Las Vegas Sidewinders: Drake (Book 2) (8 page)

“Thank you for being
here,” Erin whispered to Drake.

“You’re welcome.” He
kept his arms around her lightly. “This is going to be my favorite Thanksgiving
ever.”

“Okay, none of that,”
Mack said, wiping her own eyes. “I have cooking to do, and laundry to fold, and
all sorts of grown-up things going on.”

Drake reached out and
grabbed her, pulling her into a group hug. “You are the best sister ever! Just
don’t tell Kara, okay?”
Kara was one
of his three sisters, the next closest to his age. Mack was the oldest and
Drake was the youngest; in between them were Mike, Kyle, Kelsey and Kara.

Mack laughed. “She
won’t hear it from me.”

“Are you going home
with your sister?” Erin asked him as they walked quietly into the guest room,
letting Mack get home while Tessa and Kate continued preparing for Thanksgiving
dinner.

“No way.” He sat on the
bed and patted the spot beside him. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

“You’re not going to
see your family?”

“Later.” He shrugged.
“I just want to be with you right now.” He reached out and softly touched her
face. “You’re so beautiful. I knew you would be.”

She looked down at her
arm and sighed. “She doesn’t think she can fix my arm or my leg. She says the
scars are deeper, thicker and much harder than the ones on my face. My helmet
protected my face a little bit, plus you instinctively put up your hands when
something like that happens, so at the end of the day, this is as good as it’s
going to get.”

“You keep telling me
that,” he said softly. “And I keep telling you it doesn’t matter. Right now, in
those jeans and that T-shirt, I want to rip off your clothes and kiss you up
one side and down the other… Everything about you turns me on. Don’t you get
that?”

She flushed. “It’s been
so long…since anyone looked at me like that.”

“Their loss, my gain.”
He leaned over to kiss her, his lips parting hers as easily as if they’d been
together for years. Her body melted into his, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“We can’t do it
now
,”
she whispered. “Not with them out there…”

“I know.” He rubbed his
thumb against her jaw. “But I can kiss you.”

“Oh, yes.”

The day passed quickly,
between multiple Thanksgiving meals and introducing each other to friends and
family. Though he spent the night at Mack’s house, he was back at Tessa’s to
pick up Erin first thing Friday morning.

“Pack an overnight
bag,” he told her. “We’re blowing this Popsicle stand.”

“I thought you were
flying home?”

“Changed it to tomorrow,”
he told her with a smile.

She quickly did as she
was told, and after a lot of giggling with Tessa and Kate behind closed doors,
she came out with a small carry-on bag and found Drake on the couch with Raina
on his lap.

“Nature called,” he
explained when Tessa asked where Bobby was.

“You’re a natural,”
Erin laughed, sitting beside him and kissing Raina’s hands, pretending to eat
them, which made the baby laugh.

“So are you.” He
glanced at her. “Do you want kids?”

“Oh yeah.” She smiled.
“I keep trying to take this one, but Tessa won’t let me!” She stuck her tongue
out at her friend, who responded in kind.

“You push something
that weighs nine pounds out of your va-jay-jay,” Tessa pouted, “and see if you
just want to give it away.”

“Ew!” Kate made a gagging
sound. “I am never having kids unless I adopt. That whole childbirth thing is
nasty!”

Tessa laughed. “Not
when you make a baby with someone you love.” She glanced at Bobby as he came
back into the room.

“What’d I miss?” he
asked, looking around.

“She doesn’t want to
push anything that weighs nine pounds out of her va-jay-jay,” Erin nodded at
Kate.

“Ew.” Bobby made a
face. “Me neither!”

Everyone laughed as
Drake and Erin made their excuses and got into his rental car.

“So how much time do we
have?” Erin asked him as he pulled out of the driveway.

“We have all day and
night.” He grinned.

“Where are we going?”

“The InterContinental.”
He glanced at her.

“And just what did you
think we would need a hotel room for?” she asked innocently.

“Room service,” he said
with a chuckle. “Lots of channels on the TV. A Jacuzzi.”

“Hmm.” She pretended to
consider this. “That could be fun. I like playing with the remote.”

“I’ve got a very
special remote for you,” he said solemnly.

Her eyes grew round.
“Is it big?”

“I think you liked it
last time I let you play with it,” he chuckled.

“Hmm.” She pretended to
be confused. “I don’t remember playing with your remote.”

“Give me twenty
minutes,” he chuckled. “I’ll remind you.”

They checked into the
hotel as quickly as they could. Without waiting for a bellman, Drake grabbed
their bags and they hurried to the elevator. Though Mack had told her to cover
the right side of her face if she was going to be out in the cold, she hadn’t
bothered. Instead, she wore a ski hat with a scarf around her neck. Now she
began unwinding it in the elevator, stuffing the hat in her purse.

“Already getting
undressed?” he laughed.

“I don’t know what
you’re talking about,” she huffed. “I’m just hot in here.”

He pulled her close to
him and kissed her until her toes curled. The elevator opened and they walked
to the room with her arm looped through his. Finally, they were inside the
room, the door locked behind them.

“Alone at last.” He put
their bags down and tugged at her hand. “Come sit with me. I can’t wait to get
naked, but first I just want to look at you.”

“Look at me?” She made
a face. “I’m still a mess—I can’t even wear makeup yet!”

He sat in a big chair
by the window and pulled her onto his lap. “You’re perfect.”

She reached up to run
her fingers through his thick dark blond hair. She traced her finger along his
square jaw and full lips. “Do you have your own teeth?” she asked with a sudden
grin. “Or dentures?!”

“I’ve been lucky so
far,” he chuckled. “Still have my teeth. But that could change any day.”

“You’d still be hot,”
she said, running her hands down his chest. “With abs like these, who needs
teeth?”

“That’s nice to hear.”
He leaned over and kissed her ear before slowly kissing a trail down her neck.

“Mm. Could you do this
all day?”

“Sure.” He untucked her
T-shirt from her jeans and let one hand wander underneath, touching her soft,
flat stomach. “You have some pretty good abs yourself.”

“There have been a lot
of nights in the last year that I literally worked out until I passed out. It
was the only way I could sleep, but the scars on my leg affect the muscles too,
so I’m not in as good of shape as I should be with all that exercise.”

“Do you still have
nightmares?”

“Sometimes,” she
admitted. “That’s why Kate doesn’t go back to New York. When I get them,
they’re bad.”

“What will you do this
coming week when she’s gone?”

“I’ve got night duty
this week, so I should be okay. I’ve never had one during the day. I’ll go back
to regular duty the following week, and Kate will be back.”

“Does her presence keep
them from happening or she’s just there to calm you down when they do?”

“A little of both. I’m
having fewer of them, and when they do hit, she’s a light sleeper so she hears
me right away and wakes me up. Then we sit up half the night—I can’t ever go
back to sleep afterwards.”

“Must be awful. What do
you dream about?”

She wrinkled her nose.
“The explosion. Over and over. Sometimes it will explode three or four times in
one dream… I’ll see body parts, blood…lots and lots of blood.”

“Do you see Shay?”

“No. There are never
any people, just the damn explosions and blood.”

“Have you been to
therapy?”

“Yeah, I’m in a support
group for people who have been in attacks like that. I’m luckier than most,
though. I just have the nightmares—it’s down to maybe 3-4 a month—and I get
edgy if I’m alone too long. But I can still drive, work,
function
for
the most part. Some of those poor guys are just…” her voice trailed off. “Well,
many will never be the same.”

“I’m really sorry
you’ve had to live this.”

“I’m still proud to
serve my country,” she shrugged. “I would have preferred it not go this
direction, but I’m okay. Especially now.” She touched his cheek.

“Are you ever going to
feel comfortable in shorts and a T-shirt?” he asked after a moment.

“I’m not very self-conscious
about my arm,” she admitted. “So I won’t wear long sleeves in July to cover it
or anything like that. I rarely wear shorts, though. Even in summer I’ll wear
capris or a knee-length skirt or dress.”

“It’s really hot in
Vegas,” he murmured. “You might not want to wear
any
clothes.”

She glanced at him out
of the corner of her eye. “It’s freezing here in Chicago, and right now I don’t
want to wear any clothes either.”

“No?” He wiggled his
eyebrows. “That’s the best thing I’ve heard in weeks!”

In one motion, he stood
up with her in his arms and walked over to the bed. He gently laid her on it
before going back to pull the curtains. Though he had no problem making love
with the sun shining in on them, he had a feeling she wasn’t there yet, despite
her braveness the last time they’d been together.

“So, wanna play with my
remote?” he asked, lying next to her.

She opened her mouth to
respond when he presented her with the television remote. A giggle burst out of
her as she grabbed it from him. “No!” she laughed. “I want you to kiss me.”

He pretended to sigh.
“Again? Kiss kiss kiss… Geez, women are all the same.”

“What would
you
like to do?” she whispered, moving closer to him, her face turned up to his.

“Actually, I changed my
mind. Kissing sounds like fun.” He lowered his mouth to hers and once again,
the moment their lips met she felt a fire start to build deep inside. Clay had
never affected her this way. Towards the end they wouldn’t even kiss anymore,
just pull off their clothes and he would roll on top of her before they fell
asleep. They’d kissed more in the beginning, but once sex became a regular
thing, he almost stopped trying and she remembered being so surprised the night
Shay had come to her after the bachelorette party. Everything he did had been so
different from Clay, she’d been awed by how amazing he was in bed, and now she
found Drake to be the same kind of sexy, generous lover.

“You’re thinking
again,” he whispered, moving away so he could look in her eyes.

“I’ve only ever been
with three guys, including you.” She could sense his surprise as she continued.
“Shay was all I wanted in college and then of course I got handed over to Clay
and he was my first and only until the night before my wedding. That was the
first time I realized that sex could be awesome, and I was just thinking that,
statistically, two out of three ain’t bad, I guess.” She grinned.

“That’s a song, isn’t
it?” he murmured, bending his head again. “No more thinking about him.”

At least four orgasms
and a shower later, Erin lay on the bed flipping through the TV stations as
Drake finished ordering lunch.

“I’m playing with your
remote,” she laughed, glancing over at him.

He looked down at his
crotch. “Apparently you’re not doing it right.”

They both laughed. He
stretched out beside her and pulled her close. She rested her head on his chest
and for a while they were quiet, enjoying each other’s company.

“How much time do we
really have?” she asked finally.

“I’m on the 6:30 a.m.
flight back to Vegas in the morning,” he said. “We have a morning skate at 10:00
that I’m going to make by the skin of my teeth, and then a game at 7:00. Sunday
we leave for the East Coast. We play the Rangers Monday, Philly Wednesday and
Pittsburgh Thursday. We fly to Montreal Friday, play there Saturday, and fly
home Sunday.”

“So you’re on the road
all week.”

“We’ll have two weeks
at home and then we’re playing in Vancouver and San Jose just before the
holidays. We’re off the 24
^th
and 25
^th
for Christmas, we
play at home on the 26
^th
and go back on the road for a week or so
after that.”

“And I’ll be working on
Christmas, because I’ve taken so much time off for different therapies and
stuff,” she said with a sigh. “I have to be back at Quantico on Monday. Kate
and I are both leaving Sunday afternoon, but she’s flying straight to New York
and I’m going back to Virginia.”

“This is going to be
complicated,” he said softly.

“It’ll be at least a
month before I see you again.” She looked at him sadly.

“Hockey season only
goes through the middle of April,” he said quietly. “And even if we make the
playoffs, chances are we are not going to the Cup this year, so—”

“Where’s the Cup?” she
asked.

“It’s a what, not a
where,” he shook his head. “I am definitely going to have to teach you about
hockey. Our championship, the Super Bowl of hockey, if you will, is called the
Stanley Cup. The best team from the east plays the best team from the west in
the best of seven games. As a brand new franchise, the chances we make the
playoffs are slim. The chances we make it to the finals are slim to none. I
could be in D.C. by mid-April and I wouldn’t have to leave until September.
That’s more than four months together.”

“Seems like it’s really
far away,” she said quietly. “But I guess it’s not all bad, because I checked
the schedule—you’re playing in D.C. in February.”

He laughed. “That’s
true, although I may not have much time to see you. When we’re on a road trip,
sometimes we get there in the afternoon and fly to the next destination right
after the game. I might not even spend the night. I don’t remember who we play
after Washington.”

“I didn’t look at
that,” she admitted. “I guess I’ll have to get used to the way things work.”

“What about you? Will
you stay in Virginia? Is there a chance you’ll be moved?”

“Right now I’m on light
duty, desk duty. I don’t even belong to a unit, although if I can pass the
physical, I can go active again and get assigned to another unit. Because of
being a Purple Heart recipient—”

“You got a Purple
Heart?” He was startled there was something so major he still didn’t know about
her.

“Everyone who gets
blown up gets one,” she shrugged. “And because I tried to save Shay, they
consider me a hero. Anyway, if I return to full duty, I’ll be ready for a
promotion to Major. That could mean another deployment.”

“Another deployment?”
He stared at her in surprise. “You want to go back out there?”