A Secret for a Secret (All In #3)(49)

“First of all, I’m her ex-boyfriend, so Queenie and I go way back, don’t we?” He glances over my shoulder, his smirk growing. “Secondly, I’m your new teammate, so it might be a good idea to reconsider putting me in my place, unless you want to end up watching games from the bench.”

“What?” I don’t know which one of those pieces of information I find more shocking.

“God, you’re such an antagonistic dick, Corey.” Queenie puts her hand over mine and tries to pry my fingers loose from his shirt. “Let him go, King. He’s actually not worth the time or energy it would take to kick his annoying ass.” She squeezes my biceps gently.

I let go of Corey’s shirt, more because Queenie is touching me than anything else. Corey and I take a step away from each other. He’s still smirking, but there’s uncertainty lurking there now where there wasn’t before. I pull Queenie into my side and wrap a protective arm around her.

“I think you can probably manage the rest of the tour on your own.” Queenie holds out the folder of paperwork, but Corey just stands there. She sighs, and I have to assume she’s rolling her eyes. Queenie tosses the folder at his feet, and half the papers scatter across the floor. “You should have this back on my desk by tomorrow morning, and before you make me chase you down for it, be aware that they won’t actually let you on the ice if everything isn’t signed.” She pats my hand, which is resting on her shoulder. “Let’s go, King.”

I follow her out of the gym and across the hall, into one of the empty conference rooms. She closes the door behind me and turns the lock.

“Can you tell—”

I don’t have a chance to finish my question because Queenie grabs me by the front of the shirt and yanks my mouth down to hers.

I’m confused and a little stunned as her tongue pushes past my lips. I indulge the kiss for a few sweet strokes of tongue before I gently take her by the shoulders and disengage. “What’re you doing?”

“Kissing you.” She wraps her hand around the back of my neck and tries to reattach her lips to mine.

I cup her face between my palms and plant a single chaste kiss on her very tempting lips. “While I very much enjoy your mouth, I think we need to talk about what happened back there. Particularly the part about you having dated Corey Slater. I feel like I need more information about that since apparently he’s now my teammate, which is another thing we need to discuss.”

Queenie sighs and just sort of . . . wilts, like an unwatered flower.

I drop my hands, and she takes a couple of steps away from me as if she needs the space, which I don’t like, or understand. She addresses the last part first.

“Apparently there was an NDA or something, because my dad didn’t so much as hint at it, so I’m as shocked as you are about him being on the team. And we dated my first year of college, when I was eighteen years old and too stupid to realize he was a huge dickhead. It lasted all of two months.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.” She links her hands behind her head and stares up at the ceiling, blinking quickly.

“Why was he in your face like that?”

“Because he’s a bully and a jerk with no personal boundaries.” Her lids flutter closed and two tears slip out of the corners, tracking a path down her cheeks.

“Hey, hey. Don’t cry. It’s going to be okay. He won’t be a problem for you. I won’t let him.”

“You’ve seen how he is on the ice, though. It’s how he is all the time. Always needling, always belittling people.”

“Is that what he was doing to you?”

She shakes her head and steps into me, wrapping her arms around my waist. “I just didn’t expect to see him. I mean, I knew eventually he’d be at a game, but I never thought he’d be playing for Seattle.”

“I don’t understand why Jake would bring him to Seattle in the first place,” I say, more to myself than to her.

She pulls away and runs her hand over my chest, smoothing out the wrinkles in my polo. “He didn’t know we dated. Like I said, I was young and stupid, and the relationship was pretty much over before it began. I never expected to be working for my dad. All the more reason to figure out what I want to do with my life so I can stop causing him problems.”

“Hey.” I tuck a finger under her chin and gently tip it up. “You’re not allowed to do that.”

“Be honest?”

“Berate yourself to me. Not everyone has it figured out from the start, Queenie. Sometimes we need to take a few detours before we find the path that’s right for us.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve taken a lot of detours, and I still haven’t stumbled on the right path.”

“Are you sure about that? You crossed my path, and it feels pretty right to me.” I tuck her hair behind her ear and skim her cheek as more tears fall. I don’t understand them the way I want to.

She gives me a tremulous smile. “It’s more like my cyclone crossed your path and you got sucked into it.”

“I love your cyclone.” I dip down and press a soft kiss to her lips. “I want you to stay over at my place again tonight.”

“You have a game tomorrow.”

“I’ll be responsible and make sure we’re in bed at a reasonable time.”