fault for making me do shots,” she whispered, smiling sleepily.
“You seem to remember last night differently than I do.” He kissed her forehead and then grabbed the clothes on the chair before disappearing into the bathroom. When he came out, Tara was fast asleep, and he took a moment to appreciate her long, lean body. Even under the covers she was shapely, feminine. If they actually went through with it, being married to her was going to be anything but a hardship.
The rest of the day was as awful as he’d thought it would be. Half the team slept the whole flight to Denver, and luckily Coach Caldwell took pity on them, calling a dinner meeting instead of practice. There had been a risk in having a party the night before a road trip, but it was a Halloween tradition and she’d said she hadn’t wanted to be a party pooper. So tonight, she sent the whole team to bed early, warning that everyone had to show up for the morning skate or there would be repercussions. Donovan took the reprieve and went right to bed, sleeping twelve hours and waking up feeling like a new man. He’d even forgotten to call Tara last night, but he took a moment to text her when he got up.
DONOVAN: Sorry I didn’t call last night. I went to bed at 7:30 and just got up.
TARA: I slept until after eleven yesterday, worked out, and then was back in bed by nine. It was worth it, though.
DONOVAN: Agreed. Listen, I have to get going to breakfast, but I’ll call you tonight after the game and we can talk. I also want to know what happens when you go up to the college today.
TARA: I will. Play well and I’ll talk to you tonight.
DONOVAN: Later.
The game that night was a rough one, but the Blizzard managed to pull it out. Donovan had made forty-five out of forty-six saves and wished he could have gotten the shutout, but a win was a win. He had his own selfish reasons for wanting to shine, and shutouts were a great way to do that, but he’d won two in a row now, so he had nothing to complain about.
Except maybe his blue balls.
It had been a while, and after waking up next to Tara with a raging erection and no time to do anything about it, he’d thought of little else. He’d been pretty wasted, but he remembered everything about Halloween. Making out with her on the back deck. Going skinny dipping. Dancing. Touching her gloriously naked body in the pool. Damn, he would have married her today for a taste of her. She was absolutely delightful with her sweet smile and the soft, silky expanse of skin along her back. Not to mention those stormy blue eyes.
He thought of little else when he wasn’t immersed in hockey. Granted, hockey took up most of the space in his brain, but every second that wasn’t belonged to Tara these days. The conversation they’d had about sex came back to him, and he shook his head as he took the elevator up to his hotel room. He wanted to talk to her again, tell her about his day, hear about her meeting with that college team. Basically, just hear her voice. What the hell was wrong with him?
It had been a couple of dates and now he’d offered to marry her. Sure, it was a marriage of convenience, but whose convenience was it? Having her in his house, and hopefully his bed, sounded pretty damn good to him. It might be kind of sappy, but he’d missed being married. Hell, he’d missed being married while he’d been married, and getting another shot at it felt right with Tara. It made no sense, considering they’d gone on two official dates and hadn’t even had sex yet, but the minute she’d said she was going to marry Logan, he’d known he couldn’t allow it. Not that it was his place to tell her what to do, but she didn’t want to be with Logan, and he planned to do anything he could to make her want to be with him.
Although this could become even more complicated if he got traded. Now that he was starting and having a good stretch of games, he hadn’t given getting traded a lot of thought, but he hadn’t told his agent to stop looking, either. Deep down, he hoped this would be his chance to