Lip Locks & Blocked Shots: A Slapshot Novel (Slapshot Series Book 3) Read online

  "I'm serious, Brandon," she told him, her eyes catching his. "Regardless of where we end up in the playoffs, if we make the playoffs, you're going to get nominated for the Vezina. And if you don't win it..." She shook her head. "Well, we all know the hockey media is biased to the east coast, but still."

  He shrugged his shoulders and looked away. He was uncomfortable with flattery, uncomfortable with being honored for something he loved to do. He hadn't told her that, but she picked up on it. Last season, even though they played horribly, talk began about Thorpe possibly getting nominated for the Vezina, but that died down just as quickly as it started. There was no way the NHL was going to award a goaltender whose team didn't even make playoffs.

  "Did you always want to play goalie?" Seraphina pushed. She knew it was asking a lot, to try and get him to talk more when he didn't talk much at all, but she found she liked hearing the sound of his voice. She liked that he was comfortable enough with her to share these parts of him not many people knew.

  Brandon nodded his head. "My older sister Cameron played hockey and liked using me to practice, even when I was really young," he explained. "It freaked my mom out but my dad said it was a good way for me to toughen up. I mean, I was five and my sister was shooting pucks at me. I didn't have any gear except one of her own hockey helmets and a lot of layers of clothing."

  "Your sister was the woman at the auction, right?" Seraphina asked.

  Brandon nodded, rolling his eyes as a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

  "That's Rachel for you," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "We haven't seen each other in a few months so she decided to surprise me by attending the auction without even telling me. She does well for herself back home - she's an accountant - but she hasn't settled down yet. She likes her freedom so I suppose she's waiting for the right person."

  "She sounds like she's not waiting at all," Seraphina murmured.

  The plane took off into the sky at a steep angle, causing her to grip the hand rests tighter once more. Brandon didn't tighten his grip on her but he didn't remove his hand, either. Instead, he kept it over her hand, tracing mindless patterns into her skin, trying to distract her in any way he could.

  "What do you mean?" he asked, looking over at her. He had to raise his voice just a bit to be heard over the noise.

  Seraphina swallowed, trying to pull herself out of her funk and focus on his touch, on his voice.

  "Your sister," she finally said. "She doesn't sound like she's the type of woman to wait around for the right guy. I don't think she's waiting around at all. She's going after what she wants. She has a good job, she sounds like she'd be the type to have lots of friends, and she still makes an effort to not lose touch with her baby brother. Romance seems like the last thing on her mind. She sounds amazing."

  Brandon was silent for a long moment, letting Seraphina's words sink in. Then, he turned to her and murmured, "She said the same thing about you."

  "Me?" Seraphina asked as the plane leveled out. Her eyes were wide. "She knows about me?"

  "I've mentioned you from time to time," he said, not meeting her eyes. "I wanted to introduce you to her that night but then the whole drama between Peters and Negan occurred and I didn't think that was the right time. But from what she knows of you, she likes you. But she won't make her final decision until she meets you herself."

  "I look forward to meeting her," Seraphina murmured, the tips of her cheeks turning red.

  The plane ride was still tense thanks to Seraphina's constant discomfort for flying. But it was a lot more bearable thanks to Brandon being next to her and holding her hand.

  Chapter 4

  Seraphina didn’t have much time once they arrived at the Vegas airport, took a private bus to their hotel, and checked into said hotel before she had to start getting ready for dinner with Phil Bambridge. There was a nice welcome basket filled with game cards, casino chips, wristbands, as well as snacks and champagne that greeted the two sisters as they made their way into the suite. The players had regular rooms on the east side of The Desert Hotel, a hotel off the strip, two miles from the arena. It was a luxury hotel, with a portion of suites (all rooms in the west building) and a portion of regular rooms. Each player had a roommate and would be staying in a regular hotel in the west tower. Even Harper would be rooming with Seraphina and Katella rather than her boyfriend Zachary Ryan.

  Well, Seraphina thought to herself with amusement. We’ll see if that lasts.

  She couldn’t help but smirk to herself as she took a long, luxurious shower in the big shower with a stainless steel shower head and divine water pressure. Seraphina wondered if Phil would understand if she just stayed in her shower the whole night and order room service rather than go out to a fancy dinner where nothing tasted good.

  However, when Katella started pounding on the door, demanding Seraphina get out so she could use the restroom because the team was going to go out and she wanted to make sure she had enough time to look good, Seraphina knew that probably wouldn’t sit well with the manager. She wanted to throw the very fluffy pillow on her bed at her sister. Katella was drop-dead gorgeous and if Negan didn’t see that – Seraphina didn’t understand how he couldn’t but she had heard of weirder things – then he wasn’t worthy of Katella in the first place.

  Also, Seraphina needed the bathroom more than anyone. She had an important business meeting, not a date.

  “I know you’re trying to avoid tonight,” Katella called through the off-white door. “Nice try!”

  Seraphina clenched her jaw and glared at the door. She hated when her sister could read her better than she could read herself. After another moment, she threw open the door only to see Katella half naked, ready to hop in the shower.

  “Hope you like cold showers, sis,” Seraphina said with a smirk.

  “You bitch,” Katella muttered but slammed the door shut once she was inside.

  Seraphina could hear Harper snickering on her bed.

  “What?” Seraphina asked, her lips curling up into a smirk. “You’re not going out tonight?”

  “Oh, I am,” Harper said. “I just don’t need the frivolities that others do in order to look good.”

  “I heard that,” Katella called from the bathroom.

  “Well, I said it loudly,” Harper called back. She glanced over at the fourth bed in their suite. “When does Emma’s flight get in?”

  “Maybe an hour?” Seraphina replied. “Her rehearsal ended an hour ago and I think her flight’s already taken off. Is Kyle picking her up?”

  “I heard she’s going to Uber it,” Harper replied. “I’m sure he wants to, especially with a beautiful girl like Emma coming to Vegas by herself, but she didn’t want him to miss out on time with the guys so she’s going to meet us here.”

  Seraphina shook her head. “The things we do for love,” she said.

  “Or don’t do,” Harper added innocently.

  "And what is that supposed to mean?" Seraphina asked, raising a brow at the golden-haired beauty, typing away on her laptop. If Seraphina had to guess, Harper was trying to finish her article before they went out so she wouldn't have to worry about it for the rest of their time here. There were a few details she would have to add later - game stats and the like - but she was intelligent enough to know how to put a good article together in less than an hour. It was one of the reasons why Seraphina had hired her full-time in the first place.

  Harper shrugged innocently, her fingers flying over the keyboard. "Nothing," she said without looking up. "You know, I did see you sitting next to Brandon Thorpe during the flight. How was that?"

  "It was pleasant," Seraphina said, turning her back on Harper so Harper couldn't read her flushing face. She hadn't thought anyone had noticed her and Brandon together but now she realized that that was a foolish presumption.

  "I'm sure."

  Seraphina could hear the smirk in Harper's voice and she tried not to react in order to make it appear that what Harper and Katella were
saying didn't affect her in any way. She grabbed the white gown Katella had all but forced her to get. It was the only gown she tried on even though Katella had at least seven more in her arms when they stumbled across this one. When they both saw it, they fell in love with it. It fit beautifully as though it was made specifically for her. When she saw herself in it, she knew that this was it.

  It was a simple white gown that reached last her ankles but didn't hit the floor if she wore high enough heels. The dress was similar to a Greek goddess toga-dress, held together by thin straps. There was a fair amount of cleavage, the cut being sweetheart. It hugged every curve from the narrow waist to her curvy hips before splitting down her right thigh into two pieces, exposing a fair amount of skin.

  She decided to blow dry her hair and then straighten the locks. She put some cream in her hair in order to protect it from all the styling. Once she was done, Katella emerged from the shower in her simple red dress, looking nothing short of stunning and confident. Seraphina wished she had a fraction of Katella a confidence.

  "You should pin your bangs back," her sister suggested, coming to stand behind Seraphina and gently brushing her hair. "I have a couple of bobby pins."

  Katella disappeared before coming back and did her sister's hair in less than five minutes. "Typically, I hate hairspray but we need your flyaways to be controlled," she said. She spritzed on a decent amount before tilting her head and looking at Seraphina's face. "Now, for your makeup..."

  Katella did her makeup and Seraphina was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't over the top. She especially loved the pink lipstick even though she wasn't much of a lipstick person.

  By the time Katella was finished, Seraphina was dressed beautifully. She stared at herself in the mirror, going over her reflection with a critical eye. For the past couple of years, there would be B-list celebrities who would attend a Gulls charity event like the woman from an interior design show and the latest Bachelorette. Somehow, the women would be stunning. Drop-dead gorgeous. Flawless. And even though Seraphina knew she, too, was beautiful in her own right, she also felt she couldn't match the perfection and effort these women put into their appearance.

  Now, as she stared at herself in the mirror, she realized that this was what it must feel like being one of those women who always had to look good in front of a camera.

  She just wished she could have looked like this for a different occasion with a different person.

  "What is it?" Katella asked, furrowing her brow as she stared at her sister's reflection in the mirror. "Why do you look like that?"

  "Why do you think Brandon Thorpe would call Phil Bambridge an asshole?" she asked in a small voice. She hadn't mentioned her conversation with Brandon to her sister, originally planning to discuss it on the plane. But when Katella didn't sit with her, she didn't have the chance to. Now, however, these feelings were forcing words to come out of her mouth without her full understanding or consent.

  Katella raised an eyebrow and her lips curled up into a smirk. "When did this happen?" she asked.

  Harper set her laptop to the side of her bed before hurrying over to get in on the conversation. Seraphina had no idea why Harper hadn't started to get ready. Then again, Harper had never been much of a club person. Katella told her that when Harper had picked her up from Taboo, a nightclub in Costa Mesa, she was in a plaid shirt and converse shoes. It wouldn't surprise Seraphina if Harper tried to attend tonight in something casual. Then again, Harper always had a knack for cleaning up pretty well, especially if she wanted to knock Zachary Ryan off of his feet. And she typically did.

  "After we went shopping and I went back to the office," Seraphina said. "He came in because he assumed the dinner was for GMs and team captains, but when I told him it was just for GMs, he got frustrated. He said Phil Bambridge is a bad guy, that he knew him as an acquaintance back in Ontario. I guess Bambridge knew his sister or something?" She furrowed her brow and shook her head. "Anyway, he kept calling it a date when it's not a date."

  Harper pressed her brows up and shot Katella a knowing look. "That sounds suspiciously like jealousy," she pointed out. "What do you think, Kat?"

  "I would agree," Katella said. "And I think if Emma were here, she would as well. Why didn't you tell us this sooner? Sera, if I had known, do you know what I would have put together to-"

  "How could you possibly assume he's jealous?" Seraphina asked, her tone doubtful. "Come on. He was just being.." Sexist? Misogynistic? Brandon was none of those things. He wasn't even really an Alpha make due to how quiet and brooding he was.

  It was one of the reasons why she liked him so much and one of the things that drove her absolutely crazy. He didn’t speak unless he felt compelled to, unless he had something he needed to say. He wasn’t the sort to talk just to hear his own voice or because he thought of something because he assumed he was an expert and knew more than anyone else. He was arrogant in front of the net, and maybe his reserved attitude left him seeming snobbish, but at least he didn’t talk himself into a rut.

  However, on the other hand, the fact that he withheld his true feelings, hid himself off from the world, was frustrating. She wished she knew what he was thinking the majority of the time because he liked to keep things to himself. Whether that was because he assumed he was stronger for not unloading his burdens on anyone else or because he didn’t want people to know his problems, Seraphina didn’t know. In the end, she supposed it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was going through problems and he wouldn’t share those problems with anyone.

  “No,” Katella said, shaking her head with certainty. “Thorpe was totally jealous if he’s calling Phil Bambridge an asshole.”

  “Especially since this is the most you guys have talked in a while, right?” Harper asked, furrowing her brow. She strode over to the closet and grabbed a silver cocktail dress she had hung up upon their arrival.

  Seraphina nodded once before turning away from the mirror. “So if he’s jealous,” she said, leaning against the edge of the sink before Katella swatted her away from doing that in case she got her dress dirty or stray drops of water on it. “Why doesn’t he just tell me that?”

  Harper snorted. “No guy is going to admit they’re jealous,” she said, matter-of-fact. “That would be a total shot to their pride. Zach did the same thing when my crazy ex wouldn’t leave me alone.”

  “And you know Negan did the same thing with Matt,” Katella said, raising her eyebrows in order to emphasize her point. “And now, Brandon’s doing it with you.” She smirked. “This is a good thing, Sera. It basically proves that he likes you.”

  “He can like me all he wants, but that doesn’t mean we can be together,” Seraphina muttered, her voice filled with regret. “There are rules-“

  “That you put in place and can change,” Katella pointed out and then shot her sister a look. “Actually, you’re the only one following your rule, you know that? For some reason, your rules don’t apply to anyone else except for you because if they did, I sure as hell wouldn’t be allowed to date Negan.”

  Harper emerged from the bathroom, looking flawless with absolutely no effort into her appearance. If she wasn’t so sweet, Seraphina might have hated her just a little bit. She hoped Zachary Ryan knew how lucky he was to have her.

  “Don’t you have to meet Bambridge, like, now?” Harper asked, clicking on her phone so the time flashed up at them.

  “Oh.” Seraphina pushed her brow up. “I guess I’m late.”

  Katella smirked as she walked Seraphina to the door. “Don’t sound so upset about it,” she murmured. “Have fun, okay? And if you need me or you need an excuse to get out, let me know. Call me, okay?”

  “I will,” Seraphina promised as she disappeared out the door.

  Chapter 5

  Seraphina glanced at the dainty watch she wore on her right wrist she inherited from her grandmother after she died. Phil Bambridge was twenty minutes late and she looked like an idiot waiting for him in a white gown wi
th her hair up and out of her face like she was some trophy. She had already seen the team make their way to one of the three nightclubs located in the casino area of the hotel and she did her best to try and avoid them as best as she could. They didn’t need to see how ridiculous she looked. It certainly couldn’t top how ridiculous she felt.

  Once they were out of sight, she came back to keep looking for Bambridge. Katella had googled him just so Seraphina could see what she was dealing with. Besides being a decent-looking guy in his mid-thirties, there was nothing special about him. She actually felt slightly uneasy based on the way he smirked in his picture. It made a shiver slide down her back and she almost called him to call off their meeting tonight.

  It was a meeting, right? Not a… date.

  Not a date.

  “Hey.”

  Seraphina jumped and a familiar chuckle crawled down her spine and settled on her skin.

  “Hey,” she said with a smile as her eyes took in Brandon. “You look…” She let her voice trail off, her cheeks turning pink. “Um, right. I thought the team was already at, you know, the clubs. Or wherever you guys are going.”

  Brandon’s smile grew wider with each passing second and every word out of Seraphina’s mouth. The problem was, he looked amazing. Sure, it was just a pressed white collared shirt and charcoal slacks that fit him in all the right places, the small amount of stubble gracing the lower half of his face. Also, his brown hair was messy – it was always messy – but God, he looked beautiful.

  “Yeah, they already left,” he said. “You look…” He pushed his brows up as he took in the sight of her without being skeevy about it. “As well. I’m surprised you’re still here, though. Wasn’t dinner a half hour ago?”

  “Twenty minutes, more or less,” Seraphina corrected. “But yes, Bambridge is late. To be honest, I’m kind of hoping he doesn’t show up and I can go back to the room.”

  “You could always come out with us,” Brandon pointed out.