Page 20 of The Enforcer

At that moment, Joaquin made his way down, dripping wet. He had just gotten out of the shower. I had to bite my lip from letting out some kind of sound that showed just how pleased I was by this. Joaquin was gorgeous. It was difficult to take my eyes off him, difficult to hide the fact that he was as flawless as I knew he was. I didn't even care that my father was right here and could see me look at him. It made no difference to me.

Joaquin avoided looking at me altogether, which I suppose was fair, even though I wanted nothing more than to try and attempt to win his affection with a simple tilt of my head or batting of my eyelashes. It was too dangerous to try and exert power over him here, even if there was a sprinkle of fun because it was so wrong. I curled my fingers into tight balls to keep myself from doing something that might give everything away and took a deep breath.

"Hey, Mattie." Joaquin had a smile on his face that looked natural and unassuming. As though it was completely normal to show up at a friend's house for a shower.

"Did you take a shower in my home?" Dad asked, furrowing his brow. He didn't sound dissuaded yet, more like confused.

"Just came by after the ice and Kenna told me I reeked," Joaquin said. He still wouldn't look at me and it was starting to bug me more than I cared to admit. "I hopped in the shower, hoping to catch you when you got back."

"Oh, yeah?" Dad asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "What for?"

Joaquin rolled his eyes. "What do you mean, what for?" he asked. "You know the DC Presidents are coming into town next week. I know you like watching them, so I got you and Kenna tickets and wanted to give them to you before me and the boys went on that road trip to Cali."

"I forgot you'd be out of town this week," Dad said. He stood from his stool and slapped Joaquin on the back.

"Yeah," Joaquin said, nodding his head. "I wanted to make sure to get you the tickets because I don't know if I'm going to have time to see you before the DC game."

"Why not just leave them at will call?" Dad asked.

I stared at the surface of the table. That was a fair question. My dad could be too practical for his own good.

"I figured you'd want to keep them for yourself," Joaquin said. "We hired a bunch of new kids and they've lost a couple of tickets. I don't want there to be any issue."

Dad looked down at the thick tickets with the glossy letters and a picture of Ryan Hart on them. Their tickets were always so fancy - at least, the ones they gave the players and the season ticket holders.

"Sweet," Dad said. "How is Hart doing, by the way? That kid... Shit, man. He is an amazing player. It's hard not to watch him even if you guys don't win."

"Tell me about it," Joaquin said.

"Hey." Dad leaned towards Joaquin and I wondered if he was going to say something I probably shouldn't overhear. I listened anyway, slowly stepping away from the two. I knew the best thing for me would be to disappear upstairs while they talked. I didn't care all that much about hockey and listening to a conversation I didn't particularly care about would be a huge red flag. "Is it true the kid is dating his stepsister? I mean, I don't care. Not really. But I kind of care. You know what I mean? I mean, that's fucking disgusting. I don't care if there's no blood between them, it's just..." He shook his head. "I mean, whatever works. If fucking his stepsister is going to get him to play like the way he's been playing, fuck, do whatever it takes. But seriously. What do his parents think? What do hers think? You know what I mean? I don't know if that's forgivable to me."

I heard Joaquin laugh but it was clearly tense and uncomfortable.

I was out of the kitchen by the time Joaquin responded, and as much as I wanted to hear his reply, I couldn't bring myself to actually listen in. It hit too close to home, too close to what Joaquin and I had done. If Daddy thought that was disgusting, what would he think of his best friend and his daughter fucking?

Plus, I knew I smelled like sex. My body was flushed, my hair was messy, and I was still breathless despite it being twenty minutes after the fact. It was like I hadn't come down from the high he had given me.

Maybe I didn't want to come down.

I decided the best thing to do was take a shower. I needed to wash him off me so my dad wouldn't have a clue. It fucking sucked because I loved his smell and I wanted it to linger on my skin, especially since he would be gone for nearly a week on a road trip with his team.

But I would rather wash him away than get caught.

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