Page 5 of Slapped Into Love

ChapterThree

Ryan

By the timeTamara finished running us through drills, I was dripping with sweat and beyond exhausted. She’d worked us hard in a short amount of time, focusing on getting us to skate with more knee bend and developing more power by pushing totheside.

“The things I’m working on with you may seem like small changes, but I get that they’re also difficult adjustments to make since you’ve been skating one way for your entire lives and now I’m trying to make you do it differently. With how comfortable you all are on the ice, I know it’s almost like telling you to walkdifferently.”

“It really is,” Alec agreed, earning him a smile from her that had me glaring at him. If it’d been Jason, I wouldn’t have cared as much since he was happy with Cee-Cee. But Alec was as single as I was and if anyone as going to be in Tamara’s good graces, I wanted it tobeme.

“With you running the drills, I’m sure we’ll figure it out,” Iassuredher.

“Uh huh,” she hummed, giving me a doubtful look before smiling at the rest of the team. “That’s all for now, guys. As long as your coach doesn’t need you for anything else, you’re free to go and I’ll see you againtomorrow.”

Coach gestured at the door leading to the locker rooms, and my teammates took that as their cue that practice was done. While they headed to the bench to grab their equipment, I skated towards Tamara. Coach shook his head as he passed me and mumbled, “Good luck with that. You dug yourself a deep hole there,Forrester.”

He was right, but in my defense we mouthed off to each other on the ice all the time. We didn’t mean anything bad with the jabs we took at each other; not really. And I’d intended for mine to be aimed at my rookie teammate. Not Tamara. I just needed to make herunderstandthat.

“Look,Tamara—”

“Do you call your coach by his first name?” she asked, cuttingmeoff.

“Sometimes.”

“Just because you’ve seen me naked doesn’t mean it’s okay…” She paused and looked at me with confusion clear in her wide brown eyes. “Wait.Youdo?”

“Yeah.” I glided a couple of inches closer to her. “I’m not calling you Tamara as a sign ofdisrespect.”

“Are you sure about that?” she asked with a hint of challenge inhertone.

Coach had definitely been right to offer me luck. I was starting to wonder if the hole I’d managed to dig for myself was too deep for me to get my way back out of it. It figured my fucking mouth would screw over my chances with the woman who’d killed my ability to get a boner foranyoneelse.

I was willing to admit that I’d been an idiot who hadn’t bothered to look much beyond a woman’s appearance when it came to who I slept with. I hadn’t been interested in anything more than a night or two of fun, and they never bothered to get to know me beyond the fact that I was a pro hockey player, so it seemed like a fair trade. But after seeing for myself how having Cee-Cee in his life had made Jason both a happier man and a better hockey player and the way I couldn’t get Tamara out of my head, I’d started to rethink my view on relationships. Only it hadn’t done me much good when I’d had no idea how to find Tamara since I hadn’t even known herlastname.

If only I’d pulled my head out of my ass back in Anaheim and treated her like more than a one-night stand. She was worth way more than a night or two of my time, and that was before I knew she was an accomplished athlete in her own right. A hot as hell one who was as comfortable on the ice as I was. And she wasn’t willing to take shit from anyone, including me. For a guy who was used to women agreeing with just about anything and everything I said, no matter how ridiculous, it was a nice change of pace. Except for the part where she was pissed at me and didn’t care that Iknewit.

“Yes, I’m positive.” Her stance relaxed a little. “It fits you perfectly. A beautiful name for a gorgeouswoman.”

“Really? Do you really think I’m going to fall for your lines again?” she sputtered, shaking her head. “I’m your power skating coach; not some woman you’re trying to pick up in a club.Again.”

“Shit,” I muttered to myself as she skated away. She was already through the door leading to the visitor’s locker room before I started to follow. I cursed myself for being too slow. And for managing to fuck up with her yetagain.

Chasing her into the locker room she was using would be an even dumber move, so I grabbed my stuff off the bench and headed into mine instead. After I set my stick against the wall, I shoved my helmet and gloves onto the top shelf, snagged a cold bottle of water off the table in the middle of room, and dropped down onto the bench. I stared down at my skates for a moment before I bent over tounlacethem.

“How’d it go?” Jason asked quietly from his spot next to me. Not that it did any good because the guys were worse than a bunch of bored high school students when it came togossip.

“How did what go?” Alec asked from my other side, his gaze shifting between Jason and me as he undid his shin guards. “Wait. Are you really going to try to go there with her even after the shit she heardyousay?”

“Are we even allowed to go there? I mean, technically she’s one of our coaches. There’s got to be a rule against it, right? Not that she isn’t worth breaking a few rules. She’s hot as fuck,” one of the forwards chimed in from the other side of thelockerroom.

“Shut the fuck up about her,” Igrowled.

“Shit. She’s not another one of those chicks that you guys don’t even want us to look at, is she? Like Alec was with that PT who ended up getting engaged to his brother?” our starting goalieasked.

“Or her best friend, the hot redhead Campbell’s dating?” the backup goalieadded.

“Wait. We can call dibs on chicks?” one of the rookiesasked.

“The only thing you can call dibs on is your jock strap, at least until after you’ve paid your dues just like the rest of us had to do,” Alec answered before he turned his attention back to me again. “But the question remains, are youclaimingher?”

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