Page 13 of Slapped Into Love

“Aren’t you the same guy who pissed her off enough to earn himself a slap upside the head and a challenge on the ice thathelost?”

“Yup.” I grinnedathim.

“And now you’re her biggest advocate. Young guys and their dicks,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “Do me a favor and don’t let yours get you into trouble until after we’ve earned ourselves achampionshipcup.”

“I won’t.” My dick was finally pointing me in the direction of the right woman. I had no intention of messing things upwithher.

“If you can get the PR team on board—which we both know you’ll be able to do since Jason’s girlfriend will love the idea of helping you impress a woman—and facilities management is okay with the extra work they’d need to do to clear the ice between her training and our practice, then it’s fine by me if she uses it on days we don’t have ahomegame.”

“Consider it a done deal, starting tomorrow.” I wasn’t going to take no for an answer, not when it was within my power to make Tamara’s stay in Chicago easier on her. It wasn’t just because I wanted back in her pants, either. It bugged me that she had to go hunting for ice when we had an empty sheet of it here that she could use and nobody thought to offer it to her. She was an Olympian, for fuck’s sake. She deserved some goddamn respect as a fellowathlete.

“It’s a good thing you’ve got the skills on the ice to back up that cockiness, Forrester. Or else I wouldn’t put up withyourshit.”

I skated away, determined to remind him why I was worth the bother. I turned in one of my best practices in a long time, and still had energy to spare during the power skating session with Tamara. It was one of those days when everything went my way, and I even ended up beating two of our fastest forwards in a couple of the races. I felt on top of the world when I headed upstairs to talk toCee-Cee.

“Hey, Ryan,” she greeted me when I rapped my knuckles against her openofficedoor.

“You got a minute?” I asked, flashing her acharminggrin.

“Sure,” she laughed. “Just remember I’m still new around here. Don’t make me regret it or else I’ll have to sic Jasononyou.”

I dropped down onto the chair in front of her desk, chuckling. “He might be your boyfriend, but he’s my line mate. He wouldn’t hurt me.” She rolled her green eyes and smiled confidently. “Okay, he’d hurt me for you. But not too badly when we’re in a race for theplayoffs.”

“You’re probably right,” she sighed. “So what can I helpyouwith?”

“Coach hired an Olympic speed skater to run power skating drills fortheteam.”

“And that means something to mebecause...?”

“She’s in training for 2018 in PyeongChang, and I’m trying to swing it so she can use our ice todoit.”

“She is?” Cee-Cee squealed, clasping her hands together. “That would be amazing! Is she open to the idea of doing interviews? I could easily line some up, and it’d be both to her benefit and the team’s since good press means more butts inseats.”

“I’m pretty sure I can talk her into some interviews if it means she gets to skate here since the arena is so close to herapartment.”

“Wonderful! I’ll get to work on it as soon as she gives me the greenlight.”

“Plan on it being soon,” I told her as I stood. “Thanks.”

“Hold it. Not so fast there, buddy.” Her green eyes narrowed. “Anything else you want to tell me about the woman you’re running around doing favors for? Like when you guys met, and if she has anything to do with the way you’ve been avoiding all the puck bunnies who throw themselvesatyou?”

“As our publicist has drilled into our heads, I’ll have to go with ‘no comment,’” Ianswered.

“Well played,” shelaughed.

Cee-Cee’s excitement about publicizing Tamara’s role with the team added to my good mood. A quick conversation with the Zamboni driver, and I had his agreement to clear the ice after Tamara was done with iteachday.

What I didn’t have was any way to reach Tamara to share the good news. I hadn’t asked for her phone number before she left my place that morning. I figured I’d be able to easily find her since I’d see her at the rink, but she hadn’t been there until right before our power skating session and then she’d left again before I had the chance to talk to her about my plan to get her ice time at thearena.

It shouldn’t have been a big deal since her apartment was so close to mine, but she hadn’t answered her door any of the times I’d walked down to knock on it. I’d been home for a few hours already and had basically been walking the hallway hoping to bump into her the entire time. Like a damnstalker.

“Desperate times and all that bullshit,” I muttered to myself as I pulled my door open, for what felt like the thousandth time, and almost collided with her inthehall.

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