Offside Hearts (Love and Hockey Book 1)

Holy fuck.

Those are the only two words running through my mind. Holy fuck. Ho-ly fuck.

It’s her.

The woman from the elevator.

I can’t believe she’s standing in front of me, holding her hand out to shake like we’ve never met before. And next to her is our marketing director, Ted Gallagher, wearing his usual brown suit and asking the team to help show Margo the ropes since she’s new to the hockey world.

Not that I’m even really listening, because… holy fuck, it’s her!

After I shake her hand, she goes around and personally introduces herself to the rest of the team, and I do my best to stand off to the side and pretend I’m not staring at her.

But I am staring at her. I can’t seem to pull my eyes away. I knew she was pretty when I saw her in the elevator, golden blonde hair spilling over her shoulders and dove gray eyes framed by long lashes. Even with the lights off, I was attracted to her—the way she sounded, the way she smelled. Now that I’m getting a good look at her in the daylight, however, I can really appreciate just how fucking gorgeous she is.

Breathtaking.

In all honesty, I have to remind myself to breathe as I watch her greet Cameron Taylor and Zach Collins, two of our rookie defensemen.

Her long blonde hair falls in soft waves just like it did the first day I met her, and when she laughs, her cheeks flush a little in a way that makes my heart stop. She has a few freckles across her nose, and her smile is so warm and friendly that it lights up the room. Her eyelashes are long, and when she steals a glance my way, I can’t help but think that she may have batted them at me just a little bit.

“I want you all to cooperate with Margo,” Mr. Gallagher is saying, and the only reason I’m able to snap out of my little trance is because he’s looking directly at me as he says it. I’m the team captain, so I’m the one who sets an example for the rest of the Aces.

That’s what his expression is saying, and I give him a nod so he knows I’m listening.

“In order for Margo to do her job,” he goes on, “she’s going to need things from you guys—pictures, quotes, that sort of stuff. I know some of you are less interested in the social media and marketing side of things, but just remember, Margo is here to get us more fans. More fans means more ticket sales, and more ticket sales means more money in your pockets. Understand?”

A couple of my teammates sigh, clearly unenthused by the idea of having to pose for even more promotional photos and the like, but I smile.

“Not a problem,” I say, glancing around the room and daring any of the guys to challenge me on this one. “We’ll do whatever it takes to help Margo help us.”

As I say her name, I look once more in her direction and am reminded of the sound she made when she came in the elevator. It was the sexiest little moan, as if she was trying to keep her voice down but I made her feel so good that she couldn’t help but let it escape.

I’ve been thinking about that sound a lot since she and I had our little run-in, but I tried not to focus too much on the memories of our time together because I didn’t think we’d ever see each other again. I looked for her after I was escorted out of the building the other day, but she was nowhere to be found among the milling bodies in the parking lot.

And now she’s here.

Standing right in front of me, although she’s not making eye-contact.

I don’t blame her. I’m sure she’s just as surprised to see me as I am her, and that she’s trying to remain professional in front of her new boss. But still, I think this is a sign. We were meant to run into each other again. We only got a taste of each other that day in the elevator, and it definitely wasn’t enough.

Fuck, is this what people mean when they talk about fate?

I bite back a grin, grabbing some pads from my locker even as my attention stays focused on the stunning, mysterious woman who just waltzed back into my life.

“Well, we’ll let you guys get to practice,” Mr. Gallagher says, leading Margo out the same door they came in. “Work hard out there on the ice! Margo and I will be watching, so let’s show the newest Denver Aces team member what we’re made of.”

I know a few of the guys are rolling their eyes. There’s nothing more annoying than non-players talking like we’re all ‘in this together.’ I’m not trying to diminish the hard work that everyone behind the scenes does, but there’s the team and then there’s the team. Ted’s a great guy, and he might help us sell a few more tickets, might land us a few coveted brand deals, but it’s me and my guys who actually put the puck in the net.

On their way out the door, Margo looks over her shoulder, and for just a moment, our eyes meet. The moment she realizes I’m looking back at her, she quickly turns her head and disappears into the hallway without so much as a smile or a wave.

“You don’t think she’s going to make us do little dumb videos, is she?” Theo asks once the door closes behind Ted and Margo. “Or do one of those stupid dance trends or challenges or whatever.”

“She’d better not,” Grant grumbles from the corner.

“Come on, guys, don’t be so negative,” I say, putting the rest of my pads on and gearing up for practice. “It’s like Ted said, Margo is here to help us. If she does her job well, it means more money for us. So I think we should just suck it up and do what she asks, even if it’s a little embarrassing or feels silly.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Reese comments, backing me up like he usually does. We’ve always had a good dynamic as captain and assistant captain, and it helps that we’re good friends. “Besides, she seems nice enough. I’m sure she’s not going to bother us too much.”

“No, she won’t,” I say. “It’ll be great. I think she’s gonna be an awesome addition to the Aces. She seems really cool.”

When Reese frowns at me, I realize I might’ve gone on a little too much, so I decide to come clean.

“I know, because I’ve actually met her before,” I add.

“You met her already?” Sawyer, one of our first line defensemen, lifts a brow as he joins the conversation. He’s a down-to-earth guy and one of our best players. “When?”

“A few days ago.” I laugh, scrubbing a hand over the back of my neck. “We actually got trapped in an elevator together. Remember, I told you guys I was in that building downtown for an interview when they had an electrical fire? She was there too, and we both got stuck in the elevator when the power went out.”

“Huh. Sounds hot.” Theo smirks wickedly.

I shake my head, punching him in the shoulder. “Nah, it wasn’t like that.”

Even though it was exactly like that, I’m not interested in getting into the details with my team. I’ve never been big on bragging about my extracurricular activities, and since Margo is going to be working here now, it feels even more inappropriate to tell everyone what happened in the elevator.

Plus, there’s something about what happened between us that feels different than a random hookup or something. She came on my leg, and it was seriously hot as fuck, but it was… sweet too. I could tell how tense she was, how terrified she was of falling, and it made me want to protect her. Not that I could’ve actually saved her if we’d fallen, but it means something to me that I was able to alleviate her fear for a little while.

“Anyway, I’m just trying to say that she’s very easy to talk to, and I think she’s going to be a great asset to the Denver Aces,” I say, redirecting the conversation away from the elevator breakdown. “Now come on. If we don’t hit the ice soon, Coach is going to come in here and start lecturing us about time management again, and I know none of you want that.”

We head out onto the ice and begin warming up. I try to keep my head down and my mind focused as I stretch out my legs and skate around the edge of the rink a few times to get the blood flowing. My teammates pass me the puck whenever I come around, and I shoot a few trial goals into the empty net. All but one go in.

After about ten minutes, Coach Dunaway tells us to get set up for a scrimmage, and the real practice begins. I get the puck right away, and as I’m gliding down the ice with speed and control, I glance to my right—and my gaze locks on Margo. She’s sitting a few rows back in the visitor seats, her eyes trained on me.

There’s a second where I almost trip over my own damn skates, distracted by the gorgeous soft gray of her eyes, but I manage to recover and keep from making a complete fool of myself.

And now that I know she’s watching me, I’m ready to show her what I’m made of.

I wink, and I think I see the slightest bit of a smile pulling up one corner of her mouth, although it doesn’t break free. Then I shift my focus straight ahead and send the puck flying toward the goal.

It veers off to the right quite a bit and completely misses the net.

Shit.

That was such an easy shot. Grant wasn’t even paying attention to me. It should’ve gone right in, but instead, the puck didn’t even make contact.

Guess I didn’t recover quite as well as I thought.

“Nice one,” Theo calls as he skates past me with a cocky smile.

“Shut up,” I mutter under my breath.

“Noah!” Coach Dunaway yells from the sidelines, his bald head gleaming under the lights. “Get your head out of your ass and into the game!”

I wave to let him know I hear him, then draw in a deep breath. I let it out slowly and slap my helmet to remind myself where I am and what I’m doing. Once my mind finds its way back to the task at hand, I cut across the ice again.

For the rest of practice, I play like a rockstar.

Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing whether or not Margo notices, because in order to stay focused, I have to refrain from looking in her direction no matter what.

The second Dunaway calls it a day, however, I allow myself to look back at where she’s sitting—only to find her standing up and leaving with Ted. Usually, I stay on the ice for a while after practice, going through some exercises and helping out any of my teammates who are in need of some one-on-one training, but not today. I push the toe of my skate into the ice and glide as fast as I can toward the tunnel.

In the locker room, I don’t even bother changing. I tear my pads off and skates, then hurry out into the hallway in a sweat-soaked undershirt and athletic pants. I catch Margo just as Ted is dismissing her.

“Head upstairs,” he says. “That’s where the HR offices are, and you can sit down with them and fill out all of the paperwork before lunch.”

“Sounds good,” she replies with a smile. “Thanks.”

Ted waves and takes off toward his office, and Margo heads for the stairs. I run after her.

“Hey, wait up!” I call out, and she stops just short of the stairway. She seems a little uncomfortable as I sidle up next to her, so I offer her a friendly smile and don’t stand too close. “Margo, it’s me.”

“I know,” she says stiffly.

“Right, but when I say ‘it’s me,’ I don’t just mean, hey, it’s me, Noah Blake, captain of the Denver Aces and your new colleague. I mean… it’s me. Noah. The man you were trapped in an elevator with last week.”

She sucks in an audible breath. “I know that too.”

“Okay.” I rub the back of my neck. “Well, I, uh, I looked for you after they got me out of the elevator, but I couldn’t find you. I was hoping to talk to you about… what happened. And maybe to ask you for your number.” I laugh a little under my breath. “For the record, that’s not usually the order I do things in. Typically, I ask for someone’s number first, then I give them the ride of their life, but—”

“I’m going to stop you right there.” Margo lifts her chin, holding up a hand. “You can’t have my number. And I’d really appreciate it if you could not mention what happened between us the other day. To anyone.”

My eyebrows shoot up at the firmness of her tone. Women don’t typically respond to my charm in this way. Usually, all I have to do is smile and crack a joke or two, and they melt, but that’s definitely not what’s happening here. Still, I can understand why she’d want to keep what happened close to the chest. She probably doesn’t want everyone to get the wrong impression of her, and I’m sure she’s not the type of girl who does that sort of thing all the time.

Hell, despite my reputation as a player, I’m not the type of guy who does that sort of thing all the time either.

What happened between us was definitely a first for me.

“Look,” I murmur, stepping a little closer and lowering my voice. “If you’re worried about me getting the wrong impression of you, don’t be. Our adrenaline was high, you were scared, the lights were off…”

“I remember,” she whispers, her voice a little rough. Then she clears her throat and adds, “You don’t have to remind me what happened. You just have to stop bringing it up, okay?”

“But why?”

“Well, for starters…” She folds her arms definitively across her chest. “Because I don’t want to jeopardize my job. This is a very good opportunity for me, and I need to stay focused. Keep my eye on the ball and remain professional. And secondly? Let’s just say, I know the sort of guy you are, and I’m not interested in being another notch on your bedpost.”

With that, she turns and starts to head up the stairs.

“So you don’t believe in fate then?” I say, following after her. “You don’t believe this is a sign?”

She scoffs. “What are you talking about?”

“Destiny!” When she reaches the top landing, I reach out and gently grab her arm to stop her from walking away so fast. “This is destiny. We’re meant to be.”

She lets me hold on to her for a second, then shakes her arm free. Still, she doesn’t turn around or walk away just yet. Her gaze is locked with mine, and her lashes flutter as she blinks once, then twice. Then she lets out a little laugh, shaking her head.

“No,” she insists. “It’s a coincidence. That’s all.”

“I don’t believe in coincidences.” I lower my head a little to catch her gaze. This close, I can see the way the flecks of blue in her eyes almost make the gray seem to shift color. “I believe we were meant to run into each other again, and now that we have, it would be a shame to waste this opportunity. It would be like… like spitting in the face of the universe. And you don’t want to do that. That’s how you end up with some bad karma.”

She laughs again, but I can’t tell if it’s with me or at me.

“You’re ridiculous.” She tucks a wayward lock of blonde hair behind her ear as she speaks, and my fingers twitch with the urge to brush back the few strands she missed. “We didn’t run into each other for any reason. It’s just because Denver isn’t actually that big of a place. We happened to share a moment together in an elevator one time, but that’s all it was. A moment. And now it’s over. We were like two ships passing in the night, or whatever that saying is. Two strangers passing each other in an elevator. That’s it.”

“That’s hardly fair,” I point out, my voice dropping. “We did a lot more than simply pass each other, if you recall.”

I smile, and she looks down at her feet. Her cheeks are growing red, and an image of her flushed, post-orgasm face pops into my head.

Fuck, she’s so damn hot.

“And furthermore,” I go on. “We’re not strangers.”

She scoffs. “You don’t know anything about me!”

“Not true,” I shoot back. “I know that you’re afraid of being trapped in an elevator. And what your favorite flower is. Your favorite food. Your favorite song. That’s not nothing.”

“Fine.” She rolls her eyes, but for the first time throughout this interaction, she graces me with a genuine smile. “I’ll admit, you’re making some decent points, but there’s one concern of mine that you still haven’t addressed.”

“What’s that, Sunflower?” I ask, dragging my bottom lip between my teeth.

“Your reputation,” she says bluntly. “You think I didn’t do research on the team before I started? You’re a total playboy. And you know what? That’s fine. But I’m not a puck bunny, okay? I’m not a one-night stand kind of girl.”

“I never said you were—”

“Hey, Noah!”

I turn to see several of my teammates walking up the stairs toward us. I’m about to tell them I’ll meet up with them in a few minutes, but Margo raises a hand in greeting, basically inviting them to join us.

“Hi, guys,” she says warmly, her demeanor shifting to one of friendly professionalism. “It was so fun watching you practice today. I can’t wait until I get to catch a real game.”

I know what she’s doing. She’s summoning the guys over so that our conversation will come to an abrupt end. There’s nothing I can do to keep them at bay, not without making it obvious that I want to talk to Margo alone, so I smile and act like I’m happy to move on and talk about something else.

“Thanks.” Reese tells Margo. Then he shakes his shaggy blond hair out of his eyes as he checks his phone. “Hey, are we still going out tonight? My girl wants to know where to meet us.”

“Yeah, we’re still going out.” An idea strikes me, and I turn to face Margo once more and throw out one last-ditch attempt. “Care to join us? Drinks are on me.”

She takes a while before responding, staring at me the whole time. I can practically see the wheels in her head turning, weighing the pros and cons of accepting my offer, and it makes me wish I could read her thoughts. For a long moment, I’m certain she’s going to turn me down… but then at the last second, she shifts her friendly gaze toward Theo as she bats her eyelashes.

“Sure,” she says brightly. “Sounds like fun. You’ll be there, right?”

Theo, who never misses an opportunity to flirt with a pretty girl, smirks and says, “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

As I watch their interaction, a twinge of jealousy shoots through me, accompanied by something else that’s even stronger. It’s a feeling I’m very familiar with, something I experience every time I step onto the ice.

Margo has just started a competition.

Not between me and Theo, whom I can tell she isn’t actually all that interested in. She’s just started a game between me and her.

A game I’m fully intent on winning.