Underneath It All (Storm Series) (6 page)

She held up her phone. “I e
-mailed myself.”

“Good thinking.”

Alaina gave him directions and a half hour later they arrived at the store. When they walked in, Rob grabbed a cart and whistled. “This place is huge. I’m glad we have a list. Maybe some idea of where to start, at least?”

“The list is only going to help so much, though, since I’m sure
I have more than I can afford.”

Rolling his eyes, Rob said,
“We’ll see.” Sweeping a hand toward the ceiling where the different departments were delineated by signs, he asked, “Where to first?” When Alaina hesitated, he continued, indicating the aisle all the way to the right. “Start at this end and work our way through? That aisle is marked furniture.”

“We can start there. I was looking online and I saw this set of cubbies. They would be great for the children to put their stuff in. Right now they’ve got those old boxes on the
floor, and I’d love to get those out of the way.”

“Excellent. Let’s go find one of those.”

She remained rooted to the spot even though he’d begun to walk. “They’re expensive.”

Rob stopped short and turned
, keeping a tenuous hold on his patience. “Stop worrying about the money.”

“I can’t.”

“I’m telling you to.” He backtracked and found himself cupping her face, stroking the soft skin of her cheeks. “Are you listening to me? Do not concern yourself with how much any of this is costing. Seriously. You’re killing my buzz.”

She bit her lip
, seemingly caught between a desire to smile and genuine concern. He gently pulled with his thumb until she released her lip. Then he ran his fingertips down her cheek. No matter how many times he told himself to leave her alone, Rob couldn’t stop touching her.

“Now are you going to pick out a cubby thing
y, or are you going to leave me to my own devices? You have no idea what I’ll end up with…”

Alaina grinned then and his breath caught. His other hand joined the one already caressing her face and he leaned down
to brush his lips to hers even as his brain screamed at him. What if Alaina only allowed his advances because she was grateful for his money? Man, he’d hate that. Despite his reservations, even an angry two-hundred-sixty-pound enforcer barreling toward him wouldn’t stop him, and Rob kissed her again, harder. After a moment of hesitation, she stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his neck.

If he’d had his way, no matter what his brain said
, he would’ve had her horizontal in about two seconds, his tongue exploring her as his hands discovered if the curves more in evidence today were as soft as they appeared. Thankfully some part of him was still paying attention, and he pulled away before he embarrassed them both. Her face and neck were flushed bright red, and he’d bet she looked exactly like that in the throes of passion.

Dammit. Shouldn’t have worn jeans.
And he could hardly adjust himself in the middle of this store to relieve the pressure. Rob ground his teeth.

“Probably not a good idea,” Alaina said.

His brain was completely fried. “What?”

“You and me.
This can’t be.”

Irrational anger clawed at him.
Here he was, horny as hell and wanting to get to know her better, and Alaina seemed completely against the idea. That pissed him right the hell off. Crossing his arms over his chest, he said, “Give me one good reason why.”

She huff
ed then said, “We live in two totally different worlds. You drive a brand-new Escalade, I drive a beat-up Corolla. I teach kindergarten to inner-city kids for a pittance. You play professional hockey for a boatload of money.”

Rob slashed the air with his hand. “All that’s surface stuff. Give me a
real
reason.”

Pointing in the general direction of the furniture, she croaked,
“So, the um, cubbies?”

“You can’t think of a real reason.”
At least that was encouraging. Rob wasn’t one to quit when there was a chance to succeed, and all he needed was the glimpse of hope she was giving him.

“I can. I
…have a lot on my mind.” Alaina cleared her throat, looking away. “Let’s go.”

“
This isn’t over.” He let her wander ahead so he could get his wayward body under control, but that wasn’t easy as his gaze locked on her luscious ass like a freaking homing pigeon.

Get a hold of yourself, you horn
dog.
His treacherous brain flooded with images of the two of them twisted up in the sheets of his bed. Rob groaned.

Alaina pivoted to face him.
“You okay?”

Was that out loud?
“Fine.”

Deep breaths, you idiot.
Try not to scare the hell out of the poor woman.

“What do you think
of this one?” She pointed to a cubby that had three rows of five opaque boxes plus some open storage.

Rob
looked the item over. “I really have no idea. Are the boxes big enough for what you need?”

“They’d be a lot better than what the
kids are using,” she answered, pulling one of the boxes that slid inside each cubby out for inspection.

“Then get it.”

She turned to him. “Just like that.”

“Sure,” he answered with a shrug.
“If you don’t like it, another teacher can use it.”

“You make
this whole thing sound so easy.”

“I’m trying to get to the heart of things.
And force you to spend the money.” He grinned. “What else is on your list?” He looked over her shoulder as she checked her phone. “You prioritized the thing? Wait, is that color-coding I see?”

She
glared, raising an eyebrow. “Are you laughing at me?”

“Not at all.” Putting his hands up, he continued
, “I’m not surprised you had a really smart and logical way to do things.”

“Uh-huh.
” Alaina turned her attention back to the list. “I really want an easel and some art supplies.”

“
Let’s go.” He did his best not to stare at her ass as she led him all over the store, but it was a close thing.

They stocked up on paint, paper, brushes, crayons, and some other things.
Rob forced her to get some fun stuff like foam adhesive shapes, clay, and a bunch of rubber stamps. He spied a twenty-pack of glitter in every imaginable color and picked it up. “This is cool. I bet the girls would go nuts for these.”

“Probably.
I usually can’t afford to buy frivolous things like that.”

Tossing
the glitter in the cart, he said, “You buy the staples; I’ll find the cool stuff.”

“Fine by me.
Even getting normal supplies like construction paper is incredibly exciting—you have no idea.” Alaina looked more relaxed than he’d ever seen her, smiling and without worry lines creasing her beautiful face.

Rob tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
Alaina blushed, but he noted the small, pleased smile she couldn’t hide. “I like making you happy.”

Since when have I gone out of my way to bring a smile to a woman’s face for any reason other than an orgasm? What is this woman doing to me?
He dropped his hand in shock, taking a step back. “Where were we going?”

They began to walk again
, and as they rounded the corner out of the arts supply area, she turned to him. “Thank you again.” Then with a self-conscious smile, she asked, “What should we look at next?”

“You wrote down the easel you wanted?
I didn’t see anything like that in with the art supplies.”

“You’re right. I didn’t either. The stuff I had on the list was from a place online. Maybe they don’t have any here.”

“They must. Let’s ask someone.”

Soon they were in possession of an art easel, which Rob asked them to set aside, along with everything they already had in the cart.

Regarding the huge pile, Alaina muttered, “This is insane.”

“This is smart,” he countered. “Now we have more room
in the cart. I’m a genius, you know. Sometimes an evil genius, but a genius nonetheless.”

Alaina
laughed. “Good thing we brought your truck. I wonder if we’ll even get all this back to the school in one trip.”

“We can come back or have
the store deliver everything. Whatever you want.” He shrugged. Rob wasn’t sure why this was such a big deal, but he didn’t want Alaina stressing over everything.

“Whatever I want,” she echoed. “I’m not sure anyone’s ever said that to me.”
Shaking her head, she repeated, “Whatever I want. Wow.”

“Criminal.”

Leaning up on tiptoe, she kissed him on the cheek. “You’re a good man.”

Rob
’s face flamed. Normally he was able to take a compliment and move on, but for some reason they meant more coming from Alaina. “Keep shopping.”

Rob
told Alaina to keep shopping until he was sure her protests that she had enough were sincere. They checked out and he handed over his card. They were loading boxes into the bed of his truck when she gasped. “Oh my God, Rob, I had money. I cashed that check and gave the money to the other teachers, but I had my share. Here, let me return it.” She started to dig around in her absurdly large bag, but he stayed her hand.

“Keep it.”

“No. No way. I couldn’t possibly-”

He wasn’t going to let her give back the money and had to think fast.
“Buy books. That’s one thing I noticed they didn’t have here. As you know, reading is important.” He winked, and she looked off in the distance, biting her lip, seemingly debating with herself. “It’s yours. Buy books. Seriously. If you try to give that money back, I’ll just call some little-kid book place and have them deliver a couple of crates.”

Alaina snapped her gaze to meet his.
“You’d do that?”

“Damn right I would.”

She bit the inside of her cheek now, and he consciously had to keep his hands at his sides to prevent her from doing further damage to her gorgeous mouth. “Fifteen hundred dollars is a lot of books.”

“So get a shelf for them too.” He helped her into
the truck then jogged around to his side.

Once he was inside and had started the
engine, she asked, “Do you always throw money around like this?”

He winced.
So many people assumed professional athletes spent money indiscriminately, but at least for many hockey players, it wasn’t true; still they got lumped in with all the others. The question didn’t surprise him, but her tone didn’t give a clue as to how she felt.

“Not at all.”
Pulling out of the parking space, Rob said, “Most of what I make goes into investments for after I retire. But this is a cause I believe in. I believe in those kids. But more than that, I believe in you.” Rob heard a sniff and glanced at Alaina. “Oh, baby, don’t cry.”

“Happy tears. You’re an incredible man
; you know that?”

He smirked. “So I’ve been told.”

Alaina laughed through her tears. “Modest, too.”

“Oh, yeah, that too. I’m known for it.”
He smiled, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

“
Why do you do that?”

Rob knew what she was talking about, but still said, “Do what?”

“Make light. This is an
enormous
thing you’re doing. Amazing. Fantastic. I don’t think I even know enough adjectives to let you know what this means to the children. This will change their lives.”

“I hope so.”

“Everything you’ve done means more to me than you’ll ever know.” Alaina’s voice broke on the last word, and he wanted to pull over and take her in his arms.

Any similarly crazy thoughts
went by the wayside as his phone rang. Sebastian showed on the caller ID of the Bluetooth screen, and Rob put the call through his car speakers, grateful to not have to answer her. “Hey, Seb, what’s up?”

“What’re you doing tonight?”

“Nothing, why?” Alaina was looking out the window, and Rob was sure she was trying not to eavesdrop, but in the confines of the cab that was pretty much impossible. “By the way, Alaina’s with me and I’ve got you on speaker, so you can say hi if you want.”
Subtle.

Yeah, right.

“Hi Alaina. I’m Sebastian, one of Rob’s teammates. I taught Rob everything good he knows. The rest? Well, I did my best.”

“Hey! I resemble that remark,” Rob answered.

Alaina laughed. “You guys should take your act on the road. Hi, Sebastian.”

“Actually, this is perfect.” As soon as the words left Sebastian’s mouth
, Rob groaned to himself.

Don’t embarrass me
. I’m begging you.

“Sarah and I were going to ask Rob if he wanted to have dinner at our place. You too, Alaina.”