He heard her swallow again. “Yes.”
“How can something so good be a bad idea?” he asked, tracing the curve between her neck and shoulder with his index finger.
Penny’s eyelids fluttered but she didn’t close them. “We’ve already talked about this.”
“Have we? Because I seem to have forgotten. And yet, I have such a great imagination.” He brushed his lips over her temple, down to her cheek, breathing her in. “There’s still so much I want to do. I haven’t even tasted you yet...with my mouth…”
“Holy mother of God, stop talking rightnowbefore I throw up in the hall!”
Penny pushed him away so hard that he hit his chin against hers before staggering backward. His neck cracked as he whipped his head around and looked into Dax’s face. His brother looked like he’d just peeked into hell — and found something much worse than expected.
“You pickedherup at the airport?” His voice was so horrified and loud that it might as well have been that of a teenager who’d just caught his parents having sex. “Are you fucking serious, Jack? Do you have adeath wish?!”
“Oh God,” Penny exclaimed, covering her mouth in shock and then looking frantically at Jack. “You told him about it?”
“That’s right, ‘oh God’!” Dax agreed roughly with Penny before Jack could answer. “Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God.” He sang the words to himself in agony, squeezing his eyes shut and pressing both hands against his ears. “I’ll never be able to forget this! The things I saw and heard… My eyes are burning. My ears are burning. And the words are stuck in my brain and only a lobotomy can help! Who still does something like that and…”
“Dax, keep your voice down!” Jack interrupted. If Dax spoke any louder, they might as well sell the information to the tabloids.
“How can I?” he cried in disbelief. “Is that why you didn’t want to tell me who she was? Because you’re fucking the boss?”
“We’re not fucking at all,” Penny interjected, panicking. “It was only that one night and I didn’t know he was a hockey player!”
“How could you not know?” Dax stared at her wide-eyed. “You might get the wholeteam!”
“His profile was missing!”
“What?” Dax glanced from her to Jack and back.
“It doesn’t matter,” Jack said with a sigh. “Penny, wipe that panicked expression off your face, it isn’t that bad.”
“You said that after our one-night stand, and it wasn’t true then, either!” she snapped.
“Well, now it’s true, because Dax will keep his mouth shut!”
“I will?” Dax replied.
“You will.”
“He will?” Penny asked disbelievingly.
“Yes!”
“Why are you so certain?”
“Because he owes me,” he replied reluctantly, gritting his teeth and giving Dax a sharp look. “So, just go,” he said to Penny. “I’ll sort it out with my br…teammate,” he said, catching himself.
Penny didn’t need to be told twice. Without giving him or Dax another look, she hurried away and disappeared down the hallway. She probably still heard Dax shout, “Damn it, Jacky, what drugs have you been smoking?!”
Jack rolled his eyes. “God, you’re a bit of a drama queen, aren’t you?”
“Iam a drama queen?” Dax’s eyes opened so wide that the entire hockey team could have been reflected in them. “Who’s inviting disaster by sleeping with the boss?”
“Keep your voice down!” he hissed. “And I’m not sleeping with Penny. I slept with her once. There’s a difference.” A difference he was painfully aware of.
“I can’t. I have to speak loudly to hear myself because my ears are still bleeding!”
“Dax!” Jack snapped, pointing a warning finger in his face. “Neither of us had any idea, okay? Neither of us knew who the other was. When we met, we agreed to keep our last names, our jobs, and anything relating to our families to ourselves.”
