Offside (The Barker Triplets 1)

“Why?” Bobbi asked, clearly puzzled.

“Because I wanted him.” Something twisted inside Billie and it was nearly a full minute before she could continue. “Because I was in love with him.”

“But he didn’t even know you existed! He was all about Betty and her trashy reputation.”

The pain intensified. “I know.”

“What about now? Billie, you can’t be in love with him. I mean, can you?’

“I don’t know.”

[i]Liar[i]. Had she ever stopped loving him? Thinking about him? Hadn’t she compared every single boyfriend she’d ever had to Logan Forest? Hadn’t she found every one of them wanting?

For a moment there was silence and then Bobbi spoke. “And you haven’t told him yet.”

Billie shook her head, ashamed. “No.”

“Are you going to?”

“I have to, I just…I don’t know how he’s going to react.” She thought again of how disappointed and hurt he had been when he’d shown up at their house the next day looking for Betty. Of how she had lied to his face and sent him on his way.

“Doesn’t it make you wonder?” her sister asked carefully.

“Wonder what?”

“Look I know it happened a long time ago, but still,” Bobbi looked as if she thought Billie was crazy. “Doesn’t it make you wonder if he’s thinking of Betty when he’s with you?”

Bingo. That was the million dollar question. But it was one Billie didn’t know if she wanted an answer to.

Chapter Twenty-three

Three weeks later, on a Monday morning, Billie was skating laps around the arena by herself. It was Logan’s last official coaching session, but he’d left for the airport sometime the night before and would be on the west coast by now. She wouldn’t see him until Friday, possibly Saturday and maybe that was a good thing. She’d spent every available minute that she could with him—under the cover of darkness of course—but still, she shouldn’t get so used to being with him.

It’s not as if they’d ever discussed the future and he seemed more than happy to keep things low key and secret. It shouldn’t annoy her since it was her idea, but still, it would have been nice to know he wanted more than just Shane to know they were together.

Though, was having lots of really, hot and spicy sex considered ‘together’?

Billie pushed those thoughts away and concentrated on the mechanics of using both her inside and outside edges as she burned off a ton of restless energy. She flew along the circles in the end zone. First forward and then twice backwards, carrying a puck and shooting at the net as she finished her cycle. Even though Logan was away she’d decided to take advantage of the donated ice time. Though if he was home, she could think of a lot of different ways to burn energy.

Her cheeks heated. A [i]lot[i] of different ways.

She’d spent a quiet night with her father and Herschel and it had been nice. There was no leaving early or sneaking out. Bobbi had attended a wedding shower for one of her co-workers—it must have been one hell of a shower because her sister hadn’t come home until after Billie had gone to bed.

And that would be in her own bed—something she hadn’t done in over three weeks and something she’d be doing for the next few days. Sure, Cosmo probably had a ton of articles on why it was a good idea to be away from Logan for a little while. They’d been burning hot and fast ever since that first night.

But it was such a [i]good[i] hot and fast that she was kind of annoyed, which was most likely the reason she’d had such a crappy sleep in the first place.

She flew over the blue line, shooting pucks at the net on the other end of the rink and tried to clear her mind, but it was so hard. She hadn’t seen Logan since Sunday morning when he’d woken her with a slow, lingering kiss. The kind of kiss that curls your toes and makes your stomach tremble.

God, she loved watching him while they were having sex. Everything he felt was reflect

ed in his eyes. He had treated her to a morning of incredible, steaming hot sex and they hadn’t surfaced until nearly noon. And that was only because Weird was hungry and wouldn’t leave them alone. Not surprising since the damn cat had perched on the end of the bed and refused to leave for hours.

What the hell could the damn cat see out of one eye anyway?

“Hey, Billie!”

She rounded the far end of the rink and waved to Kendall and several of her teammates. They practiced every Monday morning at six as well, and she was surprised to see them milling about the player’s bench. They should be doing laps on the other pad.