Ryker (Cold Fury Hockey 4)

"I'm stuffed," Gray groans as she rubs her hand over her stomach. I give a glance at what remains of the pizza that she and I just killed and would have to agree with her.

We're lying on the couch, our heads on opposite sides, our legs stretched out beside each other. I am a contented and wellsated man. When Gray arrived with a bottle of wine and a pizza, I would have attacked her but for the glass bottle in her hand. The pizza was expendable, but good wine wasn't.

Ultimately, it didn't matter, because Gray just set them both on the floor, took my hand, and led me into my bedroom, where she proceeded to show me just how much she loved the flowers I sent her. After, we put on the bare minimum of clothes--me just my black boxer briefs, Gray one of my T-shirts and her panties--and we ate cold pizza and drank wine from the bottle.

"So where did Hensley take the girls this weekend?" she asks me as she wiggles her bottom to get more comfortable on the couch.

"To Charlotte. She has a friend there with kids about Ruby's and Violet's ages and they're all going to go to Great Wolf Lodge."

"I bet Ruby has been going stir crazy, right?"

"You have no idea," I tell her with a chuckle. "But I have to admit, it's been nice having Hensley help out. While Kate is always more than glad to pitch in, a lot of times the girls have to go to her house, so this is just more convenient."

"Has she had any more sleepovers here?" Gray asks, and although she's trying to sound casual, I know she doesn't like the concept of it. I had told Gray all about my conversation with Hensley that night she came down in my T-shirt and made a move on me. Just as I told her I let Hensley stay the night.

"No more sleepovers," I tell her, and to Hensley's credit she hasn't asked again or made any awkward advances. "She found a house that she likes and she's going to rent for a while. I think she plans on moving her stuff down from Boston next week."

But while Hensley hasn't been forward with me, she has started insinuating her life back into mine. Tiny things that place us together in a parenting role. Like picking the girls up from school and bringing them home, then making dinner so it's ready when I get home and inviting herself to stay and eat.

She even took the girls to one of the games this past week, sat front row right behind the end where I defend twice, and proudly sported a new Cold Fury Evans jersey. She's clearly biding her time and hoping that things will naturally progress between us.

Of course, she has no clue about Gray or my feelings toward her, and maybe I should just tell her I'm seeing someone so that she's dissuaded. Food for thought.

I grab one of Gray's ankles and lift her leg, pulling her foot closer to me. Her nails are painted a deep purple.

"You have the cutest toes," I tell her as I start massaging her foot.

She groans loudly and sinks further down into the couch. "Oh, yeah baby. That's the ticket."

I grin at her as I dig my thumbs into her arch, pushing back to her heel. "So how was work today, dear?"

Gray snickers as I release her foot, and she not so daintily pushes her other foot into my hands. "We worked out our goals for the trade deadline. It was a good meeting all around."

"I assume you're not trading me," I say jokingly.

"Definitely not trading you," she purrs. "But we are going to release Amedee."

I whistle low and shake my head. "He is going to be one pissed-off puppy."

"Alex was there...we wanted his take on the three we had marked. He advised me not to be alone when I gave Claude the news."

"Gray." I say her name seriously so she knows I'm not joking anymore. "I think the guy is unbalanced. He's not going to be gentlemanly about this, so you absolutely can't do it alone, okay?"

"I'm not," she assures me with a soothing voice. "Promise."

I relax marginally and skim my hands along her calves, which rest near my left hip. Her fingers play with the hairs on my legs that lie beside her own left hip. My T-shirt has hiked up and I can see the royal blue silk of her panties, and if I weren't so stuffed full of pizza and so content to just lie here like this with Gray, I'd put my mouth right there.

"Have you given any thought to what you want to do at the end of this season?" Gray asks me out of the blue. My contract with the Cold Fury expires then.

"Some," I admit to her. "I guess a lot of that depends on how I finish this season, right?"

"That's true," she says, although somewhat distractedly. "If you keep going the way you are, you know I'll want to renew you."

"Physically, I think I have a few more years left in me. But I'm not going to lie...I'm set financially. I don't need to play anymore. I could potentially retire and look at maybe getting into coaching or maybe even broadcasting."

Gray stares at her fingers as they play along my shin. She seems lost in deep thought, but then she's looking back at me with clear green eyes. "If you retired, you and I would be free to see each other."

"Yes, we would," I agree with her gently.

"It sucks, you know. This whole situation with us. And the pisser is that as a GM I really want you on this team. My competitiveness and the desire to win means I really want you on this team. But as a woman, as someone who sometimes very much wants to put her needs above this team's, I think you and I could have something really special if we could be together."

I lean forward and take Gray's hands. I pull on her until she sits up. I pull harder until she goes to her knees, and then I tug some more until she's crawling up to straddle me.

When she's sitting on me, pressed warmly against me, I place my hands on her thighs and give a slight squeeze. "I've been thinking about us, and while the way we have to keep this secret is less than optimal, I don't think it's going to be forever. I think this is just something we wait out. We don't know what's going to happen at the end of the season, or even the year after that. Hell, I could get injured badly next week and have to retire, and then we'd be free to see each other publicly."

"Don't even say that," Gray mutters.

"The point being, we've got time. Let's let it ride and know that our situation right now is nothing more than a temporary hurdle."

She tilts her head to the side and drops her gaze to my hands, where she laces her fingers with mine. "I know...and you're right...it's just, this is all new to me and I'm finding it's exciting and wondrous and I want to experience everything. The unfairness of it...that I can't have a normal relationship experience gets to me. It makes me crazy."

"If we could be normal, what would be one of the things you'd want to do?" I ask her curiously.

Her eyes raise up to meet mine. "A date. I'd like to go out on a simple date. Dinner, movies, a walk in the park. I would want to go out in public, and have you hol

d my hand and kiss me, and the only concern I'd have of what others think is if other women were insanely jealous of me, and I would love that so much."

I chuckle and my heart swells for this woman who wants something so simple. Something most women her age have already experienced in spades. Gray Brannon may have all kinds of experience in the sack, but when it comes to something as elementary as a date, she's like a high school girl going to her first prom.

"You know what I'd want to do if we didn't have to hide what we have?" I ask her.

She nods enthusiastically with an impatient twinkle in her eyes.

"I'd have you over for dinner to spend time with me and the girls. I'd want you to get to know Ruby and Violet and I want them to get to know you."

Her eyes immediately cloud over as she says bitterly, "I'm not good with kids."

"Are you kidding me?" I chastise her with a rough squeeze to her hands so she understands me. "You were great with them when you came over a few weeks ago to see Ruby after her surgery. You're a natural at talking to them."

She doesn't want to believe me but I see a flicker of hope within. "Really?"

"Yeah," I assure her. "They're just people. Little people, but all you have to do is just talk to them. It's not rocket science."

"It would be cool if we could take them to an amusement park or maybe the zoo. The North Carolina Zoo has an amazing arachnid exhibit that Ruby would love," Gray says with a leer. She knows my irrational fear of spiders and thankfully still thinks I'm sexy despite it. "That would be low pressure for all of us."

"Or to the beach," I offer, while trying to repress a shudder over the thought of being in a room filled with hundreds of spiders. "In just a few hours and we could have the girls playing in the sand and surf."

"Or we could take them over to my dad's house. His pool is amazing," she says with excitement, thankfully letting the idea of the arachnid house go.

"We'd have to have the proverbial 'take me to meet your dad dinner' first," I add.

"You've already met my dad."

"As a player, not as your boyfriend," I correct.

She giggles then and leans back, letting my hands secure her from falling. "We have a lot of stuff to do once we come out of the closet."

"You know," I say hesitantly. "Maybe we can do some of those things now."