Monster Pucker: A MMF Monster Hockey Romance(17)

Like the gentleman he was, Klaus pulled out my chair, and I shimmied into my seat.

“Marco has really outdone himself.” I surveyed the food, eager to load up my plate. After last night, I’d worked up quite the appetite.

Flurry snorted. “He has outdone himself. This certainly isn’t the treatment I receive.” He gave Klaus a knowing look, his blue eyes glinting like tourmaline.

Klaus cleared his throat. “I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I thought it best to cover all my bases.”

Tears blurred the edges of my vision, threatening to glide down my cheeks and into my plate of home fries. I wasn’t used to that type of kindness or treatment. I’d never been in a relationship with someone who seemed to constantly go out of their way for me.

“Princess.” Klaus reached out and gave my forearm a reassuring caress. “It’s part of our nature to want to provide for you. To keep you safe and comfortable.”

Their nature?

Did that mean what they mentioned yesterday, about them suspecting I was their mate?

My confusion must have been clear on my face.

Flurry smiled softly, his tusks making little indents in his upper lip. “Don’t think about it too hard. Just play it by ear. What happens, happens.”

Klaus chuckled into his coffee, and steam billowed over the lip of the cup. “Yes, just play it by ear.”

His remark made me even more confused.

Was there something they weren’t telling me?

I didn’t dwell on it long, though. The delicious breakfast Marco had prepared for us pulled our attention away from the mystery of mating bonds.

We quietly dug into our food and when I was on my third strip of bacon, Marco rushed into the dining room with a tray of beignets. A snowy layer of powdered sugar dusted the fried pillows of dough.

Snow.

“Thank you for breakfast, Marco. Has the snow stopped?” I asked, reaching for a beignet.

“Ah, ah. They’re still hot,” he scolded, sliding the tray just out of my reach. “I can’t have you burning yourself. I’d be fired. The snow stopped late last night and on my flight in, it looked like most of the main roadways were already cleared.”

“Oh.” I sounded just as forlorn as I felt. I was in no rush to leave Klaus and Flurry, to get back to work, and the real world, and a life where I wasn’t sandwiched between two attractive males who fed me bacon and beignets.

Technically, it was Marco who fed me, but that was beside the point. He was employed by Klaus, so it meant just as much.

“Well, then.” Klaus squinted at the gilded clock on the wall separating the dining room from the kitchen. “I suppose after breakfast we should get ready for practice and drop Holly off at her car.”

A pang of disappointment made my chest constrict. I knew our date wasn’t going to last forever, but I had hoped the snowstorm would buy us some extra time.

Damn the efficiency of the Michigan road maintenance crew.

Flurry must have noticed my expression drop. “What about later, snow angel? Any plans this evening?”

I couldn’t hold back my grin. “No plans. Absolutely none at all.”

“Would you like to meet us after practice again?” I could hear the hope in Flurry’s voice.

“I’d love to.” I’d have a few hours to get myself cleaned up, ice my lady bits, and maybe, just maybe, there would be a round two in my future.

From out of the corner of my eye, I saw Klaus flash Flurry a satisfied grin before hiding his smile behind his coffee cup.

Those two were going to be my undoing, and I wasn’t mad about it one bit.





After finishing breakfast, we piled into Flurry’s truck and made our way back to the stadium. Marco was correct in his aerial assessment. The roads were clear, not that Flurry’s monster SUV would have had an issue, anyway. And I had a lingering suspicion that as a yeti, he didn’t have any problems navigating through the snow.

“Here we are,” Flurry said as he pulled the truck to a stop next to my beat up Honda.

Klaus gave my car a disapproving look. “Are you sure you’ll be able to make it home alright? We don’t mind dropping you off at your—”

I cut him off. “No, it’s fine. Really.”

They had already done so much for me in the last twenty-four hours. I could handle driving myself home.

The two of them hopped out of the truck and Klaus held out his hand to help me down from the cab.

“Thank you,” I said, loving how warm his hand felt in mine.

For being a krampus with a reputation of harshness, he was actually really sweet. I never would have pegged him for being the involved father type. And quitting hockey to do it?

Flurry had looked just as shocked as I felt.

As a reporter, I knew there was tension between the two of them on the rink, but as mates, they were perfectly in sync. It was adorable to see.

Klaus placed a soft kiss on the back of my hand, drawing me out of my thoughts.

“We’ll meet you after practice. Unfortunately, I don’t think keeping you in our lockers will work out,” Flurry teased.

I laughed. “Probably not.”

“Same time?” Klaus asked. His deep, rumbling voice made my toes curl.

I nodded. “Yes, same time.”

When Klaus finally released my hand, Flurry wrapped me in his arms, bringing his mouth to mine for a chaste kiss.