Read Skating on Thin Ice: Seattle Sockeyes (Game On in Seattle Book 1) for Free Online Page B

roommate on road trips, stretched on his hotel room bed and tapped out a text, most likely to one of the hordes of puck bunnies who followed him wherever he went.
    “I don’t trust him.”
    “I don’t trust any of them, but they don’t pay me to trust them. I ignore all that management bullshit. You should, too.”
    “I just want to play hockey.”
    Cedric snorted. “If only it were that simple, my friend.”
    “What’s his story with Lauren?”
    “Why do you always look for ulterior motives. She’s working with him, as mandated by the league, simple as that. Hell, haven’t you noticed how the good ol’ boys’ club who runs this team treats her like a glorified secretary and never gives her credit for anything?”
    “Yeah, it fucking pisses me off. She might be a woman, but she knows her hockey.”
    “Well, Ethan seems to listen to her.”
    “You’ve noticed that?”
    “I notice everything. Nothing gets past these eagle eyes.” Cedric leaned back against a stack of pillows, flipping through channels.
    “And here I thought you were just a pretty face.”
    Cedric chucked a pillow at him and pegged him in the head. “Better work on your reflexes, Coop, or Dog will nail your ass in the next game.” Dog Colphan was Montreal’s enforcer, and he seemed to have a personal grudge against Cooper, but then most guys like him did. Cooper was that good.
    Cooper threw a pillow at Cedric which glanced off his shoulder and launched a flurry of pillows around the room, but the flying pillows were interrupted by pounding. Loud pounding. That incessant pounding on the door could only mean one thing.
    Cooper sighed and opened the door before the jerk woke the entire floor. Brick, their goalie, strutted in, holding a pizza box high over his head and followed by his partner in crime Alex Markov, known as Rush by all his teammates. The two young guys couldn’t possibly go to sleep like the rest of the team. Brick sat the box down on the small table in the room with a flourish and a bow.
    Cooper rolled his eyes, but Cedric dove for the pizza, kicking pillows out of his way as he did so. He hefted a huge slice in each big hand.
    “Don’t you fuckheads know we have a curfew?” Cooper pointed out, even though it was pointless. They listened to him on the ice, but not so much off it. At least they weren’t out drinking and hitting on women or even worse, getting in fights. Thank the hockey gods for small favors.
    “We are hungry.” Alex spoke with a thick Russian accent and rubbed his flat stomach to emphasize his words.
    “What better place to break curfew than in the captain’s room?” Brick grabbed a piece and slouched in a chair, propping his huge feet on the edge of Cooper’s bed. The kid wore nothing but a pair of shorts. Along with the bare feet, this was his usual mode of dress everywhere but on the rink. He hated clothes and loved Florida because he could get away with wearing minimal clothing. Coop wasn’t sure how Brick had ever survived growing up in rainy and cold Vancouver, BC.
    Cooper sighed. As if he didn’t have enough to worry about with the pending sale of the Giants and his suspicions that all was not what it seemed, but he had to ride herd on these clowns. It was enough to make a man consider early retirement.
    Not that Cooper would ever consider that an option.
    Not until he skated around the arena with the Cup hoisted high over his head.
     

Chapter 4—Clipping
    Ethan stood looking out the window of his hotel room at the city lights. Only he didn’t see them, not really. He should be thinking hockey; instead Lauren occupied his thoughts. What had possessed him to grab her hand while they sat in the bar and hang onto it? He’d lost his flipping mind and then some. It’d been a spontaneous gesture, and he was so not a spontaneous person. He practiced cold logic and dealt in facts, big picture facts, not spontaneity. But Lauren brought out something in him, something disturbing, exciting, and