Page 26 of Levi

“So, this is what you’re doing while you’re on the clock? I knew you dating one of the players would just mean you didn’t know how to do your job professionally.” Ally’s voice grates through the air, her snappy tone enough to piss me off, but Quinn just breaks the moment and quickly gets back to work.

“Were the two seconds we spent talking while I was doing my actual job too much for you to handle?” Quinn snarks back, surprising me again with her quick tongue.

“Two seconds of flirting and PDA when you’re supposed to be working is too much, and it’s highly inappropriate and probably making the players uncomfortable,” Ally says, and I want to laugh.

“These guys are walking around butt naked and don’t even flinch, and you think Quinn sitting here doing her job will offend them? They’re probably more confused as to why you, the secretary for our coach, has any business being back here.Thatmight make them uncomfortable,” I say before Quinn can even respond. She doesn’t stop moving the entire time I’m talking, although I can tell she’s holding her breath by the way she’s moving stiffly as she retapes my ankle, before cutting the piece and setting everything to the side.

Ally, on the other hand, isn’t quite as put together, and her face immediately reddens with anger. “I’m here helping your coach, Levi. You’re lucky you’re performing out there on the ice because the second you’re not, you’ll be out of here if I have any say in the matter,” Ally snaps before stomping off.

“She’s a fucking piece of work,” I grumble as I slide my foot back in my skate, lacing it up with the ease that doing this for nearly your entire life brings.

“Yeah, that’s a very nice way of putting it,” Quinn says before throwing her things back in her bag and standing up. “Good luck out there. Maybe you’ll get number three and get a hat trick in game one. That’ll really shut her up,” she says with a wink before turning to walk away.

Grabbing her hand, I pull her back, noticing Ally still over on the other side of the room, and unfortunately, I’m nothing if not petty. Pulling her into me, I cup her face in my hands and give her a quick kiss, nothing that Ally can run to HR about, but if Quinn holding my foot offended her, this will send her screaming—at least I fucking hope so.

After pulling back, I look down for a second and smile. “Couldn’t go back out there without a good luck kiss,” I tell her, and immediately I realize that sounds too flirty. I want to pull it off, but I have to keep my own emotions in check.

I have to remember that this is fake, or I’ll forget and accidentally fall in love with her.

“I also noticed Ally still watching us, and after her little tantrum a minute ago, I figured she could use a little less PG version of PDA,” I whisper before stepping back to give her space.

My heart’s racing as everywhere I touched her is on fire, like her simple touch shock-charged my heart, reminding me what it feels like to really feel alive.

“Thanks,” she says quietly, her fingers touching her lips like maybe she just felt the same spark I did. Her eyes glaze over, and damn, it’s hard not to hope that she liked kissing me as much as I liked kissing her. Our first public kiss that wasn’t drunk in a bar, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like getting to kiss her with people around.

But I know Quinn’s a good actor. I mean, we’ve played enough games while flirting at the bar that I know she can act pretty damn well. Enough to get my dick hard when she wanted to play professor and student, but that’s a memory for a time when I’m not about to be skating around with a bunch of grown men, a hard-on definitely making that a challenge.

Grabbing her bag, she breaks the moment and walks off to join the other trainers who are already heading back out.

Fuck me. It’s been less than one week of her living here, and I’m already liking this more than I should.

* * *

Maybe I needa good luck kiss before every game because scoring another goal in the third period to get my hat trick, as well as another assist, was not what I was expecting, but I’m fucking stoked. As soon as that puck flew into the net, I skated right past our bench celebrating, my eyes locked on Quinn as I blew her a kiss.

With any luck, that’ll be on national TV, and Ally will have to see it anytime she looks up the team for anything. Take that, brat.

We held the Knights off until the last three minutes when they pulled their goalie and scored on a power play. While it sucked that Cooper didn’t get a shutout, it’s hard to be mad when there was an open net and two extra guys on the ice. We still got the win, and that’s what matters.

Plus, I got to watch hats get thrown down on the ice for me, and that was pretty great. Even Coach smiled at me, nodding as I skated past, a half-smile on his lips, which is more than I’ve seen from him since he got back.

Now that we’ve gone through media interviews and had our post-game meet up with the team, I’m heading out to find Quinn so we can get out of here, but run into the guys out front before I can find her.

“Hey man, you coming out with everyone?” Jax asks as he and Cooper stand there while Ash stands a little further on talking to Coach Sullivan and his wife, Sylvia.

We all do usually go out together after the first game, something I would’ve told Quinn had I thought about it earlier today. I feel like a dick dragging her out, but I could always ask.

“Lemme check with Quinn and then I’ll let you know,” I tell them, and I don’t miss the way the two of them look at each other.

They know it’s fake and they know why we are doing it, but they also love to give me a hard time about Quinn because they’re also very aware of how long Quinn and I have been repeatedly hooking up, which is something I don’t do.

“You need to check with Quinn about what?” I hear from behind me and turn to see her wearing the jacket embroidered with her name. The only thing that would be better is if she was wearing a jersey withmyname on it.

“The guys were all thinking about going out tonight, but I wasn’t sure if that would be something you wanted to do, so I figured I’d check with you,” I tell her, and she looks between Jax and me in thought.

“Only if we're going somewhere with a good drink. I could use one,” she says, surprising the hell out of me. I figured she'd be exhausted and want to go home. I also figured that she wouldn't want to have to put on a show any longer than necessary, and with most of the team going out, it's not like we can forget we're supposed to be dating.

“Absolutely. Paul will pour ’em strong, like he always does,” Jax says as he starts to turn to where the guys are starting to walk toward their cars. “We will see you there in about twenty minutes then. Or longer if you need it.” And with a wink, he’s gone.

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