Kiss and Don't Tell(23)

I chuckle. “He’s not here.”

“Damn it. Who is there?”

“Um, let me see if I can get this right. They all call each other by their last names but introduced themselves with their first names. It’s so confusing. Uh, the house belongs to Taters, uh . . .”

“Silas Taters,” Max says. “Oh hell. Is Eli Hornsby there?”

“Yes,” I say with enthusiasm. “He is. And oh my God, is he pretty. Like . . . wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as pretty as him. It’s hard to look at him because the beauty of that man’s face is almost too much to handle.”

“You have issues then, because I have no problem looking at pictures of him. I could look at him for days. Who else is there?”

“Levi Posey.”

“Hmm, don’t know much about him.”

“He’s funny. I like him,” I say as I catch Katherine pacing in the background. I smile inwardly. This must be killing her. “And then Halsey Holmes.”

“Ooh, he’s a scoring god. He handles the puck better than anyone on the ice.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty quiet,” I say. “He doesn’t say much, just reads. And then the last guy is Pacey Lawes.”

Max’s jaw drops and then he blinks a few times. “Pacey Lawes, as in, the Agitators goalie? He’s pure magic. He has the most saves in the league. The most fucking saves, Winnie.”

My cheeks heat up.

The man with the most saves in the league said I was pretty.

He also offered me a place to stay—despite it not being his house.

He also kindly helped me push my car into a ditch.

Max sighs. “You literally walked into my wet dream, you lucky shit.”

I laugh while Katherine walks up to the phone and asks, “Okay, wonderful. You met some celebrities, but what happened after you met them? Did they let you use their phone? Did they attempt to touch you in your no-go areas?”

“No, Katherine,” I say in an exhausted voice. “And, well, that’s the thing.” I start squirming again. “It was such a bad storm that the phones weren’t working and I really didn’t have any options other than to take them up on their offer.”

Katherine’s eyes narrow. “What offer?”

“To stay the night.” I swallow hard and cringe.

“For sexual favors?” Katherine shouts.

I quickly turn the volume on my phone down, hoping no one heard that. “No,” I shoot back. “God, Katherine. They were just being nice. They offered me a guest room for the night. I considered going back to my car to sleep but they wouldn’t let me. They said if I really wanted to be abducted, that would be the way to do it.”

“So you stayed the night at their place?”

I nod and then turn the camera around on the phone to show off the room. “That’s where I am now. At the house, in the room I stayed in last night.”

“Uh, it looks as though you’re at some luxury resort,” Max says. “Not someone’s house. Is that a vaulted ceiling?”

I point the phone up to the ceiling. “Yup. With exposed beams. And look at the chandelier.”

“Oh my God, no one cares about the chandelier,” Katherine shouts. “You need to leave right now. Are you insane? Hockey players are huge, and there’s five of them in the house with you? I can smell a circle jerk, your back being the landing zone.”

“Jesus Christ, Katherine,” Max shouts. “Fuck, what’s wrong with you?” He points his finger at her. “You need psychological help.”

“Technically, there are six guys,” I say. “There’s a beefy chef named Stephan. He makes delicious vegan pancakes.”

“Homemade syrup?” Max asks.

“I think so. It was in one of those creamer things, and it was infused with huckleberry.”

“Ooh, that’s fancy.”

“Are you two kidding me right now?” Katherine asks. “Winnie is facing death and all you can talk about are chandeliers and huckleberry-infused syrup?”

“I’m not facing death. They actually really saved me.”

Katherine folds her arms over her chest. “Uh-huh, is that why you’re still there? Because you think they saved you? You know that’s how they get you, right? Build trust first and then swoop in for the kill.”

“Katherine.” I grow serious. “I’m still here because I have nowhere else to go.”

“What do you mean?” Katherine asks. I’m actually nervous for her blood pressure. I’ve never seen the vein so . . . prominent before, and FaceTime doesn’t usually provide a crystal-clear image, but man, can I see the pulse of her anger vein.

“Well, Pacey tried to help me push my car out of the holes this morning.”

“Ooh, was his shirt off while he was doing that?” Max asks.

“No.” I smirk. “But it was off this morning when I went out to the kitchen, and oh my God, Max, I’ve never seen that many muscles before.”

“God, I hate you.”

“Please, back to the story about your car,” Katherine says.

“Yes, well, we pushed it out of the holes, but then I forgot to stop it and it rolled back into a ditch.”