The Puck Charmer

by Cathryn Fox

  “Nope, I’m driving,” Alek says.

  I fold my arms. “I’m quite capable of driving.”

  “I’m sure you are, but that bump on your head hasn’t gone down any, and until it does, I’m responsible for you.”

  “You just assigned yourself as my…”

  “Doctor.”

  “Are you a doctor, Alek?”

  “No, but I’ve taken enough hits to the head to know you shouldn’t be driving, or lifting heavy things. You should be resting.”

  “Hits to the head? Are you a fighter or something?”

  “Yeah, or something,” he says, clearly not wanting to talk about what he does for a living. Is he embarrassed by what he does? Heck, he doesn’t have to be ashamed around me. I dig in the dirt to put food on my table, and I admire a guy who works hard for a living. But if he doesn’t want to discuss it, I’m going to leave it alone.

  “How about this?” I say. “I’ll let you drive me back to your car, and then I’ll go home and rest.”

  “Do you have anyone at home to keep an eye on you?”

  “No.”

  He jabs his thumb into his chest. “Then you’re coming home with me.”

  “I am not going home with you,” I blurt out. His face goes so serious, my blood slows in my veins. “What?” I ask.

  “My friend has a huge house. Like huge. Let me make you dinner while you have a swim, and stay one night, just so I can make sure you’re okay. You’ll have your own bedroom and the door locks.”

  “I don’t know anything about you.”

  He nods. “I don’t know anything about you either, other than you’re tough, smart, and run your own business.” I open my mouth to protest, even though my chest puffs at the compliments. I like that he sees me that way. “It’s either that or let me take you to the doctor.”

  I give it some thought. I really don’t have the money for a visit to the clinic and would one night spent in luxury really be so hard? “Fine, I’ll come for dinner, and a swim, but I’m sleeping in my own bed tonight.”

  He nods, and looks at his feet. I can almost hear the wheels spinning. He glances back at me, like he’s come to some conclusion. “I guess I can stay at your place.”

  “You are not staying at my place, and I do have somewhere I have to be later.”

  “I can take you.”

  My God, this guy is so damn annoying!

  Sort of.

  Or not.

  “Did anyone ever tell you that you are a pain in the ass?” I slide into the passenger seat and slam my door shut.

  “All the time,” he says, looking quite pleased with himself as he gets in beside me. He starts the truck and carefully negotiates the long driveway. I cast him a glance as he drives me back to his buddy’s place. “What?” he asks, his peripheral vision far too good.

  “Why are you doing this?” I ask.

  “You gave me a break, and maybe I wanted to give you one too.”

  “I still don’t get it. You accidently hit my trailer, then spend the day helping me. I don’t know any guy who would do that.”

  “Then maybe you haven’t been hanging around with the right guys.”

  4

  Alek

  Alyssa’s eyes go wide, scanning my buddy Tyler’s yard when I pull into the winding driveway, and park her truck outside the three-car garage. I can just imagine she’s redesigning the yard in her mind’s eye. Honestly, what she does is hard work, and I admire that about her. Still though, I am a little worried about the bump on her head, and if I’m being completely truthful with myself, it’s not the only reason I wanted to bring her back here.

  I like spending time with her. She’s open and honest and while I should probably tell her who I am and what I do—and I will—right now I’m just enjoying the ease between us.

  Her smile is bright when she aims it my way. “This place is gorgeous.” She unbuckles. “I’d love to get my hands on it.”

  There’s a lot of things I’d like to get my hands on, too, but I’m not about to try anything with her. I so rarely spend time with a woman outside of bed. We usually hook up, and I offer her up a serving or two of the Puck Charmer special and disappear before sunrise. I don’t want to do that with Alyssa and jeopardize our budding friendship. Outside of my buddies’ wives, and Tyler’s annoying sisters, I’ve never been friends with a woman. It’s kind of…nice.

  “Want to see the inside?” I ask.

  “Oh, yeah.” She slides from her truck and frowns. “Wait, what about your car? We can’t just leave it in town.”

  “Why you think someone might steal it?”

  She laughs. “You’re right. I think it’s safe.”

  I gesture with a nod and fish the key from my pocket. “Come on.”

  She follows me up the walkway, her gaze still scanning the yard, and I open the front door and stand back for her to enter. Captain Jack comes barreling down the hall, barking and excited.

  “Oh my God, he’s adorable.”

  “He knows it, too. He’s a real player, Alyssa.” I take my ballcap off and set it on the hallway table. “Has his way with the ladies, and if you’re not careful, he’ll have you rubbing his belly for hours.”

  “Do you like belly rubs, boy?”

  He drops to his back, and spreads his legs.

  “Captain Jack,” I scold, and hold my hand up to block the view. “Cut it out, she’s a lady.” I wink at her. “At least he has good taste in women.” She chuckles and stands back up. Captain Jack rolls over and whines. “You hungry, buddy?” I ask.

  He barks and runs to the kitchen, coming back with his bowl in his mouth.

  “He’s so smart,” Alyssa says.

  “Actually, I think he’s a bit of a smart ass.”

  “No, he’s smart. You’re the smart ass,” she jokes and pokes me in the chest.

  The gesture is innocent, but goddammit, I really like when she touches me.

  I take her hand in mine. “Hey, I resemble that comment.”

  She laughs and when I let go of her hand, she smooths a few loose tendrils of hair from her forehead and glances around. Jack darts away and this time he comes back with one of his balls. I pick it up and toss it down the hall and he runs after it.

  She’s clearly impressed with the mansion, judging by her expression. “This place is huge,” she says, and takes in the wide front entrance and long curved staircase with the dark wood handrail.

  I put my finger to my lips. “Don’t talk too loud, or your voice will echo off the walls.”

  She grins. “Will not. You’re making that up.” She whacks me in the stomach. I let loose an exaggerated oomph, and the sound does echo in the hallway. Her eyes go wide.

  “Told you. Come on, I’ll give you a tour.”

  “Wait, I can’t look around. I’m…” She glances down at her coveralls. “dirty.”

  I expect another whack, when I say, “I think there’s a hose out back.”

  She purses her lips, but there’s a quirk of humor in the corners. “Not funny.”

  “A little funny?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, how about a real shower?”

  She crinkles her nose. “You don’t think Tyler will mind if I use his shower?”

  “Of course not. Besides for now it’s my house and I’m allowed to have friends over.”

  “We’re friends now, are we?”

  “I mean after I rear-ended you, how could we not be? In fact, we might actually be engaged.”

  She nibbles her lips, like she’s trying to keep herself from laughing at the sexual comment. “I don’t have any clean clothes to change into.”

  “As they say in Jamaica, we don’t have a problem, we have a situation, and that can be fixed by me lending you some of mine. We can toss yours into the washer.”

  I take Captain Jack’s ball from his mouth and toss it down the hall again. He races after it.

  “I’ve always wanted to go to Jamaica.” She breathes deeply and lets it
out slowly, her eyes dim, like she’s dreaming of a different place.

  “You should go sometime.”

  “It’s on my bucket list.”

  “Yeah, I’d love to hear more about your bucket list, but first I need to feed Captain Jack here, and we need to shower.” She stiffens…I kind of do too as I imagine the two of us naked under the hot spray. “Separately, of course.”

  She goes quiet for a moment like she’s thinking about that. “I guess I could shower here.”

  “Hang on.” I run to the kitchen and fill Jack’s food and water bowl, and hurry back to find her kicking off her boots.

  She looks uneasy about traipsing through the immaculate house—the housekeeper came this morning—and goes up on her tiptoes to follow me up the steps. I guide her into one of the big bedrooms. “This one has its own shower. You’ll find shampoo and conditioner and all the hair product you need. Hair dryers and curling irons, too. Tyler keeps the place stocked.”

  “He has a lot of female visitors, does he?” she asks with a grin.

  “He actually has five sisters, and they visit often.”

  She takes in the feminine touches in the room. “I figured there was a woman behind this room.”

  I laugh as I think about Tyler’s big family. I always wanted a lot of kids myself. Not that I give marriage a whole lot of consideration. My friends are all getting married, but I don’t see that in my near future, especially with the women I hang out with. But I have a big house in Seattle, much like Tyler does here, and I have to admit, at times it does get lonely. At least Tyler has his sisters who invade all the time, bringing their husbands and kids and filling the place with love and laughter. He jokes that he moved to a big house in the middle of nowhere to get away from them, and says he bought a mansion as an investment, but I know otherwise. He loves having his family around, and they’re all vacationing in the Caribbean together right now.

  “You’re smiling. What are you thinking about?” she asks.

  “Tyler’s sisters.” I roll my eyes. “They’re so annoying.”

  “I sense a few stories.”

  “Many, but you need to shower.” I step up to the window and she glances out before I pull the curtains shut to give her privacy, even though the house is completely secluded. “This room has a nice view of the pool.”

  “The pool is gorgeous, and that bed is bigger than my apartment.”

  I laugh at that. “You should be nice and comfortable in it tonight.”

  She plants a hand on her hip. “Alek, I am not staying here.”

  God, she’s cute.

  “Right, I forgot. I’m staying at your place. Do you have two bedrooms?”

  She frowns and looks down. “Well, no…”

  “A sofa?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ll sleep on that then,” I say.

  “Why would you do—” she stops talking abruptly, and shakes her head. “You know what, I’m just going to shower. We’ll argue about it later.”

  “You know, I’m really good at arguing. I was on the debate team in high school.”

  “I believe you,” she says.

  “Jump in the shower. I’ll grab some sweats and a T-shirt and leave it on the bed for you.”

  “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

  I look her over. “You okay, Alyssa? You don’t feel faint or anything?”

  I expect the death glare, but the sweet smile I get instead squeezes the air from my lungs.

  “You’re sweet to worry about me, Alek. But I’m good. I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time.”

  “I kind of figured that.”

  Her forehead crinkles. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Go shower.”

  She walks away, and I dart into the room I’m using and riffle through the dresser. I gather her up some clothes, and set them on the bed for her. Then I jump in the master bath shower myself. I scrub the dirt from my hair and body, and once I finish and dry off, I tug on a pair of clean jeans, and a T-shirt.

  I listen outside Alyssa’s door, and when I hear movement downstairs, I take the steps two at a time and find her in the kitchen, glancing at the pool.

  “Hey,” I say, and she turns to face me, but the second I see her in my clothes, I nearly bite off my tongue. Jesus. My T-shirt hangs to her knees, and my sweats are so big, I could climb in there with her. Her coveralls did a good job of hiding her body, and until this moment I never knew how tiny she was.

  “You’re kind of like an ant?” I say.

  “Excuse me?”

  I chuckle at her puzzled expression. “That’s a compliment.”

  “Yeah, I thought it was,” she says and laughs, the sweet sound wrapping around my dick and squeezing. “Who doesn’t want to be compared to an ant. They’re a…oh what’s the word…nuisance.”

  “I mean, you’re just…” I motion with my hands, trying to say she’s small. “You’re little.” She cocks her head and waits for me to continue. “And you’re strong. You know like an ant, they can carry more than their body weight.” Her lips turn up at the corner and I hold my hands up, palms out. “It’s a compliment, I mean it.”

  She shakes her head, but her eyes are full of laughter. “I’ve been called a lot of things before, Alek, but an ant was never one of them.”

  I exhale a breath. “Can we start again?” I ask.

  She puts her hand on my arm, and my dick twitches. “After today and all your help, you can call me whatever you want.”

  “Even Aly.”

  “Even Aly,” she says. “But just so you know, that privilege doesn’t go out to just anyone.”

  “I’m honored. Come on, I’ll give you a tour.” We leave the kitchen and I take her into the ginormous dining room, a table that seats twelve. “So why don’t you like your name shortened?” I ask.

  “Stupid boys at school. They used to call me Alley Cat.”

  “You didn’t like that?”

  “I don’t think they meant it in a flattering way, Alek. Alley cats are animals that have been abandoned because no one wanted them.”

  “Okay,” I say, and my chest tightens, because I suspect she’s telling me something very personal. “I promise never to call you that.”

  I stand back as she runs her fingers over the long table, and glances at the pictures on the walls. “Oh my God, is that you?” she asks and steps up to a pic of Tyler and me, dressed in our swim shorts, no front teeth, and ice cream stains on our faces. She chuckles as she looks back to me. “It is you, isn’t it?”

  I groan. “I was seriously hoping you wouldn’t notice.”

  “You were adorable, Alek.”

  “Ah, what do you mean were?”

  She laughs. “Was your ego big back then or did you grow into it, like you did your teeth?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “It was a compliment,” she teases.

  “Yeah, it sounded like one.” She examines all the photos. “Tyler’s sisters were always taking pictures of us. One of these days I expect a blackmail letter. They were huge pains in my ass.”

  “You guys sound like you are so close. I love that.”

  “Did you miss the part where I said they were a pain in my ass.” She grins at me. “I take it you didn’t have siblings?” I ask. “If you did, you’d see things differently?”

  Her smile falls and she turns from me. “No, just me,” she says. “Do you have brothers and sisters?” she asks, and I don’t miss the redirection of conversation.

  “Big brother, also a pain in the ass.”

  “Oh, that’s right. I remember you saying something about a niece.”

  “That’s right. Trevor is married, and they have a daughter. She’s sweet, unfortunately.”

  “What?” she asks, as we walk through the house, going room to room.

  “It’s a problem because now my parents are down my back, wanting me to settle down and give them a grandchild, a boy preferably.”

  “Ah, I see, and that’s not something you
’re interested in?”

  “Not really.” Maybe if the right woman came along, but I don’t come across those kinds of women every day. The kind I come across want the honor of sleeping with a professional hockey player. “I’m not really in one place very long either. Not many women would put up with that. What about you?”

  “Well,” she says. “I’m single, and that’s by choice.”

  “Oh yeah?” My sweats hang on her body as we circle back to the kitchen. “Not my business, but I get the sense there was a douchebag in your past.”

  She laughs at that, like really laughs, and I can’t help but grin at her animation.

  “I don’t know if he was so much a douchebag, but we just wanted different things.” She looks out the window for a second. “Wait, no. You’re right. He was a douche.”

  Laughing, I open the fridge to see what’s inside and that’s when I remember I was out on a grocery run when I literally ran into Alyssa. “Your folks still here?”

  “No, actually. They’re gone.”

  I lift my head from the fridge at the hitch in her voice. “I’m sorry.”

  “It was a long time ago.”

  Her comment about alley cats makes me want to ask if gone means they died, or if they up and left her, but I don’t know her well enough to ask, plus I don’t want to dredge up painful memories.

  “That doesn’t make it any easier, Aly.” I sort of feel like an ass now. I’ve been going on about how much my family gets on my nerves and she has no parents.

  “Everyone leaves,” she says quietly, and crosses her arms across her chest in a defensive move. I’d be lying if I said I know a lot about the opposite sex. I grew up with a brother, and have no idea how women think, and I can’t even begin to understand how they deal with deep emotions, but everything in that gesture makes me think she’s trying to protect her heart. Who the hell hurt her?

  “My grandmother raised me,” she says. “That’s where I have to be later. I visit her every night in the nursing home.”

  I nod. “Nice. I can’t wait to meet her.”