Page 57 of Pucking the Enemy

They clearly had no faith in me, and I guess that was warranted.

Roman frowned, pointing at me. “Last time you were here, you made her cry. If you do that again, I will personally make sure you have a matching black eye on your other side.”

I’d made her cry?

“Roman, please take the boxes.”

“For you, Duchess, anything.” His face transformed from angry to a grin as he looked at her, picking up the box and practically swaggering out the door, Cormac following him.

Phillip leaned over, kissing the top of Hazel’s head. “I’ll go pack the rest of your pajamas while you talk, okay?” he muttered, before glaring at me.

While his voice was sweet as he spoke to Hazel, the meaning was clear. He wasn’t going to be far away if I upset her.

“Hazelnut…” I started to speak as soon as the guy walked away, shooting me one last withering look. “We nee—ow!”

My words were cut off by Hazel’s hand launching out and grabbing on to my nipple, twisting it roughly. She couldn’t throw a punch to save her life, but she was a vicious little thing when she wanted to be. “What the hell!” I hissed, keeping my voice down, so the other guy wouldn’t come running.

“That is for abandoning me!” she growled. “Where the fuck have you been? It’s been weeks.”

Swallowing, I took a deep breath. “I really fucked this up, Hazelnut.”

“No shit, Sherlock!” she hissed.

“Look, there’s no excuse. I was a dickhead, and you can give me titty twisters every day for the rest of our lives in retribution, but, Hazel, seriously… them?”

She huffed. “They’re good guys, Sebby.”

The use of her nickname for me was like a punch to the gut.

“They have terrible reputations.”

“That may be so, but they’ve been nothing but amazing to me. Also, I’m sure if we ask around, you probably don’t have the best reputation at Hawking. You are practically a one-man walking brothel.”

I winced. She wasn’t exactly wrong, but I wasn’t wild about discussing that at the moment.

“All the stories I’ve heard… Hazelnut, you know I’m only saying this because I care about you.”

“I know, but I’m a grown-ass woman. I can move in with them if I want to. I trust them. Is it fast? Yes. Am I one-hundred percent comfortable? No. But it’s what’s best for me and for the baby right now.”

“Let me come with you,” I insisted. Reaching forward, I grabbed her hand. “I was an ass—I was more than an ass, and you can punish me for it as much as you’d like—but, Hazel, I refuse to watch you run off with three alphas who have shitty reputations.”

“They are not going to let you move in just because I say so.”

“We’re a package deal, Hazelnut. If you say I come, I come. Or if you want to stay here at Dallas House, I can move in here. I’m pretty sure there’s a spare dorm, anyway, now that Alexis moved in with Teddy and his pack. I’ll move in there.”

Hazel’s eyebrows rose, but she was holding back a laugh. “Do you have any idea how much those rooms cost? Alexis was in a room even fancier than mine.”

“I dread to think.” I shuddered over dramatically. “But for you, I’ll pay it. That way, I’ll be on hand to help you whenever you need.”

She took a deep breath. “If you would’ve offered this a week ago, I would have said yes. But I had to go and get IV fluids today. I was that dehydrated. What happens when you are at an away game, and no one’s here that can keep an eye on me? As much as I hate it, I need to accept that I can’t be alone right now. At the Kingswood pack house, at least I’ll have three people around at all times.”

“But they’re all on the hockey team. Surely, they all travel together for away games?”

Hazel frowned. “I hadn’t thought about that…” she admitted. “Phillip!” she called.

“Is he behaving?” he asked, coming round the corner.

“For now.” Hazel nodded. “What’s the plan for when you guys have away games, if all three of you have to go and play? Will I be at your place on my own?”

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