashing LaBecque into the boards than they go home and beat up on their spouses.” His voice was heavy, his blue eyes shadowed.
She wrinkled her nose. “I hate to think those are the only two options.”
He gave a solemn nod. “Me too. Alls I’m saying is, there gotta be reasons hockey’s so popular.”
They were conversing, and he hadn’t touched his lunch for a good ten minutes. She’d let his poor grammar slide by. Instead, she took a bite of risotto and chewed slowly.
His fork went down and came up with a much larger portion of salad.
When he’d finished it, she said, “What were those men talking about? Conn Smythe?” She took another forkful of risotto to eat while he responded.
“The Conn Smythe Trophy is the award for the MVP in the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. Uh, MVP means—”
“Most valuable player. That much I know. And NHL is the National Hockey League. But I’m not sure exactly what that is.”
Following her example, he’d eaten some pizza while she was talking. “Can’t believe you live in Vancouver and know so little about hockey.”
Some people had better things to do than watch grown men chase pucks. But saying so would be rude, and not an effective strategy. “I’ve never been into sports. Enlighten me.”
“Okay. The NHL is a formal organization with thirty clubs— what you’d think of as teams—that are franchises. Mostly American, seven in Canada. The players come from all over the world, and lots of Canadians play for American teams.”
“How’s it decided what team a player’s on?”
He swallowed the bite he’d been eating, and she realized he’d picked up the back-and-forth flow of eating and conversing. “There’s a draft, trades, free agents. It’s complicated.”
“And the season has all these games that build toward the Stanley Cup playoffs?”
“Pretty much. First we play some exhibition games against NHL clubs, European clubs, and so on. Then it’s regular season and we play clubs within the league.” He lifted his water glass.
Georgia stared at his hand, so large and brown. Surprisingly well shaped, but so very strong looking. That hand had touched her most intimate places with amazing delicacy. And deftness. As if he knew her body better than anyone ever had.
A tingly ache throbbed between her legs, craving more of that touch.
When Woody took a long swallow of water, his throat rippled.
She’d never been so physically aware of a man, but then, she’d never been with a man who made his living with his body. As well as his mind, if Terry was to be believed. She’d also never been with a man who’d brought her to climax.
“Then there’s postseason,” Woody went on.
Throat dry, she swallowed and tried to remember what they were talking about.
“That’s the Stanley Cup playoffs. An elimination system involving the top eight clubs. Two clubs play until one has won four games; then the winner advances to the next round.”
“Terry said the Beavers are in the Western Conference finals?”
“Yeah. There’s two groups, Eastern and Western Conference. We’re in the playoffs against the Ducks for Western Conference title. That club will play the Eastern Conference champs for the Cup.”
“You must’ve played a lot of games to get to this point.” Thinking back on what he’d said earlier, she said, “No wonder players are tired and injured.”
He nodded. “The further you go, the harder it is. But that’s how it’s supposed to be.” He flashed a grin. “Tough, remember?”
Georgia realized she was enjoying this. Woody could be good company. She was starting to like him. “How about you? Are you injured?”
“If I was, I wouldn’t say. We don’t talk about that stuff. Don’t want our opponents knowing our weaknesses.”
It was the same thing he’d said to the interviewer last night. The concept made sense, but she wasn’t an opponent or an interviewer, and she felt a little hurt that he wouldn’t tell her.
How silly. They weren’t friends. This was a business relationship. Except for the sex. The momentary lapse she needed to ignore. “You said the Conn Smythe Trophy goes to the MVP?”
“Yeah, in the Stanley Cup playoffs. There are other awards, like the Hart Memorial for the MVP during the regular season, voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. And others based on statistics, like highest-scoring player.”
“You’ve won some of them.” She’d skimmed the details in Billy’s research, the names of the various trophies making no sense to her.
A smile flickered. “All of ’em.”
And, she recalled, some more than once. Georgia finished the last bite of risotto. She’d assumed Woody had an enormous ego, but that wasn’t proving to be the case. It made him even more appealing. That was good for the marketing campaign—which, after all, was the only thing that mattered. “Which one most recently?”
He shrugged. “Hart Memorial this season.”
This lunch was enlightening. The man had more depth than she’d given him credit for, he learned quickly, and he had a sense of humor. As well as a rough brand of sex appeal that didn’t quit. Even when she tried to concentrate on work, her body hummed with awareness of him. “What was the other thing that man called you? The next Gretzky? That’s Wayne Gretzky, right? Even I have heard that name. He was a really successful Canadian hockey player, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah. He was my hero, growing up.”
Something Terry had said finally sunk in. “Hockey is Canada’s favorite sport, and right now you’re the biggest Canadian star.”
“Jeez, don’t put it like that. A guy’s only as good as the men he plays with, not to mention the coaches, athletic trainers, medical staff, equipment manager. It’s a team.”
It was the same kind of thing he’d said in interviews. There, it had come across as a platitude. Now it sounded totally sincere. Terry needed to overcome Woody’s awkwardness with the media and bring out this genuineness.
Woody shoved his plate away. “You finished? We should get that fan belt.”
Again, she’d forgotten her car.
They were arguing over the bill, with her insisting it was a business expense, when his cell phone rang. As he reached into his jeans pocket, she grabbed the bill, making a mental note to tell him to turn off his cell in restaurants.
“Yo,” Woody said into the phone. “Yeah, I’m great. Probably because I ran six miles first thing this morning when you were still in bed. Or hanging on to the toilet.”
Georgia’s stomach, full of risotto, did a somersault. Delightful. And a needed reminder that, despite his good qualities, Woody still required a lot of work.
“Yeah, that was one hell of a bender,” he
said. “God knows how I staggered home.”
At least he’d had the sense not to drive.
As she listened to Woody’s side of the conversation, she glanced around the restaurant, noticing other women covertly watching him. Did they recognize him, or was it just that he was hard not to look at, with his large, rangy frame, tousled mahogany hair and beard, and rolled-up sleeves showing off muscular forearms? Female eyes checked her out too, no doubt thinking she and Woody were an odd couple.
“Nah, I can’t this aft,” he said. “All booked up.”
As Georgia calculated a tip and punched her PIN into the card reader, she listened to Woody say, “Oh, nothing special.”
He glanced at her. “No, I can’t blow it off.”
“Okay, it’s this girl I met.” He actually had the audacity to wink at her. “Yeah, sure she’s hot; why else’d I be spending time with her?”
Ooh! How dared he?
He ended the call and turned his attention to Georgia. She glared at him.
He grimaced. “Sorry. Wasn’t really talking about you. Don’t take it personally.”
Oh good, that helped immensely—of course he didn’t really think she was hot, despite having had sex with her on a conference room table.
He gazed wistfully out the window. “Great day for golf. S’pose you don’t play?”
“Hitting balls of any kind isn’t my idea of fun.” Her Diet Coke was finished, but she crunched the remaining ice. “Why did you say those things to your friend? Is it essential to come across as a super-stud?”
He grinned. “Only semi-essential.” The grin died. “I should’ve just said I was hanging out with a friend. Didn’t think fast enough, and I didn’t want to spill anything about the fuck—stupid— endorsement deal.” All parties had agreed that the campaign would launch with a formal announcement, and Woody’s involvement would be a secret until then.
“You’re clearly not pleased about the contract. What’s the issue? You’re making a lot of money. Is it just about the underwear thing?”
She couldn’t see his leg but could tell he was jiggling it; the table vibrated rapidly. “Money’s good, but the figurehead thing is embarrassing. And modeling gonch sucks.” He rose. “Let’s go.”
As they walked to her car, she said, “You were out drinking last night.”
“I guess.”
“I hope you don’t do it often.”
“Often?” He stopped and glared down at her. “None of your business. Alls you need to know is that I won’t tie one on at one of your fancy champagne affairs.”
“All,” she said coldly. “The word is ‘all,’ not ‘alls.’ There is no such word as ‘alls.’ And thank you for that extraordinarily articulate and convincing assurance.”
They climbed into the car in silence.
Eleven
Woody turned the key and the Carrera’s engine roared to life.
Should have known it was too good to be true, those few minutes when he and Georgia’d been getting along. Didn’t take long for her to climb back on his case. According to her, there wasn’t one fucking thing he did right.
Well, he could damn well fix a car.
He headed to a parts and repair shop and picked up the right fan belt. When he drove back to the tow lot and parked, Georgia said rather grudgingly, “It’s nice of you to do this.”
Yeah, it was. And he was going to make her help, rather than sit all high-and-mighty on her tush. A tush that hadn’t been all that high-and-mighty yesterday, when he’d popped it up onto that conference table.
“Could you ask the kid in the booth for a bucket of water? Gotta fill up the rad.”
She nodded and walked away.
Woody, using the small toolkit from his car, cleared out the old fan belt, tightened a few screws, and by that time he was whistling. Nothing like productive work to put a guy in good spirits. Besides, he had a plan for taking Ms. Georgia Malone down a notch.
He unscrewed the cap from the radiator as she returned, awkwardly lugging a bucket. A gentleman would take it from her, but she’d made it clear she didn’t see him as a gentleman. So he pointed. “Pour it in there.”
Her eyes narrowed, but she hoisted the bucket. Woody stepped back. Water gushed every which way, mostly onto Georgia’s skirt and legs, but probably enough got into the radiator to do some good.
“Thank you,” he said politely.
She put the bucket down. “What now?”
“Take off your panty hose.”
Her expression made up for everything she’d put him through.
“What did you say?” she spat, eyes huge and disbelieving.
Trying to sound innocent, he said, “You are wearing panty hose, right? Not stockings with a garter belt?”
Her eyes widened further. “What business is that of yours?”
Woody fought to control his laughter. “Can’t install the new fan belt without the right tools, which are at my place.”
“You tell me that now? I could have had the car towed to my repair shop.”
“No need. Easy to fix, just need the right tools. But for now, we need to move the car, which means jerry-rigging a fan belt. Panty hose works.” It was true that he needed proper tools, and true that panty hose made a fine short-term fan belt. Not that the car would need one to go a few kilometers.
No reason Georgia had to know that.
Her squinty-eyed look told him she was doing her best to read his mind.
He tried to look innocent.
Finally, she ground out, “Turn around.”
“You forgetting I’ve already seen what you’ve got?”
“Oh! Well, you’re certainly not seeing it again!”
Laughing, he turned around.
But then the joke was on him. When he heard the slither of skirt fabric against hose, his mind jumped to what he’d seen yesterday: those slim, creamy legs, the fiery pubic hair, the slick, pouty lips of her pussy.
His body stirred, reminding him that a man and woman didn’t have to like each other to want sex. Not that she seemed to be inclined that way at the moment.
“Here,” she said grimly. A hand reached around him with a bundle of pale silky stuff.
He took the panty hose, which was damp from the water she’d spilled, still warm from her body. Was she naked under that skirt, or wearing panties?
“Well?” she demanded. “Do you need something else?”
Trying to focus on the unnecessary task he’d created, he said, “My pocketknife. Mind getting it? In the glove compartment, right?”
The same place he stored condoms.
If she brought a condom back … But of course she wouldn’t.
Against the fly of his jeans, his swollen cock throbbed insistently. He stared down at the empty bucket. Where was the cold water when a guy needed it?
Bending under the hood, he fiddled needlessly until she returned and handed him the knife. He improvised a fan belt, then straightened and looked at Georgia. If he expected admiration, he wasn’t getting it here. “Where do you live?”
“Why?”
“Trying to decide whether we take your car there or to my place.”
“Kits, between Fourth Avenue and Jericho Beach.”
Not much farther than his condo. If he took her to his place he’d have the home ice advantage, but she’d prowl around his apartment while he worked on the car. Nope, he’d rather have a chance to scope out her digs. “Here’s what we’ll do. You drive home slow and easy. I’ll follow, make sure you get there safely. Then I’ll whip over to my place, get the tools, and come back and fix her up for you.”
Brow furrowed, she said, “It’s nice of you to want to help, but if I can drive it, why not just take it to my repair shop? It’s not far.”
That made sense, but his pride was engaged. “Will they have it ready for you to drive to work in the morning? Don’t bet on it. Besides, we’ve already bought the fan belt.”
She tossed her hands up in one of those fluttery, fem
ale gestures. “All right, have it your way. I admit it would save me a lot of hassle.”
But you don’t want to be indebted to me. His mind supplied the rest of her thought. You don’t want to be indebted to a dumb jock. Tough. Guys like me are good for something, and it’s time you learned it.
It was an unaccustomed treat to be home—an apartment in an old character house that had been renovated to make six units—on a workday afternoon. Georgia shed her confining suit jacket and traded her damp skirt and bare legs for beige cotton pants. Normally, she’d also have let down her hair and put on a tee, but she didn’t want to get that casual with Woody.
Settling on the couch with Kit-Kat beside her, she turned on her laptop and checked e-mail. After responding to a few work messages, she clicked on a message from Marielle, addressed to the book club members.
So, have you started the book? I’m dying to know what you think.
Kim had responded with,
I got it on my Kindle Monday night and I’m totally loving it. How come I never meet men like le Comte? Wasn’t that first sex scene hot? I mean, he started out as a stranger, she didn’t even like him, and he seduced her so totally and she loved it. When you think about it, it’s pretty unbelievable, right? A terrific fantasy—and yet I totally bought it. And I want some for myself!!! LOL.
Was Kim joking or, as Georgia suspected, was all not well with her and her boyfriend? Although the four women’s reason for getting together was to read and discuss books, Georgia liked the way they were slowly getting to know one another.
Though she had a couple of close girlfriends who went back a long way, the three of them didn’t get together so often these days. One was a newlywed, the other a new mom, and they were tied up with their own lives. Though Georgia was busy with her job, and liked her own company and that of her cat, sometimes she felt lonely.
Turning back to her computer screen, she read Marielle’s reply to Kim.
Hey, no one wants to read about a normal, boring life, right? Besides, I don’t think it’s pure fantasy. I could totally see myself doing it.