Page 62 of Safe Harbor
Amber turned away, walking right past Sydney, Andy, and Lucy. Ryan couldn't help but smile at them as they walked over.
"Hey! Welcome to my party!" he announced.
He quickly pulled Lucy in for a hug that she warmly responded to. She smelled like vanilla and chocolate. It was insanely delicious. Then he pulled away and said hello to his other friends.
"Mixers and bottles are on the table. There's also some wine down there." He waved his hand towards the other end of their seating area where a few more players had gathered. "I think they're bringing some food soon too."
"This is a nice place," Lucy said from beside him. "I'm impressed."
Ryan finally had a moment to actually take in Lucy. She was wearing a short purple dress that showed just enough cleavage but not too much. That wasn't a bad thing necessarily. It would just give him more time to anticipate taking that thing off of her later tonight. And he was going to take it off of her later tonight. It was his birthday and he was going to party. Live it up. That meant drinking and dancing and partying with his friends. And at the end of the night, it meant taking Lucy back home with him.
He leaned down to get closer to her again. "You smell delicious."
She had a small smile teasing her lips. "Thank you," she said quietly.
Ryan's arm went around her waist to pull her just a little bit closer, and he could feel her give in to his touch. "You look delicious too," he murmured.
Her smile got a little bigger, but she still hadn't faced him. It was probably for the best. If she turned to him, if she gave him one look that said "I want to be here," or, even better, "I want you," he would've grabbed Lucy's hand and dragged her away, searching this place top to bottom for a somewhat secluded spot so he could have his way with her.
Instead, she cleared her throat and pulled away slightly, trying to get just a little distance between them.
"So, drinks!" She finally turned to him and gave him a saccharine smile. "Where can I get one?"
He put his hand on the small of her back and led her over to the group. Yeah, it was better this way — for now. He couldn't promise that he would keep his hands to himself later.
Ryan started to introduce her around but without getting into details. There was no "This is the woman I slept with up north this summer," or "This is the woman I've been screwing." And definitely not "This is the woman I'm dating." That was way too much for what they had going on between them — at least for now. Not that he didn't want that, because seeing her here at his party, he could want that. Very much.
Instead, it was "This is Sydney's friend, Lucy." Simple and easy.
The guys all welcomed her. Some of the players' girlfriends started to group together on the benches and she moved over there with Sydney. It was fine and didn't bother him at all. She was smiling and making jokes. She was having a good time. She looked happy and that made Ryan happy.
He tried not to let it bother him that she had moved away from him. To be fair, there were a lot of people there. Even Alex Orlov made it after finally getting back in the city from his summer trip home to Russia. As the night wore on, Ryan was talking to more players, catching up with people he hadn't seen all summer, laughing about the past few days at the training camp some of them had decided to participate in. Logan started riding his ass about his skating.
"I don't know what happened to McCloud in the offseason, but this idiot can't skate backward anymore," Logan said. "And he's a defenseman! That's his job!"
"I can still skate backward, hoser," Ryan replied in a thick Canadian accent.
Yep, he was definitely having a good time. When he brought out the Canadian insults and poured on the Canadian accent, it was either because he was with his parents or he was drinking.
But perfectly buzzed wasn't going to cut it when they were on a rooftop bar with good drinks and perfect weather and a beautiful woman that he was going to have amazing sex with tonight. He turned to see Lucy still sitting over with Sydney and some other women. At that moment, she turned and caught his eye, giving him a warm smile as she put her glass to her lips. He smiled back and gave her a little wave.
"What are you doing?"
Logan had apparently snuck up next to him and saw Ryan's little display.
"Nothing!" he stammered. "Nothing. Just saying hi."
"Hi?" Logan asked.
"Yeah, just a little 'Hello,' from across the room to say thanks for coming."
Logan gave him a skeptical look. "You waved your hand around like you were bringing in a plane."
He started wildly waving his hand as if he was the ground crew on some road trip directing their plane into another hockey town.
"I did not wave like that," Ryan said. "Take off, eh."
Logan shook his head. "You're sounding really Canadian. Having a good time I take it?"
