Breakout (A Dallas Demons Hockey Romance) (24 page)

I lean back from him. “More?”

“Come on, I wouldn’t just give you a Kevin Bacon game for Christmas, would I?”

I grin as he goes back over to the tree and picks up two more things. I can see one is in an envelope, the other in a small flat box.

“This is the next one,” Niko says, handing me the envelope.

I grin as I tear it open, and inside I find a Starbucks gift card.

“Oooh, thank you,” I say. “You know I’ll use it.”

“That’s only for when I’m on the road,” Niko explains. “Because when I’m not on the road, I’ll be bringing you coffee in the morning.”

“I love you with the intensity of a thousand suns,” I declare.

Niko lifts an eyebrow. “That’s a lot of suns.”

“I have a lot of love for you,” I say right back.

Niko flashes me a smile in response to my words, one that reveals the dimple in his cheek. The one I’ll never get tired of seeing for the rest of my life.

“Final present,” Niko says, passing me the flat box.

I unwrap the paper and slowly lift the lid off the box. Inside I find a silver necklace, one with an infinity charm and two small silver disc charms attached, one with an ‘L’ and the other with an ‘N.’

“Infinity,” I whisper, moved by his gift.

“Eternity,” Niko says. “That’s what I found with you. What we have is for eternity, Lexi.”

“I love it so much,” I say, moved by the heart behind the gift.

“Merry Christmas,” he whispers, leaning in to kiss me.

“Merry Christmas,” I say back as his lips meet mine.

I break the kiss and hand him the necklace. “I want to wear it. Will you put it on?”

“Of course,” Niko says. “Turn around.”

I turn around and Niko gently drapes the necklace around my neck, hooking the clasp together.

“There,” Niko says.

I gently run my fingers over the charms, thinking I am the luckiest girl in the world, to find love with a man like Niko.

“Let’s see it,” Niko says.

I turn toward him. “It’s perfect,” he says.

“I agree,” I say, smiling.

“Baby, there’s one more thing I have to clarify with you,” Niko says, a serious expression on his face.

“Of course,” I say, linking my hand with his and squeezing it.

“What coffee are you ordering after the holidays?”

I can’t help it. I see the teasing glint in his gorgeous eyes and I burst out laughing, and he does, too.

“You’ve been patiently awaiting my answer on this since forever,” I declare.

“Yes. My patience is running out,” Niko deadpans.

I shift over so I’m straddling him now. I put my hands on his face and stare deeply into his eyes.

“Okay. Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“A plain latte.”

Niko furrows his brow. “Come again?”

“You heard me. Gingerbread during the holidays, plain the rest of the year.”

“You mean, all this time you’ve been saying you’re going to wait for the next flavor . . .”

“I lied,” I say, flashing him a wicked grin. “It was too much fun to see how concerned you were about it.”

“Oh, you are in so much trouble,” Niko says, flipping me onto the couch and beginning to tickle me.

“Stop!” I laugh, as he knows my stomach is my weak spot. “I’ll make it up to you!”

His eyes take on a sexy gleam. “It has to be good, baby.”

“Mmmm, I think I can make it up to you. Now come here. I need to make love to my boyfriend.”

And as Niko’s lips find mine, I know I’ve found my soul mate. My love, the man who understands me like nobody else can. We were destined to meet, destined to fall in love, and destined to share a future together.

For eternity.

Epilogue

July

Canal D’Amour, Corfu Island

Greece

“Now you know why I wanted to go for an early morning swim,” Niko says, wrapping his arms around me as the turquoise waters lap around us. “I wanted to share this with you alone.”

I stare up at the rock walls around me in awe. I’m in the Canal D’Amour, a tunnel between two rocks that leads to the sea.

“Niko, this is breathtaking,” I say, staring up at the sandstone rock surrounding us. “I’m so glad you made this my first experience in Greece.”

We’d arrived the day before. I’m running on excitement now, as I should be jet lagged and exhausted, but when Niko insisted we get up early to come to see the Canal D’Amour, I eagerly agreed. We staked out a spot and left our towels and tote on some chairs.

Then we swam over to the canal, and it’s even more breathtaking in person than in the photos I looked at online before our trip. And to have the Channel of Love be the first thing I experience in Greece is nothing short of perfect.

“This
had
to be the first thing we did,” Niko says, interrupting my thoughts.

I wind my arms around him, loving the feel of his wet, dark skin against mine. “I think the Channel of Love is appropriate for our first day.”

Niko kisses me, and oh, how I love the intimacy of this kiss in the water, in our own little secret tunnel for the moment.

Niko breaks the kiss and smiles at me. “I swam here last summer. It’s been quite a year since then, hasn’t it?”

I play with his hair. “Let’s see. We met. Fell in love. You got a permanent job as the Demons producer, and I will be full-time starting in August. My best friend got engaged and is getting married. And now we’re celebrating in Greece for two weeks. It’s been the best year of my life, Niko.”

The water laps around us, and I think about everything I just said. As it turns out, the Blades interview made TATS realize they had a good young producer on their hands, one they should lock down as quickly as possible. And they did by offering him a three-year contract with an option clause.

My situation was a little different, but after having a long talk with Tony Esposito, and approaching Grace Quinn in the marketing department to do freelance editing and video work for them over the summer, Tony and Grace agreed to create a joint position for me.

During hockey season, I work on the Dallas Demons. Over the summer, I will help Grace with marketing needs. It’s perfect, as I’m getting to learn more things by doing presentations for Grace. My position has been approved and will go full-time in the fall.

“And you met my crazy family,” Niko adds. “And you didn’t dump me as a result.”

I laugh. His brother, Dimitri, is a sweetheart and I get along really well with him and his wife, Mara. We’re all connects on Connectivity and they comment all the time on posts I put up.

His father, David, is nice to me. I think he knows with the way Niko is with me there will be no Greek girl from the neighborhood entering the picture, and he’s accepted that.

But then there’s Niko’s mother.

Ariana has always been polite but extremely distant. I know Niko’s had some knock-out, dragged-out fights with her over me but she’s given that up since spring.

“Never,” I say, grinning at him. “Your parents might never love me like they would love a girl they chose for you, but I know I make you happy. That’s all that matters to me.”

“You do,” Niko says, stroking my face with his hand. “Our life is
ours.
Not theirs.”

“And we live it by being true to ourselves,” I add, thinking of the tattoo on his arm. “What anyone else wants us to be doesn’t matter.”

Yes, my dad keeps mentioning career tracks to Niko and he always listens politely, but his focus hasn’t changed. Niko’s heart and soul belongs in the producer’s chair on a production truck, and that’s where he wants to be.

And that’s where I want him to be, too.

“I love our life together,” Niko murmurs, his hands sliding down to my hips as he kisses me again. “And I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I say happily.

We’re silent for a moment, simply listening to the sounds of the sea lapping around us.

“You know the legend of this place, right?” Niko asks, breaking the silence.

I nod. “That if you swim through it, you’ll find the love of your life on the other side.”

Niko grins. “That’s one of them.”

“Oh? There’s more?” I ask, curious.

He nods. “Yes. I’ve heard a couple of different versions. Another one is that if two people swim in here they’ll fall in love.”

I grin. “Oh, I think we’ve got that one covered.”

“We do. And then there’s another one. Couples who swim here will remain in love forever,” Niko explains.

My heart swells from his words. “I like that one the best.”

“Me, too.” Niko slowly takes my arms and lowers my hands, so he’s holding them in his. “Lexi, last summer I swam through here thinking this legend was absurd. Yeah, right, I’d swim through here and meet the woman of my dreams. But it happened. Not right away, but it did. I found you, and I fell in love with you. All of you. Your passion for hockey, your drive for your work, your love of pop culture, your pajama bottoms, everything that makes you into the beautiful, sexy, loving woman I call mine.”

My heart starts to race as I take in his words.

“Baby, I love you,” he continues. “I don’t need to swim here with you to know that I will love you forever, but I can’t think of a better place to ask you to be my wife.”

Oh my God. My heart practically leaps inside my chest as I realize what Niko is about to do.

“
Θα με παντρευτείς
,” Niko says softly. “Lexi, will you marry me?”

Tears fill my eyes. “Yes,” I say. “Yes, I’ll to marry you. With the intensity of a thousand suns I’ll marry you.”

Niko’s face breaks out into a huge smile, one I know that matches my own.

And before he can say another word, I draw his face to mine and kiss him with all the love I have in my heart.

Niko breaks the kiss and stares deeply into my eyes. “I love you. I will spend the rest of my life loving you. I promised Andrew and Charlotte that when I asked for your hand. And I’ll keep my word.”

Tears fill my eyes. “You asked them?”

“Of course I did. You’re their daughter. I told CiCi what I was doing, too, because I know she’s like your other mother, and she’s important to you. And I told Kenley, Amanda, and Ryan, because they’re your family, too.”

Tears slip from my eyes. I love that he did that, that he went to my parents to ask permission first. And then to go to CiCi and my friends on top of that? It’s deeply respectful and so him.

“You’re amazing,” I say, my voice breaking. “And I promise you I will do the same. I’ll spend the rest of my life showing you how much I love you, Niko.”

“I have a ring,” Niko explains. “Obviously I couldn’t bring it to swim, but I had to propose to you here. I
had
to. But as soon as we’re back to the hotel I’ll get the ring out of the hotel safe and drop down on one knee for you.”

I cup his sexy face in my hands. “I don’t care about that. This proposal is perfect.
Perfect!
” I cry, my words echoing in the tunnel.

“Oh, so I can take the ring back?” Niko teases.

“No!” I say. “Oh, I can’t wait to see it!”

“Let’s go. But first we have to swim through the tunnel to the other side.”

I grin happily. “And we’ll remain in love forever after we do.”

“We will,” Niko says. “There’s no doubt.”

I have no doubt either. We both learned to embrace the people we are, to see that we are worthy of the things that happen in our life, and most of all, that the love we share is meant to be.

And as we swim out of the tunnel and into the turquoise waters of the Ionian Sea to our future together, I know for a fact the legend is true.

Also by
Aven Ellis
and
Soul Mate Publishing
:

CONNECTIVITY

Overachiever Mary-Kate Grant (who is indeed named after an Olsen Twin) has followed every rule to the letter to pursue her dream of working in TV programming. Ripping a page from the “hard work pays off” playbook, she takes an assistant level job at a Chicago sports network to break into the industry.

MK has no time or desire for a relationship right now—she is totally focused on her career and being independent, unlike the other women in her family.

But MK’s plans are run through the shredder when she finds herself working for William Cumberland, a British media mogul who made his fortune with Connectivity, a social media site. William blows into Chicago just like the winds off Lake Michigan and purchases the group of networks MK works for—and makes her his personal assistant in the process.

Suddenly MK finds her career plans in jeopardy. William makes her question everything she has ever thought and has the uncanny ability to see right through her. And for the first time in her life, MK finds herself not only questioning what she wants for her career but for her personal life as well.

Available now on Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/npzdr6c

WAITING FOR PRICE HARRY

Twenty-four-year-old Kylie Reed has always been a rule follower. Organized and cautious to a fault, her dreams for life are often filed away for future use—when she has a house, when she meets her future husband, when she has been at her visual display job at a chic Dallas boutique longer. Kylie always has a reason for living her life in the future, not in the present, and fears not living her life to the fullest and reaching her dream of becoming a fashion designer.

The only exception to rules, of course, would be running away with Prince Harry. But living in Dallas and not knowing Prince Harry make this a non-option.
 

Or does it?

Because when Kylie accidentally falls into the lap of a gorgeous ginger guy—yes, even more gorgeous than the real Prince Harry—all bets are off. Kylie’s life takes some unexpected twists and turns thanks to this encounter. Could this stranger be the one to show Kylie how to live in the present?
 

Available now on Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/paapxo8

CHRONICLES OF A LINCOLN PARK

FASHIONISTA

Recent college graduate Avery Andrews is ready to begin a new life in the big city. She’s landed an apartment in Chicago’s famed Lincoln Park neighborhood–and has her eye on the cute commodity trader just a floor above.

If Premier Airlines knew about her fear of flying, they never would have hired her to be their marketing assistant—but it’s not like Avery wants a lifelong career. Right now she simply wants a job to pay her bills . . . and fund a few little shopping excursions, too.

Her new lifestyle comes with a price tag, as Avery is not only faced with paying a ridiculous rent but finds she’s perceived as one of the vacant, husband-hunting fashionistas who live in the area. Avery resents this stereotype. So she doesn’t want a lifelong career, and she loves fashions she can’t afford, but that doesn’t mean she is empty-headed and spoiled, does it?

When an opportunity to participate in a documentary at work arises, Avery finds a two-fold solution to her problems. She’ll earn extra money for it, and the documentary will show her as a serious career woman, enabling her to shed that husband-hunting fashionista label for good.
 
When the camera is on, Avery attempts to be a motivated professional woman. But when she is challenged by Deacon Ryan, the videographer assigned to cover her story, Avery finds herself wanting things she was never supposed to want—like a lasting career—and Deacon. And Avery might just gain more from the experience than a perfect career image and extra cash to put in her Tory Burch wallet . . .
 

Available now on Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/mv87r8v

THE DEFINITION OF ICING

Kenley Hunter finally has everything sorted out. Fresh from studying chocolate making in Europe, she's gambling everything on her new business, Confection Consultations.

All Kenley wants in life is people to take her seriously, to see the person on the inside rather than the blond beauty on the outside. While pursuing her passion of chocolate, Kenley discovered people seek her knowledge. They see past the exterior and fall for the chocolate delights in front of them.

So with work as her focus, Kenley is ready to start her career in Dallas. Men are out of her recipe, because she fears that once they get past her looks, they’ll be disappointed in what they find. Kenley decides she's all about the chocolate now.

Or is she?

Because a chance meeting with new Dallas Demon hockey star Nate Johansson might change everything. Sent to Dallas in a blockbuster trade, Nate is somewhere he doesn't want to be, for reasons that have caused him heartbreak on multiple levels. Nate knows he will never trust a woman again after what happened to him in Minnesota.

But when he meets a woman with an intriguing name and a passion for chocolate, Nate isn't so sure about his theory. And he might just learn a definition of icing other than the one used in hockey with Kenley as his guide . . .

Available now on Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/pjh8fab

THE AUBREY RULES

(CHICAGO ON ICE SERIES BOOK 1)

Some of the Aubrey Rules to Live By:

*If I’m going to indulge in French fries, I must add extra time to the treadmill the next day.

*Always keep your work and private life separate.

*Being open to new experiences will never involve eating kale.

*Never, ever date a professional athlete.

For Chicago social media professional Aubrey Paige, the rules are everything. So much so that Aubrey has painstakingly written her rules for living into a polka-dot Kate Spade notebook that she carries with her at all times. It’s her personal guidebook to living her life. These rules are the Holy Grail—ones never to be broken. They guide her actions for everything, from dealing with workplace drama to finding a great guy to date. After all, these are her own rules, built from her life experiences and observations. So they have to be perfect, right?

Or are they?

Because when Aubrey meets a cute Canadian, she suddenly finds her rules being tested and challenged in ways she never dreamed possible. Beckett Riley is the shy, quiet, determined captain of the Chicago Buffaloes, a hockey team on the verge of turning the corner to becoming a winning organization. He’s Aubrey's opposite, with so many qualities that Aubrey had listed as ones she’d never want in a man.

Yet Aubrey finds herself drawn to Beckett in ways she’s never known. And when she unexpectedly finds herself working with Beckett, she wonders if rules are meant to be broken after all . . .

Available now on Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/oxbmobd

SURVIVING THE RACHEL

Bree Logan is ready to start her post-college life, but when she’s dumped by The One, unable to land a professional job, and has to move back in with her parents, she doesn’t think things can get worse until she ends up with her hair chopped into The Rachel, the infamous haircut made famous by the show Friends. Which is not good since it’s no longer 1994. But sometimes you have to go through challenges to get what you really need, and for Bree, could that include a different career and a romance with Jack Chelten, the boy-next-door?

Available now on Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/nnkzjfj