Fire on Ice (Fire on Ice Series) (10 page)

I had only been to Jabberwocky a few times with some of the guys on the team. They liked the idea of all-you-can-eat pizza and the place liked to have the hockey players in because it was a boost for business but I think they definitely lost money when we ate there.

I jumped out of the car and hurried around to the passenger side to open the door for Taylor.

She thanked me and I could hardly contain my grin when she grabbed my hand again before I even offered. I wanted to hold her hand tight but it was so small, I didn’t want to crush it.

Jabberwocky’s wasn’t very crowded and I assumed it was b
ecause it was a school night and it was pretty late. I was glad we wouldn’t have to compete with too many kids for the games.

“Do you want to eat first then play a few games?” I asked.

She nodded as I led her over to the hostess stand. The girl seating everyone looked familiar and I wondered if she was one of the super fans. I didn’t know too many of them very well, mostly because Shawna had monopolized most of my time whenever she could.

When the girl saw me, he eyes widened. “
Kian Kavanagh,” she nearly screamed. “Oh, my God!”

“Can I get a table for two,” I asked trying to steer the conve
rsation away from the Firestorm Fan Club.

She didn’t take the hint, though. “I’m Jessie.
One of the super fans.”

I gave her a polite smile. Then she looked over at Taylor and her eyes went wide. “Where’s Shawna?” she blurted.

“This is Taylor,” I said quickly, hoping she would drop it.

Jessie continued to stare at Taylor with a confused look on her face.

“Can we get a table?” I prodded.

She finally snapped out of her confused fog.
“Yeah, sure.” She grabbed two menus and led us to a booth near the back of the eating area.

“Is this okay?” Jessie asked and I nodded. She was still giving Taylor a strange look like she wasn’t sure why I was with her and she wanted to kill her at the same time.

She placed the menus on the table and marched away as
Taylor and I took our seats.

I deflated a little when I saw Taylor suddenly looked unco
mfortable. I knew it was because of what Jessie had said and the way she looked at her.

“I’m sorry about that,” I said and held my breath waiting for her response.

“It’s not your fault,” she responded quietly. The joy-filled little smile I had seen in the parking lot when we arrived was nowhere to be seen and I wanted it back.

“You look really beautiful tonight.” As soon as she looked up at me I locked eyes with hers and I could feel a powerful e
xchange of energy between us.

“Thanks,” she replied but she didn’t take her eyes from mine. If there wasn’t a table between us, I would have grabbed her and kissed her.

God, I wanted to feel her lips on mine again. She must have read my thoughts because she bit her bottom lip and I thought I would just fucking explode.

She opened her menu and gave a little laugh.

“What’s so funny?” I challenged.

“There’s plenty of meat on the menu,” she joked.

“You mean you don’t want a vegetarian pizza?” I kidded. “Maybe we could get some avocados? Or maybe some tuna salad? But only if they have pitas. I’m not settling for a wrap.”

Her smile widened and it lit up her face. I found her so a
ttractive it was hard for me to take my eyes off of her. She was gorgeous but my attraction to her was deeper than that. It was as if we had this deep connection. I wondered if it was the kind of connection people talked about when they used the term soul mates. But then I mentally kicked myself for being such a pussy. I didn’t believe in soul mates.

Did I?

Even if I did believe in soul mates, there was no way a girl like Taylor would have someone like me for a soul mate. That didn’t make any sense. Unless God was playing some kid of cruel joke on both of us.

“What about the combo pizza?” she asked. “It has meat: pepperoni and sausage and it also has veggies: peppers, olives and mushrooms.
The best of both worlds.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I replied as we both put down our menus.

I was glad to see that we had an older waitress, who didn’t seem to be a hockey fan because she treated me just like any other guy who might have sat down at her table.

We ordered the combo pizza and two beers. I was a little su
rprised when Taylor said she wanted beer but it was a good surprise. She was a lot more down-to-Earth than I initially thought she would be and it made me like her even more.

“So,” Taylor said. “I guess Shawna is the girl from the other night.”

I swallowed but it did little to get rid of the lump that was forming in my throat. “Yeah,” I managed to get out.

“Was she your girlfriend?” Taylor asked. I could tell by the rise in her voice it was uncomfortable for her to talk about.

I gave a single laugh. “No, definitely not.”

Taylor raised an eyebrow.
“Why not?”

How could I explain to Taylor the relationship, or lack of one, I had with Shawn, without sounding like a womanizing dick?

The way Taylor was looking at me wasn’t judgmental. It was more like she was curious.

Before I could respond, Taylor asked, “Is she a puck bunny?”

This time I gave a big hearty laugh. “Where did you hear that term?”

Her face turned red with embarrassment and I felt like a complete asshole for laughing at her.

“It’s nicer than hockey whore,” she stated even more uncomfortably and that made me laugh even louder.

She frowned. “I’m glad I amuse you.”

I took both of her hands into mine and looked into her eyes. “Shawna is in the past. I haven’t even thought about another girl since I met you.”

Our eyes locked
and my heart skipped a few beats. Damn this table between us. I wanted her lips on mine so badly, I could have screamed.

“And what about you?”
I asked. “What about all the guys beating down your door? I’m surprised you could even squeeze me in.”

This time she
was the one who laughed. “I don’t date,” she stated and it took a second for her words to register. I knew she definitely wasn’t the type of girl who got around and I knew because of her friend Kyle that she didn’t have anyone serious but I couldn’t imagine someone who looked like her didn’t date at all.

“I find that hard to believe,” I challenged.

“You’re the first person I’ve been on a date with since high school,” she said.

I could feel my eyes go wide. This amazing girl hadn’t been on a date since she started college and for some reason she decided to go out with an asshole like me. It didn’t seem possible.

“Why me?” I blurted before I had a chance to stop myself.

She interlaced her fingers with mine and I could feel my heart flutter again. I felt like a
freakin’ girl. Then she looked up at me with her big brown eyes and grinned. “I have no idea.”

We were both grinning at each other like fools when the wai
tress brought over our pizza and beers. I didn’t want her to let go of my hands but it was the only way the waitress could place the pizza on the table between us.

I don’t know why but I craved the connection between us. Once she touched me, I never wanted to let her go. I’d never gotten into heavy drugs but she seemed to be almost as addictive.

As we ate the pizza and drank our beer, Taylor told me all about her research internship and how important it was for her to be published in a journal. I didn’t get some of what she was saying but I could tell it was important to her so I tried my best to keep up. There weren’t many times that I regretted not doing better in school and going to college but this was definitely one of them.

She asked me what it was like to be a professional hockey player and I told her how hard it was, how I didn’t get to have much of a life outside of the game and how weird it was to have people recognize me wherever I went.

“I know how famous actors feel,” I joked and she laughed.

I was surprised at how easy the conversation was between us. Even though we were from two completely different worlds, it didn’t seem to matter when we were together.

After I paid the check, she got a competitive gleam in her eye and it completely intrigued me. “What are you thinking right now?” I asked.

She got up from the table. “I’m thinking I’m going to co
mpletely kick your butt at Skee Ball.”

I rose from the table and looked down at her. “You think so?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Think nothing,” she boasted. “I know so.”

I leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her lips and it seemed to render her speechless. “You’re on,” I said. “Care to make a wager?”

She was still just staring at me, her hand held to her lips. “Okay,” she said finally.

“Here’s the bet. If I win, you have to go out with me on Su
nday. And if you win, I’ll take you on a date Sunday. How does that sound?”

She frowned. “So either way, we’re going on a date Sunday. What kind of bet is that?”

“One I don’t mind losing,” I said as I grabbed her hand. “Come on. Skee Ball awaits.”

Ten

Taylor

I was kicking Kian’s butt. He could have been the worst Skee Ball player in the history of Skee Ball and I just happened to forget to mention that I played a lot of Skee Ball when I was a kid. Apparently the muscle memory was still there because in a little over an hour I had won over a thousand tickets and Kian had three.

“I can’t believe it,”
Kian said after his third consecutive ball rolled into zero point hole. “You’re killing me.”

I shook my head. “Nope, you’re already dead,” I teased as I held up the roll of tickets I’d won. “I think it’s time to cash in our tickets and get our prizes.”

Kian held up the three straggly tickets in his hand. “What kind of prize do you think I can get with three tickets?” He was actually pouting a little bit.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to get something,” I assured him even though I wasn’t sure at all. “Don’t be a baby.”

He pulled me close and I could feel the heat from his body on mine. “Maybe you can help me ease my bruised ego,” he whispered in my ear.

“How would you suggest I do that?” I was nearly breathless with anticipation.

He placed his lips on mine and when my body responded, he deepened the kiss. My tickets all dropped to the floor as his thrust his tongue into my mouth and I gasped in delight as his tongue danced with mine.

“Are you done playing Skee Ball,” a little voice asked.

We broke from our kiss and both turned to see a little boy of about six or seven staring at us.

“We’re done,” Kian said as he grabbed my tickets off the floor.

“Wow,” the boy exclaimed. “You won a lot of tickets.”

Kian smiled. “It wasn’t me. It was my girl.”

My heart skipped a few beats when he called me his girl. It was unexpected but not unwanted.

“How many tickets did you win?” the boy asked.

Kian
held up three fingers and the boy frowned. “That sucks.”

“It certainly does,”
Kian laughed.

“You must not be very coordinated,” the boy continued and that made me laugh. It was hard to believe I outscored a profe
ssional athlete at anything that required eye-hand coordination.

Kian
and I took the tickets over to the redemption area. There were a lot of prizes, like portable DVD players and iPods that were totally out of reach. They were worth tens of thousands of tickets.

In the thousand ticket range, there were several stuffed an
imals that looked somewhat appealing. I took a liking to a wide-eyed, long-eared stuffed dog that looked like a bloodhound.

“That one,” I stated pointing to the dog.

Kian placed all of my tickets on the counter and the young guy behind the counter started counting. I had 1272 tickets and the stuffed dog was 1275.

Kian
waved the three tickets he’d won in the air. “Good thing I earned these,” he said excitedly. He added his three tickets to the already counted piled.

“Thank you for your tickets,” I whispered and grabbed
Kian’s hand. The first time I held his hand, in the bar the night we met, I was a little intimated by its massive size. Now that I was used to holding it, I longed for that connection, I wanted to be as close to him as I could at every moment.

When I gave it more than a fleeting thought, however, it scared me. If I felt such a tremendous connection by just touc
hing his hand, I wondered how I would feel when we became more intimate.

I had to smack myself back to reality. We were only on our first real date. It would be a very long time before we became intimate—if we became intimate. I was still scared out of my mind to think about being that vulnerable again—completely bared and giving of every part of myself. I had to be sure, 100 percent sure, that
Kian was deserving of such a gift, especially after everything that happened with Austin.

The young guy behind the counter grabbed the sad looking floppy eared dog from the shelf and handed it to me.

“That dog has big beautiful eyes just like you,” Kian said.

I held the dog up so it was next to my face for a side-by-side comparison. “
You think so?”

Kian
nodded. “Definitely. Let’s see if the ears match. He lifted my hair away from my ears. “Nope, your ears are longer.”

I gave him a playful slap on the forearm.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked. “Or do you want to play more games.”

“I’m getting tired. And I have class tomorrow. I’m sure you have an early practice.”

“I do,” he agreed. “But that doesn’t mean I want our date to end.”

I smiled. “I had a really great time.”

He kissed my cheek. “Me, too.”

He grabbed my hand and the two of us made our way out of Jabberwocky’s and into the parking lot. As we got closer to his car, I was surprised to see someone standing at the driver’s side door.

It was Shawna.

I assumed her friend, the hostess, had phoned her and told her
Kian was at the restaurant with me.

Kian
pulled me close and put his arm around me as if he was protecting me from her. “What are you doing here, Shawna?” he asked.

She started wobbling when she began to talk. It was obvious she’s been drinking. “I came to get my man back,” she slurred.

“I was never your man,” Kian stated.

She pointed a finger at him. “I gave you everything I had. I did everything you asked. I was your three
hole wonder. Wasn’t it good enough?”

I could feel my stomach clench when she used the vile term
three hole wonder
. I tried to move away from Kian but he grabbed on to me even tighter.

Tears started to stream down Shawna’s heavily made-up face, the wetness dragging the make-up down her face with it.

Kian inhaled and when I looked up at him, I could see that his jaw was clenched. “Whatever we had, Shawna, it’s over. I told you that the other night.”

“But I don’t want it to be over,” she spat. “We belong t
ogether.”

Kian
shook his head. “No, Shawna. We don’t.”

“You tossed me aside like a used up piece of trash for this?” She pointed an unsteady finger in my direction and directed her anger at me. When she moved closer to me, I could smell alcohol seeping from her pours. “Don’t think he’s not going to do the same thing to you, Miss High and Mighty. You’re nothing special to him. All you
are is somewhere for him to deposit his semen. As soon as he’s tired of you, he’ll find another hole to stick his dick in.”

My hand flew to
my mouth and I felt like I was going to be sick to my stomach. She had managed to bring out my worst fears and throw them right in my face. Kyle had said almost the same thing: that Kian was going to be gone as soon as he took what he wanted from me. He was just going to “hit it and quit it.”

I could feel
Kian starting to shake and I could see the anger in his eyes. “You need to leave, Shawna.”

Before another word could be exchanged, a shiny red Camaro came to a screeching halt right next to us. It was like a scene from a bad comedy movie.

A short guy hopped out of the car and I immediately recognized him as the guy who was with Kian when my sister and I ran into them outside The Twisted Mug.

The short guy grabbed Shawna by the elbow but the girl was tough and she tried her best to squirm away from him.

“Shawna,” he yelled. “Stop!”

We all froze in mid-air and looked at the short guy. He turned to face me and gave me a slight nod.

“That’s Runt,” Kian whispered.

“Runt?”
I asked to make sure I heard him correctly.

Kian
nodded.

“My name’s Randall,” Runt said. “But everyone calls me Runt.”

“Nice to meet you Randall,” I said politely and Shawna glared at me.

Runt took hold of both of Shawna’s shoulders in an effort to calm her down. “You need to come back home,” Runt said as if he was talking to a child.

That seemed to calm Shawna a bit.

Kian
raised an eyebrow at Runt and he shrugged. “I asked Shawna to move in with me the other day.”

I nearly choked. “She’s living with you?” I blurted in co
mplete and utter disbelief.

Shawna glared at me. “What, I’m not good enough for a guy to live with, rich bitch?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t say that. It’s just that you said you wanted to be with Kian but you’re living with Randall.”

She
thrust her hands on her hips in defiance. “And? What’s your point?”

“No point,” I said. I felt like I was talking to someone from another planet.

She stuck her index finger in my face again. “Remember what I said. I don’t care how rich your mommy and daddy are. Or how special you think you are because you’re a cute little college girl. You’re nothing but another hole for his dick.”

And with that, she turned and hopped into Runt’s car.

“It was great to finally sort of meet you,” Runt said to me as his car horn started honking like crazy. “Gotta go.”

Runt hopped into his car and I could hear the two of them screaming at each other although I couldn’t really make out what they were saying.

Kian heaved a huge sigh and then took me around to the passenger side of his car. He opened the door for me and I got in then he headed over to the driver’s side and hopped in. I expected him to start the engine but he didn’t. He just sat there, staring into the dark night sky.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he said, “I don’t know if it makes any difference now but what she said isn’t true.”

I didn’t know what to think and I definitely didn’t know what to say. It was all so confusing. The Kian I knew was nothing like the Kian Shawna said he was. I had a difficult time reconciling the two completely different Kian’s.

“What Shawna said is more about her than it is about me.”

I nodded and decided to just listen. There was obviously more he wanted to say. When I turned to face him, I could see his eyes were wet and he was blinking back tears.

“I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been with a lot of women and none of them were relationships. I know it’s not an excuse but I was raised in a background that didn’t exactly teach me about what a relationship is supposed to be. I saw a lot of what I
knew I didn’t want, which was a lot of messed up physical and mental abuse. It’s true that most of the time, I only thought with my dick. But you have to believe me when I tell you that things are different with you. Not that I don’t think about sex when I’m with you because I do—a lot. But it’s more than that. Mostly what I feel when I’m with you is in here.”

He placed his hand on his chest, over his heart.

“I’ve never felt this way before about anyone and it scares the shit out of me. But you know what scares me even more? The thought of never getting to see you again. The thought of never getting to touch you again and hold you in my arms. That would be a living hell.”

I wiped at the tear that escaped down my face. I cleared my throat and hoped the words would come out. “Don’t you think I’m scared, too? The guy I dated my senior year was the school’s star hockey player. Every girl in school wanted him but he said he wanted me. I thought I was in love with him. He seemed to be perfect and always did everything right. He said he would wait until I was ready to have sex and I thought that was admirable until I found out that he didn’t mind waiting for me because he was doing it with every other girl in school.”

I could see Kian was clenching his fists into angry balls like he wanted to hit something or someone. “You didn’t deserve to be treated like that and he definitely didn’t deserve your love.”

I tried to blink back the flow of tears that were now escaping down my cheeks.
Kian put his hands on my face and tried to wipe away the hurt but there was too much pain that needed to be released.

“There’s more,” I said through agonizing sobs. “It’s hard for me to talk about.”

“It’s okay,” Kian whispered as he pulled me close. “You don’t have to tell me everything now.”

I was crying so hard,
Kian’s shirt was quickly getting soaked with my tears. He looked so handsome when he came to pick me up and his shirt looked brand new.

“I’m ruining your shirt,” I sobbed.

He pulled me even tighter. “It’s okay. I don’t care about the shirt.”

I cried for what seemed like an eternity and
Kian just held me tight. Once it seemed like I was cried out, Kian placed a soft kiss on my forehead. “I’m going to take you home now.”

I nodded. I felt exhausted.
Completely spent. All I wanted to do was disappear into the warmth of my bed and sleep.

Kian
started the engine and the quiet ride back to my place seemed to take an eternity.