Underneath It All (Storm Series) (12 page)

Sarah winked at Rob and left, most likely to return to the press box where she and her co-worker
, Doug, watched the games. Rob closed his eyes, but he couldn’t block out the pain with less to distract his brain, so he opened them once more, even if only to have something to look at.

Calling over to the trainer, who was now putting away supplies and re-tidying the room, Rob asked,
“Hey, can you tell Sarah I’m in the players’ lounge? I’m bored, and I want to watch the end of the game.” Anything to divert his attention from the pain was welcome right now.

“Sure thing, man. You need any help?”

“Nah, I’ve got it. I’ll take the ice pack with me.”

“Okay. Shout if you need something
.”

Rob sat up slowly then swung his legs over the side of the table, waiting to see if the nausea he’d felt earlier
came roaring back. When he was reasonably sure he would be able to walk without puking his guts out again, Rob shimmied off the treatment table and reached for the ice pack. Someone had brought his flip flops and left them on the floor. Attempting not to jar anything too much, he slid his feet into the shoes.

Hopefully Sebastian had been able to get a text to Alaina. He thought about grabbing his phone from the changing room, but decided he’d better not. Typing one-handed was a pain in the ass and he really shouldn’t be using both.
Plus, that would mean more walking. Considering he felt like he’d been run over by a bus, which then backed up and repeated the action about a thousand times, that wasn’t a good idea.

After making his way to the players’ lounge
at the speed of a decrepit snail, Rob carefully folded himself onto the couch and stuck the ice pack on his shoulder. The big-screen TV was tuned to the game, of course, which was about two minutes into the third period. He’d been in this same location last year during playoffs. Rob hated not being able to help his team win, but injuries were a part of the game. Only the very luckiest guys were able to stay healthy for a good stretch of time.

The Storm won 3-2
, and as the guys passed the players’ lounge after the game, many stopped in long enough to commiserate or get an update. He tried to answer their questions patiently, since he had to wait until Sebastian was ready to go so he could drive Rob’s car home, but his ability to function with any kind of politeness was wearing thin. Though, Rob was secretly glad he didn’t have to leave the Escalade at the arena. The lot was secured, but the arena backed up to a not-so-great part of Buffalo and he’d seen some shady characters hanging around. Even if he couldn’t drive, as long as his car was at his house he’d feel better.

Sarah
walked in, carrying some orange juice and a bagel, and sat. After handing him the food, she said, “Doug’s going to take care of the game video tonight.”

Rob
nodded. “That’s pretty decent of him.” Until then, he hadn’t realized how hungry he was. Plus having food in his belly would help when he took the pain pills later.

Sebastian was a lucky man. Rob had watched
his two friends fall in love—hard—and they were truly each other’s “better half.” Sebastian calmed Sarah, who tended to be a worrier, and Sarah gave Sebastian unwavering support and confidence as he became the man they all knew he could be, the man he pretty much was even now at twenty-four.

“Eh, I’ve covered for him when he’s had to go pick up a sick kid or whatever. He can do
the same for me.”

“Sorry you
guys have to go to this trouble. I’m sure Seb’s tired after a game like that.”

She waved him off. “
It’s no problem.”

“I can call a cab for tomorrow. I don’t even know what time my appointment will be.
I have to call them in the morning.”

“Whenever
they can see you is fine. I’ll drive and wait while you see the doctor.”

“Are you sure?
Could be a long time.” Rob hated being dependent on anybody, the feeling chafing against everything he believed in. It wasn’t like he hated his parents or his family, but he’d been on his own for so long he hadn’t answered to anybody in years. When he and Sebastian had lived together last year, of course they’d kept each other in the loop about their whereabouts—that was only polite. Other than that, though, they’d trusted if the other needed something they’d ask.

“Rob, seriously
, don’t worry. This is one of the benefits of having friends.”

Sebastian entered the room and stopped. “You guys ready? Do you need to change?”

Rob looked at his clothes. “I’m not putting a suit on, no matter how cold I’ll be out there. I need to get a sling from Colby, though.”

“I’ll
go,” Sebastian offered. “Wait here.”

“Take the ice pack back,” Sarah told him, and Rob handed
over the now-mushy parcel.

A few moments later
, Sebastian was back. He and Sarah helped Rob get the sling over his head and properly adjusted, and then after grabbing Rob’s suit, trench coat, phone, and wallet, they walked out to the cars. A couple of media types were hanging around outside the locker room but left him alone as he moved past them. He wanted in the worst way to check his phone and see if Alaina had contacted him, but felt it would be unsafe as he walked on less-than-steady legs out of the arena, so he pocketed the phone and his wallet in his sweatshorts.

Fans had already gathered
outside the fence for the players’ parking lot, and a couple called out to him to take care and feel better. He waved with his good hand then climbed into the passenger seat of his truck with a relieved sigh. Normally he would go and sign autographs, say hello to the fans who spent their hard-earned money to see them play, but today he didn’t have the energy or the right frame of mind. The fans understood. Buffalo sports fans were knowledgeable, which could be a blessing or a curse depending on how you were playing.

Sebastian drove
to Rob’s place, taking the corners easy so Rob’s shoulder wasn’t jostled. Once at his house, both Sarah and Sebastian helped him get situated. Sarah heated up some leftovers, insisting a bagel wasn’t enough food to eat, and Sebastian laid a couple of pillows on the bed to keep Rob in one spot during the night. After he ate, Sarah gave him a pain pill and Sebastian ensured Rob was all set to sleep before the two of them left.

Finally
, he pulled out his phone. His friends had been so nice he hadn’t wanted to tell them to go away so he could be left in peace to mourn his shoulder and see if Alaina had sent him a message of sympathy. But when he checked his phone, he found nothing.

Rob stared at the ceiling even as he felt sleep taking him. This was
by far the worst shoulder injury he’d ever suffered, and the logical side of his brain told him surgery would be necessary. He’d only lasted a month of the season and was already hurt. As a general rule, Rob tried to avoid feeling sorry for himself, but with his shoulder a dull ache, the obvious was hard to avoid. He was in big trouble.

~ * ~

SEVEN

Alaina
hadn’t slept the previous night. She’d gotten the text from Sebastian saying Rob was okay, but she’d watched the replay about a dozen times and felt sick as his body contorted unnaturally before tumbling to the ice. Despite that, she’d kept rewinding the DVR to see the play again, as if doing that would make it less real. The only thing the TV announcers had said was that Rob had suffered an upper body injury and wouldn’t return.

No shit, Sherlock.

All Sebastian had said was that Rob had wanted her to know he was “okay.” The lie grated at her. Clearly he was badly injured, and the fact he was trying to shield her was annoying. Rob didn’t want her to worry, but not knowing his true condition was driving her crazy. She should be helping him, nursing him back to health, or whatever it was girlfriends did when their men were hurt.

Would Rob
be able return to hockey? Alaina had gotten the impression keeping a hockey player out of the game was almost impossible, but the way he’d thrashed around…he must’ve been in enormous pain to react like that publicly. The injury had to be serious.

She went into work and wandered around like a zombie. A few of the kids had seen the game and
were aware Rob was hurt, and she tried to reassure them his injury wasn’t that bad, but had no idea if she was lying since she hadn’t gotten any more updates. Every chance Alaina got, she checked her cell for messages or texts, but nothing came. She didn’t want to call in case he was resting, which wouldn’t be surprising if they’d given him some heavy pain pills.

Finally her phone vibrated in her pocket and she pulled it out.
Rob, thank God.
Normally Alaina would’ve let the call go to voicemail but she was losing her mind not knowing what was going on, so she told her class to play quietly and hunkered down in the front corner of the room. “Hello?”

“Hi
, babe.” Even over the phone he sounded exhausted.

“How are you? Dumb question, I know, but…”

“I’m going to have surgery in a few days. Rehab after surgery is at best a few months, so I’m not looking at coming back before late February at the earliest, but could be April, or even beyond, if the shoulder doesn’t heal well or the strength doesn’t return.” He sounded different than she’d ever heard him—utterly defeated—and her heart went out to him.

Alaina wanted to wrap him in her arms until this all passed. She was feeling unusually protective of him, considering they’d only
known each other several weeks and he was a grown man. If this had happened to one of her kids, she could understand wanting to put Bubble Wrap around them and hold them to her, but Rob? That surprised her.

“Oh, Rob, I’m so sorry.” Alaina bit her lip. She couldn’t even imagine being injured like that, much less having
something affect her life as much as this would Rob’s.

He sighed, the sound echoing through the phone line.
“Nothing can be done to fix the problem without intervention. I’ve got a labral tear and the joint is unstable. If I kept playing and didn’t have the surgery, the stupid joint would dislocate again for sure. Geez, I practically quoted the doctor. Who I argued with, by the way.”

Now
that
didn’t surprise Alaina in the least.

He
cursed then said, “Shit, you’re at school. I’m sorry. I should’ve waited to call. I wasn’t thinking.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I’ve
been going nuts not knowing what was going on.”

“I can let you go. I’ll
call you later.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure. By the way, I’m not positive I’ll be able to read for a while. I can’t drive, and I hate to keep asking Sebastian and Sarah for rides. Sarah took me to my appointment this morning, and now she’s at the store buying up the place so I’ll have food at home. Very sweet of her, but I feel like an invalid, which I hate. Anyway, I can get one of the other guys to take up the slack if I can’t. I guess we can worry about it in a day or two. I’ll miss the buggers, though. Okay, go sharpen those little minds.”

“Take care, sweetie.
Talk to you soon.”

He hung up and tears pricked in Alaina’s eyes.
He didn’t want sympathy, she was sure, but when she thought of how much pain he’d been in—probably was still in, though he’d sounded remarkably lucid—and how much more was coming with the surgery, her heart broke for him. She couldn’t help him at the moment, though, so she hastily wiped at her eyes then turned back to the class. Thankfully none of them appeared to have seen her crying so she didn’t have to try to explain herself without freaking out the kids.

Later on, as she was going through the mail from the past few days, Rob called her. When she saw his name on the caller ID, she dropped the bundle onto the kitchen table and answered. “Hey, Rob.” The whole “how are you?” thing was on the tip of her tongue, but she figured she had a pretty good idea how he was and stopped herself in time.

“Hey. What’s up?”

“Nothing much. I was going to see if you wanted me to bring a couple of movies over.”

“You really
don’t have to entertain me. I’m not very exciting to hang around with right now.”

“Stop that,” she admonished. “I want to see you.”
Before he could object further, she went on, “What kind of movies do you like?”

“I’ll watch about anything that wasn’t written by Jane Austen or Nicholas Sparks.”

Alaina chuckled. “Duly noted. And brownie points for even knowing who they are. Okay, I’ll be over in less than an hour. Do you want me to bring dinner too?”

“Sarah left me enough food to feed an army.”

“Okay then. See you soon.”

As she got ready to leave, Alaina alternated between being jealous Sarah was taking care of Rob and grateful he had such good friends. No other relationship had brought with it this kind of turmoil, and the reasons for that weren’t something she wanted to obsess over. Rob was more important.

She showed up with three movies, knowing they’d only be able to watch one before she had to go home. But she could leave the others so Rob would have them.
Even injured, though, he was quick and she didn’t fool him one bit.

“Huh. One comedy and two shoot-em-up movies. I’m guessing we’ll watch the comedy tonight and you’ll happen to leave the other two
by an obvious oversight.”

“
You caught me,” she answered, her face heating.

“It’s nice to have people around me who care
.” She sat next to him, and he sighed. “I wish I could cuddle, but obviously my bad shoulder is out, and my other arm is getting sore from compensating. You’d think all the time I spend in the gym would stop stuff like that from happening, but apparently not.”

“
You’re using it more than normal.” Sliding a hand onto his knee, she said, “I’ll do all the touching. You relax and enjoy the movie.”

His
smile was strained, the near-grimace testament to how bad the pain still was.

“Have you taken a painkiller lately?”

“They’re putting me to sleep and I didn’t want to drool all over you.”

Alaina frowned. “Not even ibuprofen?”

“I wasn’t sure what I could take along with the other painkillers, so I haven’t done anything else. Those things could fell a horse.”

“If you need to sleep, sleep.
Would it help your arm if I gave you a little rubdown?”

He reached up with his good hand and stroked the side of her face. “You are the sweetest thing ever, you know that?”

Barking out a laugh, she said, “Ha! I’ve got you hoodwinked.”

His expression turned serious. “You haven’t kissed me, you know.”

“I didn’t want to hurt you,” she admitted, staring down at her hands.

“
My lips aren’t injured. Kiss me. I promise to not hurt myself. In fact, I have an idea. Straddle me.”

She gaped.
“You consider that the safe way out?”

Rob laughed
and the sound was music to her ears. “Bear with me. Straddle me and put your hands on the back of the couch so you can lean in without putting weight on my shoulder.”

Alaina was dubious, but did as he bade, feeling his erection swell
beneath her.

“Sorry about that
.” Rob gestured toward his groin. “An involuntary reaction around you.”

“You think I mind that I turn you on?
” She smiled and shifted a bit, drawing a gasp from him. She froze. “Is this okay? Am I hurting you?”

“No. That was a good gasp. Now k
iss me. I’m not getting any younger.”

Shaking her head
at his comment, she leaned in and brushed her lips over his. “Better?”

“Not quite.” His good hand cupped the back of her head, pulling her closer. He deepened the kiss, and when
they finally broke apart so they could breathe, he said, “
Now
I feel better.”

“Huh.
How shocking.”

“If we did that for another hour or two
, I’d feel a
lot
better.”

Chuckl
ing, Alaina climbed off him, feeling a twinge of guilt to be leaving him in such a state. That couldn’t be comfortable, but he was right, he needed to take it easy. “Let’s put on the movie before we get carried away.”

“You’re a good influence on me.
” He leaned back against the couch, settling his slinged arm more, and smiled. “We cannot have that.”

“Oh yes. That would be horrible.” She popped the movie into the DVD player and
returned to the couch.

The movie was funny, but soon Alaina found herself drifting. After about the third time she’d yawned in the past twenty minutes, Rob patted his thigh. “Lie down, baby.”

Looking between his face and his thigh, she asked, “Are you sure?”

“Of course I am. I wouldn’t have
made the suggestion if I wasn’t. Besides, I have an ulterior motive. If your head is in my lap I can play with your hair. I love your hair. So soft.”

Alaina lay down, being careful to stay away from his injured side
, which thankfully wasn’t the part closest to her. Considering how muscular the man was, his thigh was surprisingly comfortable to put her head on. Soon her eyes were heavy, but she didn’t want to fall asleep and be groggy when she woke, so she turned onto her back and looked at Rob. He must’ve noticed her staring since he glanced down at her. One dark eyebrow rose, but he said nothing.

He really was gorge
ous. She’d done some cyber research on him and found one interview where the reporter called him a “spark plug.” Another called him a “little ball of hate.” It was a close thing that she was able to avoid spewing coffee all over her laptop after reading that particular gem. There wasn’t a shred of hate in the man when he was away from the rink, but she’d seen the way he played now that she was watching the team regularly. The best term she could think of to describe his playing style was “balls to the wall.”

Hmm. Speaking of balls…
I know a surefire way to take Rob’s mind off his injury.
It flew in the face of taking things slow, but the situation had changed and she wanted to do this for him.

She turned onto her other side, facing away from the movie
and eyed the bulge at his groin. From the corner of her eye she saw him look down at her again, though he still hadn’t spoken. A grin spread on her face and she rubbed his erection. Rob gave a quick intake of breath and Alaina squeezed in response. His mouth opened on a moan and his eyes closed as she stroked him ever-so-slowly.

Sitting up
, she reached for the waistband of his sweats. His eyes popped open once more and he lifted to allow her to pull them and his boxers down his legs. Moving to kneel on the floor in front of Rob, Alaina grasped and pulled his hard shaft.

Rob arched into her touch.
“Fuck…”

“Now, now,” she mock
-admonished. “We’ll have none of that swearing business.”

He snorted. “
Aww, come on. Swearing’s a second language to hockey players.”

Leaning forward, she engulfed the swollen head
in her mouth and a high-pitched noise escaped his lips. Encouraged, she rolled her tongue around the ridge and he grew even harder.

“Oh, baby, so good,” he told her as she brought her head down to meet her hand.

She didn’t have a lot of experience giving blow jobs, but Rob’s reactions indicated he liked what she was doing, so she continued. Hollowing her cheeks, she sucked harder and his good hand landed on the back of her head. He wasn’t forcing her further onto him; more like he was trying to ground himself.

Alaina
kept up her attempts to drive Rob crazy and after a few short moments he let her know he was about to lose control. She hadn’t swallowed much in her admittedly limited experiences with men, but something about Rob made her want to take him to the moon, so Alaina tightened her mouth and hand around him.