The little puppy wiggled in her arms, trying to lick her face as she laughed. “You got me a puppy. Two puppies!”
“She said yes!” the announcer shouted over the loudspeaker.
“Leave it to us to do everything backwards,” he joked.
He gave her a soft kiss as they got a standing ovation.
“You mean everyone doesn’t get married, then live together, then get engaged?”
He kissed her again, this one a little longer and still too PG for her tastes but understandable, given the kids in the stands.
They waved to the crowd. Alex turned off the mic as everyone stood and started to leave the arena.
“I love you,” he said again.
“I love you too.” She was thrilled to finally be able to freely say what she felt. “I was so afraid I’d scared you off.”
“You didn’t. I swear. I’ve never told a woman I love her before you, before now.”
“Pretty gutsy saying it for the first time in front of God and everybody. What if I’d said no?”
He rolled his eyes—God, she loved the cocky bastard—as if she’d just said the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.
“Unfortunately, we still have to do the gala thing, but the owner said we could cut out early to start our honeymoon.”
“Didn’t we already sort of have a honeymoon?”
“That wasn’t nearly long enough.” He pointed down at his skates. “Mind hanging out with Colm for a few minutes? I’ll meet you outside the locker room as soon as I’ve changed, and we’ll head to the hotel together.”
“Okay.”
Alex skated back to the bench while she walked back down the red carpet with Billy, struggling to believe what had just happened.
That disbelief lasted less than sixty seconds because there were tons of people waiting at the other end of the tunnel, offering their congratulations. Colm teased her, promising he could still draw up the annulment papers as soon as she came to her senses.
Alex had mentioned his lawyer was also a good friend and she could see why. The guy had the same smart-ass sense of humor and she knew in an instant she and Colm were going to be good friends too.
They were nearly to the locker room when a woman approached them, stepping directly in front of her.
For a second, Charley thought she was another fan, stopping to congratulate her.
It took only a second more before she realized she wasn’t a fan and she wasn’t happy.
“He seriously plans to marry you?” she asked, disgust rife in her tone as she looked Charley up and down and clearly found her lacking.
“Excuse me,” Colm said, “but who the hell are you and where do you get off talking to her like that?”
So Colm didn’t know her.
And Alex hadn’t recognized her name, which confirmed Jeanine had somehow staged that photo with him earlier in the week.
“It’s okay, Colm. Actually, we’re already married. And we’re deliriously happy. So step off, sister, before I pull out those cheap-ass hair extensions.”
Charley skirted around the blonde as Colm laughed. “Damn. Alex said there was no one he’d want in his corner more than you. I can see what he means.”
“Who do you think taught him how to fight?” she joked.
“Oh, I’m going to give him serious shit about that, even though Alex already confessed it was better to have you at his back rather than receiving your punch.”
Charley rolled her eyes. “I didn’t fight that much on the rink.” Then she admitted, “Though now that I think about it, it was mainly because none of the guys would hit back.”
Colm laughed louder. “By the way, who was that woman?”
While they waited for Alex, Charley handed Billy over to Colm and pulled up the photo on her cell phone.
Colm whistled and shook his head. “Alex will go ballistic when he sees that. Called her the barracuda after that incident the other night with the paparazzi. He had a feeling she was going to cause him some trouble.”
Alex must have taken the quickest shower in history because he was out of the locker room in record time, with Bonnie in his arms. Colm handed Billy back to her and they said their goodbyes before walking together to the limousine.
“You realize you’ve gotten us both in trouble now. You just outted us to our mothers.”
He laughed as they climbed into the back of the car. He looked at the driver. “Take the scenic route back to the hotel.”
The driver grinned and nodded.
Once they were inside, they set the puppies free. Both of them hopped up on the long couch along the side of the limo, perching their paws on the window sill to look out.
Alex pulled her toward him until they faced each other, with her straddling his thighs. She glanced over her shoulder, making sure the blackout screen between them and the driver was closed and checking on the dogs one more time. Their tails were wagging as they watched the scenery fly by outside.
“I called my mother this afternoon before the game. Your mom was there. They were having their usual Saturday lemonade.” Alex air-quoted the word lemonade, which basically mean their moms were drinking margaritas.
“What did you tell them?”
“Pretty much what I said back there. That we got drunk, eloped, and I was hoping to convince you to stay married to me.”
Charley narrowed her eyes. “So what you’re really saying is you’d already stacked the deck against me before that proposal because you knew our mothers would gang up on me if I said no.”
He laughed. “I hadn’t considered that, but now that you mention it, it was a pretty brilliant move on my part. By the way, you were right. Your mom is chomping at the bit for grandkids.”
“Dammit. There will be no stopping her now.”
“Or me,” he said, tugging her shirt over her head. “Nice jersey.”
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, perfectly aware as she pulled his shirt off as well.
“Making babies.”
She laughed. “Yeah, well, I’m still on birth control, so that’s probably not going to happen.”
He unfastened her jeans, lifting her so that together, they could push the denim and her panties off.
She’d never been naked in a limo.
“Fine. We’ll practice making babies. And you’re going off the pill.”
“Wanna rephrase that in a much less-caveman way?”
“Please have babies with me, Charley. With my stunning good looks and your athleticism, our kids would be unstoppable.”
She laughed, but it was short-lived when he shrugged his jeans to his knees, gripped her waist, and lowered her onto his thick cock.
“God,” she whispered.
It was a tight, but wonderful, fit.
She lifted up and down, the two of them finding their rhythm quickly. However, after almost a week apart, neither of them was in the right state of mind to take things slowly, to savor the moment.
Charley wondered if they’d ever overcome this need to take each other with this passionate, impatient intensity.
She hoped not.
She came first, her orgasm striking like lightning. She shuddered and clung to his shoulders as she rode it out.
Alex held her, his lips and tongue kissing her shoulder, her neck, her cheek.