Losing Laurel, page 11
“I love you, but I don’t want to be a military wife. I’m not cut out for it. I think I want a divorce.”
“I just got back from a deployment and you’re divorcing me?” He gaped at her in shock.
“I don’t want this life, Gage. We’re a couple, and we’re supposed to be there for each other. You’re far more enamored with being a hero than being my husband and that’s not what I signed up for. I don’t want anything from your family’s money or your inheritance. All I want is some of the stuff here in the apartment because I won’t be able to afford to buy all new—”
“Wait. Stop. What the fuck, Laurel?” He threw the packet down on the counter. “You think I give a fuck about money? If I cared about that I would’ve had you sign the prenup Uncle Malcolm sent before we got married. I love you. I don’t want a divorce.”
“Are you getting out of the military?”
“What?”
“You only have a few months left. Did you re-up?”
He swallowed. Shit. This was not the time for this conversation. He’d meant to talk to her. The CIA had said he could. But not if she was divorcing him. What the fuck was he supposed to do now?
“Babe, I…”
“You did, didn’t you? I knew it. You know how I knew?” Her glare was frosty. “Because Rick’s wife told me. What do you think of that? Another guy’s wife knew before yours. How fucked up is that?”
Fucking Rick, he could never keep a secret. Sonofabitch.
“I told him I was going to talk to you about it,” Gage sighed. “The only reason he knows is because we did it at the same time. I’m sorry… It’s not inked yet. I really was going to talk to you first. I can back out.”
“But you don’t want to.”
He met her gaze guiltily. He didn’t. They needed him out there. His country needed him. The CIA needed him.
“You didn’t see the things I saw out there,” he whispered in a gruff voice. “You didn’t see the horror those people live. I want to help. I want to be part of it.”
“And I understand that. You just have to understand that it’s not what I want, what I thought our life was going to be. I’m sorry if that makes me shallow or less of a patriot, but you were only supposed to do four years. I won a medal in the Olympics and you missed it. I graduated from college and you missed it. My mother died and you not only missed the funeral, you didn’t even know it happened. That’s not a marriage, that’s an arrangement.”
“Laurie…” He didn’t know what to say. If she was serious about the divorce, he couldn’t tell her about the CIA. He’d been planning to, but once she started talking about divorce, he shouldn’t. It was too dangerous for both of them.
“There’s food in the kitchen,” she said, her voice edged with sadness. “I’m going to stay with friends tonight so you have time to think about what you want to do.”
“Seriously?” He stared at her incredulously. “I just got home from one of the most traumatic events of my life and you’re just going to leave me here with divorce papers?”
“I’m sorry.” She picked up her purse.
“Babe, we have to talk about this… I love you.”
“Apparently, not enough.” She turned and let herself out of the apartment.
* * *
Present Day
* * *
The buzzing of his phone brought Gage back to the present and he answered with a low greeting. “Chains. Where are you?”
“In the lobby. Can we meet?”
“Uhhh…” Gage scrambled to come up with a way to spin this. Laurel would want and need to know where he was. He hadn’t had a chance to tell her why he’d invited Chains to meet him here but maybe this was the time to do it without giving anything away that would upset her. “Laurel’s here.”
“Here as in…” Chains paused. “Your room?”
“Well, yeah.” Gage couldn’t even hide the happiness in his voice.
“And she knows nothing?”
“No.”
“Past or present?”
“Correct.” He paused. “But I have to read her in to why you’re here. Can you give me thirty minutes and then come up to the suite? We’ll have breakfast and can talk here with some privacy.”
“Absolutely.” Chains disconnected and Gage padded into the bedroom, crawling onto the bed and nuzzling Laurel’s shoulder. “Morning.”
“Hi.” She yawned and stretched, giving him a sleepy smile. “Why are you awake so early?”
“Have a friend coming for breakfast that I’d like you to meet. Someone I knew…in the military.”
Her eyes popped open. “What?”
“He’s how I found out what Sylvester and the others were up to. He works for a security and protection company now, so I asked for his help. I called him yesterday to do some digging behind the scenes about Matt’s overdose—maybe find out where the drugs came from—and he’s here now, so he must have news. I don’t want to hide anything from you anymore.”
“I appreciate that.” She sat up. “Okay, let me freshen up.”
“You’ve got thirty minutes before he gets here. I’m ordering breakfast.”
“Let’s hope that goes better than it did yesterday,” she smiled, sliding off the bed.
* * *
Half an hour later the three of them were eating breakfast, with Chains and Laurel chatting like old friends.
“Are you excited about the baby?” she was asking as Chains told her about his family.
“A lot more than I thought I’d be,” he admitted. “We already have two kids, and we share them with their fathers, Jamie and Viggo, but this one is a little different because she’s mine. I adore Simone and J.J., they’re part of Emilie so I love them the same, but I never thought I’d have my own. In my years with MI6 it wasn’t feasible and after I retired, I didn’t think I was capable of love anymore, but knowing how much I love Emilie, I can’t imagine how it’s going to be when I get this one in my arms.”
“You’re going to be a great dad,” she predicted with a smile. “When is she due?”
“August.”
“I admire your wife. It must be tough to have two kids, be pregnant, have a husband who travels, and run a nightclub full-time.”
“We have lots of help,” he chuckled, “and normally I don’t travel. I made an exception for Gage, but my job is at the club with Em.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here. Although I don’t think there’s going to be any trouble, there’s definitely a lot of scrutiny of the team right now, so I’ll feel better having you around as an added layer of security.” She sipped her coffee as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
Which made Gage wonder what the hell she was thinking.
“I don’t think there’s any correlation between his overdose and the firing of the coaching staff,” Chains said, “but I don’t think it hurts having me around for the playoffs, just in case.”
“I have some business in D.C. that I have to attend to in the next week or so,” Gage said. “I’ll feel better knowing Chains is on the road with you.”
“That works. Anyway, I have to get ready for the morning skate,” she said, standing up. “It was lovely to meet you, Chains. When do your duties officially start?”
“I’ll be incognito during the skate,” he said, “hanging out with Gage. Otherwise, my official title will be team security, so I can have all access while you’re on the road.”
“Then I’ll see you at the arena. I have to ride over with the team.” She smiled at Gage. “See you later?”
“You will.” He snaked out an arm and pulled her against him. “We don’t have to hide anything from Chains, and I’m not going to miss out on an excuse to kiss you.” Which he did, fully and passionately, until she playfully swatted at him.
“Stop that. He may work in a sex club but that’s not his job here. See you later!” She waved and let herself out.
Gage watched her go warily. She was either mad or unsettled about something; she was just too much of a lady to show it in front of Chains. What the hell had he done now?
20
The Blizzard won in Anaheim that night and there was a ton of press waiting for them after the game, so it was late before Laurel got to Gage’s suite. In spite of all the publicity surrounding the team right now, they’d suddenly become a tight, cohesive group and were playing their asses off. She wanted to think she had something to do with it, but they were just doing what they’d been trained to do—with the added incentive of making the playoffs for the first time. They’d won three in a row now and only needed four more to reach their goal.
“Hey.” She smiled at Gage, who was lounging on the bed in nothing but his boxers, a bottle of champagne chilling next to him. “What are we celebrating?”
“Being together?”
“Okay. Let me get comfortable.” Though she had her own room, she’d had her things delivered here so she would have what she needed. The team didn’t need to know where she slept and she had her phone if anyone was trying to reach her.
She pulled on the big T-shirt she usually slept in and realized she didn’t own a single piece of lingerie anymore. She’d gotten rid of everything she’d had during their marriage, and the times they’d been together since had simply been a matter of getting undressed and having sex. Now that there was actual sleeping involved, she didn’t know what to do. There was no help for it tonight, though, so she padded out to the bedroom and accepted the proffered glass of champagne.
“Do you want to talk?” he asked as she joined him on the bed.
“About?”
“Us. This. Whatever.”
“Nope.” She smiled. “I want to enjoy us, this…whatever.”
“I’d like to finish the conversation we were going to have yesterday morning.”
“I’d like to get to know you all over again, fall in love with you again, and slowly work through those issues. I can’t focus on something so serious in my personal life when we’re in the middle of a playoff run, you know?”
“As long as you promise we won’t sweep this under the rug.”
“I promise.” She held out her glass. “To us.”
“To the future.”
“To the playoffs.”
“Amen to that.” They clinked glasses and drank deeply.
She hadn’t planned on getting drunk but champagne went down too easily and as they began kissing and touching, the drinking seemed to spur them on.
“I want you,” she whispered at some point, the need to be intimate suddenly all she could think about.
“I haven’t spanked you in a long time,” he murmured. “You still into that?”
“What do you think?”
“I wish I had a flogger with me, but I guess we’ll have to make due with my belt. What do you think?”
She nodded shakily as he hurried into the closet, got his belt and came back. He set it aside and pulled her to him, plunging his tongue into her mouth and kissing her until she was straining against him. Without breaking the kiss, he slid her shirt up to cup her breasts. He pinched her nipples and the spot between her legs clenched with anticipation. He moved his hands to the round cheeks of her ass and squeezed, rubbing and stroking before sliding between them. She was already soaking wet and the moment he landed the first blow she would get even wetter.
He was teasing her, though, sliding between her folds and pushing two fingers inside of her.
“You’re excited,” he said softly.
“Always.”
She closed her eyes as he pushed her over the back of the couch and plunged in and out, his thumb teasing her back hole. The first crack of the belt made her jump, but he still had two fingers inside of her and the faint burn was just as arousing as it had ever been. That was the thing with Gage; he knew exactly what she needed. They’d never had to set limits because he instinctively sensed all of them. He would never hurt her and they both knew it, so she barely flinched as the next few blows came. Each sting of pain was followed by his warm, tender hands stroking the spot in time to what his fingers were doing inside of her.
“I don’t want to come this way,” she panted. “Gage…”
He freed his erection and gently but firmly pushed inside of her, keeping her overloaded with sensations. She clenched tightly, drawing his cock in further and he finally broke the kiss in order to push her torso down further and adjust his angle.
“Oh, god,” Laurel was already gasping for air, that uptick in breathing that always told her when she was close.
Damn, this was going way too fast. It wasn’t often they did anything like this and she wanted to enjoy it. He smacked his hand down this time, first on one cheek and then the other, and then gripped her by the hair. He pulled her up against him and turned her head so they could kiss again.
Laurel had no idea what had come over her, but having Gage inside of her while—sweet Jesus, what was he doing with his cock? It swirled within her like an automatic drill. Just bigger. And thicker. And oh-god-she-was-going-to-come-again if he didn’t stop. She wanted to make this last just a little longer.
“Easy, baby.” As always, he read her like a book. He stopped moving and bent for another kiss.
The minute he started moving and doing that swirly thing with his cock again, she was done. Shit. He’d just pinched her clit hard enough to keep her attention on him and then he was jackhammering into her, so hard she literally saw stars.
“Oh-god-oh-god-oh-god!” She came again and again, her cries loud enough to drown out the TV she’d forgotten was on.
“I’d forgotten how much fun that was,” he said softly, gently pulling out but holding her against him.
“You did not.” She chuckled as she struggled to catch her breath. It had been a long time since she’d come that hard.
“Well, it was a good reminder.”
“I think we need to remind each other to get to bed,” she teased.
“That too.” He scooped her up in his arms. “But we don’t have to sleep, do we?”
* * *
The Blizzard won in San Jose and again in Vancouver. They were on a roll, not just showing up to win, but playing the best they ever had. Kane notched another hat trick, Jake and Sergei were on fire, and Aaron had another shutout. They were a well-oiled machine at the moment, so Laurel wasn’t planning to change anything. The lines she’d adjusted after benching Matt seemed to be working so there was nothing to do but work on the penalty kill and defense. Aaron needed a break so the back-up was going in tonight in Calgary and she was as nervous for him as she was the team. The playoff dream was two games closer now and while she urged them to take it one game at a time, it was hard not to be excited.
Of course, Matt’s situation had put a damper on things, but Laurel was good at compartmentalizing, so she didn’t pay a lot of attention to the press coverage. It seemed to be bothering Gage and she wished she had time to reassure him, remind him that she’d been under scrutiny as a female coach most of her career, but she was as busy as he was distracted. Most nights they fell into bed and made love until they absolutely had to fall asleep. They talked over breakfast and then they were off and running, her with the team and him with whatever business dealings he had going on. She didn’t know much about what he did anymore, other than the Blizzard, but there simply weren’t enough hours in the day and she chose to enjoy what was happening now instead of worrying about things she had no control over anyway.
“Hey.” Dani fell into step beside her as they got to the arena for the game against Calgary.
“Hi.”
“You have some explaining to do, lady,” Dani spoke under her breath.
“What’d I do?” Laurel asked, wide-eyed.
“Why are you sleeping in Gage’s suite?”
Laurel’s cheeks turned pink. “None of your business,” she whispered.
“I thought we were friends,” Dani whispered back.
“We are, but not during games!”
“You’re getting some,” Dani giggled.
Laurel bit her lip to keep from laughing too. “Go away,” she hissed, snickering a little.
“Yes, boss.” Dani walked away chuckling and Laurel smiled after her.
She’d been particularly close to Dani when they’d been training for the Olympics. She was one of the best hockey players in the world, and it bothered Laurel that she was working as an assistant trainer for the Blizzard instead of playing professionally. Dani refused to play for what female players were paid and Laurel respected that; she just hated it for her. And for herself. She’d been that good once upon a time too, but she’d fallen in love with coaching and Dani seemed to enjoy being a trainer. It also allowed her to work with her husband, something that had to be a bonus.
Now that she was in a similar situation, Laurel understood it better. It was nice being able to share anything and everything about her day with Gage. It had only been a few days, and they’d been distracted by the Matt situation, but it was still nice being so tightly entwined in each other’s lives. They’d had that in the beginning when they’d met in college, and she hadn’t realized how much she missed it until now.
“Hey, beautiful.” Gage came up behind her and breathed the words softly into her ear.
“Hi.” She turned, smiling.
“Good luck tonight.”
“Thanks.” She winked and headed toward the dressing room.
She caught sight of Chains joining some of the guys on the team in a pre-game soccer match. They did it before most games as a way to quell nervous energy and warm up and Chains apparently loved soccer. He was as strong and athletic as men more than a decade younger than him and she paused to watch for a moment.
“The new bodyguard is hot,” Bristol whispered, coming up behind Laurel.
“He’s very married, but yes, he’s attractive.” Laurel glanced at her.
“Figures. Every decent guy I meet is either married or on the Blizzard, and since I can’t date anyone on the team, I don’t think I’m ever going to get laid again.”
