Cannon (Carolina Reapers 5)

Once the love-fest retreated back to a drink-fest, we drank and laughed and swapped stories for an hour—or was it two? Delaney was as new to the hockey love as I was, so we both hung on the words of veterans like Faith, Harper, and Langley. In the end, though, it all came down to love. Pure, unfiltered, complicated, chaotic, beautiful love.

And something pulsed in my heart, deep in a locked box I wouldn’t dare touch. Something I understood with a clarity that shouldn’t be possible after this many drinks. I ignored the sensation and focused on the fun—the whole reason for this night in the first place.

Slowly, Reaper men filed into Scythe to collect their inebriated wives, fiancées, or girlfriends, but not before having a drink at their table across the way. Mine, of course, had yet to show.

“Come on!” Harper teased. “You have to tell us.”

I laughed so hard my sides split.

“Yes, we’ve told you,” Faith chimed in.

“Is he truly terrifying in every aspect?” Harper asked again, waggling her eyebrows. “Or is it a good sort of terror?”

I shook my head. “He’s never scared me.”

Another round of awws.

I motioned to Langley. “I mean her’s on the other hand…”

Langley rolled her eyes. “Axel is nothing but a giant teddy bear.”

“Giant being the optimum word,” I teased.

“Can’t argue that,” Langley said, raising her glass.

“I think it’s safe to say all our men are large and terrifying in their own way,” Delaney said. “I mean, they’re like sharks on the ice for god’s sake. Watching them? And the fights sometimes?” She shuddered.

I swallowed hard, knowing my husband was the most frequent of the fighters—that short fuse of his was twice as short on the ice. Something I was closer to understanding because of the surprise visit by that vile man who was his biological father, but I didn’t have the full picture yet.

My heart expanded and broke at the same time remembering the shower—his explanation of some of the scars and the tattoos that covered them up. He’d let me in a little, but not all the way.

I have time.

But not much. The cold fact of that made something heavy sink on my chest. I wanted to know Cannon, inside and out. It went beyond the insatiable craving, the primal need—I wanted to uncover what he kept hidden in that soul that made him feel so damn unworthy all the time. I wanted to know him fully, so I could show him how incredible he was and have him actually believe it.

“You know what?” I scooted off my barstool, standing—if not a bit wobbly on my pumps—as I raised my last shot. “I’m so damn lucky!” I said, slightly louder than necessary. “To have you,” I said, eyeing the women surrounding me. “And to have Cannon.” I closed my eyes, my smile unstoppable as I breathed deep. “He’s the best man I’ve ever known. And I truly don’t know what I did to deserve him.” I opened my eyes, which were covered in water. “Thank you, Reapers!” I tossed back the shot, the sweet liquor burning all the way down. The girls mimicked my last statement and did the same with their drinks.

“Now look who’s making a scene.” Cannon’s voice vibrated along my skin, his lips at my ear, the heat of his body at my back.

I spun to face him and tilted slightly, but Cannon steadied me with a gentle hand on my hip.

“You’re here,” I said, my words slightly slurred. Then I remembered my speech and cringed. “How long have you been here?”

The smile he reserved for me and me alone played along his lips. “Long enough to know you’re wasted.”

I stomped my pump against the hardwood floor. “I am no such thing!” I grinned. “Persephone VanDoren doesn’t get wasted,” I said. “I’m merely, slightly inebriated.”

“Mmmhmm,” Cannon said, placing his other hand on my hip.

“Take me home?” I asked, my head spinning.

Cannon nodded, waving to Connell and Logan and Lukas and Axel, who had joined their girls at the bar.

I said my goodbyes and thankyous and allowed Cannon to guide me out of the bar, only to pause when the cool summer night air hit me. I breathed deep, glancing up at the clear night sky. “Beautiful,” I sighed.

“Yes,” Cannon agreed.

I glanced at him, only to find his eyes solely on me. I smiled at him, then crooked my finger. “Come here.”

He eyed me, but came closer.

“Closer,” I said, and he bent until I could reach his neck. I gauged his reaction, but for once, that wall was gone, and nothing but admiration and respect laid in those dark eyes.

So I pressed my lips against his, gently at first, then with more hunger as he snaked his arms around my back, holding me to him.

“Princess,” he growled between my lips.