Page 73 of Hot for the Hockey Player
The kids probably didn’t hear me.Damon slept like the dead, and Laurel liked a white noise machine playing the sounds of a babbling brook.
A modicum of relief quelled some of my panic as I grabbed my workout gear and trudged my ass to the bathroom to get ready for my at-home Pilates video.
Even though I went to bed at my regular time, I felt particularly tired today and wanted to punch the woman on the screen square in the face, wiping that chipper smile from her lips.“Shut up, Hadleigh from Utah,” I growled, doing “ten more” of the mountain climbers on my home reformer, just like that blonde bitch with a size double-zero waist and the horrific camel toe, encouraged me to do.She probably ate nothing but celery and Metamucil.
My abs screamed at me on the last push, and I collapsed to my belly when it was done.
“Great work, everyone,” Hadleigh said.“Now we’re going to do some upright rows with the resistance bands.”
“No, we’re not,” I murmured, reaching for the remote to pause the witch.
My heart raced and my hairline was damp, but I needed this.As exhausted as I was, I needed this.Like a child being toldnotto touch the piping hot cookies right out of the oven, then being consumed with the thought of touching them, I couldn’t keep my brain from continuously drifting back to Maverick.
He struck this deal on purpose.Knowing full well that Iwouldn’tbe able to not think about him, now that he told me to try not to.Clever asshole.Clever, gorgeous asshole.
“Stop it!”I grumbled, unpausing Hadleigh and standing up, putting a resistance band in each hand and following her lead with the upright rows.“Stop thinking about him.”
Of course, I just thought about him more.About his washboard stomach, and that drop of water navigating the topography of his torso.My tongue wouldloveto explore those valleys and ridges.Swirl around the peaks of his nipples.
Stop it!
A rush of heat raced up my chest into my face and I growled louder as I pulled harder on the bands, punishing myself with the muscle burn to distract my thoughts.
Maybe I needed to put a rubber band around my wrist and every time a thought about Maverick popped into my head, I would snap the band.Wasn’t that called “negative reinforcement”?
Pausing Hadleigh again, I went to the kitchen and my very organized junk drawer, with all the little baskets and labeled bags of chip clips, paper clips, twist ties, and rubber bands.I grabbed a rubber band and slid it over my wrist.Then, for good measure, I put one on the other wrist as well.Just in case.Two had to be better than one.
I returned to Hadleigh and resumed my workout.
How many crunches a day did Maverick have to do to get a stomach like that?
Motherfucker.
Snap!
Good god, that hurt.
But I deserved it.
After ten more reps, Hadleigh had us putting one foot on one of the sliders and moving our leg in and out to the side to work our abductors, or whatever the fuck muscle.
I couldn’t see Maverick’s abductors beneath the towel, but I bet they were well-defined.
For fuck’s sake.
Snap!
“And now onto the other side,” Hadleigh said.
I switched sides.
There were a lot of things I couldn’t see under the towel, but Ifelta certain thing against the inside of my thigh when we kissed on the counter.
Snap!Snap!I did each wrist this time, hissing out in pain.
“What are you doing?”
I lost my balance as I was mid-slide out and fell backward on my ass at the sound of Laurel behind me.
