He raised a brow and folded his arms across his chest.
She was irritated with him. Maybe irrationally so, but she was still annoyed and didn’t feel like letting him in right away.
“I know you’re staring at me. You might as well open up,” he said.
“What?” she asked as she opened the door.
Instead of answering, he stepped inside and forced her to move backward.
“I’m tired and not—” His mouth on her stopped her flow of words as he brought his hands to the sides of her face. The door shut behind him with a soft click, and his thumbs brushed her cheeks. His lips slid over hers with the promise of passion rather than a full-out kiss.
“No skating with Sam,” he said against her lips. “I’ll teach you.”
She hadn’t been serious about learning to skate. “I don’t want to fall and hurt myself.”
“I won’t let that happen. And the next time you need a whole-body massage,” he said as he kissed the corner of her mouth, “call me.”
She almost smiled. “How? When you’re so good at pretending I don’t even exist.”
He brushed his lips across hers. “I should get an award for that.”
She put her hands on his chest and pushed. “You could at least say hello.”
“No, I couldn’t.” He dropped his hands and leaned his back against the door. “I can’t risk it.”
Faith moved across the room and turned off the television. “What does that mean?”
“It means that when I look at you, I’m afraid everyone within ten miles can see that I have sex with you.”
She tossed the remote on the table. “Oh.”
“And it means,” he continued as he moved toward her, “that I’m afraid everyone within ten miles can see that I’m remembering the last time I saw you naked. That I got a little rough with you and I wish I was truly sorry about that, but it was so good I’m not. Every time with you is good, and I’m afraid that anyone within ten miles will look at me and know I’m thinking about how to get you naked again.”
She bit the side of her lip. All he had to do was show up and she’d be more than willing to get naked. “You took a big risk in coming here.”
He reached for her hands and brushed his thumb over the backs of her knuckles. “Everyone is still in the restaurant. Besides, none of us are on this floor.” He pulled her toward him. “So you got the muffin.”
“You sent me the muffin?”
“Can’t have you wasting away on bran and Promise spread. I need you full of energy.”
She owned a penthouse in downtown Seattle and an elite hockey team. She had more money than she knew what to do with, yet she couldn’t help smiling like a fool over a two-dollar muffin. “Thank you.”
He reached for the frog buttons closing her dress. “I have an ulterior motive.”
Faith reached up and pulled the jade sticks from her hair. “Shocking.”
“Monday, I played some of the best hockey of my life. I’m not usually superstitious, but I gotta believe it had something to do with the night before.”
She tossed the sticks on the table and her hair fell down her back.
“You have to have lucky sex with me before each game or I could be jinxed.” He popped the buttons closing the dress over her breasts. “I know you want to do the right thing.”
“Take one for the team?” She pulled the tails of his shirt from his waistband.
“It’s your turn.”
“Yeah, but what if…” she raised one hand. “And I’m not saying this is going to happen, but what if we have sex and you lose? Then you’re not lucky.”