Puck Pact: A Marriage of Convenience Hockey Romance (East Coast Series)

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Don’t worry.” I pace the floor of the break room, holding my phone out in front of me. “Everything is going to happen according to plan.”

Brittany nods from her seat at the table. “Don’t stress, Chanora. We got this.”

Tonight’s the night Brittany and I are going to catch creepy Carter red-handed. While he was out running an errand earlier, we snuck into his office and scoped out the perfect spot for me to hide while still being able to record the video from my phone. Brittany is dressed in her usual work attire—high-waisted black slacks and a silky pink button-down—so as not to draw attention with anything overtly sexy.

Not that it should matter what a woman wears. Men shouldn’t take a cute outfit as an open invitation to touch a woman.

“Well, I’m not letting you do this without backup,” Chanora says. “Call me from Brittany’s phone and keep me on the line while you record the video from your phone. Just in case anything goes wrong.”

“Nothing’s going wrong.” I square my shoulders and lift my chin. “We’re taking this guy down, and that’s it.”

“Come on, you don’t want to make me worry when I’m with child.”

I roll my eyes. “I’ll call you once it’s over, I promise.”

“Just be careful.”

We end the FaceTime, and I glance at Brittany. “You ready for this?”

She nods, pulling at her collar.

“Are you sure you want to be the bait? I can do it if you’d rather⁠—”

“No.” She stands from the chair. “I can do this.”

“Okay. Let’s go. Carter should be back any minute.”

I lie and let Eddie know he’s off duty for the night because Alexander will be picking me up from work. Then I head into Carter’s office, and tuck myself inside the closet behind his desk. I’m able to hide behind one of the walls inside, and peek my phone’s camera through one of the slats in the closet door.

Brittany hands me her unlocked phone before scurrying out of the office to wait for Carter.

While I wait for them to enter the room, I make sure my phone is set to silent so it doesn’t go off and alert Carter that I’m in here. Luckily, New Jersey has a one-party consent law, meaning we can record Carter without his consent and use it as evidence in a case against him. I’ve thought of everything. There will be no surprises. This plan is fool-proof.

We’re finally going to nab this asshole.

After several minutes, Carter invites Brittany into his office, closing the door behind her.

Show time.

Carter remains standing, facing Brittany, instead of asking her to take a seat. “I’m so glad you waited for me to get back so we can talk.”

If she’s nervous, she doesn’t show it. She tucks her hair behind her ear, acting coy. “I just wanted to tell you how much I love working here. I’m so grateful you hired me.”

His back is to me, so I can’t see the look on his dumb face, but he reaches out his hand and lays it on her shoulder. “You’ve been doing a great job. I can see that you’re willing to put in the work to move up the ranks.”

“I am,” she says as she nods. “I’m a hard worker. I’ll do anything you need me to do to help out around here.”

Ha. Way to bait him right into that one.

“Hard-working and beautiful.” His hand moves off her shoulder, and his fingers trail down the buttons of her blouse. “That’s a deadly combination.”

My stomach lurches, and I have to bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from gagging.

Brittany’s throat bobs as she swallows. “Sir, I’ve been thinking. I know you kissed me the other day, but I want to keep things professional between us. I don’t think you should do that again.”

Good job bringing up the kiss for the camera, Britt.

“Ah, come on.” Carter pops open the top button on her blouse, and moves to the next. “It’ll be our little secret. We can still maintain a professional relationship.”

She takes a small step backward, and puts her hand up. “I don’t feel comfortable with that. You’re my boss.”

“That’s right. I am your boss. And don’t you want to please your boss, Brittany?” He inches forward with each step she takes away from him. He reaches out and grips the back of her neck. “I think we can make this a mutually beneficial partnership.”

Brittany told me to wait until after he kisses her to make sure we have it on camera. I told her she didn’t have to take it that far, that I didn’t want her to do something she wasn’t comfortable with, but she insisted.

I keep the camera pointed at her while Carter kisses her, and then she pushes him away. “Carter, please. Stop.”

But he doesn’t stop. He lunges for her again, shoving her against the wall like she said he did the last time.

I make sure to get the struggle on video before bursting out of the closet. “Gotcha, motherfucker.”

Carter spins around, eyes wide as the realization of what’s happening sinks in. “You stupid little bitches.”

“I don’t know, Britt. We just caught our boss sexually harassing us with video evidence. That doesn’t sound too stupid to you, does it?”

She grins. “Nope.”

I expected Carter to get angry. I expected him to beg us not to release the video to anyone. What I didn’t expect was for him to slap the phone out of my hand, and wrap his fingers around my neck.

Brittany screams as Carter slams me against the wall, his hand like a vice. I point to my phone on the floor, trying to tell Brittany to grab it and keep recording.

But I don’t know what Brittany does next. I barely register what Carter’s threatening in my ear as he crushes my windpipe. My vision gets hazy, and my limbs feel heavy.

The last clear thought I have is: Chanora was right.

And I don’t know if I’ll get to tell her that.

My eyelids droop closed, but then the hand around my neck releases me.

“Get your fucking hands off my wife.”

My eyes pop open as I fall to the floor, clutching my neck and gasping for air. I blink to clear my vision, but when I look up, I blink again because I can’t believe what I’m seeing.

Alexander is punching the shit out of Carter.

“Alex,” I choke out, struggling to push to my feet.

Brittany tosses her arm around me and helps me up. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“No. Wait.” My throat is raw and my voice sounds like I swallowed gravel. “Alex, stop.”

Alexander stands over Carter, who’s barely able to keep his arms up to shield his face as Alexander’s fist connects with his jaw again.

“I’m going to break every bone in your body if you ever come near my wife again. Do you understand me?” he shouts.

Carter’s only response is an agonizing groan.

Fuck.

“Alex, enough!” I shout as loud as my throat will allow me and move to stand in his line of vision. “Think of Giuliana. Please, you can’t do this.”

At the sound of his daughter’s name, he freezes. His hand, raw and bloody, drops to his side as his wild gaze flicks to mine.

Guilty tears roll down my cheeks as he steps over Carter’s body and crashes into me, pulling me into a suffocating hug. “Are you okay? Fuck, baby, tell me you’re okay.” His hands come up to cradle my cheeks, his eyes bouncing around my face before he tilts my chin to inspect my neck. “I got here as soon as Chanora called me. She said you were in some kind of trouble. What the hell is going on?”

I swallow, my throat dry, as a sob bubbles out of me. “I’m okay. You weren’t supposed to be here.”

Brittany steps closer, and holds out my phone. “The screen is a little cracked, but the video is there.”

“Video?” Alexander echoes.

I can’t bring myself to look at him. “I was trying to catch Carter harassing Brittany. We came up with a plan, and⁠—”

“You planned this?” His voice is too calm, too quiet.

Another tear rolls down my cheek as I nod. “It worked. I got the video. Now he can’t harass us anymore. Now⁠—”

“You put yourself in danger. On purpose.” He pauses. “And you didn’t talk to me first.”

I wrap my hands around my midsection, hugging myself for comfort. “I just wanted to put a stop to this.”

“Where’s Eddie?”

My chin hits my chest. “I sent him home.”

He glances around the room, taking a minute to speak again. “I’m parked out back. Take Brittany and go wait in the truck. I’m going to have a chat with Carter.”

“But—”

“Go wait in the truck, Aarya.”

I clamp my mouth shut at the sound of his clipped tone, and lead Brittany out the door. We don’t say anything, but she clings to my hand as we walk outside and get in Alexander’s SUV.

I twist around to look at her in the back seat. “I’m really sorry I involved you in this, Britt.”

She shakes her head, wiping at her tear-stained face. “I wanted to do this with you. I wanted to catch Carter just as much as you did.”

“I shouldn’t have put you in this situation. He came on to you like a monster. Are you okay?”

“I’m okay, really.” She lifts her eyes to mine. “What do you think is going to happen now?”

“I don’t know.”

Several minutes later, two police cars and an ambulance pull around the back entrance of the gallery, without lights and sirens. Alexander must have told them to keep things quiet so as not to alert anyone passing by of what’s happening inside. The last thing we need is the media to get their hands on a picture of what Alexander did to Carter’s face.

After Brittany and I give our statements and show the cops the video of what Carter did, he’s arrested. The sight of him being shoved into the back of the police car brings me only a sliver of satisfaction.

The EMT examines my neck, and then the three of us are back in Alexander’s SUV.

He doesn’t look at me the entire ride to drop Brittany off at her apartment, or on the way back to his house.

I’d rather him yell at me, or tell me how stupid I am, or lecture me about my safety. Anything but this crushing silence.

I wait until we pull into his driveway and he kills the engine before I turn to him. “Please, say something.”

His head falls back against the headrest and he releases a long sigh. “It doesn’t matter what I say.”

My lips wobble. “That’s not true.”

“Isn’t it? I told you I wanted you to quit that job because of your boss. I told you I worry about you when you’re alone in there with him, or when you’d walk home alone.” He finally turns those stormy eyes to me, and I see the tears brimming. “I care about you, Aarya. About your safety. About your well-being. You matter to me. And I know you’ve never had anyone care about you like this before, so I understand that fierce independence you have. But what I don’t understand is why you don’t value your life the way I do.”

A lone tear rolls down his cheek. “Do you know what it was like for me to walk in that office, not knowing what I was going to find? Seeing him choking the life out of you? Only to find out that you put yourself in that position. To find out that you took matters into your own hands instead of coming to me and talking to me.” He sucks in a shaky breath, like he’s struggling to keep his composure. “We were supposed to be a team. I thought we were in this together.”

“We are,” I start to say.

“No.” He shakes his head. “Tonight, you made yourself very clear. You keep pushing me away, yet I don’t fucking listen.”

Tears stream down my face. “We are a team. I’m sorry I scared you. I’m sorry I put myself in a dangerous situation. I swear, I didn’t see it going the way it did.”

“You’re only sorry because you got caught. And what would’ve happened if I couldn’t get to you in time? If I was out of town at a game? God, he had his hand around your throat, Aarya. What if he took you from me? From Giuliana?” His booming voice reverberates within the closed space. “How could you think that this is okay?”

“I’m sorry.” A sob escapes me and my shoulders shake. “I’m sorry, Alex.” I crawl over the console and climb onto his lap, wedging myself between him and the steering wheel, burying my face in his neck.

His arms snake around me, and I fall apart in the safety of his embrace.

Coming down from the adrenaline and the fear, reality sets in. I went behind Alexander’s back and did something I knew he wouldn’t want me to do. I allowed myself and Brittany to get into an unsafe situation with Carter, and we’re lucky it didn’t end up worse. I even put Alexander in danger—because he could be in jeopardy of losing his daughter with assault charges.

I can’t remember the last time I cried like this. Not since I was a child, because I learned early on that tears don’t fix anything. But right now, clinging to Alexander, the only real, true, solid thing in my life, I let it all out.

His disappointment in me is the worst thing I’ve ever felt.

Once I quiet down, Alexander speaks. “I have to get Giuliana settled for bed. You can go through the garage so she doesn’t see you. I don’t have the energy to answer her questions about the marks on your neck.”

I lean back and take his right hand into mine, inspecting his swollen knuckles. “She’s going to have questions about this.”

“I’ll tell her I hurt it during practice.” He reaches out like he’s going to brush my hair away from my face, but he stops himself and lets his hand fall into his lap instead.

He doesn’t want to touch me. He can barely bring himself to look at me, and it stings.

I move off of him and scoot back into the passenger seat.

Without another word, he gets out of the truck and heads inside.

I take a long, hot shower while Alexander puts Giuliana to bed.

I wish I could see her, and tell her goodnight. I could really use one of her hugs right about now.

How would she have felt if something worse had happened to me tonight? How would it have affected her? I’m not used to having someone to miss me, to depend on me.

How could I be so reckless?

There’s a cup of tea sitting on my nightstand when I get out of the bathroom with two white pills beside it.

Even when he’s mad, Alexander can’t help but take care of me.

I down the pain relievers and let the tea soothe my throat before tiptoeing down the hall toward his bedroom. The door is cracked open, and a dim light shines from the lamp on his nightstand. I peek my head inside, and the sight of him nearly breaks me.

Fresh out of the shower with damp hair, he’s hunched over the edge of the bed with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

My gentle giant.

He looks so tortured, so crestfallen. My heart aches for what I put him through tonight.

I move to stand in front of him, hesitant and afraid he’ll tell me to leave.

But then he lifts his head and reaches out for me, wrapping his hands around the backs of my bare thighs as he pulls me close. I straddle him, positioning my knees on either side of his waist, and he engulfs me in his arms, squeezing me so tight.

He’s shaking, the aftermath of tonight taking a toll on his nerves.

He presses his lips to the marks along my neck, peppering me with tender kisses. I don’t deserve his kindness right now, don’t deserve him treating me like this when I’m the one who screwed up. But after what happened tonight, this is exactly what I need from him, and somehow, he knows it.

He always knows what I need.

He drags his lips up along my jaw, blazing a trail to my mouth. He kisses me with such fervor, such need, yet there’s nothing sexual about this moment. This is the only way we can express how we feel right now, desperate for each other in a way that words can’t make sense of.

This isn’t fake. This isn’t us pretending to be together. It’s real, true, raw emotion, and it consumes me.

Tonight, Alexander saved me. That irony isn’t lost on me. But he didn’t save me from a fire-breathing dragon, or an evil queen.

He saved me from myself.

I’ve spent my life convincing myself that I don’t need anyone, that I can do it all on my own. Yet Alexander has spent these last few months pulling at the threads of every conviction I’ve ever had, until I stand before him now. An unraveled mess of the person I used to be lays at my feet. I can choose to pick it up and keep going down the path I’ve been on, or I can leave it behind and start weaving myself into a better version.

I lose track of time, lost in all that this man is, and we kiss until our lips are swollen and our eyes are tired. And when he whispers, “Stay with me tonight,” I tell him yes, and we crawl under the covers together. I lay my head on his chest, and he wraps his arms and legs around me.

I care for him, more than I’ve ever cared for anyone in my entire life.

I don’t want to push him away.

The realization sits heavy on my chest, but his steady heartbeat serves as a comforting lullaby as I drift off to sleep.