Page 20 of The Spice Play

I blinked at her. “Yeah, of course,” I said, setting my coffee aside and deciding that it was, actually, too hot to drink and I wasn’t just weak for not wanting to scald my tongue. “Most of my on-ice time is when he’s at school, but occasionally we’ll have later practice sessions. You’re welcome to bring him whenever you want, just keep a handle on him and make sure he doesn’t try to get on the ice.”

Her nose scrunched up in confusion. “Obviously. Why would I let him do that?”

“One of my previous nannies let it happen once. Thank fuck someone noticed before I did and got him off the ice. I had my back to that entrance, and had I seen it at the time and not just been told after…” I shook my head, irritation bubbling in my veins, but all she did was look at me with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth.

That fuckingmouth.

“Anyway, yes, he’s welcome to come to the rink. He loves coming to games, so I usually let him if it’s not a school night since they run late,” I said, talking mostly to keep myself from picturing her on her back. “And you don’t need to worry about cleaning. I like doing most of that, and Ioccasionally get a cleaner in when I’m too busy to make time for it.”

She let out a breathy chuckle as she leaned forward, tucking her hands somewhere in her lap, but the counter obscured it. I tried not to let my imagination run wild and quickly made a mental note to take a shower the moment she left so I could relieve myself. “You like to clean?”

“Is that weird?” I challenged, crossing my arms over my chest.

“No, it’s just… most men have to be asked.” She held my gaze, her lips pursing together and parting again, andfuck, I needed a showernow, not later. I told myself it was just because it was the morning and I hadn’t had the chance to take care of myself yet, but I’d folded the moment I clocked her in Smokey’s. “What’s your schedule for today, then?”

“I’ve got to be at the rink at nine. Practice starts at eleven, and then I’ll need to do drills and my post-workout, so I’ll probably be home around three. Normally, on days like today, I’d take Matty to school and pick him up, but if you’re happy to, it would be good for you to familiarize yourself with all of that. And since he’ll be at school most of today, you can hang around until after dinner if you’d like to spend some one-on-one time with him.”

We went back and forth for a while longer, me explaining the ins and outs and the importance of making sure that if she did anything with him outside of school that involved food, it didn’t have peanuts in it. By the time I’d finally gotten around to starting on my coffee, she was helping Matty finish packing up for his day at school. My eyes were glued to the two of them like a hawk.

By the time I was passing her my car keys and sending them off, I was fuckingdesperatefor a shower.

She was only gone for about thirty minutes, but in thattime, I managed to finish my coffee, get upstairs, and douse myself in water hot enough to scald my skin.

With one hand on the tile wall and the other wrapped around the base of my throbbing, aching length, I did everything in my goddamn power not to think ofher, of the way she’d sounded when I touched her, of the way her pretty fucking mouth parted and begged me to fuck her, of the way she smelled of lilies and sunflowers andwhiskey.

I didn’t succeed.

As the evidence of yet another desperate attempt to get her out of my head washed down the drain, my phone chimed with the sound I’d set to let me know when the front door of my house was opened.

————

“When you set me up with the nanny, were there any others who had availability?”

Coach looked me square in the face as he stood beside the Zamboni, his silver hair swooped to one side and gelled in place. “What do you mean?”

“Is there someone else that I can swap to?” I pressed, shifting from foot to foot in my skates.

The moment I had seen her when I’d come down the stairs to leave for practice, I’d known. I’d known far too well that this wasn’t going away, not even after taking care of myself. No amount of touching could cancel out how fucking sexy she looked in a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, and nothing,nothingwould stop me wanting to reach out andgrab her.

It was stupid, and it was primal, and I didn’t know what the fuck to do about it.

“It’s been less than a day,” Coach said, crossing his arms across his chest as those lines on his forehead deepened. “You can’t be serious. What has she done wrong?”

I steeled my jaw, my pride too high to tell the truth. “Nothing.”

Coach rolled his eyes as he took a step back from me, leaning onto the side of the Zamboni. “Whatever it is, unless she does something that is a serious issue, you can’t swap her out willy-nilly. There’s no one else at the company who had the hours, and your contract with her runs through the team. Give it time and you’ll be fine.”

Fuck.

The temptation gnawed at me to manufacture a situation that would lead to a serious issue, but I couldn’t,wouldn’t, stoop that low.

I’d just have to keep my distance from her, emotionally and physically, as much as I could.

Which was just fucking perfect when she was going to be living in my fucking house.

Chapter 9

Nelly

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