Page 59 of Pucked and Pregnant

It’s not likely to be anyone from the press. There are two hockey teams loose in Vegas tonight, one of which is celebrating. So I’m sure there are much more interesting things happening out on the strip than inside my hotel room.

The two likeliest options are Max checking in on me or Travis pretending to do the same.

At least those are the only two people I can think of that would be persistent enough not to go away after two minutes of knocking with no answer.

Regardless, I don’t have the patience for either of them tonight.

I cast one last longing look at the tub. The fancy soaps are lined up along the edge along with my mud mask, pumice stone, and flamingo pink nail polish. I can almost hear them begging me to ignore the knocking and to turn the water on.

I desperately want to listen to them and blow off whoever’s at the door but unfortunately, taking the advice of inanimate objects is not going to win out.

Besides, if it’s who I think it is, they’re not going to go away, and incessant knocking isn’t the soothing sound I had in mind for my bath.

The sooner you send him away the sooner you can start running that bath. So stop being wishy-washy and take some action.

At least I didn’t take my clothes off yet. Facing down an unwanted guest in a bathrobe would be a serious disadvantage.

When I look through the peephole, I see three people outside my door, none of whom were my original guesses.

Dimitri, Aiden, and Connor have planted themselves outside my room. From the looks on their faces, they plan to be there until I open the door.

This has to be some kind of joke. Why else would they be here risking media attention if not to mess with me? Taunting me with what I can’t have would be a foolproof way to do that.

I haven’t been able to get that night out of my head. There’s something about the four of us being together that makes me feel invincible.

I’d felt something similar when we had that fling as teenagers but I’d just chalked it up to raging hormones.

I’m not so sure that’s what it is now.

The times that Aiden and I have been together were nice, great even, but it wasn’t enough to chase Connor and Dimitri from my mind. It makes me feel selfish, like Aiden isn’t enough on his own.

That’s when it hits me. He must have told them, or accidentally let something slip and they caught on. It’s not like it was a secret or anything. Not from Dimitri and Connor, anyway.

So why does it feel like I betrayed them?

I take another look through the peephole.

They look annoyed but it has more of a “Liv, open the damn door”feel rather than a “Liv, you’ve crushed our hearts and we hate you forever”vibe.

Hold on.

Hearts?

This has only ever been a casual hookup situation. Hearts have no place in it. We’re not getting attached, remember? Especially not to a hockey player. Haven’t you learned anything at all over this past week?

That little voice of reason is always right. I need to stop trying to plan for situations that probably won’t even happen. More likely than not, Max found some Vegas puck bunny to occupy himself with and sent these three to check up on me.

The faster I get this over with, the sooner I can get my ass in that giant tub.

I pull the door open and lean against the doorframe. They were much less intimidating through the bubble-like lens of the peephole.

A jolt of electricity pulses through my lower body, and all I can think of is the last time they all showed up at my door. That was something we all agreed wouldn’t happen again, and going off their body language, it doesn’t look like they’ve changed their minds.

Save your fantasizing for the tub and lose the body guards.

I force myself to stay casual.

“Let me guess, Max sent you up here to check on me. As you can see, I’m perfectly fine, whole, and healthy,” I say, spreading my arms wide. “So you can go back to whatever party you left, and if you see Max, tell him he could have just as easily texted me.”

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