Page 48 of Goalie Interference

Another held-back smile. “I can take Romeo home with me. We all need some sleep.”

“And I need to get my car into the garage.”

“Come on, Beast.” Remy picked up the end of the leash and tugged. Predictably, Beast growled. He was reluctant to go, but Remy was a lot bigger and stronger, and he couldn’t dig his feetin well enough on the tiled floor to prevent being dragged away from the cat.

Goober rose to her feet delicately and hopped down, heading farther into the house, out of sight. Beast gave in and followed Remy as he walked down the long hallway back to the garage entrance. I trailed along behind them.

Once we were outside, the night air cool on my skin, Remy walked beside me. Beast was on his other side, occasionally lifting a leg. It took only a couple of minutes to get to my car, when we weren’t zigzagging through the grounds looking for Beast.

“Thanks for helping me track him down.”

I turned to him. “In future, we should look for Goober if Beast is missing.”

“And vice versa?”

The moon was almost full. How had we gotten so close? Remy looked different in the stark light. A stranger. A very appealing one. I stared into his eyes, mesmerized. They were pale in the moonlight, staring back at me with the same intensity. My breathing grew shallow and I shivered in the night air.

Beast circled me and his leash tightened on my calves, disrupting my balance, and I fell forward onto Remy’s chest. His arm tightened around me as Beast pulled. I gasped, and then…we were kissing.

His lips were warm, firm, less tentative than I’d have expected. He tasted like beer and something new to me—something just him. A shudder moved through me, or him or us both. I could have pulled away, or he could have, but instead he drew me closer to him and I pressed tightly against his solid body.

Suddenly we tilted, Beast pulling on the leash again, and Remy braced himself before Beast knocked us both to the ground.

“Sorry.” He balanced me on my feet then unwound the leather and stepped back. I was disoriented. From the kiss, from tripping, from the whole weird night.

“It’s okay,” I said, reaching my hand into my pocket to grab my keys.

“I shouldn’t have?—”

“Stop! Don’t blame yourself. It was a two-way street. Kiss. Whatever.”

He took another step back. “You’re good to get to the house?”

He couldn’t see my eyes rolling. “Yes, I can finish driving back to the house in my car inside this secure property.”

“We’ll just…and thanks for helping me with Beast.”

“You’re welcome. And it’s fine. I kissed you too, so?—”

But he had already turned and was walking quickly back to the carriage house. The beer he’d had must have worn off, since he had no hesitation in fleeing.

I sighed. Whether it was the Ollie thing, or being his kind of landlord or whatever, he was obviously not fine about the kiss. Which was a shame. He was a damned good kisser.

I got back in my car. It had been a weird night.

Chapter 20

A guitar philistine

Remy

The team hadn’t been taking all three of us goalies to away games. The cost/benefit ratio of needing an additional backup goalie with the time it would take to fly somewhere in North America tilted to only flying the third guy in if something happened to one of the other two. But in Europe, with the time changes involved, all three of us went.

I was relieved to get some space from Sophie. I was afraid she’d be upset after that kiss. I’d had a lot to drink, and the details were a little hazy. But just because I’d enjoyed the kiss didn’t mean she had. Being away would give me time to stop freaking out over it.

She was kind and striking-looking. Tolerated Beast and me. And had seemed okay after. But she was Otts’s ex, and I wasn’t ready to shoot my career in the foot just yet.

We had a special plane reserved so everyone could sleep on the way to Europe. They’d scheduled an overnight flight to try to help with jet lag. Getting older, that jet lag sucked. And damn, Finland was cold. Lappy started the first game and Constantinthe second, and we flew back to Austin with two losses for our troubles. Lappy seemed to take it hard, but as a goalie you had to move past a bad game and start fresh for the next.

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