My Lucky #13 (Hockey Hotties) Read online

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Saige

  I get the Instagram notification that the password on Aiden’s account has been changed, and after I read what he wrote, I try right away to get back into his account to delete it. I try to guess the password, trying all different combinations, but nothing works. Damn him.

  “Come on, let’s get going,” Tedi says, waiting for me at the door of our office.

  “I’m not sure if I’m going.”

  “No, we’re not playing that game. Get in the car.” She opens the door.

  “What game?” I stay seated.

  “You love him. He apologized within only a few days. Now go and allow him to woo you.” Tedi waves her hand again.

  “I’m not gonna let him woo me after what he did.”

  She lets the door shut and stares blankly at me. “Why not?”

  “Because he humiliated me.”

  Tedi juts out a hip. “So this is about your pride?”

  “Stop looking so annoyed with me.”

  “Listen, Saige, I’ve known you a long time. And eventually you’re going to go there and sit in the wives and girlfriend section because you love the man and he loves you. So either we drag it out or we just go now. There’s nothing wrong with forgiving him easily.”

  “Ugh, you aggravate me.” I stand and grab my sweatshirt.

  “Only because you know I’m right.”

  I walk by her, and we get in her car and drive over to the arena.

  “If Tweetie didn’t leave me a ticket next to yours, he’s in so much trouble,” Tedi says as we approach will call.

  Lucky for Tweetie, he did, and we both head inside the arena. The game is already in the first period by the time we show up. I hope we can slide in unnoticed. But as soon as I sit down, the other wives and girlfriends all smile my way, obviously fans of Aiden Drake.

  “Holy shit.” Tedi elbows me. “You’re on the Jumbotron.”

  I hate that thing. Everyone cheers when they see me, and Aiden and his teammates look around. Somehow, Aiden’s eyes go directly to mine. He smiles and my heart thumps. Then there’s a line change and he goes to the bench.

  Except Aiden goes past the bench. The camera guy follows him while we all watch on the Jumbotron.

  “What is he doing?” I ask.

  “He’s making it up to you. Relish it,” Tedi says as everyone intently watches the Jumbotron. I don’t know if anyone is even watching the game at this point.

  Aiden’s walking through hallways to the locker room, takes off his skates in what must be record time, and puts on a pair of slides. Then he sets off in a run and “I’m Gonna Be (500 miles)” by the Proclaimers plays as he runs, the camera shaking behind him the entire time.

  He goes through more tunnels, then comes out at the entrance to the arena, but he looks up and realizes he’s in the wrong section. The crowd laughs, and he goes back through the opening. He comes out in two more wrong sections and the crowd thinks it’s hilarious, but I just want him next to me. The wait feels excruciating.

  I watch the camera intently, and when he pops on screen again, he’s holding flowers, chocolates, and a big teddy bear wearing a shirt with the number thirteen on it. I sigh, but I search all over for him, unable to see where he is in the arena. Then he taps me on the shoulder, and I turn to see him.

  My breath catches in my throat. “Hi.”

  “Flowers, candy, a teddy bear, and…” He looks for a place to set them down and the woman behind him takes them. “My jersey?”

  He holds it up, and I raise my hands so he can put it over my head.

  “I was a complete asshole, and I promise you, it will never happen again. If I don’t have you, none of the rest of it even matters.” He takes my face in his hands. “You are my life. Hockey is just what I do.”

  “Kiss me,” I say.

  “Every day for the rest of my life.” He places his lips on mine, and all the issues we’ve had to get to this point fade away.

  Deep down, I knew it the first night too—this is where we need to be. Once he closes the kiss, the crowd roars and we look over to see that we’re on the Kiss Cam.

  “Log into your account.” I hand him my phone.

  “Why?”

  “Just do it.” He only ever went back onto social media to get me to stick around and I’m not going anywhere now, so this is the least I can do for him.

  He types in his password and logs in… then I press Delete Account.

  There is no user ID AidenDrake13

  Epilogue

  Aiden

  “So I finally got you into the therapist chair,” Paisley, the Florida Fury psychologist, says when I sit down.

  “Yeah, but I don’t really need any help. I don’t wanna brag, but I kind of figured out my shit all by myself.”

  “Is that so?” she asks, jotting something in her notepad.

  “Yep. Don’t you watch ESPN?”

  “Oh, are we talking about your public declaration of love?”

  “I suppose you have to keep up with hockey and stuff if you’re going to try figuring us out.” I tap my temple. I lie down on the couch because after the night I had with Saige, I got no sleep. She’s insatiable and I love her for it. “Actually, I do have one question, doc. Do you think there’s a time when it’s too early to ask someone to move in with you?”

  “Do you want to ask Saige to move in with you?”

  I laugh. “Well, a moving van is showing up at her place right about now.”

  It’s been two weeks and I’m still on a winning streak. We may not make the Cup, but we have the points to make the playoffs. Regardless, I’m done waiting. I want Saige with me all the time.

  “And you never told her or even asked her?” Paisley asks.

  “Well, no. I should have, right? Probably.”

  She taps her pen on the paper. “You know what I find amazing with all you hockey players? You think you can just do whatever and suffer the consequences later.”

  “We’re professional athletes. Plus, I know Saige wants to live with me. She barely goes home. I thought I was romantic, sending a truck to surprise her.”

  “And the fact she now has to pack all her stuff without warning?”

  She’s clearly a woman, thinking of all these issues.

  “They’ll pack for her. All she has to do is drive over to my house.” My phone vibrates in my pocket. “Should I answer? It’s probably her. We’ll put her on speaker.” Before waiting for a response, I answer and smile, seeing her name on the screen. “Hey, babe.”

  “Don’t babe me. Why is there a moving company here?”

  “They’re going to take your stuff to my house.”

  “Aiden,” she says in that tone I know will make her a great mom to our kids someday. “We didn’t discuss this.”

  “Do you not want to move in with me?” I ask. “By the way, Paisley is here if you have any concerns.”

  “Paisley? Aiden, what the hell is going on?”

  “Oh no, Paisley’s the team psychologist. She thinks I should’ve asked too.”

  “Glad to see someone there has brains. God knows your locker room is just full of egos.”

  I laugh because my girl is funny. “So you’re packing up? I’ll meet you at home?”

  She sighs and says nothing for a second. “Yes.”

  “See, I knew she’d say yes. Okay, babe, we’re just wrapping up. I’ll be at home waiting for you.” I cup my hand over the phone. “Naked in the hot tub.”

  Paisley rolls her eyes.

  “Bye, Paisley. Good luck with the job,” Saige says with a laugh.

  “Thanks, I need it.”

  I hang up with my girl. “See? I’m great. My life is fantastic.”

  “Well…” Paisley says.

  “So I’m gonna go.” I stand from the couch.

  “We still have forty-five minutes,” she says, eyeing her watch.

  “I hate to waste time. Plus, I told the next guy his time is now.”

>   She looks baffled.

  “Maksim Petrov.”

  “You got him here?” she asks. “Impressive. I’ve been working on the two of you.”

  “I was really busy winning my girl back. See you later, nice talking to you.” I stand and leave, keeping the door open for Maksim, who’s waiting.

  Getting him here took some heavy bribing, but I made him a bet and he lost. That’s the one thing hockey players don’t renege on. If you lose the bet, you do the time.

  Maksim blows out a breath and sits on the couch, looking irritated.

  “Have fun, you two,” I say with a wave.

  “I’ll be here, but I’m not talking,” Maksim says as I shut the door.

  Poor Paisley’s in for a boring hour.

  I rush out of her office and into my SUV because I’d rather be home with my girl on the first day of us living together forever.

  Need more Saige and Aiden? Don’t forget to read an extended epilogue BONUS SCENE! CLICK HERE

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  We’re pretty sure you guessed which Hockey Hottie is next! Maksim, Fury’s Russian defender, is about to find himself in a therapy chair across from a woman who drives him crazy… with lust!

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  “So, I was thinking…” I start while she places some veggies on her plate.

  “Is that an unusual act for you?” Before I can respond, she laughs and her hand lands on my shoulder. “I’m kidding.”

  The fact she couldn’t keep the joke going for longer than ten seconds says she’s either uncomfortable in front of me or not used to being a jokester.

  “The therapy. I gave you a hard time and I’ve had a change of heart. I’ve got two more sessions and I’ll happily come.”

  She looks around us.

  “What?” I raise an eyebrow.

  “I’m searching for the camera. Surely this is a joke you’re playing on me.”

  Finally, she puts a burger on her plate. I feared she might be a vegetarian. I’m not sure I could ever date someone with that kind of self-control. Then again, I can’t date Paisley for more reasons than whether or not she eats meat.

  “No joke. I gave you a hard time and now…”

  “The search-and-rescue mission you’ve had me on for the last three weeks isn’t cool. Mr. Gerhardt wants feedback on who’s coming to their appointments. I gave you a pass and said you stopped in last week but had an emergency and had to leave before our session commenced.”

  I stand still and take her in. She covered for me? Damn, that’s a turn-on. “Thanks. I’ll come in this week.”

  She nods and looks me over. “Thanks a lot, Maksim. I appreciate you changing the way this can go. I promise you, I won’t bite.”

  “That’s a shame, I like women who do.” The words fall out before I can take them back.

  She raises her perfectly sculpted eyebrows. For a second, I wonder if her pussy is as manicured as her eyebrows. “We really should set some ground rules.”

  The flush on her cheeks only spurs me to continue. I like being the reason she’s blushing. “What’s fun about ground rules?”

  “I can’t counsel you if you continue to hit on me.”

  I laugh and set my plate on the table, holding both hands up in the air. “Who said I was hitting on you? I’m merely vocalizing a preference.”

  “You need to stop flirting with me.”

  I slide my tongue across my bottom lip and take her in for the tenth time since she arrived. She’s in a short sundress that shows off more skin than I’m comfortable with. I’m sure every man here is checking her out and wondering what she looks like with it pooled at her feet. I’m no exception. I won’t deny that I want her, but I get that right now isn’t the best time, what with her being my therapist. Maybe after the third visit, I can ask her out and see where this could go. Even if it’s only for one night, it’d be worth it.

  “Stop looking at me like that,” she whispers. Her gaze darts around the immediate area as though she fears someone is watching us.

  “We’re both single,” I say.

  “I know, but we can’t pursue anything. Things have to be professional.”

  “These limitations you’re trying to put in place only make me want to push your boundaries, doctor. See how far I can get.”

  Her cheeks flush pink again, and I bite my lip, imagining what she looks like when she comes. “I’m serious, Maksim.”

  “Your tone doesn’t match your words.”

  “Listen, I’m attracted to you, I can’t deny that. But I’m your therapist now, so all of that is off the table. We have to forget the kiss.”

  Ah. I arch an eyebrow. “So you think about it?”

  She shakes her head, picks up her plate, and stalks off.

  “It’s okay to admit. I beat off to the image of you in my head,” I say before anyone gets closer.

  Her feet stop on Aiden’s deck, and I silently will her to turn around. Say she’s up for breaking the rules and let’s go back to her place. But instead, she shakes her head and continues walking over to the table where Jana is.

  “Damn, I need to get myself under control,” I say to myself.

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  Freebie

  BOOK ONE, Lessons from a One-Night Stand (CLICK HERE) in our much loved BIG FAMILY ROM COM series, The Baileys, is FREE on all retailers!

  Series is complete and ready to BINGE!

  Cockamamie Unicorn Ramblings

  This is our second crack at a sports romance series. In the first one we wrote snowboarders, and the stories were much shorter. We decided we wanted to write sports romance since a lot of our readers were asking us to and knew we wanted to write either football or hockey. After a poll in our reader group, Piper Rayne’s Unicorns, it was close, but hockey won out. This posed some problems. One being that neither one of us knows a ton about hockey. Not even Piper and she’s from Canada. I mean we can appreciate the suits as the players come into the arena, the chiseled abs under the jersey, and follow along with the game but that’s about it. Thankfully, her husband does and was at our beck and call for any questions we had about ways to describe the game in a way that we didn’t sound like complete amateurs. I mean feelings, humor, love story we got covered, but play by plays in hockey, um… not so much.

  So, once we knew we had Piper’s husband on board, we set up to write our first book. We purposely wrote a prequel to go in an anthology in January with the first three guys from Florida Fury, so we knew where Aiden and Saige’s story was going. We had to put the final touches on but not much came as a surprise to us. Maybe this means we’re actually evolving into the authors who have their shit together. Probably not. Lol.

  Rayne loved writing sports romance again. Athletes are her go to one-click keyword and she fell hard for this new world we’re writing. So much so, she might just push for us to write a lot more than the Hockey Hotties. In our true nature, family is always at our core of our stories and if you’ve read The Baileys or The Greenes, we hope you’ll see that the Florida Fury are no different. The team is a family, just a found family.

  We hope you fell in love with our guys. Each one brings something different to the table. Book boyfriends for everybody! :P

  Without our team you wouldn’t have any of our books! Seriously, they take on a lot of the work off our hands so that we can write!

  Danielle Sanchez and the entire Wildfire Marketing Solutions team.

  Cassie from Joy Editing for line edits.

  Ellie from My Brother’s Editor for line edits.

  My Brother’s Editor for proofreading.

  Hang Le for the cover and branding for the entire series. Love! (Wait until you see the rest. *swoon*)

  The Cover Lab for supplying the vision of Aiden for us.

  Bloggers who consistently carve o
ut time to read, review and/or promote us.

  Piper Rayne Unicorns who love our characters like as much as we do!

  Readers who took the time to read our story when there’s so many choices out there.

  Maksim is next and we cannot wait to unfold his layers—and his Russian curse words. You just know there’s something behind this tough Russian who keeps everything sheltered inside. We’ll be sitting there right next to Paisley as she uses her therapist techniques to get him to open up!

  Xo

  Piper & Rayne

  About the Author

  Piper Rayne is a USA Today Bestselling Author duo who write “heartwarming humor with a side of sizzle” about families, whether that be blood or found. They both have e-readers full of one-clickable books, they're married to husbands who drive them to drink, and they're both chauffeurs to their kids. Most of all, they love hot heroes and quirky heroines who make them laugh, and they hope you do, too!

  Also by Piper Rayne

  Hockey Hotties

  My Lucky #13

  The Trouble with #9

  Faking it with #41

  The Greenes

  My Beautiful Neighbor

  My Almost Ex

  My Vegas Groom

  The Greene Family Summer Bash

  My Sister’s Flirty Friend

  My Unexpected Surprise

  My Famous Frenemy