Chapter Eleven

 

"So I'm measuring up just fine, huh?"

Shannon ducked her head so a thick hank of hair hid her face—but not before he saw the bright flush spread across her cheeks. Caleb tossed back his head and laughed, then choked it back when she elbowed him in the side.

"It's not funny. And it sounded a whole lot better in my head."

"It didn't sound that bad."

"I'm sure it didn't, not to you." She shook her head then reached up and brushed the hair from her face with a sigh. "I don't think Chuckie is ever going to forgive me. Or let me in front of a camera again."

"I think you're worrying over nothing. It really wasn't that bad. And that little pause you added, right before you said up—" Caleb laughed again, sidestepping so he'd be out of reach of her elbow.

"Yeah, go ahead and laugh. Everyone else did. It was embarrassing."

At first, he thought she was just being overly-dramatic, in a funny sort of way. But he caught a glimpse of worry in her eyes and saw the way her shoulders hunched around her ears. The movement was as brief as that expression on her face but not brief enough. Was she really worried about it?

Yeah, she really was.

There was something about that small glimpse of vulnerability that stopped him in his tracks—literally. He grabbed her hand and moved off to the side of the sidewalk, tugging her with him. The fact that she came willingly told him how upset she really was. Caleb ignored the tug of emotion he felt at her expression, telling himself he was imagining things. Did he feel sympathy for her? Yeah, of course he did. He wasn't that heartless or uncaring. But that's all it was: sympathy. And it had nothing to do with the way he kept her hand cradled in his, or with the sudden urge he had to pull her into his arms and tell her everything would be okay.

Or the urge to kiss her until she forgot everything about this afternoon.

He ignored both urges and dropped her hand then leaned against the wall. The coldness of the bricks seeped through his jacket and shirt and into his skin, a contradiction to the heated blood flowing through his veins. This was a bad idea, he should have never asked her out tonight. Not because there was anything wrong with going out for pizza but because he wanted one hell of a lot more than pizza.

He wanted her.

Only he couldn't have her, not the way he wanted. Shannon wasn't a one-night stand, even if he had been considering just that not too long ago. But the more he was around her…

He liked her, dammit. Which meant his former plans had to be scratched. Which meant he had to put all thoughts of her long legs wrapped around him and sturdy curves pressed against him completely out of his mind.

Yeah, sure. Easier said than done.

Shannon shifted in front of him, curling her arms in front of her and huddling deeper in her coat to fight off the chill of the night air. "Is there a reason we're stopped in the middle of the sidewalk?"

Was there a reason? Caleb gave himself a mental shake. A reason. Yes, there had been a reason. He wanted to reassure her, to tell her there was no reason for her to be embarrassed. He just needed to stop looking at her mouth and thinking—

He cleared his throat and finally met her gaze. "It wasn't that bad."

"You said that already."

"And I'm repeating it because it's the truth. The guy was an ass. You pretty much put him in his place."

"Yeah. Uh-huh. And made you sound like some sex god in the process."

Caleb choked back his laughter and wondered if she had any idea how close her words were to his own thoughts. Not about the sex god part—although yeah, that certainly wouldn't hurt his reputation—but the sex part.

Definitely the sex part.

Only no, she didn't have a clue. Not about what he was thinking. Not about what she did to him. Not even about how she looked, standing there in her worn denim jeans that hugged every inch of those long legs, her head tilted back and her mouth slightly parted as she watched him with wide brown eyes.

"I hope you know this is all your fault."

He frowned, wondering if he had missed something while his mind was somewhere it shouldn't be. "What's my fault?"

"Everything. But especially this afternoon. If you hadn't run your mouth during that interview last night, none of this would have happened."

"It was taken out of context."

Shannon's brows shot up in disbelief. "Out of context? Oh, please. You were smooth about it but you're not going to stand there and tell me you didn't mean every single word you said. You really don't think we can beat you."

"Could you? Maybe. But it's not a fair game. We've been playing a hell of a lot longer. We've got more experience—"

"I've been playing for seventeen years. How about you?"

"I—" Caleb frowned when he realized he'd only been playing two years longer. He shook his head, brushing her question away. "That doesn't matter. We've been together longer as a team. We have more game experience, more practice time, more ice time. It only makes sense to think we'd win against a brand-new team. We have the advantage."

"Yeah, okay. If you say so. It's still your fault. You should have just kept quiet. If you hadn't let that guy goad you, we wouldn't have had that awful press conference today and I wouldn't have embarrassed myself."

"You didn't embarrass yourself."

"Yeah, I did." She uncrossed her arms and poked him in the chest with her finger. "But you were the one responsible for the other night. You and that stupid kiss—"

"Stupid?"

"Yeah. Stupid. You just had to show off—"

Caleb didn't stop to think, just reached out and pulled her closer and claimed her mouth with his own. It was stupid. A bad idea. A really bad idea.

But he didn't care, not when her mouth opened beneath his with a soft gasp. Not when her hands rested on his shoulders as she stepped even closer, fitting her body against his. Hard and soft and warm.

Caleb cupped the back of her head with one hand and deepened the kiss, swallowing her soft moan. Or maybe the noise had come from him, the sound born from both desire and surprise. It didn't matter, not when she pressed against him and kissed him back.

And this…this was so much better than he'd imagined. A hundred times better than that open-mouthed kiss he'd given her the other night in front of eighteen thousand screaming fans. A million times better than that lame ass closed-mouth peck in the parking lot of the diner.

This…this was hot and wet. This was what he wanted, what he'd hadn't been able to stop thinking about. Carnal desire and need and excitement all rolled into one powerful punch strong enough to bring him to his knees. And when her hips pressed against the length of his erection…yeah, fuck. His knees damn near buckled right then and there.

He broke the kiss with a silent growl, his breath leaving in a strangled gasp when she looked up at him with eyes glazed with desire. Then she blinked, her tongue darting out and sweeping across the swell of her bottom lip, and he damn near groaned again.

"I thought we were getting pizza."

Pizza? How could she think about pizza right now?

Caleb cleared his throat and tried to step back, damn near knocked himself out when his head smacked against the brick wall.

"Pizza. Yeah. Sure." He rubbed the back of his head, watching the playful smile that curled the edges of her mouth. "We, uh, we could get it to go. I don't live too far from here—"

"I told you, I'm not sleeping with you."

"Who said anything about sleeping?" And shit. Damn. Fuck. He hadn't meant to say that out loud, hadn't meant to give her a reason to haul off and slug him or verbally slay him.

To his surprise, she didn't do either of those things. And she didn't give him a withering look or storm off, either. She just stood there, her head tilted to the side as she watched him.

And watched him some more.

A slow smile spread across her face and danced in her eyes, one that filled him with both excitement and terror. Maybe he had counted himself lucky too soon, maybe now was when she would haul off and throttle him.

Except she didn't. Instead, she reached down and grabbed his hand, tugging until he had no choice but to follow her.

"I actually think getting take-out is a great idea."