Read Breakout (A Dallas Demons Hockey Romance) for Free Online Page B

through The One Online Dating Service ever, but still. I’ll keep my expectations in check. It’s nothing more than a friendly gesture on his part to invite me to the truck, and I’m being friendly in return by stopping by to say hi.
    Simple.
    My phone buzzes inside my purse. I retrieve it and see I have a text message from Kenley’s sister, Amanda, who is like my surrogate big sister.

    Have you met the Adonis yet?

    Eeek! What, did Kenley tell Amanda I was about to go see Niko now?
    She must have.
    I’m totally going to kill Kenley when we get back to our seats.
    I’m about to respond when Amanda sends another message:

    Go in there and tell him you’ll take him on the audio board as soon as the game is over

    My face burns hot at the thought. Take him? I don’t even know him!
    And before I can even blink I receive another text, this time from Kenley:

    I know you are standing there staring at the truck. HE WANTS YOU TO GO IN SO DO IT DON’T KEEP THAT MAN WAITING

    I so need to get a new best friend and surrogate family after tonight.
    I start texting Amanda back, but now I get a message from CiCi, who is Amanda and Kenley’s mother. CiCi is like my other mother. And mother #2 has obviously been informed of the situation and is on the Niko train as well:
    You need to have Ryan and Nate keep tabs on this Greek One for you. I’ll check Tumble to see if I can find anything on him.

    I drop my phone into my Michael Kors tote like it’s on fire. Ugh! Why is everyone acting like this is a date?
    My phone buzzes again, no doubt with CiCi claiming she found something scandalous about him on Tumblr, or Tumble, as she’s fond of saying. Or Kenley is demanding to know if I’m on the truck or worse, Amanda asking if I’m planning to seduce him in the truck after they go off air.
    I glance at my watch. The intermission should be starting any minute now. Enough time for me to get on the truck, discreetly hang out until Niko goes to break, and then say hi.
    I make my way to the truck, climbing up the rickety steps to the door. My heart is pounding in my ears. I’m stupid excited to see Niko and congratulate him on his opening night, but I’m also nervous, too. What if I’m bothering him? I don’t want to be a distraction. But Niko wouldn’t invite me if he thought I would be. He’s all about the Dallas Demons right now.
    And certainly not about me.
    I open the door to the truck and several heads turn and glance in my direction, but they quickly go back to work. The sound of the telecast blares throughout the truck. There’s a huge bank of monitors showing all different kinds of angles of the hockey game. People are on headsets, typing at keyboards, working every part of the telecast from graphics to replays to calling for a different camera shot. It’s fascinating but not what I want to see right now.
    But as I scan down the first row of seats in front of the monitors, I find what I’m looking for.
    And then my heart stops beating.
    Niko is sitting in the producer’s chair, watching the monitors with his arms crossed. I swallow hard as I drink him in. He’s wearing a crisp white dress shirt, opened a few buttons worth at the neck, which is gorgeous against his dark olive skin.
    “Joey, let’s go to that Johansson offensive stat please,” he says, his deep voice giving instruction to a crew member on headset. I watch as Niko studies the monitors and nods when the graphic he wants flashes up on a screen. “Perfect, thanks.”
    He’s smoking hot in that dress shirt. My eyes drink him in, starting with the five o’clock shadow shading his jawline, down to his broad chest in that designer shirt. He seems so authoritative and in control of this telecast, and his presence fills the truck. It might be his first time producing a Dallas Demons telecast, but you’d never know it from the way he was directing his crew.
    Then he lifts his left hand to his face, rubbing it across his jawline, and once again I see the