Page 90 of Pucking My Grumpy Accidental Husband
“I know. And yeah, It’s tempting. But Boston feels like someone else’s story. Chicago feels like ours.”
Her eyes shine as tears slip free. “Oh God, Dax. You make it so damn easy to choose us.”
A laugh escapes me, half relief, half disbelief. “Guess we’re both insane.”
Her lips curve through her tears. “Then I want to be insane with you.” She pulls me down into a kiss that feels like a promise.
The kiss starts soft, grateful, but it shifts fast into something hungrier. Something that tastes like relief and want and the kind of desperation that comes from almost losing something precious.
"I love you too," I murmur against her lips, my hands sliding into her hair and finally pulling it free from that ponytail. "I love you more than hockey, more than money, more than any fucking contract they could offer me."
She makes this small sound in the back of her throat that goes straight to my cock, and suddenly I need her closer. Need to touch her everywhere, need to show her what she means to me.
"Tessa," I breathe, trailing kisses down her throat. "Do you have any idea what you do to me?"
"Well, I would love to hear it from your mouth," she says, and there's something in her voice that makes me pull back to look at her.
Her eyes are dark with want, her lips swollen from kissing, and she's looking at me with those beautiful eyes.
"You make me feel like I could conquer the world or burn it down, whichever you prefer," I say, my voice getting rougher. "You make me want to be better than I am while loving me exactly as I am."
"And?"
"And right now, you're making me want to carry you to your bedroom and spend the rest of the night showing you exactly how much choosing you over everything else means to me."
She's about to respond when both our phones start buzzing simultaneously. Text after text, call after call, all from the same people—Jamie, Luca, Martinez, my mom, Emma.
"What the hell?" Tessa grabs her phone, and I watch her face go white as she reads.
"Dax," she whispers, holding up her screen. "Look."
It's a text from Jamie with a link to a national sports news website. The headline makes my blood turn to ice:
"CHICAGO RENEGADES STAR'S SECRET MARRIAGE: Inside the Vegas Wedding That Rocked the NHL"
I look at Tessa, who's staring at me with wide eyes, and realize that everything we thought we'd figured out just got blown to hell.
CHAPTER 21
TESSA
I'm staring at my phone like it just announced the apocalypse, and honestly, that might be less catastrophic than what I'm actually reading.
"Holy shit, holy shit, holy fucking shit," I mutter, scrolling through what feels like a digital assassination. There are photos—actual goddamn photos—of us stumbling out of that Elvis chapel, looking drunk and blissful and completely oblivious to the media firestorm we were creating.
Dax appears behind me, reading over my shoulder, and I can feel the fury radiating from his body like heat from a nuclear reactor. "That vindictive son of a bitch."
"Harrison?" My voice sounds strangled.
"Has to be. Look at this bullshit." He points to a highlighted quote that makes my stomach drop straight to hell. "'Sources close to the organization suggest Dr. Bennett specifically targeted Kingston for his wealth and status, using her position as team psychologist to manipulate a vulnerable athlete during a difficult period.'"
"Manipulate?" I spin around to face him, rage and humiliation colliding in my chest like a fucking car crash. "They're making me sound like some predatory whore who seduced you for your money!"
"It gets worse, baby. Keep reading."
I scroll further, each sentence feeling like a knife twist. "'Kingston's judgment has been notably compromised since Bennett's arrival, with sources indicating his recent decision to decline a lucrative Boston trade was influenced by his inappropriate relationship rather than professional considerations.'"
"So you're thinking with your cock instead of your brain, and I'm a manipulative bitch. Got it." I laugh, but it sounds hysterical. "This is exactly what happened in Seattle. Exactly what I was afraid of."
