Underneath It All (Storm Series) (13 page)

He
released with a shout, and she continued to work him until he pulled her off.

“You okay?
Did I do something wrong?”

“Sensitive,” he choked out.

“Oh. I’m, um, not real experienced with that. I thought I’d hurt you or done something terribly wrong.”

A
disbelieving noise burst from his mouth. “Trust me. You didn’t do a thing wrong. Come up here.”

After helping Rob
dress once more, she scooted back up and sat next to him. He leaned in as if he was going to kiss her and she moved away. “I just, I…” She paused then asked, “Don’t you want me to brush my teeth or something?”

“I kno
w what you’re worried about, and the idea doesn’t bother me a bit. It’s actually pretty sexy to taste myself, to know you had me in your mouth. Now give me what I want.” He urged her closer and kissed her. His tongue snaked into her mouth and she moaned in response. After breaking the kiss, he said, “I wish I had better mobility. I’d love to make you come right now. I want to see your face when you do. I want you to scream my name.”

Alaina smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll take a rain check.”

“A rain check on an orgasm? That’s a first for me.”

“I do what I can to keep you on your toes.”
You certainly keep me on mine.

“That you do, baby, that you do.”

The next day, Alaina had her kids start a special project
—cards for Rob. She wanted one set ready when he got out of his surgery, which was scheduled for a few days later. Alaina planned to have them make more every couple of weeks while Rob did his rehab. Thanks to his generosity, she had plenty of art supplies, so it was fitting he be the benefactor of some of the children’s efforts. As she passed out construction paper, scissors, glitter, glue, and crayons, she explained what had happened to Rob in terms she hoped her students could understand. They got down to business, practicing their letters as they copied those Alaina had written on the board telling Rob to feel better and then decorating the cards with all manner of things, some of which she could recognize and others that were more…abstract.

Her plan w
as to bring Rob a bunch of the cards during the first day or two after his surgery, which, to her amazement, was actually an outpatient procedure. The guy was having major surgery on a crucial joint and they were kicking him out as soon as he woke. The healthcare system amazed her, and not in a good way. She’d asked if he needed someone to take him to the ambulatory surgery center and then drive him home, but apparently the team’s trainer was taking care of that, which made sense. He would want to be assured one of the Storm’s star players got the very best of care.

By the time she had the students clean everything up about an hour later she had several cards to bring Rob. With a grin, she
praised her class, telling them how beautiful the cards were and how much Rob would love them. Then she piled them on her desk and went on with the day’s lessons.

~ * ~

EIGHT

Rob awoke in the recovery room at the surgery center and immediately groaned.
Why did his entire body feel like he’d been used for slap shot practice without any pads and yet his shoulder had been the only area they’d worked on? Maybe they’d made a mistake and done surgery on every limb. Sure as hell felt like it.

A nurse
arrived to take his vitals and ask him some questions before scrawling a few notes on her chart and leaving. When she was gone and the room was quiet again, Rob’s eyelids grew heavy once more.

The next time he
woke, cotton had been stuffed into his brain. Rob was sure of it. He couldn’t form coherent thoughts and hoped the anesthesia would wear off soon. Rob hated feeling out of control and when under anesthesia, you were many things, but in control was not one of them.

After a while
, they let Colby sit with him, and when Rob felt awake and solid enough on his feet to move, a doctor checked him one last time then got the discharge papers together. Colby grabbed everything, and on the way home, they stopped at the pharmacy to pick up the new prescription for more pain pills, which the doctor had cautioned Rob to use sparingly. Since he remembered how sleepy and loopy he’d gotten on the first batch of pills from the team doctor, he planned to do exactly that.

Colby helped him into the house and
, at Rob’s insistence, onto the couch. “You should really be in bed.”

“I hate sitting in bed all day.
Doing nothing is boring. At least out here I have a TV.” Even though he’d been leaving it on for noise lately, Rob wasn’t a huge watcher of television and had never bothered to put a set in his bedroom.

“You’re probably going to need another nap soon.”

“I can take one on the couch or move into the bedroom then.” Rob lay down gingerly, trying not to jostle anything.

Colby blew out a breath.
“Stubborn ass. Fine. But you need to eat before you take a pain pill, and I won’t hear any arguments to the contrary. I’ll go see what’s in your fridge.” A moment later he walked back into the room. “Either you have a guardian angel, or you’re remarkably proficient in the kitchen despite that shoulder.”

Rubbing the back of his neck
where a crick was already forming from trying to see the TV from his prone position, Rob asked, “What do you mean?”

“Your fridge
and
freezer are filled with food you can throw in the oven or the microwave, complete with directions for cooking on each one. I’d give you a choice of what you want since a restaurant would be envious of the selection, but I can’t even remember everything that’s in the fridge, much less the freezer. Seriously, man, someone stocked you up good. Are you hiding some hot cook around here?”

Smiling as he considered what Sarah would think of Colby’s comment
about a hot cook. If he only knew. Rob rose slowly and went into the kitchen to investigate. Colby was pulling various Tupperware containers out of the fridge, and Rob frowned first at the sheer number of them, but then he noticed something else. For about half of the items, he didn’t recognize the handwriting as that of either Sarah or Sebastian, but they were the only ones who had a key to his place.

Had the wives and girlfriends
cooked him stuff? He couldn’t remember them ever having a cooking party for an injured guy, but admittedly he hadn’t been paying close attention. Maybe they’d taken pity on him because they thought he was single. Rob hadn’t wanted to blab about his relationship. He certainly wasn’t ashamed of Alaina; but the guys could be brutal, and they’d hound him constantly until he introduced her to everyone.

He picked one
that sounded like something he could keep down, despite his still queasy stomach, then returned to the living room. His phone was on the coffee table, and he grabbed it to call Sarah. A quick glance at the clock said the team should be finished with practice. Rob rubbed his good hand, still holding the phone, over his chest to assuage a twinge of pain that had little to do with the surgery itself and everything to do with how much he already missed his teammates. Rob dialed and sat.

“Rob, hi! We’ve been waiting to hear from you. Colby checked in and said everything went well. How are you feeling? Probably a stupid question, but whatever.”

“I’m sore all over. I have no idea what that surgeon did, but I’m pretty sure my shoulder isn’t the only thing he cut up.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Not about the soreness, but yes about the surgeon. He seemed very competent in the ten seconds I saw him before they put me out.” He waited a beat then continued, “So would you know anything about the abundant supply of casseroles and other delicacies in my fridge and freezer?”

“Mayyyyy
-be.”

“
Some of the labels have writing I don’t recognize, though, and I want to know who to thank. Did Jaela or one of the other wives make stuff?” He was popular with the wives, like Ben’s wife, Jaela, and various teammates’ girlfriends, mostly because he was friendly but didn’t hit on them like others players had done in the past. Despite that, he hadn’t expected any of them to go out of their way.

“You’re an idiot, you know that? Exactly how much anesthesia did they give you?”

“Huh?”

Sarah sighed audibly. “
Yeah, you must be out of it. Here’s what happened. Alaina called the Barn looking for Sebastian. After she explained who she was, Karen agreed to give him her message. He called her back, about two days ago, and she told him she wanted to bring you some food for after your surgery. Sebastian mentioned I was making stuff too and that we had a key. This morning on her way into school, Alaina dropped off her things, and we added them to ours.”

“Oh man, I didn’t expect her to do anything like that.”
Guilt washed over him.
Why didn’t I even consider Alaina? We’re exclusively dating for God’s sake—at
my
insistence.
We have been for a couple of weeks now.
She should’ve been the first person I thought of.
Rob could use the excuse that Alaina didn’t have his key, but he should’ve known she would be resourceful. He felt like an ass.

“Hence the idiot comment.
She’s crazy about you, in case you haven’t noticed. By the way, if you haven’t called her, you need to. She’s worried sick about the surgery. I gave her my cell number, and she’s already texted twice asking if we’d heard from you.”

“I will. And thanks.”
I’m crazy about her too.

“Get some rest.”

He disconnected the call and checked the clock. Alaina would still be at school, and he debated whether or not to call her. Maybe a text would be better.

Colby stuck his head in the room. “Water?”

“That’s fine.” When the other man was gone once more, Rob dialed Alaina, hoping her kids would be gone so he wasn’t interrupting.

“Rob?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Oh, good
,” she said, relief clear in her voice, and Rob felt like even more of an ass. “I’ve been waiting on pins and needles for word. How are you? Did everything go as planned?”

“I’ve felt better
. Like when Coach ordered us to do wind sprints during practice while we were having a losing streak. I puked all over the ice and then collapsed from the stitch in my side, and that was loads more fun than right now.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Knowing Alaina, she’d fret if he said more, so instead, he tried to reassure her. “Everything will get better. Anyway, I wanted to thank you for all the food. That was incredibly kind of you. Sarah told me how you sweet-talked Sebastian. Sneakiness is kinda sexy, you know.”

Alaina laughed. “I’ll have to remember that.
Could I see you sometime in the next few days? I won’t stay long, but I need to see for myself that you’re all right. Silly, I know.”

“Not silly at all
.” It was actually pretty cool that she cared that much about him. Every time they talked or saw each other, another little piece of his heart became hers. “I’m gonna eat and then take a pain pill. That’ll knock me out for a while, but if you want to come over around seven tonight, we could hang for a couple of hours. I’m a really exciting Friday night date, aren’t I?”

“That’s fine, Rob. You just had surgery. I don’t expect you to want to go clubbing or anything.”

“You go clubbing?”

She chuckled. “No, not for a long time. I was never into that scene. Hey
, do you want me to bring dinner?”

“No. I’ll order something
, or maybe we can eat one of the eight-thousand meals stuffed into my fridge and freezer. But for some reason pizza sounds good, if that’s okay. I think my diet can withstand a few days of me eating whatever the hell I want.”

“Fine with me.”

“And even though I know you’d never take the money willingly, I’d like to reimburse you for the food. That was a lot of stuff you bought.”

“You’re right, I wouldn’t accept it. Rob
, have you not figured out that us dating exclusively means I’d want to do help out like this? After all, you’re my boyfriend and I’m your girlfriend. It’s natural I’d want to take care of you when you’re down and out.”

He winced at her incredulous tone. “I should’ve known
better, and I apologize if I offended you with my offer to pay. I know you don’t make a ton of money, and I do. So I feel bad.”

“I care about you.
The money was immaterial.”

Rob
very much doubted that, but grinned. Despite the pain he actually felt happier than he had since the hit. “I care about you too.” Why did hearing that and saying the words back send such a thrill through him?

“Well, now that we’ve admitted that
, I guess we can’t go back, right? No exchange, no return?”

Her tone was amused, but Rob doubted that was the most prevalent emotion at that moment.

God, I hope not.

“Nope. I’m like jock itch. I never go away.”

“Ewww.” Rob laughed even as she said, “On that charming visual, go eat and sleep, and I’ll see you tonight.”

He did exactly as
Alaina instructed. He woke up from what he could hardly call a nap, since he’d slept over four hours, but still had a bit of time to spare before she arrived. His cell buzzed and he carefully rolled toward the nightstand and grabbed the phone. “’lo?”

Rob frowned
. Apparently he was still groggy.

“It’s Seb. Sarah wants to know
—Ow!—okay fine, I wanted to know, too, if you needed anything tonight.”

Rob gave a tired laugh. “No, man, I’m okay. Alaina’s coming over
, and I’m gonna order in some dinner. Pizza actually sounds appetizing. The stupid anesthetic did weird things to my stomach.” He cleared his throat, took a breath, and as Sebastian remained silent, continued, “And yes, I know I could have something Sarah cooked for me. Or something Alaina made. But I’m hoarding that stuff. Who knows how long I’ll be out of commission and not really in a position to make food for myself? I’d probably starve if not for the ladies.”

Sebastian chuckled. “I don’t blame you.
I’d be the same way. We’ll stop by for a bit tomorrow before the game. Want us to bring you anything?”

“Nah, I’m good. See you then, and thanks.”

He hung up and found his favorite pizza place on speed dial. The restaurant was owned by a family who ran the place together. Rob thought that idea was very cool, as long as you could stand to be with your family that much. The parents were mostly retired now, though they still helped out on busy nights. The son was the chef and the daughter managed the wait staff. The food was consistently good, no matter what he ordered. And the best part? They delivered.

Rob wished he could shower. He felt totally grimy after the long day, but
he wasn’t supposed to get his stitches wet and wasn’t sure how to shower and still achieve that. Directions for that were probably in the discharge papers, but he had no idea where Colby had left those and didn’t feel like scavenging for them. With a sigh, he went into the living room to wait for the food and Alaina.

Alaina showed
first. “Go sit, go sit.” She waved at him while she hung her coat and toed off her shoes.

Then
Rob watched in amusement as her hand moved forward before retreating. He’d put the sling back on so he wouldn’t be tempted to do too much. Obviously, she was afraid to touch him.

“Are you going to circle around and cluck at me all night?
” He smirked. “Cuz that’s kind of creepy.” Then he noticed her attire, a paint-splattered black knit jumper-type thingy with a red long-sleeved T-shirt underneath.

Alaina must’ve seen something on his face, because she
looked down at herself with a frown, her cheeks reddening. “I forgot to do laundry. This was literally all I had that was both clean enough and warm enough to wear. I know I look like a total frump. I apologize.”

“Hey, you look good no matter what you wear.”
Rob found he wasn’t lying. Geez, he was in deep.