Page 31 of Sinful Secrets

Several minutes, and shifts later, Rhett is tripped while on a breakaway. The referee blows his whistle and calls a penalty for the opposing team.

Of course, they yell and think it’s unfair. They even try to say Rhett was embellishing, but it’s all bullshit. Rhett didn’t trip himself. Especially on a breakaway.

“We need to score on this power play.”

No shit. We need to score at least three goals to have a shot at getting one point. We need four goals to get two points.

Gage gets the puck and passes it down the ice to Rhett. Rhett is surrounded by opposing players, so he passes the puck back to me.

I don’t have a clear shot at the net, so I pass it back to Gage. The puck is passed between Gage, Rhett, Joey, Hall, and me as we try to find an opening in defense to score.

Gage gets the puck and moves further back toward the blue line before slapping the puck.

It effortlessly slides under the goalie’s leg into the net.

We congratulate Gage on his first power play goal of the season.

I get off the ice and take a seat on the bench, breathing heavily. Grabbing the bottle, I drink some water and wipe my forehead and visor with my towel.

Chase leans forward with a grin on his face. “Reed.”

“What?” I let the annoyance I’m feeling come through.

“What were you being so secretive about during intermission?”

As if that’s any of his fucking business.

“Mind your business and focus on the game.”

He laughs and turns toward the ice where a fight breaks out near Knox Anderson. “Ooh, you’re testy. What’d you do, get a woman for a few nights and now you’re having withdrawals from her?”

It’s been more than a few nights, but no one needs to know that.

“Shut up, Williams.”

He cackles from his end of the bench. “Oh yeah, he’s definitely in withdrawals. He needs to get laid.”

Someone else chimes in. It sounds like “Well, we did have two away games back to back. For someone used to getting some, this weekend has been hard.”

Chase continues to laugh. “Yeah, something is hard alright.”

I slap my stick against the board in front of me. “Shut the fuck up, you two, and keep your heads in the game. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re down by two. We don’t have the luxury of fucking around.”

I jump over the boards and take the ice when it’s time for my next shift.

There’s only a few minutes left in the game, but Coach Bobby doesn’t pull Anderson.

I guess he’s content with losing tonight’s game and starting over when we are back home.

The clock counts down to zero, and the scoreboard reflects our three to one loss. The crowd cheers for their team as we head down the tunnel to our locker room.

The locker room is quiet for a few minutes as we unlace our skates and take off our pads.

I jump in the shower and change without talking to anyone. After cleaning up my cubby, I gather up my bags and head out of the locker room.

The chartered bus is waiting outside, so there’s no point hanging out in the locker room.

There’s only one person I want to see, and it’s the fiery goddess of my dreams. I just have to take a plane across the country and sleep alone, but I’ll see her tomorrow.

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