“Hey, Coach, you want to see me?” I asked, leaning into Coach’s doorway. He’d asked to see me before practice today, which meant I was here a full hour early.

“Yeah, Gentry. Come on in and have a seat.” He gestured to the armchair in front of his long mahogany desk. His office was one of the few in the rink with a window, letting the murky Seattle sunlight in.

Sometimes practice felt like a casino in Las Vegas. You never quite knew what time it was until you were off the ice. I could lose myself for hours in the rhythm, the motion, the game. Even when I looked at my watch after practice, time always felt relative until I saw the sun.

I settled into the armchair and leaned back, trying to look more relaxed than I felt. Not that my job was on the chopping block...unless he somehow knew about Pepper. In that case, all bets were off. It didn’t matter that my stats were out of this world for the season, I knew he’d boot me if he knew what I’d been doing with his daughter during the Halloween party.

“I need to talk to you about Davis,” Coach said leaning forward on his forearms.

“What about him?” Maybe he wasn’t the best goalie, but he was my only backup.

“He’s getting up there in age. Not to mention that he’s never been a starter, and with you in goal he’s never going to be one.” Coach shook his head. “It’s not that I want to let him go, because I don’t. But it’s time to start looking at our options. Bringing in a more experienced goalie to be your backup is one way to go. Or moving someone up from the farm team with better stats than what Davis is putting up this year. Our last option is bringing in a rookie, or trade.”

Fuck. I liked routine, and they were about to mess mine all up.

“I haven’t needed a backup all season. At least not for games. What about leaving Davis on the roster until the end of the season and then making this decision?” Bringing someone new in would only shift the chemistry on the team, and there was no telling if that will be for good or bad.

“We’ve thought about that too, and it’s a viable option. However, I wanted to let you know that I would be out scouting over the week of Thanksgiving. I didn’t want you seeing something and assuming your job was in danger.”

He was right. Hearing from any of the major sports news sites that he was out scouting would have made me worry. And yeah, my numbers were great, at least according to Pepper, and while those stats made me one of the best goalies in the NHL, I wasn’t arrogant enough to think I was the best. Not yet, at least.

“I don’t like losing Davis. I think he’s a solid goalie. But, I understand you need to protect the team. Does he know you’ll be out scouting?”

Coach shook his head. “No. I’m going to have a talk with him later today. You’re a hell of a goalie, Gentry, but even you can’t guarantee me that you won’t get injured. Things happen, and I have to make sure we have someone ready to step in if the worst happens.”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that this is a contract negotiation year, does it?” I teased. I wanted to stay a Shark; it was the closest team to my parents. But I also knew that if contract time came and I didn’t get an offer, another team would pick me up.

But another team wouldn’t have Pepper.

Shit. When had I started thinking like that? Not that I was against making career decisions for the right woman. Watching the strength of my parent’s marriage had taught me there was nothing more important than your partner, once you found her. But that loan kiss was hardly enough to declare that we were soul mates. Hell, she’d even agreed that we had no chemistry when I teased her the other day.

“Hell no. You’ll be a Shark for life if I’ve anything to say about it.” He gave me that paternal nod that told me he was proud not only of my accomplishments but what he had created.

“But that call always goes to the owners, doesn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t be too worried. They see the same numbers I do. We’ve never had a goalie with this much promise, let alone already be putting the kind of numbers up that you do so early in your career.”

“Thank you—”

I was interrupted by the door swinging open behind me and turned to see Pepper storming in. The red had already washed out of her hair, but now the tips were purple, the sweet color at odds with the fire in her eyes. She was pissed.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize you were with anyone,” she snapped at her dad.

His eyebrows rose and he blinked a few times before responding.

“Gentry and I were just finishing up.”

I was already halfway out of my chair. “I’ll get going so you two can discuss… whatever it is that’s on her mind.” I gave Coach a nod and made my way past Pepper. I wanted to ask if she was okay, but her temperament implied there was zero chance she was. When she didn’t so much as meet my eyes, I walked out of the office.

“Did you seriously send me an email that I would be on my own for Thanksgiving?” She demanded.

You need to leave. But I couldn’t. My feet were cemented to the industrial-grade carpet outside Coach’s office, and I unabashedly eavesdropped as I leaned against the wall next to the door. I had to know that she was all right.

“Pepper, don’t be dramatic. It’s a simple scouting trip, and I’ll be home by Sunday.” His temper hadn’t risen to the level of hers, at least not by the cool, collected tone of his voice that told me this wasn’t the first time they’d had a conversation like this.

“Home by Sunday means that we are on our own, as usual. Dad, I thought we agreed to spend more time as a family now that we were back from college. But the first major holiday we have, you’re running off to scout new players.” Damn, I hated the hurt in her voice. Pissed, I could deal with, but the hurt sliced open a part of my soul that couldn’t stand to see her bleed.

“We did agree to spend more time as a family. You girls have been gone for four and a half years. I guess I just got used to doing whatever the team needed. I’m sorry. You’re right.”

I heard her sigh from what had to be a dozen feet away.

“Good. Okay. Then don’t worry about a thing. I’m not letting Ivy touch the turkey, and will be ready for you by four PM. Unless you want to come sooner, maybe watch the parade on TV?”

“No honey, you misunderstood. I am sorry that I have to go, but I do have to go. This is my job, and it doesn’t matter how much I’d like to spend this holiday with you, I simply can’t.”

Unable to hear anymore, I left. The last thing I needed was Pepper seeing me eavesdrop. I had no right to listen in on her private family matters, and yet I couldn’t help myself.

I headed to the locker room, where I sat on the bench. Who did that to their kid? Was it really his job forcing him to go, or did he no longer know how to connect with his daughters? Either way, it was fucked up. She had to be a wreck.

Knowing it was too early to get dressed in my gear, I strode out of the locker room, only to nearly mow Pepper over in my exit.

“Whoa!” I grasped her shoulders to keep her upright and caught us before we hit the opposing wall. “We have to stop meeting like this,” I teased, hoping the call-back to the night we met might make her smile.

She looked at me with streaked cheeks, her eyes made even bluer by her tears, and I knew that no measure of teasing could make this right. I looked up and down the hallway, making sure no one was present to see what I was sure she would find embarrassing later. She was never one for the public eye.

Seeing the coast was clear, I pulled her back through the doorway into the locker room, so we could have some privacy.

Once the door swung shut behind us, I took her face in my hands.

“Want to tell me about it?” I asked. It was the closest I could come to implying that I hadn’t heard what happened without lying to her.

She nodded, sending a flurry of tears down her cheeks.

“My dad. He promised that if we came home to Seattle after college, we’d spend more time together as a family. Those first years when he coached the Sharks, he was always so busy. Too busy for us, at least. Not that he didn’t love us.” She nodded again as if she had to make her point. “I know he loved us. He loves us. But when our mom died...I don’t think he knew how to handle two little girls who didn’t play hockey.”

My thumbs swept the tears away, wishing taking the pain out of her eyes could be just as easy. “The scouting trip over Thanksgiving?”

She pulled her face from my hands and walked toward the bench in front of my locker, sitting where I usually did to put on my pads.

“Yeah. I guess you know what I look like when I go nuclear now, huh?” She twisted her hands and looked anywhere but my eyes. “This is so embarrassing.”

Well, shit. I took the seat next to her, sliding close enough that our shoulders touched. “If that’s what you call going nuclear, I think I can handle it. You have every right to be hurt, and mad, and whatever else you want to feel.”

She rested her head on my shoulder, more like at my shoulder seeing as she was so short. I gently moved her, looping my arm around her so she could lay her head against my chest.

She sniffled, somehow making something I usually thought was gross into incredible cuteness. Cuteness? Just grow a vagina while you’re at it.

What was it about her that made me softer? Well, she didn’t make everything softer.

“It’s okay,” she assured me. “Ivy wanted to go home with Crosby for Thanksgiving, anyway. Now she can. Not that dad can know.”

I’d better see that girl at my Thanksgiving table. My mother’s words came back to me, louder than a siren through my brain.

“Come home with me,” I offered. “My parents have a farm in Montana. It might not be what you’re used to, but it’s family.”

She leaned back and met my gaze. “But that’s your family, your private life.”

I tried not to react, to take that as a rejection.

“You are part of my private life, Pepper. Hell, you’re pretty much my entire private life. I want you there. Honestly, I don’t want to go five days without seeing you.” I brushed back a strand of her hair, savoring the silky feel of it between my fingers before I tucked it behind her ear. “Besides, friends can go home with friends for Thanksgiving.”

She chuckled softly and smiled up at me. “We do make pretty good friends.”

“Yeah, we do.” Maybe I was wrong. Maybe she hadn’t felt that instant, primal connection I had while kissing her. Maybe I really was just a friend.

My dick almost cried at the possibility. The last thing I wanted to do was be relegated to the friend zone of the hottest woman I’d ever met. Not when everything within me was screaming to touch her, kiss her, fuck her senseless until she could see what we could be together.

But what could we be together? Her father was a guillotine hanging above our heads.

“And you’re right,” she said, her attention slipping to my lips. “Friends do go home with friends.”

“True. It’s all very… friendly.” I shifted slightly, until the arm that had been around her shoulder now swept up her back, my fingers tangling in the hair at the base of her head.

“Friendly,” she whispered, her fingers trailing down my spine. “Right, because we’re friends. Just friends.”

“Just friends,” I repeated, but my thoughts were anything but. Her lips parted as if they couldn’t support the weight of my gaze upon them. Memories assaulted me, filled me with her taste, the feel of her skin under my hands. “No chemistry, remember?”

“No chemistry,” she repeated. “Definitely no sizzle.”

My fingers tightened in her hair and her neck arched, bringing her lips that much closer to mine. “No ache.”

“No desperate need to feel your weight on top of me.” Her voice dropped to the softest whisper.

Fuck, I was rock hard and ready to go, and I hadn’t even touched her. Some kind of friendship.

“No raging demand to find out what you sound like when you come.”

“Right. Because friends don’t think like that.”

We stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, charged with the intensity of a thousand power plants pumping electricity into the space between us.

“No, they don’t.”

I didn’t know who moved first, and it didn’t matter. A second later, my mouth was on hers, her lips parting beneath mine as I thrust my tongue inside. Home. She tasted like home.

She let out a sweet moan, her nails scratching through my thin T-shirt as she fisted the fabric.

Friends, my ass.

I took her back to the bench, thankful it was made wide enough to accommodate NHL players. Hell, the padding almost made it perfect for this purpose. Shifting so that I knelt between her thighs, she hooked her ankles just above my ass and rocked her hips up into me, wordlessly telling me what she needed.

Bracing most of my weight on my elbows, I let myself settle between her thighs and groaned at the way she fit me perfectly. I kissed her again and again, trying to take my fill, somehow knowing it would never be enough. I could never kiss her enough to be satisfied, never get used to the feel of my hands skimming her curves, as I let one do just that. Fuck, her waist was tiny, at odds with the generous size of her breasts.

I wanted her naked, needed to see what I already knew would be perfect. My mouth moved to her jaw until I trailed open-mouthed kisses down her neck, pausing at the patches of skin that made her gasp, learning what she liked.

She squirmed beneath me and whimpered when my hand gripped her hip and squeezed lightly.

“Eric,” she pled as I lightly sucked on her collarbone.

“Pepper,” I answered, my voice slipping to a near-growl. I pulled her tighter against me, letting her feel just how much I wanted her. Driving myself crazy with the knowledge that just a few thin layers of clothing separated me from her pussy.

I rocked against her, letting my cock push against her clit through the stretchy fabric of her yoga pants.

She moaned and rocked up for another, and another, until I gave up all thoughts besides kissing her mouth, and thrusting against her.

Fuck, she was responsive. I was willing to bet my NHL contract that she was wetter than the ocean, and damn, was I going to find out.

She writhed against me, pushing my control until it was razor thin and crumbling. One of her hands slid under my shirt, grazing my waist until her thumb caressed the edge of each of my abdominal muscles. Any lower—

“Fuck,” I hissed, as she gripped me through the fabric of my warm-up pants.

“I want this,” she whispered, raking her teeth along my earlobe as she squeezed my dick for emphasis. “I want you.”

“You have me. God, do you have me.” She could’ve asked me for anything in that moment, and I would’ve given it to her willingly and without reservation.

She tightened her hand around me, her fist sliding down my length and back up again until I knew that if she kept it up, I’d come in my pants like a freshman.

I gripped her wrist and moved it above her head, where I held it captive with my other hand.

“You’re killing me.”

She gyrated her hips in answer, using her pussy to do what I’d just denied her hand. Damn, I could feel how hot she was.

I kissed her deep, thrusting my tongue and my cock in the same rhythm, until her moans turned to rhythmic whimpers, and her thighs tensed around me.

There was zero chance in hell I was going to fuck her in the locker room, but at least one of us could reach satisfaction.

“Please,” she cried softly as my fingers dipped beneath the waistline of her yoga pants. The stretchy material gave easily, making room for my hand as I explored lower.

I reached the scrap of lace that served as her panties, and then—sweet Jesus—my fingers found her wet, swollen, and hotter than the sun.

“Fuck. Pepper, baby, you’re so wet.” If I thought my control had been weak before, it was downright see-through now. My dick throbbed, aching to be inside her, to pump us both to release.

Instead, I trailed my thumb from her slick opening up to her clit, and began to swirl, giving her the friction she needed and the pressure she craved.

Her cries were breathy but soft, and I pulled up just enough to watch her face. I wanted to remember every single second of this moment.

“That’s it, baby,” I urged, moving my thumb faster, still rocking against her as if I were inside of her.

“Eric, oh God,” she keened, her muscles locking, going tense beneath me. She was close, and I’d never seen a more beautiful sight. Her lips were swollen from my kisses, her eyes bright, fevered, and the blush that stained her skin pink brought my arousal to a whole other level.

I’d never been so turned on without having sex in my life.

“Yes, Pepper. God, you’re beautiful.”

Her eyes flared at my words, and her mouth opened in a silent cry as I pressed down on her clit, wishing it was my tongue instead of my thumb.

“Come for me,” I growled, and slipped one finger inside her. Holy shit, she was tight, small, and slick with wanting me. I pressed up on the spot I knew would get her there, and she flew apart, crying out my name as she came.

I quickly kissed her, taking the sound into my own body.

Then I eased her down with soft strokes, and a light rub of her clit that sent her into a second, softer orgasm. Damn, I could watch her do that all day.

I slipped my hand free as she blinked up at me, with an almost stunned look on her face. Then I licked my finger clean, needing to know if I was right.

I was. Her pussy was as sweet as she was.

Her breath left in the stuttered sigh. “Eric—”

“Don’t worry the guys are just on their way in right now,” I heard Bentley’s voice a millisecond before the locker room doors opened. “Just come in with me. It’ll only take a second to grab it out of my locker.”

“Fuck,” I swore, tucking Pepper’s head against my chest like I could shield her from what was about to happen. How could I have been so fucking stupid?

“Holy shit,” Bentley snapped. “Gentry, tell me that isn’t who I think it is under you.”

There was no getting her out of this.

“Gentry wouldn’t be that...” Chloe, his wife, paused her retort.

I looked over to see them staring at us, but it was just them.

“Hey Pepper,” Chloe said softly.

Pepper waved awkwardly, and I sat up, bringing her with me.

“Hi, guys! How’s it going?” she asked as if we hadn’t just gotten caught nearly fucking.

“Uh-huh.” Bentley glanced from Pepper to me, no doubt taking in her disheveled hair and flushed cheeks.

“Okay, that’s enough awkwardness for two lifetimes,” Chloe muttered. “Pepper, the guys are coming in behind us, let’s get you out of here.”

“They can’t see her.” Fuck if I was going to let any of those assholes say shit about her.

“Oh, now you think about that?” Bentley questioned.

“There’s a back door,” Chloe said. “Come on, Pepper.”

Right on cue, I heard some of the guys in the hallway.

“Yes to Thanksgiving.” Pepper kissed my cheek and raced out with Chloe just as Warren and Gage walked in.

“Not a fucking word,” I warned Bentley.

He glanced down at where my dick was still standing at attention and shook his head before walking to his locker.

I quickly turned toward my gear and thought about the most un-sexy things I could until my cock got the memo that he wasn’t getting any.

Then I smiled.

She said yes.

I had five whole days with her, no hiding needed.

Next week couldn’t come soon enough.