Gloves Off: a marriage of convenience hockey romance (Vancouver Storm Book 4)

“We saw photos online of the award ceremony,” Maria tells me and my mom in the box after the game. “You looked beautiful, solnyshko.”

Warmth hooks behind my ribcage at her endearment for me—an actual endearment, unlike his rotten tuber one.

The NHL social media account posted a picture of Alexei and I, with his arm around my waist, his dark, serious expression and my smile. The Storm fan accounts went nuts. Even the account dedicated to my outfits reposted it. I’ve stared at that picture for probably twelve hours total. Liked by @alexeivolkov.

“He looked good, too,” I tell her. “Your son knows how to wear a suit.”

The two women look at me with something sparking in their eyes. I clear my throat.

“And the ceremony, it was, um…really incredible to see what he’s accomplished over his career⁠—”

Alexei steps into the box, and the air changes. Our gazes meet, my heart trips, my lungs feel tight, and I can’t look away from him as he approaches.noveldrama

He can’t seem to look away from me, either. Has he gotten even taller? A shiver runs down my spine. I try to think of something cool and witty to say about his play with Walker at the beginning of the game, but my brain is blank, hooked on the way his muscles move under his T-shirt and the way he prowls toward me like I’m being hunted.

“Hi—” I start to say when he steps into my space, but he wraps a big hand around the back of my neck, hauls me toward him, and kisses me.

My body responds to being kissed by Alexei Volkov. His mouth presses to mine and I melt against him. Without hesitation, I open for him. His stubble scrapes me; I think I moan. His hands frame my face, then sink into my hair, and the way he kisses me like he wants me more than anything is so deliciously addictive.

I can’t stop. It’s too good. Too intense and electric and warm.

This kiss feels different. Everything goes quiet, stops, realigns, and points in a new direction, like my true north has shifted. This, my body seems to say, is exactly what we needed. Alexei can just keep kissing me like this, with these deep, searching kisses that are somehow still soft and careful, and everything will be okay in the world. My hands fist in his shirt, made of the softest cotton I’m already scheming to steal and wear to bed, and beneath the fabric, his heart slams against the front wall of his broad, firm chest. He smells fresh and clean, his damp hair brushes my cheekbone, and a low, rumbling noise of pleased surprise slips out of him, making goosebumps rise down my spine.

I like this too much, and it’s on that jarring thought that he pulls away, looking down at me with darkened eyes. “Hi.”

“Hi.” I sound a little breathless. My heart’s doing that frustrating fluttering thing again. Tomorrow, first thing at work, I’m going to hook myself up to the EKG.

“You okay?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m great.” I swallow, not even wanting to blink and miss a split second of what he looks like right now.

His tongue runs along the edge of his teeth, still smiling. He knows what he’s doing to me, and I don’t even care. I’m vaguely aware our moms are blatantly staring with big grins, and clutching each other’s arms.

I rise up on my tiptoes. “We said no kissing,” I whisper in his ear.

“I don’t care,” he murmurs in my ear. “Do you?” His mouth is slanted in a cocky, pleased, arrogant way, like he knows the answer.

When I don’t answer, his gaze trails over me, eyes flaring with heat, and beneath my jersey, I’m suddenly too warm. “You look good with my name on your back, Hellfire.”

I can’t get a full breath. In another version of this reality, I’d make a sharp, biting remark that I’m not some piece of property, not his lunch that he’s putting his name on.

I don’t feel like his property, though. I’m proud of what he did tonight with the rookie, proud that the huge, brutal hockey player out there on the ice is my husband.

Concern prickles at the edges of my mind.

His eyes drop to my shoes, a navy blue velvet heel. With our rainy winters, velvet is deeply impractical, but the universe aligned and tonight is a cold, dry evening.

He raises an eyebrow at them, the corner of his mouth tugging up again. “New?”

I still feel dazed from that kiss, but I shake my head and find my voice. “I was saving them for a special occasion.”

His gaze lingers on them for a long moment, and flashing with that look he used to give my heels, disapproving and angry. Although he doesn’t seem so disapproving anymore.

He’s holding my eyes so intensely that another shiver runs down my spine.

“I like those, too.”