Page 72 of The Puck Decoy

“Well I had an excellent teacher.” I smirk, leaning my head back on his shoulder so I can meet his gaze. “Or maybe the ice was making me feel inspired,” I add, skating us around the goal post with a spin.

“Oh, is that right?” he smiles, bringing his hands to my hips, squeezing them tightly, and I mildly wonder if his touch will be ever enough. “Tell me in detail exactly what inspired you, wife?” he demands, his teeth once again dancing up the skin of my neck, even as he forces us to glide around to ice.

“We have an audience,” I whisper, my eyes dancing across the guys through the plexi glass, as they watch us move, not that I care, I want them to see how much he owns me.

“You’re just lucky my sisters are here, otherwise I’d already be showing my teammates exactly who you belong to,” he warns, his words lighting me up from the inside out.

“I wonder if my next husband will be as possessive as you,” I muse out loud, and I feel his entire body flinch, but he quickly shuts it down, spinning me out from his body until I am turned towards him and skating backwards.

“Please, we’ve already covered that I’m a jealous psycho, remember? I’d get rid of any future prospects so fast that they’d never get the chance to be the future Mr. Hallie Rose Sanders.” His words drop from his lips effortlessly, like he barely even thought them through, and my heart beats faster in my chest.“You’re lucky I didn’t rip Gray’s arm off his fucking body earlier,” he adds, and the threat towards my friend shouldn’t thrill me, but it does.

“Archer is my friend, you know that, besides I’m your wife, so anything else is irrelevant,” I tell him truthfully, amused that he is still so blind to how far gone I am for him.

There has never been anyone else, only him.

“No it’s not, it's infuriating,” he snaps, staring Archer down like a jealous asshole, as he adds, “Like I said, he’s lucky I don’t lay you out in front of him and show him how you like to be fucked.”

Panties ruined.

His words send a rush of attraction through me, and I find it hard to breathe as I ask, “And who do I belong to?”

My words are just the taunt I wanted them to be, making his eyes turn dangerously dark. “Don’t fucking push me, Tink.” That temper of his is burning just as bright as always, yet still I smile as he brings us to a stop in the middle of the ice.

“I think I like pushing you,” I tell him honestly, and the only thing in my mind is rule number three on our list. Absolutely no falling love. What a stupid, pointless rule, because I have loved him since the moment I met him, and with his eyes on mine, and my hips in his hands, there is no escaping that feeling.

“Yeah I think you like it too,” he grunts, finally pushing us towards the edge of the rink so we can finally get off the ice, and his fingers flex around my waist as he grits, “But don’t worry, I’ll punish you for it later.”

His words send a thrill down my spine as he pulls us down onto a bench to discard our skates, and when I meet Maddie’s eye she is watching us closely.

In fact, when I look at all of them, I find all of their eyes on us, and I can’t help but feel self-conscious, something to which Joshnotices instantly as he snaps, “What the hell are you all looking at?”

Nova rolls his eyes at Josh’s typical temper, tucking Maddie into his side, and the rest of them pretend they are looking elsewhere, but to my surprise it’s Archer who responds to him. “You two skate together like your bodies are magnets to one another or something,” he replies in nothing short of awe, and I can’t help but blush at his statement.

I’m not sure what I expected him to say, but it definitely wasn’t that, and I don’t know if it’s his words, or the fact that it’s him saying it, but Josh is quick to pull me to my feet beside him and snap, “And? We have been skating together for almost a decade, and she knows how to do it better than any of you assholes, so leave her alone.”

I don’t bother pointing out that they weren’t insulting me or him in any way, not that it would matter, and instead focus on Maddie’s smile as Josh starts to lead us all outside. It’s a smile I have never seen before, one that tells me she knows something I don’t, and I remind myself to ask her about it later.

For some reason I leave the center feeling lighter than I have in weeks, and we all head over to the diner to have what Alexander is calling afternoon tea. It’s the first time some of them have been there, and I recommend my usual order which most of them take me up on, and with Callia not working for once, she gets to enjoy it with us too.

By the time we are done, Penelope has every single one of them wrapped around her finger. I almost feel sorry for Callia, because she now has eight brooding and protective hockey players looking out for both her and her daughter, but hey, that’s the dream right?

The next morning is Christmas Eve, and l wake up early to find Josh still sleeping soundly beside me, his arms wrapped around me like a vice. We spent last night once again losing ourselves in one another, until I felt utterly boneless, and only then did he let sleep claim him. I run my hands through his hair, memorizing the way he pushes deeper into my touch, even while he sleeps. It’s moments like this that I will miss the most, the quiet in the midst of this tornado we have let ourselves get swept away in. The storm is almost over, and I can see the sunshine rising over the horizon. Question is,how will I survive it?

I slip out of bed silently, pulling on the jersey he discarded last night when we got home, and letting his scent surround me as I tiptoe from the room. It’s early, so early in fact that Iknow that apart from Daemon, the rest of the house will still be sleeping, which is why I don’t mind slinking down to the kitchen. I’ve gotten comfortable being at the house in the last few weeks, and the guys are more than used to seeing me around now, so they barely even bat an eye.

Daemon doesn’t even flinch anymore as I enter the kitchen, even with his headphones on, and to my surprise he slides a fresh cup of coffee across the counter towards me, as if he was expecting me. I smile in thanks, more than used to his silence in the mornings now, and instead of lingering and making him feel like he has to talk to me, I head into the living room to enjoy my coffee.

The armchair in there has recently become my own, and I get comfy, wrapping one of Josh’s blankets around my legs, and enjoying the early morning winter sun pouring in through the windows. It isn’t long before Daemon takes a seat on the sofa facing the same window, and we both listen to the soft trickle of an instrumental playing from his phone.

I’m not sure how long we sit there, but it’s long enough for my stomach to rumble, and at the sound, Daemon instantly rises to his feet and heads back towards the kitchen.

“You don’t have to cook for me,” I call out instantly, knowing that is exactly where he is going, and he freezes between the threshold of both rooms.

When he looks back at me, I can see an internal war going on inside his head, before he softly responds, “I like to cook for the people I care about.”

His words render me near speechless, because out of all the things I thought he was going to say, it wasn’t that, and it’s only now that I truly take him in for the first time today. The dark marks beneath his eyes are more prominent than ever, like he hasn’t slept properly in weeks, and my heart aches for him. I haven’t forgotten about the comments Hugo Peters made to himthe other night about his father, and I wonder what other secrets he is hiding in that mind of his.

I know he opens up to Josh, but I also know it isn’t much, and I find myself wishing he had something more with someone. That someone could come along and see all of his broken pieces, and somehow work out how they fit together. I know I can’t say that to him, that the honesty would probably make him uncomfortable, so instead I keep it simple.

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