Ava lied to me. I know she did.
I’ve already put enough pieces together to know that her breakup with David was not a mutual decision. Nor was it for whatever bullshit reason she tried to sell me yesterday. He did something to her, and I intend to find out what—by whatever means necessary.
Looking around the locker room, I finally spot the guy I’ve been looking for since practice ended.
“Remer, come here for a second, would you, buddy?”
His head snaps up in my direction and nods as he swaggers over to me. I realize just how short he is the closer he gets.
“Hey, Hutton. You need something?”
I want nothing more than to knock the helpless grin right off of his fucking face.
“Yeah, actually, Coach needs us to grab some shit from the storage room,” I lie.
“Oh yeah, sure,” he nods and slaps a hand against my shoulder.
Self-restraint is not one of my specialties, and boy do I have to force myself not to rip his slimy hand clean from his arm.
I follow him to the storage room, a couple paces behind him. He twists the doorknob and holds the door open for me. He stares at the shelves, waiting for me to tell him what Coach wanted from the room. I shut the door behind me and cross my arms against my chest. When I turn to him, his calm expression is replaced by one of confusion. He moves a few steps away from me and squares his shoulders. I do the same, making our height difference evident to him.
“Clearly, Coach doesn’t need anything. But I, on the other hand, do.”
He raises his eyebrows, eyeing the closed door. “And what is it that you need, Oakley?”
“I want you to tell me what you did to make Matt and Adam hate you so much.” My words come out strong and demanding.
“Those two buffoons? I have no idea,” he mutters with a shrug. “Matt doesn’t know his head from his ass, so no. I have no idea.”
I clench my fists so hard that my nails dig into my palm. “And Adam?”
A glimpse of a dark, well-hidden emotion flashes across his face as he swallows visibly and looks away from me.
“I get what’s happening here. I saw Ava’s little sign for you at our last game. She’s beautiful, isn’t she? Too bad she’s a damn prude.” His lips curl into a smirk.
I force myself to stay still in an attempt to stop myself from throwing him against a wall and beating the shit out of him. Nobody can talk about Ava like that.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about.” I play dumb, trying to bait
him.
“Oh, you know. Green eyes. Long, brown hair. Phenomenal ass,”
David adds with a wicked grin.
Any and all self-control disappears as soon as the words leave his lips. Within seconds my arm winds back, and my fist crashes against his nose. A loud crunch rings in my ears.
“You prick,” I snarl and throw another punch. This time I’m making contact with his jaw. He stumbles backwards and crashes into the shelves behind him, sending buckets of hockey pucks crashing to the floor. As he tries to regain his balance, I turn to sneak a glance at the door. It’s still closed, keeping us hidden for now.
I turn my attention back to David a second too late. He catches me off guard and his fist connects with my face. I can feel the skin above my eyebrow bust open. Warm, crimson blood drips steadily.
“You have a strong will, buddy. Don’t let her take that from you like she did to me,” he sneers. I launch myself at him again. All conscious thoughts dissipate as we hurtle towards the ground. I use all of my body weight to pin him to the ground. I pull my arm back to throw another punch and—
“Oakley.” I hear, even over the pounding of my heart and the strong ringing in my ears.
“I’ll find out what you did, Remer,” I spit through clenched teeth as strong arms wrap around my waist.
“Oakley! Oakley, that’s enough!” Matt pulls me off of David with a strength I didn’t know he possessed.
“You’ll understand soon enough. She’ll suck the life out of you,” David spits.
Adam makes his broody self known to us as he roughly yanks David away from me, effectively shutting him up.
“Fucking hell Oakley! What the fuck were you thinking? You’ll be lucky not to be cut from the team!” Matt snaps.
“He deserved it,” I reply shortly as a sudden and heavy exhaustion comes over me. I unclench my fists and the pain in my hands worsens. I look down to examine the damage. The all-too-familiar cuts now seep a metallic, red liquid. I groan and let out a hiss of pain.
“Do you not seriously think I’ve wanted to do that to him since the day I found out what he did? Ava is going to kill you,” he sighs and runs a shaking hand through his hair.
She’s going to be pissed.
 |
An hour later and I’m finally blood-free.
A few cuts on my knuckles had to be stitched up, along with the split skin above my eyebrow. This meant we had to go to the team medic, who was luckily still there, and listen to her scold me like a damn child.
Matt didn’t tell me where the guys took David, just that they were taking care of it. As far as I know, Coach isn’t going to find out the fight took place at the rink. I don’t know what he’s going to be told, and I could honestly care less.
As of right now, I’m sitting in Matt’s truck listening to him reprimand me. He refused to let me drive myself home and promised to return my vehicle to me by tomorrow.
“Hey, man. Thank you. For everything today,” I mumble when we pull up in front of my apartment.
He reaches over and slaps my shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. You’re one of us now, and we take care of each other around here.” I smile gratefully, grab my duffle from the backseat and head outside.
Once I reach the door to my apartment, I go to unlock it—only to realize that it’s already unlocked. I furrow my brows and shake my head in bemusement.
I push the door open and am immediately attacked by a storm of brown hair. Ava jumps and wraps her legs around my waist. She twines her arms around my neck, and plants kisses on my cheeks.
“Oh my God! Are you okay? Morgan called and said Matt told her you were in a fight. He said you were with a medic. What happened?” It all comes out in a jumbled mess, but I catch enough of it to answer her questions. I pull away from her and her eyes widen in shock as she examines the nasty marks and bruises on my face.
“It’s not as bad as it looks. You should see the other guy,” I joke.
She threw her arms up in exasperation. “This is not funny. You could have gotten seriously hurt. Who did you fight?”
Shit. Morgan didn’t tell her.
“Promise me you won’t get mad and leave.” I’m sure desperation is written all over my face but I don’t care. I don’t want her to storm out, not after the progress that we’ve made.
She nods her head, reluctantly. “I promise.”
“I just wanted to talk to him,” I begin, watching her cautiously. “David took it upon himself to start the fight.”
She closes her eyes and sighs as if in pain. “Can’t say I’m surprised.” “What were you even doing with him in the first place? He’s a
prick,” I scoff and clench my jaw.
“Let me guess; he baited you? Talked badly about me?”
I nod and look away. “Apparently, you’re going to suck the life out of me like you did to him.”
“Classy. Fucking classy,” she snarls and I look at her in surprise. “I don’t suppose he happened to mention the three other girls he was sleeping with while I was sucking the life out of him, did he?”
“What?” My mouth falls open as she lets out a cold, mirthless laugh. “Of course not.” She turns away and leans over the kitchen island. “What happened, Ava?” I press and lean over the opposite side of
the island to look her in the eye. “Let me in.”
“Three years of commitment means nothing to a guy like David. Not when you’re not putting out for him,” Ava says bitterly.
“He cheated on you because you weren’t having sex with him?” I force out the question and bite my tongue to stop myself from letting my anger speak.
“Among other things,” she shrugs.
“Well, now I wish I would have nailed a kick to his tiny dick before Matt showed up.”
“You didn’t have to hit him, you know? David is nothing more than an awful memory to me now.”
Shrugging, I give her a small smile. “It was worth it. Trust me.”
She moves around the counter to wrap an arm around my waist.
Leaning into me, she hides a smile. “You’re a goof.” “A hot goof, right?”
“Whatever helps you sleep better at night, baby,” she teases and rests her head on my shoulder.
“What if you help me sleep better at night?” I flirt. Her adorable giggle rings in my ears as her grip tightens on me.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what happened sooner. In all honesty, I was embarrassed. I mean, come on. Who doesn’t know they’re being cheated on with three other girls?”
“You have nothing to be sorry for, Ava. You didn’t know because you shouldn’t have had to worry about that happening in the first place,” I scoff. “I can’t change the past, but I can promise that I will never do that to you.” I let out a deep breath and tilt her head up so her eyes meet mine. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m crazy about you, Octavia Layton.”
“I’m crazy about you too, Oakley Hutton,” she whispers and stretches on her tiptoes to pull me down so I can press my lips to hers.
My arms find their way to her waist and I press her against me. I kiss her back—hard, letting her know that I want this as much as she does.
I slowly drag my non-stitched hand up her body. My fingertips brush against the material of her shirt that lies beside her left breast. She shivers, making my confidence grow. My hand finally reaches its destination, grabbing the back of her neck in my large palm and wrapping my fingers in the hair resting there. A quiet moan reverberates through the silent apartment. A jolt rushes down to the hardness building in my jeans when I realize that the noise came from Ava.
I push her back against the island, our mouths connecting at a surprisingly fast pace. I move my knee to rest in between her legs, pushing against the heat radiating there. Her hands move from my neck to the hem of my shirt, gently yanking on the material. I unlatch our lips to pull my t- shirt off and throw it across the room.
I grab under her thighs, effortlessly lifting her small frame so she can wrap them around my waist. I carry her over to the couch and gently lay her down, positioning myself over her.
I start planting wet kisses down her neck, making my way back up to claim her lips again. Her fingers trace the stiff muscles of my abdomen, and a low groan escapes from my throat. She takes her turn gliding her lips down my neck, sucking hard enough under my jaw to leave a mark. I pull back slightly, trying to get my breathing under control.
“We have to stop now,” I manage to choke out, already regretting my words.
She nods in understanding and leans up to give me a quick kiss. She drops her head back against the couch, her chest rising and falling rapidly.
“Can we watch a movie?”
“Of course. What do you want to watch?” I move off her and quickly adjust the bulge in my pants. Grabbing the remote from the coffee table, I turn on the TV.
“Surprise me,” she murmurs.
I end up picking the first movie that pops up on Netflix. I move around so she can rest her head on my chest. My eyelids droop as the opening credits begin to play, and I fall into a long, peaceful sleep.
