I walk into Houlihan’s holding tight onto Jules’ hand. I’ve been here hundreds of times, many of them after a game such as tonight. It’s where the Cold Fury hangs out and it’s always packed shoulder to shoulder on game night, mostly with fans who hope to get a picture or an autograph. That’s usually what these visits are about. Hanging out and giving back to the fans.
But tonight is different for me because I want Jules to see this part of my life, and I want this part of my life to see Jules. I want my teammates to meet her and see how fabulous she is, and I want them to know that she’s important.
Which isn’t to say I haven’t brought women I’ve dated here before, because I have. While it’s true I’ve only had one serious relationship in my past, it doesn’t mean I haven’t had relationships. I’m the type of guy who likes dating one woman. I like the intimacy of having that person’s full attention, and I like the security that comes with it. So yes, I’ve dated before, and some of them have lasted months. Some of them I’ve brought here.
None of them hold a candle to Jules, including Christine, who was the first woman I loved. And I did love her, but it just wasn’t the type that could be sustained.
Yes, I like commitment and monogamy. Maybe I’m a romantic at heart, and that’s probably due solely to my parents, who have a solid, passionate, and deep connection that they’ve had for almost thirty years. So it’s only natural I want that too.
That is also not to say I haven’t had one night stands. Not to say I haven’t gotten blind, stinkin’ drunk and fucked women that I couldn’t even remember their names. I did go through a bit of a wild period after Christine broke things off with me and I spread myself around with meaningless sex.
So you see…I’ve had it both ways, and the way I feel right now with Jules by my side…it’s a fucking no-brainer. I do believe she’s what I’ve been searching for.
I do believe she’s what I’m ready for now.
Leading Jules through the crowd, I nod at a few familiar faces I see. The hardcore fans that are always there to either celebrate with us or mourn a loss. They’re also the ones that tend to be unobtrusive, and over the years I’ve gotten to know some of them pretty well. I take Jules toward the back of the restaurant and away from the bar area where most of the team is congregated around a bunch of tables. While the kitchen is still open, hardly anyone here this late orders sit-down dinners, and the management doesn’t mind us invading this part of the restaurant.
The Cold Fury group is diverse, with a mix of players, team management, training staff, and significant others. The players are diverse as well, some married, others in committed relationships, and still others yet that are complete men-whores. And with the men-whores come the throng of women who are trying to get noticed by them, some accepting that it’s just frivolous sex if they hook up but many hoping for something more lasting.
Cassie Gates is one such woman, and I see her standing next to her sister, Allie, who’s married to one of our defensemen, Kyle Steppernech. Great player, greater douche. Allie is a bitch. Cassie has her claws poised to sink into any available player. At one point she had her sights set on Alex Crossman, our team captain, and he took advantage of that for sure. But after he met Sutton, it was all over with Cassie. That didn’t mean she went away though, and for a brief moment she turned her attention to me. I shut that shit down fast and made her perfectly aware I wasn’t interested. Looks like tonight though her current target is poor Mikkel Erat, who is also a defenseman.
Cassie’s wearing a tight Cold Fury T-shirt that’s straining to hold her breasts in, her cleavage so deep her navel’s practically on display. She’s got both arms wound tight around Mikkel, almost as if she’s afraid she’ll get left behind. She doesn’t need to worry though. Mikkel can barely keep his eyes off her tits. He’s not going anywhere tonight, and I sort of feel bad for the dude. His English is horrible and his accent thick, so I’m pretty sure he’s not had the pleasure of having a deep conversation with her, so he probably doesn’t get he’s being manipulated.
“Well, that’s an interesting outfit she has on,” Jules mutters dryly as she leans into me. I look down at her and see her eyes are pinned on Cassie.
“She’s a puck bunny,” I tell her with an amused smirk.
“A what?” she asks, her eyebrows furrowing as she takes Cassie in, perhaps trying to see if she’s got secret bunny ears or a tail.
I laugh and pull her in tighter. “It’s just a term for those women that want to hook up with a hockey player.”
“Oh,” she says thoughtfully, then gives me a grin. “Well, I totally want to hook up with you so I guess that makes me a puck bunny like her.”
Shaking my head, my lips curved up, I tell her, “You are nothing like her. You are so not a puck bunny.”
As Jules laughs at me, I lead her over to a table where I see Hawke, Vale, Garrett, and Olivia. They’ve all got beers in their hands and just as I reach them a waitress materializes and takes our order. I ask for a Molson and Jules goes standard American with a Bud Light.
“That’s just nasty,” I tease over her choice of beers.
She sniffs, gives me a slight elbow to my ribs and retorts, “We can’t all be as refined as you, Mr. Fournier.”
I throw my head back and laugh, because fuck, she’s cute. She ignores me and turns to Garrett, who has his arm around Olivia. Jules puts her hand out. “And you must be Garrett?”
“Good guess,” he says with a smile and shakes her hand.
“Well, I met Olivia in the family room so I figured that’s who you were…you know…with your arm all wrapped around her.”
Garrett laughs and Jules turns to Hawke and Vale. She has no clue who they are, but it doesn’t prevent her from sticking her hand out. “I’m Jules.”
“Hawke,” he says as he shakes her hand, then nods to Vale. “And this is Vale.”
Jules shoots me a taunting look before she faces Vale—I’m assuming for my Bud Light smackdown—shakes her hand and says, “I just want you to know…several times a week Max eats Snickers and drinks Mountain Dew.”
Vale’s eyes snap to mine and her lips flatten. “Is that so?”
I smirk and wrap my arms around Jules from behind, right over her chest so she’s trapped, and pull her up against me. I lean down and put my lips to her ear and whisper, “You’re going to pay for that tonight.”
She shivers in my hold and I loosen my grip just enough to put a little space between us as I’m dangerously close to getting hard, and well…that would just be fucking embarrassing. Still, I give her a last parting shot when I say, “That might involve tying you up and spanking you.”
She shivers again, and I chuckle as I kiss her neck, and then I do release her because I will get a hard-on if I don’t.
The waitress arrives with our beers and I give her a twenty, tell her to keep the change. I hand Jules her—gag—Bud Light and take my Molson, holding it up as I say, “Cheers.”
She taps her bottle against mine with a grin. “Cheers.”
“So, Jules,” Garrett says conversationally, and she turns to face him. “Just curious what you see in this big dork.”
I roll my eyes but then turn to Jules curiously, because I’m wondering what she’d tell my friends about me when put on the spot. While I notice her cheeks turn a little pink, she looks at Garrett and simply says, “He’s my hero.”
Typical funny man that he is, Garrett makes a gagging motion, but grins at her with bright eyes. Olivia and Vale give dreamy sighs and Hawke just looks appraisingly at me, almost as if he’s trying to find the superhero cape I’m hiding.
My chest fills with pride hearing Jules say that, and I drop my hand to her lower back and just press it there to let her know that touched me.
Garrett immediately goes in for the kill. He leans in conspiratorially to Jules and says, “Did Max tell you about that time he got drunk in Los Angeles after a game and locked himself out of his room wearing nothing but his underwear?”
Jules’ eyes get big and she cranes her neck to look at me, an eyebrow cocked. She then turns back to Garrett. “No, he didn’t tell me that. But I think you should.”
Everyone laughs, including me, because fuck it’s hilarious and so uncharacteristic of me. I decide to go ahead and take the wind out of Garrett’s sails as I tell Jules, “Let’s just say I may have drunk some bourbon that night and it didn’t agree with me.”
“How did you get back in your room?” she asks curiously.
“Walked down to the lobby,” I say.
“Stumbled,” Garrett adds on.
“Stumbled down to the lobby,” I agree with him. “And just walked up to the front desk and asked for a replacement key. Of course, I had no ID on me and the clerk didn’t recognize me so they refused. They finally had to get the manager to let me in, and I just hung out in the lobby in my underwear until he came and rescued me.”
“Oh, good God, Max,” Jules says in mock dismay. “You’re an embarrassment to humanity.”
“Right?” Garrett adds for emphasis.
“Well,” Hawke says dramatically, with an evil grin aimed at me, and I cringe because I know what that fucker’s getting ready to tell Jules. “Not nearly as embarrassing as Max getting nominated as one of America’s hottest sports bachelors by Sports World magazine.”
I groan and close my eyes, but I can feel Jules’ gaze on me. I open them up and see her staring at me in astonishment.
“Really?” she asks.
“I was going to tell you tonight,” I mutter with embarrassment. “My agent sent me a text just before the game. I have to do a photo shoot next week or something.”
“The winner will be announced next month and that hottie will grace the cover of the magazine,” Hawke adds with an even broader but no less evil grin.
“How will the winner be chosen?” Jules asks me.
I groan again, because I am not enthused about this. No way I could decline though, because as my agent explained, press coverage in any form is crucial to keep me relevant to the sporting world. Even if it is for a special issue that will draw in female fans so they can ogle.
Hawke answers with a lecherous smile aimed at me. “The readers will vote online, and I can tell you…I’m totally voting for Max. He’s so dreamy.”
“Fuck off,” I mutter as I pop him in the chest with my fist. Not hard enough to really hurt but enough to get his attention. “You’re totally ruining my hero image with Jules.”
“Nothing could ruin that, babe,” she says as she leans in, peers up at me and wraps an arm around my waist.
And well, that warrants a kiss. So I give it to her, completely uncaring that four sets of eyes are pinned on us. I give her my mouth and she gives me hers back. I vaguely hear Olivia and Vale sigh again, but surprisingly, no gagging noises from Garrett. When I pull back, I shoot him a look and he just winks at me and I know despite his teasing—because that’s the way Garrett is—the fucker is happy for me.
A quick glance over at Hawke and I see the same on his face.
“So what did you think about your first Cold Fury get-together?” I ask Jules as we drive to my house. We discussed briefly going to her apartment but immediately discarded it, because her bed is too small and her neighbors too loud.
“It was great,” she says, and I can hear the smile in her voice. “Most everyone was so nice, and I really like Olivia and Vale.”
“Most everyone?” I ask, my hackles rising that someone would dare to not be nice to my Jules. We weren’t pinned to each other’s sides all evening so I must have missed something.
She gives a husky laugh. “Just once in the bathroom…that woman Cassie was in there with her sister, Allie. At least I think that’s what Olivia said their names are.”
“She say something to you?” I practically growl.
“Not to me,” Jules says. “But she was doing her makeup and talking to her sister, and talking about boning that player she was with…What was his name, Mikkel?”
“Yup,” I acknowledge.
“Well, it was just crass,” Jules says with a slight hint of disgust. “And she said that he was just a stupid Swede and wouldn’t know what hit him by the time she was done with him.”
“She’s a bitch,” I tell Jules point-blank as I turn into my neighborhood. “And her sister is too. There’s a few associated with the team that are like that, but you just have to ignore them. They love the attention, even if it’s negative.”
“I never did understand women like that.” Jules laughs. “It’s an embarrassment to our gender.”
“See,” I tease her with a quick glance her way. The interior is dark and I can just make out the glow of her in the dashboard lights. Just exquisite. “I told you that you were one in a million, and that’s why I snapped you up.”
“Garrett’s right…you are a dork,” she tells me, again teasingly, but her voice is a little husky. She then turns in her seat, leans across the console and puts her hand on my thigh. The muscles immediately jump in acknowledgment of her touch.
“That right?” I murmur as her hand drifts up my leg.
“Mmmm-hmmm,” she purrs, and then she’s palming my dick, which starts to get hard. I barely realize I have another left turn to make and I curse when she grips me through the material of my pants.
“Baby,” I mutter, my hands holding the wheel tightly. “Want me to wreck?”
“Nope,” she answers as her fingers grasp my zipper and give it a little tug. “Better concentrate.”
“Christ,” I mutter as my cock goes fully hard and the zipper slides down.
One in a fucking million.