still allowed to visit the shops?” I asked from where I stood.
“If they’re open, sure.” The guy seemed confused as to why I’d want to spend any time here if I couldn’t skate, but that was for me to worry about, not him.
I turned to Rory and asked, “Want to grab a drink?”
Rory agreed, but his gaze was on the rink. The men on the ice were moving and bodychecking each other, the slap of the hockey puck on the wood sticks ringing in the air, along with the taunts they were throwing at each other. Typical meatheads.
The two of us walked over to Après Ski and sat down, the waitress coming over and taking our order almost immediately, since there weren’t many people around. When we got our drinks and paid, I could see that Rory was curious about the hockey team. I mean, he’d barely looked my way, and I was cute as hell in this outfit.
“Want to go over and watch?” I asked.
“Would you mind?” He turned and looked at me, waiting for my response, but I felt like if I said yes, I would just be ruining our date so I shook my head.
“Not at all.”
Before the words had even finished leaving my mouth, he was moving, and the two of us went and sat over on the bleachers. We were a few rows up so we could see what was going on better. It actually was entertaining to hear them trying to shit talk each other and rile each other up. No one could throw insults, especially good-natured ones, like male athletes, at least not that I’d heard. The longer we sat, the more looks we were getting.
As we watched, I noticed one of the players started to make his way over to us. Once he was close enough, he called out in a jovial voice, “You guys really shouldn’t be watching practice. Makes us nervous.”
“Sorry, I just wanted to see what was going on,” I called back. “I just moved here. Didn’t realize there was a hockey team.”
“We’re the supe team, Silver Springs Blades.” The guy’s eyes were intense as he stared at me. They were such a dark brown, they looked like black pits that I could fall into if I stared long enough. That same feeling I had with Rory and Seren came over me. If I hadn’t met Samson earlier, then I really would think it was all supe men that did this to me and promptly run as far and fast as possible. “I’m Niklaus.”
“I’m Rory and this is Neve.” He pointed at each of us respectively.
Niklaus barely glanced at Rory though, his gaze devouring me instead. A hot flush ran through my body, and I felt myself clench with need. Too many hot guys giving me all the attention meant my lady bits wanted some company. “Nice to meet you, Neve, Rory.”
“Do you guys play soon?” Rory asked.
“We have a game tomorrow night, actually. It would be great to see you there,” he replied, looking at me for the last part.
Was he hitting on me while I was on a date?
“Are you free tomorrow?” I asked Rory.
A smile curled his lips as he said, “Just so happens I am.”
“Good,” I replied to Rory before turning to Niklaus and asking, “Would you mind if I bring a friend who is a reporter to cover the game?”
“Not at all. I’m sure the team members would be happy to be interviewed as well, if he or she needs extra content.”
“Thank you, that would be great.” I had no idea if it would be great or not, or if Seren would even want to cover the game, but it did give me an idea of something that might help perk the paper up a bit.
8
Neve
We’d been watching the hockey practice for so long that my butt had gone numb and I was shivering. Rory’s eyes had been lit up like a kid’s on Christmas for the last half hour or so while the team practiced. I had been interested at first, when I realized that they were able to use their abilities during the game, but slowly, my eyes had started to glaze over and I was becoming more interested in going home and researching my idea.
Finally, even though I didn’t want to, I said, “I think I’m going to head back to the apartment.” A small part of me whispered that the apartment was already like home and I should just accept