The Penalty Box (Vancouver Wolves Hockey #3) - Odette Stone Page 0,39

someone from the back yelled, “Kiss.”

Someone else echoed that request. “Kiss your wife, Petrov.”

Kiss. Kiss. Kiss, the drunk crowd chanted.

Mica turned and looked down at me. I tried but couldn’t read what he was thinking. I felt his big hands gently hold my neck, tilting my chin up towards him. Our eyes met as he lowered his mouth to mine.

Oh my God. Mica was about to kiss me.

At first, it was a chaste kiss. Lips only. My eyes fluttered shut as his warm mouth moved against mine. It tasted of beer and drowned out the wild cheers. I clutched his forearms, reveling in the sensation of his mouth moving against mine. He lifted his mouth and my eyes fluttered open.

“You taste so good,” he growled.

He spun me around, so his back was to the crowd, sheltering me from everyone. I was dimly aware of the growing, deafening cheers. One of his arms snaked around my back, yanking me hard against him, holding me tight while his mouth came down again on mine. This was no chaste kiss. This was Mica-style passion that short-circuited my brain. His kiss was pure lust, hot temptation and a wicked promise of what he wanted to do to me.

When he lifted his mouth off of mine, he still held me tight against his body. I was breathing hard, and my libido had skyrocketed to the point of self-combustion.

And then he smiled, one of those fucking fabulous smiles that changed his face. It was at that moment that I knew I was officially in over my head.

The drunk guests were still cheering at a deafening decibel. He stepped beside me and lifted my left hand to kiss my ringed finger for the entire room to see. Then he put his arm around my waist and tugged me hard against him.

Speech. Speech. Speech.

He grinned out at everyone, and instantly the room grew quiet. Everyone, including me, waited with bated breath for what he would say.

His accent was strong, but his voice was clear. “Everyone who knows me knows that I was against marriage. When I met Charlie at Krista’s office, she was the only woman who didn’t care that I was a hockey player. She gave me shit almost every time I saw her, and I usually deserved it.”

The crowd laughed.

“But one day, she seemed different to me. And that was the start of the end. I resisted how I felt, but I couldn’t stay away. And she accepted me and the fact that marriage was not something I wanted.”

The crowd fell so silent you could hear a pin drop.

“But in the end, I was the one who wanted to marry. I wanted to learn to be the husband Charlie deserves. And I needed to make her mine. And, lucky for me, she said yes.”

Everyone roared.

“Thank you for celebrating with us. It means the world to both of us.”

It was all lies, but some irrational part of me wanted it to be the truth. How different would my life be if this was my fairy tale?

He ducked down and planted another hot kiss on my mouth. I couldn’t stop my moan, and he lifted his head, his eyes dark with lust.

“Jesus,” he breathed.

After that, we moved through the party as one. Mica constantly had his arms around me, holding me tight. Sometimes he stood behind me, sometimes he tucked me under his arm and I snuggled against him, but we were always touching. The more beer he drank, the more affectionate he became. Pushing my hair off my face, dropping hot, quick kisses on my mouth. When we sat to talk to someone, he pulled me onto his lap and cradled me in his arms.

It felt like the slowest, most intense foreplay of my life. I smiled and pretended to listen, and somehow, I took part in most conversations, but all I was aware of was how he was touching me and where his hands were. And I was beginning to live for his kisses.

They say you should never believe your own hype, but I was falling under his spell, and just like everyone else in the room, I was believing his actions as truth. It felt too real, too intense, to be anything but.

The party roared on, and I needed a break. I slipped away to use the washrooms across the lobby. I needed to clear my head and find some balance.

I stood in front of the vanity mirror and took in my flushed face and