Page 32 of Here Be Dragons
"Uh..." He thought about his current attire, which was hockey pants, skates, and no shirt. "Do I need to get dressed?"
The coach just shrugged and nodded down the hallway towards his office before walking off.
Well, that wasn't a no. Shane tossed the towel in his locker and headed for the coach's office in his skates. There were times when Shane would wonder how a woman could balance herself on a pair of skinny high heels, and then he would remember just how well he was able to walk around in hockey skates with guards on the blades. This was second nature to him. He could look smooth in skates on dry land.
Except he wasn't very smooth as he stepped into the office and saw her.
"This woman said she's some lawyer with the owners."
The coach acted like he didn't even know she was there and he didn't care who she was anyway. But Shane cared, probably more than he should.
It was Ava.
He watched as her eyes wandered his body and landed on his bare chest. No one would've noticed the little hitch in her chest as she held her breath. No one but Shane. But then her eyes snapped up to his and she stood up, her high heels giving her a few more inches in height. They were the ones she was wearing when she met Shane at the hotel bar, back when he didn't know who she really was.
She gave him a professional smile. "Mr. Taylor."
"Ms. Foster."
She stuck out her hand for a professional handshake and he instinctively took a step back away from her, watching the smile falter a little bit on her face.
"Sorry." He put his hands up in mock surrender. "I've been wearing hockey gloves for the past sixty minutes. I doubt you want to touch me."
Shane didn't mean to say it like that, he really didn't, and he had to give Ava credit for the small smile on her lips that she tried to hide. But he saw it. He knew she was thinking about one of their nights together in the Hamptons.
"Taylor, I'm pretty sure half the women in Cleveland would disagree with you," coach said gruffly. "Ms. Foster, please don't let the shirtless hockey facade fool you. He's not worth it."
"Of course."
Ava's tone was serious and professional and it made Shane thankful he was at least still wearing hockey pants and his jock, although it was also making things more uncomfortable being so confined.
"Anyway, you need to sign some paperwork for the league, and since it's about the players' union and whatever, I can't be here." The coach grabbed some papers off his desk and started to head out of his office. "Stay as long as you need, Ms. Foster."
She smiled and Shane could see his coach's cool exterior crack just a little bit. "I appreciate your help," she told him.
The coach smiled at her, like an actual real smile, and walked out the door.
The sound of it clicking shut suddenly seemed to flip a switch in his brain. Shane realized he was now in this little room with no windows with Ava Foster -- alone.
He remembered how he left things with Ava. It was a fun few weeks in the Hamptons and that was it. Except was that really all it was? Since he returned to Cleveland, he hadn't been with another woman. He had plenty of opportunities for sure. There was the ice girl he had his eye on for a while, but when he saw her skate by during the season opener, he felt nothing. And there was a new bartender at the team's local place who had hit on him, but he just wasn't in the mood.
It was all because of Ava, the woman who was looking at him right now with a sly smile on her face. It was the smile she gave him a few times when they were in his hotel room together, alone, before she had her way with him again. And again. And again. He missed that smile.
"So do you attend all your business meetings without a shirt on?"
"I didn't know I was walking into a business meeting."
Ava sat down on a chair in the coach's office, crossing her legs to flash the red bottom of those high heels that made him weak. She leaned over to pull out some papers from a briefcase next to her, and Shane couldn't help but take a peek at her cleavage. He remembered how soft that skin was against his lips.
But now the whole way she was holding herself changed. Gone was the little smile and the light in her eyes. It was all business now. Shane knew that look. He saw it every time she would start talking about business and laws and contracts. She wasn't kidding when she said this was a business meeting, was it? Shane could feel a disappointing ache in his chest. His emotions were all over the place since he walked in here but now they were just settling in with the disappointment.
Shane took a breath and sat down in the chair next to Ava, watching her slender soft fingers shuffle some paperwork in front of her.
"So the league wants you to sign off on some paperwork just to finalize the new contract between the owners and the players." She pulled out some pages with red arrows on them pointing to blank lines. "You just need to sign these and I'll file them with the league office."
She handed him a pen but instead of grabbing it, he reached for her hand and she shivered at his touch. Perhaps he wasn't the only one who missed them being together. Would it be wrong for him to hope that she wanted something too? That she still wanted him as much as he wanted her?
"Ava."
