Page 104 of Rowdy Hearts

I’d been heading for the restroom outside the locker room at the St. David arena when I heard Rain Lawrence’s voice coming from the shadows farther down the hall.

I stopped, even before I heard the response from Mo. The bastard was the captain of my team, a position he held onlybecause he was the longest-tenured player. I certainly would never vote for the shithead, but I knew him better than most of the other players because I’d been playing with him the longest.

“Damn, no wonder you’re single, Rain. Who the hell would want to date a pissy woman like you?”

Yep, that’s it. That was the final straw.

I stalked down the hall, not even hearing Rain’s response. And I know she had one. But the buzzing in my ears was so fucking loud, I couldn’t hear her.

It takes a lot to piss me off, but where Mo’s concerned, it takes nothing at all. And the way he just spoke to Rain…

“You need to go now, Zelinsky. And don’t ever?—”

“Hey, asshole.”

Zelinsky turned, a pissed-off snarl on his face.

“Go back to the locker room, Fiskers. This doesn’t concern you.”

I was a pretty easy-going person most of the time. Everyone knew that. Mo thought it meant he could walk all over me. The fucker had never realized I didn’t give a shit what he thought or how he thought about me.

What I did care about was how he treated Rain.

Ignoring him, I looked at Rain. Her jaw looked ready to crack, she held it so tightly, and her wide, midnight-dark eyes sparked with fury.

She was so damn pretty, she tied my tongue in knots. Always had. And gave me a fucking hard whenever she looked my way. Which had never been all that often.

“Rain.” I made sure she looked at me before I said, “You okay?”

Zelinsky’s eyes narrowed, and his nose wrinkled. I know most women thought he was good-looking. At least, he got laid enough that I figured they had to seduced by the looks because once you got to know him, he was a pig. Which was appropriate because, right now, he kind of looked like a pig.

“What thefuck? Why wouldn’t she be okay? What the hell are you implying?”

Rain’s eyes met mine, and I saw pure feminine rage and an intense frustration.

“Rain?”

“I’m fine.” She sounded like she was speaking through clenched teeth.

Zelinsky sneered at me. “See. She’s fine. You don’t need to play hero. You can?—”

I cold-cocked him. He never saw it coming. Probably never expected it, especially not from me.

My fist swung out and connected with his jaw hard enough that he went down, landing on his side, his arms only just preventing his head from hitting the cement floor.

I didn’t care if the coach benched me. Hell, at that moment, I didn’t care if the team cut me and black-balled me. I only cared about the fact that he’d tried to intimidate Rain. To coerce her into doing something she obviously didn’t want to do.

Most people thought Zelinsky was cocky but toothless. I’d never trusted the bastard, and he’d just shown I was right not to.

“Are you okay?” I asked Rain again.

Her gaze dropped to Zelinsky on the floor, her jaw slowly unclenching as Zelinsky shook his head, like I might’ve rattled his brains a little. Served him fucking right.

Then her gaze lifted back to me. The anger was still there, and the frustration. But she looked at me like she was seeing me for the first time. Or maybe just seeing me in a different light.

Stepping around Zelinsky, she stopped by my side, close enough that the light flowery scent she wore drifted into my nose and, yep, my cock started to harden.

“I’m fine,” she said. “I appreciate your concern, but I could’ve handled him.”

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