Meet Your Match (Kings of the Ice, #1)(49)

“Exactly.”

This time, she did laugh, shaking her head as she plucked the olive out of her martini and popped it into her mouth. “Oh, honey,” she said. “This is going to backfire right in that pretty face of yours.”





This Fucking Dress



Vince



“Man, I’m starving,” Carter said, rubbing his stomach like an old man waiting for Thanksgiving dinner. “I feel like I could eat a whole cow.”

“Maybe if you did, you’d be able to hit the puck better,” Jaxson said, pinching Carter’s biceps with his fingertips. “That wimpy shot you made in our scrimmage today is going to reverberate in my nightmares.”

“Fuck off. It was bar down.”

“It would have actually had to go in the net to be bar down,” Will grumped. “Not doinked off like a missed field goal.”

“It went in and you know it, Daddy P. You just don’t want to admit this rookie scored on you.”

“That’s because you didn’t, Fabio. And you never will.”

Carter and Will were still horsing around when we pushed through the front door of the restaurant. We were immediately greeted by five employees at the hostess stand, all of them eager to welcome us and see us to our table. There were more eyes on Will than the rest of us, mostly because Daddy P didn’t make public appearances often. He was usually home with his kid, where he loved to be. I was glad we’d managed to pull him out for an evening, even if just for dinner.

But that wasn’t my sole focus of the evening.

“You good?” Jaxson asked me, pulling behind a bit to walk at my side.

“Peachy.”

“That’s convincing,” he said on a laugh, and then he narrowed his eyes when he saw me searching the place as we were walked through the restaurant to a back room. “Who are you looking for?”

I didn’t answer him, but when I spotted Maven and her date at a table by the window, I stopped dead in my tracks.

She was so gorgeous it hurt.

Her onyx hair was blown out in a soft, wavy style that reminded me of the night we spent together in Baltimore, her warm brown skin glowing in the candlelight. The gloss on her lips was almost as enticing as the heels strapped to her delicate ankles, and even from a distance, I could see the slit in her velvet blue dress, could trace the lines of her legs that it revealed beneath the table.

I wasn’t sure how long I stood and stared before Jaxson’s laugh cut through the haze.

“You sly dog,” he said, shaking his head as he clapped me on the shoulder. “She know you’re here?”

“Not yet.”

He laughed again. “I’ll write a good eulogy for your funeral.”

He left me then, following the rest of the guys to our table as I stayed rooted in place. A few tables of diners began to recognize me, the chatter getting louder, and Maven must have picked up on it. Because she was in the middle of a beautiful, sing-song laugh that floated through the restaurant and right to my ears when she paused, turning toward the noise.

Her mouth went slack at the sight of me.

For a moment, I just stood there and stared at her, my heart hammering in my chest. A cocky smile slid on my lips easily, without me prompting it, like it was my natural state of being. Then, I slid my hands into my pockets and winked at her before turning and heading in the direction of our table.

I didn’t say a word when I sat down, letting the rest of the guys carry the conversation. Jaxson was watching me with a curious look over his menu, though — especially as my gaze stayed fixed on Maven across the restaurant. She was doing her best to ignore me, but when her eyes would flick to mine, I would always smile.

And she would always glare.

It was a good thing looks couldn’t actually kill, because I was pretty sure my life would be over.

Showing up here was a bold move. I knew as much when I decided to make it. Maven had politely told me after practice that she wouldn’t be around this evening, and when I asked her why, she hid a shy tinge of her cheeks with her hair when she said, “I have a date.”

Four words.

Four words was all it took to make my blood boil and my brain cease to have any common sense or rationality.

I’d pretended to be cool about it, shrugging and telling her to have fun. But as soon as I’d shut the door to my place, I’d called Livia.

“Tell me where he’s taking her,” I’d said when she answered.

She’d laughed, and I was almost certain she wasn’t going to tell me. But then, after a long pause, she’d asked, “You really like her, don’t you?”

I hadn’t been able to respond.

“You’ve got a long road ahead of you to earn her trust,” she’d warned me, and when I didn’t back down, she’d given me the name of the restaurant.

Something about that fueled me even more. Livia was her best friend, and if she’d willingly told me the location of Maven’s date, that said loud and clear everything I needed to hear. If Maven really hated me, if she really didn’t want me, Livia would have told me to leave her alone, to kick rocks, to back the hell off.

Instead, she’d handed me an invitation.

I wasn’t going to waste it.

After we placed our order, I excused myself from the table. But instead of going to the restroom like I’d said I was, I strolled right over to Maven’s table.