Hooking - Kristine Allen Page 0,17

with him. “Alex, you need to leave. This is inappropriate.”

“Inappropriate? What’s inappropriate is us denying the attraction we have to each other. That night was probably the best sex I’ve ever had,” he murmured as he leaned in and inhaled deeply as he pushed his nose into my hair.

“Alex, please don’t do this,” I weakly pleaded. His proximity was doing crazy things to my heart and mind. Not to mention my body—because it vividly remembered how he’d made it sing.

“Don’t do what? Don’t want you? Impossible.” His hands had yet to touch me since shaking my hand earlier, but his breath on my ear was sending shivers of desire down my spine.

“I could lose my job,” I weakly argued, though I wasn’t 100 percent sure that was true.

“No one needs to know,” he whispered into my ear, and his hands reached out to caress my hips over my pencil skirt. I shuddered the moment he made contact. Working their magic on my body, they massaged and gripped everywhere he could reach. At that moment, I was ready to throw caution to the wind, yank my skirt up, and lie back on my desk.

Until there was a knock on the door.

I blinked and he was on the other side of my desk, sprawled in the small chair there. He dwarfed it to the point it was almost comical.

The door opened, and Katie stuck her head in. Surprise lit her eyes when she saw Alex in my office. “Alex? What are you doing here?” she asked.

He casually looked over his shoulder and gave her that disarming grin of his. “Hey, Katie! I had some ideas for the photo shoot that I thought I’d run by Sydney, since you weren’t in your office.”

“Really? That’s great!” Katie fell under his spell so easily that it almost made me want to scratch her eyes out. Which was insane, because I adored her and I’d never been a jealous person before. Especially considering Alex was a guy I wasn’t in a relationship with.

When he told her his ideas, I was floored. Had he actually come up with that on the spot, or had he really thought about it before he came to see me?

“Come over to my office and I’ll see if I can get the ball rolling on that,” Katie said. She gave me a cheerful wave and walked out the door.

He stood and followed Katie to her office without looking back. He walked out like I was nobody. Certainly not the person he’d been ready to molest two minutes ago in my office. It left me feeling a little bitter. Had he simply been playing me?

Ugh, what the hell was wrong with me? It didn’t matter, because nothing further could happen between us.

Alex Kosinski was officially off-limits.

And I hated it.

“Misunderstood”—Seether

October—Season Opener

It was Thursday night. Our first game was on home ice. That was a good sign for me. I was superstitious, as were a lot of hockey players. People thought baseball players cornered the market on superstition, but we were probably worse. We all had our pregame routines, and mine was a carryover from my childhood.

“Where’s my Ding Dong?” I shouted out into the locker room as I searched everywhere. It was always waiting with my gear. Except I’d dressed in my usual order and laced my skates, only to realize it wasn’t there.

“Check your underwear, Kosinski!” Baranov yelled from his side of the room. Laughter filtered through the locker room.

“Fuck off! Where’s my motherfuckin’ Ding Dong? This isn’t funny!” Though I tried to fight the panic clawing at my throat, I was shaking. It may seem stupid, but it started with my very first hockey game. I’d been whining that I was hungry. Dad and Mom told me I’d just finished eating, but I’d been insistent that I would surely die if I didn’t eat something. One of the other moms had produced a Ding Dong that I’d proceeded to shove in my mouth.

We won the game. Something settled in my brain that it was because of that goddamn Ding Dong before the game. From then on, I had to have one before each game. I never ate the shit at any other time, but before a game, I had to have one.

“Kosinski!” Beck yelled. I whipped in his direction.

“What?” I angrily replied.

“Think fast!” The wrapped Ding Dong sailed toward me, and I snagged it out of the air.

“Assholes,” I muttered as they all laughed. Then I unwrapped the stupid snack cake and