Page 19 of Pucked and Pregnant

Drew beams at the camera. “I do love a good fun fact, and I know our viewers at home do, too. Lay it on us.”

“I know that we all saw some pretty spectacular fights on the ice today, so in honor of that, my fun fact today is going to be about none other than our very own Russian Bear, Dimitri Volkov.”

“I’m on the edge of my seat.”

“We all know he loves a good scrap, but did you know that his time in the penalty box this season is nearly double the amount of all his teammates combined? We’re talking record-setting territory here, Drew.”

“He sounds like one hell of a defenseman.”

“Just think how much better he’d be if he spent more time on the ice instead of relaxing in the sin bin.” She laughs.

I sat through the flirting and the hamming it up for the camera but this? This is the last straw.

6

CONNOR

You’d think someone with that much muscle would be too weighed down to move quickly but Aiden and I don’t catch up to him until he’s pounding on Liv’s door. From the way the door is rattling, it’s only a matter of time before someone calls security, or he ends up knocking it down, pissing her off even worse.

Between the two options, I’m hoping for security, because they’d cause less of an issue than Liv would. She and Dimitri used to go at it constantly when we were kids, and it could get ugly.

Dimitri will argue until he tires himself out, and then he’ll become rational. It’s been a few years since we’ve seen Liv anywhere other than on a TV screen. I have no idea how she’ll react and that terrifies me.

Before I can try to talk him down, her door flies open.

Her eyes are bright and glowing like the sun shining through amber. Her cheeks are flushed, and her silk robe, definitely not supplied by the hotel, is half open.

A black lacy bralette barely covers her breasts. Her stomach is toned, and I catch a glimpse of black at her hips just above where the robe closes.

It makes me wish I was here for an entirely different reason.

“What?” she growls.

Dimitri just barges right into her room. Liv shakes her head and waves us in too.

“Good evening.” I greet her.

“It was, until you three showed up.”

“Sorry.”

“I take it you watched the postgame show?” she asks.

“You’re damn right we watched the postgame show,” Dimitri snaps. “What the hell did you think you were doing?”

Liv’s face turns a deeper shade of red, and she stomps over to him so that they’re toe-to-toe.

“I was doing my job, Dimitri.”

“So throwing yourself all over that TV host is part of your job?” he scoffs.

“Yes, it is.”

“You didn’t behave like that when you were doing analysis for the Mad Dogs.”

“Well, that’s because that’s not what the viewers responded to there.” She fists her hands on her hips. “Perhaps you’re unaware, but we’re in the pros now. There’s not too much room for error. The fans went feral for Alice. Her persona was aggressive, even elitist at times, and she was vicious in her defense and support of the team. That’s what they were used to. That’s what I would be compared to, no matter what I did. If I tried to do the same thing, no matter how well I did it, I would be found wanting,” she snaps.

She sighs and folds her arms over her breasts, blocking the sight of the sexy bra.

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