Page 11 of Off Limits PUCK

At that moment, the doorbell rings. I grit my teeth. Great. If Allie shows up in that little mini dress she was wearing earlier, then it is going to make everything look wrong and Jones will certainly be staying with me.

But when Jones opens the door, it’s not Allie. It’s Coach. I try not to groan out loud.

He grins. “How is our favorite patient?” he asks.

I surrender to the inevitable. They are here to make sure I am not breaking any rules. The best thing I can do is play along. A pair of headlights pulls up in the driveway. It looks like Allie’s little car. Sure enough, she steps out. She waves at the three of us in my doorway, then grabs a small bag from the backseat.

As she walks up, I can see she is in her standard PT outfit. It’s like she knew we were going to be checked on tonight. She avoids my eyes and shakes hands with the doctor, nodding her hello to Coach.

“Looks like we are all here! Great. Just point me to my room and we can have our first on-site meeting about Jake’s recovery.” Her tone is perfectly professional and the brisk little nod she gives me turns me off.

Here I thought we were going to have five days of blissed out sex and passion, but instead it turns out that while three is a crowd, four is even worse. It’s then that I notice Coach’s small bag in his hand.

“I see everyone just decided to invite themselves over,” I say with irritation in my voice. I gesture to Coach’s bag.

He looks gravely at me. “Son, this may be your last chance to get on the ice with the team. I wouldn’t do anything foolish to mess it up.” His eyes flicker to Allie and then back to me. My heart constricts for a briefest moment—does he know she and I hooked up in the PT room?

I look at Allie, but her expression remains unflappable. Somehow, some way, I need to get her alone to catch myself up to speed on what is happening. It’s after ten o’clock and all three of them are on my doorstep? Something fishy is going on.

I grab Coach’s bag, leading him up the stairs and to a guest room in my mansion that is far from my master room. I tell him thathe can have the upstairs master room, though I won’t tell him that downstairs on the opposite wing of my home is the true second master bedroom and that is where I’ll put Allie.

I tell him about what Jones and I aligned on with my resting and no swimming in my own pool for recreation and before I know it, I’ve safely put him into his room and invited him downstairs once he’s settled in for something to eat during Allie’s little impromptu meeting.

I all but run down the stairs, looking for my sister’s best friend. A meeting? This late at night? Are you kidding me! I’m starting to doubt that she’s into me at all. Maybe it was all just a joke for her when we had sex. Maybe she was using me to check the box of “sex with a professional athlete.” I narrow my eyes. I need some answers and fast.

I hear her in the living room and round the corner quietly. She and Jones are going over a file—my file, no doubt—and conferring about my diet, from the sounds of it. I approach the two of them and try to catch her eye.

Finally, she glances at me. There isn’t that little spark in her eyes that I enjoyed seeing just before we had sex, and then again when I saw her and my sister a few hours ago. What changed?

“Allison,” I say in a flat tone. “I can show you to a room you can use while you’re here. I chose the one furthest from where Coach and I are, on the east side of the house. So, you’ll have plenty of privacy. The room even has its own private entrance at the side of the house.”

I reach for her bag before she can protest. Jones says he’ll wait for us in the kitchen, assuming he can help himself to some water. I play the role of the perfect host and welcome him to raid my kitchen for anything he needs. Honestly, I just need to buy a few minutes of time alone with Allie.

She trots beside me as we walk down the hallway to the other side of my house. I bought this place as an investment at the advice of my financial advisor. It has eight bedrooms and a five-car garage. The neighborhood does not have a homeowner’s association nor does it have a gate, so the resale value is great for people not looking to be in a subdivision.

I reach the door at the end of the hallway and push it open. I toss her bag on the chaise lounge by the far windows and then turn to her. She’s standing by the king sized bed, on her phone! I am offended.

“Allison,” I say, like she is a naughty little girl in need of a spanking—because she is.

Her blue eyes look into my hazel ones and I see an apology in their depths. “Jake, please understand…” she falters and then recovers herself. She straightens up and moves toward the door. “It would be the end of my career and a setback in yours if what happened in the PT room ever happened again. I’m sorry. But I cannot do that again. Too much is at stake.”

“Allie,” I say softly, moving closer to her.

“Plus, I know you’re on that exclusive, celebrities only dating app,” she says, her eyes turning cold. “Your sister was oh so kind enough to tell me all about the bikini models you’ve been matching with and chatting with lately.”

Allie turns on her heel and only pauses long enough to throw out over her shoulder, “Sure would have been nice to know before you took advantage of me this morning.”

I can only stare at her, my jaw on the floor, as she flounces out of the room.

Chapter seven

Allie

What the heck iswrong with me?I told myself I wasn’t going to get any feelings for Jake, and here I am jealous about him being a single guy on one of those $15k a month dating apps! And of course, I had to blurt it out just now, like I’m an insecure little school girl. I feel like an idiot.

I am mad at him. I never would have had sex with him had I known he was actively fielding options from super hot women who are models, influencers, and wannabe actors. I’m not that type of girl and if that’s his type, then I have no business sleeping with the guy.

I march down the hallway to the living room, hearing the voices of Coach and Dr. Jones in the kitchen. Tonight was weird. I got a call from Coach letting me know that he was planning to move in with Jake the next five days to “oversee” my work with him.

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