CHAPTER 1
The hockey puck costume was such a good idea. Happy to help her cousin by trying it on, Piper walked over to the stadium’s executive elevators wearing the two vertical hoops covered in black chiffon. Atop her shoulders, pale blue ribbons connected the front to the back, and loosely secured the sides.
Piper bent to press the up arrow, and the forward stretch made the back hoop lift in an indelicate manner. She slapped the fabric down with her purse and wiggled. The frame shifted higher. Ugh. Trying to make gravity work for her benefit, Piper jumped. The leg opening floated sideways, allowing a draft to cool her nether regions. Not okay. Air-conditioning floated where air currents shouldn’t go.
How much skin was she showing? An inch? Four? Why was she counting? The issue wasn’t the amount of flesh but the location, hyperawareness gave her the urge to hurry.
The elevator doors swished open, and gentle classical tunes welcomed her inside. Keeping in mind her costume’s width, Piper angled her body to get in without getting trapped like a human cookie between metal teeth. The door swished to close, grabbed the side of her costume, and retracted, jerking her body to the left.
“Hmph.”
Piper stepped to the right, her body shifted inside the puck, and the door held on to the edge of her seam. What the hell? Piper placed one hand high on the arc and one at hip level. She tugged. Rip. Jagged holes jetted in through the fabric. Uh oh, she had to be showing a ton of skin right now. Piper shoved off her concern; the dancers might prefer this more revealing version anyway.
The elevator doors eased inward. “Yikes.” Piper jerked to get out of the way, but she was stuck. The sensors realized that she stood in the way of the doors closing, and the doors retracted, jerking her body left again. Rip.
All the air-conditioning freely chilled her body now. Basically, she was wearing a round hoop with chiffon strips at the edges and panties. Goosebumps rose where publicly visible bumps should not rise. She was stuck, mostly naked, in a public elevator.
Stupid costume. Staring at the remnants of her error in judgment would not solve her problem. Piper dropped her purse. Half the contents fell out: her clothes, papers, and keys. The noise made sure anyone in the area would look her way.
Okay, one crisis at a time, if she could see where her edge was caught, she could fix the problem. There was a dark vertical hollow where her hoop disappeared. If she had a high-beam flashlight or x-ray vision, she could see the issue. She had neither. Piper tugged hard, no luck.
The elevator alarm buzzed for three solid seconds, warning her the doors had been open too long.
No shit.
Frustrated pulling was not working.
Hello. Mid-afternoon, anyone could need this elevator. Move, put clothes on.
Piper ducked out from under the costume like a genie wriggling to get out of a cracked bottle. She rose, and her escape maneuver jolted her costume loose. The unrestrained puck slipped into the elevator floor gap with the same slithery navigation the fabric had used on her butt and then disappeared into the abyss.
Son of a silkworm. Should she have shoved toward the catch instead of yanking?
“Hold the door.” With athletic speed, a guy stepped inside. Six foot plus, an expensive haircut, and a heap of handsome.
While she was almost naked.
Embarrassed heat flushed her skin, and she scrambled to grab her change of clothes and throw her dress on. Cuddly fresh fabric softener and hints of her powdery perfume settled around her, reminding her of more modest times. Momma had never warned her about a situation like this, and she wasn’t sure of her next move.
Pro-ice hockey player to her left, his momma had likely warned him about situations like this.
The guy wore a number sixty-five jersey, jeans, sneakers, and an appreciative expression. He gave her a quick, admiring once-over, and then looked up at the numbers over the door like a normal elevator passenger. His half-smile betrayed his amusement with her situation. “I’ve had this dream.” His deep, rich vocal tones were full of confidence.
Nice voice, but Piper still wanted to shrink into the corner and cover her face, she’d paraded her unmentionables in public.
Calm down.
The dancers’ current snowball-covered bikinis showed almost as much flesh as she had, and they shook their snow in front of thousands of onlookers.
Piper struggled to adjust her silk dress while keeping her chin up. Why hadn’t she met this handsome guy anywhere else? Cruel fate. “Er, the puck costume wasn’t working for me. I changed.”
“Worked for me.” The sincere relish in his attractive voice kept his side of the conversation in the potential date range and soothed her embarrassment.
He liked her, and he was making her smile despite her awkwardness, amazing quality in a man. Was he considering her for a future one-on-one? Hah. He’d probably pegged her as a strip-o’gram. While today she’d offered quite the peep show, she wasn’t usually an exhibitionist. If he liked naked displays from a woman, he’d have to indulge his fetish elsewhere. Was it too soon in their acquaintance to exchange real turn-ons?
The warning buzzer sounded, indicating the doors had been open too long.
Yeah, they had.