Slap Shot (6 page)

“Did you let her down gently?”

“If you count never calling as being let down gently.”

“Did you say you would call?”

“I asked for her number.”

“So why did you ask for it?”

“It seemed polite.”

I wrinkled my nose. “If she was expecting a call and you didn’t that’s classed as mean.”

His wide shoulders shrugged and he tipped the fish into a sizzling pan. “I know, hindsight and all that.”

I watched the sleeves of his T-shirt tighten on his upper arms as he shook the pan over the heat and reached for a chopping board.

“I thought she was in it for the same thing as me, one night of fun, a bit of sharing sweat. But it seems we were on different wavelengths, very different wavelengths.”

“So what’s the problem now?”

“The problem now is she’s broken three restraining orders, been caught loitering around my house over two dozen times in the last four months, and sent me a ton of letters ranging from sweet and needy to downright threatening.”

I twirled the stem of my glass and watched the gold-tinted liquid swirl up the sides. “Has she ever gotten inside the grounds of your home?”

His gaze harnessed mine. “No, and if she had I wouldn’t have you here.”

“So why no niece and nephew visits if there isn’t a problem?”

“My sisters are wary. I come from an ordinary family, grew up in a small town in South Carolina. They’re more comfortable with the life they know. Fame and fortune is a novelty they want to dip in and out of when the going is good. When it doesn’t suit they stay away.”

“You okay with that?”

“More than okay. I would rather they weren’t coming and going if
she
is outside.” He began to stir the sauce he was making and put the fish back on the heat. “You like bulgur wheat?”

“Sure.”

He paused and glugged on his beer.

“So Laurie Sharp is the reason you didn’t take me to a restaurant?”

He sighed. “You probably think I’m letting her win but it’s not like that.” He reached across and rested his index finger on the back of my hand. “I just wouldn’t want to risk you, or any woman I’d asked to spend time with me, and I don’t see why I should stop doing that just because of her warped ideas.”

I stared at his thick wrist, hard tendons over bone and skin fuzzed with dark hairs. A dart of sensation shot up my arm at his gentle touch. “Do you think she’s a physical threat then?”

“She might be.”

I tipped my head, my gaze urging him to go on.

He frowned. “When the police picked her up outside the rink last week she had a gun in her purse.”

Chapter Three

The dinner was fabulous, light and tasty and perfect with the white wine. We sat outside, by the pool, the delicate splashing of the waterfall a constant melody. I didn’t mention Laurie again, I sensed he’d said what he needed to about her and wanted an evening free of the shadow. Instead Rick chatted about his family, most of whom he’d moved down to be near him, and what is was like growing up in the middle of all those siblings, the eldest boy but still fourth in line. His road to hockey stardom had been a rocky one, plagued by a back injury in his twenties. It took a year of intense treatment to get on his game again. But then there was no stopping him and within two years of being taken on by the Vipers he was captain. He’d been in this position for five years now, somewhat of a record.

“And what about you?” he asked, settling back on the chair and locking his hands behind his head, his elbows spreading wide. “You always wanted to be an event planner?”

I pushed my plate away. “No, not at all, it just sort of happened.”

“How?”

I stared at the waterfall. There was no way I was going to give him the full story. The fact that I’d grown up with losers for parents and happily adopted the status of a runaway at sixteen was not something I was proud of. Neither were the years I’d spent working in a seedy downtown gentlemen’s club, earning a living dancing and spending my wages partying. I was wild during that time, I was out of control. Until one day I’d walked away and never looked back. Thank goodness I had. If I hadn’t, well, it didn’t bear thinking about where I might be now.

“I came into some money,” I said. “Not loads, but it was enough to allow me six months off to try out a new venture.” I looked back at him, trying to banish memories of spinning around the poles and having money poked into my underwear.

“And so you decided event planning was the way to go?”

“Why not? The clients paid up front and there was no initial outlay except for a couple of ads, time and calls. I’m well organized and I know what people need to have a good time.”

His black brows rose and his lips parted as if he were about to speak.

“I know what makes a great event,” I said sternly.

He chuckled and his head bobbed slightly.

“It roller-coastered, word of mouth spread and before I knew it I was getting bookings while I was actually at an event.”

“Wow, that’s impressive.”

“It kept me busy. I’d only been at it three months when I leased my offices on Tremblant Street and hired Maddie.”

“And you haven’t looked back since.”

“No.” I definitely hadn’t looked back to that awful morning when I’d woken with a man sleeping next to me whose name I couldn’t recall and whose face I didn’t recognize. That in itself was bad enough, and thank goodness I’d tested clean at the STD clinic, but the fifty thousand dollars, the stash of white powder and the loaded gun on the bedside table had completely freaked me out. Five minutes later, staggering out of the stinking room, the sweat of a drug dealer slick on my body and my intimate parts sore and swollen, I’d decided there had to be change. I could not live my life that way another day. There had to be more out there for Dana Wilcox.

“So how did you come into the money? Lotto win?”

“I told you. I’m not a gambling lady.” I smiled and was rewarded with a return grin that showed off his dimples. “I was down on my luck and, as if fate had been saving herself for me, an elderly uncle who lived up in Calgary went and left me eighty thousand dollars. Turned out he’d met me once when I was about three and always held a soft spot. Poor old devil, I can’t remember him. He was on my mother’s side and she’d had a fallout with her family years ago.”

“Eighty thousand, a good amount to start fresh.”

“Well it’s not like the money you’ve made or anything, but it paid the deposit on the house, got me a car, and like I say, meant I could live while I tried out Best Laid Plans.”

“Cheers,” he said, raising his glass to mine. “Here’s to Best Laid Plans, a wonderful and successful venture.”

“And here is to old Uncle Toby,” I said. “And the fact he had a soft spot for the naughty three-year-old who once jumped all over his couch and drank his pop.”

Rick took a sip of his drink. “You want to go jump in my pool?”

“We’ve just eaten.”

“You finished half an hour ago and I don’t mean anything strenuous, a paddle and a sit in the spa.”

I glanced at the water. It was dark now and the spotlights beneath the large fronds of the plants made them glow magically. The water frothed white at the base of the waterfall and in the large round spa. The pale blue pool shimmered and sparkled and above the almost invisible mesh a large, cream moon hung in a velvet sky.

“I don’t have a swimsuit.”

“There’s some in there.” Rick nodded at a wooden door set against the main house.

“What, you keep a stash of swimsuits for unprepared women you invite over?”

His brow pulled low and his eyes narrowed. “No, not at all, I ordered them from a local store and they arrived this afternoon. For you.”

My heart did a stupid little flip. “You didn’t.”

“Why would I lie?”

“But, but you don’t know my size.”

He held up his hands, made an hourglass shape and grinned. “Let’s just say it’s a gift. Size four, yeah?”

What could I say, he was right. “Okay, a quick dip, but only if one of the swimsuits fits.”

“If not you could always go in naked.”

I drained the last drop of my wine and stood. “You know that is never going to happen.”

He stacked the plates and wisely said nothing.

I stripped in the wooden-paneled changing room and picked out a black bikini. It wasn’t too skimpy and the halter-style top was flattering. It fit fine. After folding my clothes I headed back out. Rick was nowhere to be seen.

Padding barefoot to the pool, I dipped my foot in. The water was lukewarm and my pink-painted toenails shimmered in the pool lights. I took the steps and let the coolness envelop my body, pushed off and swam breaststroke to the waterfall. Reaching the rolling water, I stood beneath it, tipped my head back and let the coolness soak through the thick strands of my hair. The feeling was heavenly. Refreshing and rejuvenating.

Pushing off to swim back to the steps, I spotted Rick standing at the edge of the pool. He wore navy swim-shorts and had his hands on his hips. I tried to look unaffected by the sight of his gorgeous body looming against a backlit palm. Tall and wide, his muscles bulged and his dark body hair led a beautiful trail from his sternum to his navel, thickening as it disappeared below his waistband. He had a string of purple-yellow bruises down his right-hand side, a hazard of his job I guessed.

“Is it good?” he asked as I got nearer.

“Lovely.” Okay so I’d had sex with the guy, but it hadn’t been a slow mating, it wasn’t as if I’d had chance to truly savor, truly appreciate a body that was as near to goddamn perfection as was humanly possible.

He dropped into the water, ducked right under then came up shaking his head, flipping his dark hair upward and sideways out of his face.

“The swimsuit fits then.”

“Yes, great, thanks.” I turned and swam back to the waterfall.

With several fast strokes he overtook me and popped up in the hard flow, letting it bounce off his shoulders and face as he raked his hands over his head.

I stared at the water gushing over his body, at the way it streamed down his tendons, sluiced over golden skin and caught in the wisps of black hair under his arms.

“Ah, that’s better,” he said, stepping toward me, the water at his waist.

“I thought you said nothing strenuous.”

“That wasn’t strenuous.” He stopped in front of me and my feet hit the floor to avoid my nose bumping into his bricked abdomen. “You want to see strenuous?” he asked, his eyes glinting wickedly.

I dropped backward, floated on my back and kicked away from him. “No, I wouldn’t want you to get a cramp.”

“Babe, that damn bikini is already giving me a cramp.”

I glanced down at myself and saw that my breasts, though still safely housed in the top, had breaching the surface of the water and the two round mounds of flesh jiggled as my body moved. Quickly I flipped onto my front and made for the steps. “I’m going in the spa, but just for a few minutes,” I said, and in my head added that soon I would go home. Bad Dana could not be trusted around a three-quarters-naked Rick.
No way.

The spa was hot and bubbly and I settled down against a powerful jet, letting it soothe the tension from my lower back.

“I don’t get enough use out of this,” Rick said, climbing in next to me, stretching his arms out sideways and dropping his head back. “It’s bliss.”

“Mmm,” I agreed, closing my eyes and allowing a delicious state of relaxation to surround me. I was in control, everything was all right.

“I’ve been offered an interesting project,” he said.

I opened my eyes and turned to him. “What?”

“My agent rang me earlier. Channel Eight has approached him about a TV show next spring.”

“A TV show, what about?”

“It sounds like it could be a winner. They’re planning a talent show looking for the next hockey stars, sort of like
American Idol
but on ice. They want me to get involved, judge, train, that sort of thing.”

I sat a little straighter. “Do you think you’d have time for all that, what with games and practice?”

He shrugged. “I’m not getting any younger, Dana. I’m thirty-six, my NHL days will soon be over. I’ll have to retire and let the youngsters have their glory.”

“But surely you can just retire altogether and have an easy life. It’s not like you need the cash.”

He frowned. “I’d go insane if I just sat around here all day. I need something to get my teeth into.” He pushed his wet hair back over his head, one tendril fell down over his right temple and a drip hung from the end. “I was kind of thinking of working with kids, teens anyway, setting up some kind of hockey training scheme that’s available to all, not just the ones who can afford it. Get kids skating, get them active, maybe even find some stars of the future and mentor their first steps.”

I smiled at the way his face lit up. It was good to have plans for the future, and I agreed with him, he was too vibrant, too alive and too damn talented to just sit around for the rest of his life. “So you think the show could be incorporated into what you want to do anyway?”