Page 56 of For the Captain
"Hey, just out of curiosity, what did Declan say to you out on the ice that night?" she asked. "You know, before you punched him?"
Jordan gently put the coffee pot back on the counter and stared at it intently, his jaw clenching from the memory. "I'd rather not say."
"Why not?" she asked quietly.
He looked up at her, his eyes almost dark and bitter from the memory. "I have a thick skin, Charlotte. I can handle whatever chirps players want to throw at me. But I will never tolerate someone talking about you the way he did that game."
He stood there, staring at her intently, waiting for her response to this serious declaration for her, but she couldn't help the smile on her face.
"So you punched him for me."
"Yeah, I guess I did," he replied with a grin.
Charlotte walked over and kissed him, first gently and then harder as his lips yielded to her. Of all the romantic gestures she had been on the receiving end of over the years, Jordan standing in her kitchen officially declaring he punched her ex-boyfriend to defend her honor immediately topped the list.
Her hands began to trace the muscles under his shirt, wandering over his chest, which caused Jordan to groan in pain and frustration.
"Charlie, while I do enjoy where your mind is headed, my body can't handle extracurricular activities right now."
Charlotte just let her hands wander farther down instead. "You don't have to be that active, but you deserve a token of gratitude, and I indeed to give it to you."
Her hands grabbed the waist of his pants, earning a groan of pleasure from her captain as she made her intentions very clear. Charlotte saw the dark desire in Jordan's eyes before sinking to her knees in front of him with his pants pooled around his ankles.
As he pulled his Land Rover out of the parking lot, Jordan's phone started ringing and the screen on his dash read "Charlotte." He suspected she had probably picked up her newspaper by now and realized that he had done exactly what she had told him not to.
"Hey, Charlie!"
"There's a hole in my newspaper," she said in mocking anger. "You took my chili cheese fries."
He laughed. "Charlotte, I scored a hat trick last night. Someone gave me their fedora! I earned those damn fries."
"You're lucky I love you."
His car was filled with silence, but that was only because he was trying to control the emotions he was feeling, thankful that he hadn't pulled out of her parking lot yet when she said it to him. Jordan could easily imagine Charlotte's face as she stood slack-jawed in her apartment. Hell, he could practically hear her over thinking what she had just said.
He should put her out of her misery.
"Charlie?"
"Hm?" She was trying to sound casual and it totally wasn't working at all.
"I love you too."
Jordan could hear the breath of relief from her, and he was glad she had accidentally done this over the phone so she couldn't see the goofy grin plastered on his face.
"So listen," he said, clearing his throat as he changed the subject to something less emotional. "We didn't discuss dinner plans for tonight."
"Because my plans were stolen from my newspaper," she replied teasingly.
"Well, then would you want to go to Coney Island with me?"
"I definitely would," she said. "But you're sharing your fries."
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
Epilogue
She had always heard that champagne stings if it gets in your eyes, but she never experienced it herself until now. Alex Orlov was having quite the drunken night chasing around ice girls and spraying them down. Unfortunately, Charlotte got caught in the crossfire.
