Hot Ticket (18 page)

David was shaking his head in disbelief. “I had you pegged all wrong. I was so sure you were this neglected rich girl who came to the city to escape parental disapproval.”

Tierney blushed a little. “I kind of like that you thought that. The real me is so boring in comparison.”

“I don’t think so.”

They caught each other’s eye and looked away quickly. David was so much easier to talk to than Tierney had imagined. And their shared background . . . she wanted to know more, but it seemed masochistic. It was better for both of them if she left the room now.

Tierney stood. “I should get going.” Not sure of what else to do, she extended a hand to David. “Thanks for all the fun and, um, have a good rest of the season. I’ll see you next year, I guess.”

“With your clothes on,” David joked nervously.

This time Tierney blushed deeply. “Yes.”

David’s expression was thoughtful as he continued to hold her gaze. “I’ve really enjoyed our, you know—”

“Incredibly hot sex?”

“Yeah.” He looked relieved that she’d said it for him.

“Me, too.”

“I’ll miss it.”

“Me, too.”

“But it’s for the best,” David insisted.

“Absolutely.”

“I’ve enjoyed talking to you, too,” he added quietly.

Tierney swallowed. “Ditto.”

He leaned over, planting a tender kiss on her cheek that lingered. “Take care of yourself, Tierney.”

“You, too, David.”

Starting toward the door, Tierney felt an expected wave of sadness sweep through her. She and David might not be an actual couple, but they did have a relationship in a certain sense, didn’t they? And now that they’d discovered things in common, it shouldn’t surprise her that she was feeling
something
.

“Tierney?”

She was just about to step over the threshhold when David called her name. She turned.

“Yes?”

David cleared his throat. “Maybe we should have one final encounter just to tie things up, you know? Farewell sex. Something to remember each other by.”

“You know, I was thinking the same thing,” said Tierney, closing the door. Her heart was beginning to drum as she walked back toward him. “End things the way they began.”

“Exactly.” David whipped his fleece off over his head and hurled it to the floor. “Symmetry. Symmetry is important.”

“And closure,” Tierney added, kicking off her shoes. “Let’s not forget closure.”

“Closure’s definitely important,” David agreed, hurriedly unzipping his jeans and snaking them down over his hips.

Heat swam through Tierney at the sight of him standing there in his briefs. He had a wonderful body, sculpted to perfection, she imagined, through years of arduous athletic training. She often remarked to Aggie what a pity it was he spent most of his time obscured behind a goalie’s mask and heavy pads. Between his good looks and his perfectly conditioned body, Tierney could easily picture him as a model.

There was lust in David’s eyes as he kicked free of his jeans and sauntered toward her, feral as a mountain lion. The look on his face—predatory, enticing—had Tierney in a frenzy as she tried to tear off her own clothing. She was burning for want of him, the need to feel his heated skin slide against hers for one final time as real as an ache.

“Here, let me help.” Tierney lifted her arms high so David could pull her sweater off over her head. It landed on the floor next to his fleece.

“I hate good-byes,” Tierney lamented breathily as she freed herself of her own jeans and shimmied them off.

“Me, too,” agreed David, stepping into the gap between them to deftly unhook her bra and slide it off her shoulders. His lips sought hers even as his nimble fingers began toying lightly with her nipples. The effect was like a depth charge to Tierney’s libido. She didn’t want to play, nor did she want to toy. She wanted frenzy. Abandon. Oblivion.

David gave it to her. His mouth and hands were everywhere—her mouth, her breasts, the curve of her shoulder, her hips—as he pushed her up against the nearest wall.

“Ever do it standing?” he growled into her ear.

Tierney closed her eyes, shaking her head weakly. She felt desperate, legs trembling as he stripped her of her panties and pressed himself against her. Breathless, mind spinning faster than her body could keep up, she struggled to move her hands to his briefs, but David caught her wrists and moved her hands away.

“I say when.”

Tierney swallowed, only too willing to obey. After three years together, he knew how she liked to be kissed as well as how she liked to be touched. A low moan formed on her lips as his hand reached between her legs to tease and caress. His fingers moved slowly, expertly, then quicker as she made her increasing pleasure known. Finally, she was there, nails digging into the smooth flesh of his back, as explosion after joyous explosion ripped through her. Tierney thought her legs might give way beneath her as she began sliding down the wall, deliriously weak with satisfaction. It was David who kept her upright, gripping her hips with his hands.

Supported, Tierney struggled to catch her breath. “That was . . . that was . . .”

“I know,” David murmured, pressing hard against her. Tierney could feel him: rigid, pulsing, in need of release. Slowly coming back to herself, she slyly snaked her fingers over the waist of his briefs, slipping her hand inside. “Oh, Jesus,” David groaned as Tierney gripped him.

Enjoying being the one in control, she began moving her hand up
and down his shaft. David’s eyes lazed shut, and for a moment, his head fell back as he gave himself over to her ministrations. But just when she thought he was close to the point of no return, his eyes sprang open and he gruffly removed her hand. Tierney’s smile was all tease as her fingers insisted on returning to his briefs, yanking them down while David sprang free. He grabbed a condom from the nightstand and slipped it on. There was nothing stopping them now.

Tierney felt giddy as David reached around to cup her buttocks and lift her slightly. Bracing her back against the wall, Tierney wrapped her legs around his hips. David’s mouth had rediscovered her breast, his tongue wildly licking and flicking as Tierney’s body shuddered in anticipation. Staring deep into his eyes, she lowered herself onto him, the moment of fit making them groan in concert. They smiled at each other as Tierney began to ride him, slow at first, and then wildly, with abandon, their guttural cries of pleasure puncturing the silence of the large, dark room.

Their last time . . . Tierney knew she should slow things down so she could savor every moment. Instead, she yearned for utter conflagration, the sort that expunges all memory and sense. She was riding him hard now, each slam of her body against his bringing her shockingly close to complete loss of consciousness. There was a split second when she thought he might halt her moving just to torment her. But one look at the wild desire in his glazed eyes told her there was no stopping. David pushed back, plunging hard and deep, sending both of them over the line into sheer euphoria. Sometimes, Tierney thought dazedly as she felt herself going under, saying good-bye wasn’t so bad.

Sunday, 12:56
A
.
M
.

“Stay?”

Snuggled in David’s arms, the question took Tierney by surprise. It had always been part of their arrangement that she stay
the night. The fact that he was double-checking meant things were really over. Neither of them could take anything for granted.

“Of course,” she said, burrowing deeper beneath the covers. “I do have to set the alarm for early, though. I’m on at seven.”

“You know me: I always sleep through it.”

True, Tierney thought to herself. For the past three years, that had indeed been one of the few things she
did
know about him: how heavily he slept. Now, thanks to the blizzard, she knew even more. Too much more. Enough to make this afterglow feel different from all the others. Bittersweet.

They settled back into companionable silence, holding each other tight. Now that they’d killed the allure of mind-blowing, almost anonymous sex, it couldn’t hurt to ask a few more questions, could it?

“Do you have any siblings?” Tierney asked.

David propped himself up on his elbow, seemingly eager to talk. “I have an older brother, Les, who took over my dad’s farm, and a sister, Debbie, who’s a stay-at-home mom. You?”

“Only child.”

“Really?” David seemed excited.

“Yes. Why?”

“Nothing, it’s just that”—caution stole onto his face—“when I imagined all that stuff about you, one of the things I imagined was that you were an only child. Kinda weird that it’s true.”

“I guess.”

“Where do you see yourself in five years?” Tierney realized she wanted to keep talking, keep
him
talking, because after she left this room, things would really be over. Suddenly she didn’t want that, nor could she bear the fact that he did.

David chuckled. “Is this a job interview?”

“No, just curiousity.”

David gave her a penetrating look.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he murmured. “Just that curiousity can be dangerous, as I’m rapidly discovering.”

“Does that mean you don’t want to answer my question?”

“In five years, I’d like to have five more Stanley Cups under my belt.”

“What about your personal life?” Tierney ventured.

David coughed nervously. “I guess I’d like to be married. Maybe have kids eventually. You?”

“Same.”

“But you’d want to raise them here, right? I mean, you wouldn’t want to go back to Nebraska or anything.”

“Oh, no way.”

“Well, that’s good,” he said with relief, then seemed to catch himself. “I mean—for you.”

“Right.”

She traced a line up and down his bare chest. “Do you do this with other female concierges in other cities?” It’s a question she thought about every year when he came to town. Now that there was nothing to lose, she decided to ask it.

“No.” David looked mildly offended. “Do you do this with other athletes who breeze through here?”

“No.”

“So I’m special,” he teased.

“So am I,” Tierney teased back.

“Yeah, you are.”

The bittersweet feeling had gone, replaced by something deeper. Tierney squeezed her eyes shut, worried she might cry. David held her tighter than ever. Both of them were done with words for now. They had to be.

Sunday, 6:45
A
.
M
.

Tierney made a point of not looking at David as he slept before creeping out of his hotel room for the final time to make her way down to the lobby to start work. Much to her horror, it was still
snowing. The airports and train station remained closed, and people were still being advised to keep off the roads, which were virtually impassable. She had no doubt Chicago would be declared a disaster area by the end of the day.

The sight of Marius behind the concierge desk gave her a start. As far as she knew, neither of them was responsible for working the overnight shift. Had something changed? Had she been so preoccupied with David that she hadn’t kept abreast of Willy Nugent’s latest directives? Suppose Nugent had been looking for her and hadn’t been able to find her?

“Hey,” she said to Marius, assuming a facade of calm. If she’d screwed up, Marius would let her know in no uncertain terms. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Couldn’t sleep,” Marius sighed, “so I thought I’d come on down. Got nothin’ else to do.” He shook his head mournfully. “The sad truth is, I can’t fall asleep unless I’ve got my woman wrapped around me. I’ve missed her bad the past two days, snoring and all.”

Tierney nodded appreciatively even though a lump was forming in her throat. Normally, she liked hearing bits and pieces about Marius’s life. This morning, it made her feel melancholy.

She glanced out the window. It was still dark, but the early morning sky remained illumined with snow. “I don’t know if I can take another day of this.”

“You and everyone else.” Marius stepped out from behind the desk so he and Tierney could exchange places. “By the way, where have you been hiding?”

Tierney began fussing with the pile of paper on the desk. “What do you mean?”

Marius’s dark eyes zeroed in on her. “I mean, we were all given sleeping assignments, and Julie in reservations told me she was paired with you, but she hasn’t seen you in the room once.” He raised his eyebrows. “You got something you want to tell Marius?”

“No.” Fierce heat rushed to Tierney’s cheeks. So spending time getting to know David
had
taken its toll: she knew nothing about room assignments! She made a mental note to tell Julie to mind her own business, then turned back to Marius, knowing her blush had betrayed her. “It’s a long story. A long-running thing.”

“It’s one of those hockey boys, isn’t it?”

Tierney gasped. “How did you know that?”

“You said long running. Those Herd boys are here every year, stirring up trouble.” Marius looked perturbed. “Why’d you want to get mixed up with one of them for? Those boys got rocks in their head, and they don’t even have their own
teeth
. If you want an athlete, old Marius can hook you up with one of the Bulls like
that
.” He snapped his fingers.

“I’m not ‘mixed up’ with one of them, all right?” Tierney fought back tears. “And I don’t have a thing for athletes. We have sex once a year, okay?”

“Well, that’s one thing you and I share,” Marius joked as he unbuttoned his jacket, pointing a finger at her in warning. “Just be careful, all right? If Nugent finds out you’re cattin’ around, you’re gonna find yourself outside with the Abominable Snowman.” He stifled a yawn. “I’m going to try to get some sleep. See you at three.”

Sunday, 10
A
.
M
.

“How’s your headache?”

David ignored the smirk on Thatch’s face as he settled into one of the chairs in his teammate’s room. Word had come down that they were stuck in Chicago for another day. What had started out feeling like an adventure—ooh, snowbound, that could be fun!—now felt like a hardship. Married players were missing their families, and everyone was out of sorts. There were only so many games of poker you could play and so much TV you could watch
before even that lost its appeal. It didn’t help that they hadn’t even been able to practice the past few days.