The Keeper (Playing To Win Book 1)

“Glad to have you back home, brother.” Pace squirts enough ketchup on his plate to drown every french fry in the place as he sits across from me at The Busy Bee Café on Main Street.

“I’ve been home for a few days, man. It’s not my fault you were flying around the country visiting your other clients.”

He stuffs another fry in his mouth. “It’s not like you’re my only client, Hayes. You know you can be a real diva when you want? Maybe I should start calling you princess instead of your wife. How’s it going on that front, anyway?”

“We’re dating.”

“The fuck?” he asks, confused.

“She’s agreed to hold off on the annulment for now. So I’m counting that as a win, and we’re going to date.”

“But you’re already married . . . Wait. Don’t they say blow jobs stop once you’re married? Maybe this is a good thing. Get all the head now, while you can.” The asshat laughs like a fucking clown, and I kick him under the damn table.

“Pace, man, were you dropped on your head as a baby?”

“Pretty sure I was once or twice. I blame my brother, Hunter. It’s his fault.” He takes a bite of his BLT, then opens his mouth full of food. “Anyway, how’s the new team been?”

“Dude, fucking chew before you talk. Most of the guys are okay. Jace is gunning for me. So that’s awkward as fuck. Max threatened me on my first day, but I haven’t seen him since. Oh, and I like Coach Fitz. He seems like a good coach, so far.” Fucking Kingstons.

“You sure she’s worth it?”

I don’t bother answering, and Pace smiles.

“Yeah. That’s what I thought. Have you seen Juliette?”

I finish my burger and wipe the grease from my mouth. “Nah. She and Becks are down in DC for a few days. Some White House Christmas party. I’ve talked to Becks but not Jules.”

“Chicken shit,” he busts my balls. “Did you get the new place situated?”

I shake my head. “I ordered a bunch of furniture that’s gonna be delivered while I’m gone. Kenzie’s gonna get it all set up for me. I guess I’m gonna move in when I get back.”

“You guess?”

“Yeah, man. I can barely get face time with Lindy now. I don’t know how much worse it’s gonna be when I move out.”

“I hope your girl’s worth it.”

“My girl’s always been worth it, dick,” I tell him and throw my napkin at his face.

“I knew she was your girl.”

Yeah, deep down, she’s always been my girl.

Lindy manages to avoid me all day.

She was gone by the time I came down this morning, and she’s not home when I get home from practice that night.

My whole fucking body aches from the extra conditioning Fitz threw at us when Jace and I got into an argument in front of the team during practice . . . again.

Neither of us touched a puck for the rest of the session.

It was all suicides and sprints until we were both puking in trash cans.

My mood is shit, and I leave tomorrow.

The stairs outside of the loft creak, and I look up just before Kenzie pops her head in.

She looks at the bruising on my face and gasps. “Oh my God, E. Your face.” She rushes over to me like I’m a kid who just got hurt on the playground.

“It’s fine, Kenz.” I shrug her off. “It happens all the time.” As soon as the sentence is out, I know I shouldn’t have said it.

Her eyes narrow, and her mouth tightens into a line. “Okay, am I supposed to be okay with you getting hit all the time? Aren’t goalies supposed to be out of most of the fights, Easton?”

“It’s professional hockey, Kenz. Shit happens.”

“Oh yeah? You’re supposed to get into a fistfight with your captain?”

“It wasn’t a fight. Jace is pissed because I married his little sister.” Looking at my own little sister, I can understand why he’s mad. But it doesn’t change anything.

She plants her hands on her hips. “Did you hit him back?”

“Sometimes words land harder than fists, Kenz.”

She blinks up at me, shocked. “That may be the smartest thing I’ve ever heard you say, Easton Hayes. But I’m still going to kill Jace Kingston.”

I laugh and tug her hair. “You’re not gonna kill Jace, sis.”

“Fine,” she huffs. “I’ll do one worse. I’ll tell Juliette, and she’ll do it for me.”

She pulls her phone from her pocket, and I yank it from her hand before she can sic Jules on Jace. I don’t need anything to make things worse for me with my new team. They’re already not sure what to make of me, judging by today. They loved Jonesy, their former goalie. But whether they want to accept it or not, his injury from two weeks ago was career-ending. And the backup ain’t cutting it. Jace is the fucking captain, so they’re gonna take their cues from him, which means, right now, it’s not looking too good for me. “No, you’re not,” I tell her and stick the phone in her pocket. “I don’t need Jules fighting my battles for me.”

I bend my knees to bring myself eye to eye with my sister. “I’m not even sure Jules would fight them right now anyway. She’s pretty pissed.”

“No, she’s not.” When I lift my head in disbelief, she laughs. “She’s not. Well, not exactly mad you two got married. She’s hurt you didn’t tell her. She’s coming home from DC tomorrow morning.”

Kenzie smiles when Myrtle makes her way into my room and rubs herself against Kenz like a cat instead of a fifty-pound bulldog. “I swear to God, if you tell Jules I told you that, I’ll sic Jace on your other eye.”

I touch the pale bruising from when he hit me the other day and cringe. Not a great week. “I won’t say anything.”

She huffs and looks at the clothes laying on my half-packed bag that Myrtle just made herself comfortable on, and her body goes rigid. “Where are you going?”

“I’ve got an away-game stretch. I’ll be back next week. I told you yesterday. It’s why you’re getting the condo ready, remember?”

“Yeah. I just hate that you’re leaving. You just got here.” Kenzie and I aren’t the greatest with people leaving. That’s what happens when your perfectly healthy, young mom dies of the fucking flu.

“It’s the team’s schedule, Kenz. I can’t control it. But I’m coming back. I promise.” I wrap my arm around her and squeeze. “I signed a five-year contract. You’re not getting rid of me that easy.”

“Promise?” she whispers, and I suddenly feel like a dick for staying away so long. I was so wrapped up in my own shit, I didn’t think about how being away would affect her.

“Promise.” We sit quietly for a minute, then I decide to test the waters. “So . . . any chance you’d want to help me?”

“With what?” She perks up.

“Lindy.”

Her smile stretches across her face. “Let’s see . . . do I want to help my brother win over my best friend so she can literally be my sister? Hmm . . . What do you think?”

“I think I need to romance her.”

“Yes, you do,” Kenzie laughs before she drops her head on my shoulder. “I guess there’s hope for you yet.”

I sure as hell hope she’s right.

I haven’t been a light sleeper in, well, ever. Even as a kid, I heard every noise. Every beep of a horn. Every conversation my mom thought she was having in private because her kids were sleeping. Everything wakes me up, and that’s if I’m even able to fall asleep in the first place.

If I’m lucky, I get four hours a night. It’s not healthy, especially for an athlete. But I’m used to it. I’ve adapted. So when the stairs leading up to the loft creak at two a.m., I’m wide-awake and looking at the open doorway, waiting to see who’s coming. I’m half expecting my new best friend, Myrtle, to be looking for a warm spot to crash when I see Lindy hesitate at the opening.

“Easton,” she whispers, and my stomach drops because I know that tone.

“You okay, princess?” I force myself to stay in bed. The last thing I want to do is push her right now. She came up here. The ball is in her court.

“No,” she tells me softly but stays frozen at the door. Her long hair is a tangled mess around her shoulders as she stands in front of me in the white t-shirt I helped her put on Sunday morning before she stormed off. “I had a dream and picked up my phone to call you . . . but you’re already here.”

“I’ll always be here. Come here, baby,” I whisper.

Lindy pauses, then slowly tiptoes over to the bed where I lift the blanket and make room for her next to me. She looks down at the mattress with such hesitancy that until she gently climbs in and fits herself against me, I’m not completely convinced if she’ll get in or go back to her room. “I haven’t had one this bad in a long time,” she admits so quietly, I barely hear her before she lays her head against my chest. “I could feel the barrel of the gun pressed against my head. It was so cold. And he just kept saying over and over again that he was going to make Mom watch as he shot me. Make her watch as he killed me.”

The tremble in her voice breaks me because that’s not a nightmare.

That’s what we lived through.

“You’re safe, princess.” I wrap my arm around her and press my lips against her head. “We got out of there. He’ll never hurt you again.” Sometimes I wish I’d been the one who killed him for what he did to her.

She grips my shirt in her hand and shakes. “In my dreams, you always save me.”

“I always will.” I run my fingers through her soft hair and shift my hips away. Pretty fucking sure she doesn’t need to know my cock is ready to rip through my boxers, it’s so damn hard just from the feel of her bare legs pressed up against mine. “Sleep, Lindy. You’re safe. He can’t hurt you anymore. No one will ever hurt you again. I’ll never let them.”

We’ve never done this.

Lie together like this. Bodies tangled together. Awake. Sober.

I carried her to my hotel room the other night and laid her down on her side after she passed out. Then I watched her sleep for hours, memorizing this woman.

The sugary sweet scent of her hair tickles my nose as I inhale her with each breath. Her delicate curves mold to me like she was made to fit against my body. Because she was always meant to be mine.

The quiet of the night is almost deafening as I listen to her breathing even out. “Did you mean what you said before, E?” The weight of her words hangs heavy in the air.

“I said a lot of things recently. I meant them all. But you’re gonna have to be more specific if you want a specific answer.” I get the feeling the importance of my answer matters too damn much to chance the question being wrong.

“Yesterday, you told me it was always me. Did you mean it?”

“More than I’ve ever meant anything in my life, baby,” I whisper back without a single fucking second’s hesitation because it’s maybe the most honest thing I’ve ever told another living person.

Lindy is quiet for a long few minutes that stretch on like fucking hours. So long I wonder if she’s fallen asleep. And I think she may have until she moves her head just enough to look up at me. Her long lashes kiss her cheeks as she blinks away tears. “It’s always been you too, Easton.”

She drops her head back down to my chest and wraps her arm around my waist. “It’s only ever been you.”

I don’t move a fucking muscle after that.

Within minutes, Lindy’s asleep in my arms.

When I open my eyes hours later, I’m more rested than I’ve felt in fucking years. I’m also sweating my balls off because my wife is wrapped around me like a vine and a snoring bulldog is pressed against the inside of my knees. She legit sounds like a cartoon dog snoring. Like Scooby-fucking-Doo. What the hell?

Lindy’s breathing catches as her body goes rigid, and I almost laugh.

Guess we both slept well last night.

“Good morning, princess.”

She slowly extricates herself from me, pulling her leg back from where it’s thrown over mine, rubbing up against my cock in the process. “Umm . . . At least I remember last night this time.” She buries her face in my chest. “I can’t believe I slept here.”

“Don’t be like that. I fucking loved having you next to me. That’s the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had. Even Myrtle didn’t wake me up.” I sit up and lean back against the pillows, bringing her with me, loving this sleepy, soft side of her. “You’re my wife. You’re supposed to be in my bed.”

“Technically, you’re in my bed,” she teases, and a pretty little flush creeps up her face. “I guess you can stay as long as you need to.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. I lined up a place to rent yesterday.”

I watch as her blue eyes dim. “You’re moving out? Already?”

“Didn’t think you really wanted me here,” I tell her as I run my fingers up and down her spine.

“I . . .” she flusters. “I didn’t mean to make you feel that way.”

I lift her chin up and bring her eyes to mine. “I’m twenty-seven, Madeline. I need my own place. I can’t crash on your spare bed forever, and even if I could, I don’t think I’d survive living with four women who aren’t my wife.”

“Where are you moving?” she asks, seemingly disappointed and a little pouty. And damn, doesn’t my dick like that look.

“The two-bedroom downstairs. The one next to Maddox and Callen.”

Her expressive eyes grow wide as she blinks before she bites down on her bottom lip. “Oh.”

I press my thumb against that pouty lip, freeing it, and my girl sucks in a sharp breath. “Oh? That the best you’ve got?”

Her lips wrap around my thumb and kiss it gently, and I groan as the feeling shoots straight to my dick.

“I need my own place, wife, because like you said last night, I need to date you. And that means I need to pick you up at your door and bring you home afterward.”

“You do need to date me, hockey boy.” A devilish smile spreads across her face. “What do you plan on doing from your own place that you couldn’t have done from mine?”

“Baby, I’m gonna make you scream my name so loud, your roommates wouldn’t be able to look at you again without turning red.”

She runs her hands under my t-shirt, dragging the tips of her fingers along my abs, and my muscles contract. “Madeline,” I warn as she plays with the waistband of my boxers. “I’m trying to be a gentleman here.”

“Pretty sure gentleman went out the window with me screaming your name, E.”

The way she looks at me . . . Fuck.

I wrap my hand around her long neck and run my thumb over her thrumming pulse. “Lindy . . .” My other arm wraps around her back, and I brush my mouth over hers, groaning when her sweet taste explodes on my lips.

Lindy moans, and electricity zings between us. My cock pushes against my boxers, and I pull her into my lap, dragging her closer. Needing more. So fucking much more.

But knowing it’s too soon for that.

This girl deserves romance and roses and candles.

She deserves the fairytale.

She deserves everything.

Trailing my mouth along her jaw, I taste her skin and touch her the way I’ve wanted to for fucking years.

The sexy sigh she exhales as she slides her hands up my chest and drags her nails against my bare pecs is intoxicating. My dick presses against her soft thighs, wanting in on the action.

As if knowing what I need, Lindy slides herself along my cock and moans as she leans into the kiss. Her tongue testing the waters. Tentatively touching. Learning. Exploring. Igniting every fucking nerve-ending like a wildfire that’s just starting to burn.

One you know is going to burn out of control.

Her nails dance across my nipples, and I fucking growl as I run my tongue down her neck, stopping to suck her racing pulse.

Lindy clings to me, grinding against me like we’re two teenagers dry humping, afraid to get caught. The only thing separating us are the scrap of silk of her panties and my boxers.

The heat of her pussy tempts me to take this further than I know we should.

Not yet.

“Lindy . . .” Unfocused eyes stare back at me, scorching my soul.

“I’m sorry” she whispers and crushes my heart with her words.

“Baby, you’ve got nothing to be sorry for. You were right last night. We skipped a couple of steps. I want to take you out and treat you like the princess you are. I want to romance you before I worship every inch of your body for the first time. You deserve that. You deserve everything.”

She drops her forehead to my chest and shakes. “I have to tell you something, Easton.”

I run my hands over her hair and cup the back of her head. “You can tell me anything.”

Her shoulders lift and fall with a strong breath—in and out—and I brace myself for whatever the hell she’s about to throw my way because it can’t be anything good.

Her Bermuda blue eyes lock on mine, and she runs her teeth over her lip. “I’ve never done this before.”

“Done what?” I ask, confused.

“Any of this?” she whispers but doesn’t look away. “I mean, a little under the shirt action years ago. But that was all . . . before. I’ve never really trusted anyone enough since that night. Not enough to make myself that vulnerable,” she says softly as she shakes.

I cradle her head in my hands. “Breathe, Lindy,” I whisper against her lips. “Do you trust me?”

“With my life,” she tells me, and my chest swells.

“That’s all that matters. There’s no rush for everything else. I’ve got to woo you first, right?”

Lindy smiles and presses her lips to mine. “You’re going to make me regret using that word, aren’t you?”

“Oh yeah, baby. But that’s gonna be the only regret. I promise.”

“Okay.” She rests her head on my chest, and I know I just made the biggest promise of my life. Now I’ve just got to make sure I can keep it.