Awk-Weird (Ice Knights, #2)(27)

Cole got up and walked over beside her, his long legs closing the distance in only a few steps. They stood side by side, looking at the painting as if it was in a real museum instead of only being a few steps up from a velvet painting of dogs playing poker. Okay, Cole looked. She pretended to admire her work while steadying her breaths and concentrating really hard on not inching over so they were touching. She was the one who’d declared no more naked happy times. Why? Because she was obviously a giant idiot.

“What’s he reading now?” Cole asked.

So distracted by the sight of his muscled forearms, the truth came out before she could overthink it. “Bigfoot erotica.”

“That is not a real thing,” he said, each word coming out with clear and perfect diction.

Oh God. All he was missing was a strand of pearls to clutch.

“It totally is.” Man, not laughing out loud was really hard when he made that shocked-virgin face. “Want me to recommend some titles?”

“No.” He shook his head emphatically. “And now that painting really has to go because I will never not think of Bigfoot porn when I see it.”

She raised herself up on her tiptoes and leaned in close to him as if she was one of those women who flirts in a way that doesn’t involve random trivia—not that she was flirting because she most definitely would not do that with him. Look what had happened last time!

“Erotica and porn are not the same thing,” she said, awed by her own brazenness. Yes, this was totally wanton behavior for her with full sentences minus factoids and everything. She had no idea who this woman who had taken over her mouth was, but she kinda liked her. “Although both can be pretty amazing.”

Cole gulped. Audibly.

“It can’t stay in the living room,” he said after letting out a shaky breath.

“Sure.” She gave him the same smile she gave her customers who insisted a purple dead nettle was actually a henbit. “Whatever you say.”

“I gotta head in.” His gaze went from the painting to her mouth before jerking up to look her straight in the eyes. “It’s past my bedtime.”

“You have a bedtime?”

Of course he did. It was probably the same time each night. That she was dead to the world within the same fifteen-minute time frame every night was something she had every intention of keeping to herself.

“I have a routine.” His attention dipped back down to her mouth, and then he muttered something unintelligible under his breath.

For a second, he looked like he was about to say something else but changed his mind and walked out of the living room. Tess watched him go—the view almost as good as watching him come closer—and then took down the painting, ready to carry it back to her room. That’s when she got an idea. It wasn’t a completely evil idea, but it was one she probably shouldn’t implement.

Still…

Tess turned in the opposite direction from her bedroom and into the kitchen, Kahn trailing along behind her. Once there, she opened up the walk-in pantry and moved the protein powders (yes, plural) and more around so the painting was perfectly centered on the shelf. The bright, colorful, and totally bizarre painting would be front and center as soon as he opened the door.

Giggling quietly, she closed the door, already counting down to breakfast. Waiting until Cole woke up tomorrow and saw what she’d done was going to be hell.





Chapter Eight


Ice Knights players got four days a month off. Cole hated each and every one of them, so of course getting sidelined for his stupid allergic reaction couldn’t have happened today—a regularly scheduled off day that he’d already planned for. No. Now he had an extra day of itching to get back on the ice. That meant one thing—stress baking.

Normally, this was the moment in his morning when he would have gotten up and headed for the shower. But the fuzz monster was back, lying curled up on Cole’s pillow and tangled in his hair. Kahn’s little pink nose was close enough that his breath tickled Cole’s ear.

If I get up now, I’ll wake him. Five more minutes won’t hurt.

He’d just stay here in bed and list the pros and cons of a Bundt cake versus a pineapple upside-down cake. The first had glaze. The second had pineapple. The nutritionist was big on eating fruit and he had an organic pineapple in his kitchen. Really, who was he to argue with someone with a PhD in healthy eats?

Plan of action decided, he almost started to sit up, but Kahn was still there, snuggled against him. If the hell spawn got enough sleep, maybe he’d leave all the toilet paper alone today. That made sense. He’d stay here for a little while longer. It wasn’t like the purr-o-matic could snooze for that much longer.

Cole wasn’t giving in. He was compromising and giving Petrov and Christensen a big middle finger that he could make changes. The fact that his line mates wouldn’t know about it—because there was no way he was admitting to anyone anything close to the fact that some people would think he was snuggling with a kitten—didn’t matter.

And that’s just what he was trying to convince himself of when he heard the unmistakable sound of Tess puking her guts up.

Kahn’s beauty sleep didn’t stand a chance. Cole was up out of bed and hurrying down the hall at breakneck speed. He made it all the way down the hall, through Tess’s open bedroom door, and almost into her bathroom when his brain caught up with his actions. He hesitated outside the open door.