Page 28 of Perfect Score

In some ways, moving to Seattle left me with the ability to imagine things so differently. I wasn’t forced to see Liam and Shelby together at all our usual spots. I didn’t have to run into them at our mutual friends' cookouts this year because I had moved away. But the problem with that is that even though it separated me from the pain, I never ended up healing… It’s just been an open wound ever since.

Seeing them now isn’t less painful than it would have been a year ago. I’ve only put off the inevitability of this meeting, and now I have to face it.

Though I never thought in my lifetime that Brent and I would be back on speaking terms, I am so relieved that he’ll be by my side when I face Liam and Shelby at the bar.

At least I don’t have to do this alone.

Chapter Nine

Brent

Getting out of that hotel room was essential, especially with the thought of being in the same suite while Zoey strips out of her clothes with only a bathroom door separating us.

Seeing Liam in the lobby and hearing that he took the room she booked, it took everything I had not to body-check him against the lobby wall. He deserves a good ass beating for what he did to Zoey, and I know just the guy for the job. If we were out on the ice, I’d make sure he’d remember the kind of hurt I used to put on our opponents out in the rink.

I wish she would have asked me to rough him up a little instead of making him jealous because that’s what he deserves.

I drop off the cart and walk past the bar to see a small group of six or so people around a large table, all laughing and drinking with Phoebe and David.

Liam catches me looking in on the group, and our eyes lock. Non-verbal words are exchanged and now we understand each other.

He might not know the real reason for why Zoey and I are “dating,” but we both know I’m about to ruin his weekend because I saw the way he looked at her in the lobby earlier. It wasn’t the look of a man engaged to someone else.

It turns out it won’t be too hard to make him jealous since he’s already looking at me like I’m a threat.

Little does he know—I don’t have a shot in hell with her.

When I get back up to the room, I busy myself for a bit, checking rankings for the team and looking over Coach Bex’s email for reels he wants us all to watch over the weekend of the team we’re playing next as I sit on the bed, reclined against the twenty or so throw pillows behind me.

I hear the door handle turn, and I’m unprepared for what steps out when the door opens.

Zoey’s long chestnut-brown hair curled perfectly into large sweeping pillows of softness. Her eyelashes are painted dark black, and her lips a delicious apple-red gloss.

Her skin-tight, long-sleeved black dress reaches down over every perfect curve of her body and down to her delicate ankles. The plunging V-neck top stops just past her breastbone, accentuating the perfect natural shape of her breasts. My heart rate increases as I can’t take my eyes off of her. Blood starts to pump hard to my cock. Her sky-high black strappy heels set off the rest, and Jesus, she’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.

Hell, if she were mine, we wouldn’t be going downstairs anymore. I'd call in sick and she and I would both be naked in a matter of seconds.

But she’s not mine.

And she dressed like that for someone else.

My eyes continue to detail everything about her when she walks over to her purse and rifles through it.

She pulls out a pair of diamond earrings, and I have a decent guess at who bought them for her.

I can’t torture myself any longer, looking at her as she gets ready for him.

“I’m going to jump in the shower,” I say, sliding off the bed quickly before my erection becomes impossible to hide. “I won’t be long.”

“Okay, take your time.” She says, not even bothering to look over at me as she uses a mirror on the other side of the room to secure her earrings.

Trust me, taking care of this won’t take long. I just have to make sure I don’t let her hear me taking care of myself in the room next to her.

Letting this go isn’t an option. There’s no way I can go downstairs with my throbbing cock trying to push through my slacks.

I close the bathroom door behind me and lock it to ensure Zoey doesn’t try to come in to retrieve something she left in here.

The last thing I need is for her to walk in while I’m jacking off to the image of her in that dress.

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