Anton (Chicago Blaze 1)

“You get the check when you swallow my load.” He hangs up on me.Chapter SixAntonThe first night I came back to Lucky Seven to see Mia, she was off. The night after that, I had a game. So by the time I’m able to return the third night, my anticipation is off the charts.

I swear my blood heats up as soon as I see her. She’s got her dark brown hair in a bun tonight and she’s wearing a white V-neck shirt that stands out against her caramel-colored skin.

After approaching the bar, I sit down on an empty stool to wait until she sees me. She’s drawing beer from a tap, listening for another order at the same time.

“Hey, I know you,” a female voice slurs next to me. “Petrov, right?”

“Yep.” I give her a polite nod.

She leans closer. “My ex was a huge hockey fan.”

“That’s good.” I don’t look her way this time, because I’m not taking a chance on Mia seeing me and thinking I’m hitting on her.

“You here alone?” the woman asks.

“Meeting someone.”

Mia glances over then and our eyes meet. My cock starts to stiffen and my heart races with arousal and awareness.

Almost every time I’ve seen Mia, she’s been at an event with Adam. I never allowed myself to really take her in then, to physically react the way my body craved. But this time, I give in and release my inner restraint.

I’ve got a good poker face; no one but me knows what I’m thinking and feeling but me. And when Mia walks over, my hidden longing for her intensifies.

“What’ll it be?” she asks, her bourbon-colored eyes studying me.

“Water with lemon.”

“You didn’t tell him.”

I shake my head. “And I won’t. But how do you know I didn’t?”

She looks down. “He’d…I would’ve found out.”

She can’t seem to look me in the eye again as she turns to get my water. When she returns and sets it on the bar, she says, “Thank you.”

“I need to talk to you. When are you off?”

“Late.”

I nod. “I’ll wait.”

Mia furrows her brow. “Don’t you go to bed really early?”

“Most nights.”

A couple of drunks start pounding their glasses at the end of the bar, yelling for refills. I turn their way and scowl as Mia dashes off.

If Mia’s heard I go to bed early, I wonder what else she’s heard about me. I’m known as a guy who eats clean, doesn’t drink, gets his sleep and doesn’t fuck around with women.

In major league sports, I’m an anomaly. I’ve got some married teammates who don’t fuck around on their wives, but no one’s as strict as me about sleep, diet and weights.

Some guys assume I think I’m somehow better than them, but I don’t. I just know this is what it takes to keep me in shape, especially as I get older.

Mia gives me a look every time she refills my water, and once she even tells me she’ll be going straight home after work so I might as well leave. But I stay until last call, and as people are streaming out of the bar, I tell Mia I’ll be waiting out front.

“It takes at least forty-five minutes for me to close,” she says, exasperated.

“Okay, see you in forty-five minutes.”

It’s more like thirty minutes later that she comes out the front door, locking it behind her and putting a key ring into her backpack.

“Anton, it’s not good for me to be seen with you,” she says, pulling a stocking cap onto her head and over her ears.

“You need a lift home?”

She shakes her head. “I walk.”

“In this weather? How far?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

I rub my hands together, wishing, I’d brought gloves. “You don’t need to be on your guard around me. I won’t tell Adam anything. I don’t even like the bastard.”

“That makes two of us.” She looks away.

“Are you guys divorced?”

I silently pray she’ll say yes, but she shakes her head. “I left eight months ago, but he won’t give me a divorce.”

“Fuck that, why’s it up to him?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Try me.”

She pulls off the bright blue stocking cap, unwraps an elastic band from her bun and lets her hair fall loose around her shoulders. Again, my cock hardens at the sight of her. She’s the most stunning woman I’ve ever seen. She has the exotic look of Rihanna, but there’s also something soft and sexy that’s all her own.

“Keeps we warm while I walk,” she explains.

“You don’t have to worry about that because I’m driving you.”

“Anton—”

“Mia.”

“Look, the less you know about me and Adam, the better. You guys are teammates and you have to be on his side.”

“No, I don’t.” I shove my hands in the pockets of my coat. “I can’t stand that asshole. I’d release him right now if I had the power. And I know he wasn’t good to you, so as of now, I’m on your side.”