A Very Merry Hockey Holiday (Assassins #6.5) (7 page)

“Oh, Lord help us all. Could you imagine her raising kids in Vegas? The horror,” she said and Piper couldn’t help but laugh.

“Jeez, Reese, you sound like Grandma!”

“Shut up!” she yelled, and Piper couldn’t stop her laughter if she tried. “I was just calling because of Harper and then to ask what time Christmas dinner is.”

“Mom said four and presents after.”

“Okay cool, just making sure. I’ll talk to you later.”

“All right, love you.”

“Love you,” Reese said just as Piper pulled into her garage. Shutting the car off, she locked everything up and shut the garage door before heading inside. Within seconds, she was attacked by two little people before her husband wrapped her in a hug, kissing her lips.

“Well, what a greeting,” she said, breathless, as he parted, kissing her nose.

“We missed you,” he said. “And they are driving me insane.”

She giggled as she picked up Katarina. Usually, she took the kids with her to her murals, but since Erik was home, they’d stayed with him.

“They tend to do that. Hey, Alla and Cooper!” she said to her in-laws. They were staying for a couple weeks for Christmas and she loved having them.

“Hey, honey, dinner is almost done,” Alla said as Cooper sent her a grin.

“Awesome. Hey, have y’all talked to Jakob today?”

All three of them shook their heads, and Piper decided that she would allow him to share the happy news. Alla and Cooper had been hinting for another grandchild. They weren’t going to get it from Erik and Piper. They were done.

“Why?” Erik asked.

“No reason,” she said, putting Katarina down and walking past them to change and shower. Like she knew he would, Erik followed her and shut the door behind them.

“What are you doing?” she asked, buying time.

“Following you,” he said before sliding his hands down her thighs, pressing his growing erection against her ass. “I love you,” he whispered in her ear, kissing the spot below it.

“I love you,” she said, turning in his arms and pressing her lips to his. When she pulled back though, he didn’t let her get far before he deepened the kiss, his hands sliding into the pockets of her jeans. Closing her eyes, she got lost in his kiss and didn’t realize he was walking her backward to the bed until he was lying on top of her, his hands going up into her shirt.

Grinning, she pulled away. “Erik, our children and your parents are in the room over. They got an earful the other night. Come on,” she pleaded as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. He had found her nipple, and he knew that was her hot spot. Gasping, her fingers tangled in his hair, but then banging started at the door, followed by Katarina wailing, “Mommy!”

Letting her nipple go, he kissed the spot between her breasts and grinned. “Your kid is a cockblock.”

She giggled at that before pushing him off her and going to open the door to her special little people. “What do you need, love bug?”

“You,” she decided before throwing her arms up. Dimitri came running in and jumped on the bed on top of Erik, hitting him right in the groin. As Piper laughed, Erik wallowed in pain while Dimitri just grinned.

“Ugh! You broke my balls, kid!” he groaned and Piper shook her head as Katarina giggled.

“I broke Daddy’s balls,” Dimitri said with a huge grin. “He gonna be okay?”

“Yeah, he’s fine,” she said, sitting down and patting Erik’s butt. Wrapping her arm around Dimitri, she asked, “What did you do with Daddy today?”

“We bought you a ring for Christmas.”

“Dimitri! You weren’t supposed to tell her!” Erik scolded, but Dimitri didn’t seem to care. “I told him not to tell you.”

“He doesn’t listen,” Piper laughed. “Is it pretty?”

“Oh yeah, so pretty. Give it to her, Daddy!”

“No! It’s for Christmas, and it isn’t even done yet!”

Piper giggled some more as Katarina wiggled out of her lap and then out the door. Dimitri followed right along behind her, leaving Piper alone with her husband. They came, took her loving, and then were gone. That’s how it was in the Titov house.

Sending him a wide grin, she asked, “New ring, huh?”

He shrugged. “Maybe. I might go change it.”

She lay back in the bed, cuddling into his side before kissing his jaw. “I can’t wait to open it.”

“Yeah, well, it’s ruined,” he complained and she shook her head.

“Never. I’ll be surprised and thankful. Don’t worry.”

“Good,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her nose. Looking deep into her eyes, he smiled and she felt breathless. He loved her. So damn much and she knew he would no matter what.

“I don’t want to paint murals anymore.”

Wow. Did she just blurt that out?

His brows came together. “That’s outta left field.”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t told you, but I’ve been designing book covers for the last three months. I love it.”

She could see the shock in his eyes, but then a knowing grin came over his lips as he nodded. “That’s cool. Bored with the murals, already?”

She smiled sheepishly. “Yeah. Is that bad?”

“For you, no. I’m surprised you didn’t get bored sooner.”

“So you aren’t mad?” she asked, hopeful.

“Fuck no, baby. You do what you want. I’ll just be standing here, cheering you on. No matter what.”

Her smirk grew as she cuddled deeper against him. “You are the best husband.”

“I know,” he agreed, a grin pulling at his lips. “And you’re the best wife.”

Christmas wasn’t even here yet, and she knew he had a beautiful gift for her, but no matter what the season, her husband continually gave her the best gift of all.

And that was his love and ultimate support.

P
hillip Anderson was going to kill Jude Sinclair.

He didn’t give two fucks if Claire loved him, or even if it was almost Christmas and his momma was going to be sad she lost one of her boys, Phillip was going to kill him.

He didn’t know what it was about playing against the kid, but it brought out the asshole in both of them, and soon they were messing and chirping at each other through the whole game. For Phillip, it was the fact that Jude was defiling his niece, and because of that, he hated him. He wasn’t sure what she saw in the little idiot, but she sure did love him. Enough to marry his punk ass. Phillip shuddered at the thought.

“Come on, old man! Can’t keep up? I’ve already scored on you twice tonight.”

Despite the fact that he had, Phillip glared.

“Shut up, you little shit,” Phillip sneered as he waited for the puck to drop.

“Ignore him, Anderson,” King hollered at him.

“He’s a punk. Don’t let him get to you,” Titov agreed. “Play hockey, you fuck face, before you have the whole team kicking your ass.”

“Bring it. I’d take all of you out,” the cocky little shit said.

“You couldn’t take out the trash. Shut the hell up and play hockey,” Shea bellowed at him, and he cowered a bit, but Phillip didn’t miss the defiance in his eyes. He couldn’t fight him though; they were down by two because of his little ass, and they had to catch up. Ending up in the box wouldn’t help the cause of winning, but this kid was dead set on driving Phillip insane.

Meeting Phillip’s gaze, Jude said, “I was considering naming our first kid after you, but for that to happen, I’m going to need you to play some decent hockey.”

Yeah. See the kid brought out some kind of rage inside of him, and without even realizing it, Phillip dropped his gloves and slammed his fist into Jude’s nose. The crowd lost their marbles as the two duked it out. He took the punches like a champ and felt empowered when the kid started to look rattled. But when Jude slammed his fist into Phillip’s jaw, it knocked him off-balance. Soon he was lying on his ass and the fight was stopped as the crowd again lost their shit cheering for their prize player.

Jude punk ass Sinclair.

Little asshole.

After being razzed by his teammates for getting knocked on his ass by his soon-to-be son-in-law—ugh, he shuddered again—Phillip decided he needed a stiff drink and headed down to the hotel bar. The hotel was decorated for the season, and usually that made him happy, but he was still pissed about Jude and the fact that, at any second, Claire would set a date and he’d have to give her away to that little shit.

He was surprised how much the upcoming wedding affected him. He should be happy for her; she loved this kid something crazy, but man, the thought that she wouldn’t be his but that little shit’s killed him inside. Phillip loved Claire more than an uncle ordinarily would, but that was because she was basically his. He was lucky to have such a beautiful, successful young lady as his niece—well, his daughter. He hadn’t referred to her as his niece in a really long time. She was his daughter. His heart. And he wasn’t about to hand that over to some little punk. Yeah, he’d agreed to it and had given Jude his blessing, but still it was a tough pill to swallow.

He’d hoped maybe she’d say no.

Taking a long pull of his drink, he groaned when his phone rang. He knew it was his wife, and while he wanted nothing more than to hear her voice, he knew he was about to get bitched out.

No reason to prolong the inevitable
, he thought as he answered.

“Don’t you think you’re a little too old to be fighting? I mean, come on, he’s a kid.”

“A punk, had to shut him up,” he informed her and smiled when she let out an annoyed breath. He loved driving her insane.

“Um, he knocked you on your ass. So really, who shut whom up?”

Phillip glared. “Are you my wife or his?”

“Oh hush, if you didn’t go fighting our future son-in-law, then I wouldn’t tease you.”

“He had it coming.”

“Well, I think it is just silly.”

“Well, I think he is an asshole.”

“He’s the asshole marrying our baby, so I’m going to need you to suck it up and accept him.”

His response was a grunt, but his smile was back when she laughed. Her laugh was so airy and happy; it always hit him straight in the core. He loved to make her laugh. And scream. “I miss you, woman.”

“Aw, I miss you. Sawyer and I are making ornaments.”

Disappointed, he said, “I thought you were going to wait for me.”

“We are only doing the little ones. We’ll do our family ones together.”

“Oh, okay.”

“I think I might wait till Claire gets in. She should be home in a couple days, even though for a minute there, I thought she wasn’t coming.”

Phillip panicked a bit. Everything had already changed so much; he needed Claire to come home for Christmas. “Huh? Why?”

“Jude has a game in New York.”

“So?”

She scoffed. “Well, she wants to be with her fiancé.”

“But we are her family.”

“Phillip, come on,” she deadpanned. “You can’t blame her for wanting to be with him.”

“Yes, I can,” he said grumpily. “I don’t like this.”

“Really? I couldn’t tell.”

He glared even though she wasn’t in front of him as she said, “She’s coming home, he told her to, so she wouldn’t miss Christmas with us since he was flying in and out. He won’t even be able to see his family. They are going to do a late Christmas before New Year’s. Apparently his momma isn’t too happy, but she is dealing.”