Chapter 2

Lani woke up and blinked. It was so quiet. That was a blessing; Cherie must have either worn herself out or gone somewhere else. Then she realized it was quiet because she wasn't in her bedroom. She turned her head at the sound of rustling sheets and smiled when she saw Dom still sleeping.

He looked a little younger, she thought. Or perhaps it was just that he was relaxed. Surely he couldn't carry that intensity around with him all the time. It might serve him well in games, but wouldn't it just wear him down off the ice?

Lani found a clock and saw that it was after nine. She was only amazed it wasn't later. She'd been so comfortable she thought she might sleep the day away. Since she was awake, she decided to get a shower. After that, she would wake Dom up and say good-bye. Leaving a note seemed ... well, kind of cheap. She didn't want this to be a one-night stand, and that's what it would feel like if she left a paper on the pillow.

No, she decided as she got out of the bed. She'd let him sleep for now—he probably had practice or something—and then she would wake him up and say good-bye. Perhaps leave her number if he wanted. If she had the chance, she'd tell him she wanted more than this, but she refused to push him on it. She'd gone into this with her eyes open; if Dom didn't want any more, she wouldn't fall apart.

But, she hedged, would he have said such wonderful things last night if all he wanted was a romp in the sheets?

It was a luxury to take a shower with no fear of Cherie or one of her paramours walking in. Cherie wasn't so bad, but once a guy had walked in and was so out of it he hadn't noticed Lani in the shower until he'd practically stepped in the tub. After that Lani had gotten a large "Occupied" sign for when she was using the bathroom. It mostly helped.

She couldn't help blushing a bit as she rinsed her hair. Sex on the first date was definitely not her usual M.O. It had felt so good, though. So natural. No sense in regrets, she told herself. You wanted it, you got it, you might as well enjoy it.

She jumped when the curtain slid slightly aside. "Want company?" Dom asked. Lani couldn't help it; she blushed. Dom laughed.

"You know, at my place I have a sign on the door to keep people out," she told him.

Dom raised an eyebrow as he stepped in with her, forcing her to move back to make room. "Do I need to worry about you showering with strange men?" he asked as he laid his hands on her hips. The thought definitely made him jealous.

"Do you want to?" she asked, staring at him with wide eyes. "Worry about me, I mean?" she added nervously. This wasn't exactly how she'd imagined this particular conversation happening, but couldn't help asking.

"I'm not sure I could help myself," he said, sliding his arms around her waist. "So I guess it's good the answer's yes." He lowered his mouth to hers, shifting so that the spray hit him in the back. His kiss was fiercer than he'd intended. When he woke up and she wasn't in the bed, his first thought had been that he would find her and convince her—with as much kissing as necessary—to see him again. Then he'd heard the shower, felt as relieved as he did when the siren signaled the end of a game, and had gone in.

Lani let out an mmmmm of pleasure as he tightened his arms around her. This was definitely a better way to spend Sunday morning than she usually did—avoiding Cherie and her beaux. Now I have a beau, she thought happily, and I have him all to myself. She responded to Dom's kiss with her own mix of relief and desire.

"How come I smell coconuts around you?" Dom asked after he took his lips from hers. Still wanting contact, he brushed his lips over her forehead.

"Maybe because I'm from Hawaii," she said with a smile.

"Really?" he pulled back and stared at her. "What the hell are you doing here, then?" He couldn't imagine trading the warmth and palm trees he'd heard about for the freezing winters of the Midwestern US.

"I was washing my hair." Her eyes glinted. "Then I was interrupted."

He smiled slyly. "I'm so sorry," he said, "you should let me help you finish."

"I was done with my hair. I could wash yours." Dom laughed at that.

"I'll do it," he said, reaching for the shampoo. "You'd probably pull a muscle reaching up."

Lani sniffed. "You saying I'm short?"

Dom worked up a lather and winked. "Why state the obvious?"

"You big, hulking athletes." Lani feigned anger. "Think you've got all the advantages." She grinned mischievously. Dom narrowed his eyes, then leaned his head back to rinse out the shampoo. His eyes popped open when Lani's hand moved over his stomach, then further down.

"I think you've learned how to compensate," Dom sputtered. He braced himself against the wall when Lani moved closer and laid her lips against his chest.

"I manage," she agreed. She grinned up as her fingers trailed along the hard length of him. "So, is this a compliment, or did you just wake up like this?"

Dom made a sound in his throat. "It's a compliment," he managed, "that I'm still like this after I woke up. Oh, God, Lani, that feels good." He leaned his head back against the tile and closed his eyes.

Lani laughed softly as she leaned against him, one hand wrapped around his hardness and stroking firmly. "Are we in a hurry this morning?" she asked. She was reveling in being so forward with him, and in the fact that it felt so natural.

"Uh-uh," he grunted.

"Good." She carefully slid her body down against his until she could take him in her mouth. He hissed out a breath as her lips slid over him and her tongue moved back and forth. She moved back and then drew the point of her tongue along the underside of his shaft and he was sure his eyes rolled back in his head. Her hand moved gently, stroking his abdomen. She smiled to herself when she felt the muscles tighten.

She continued almost lazily, alternating between using her lips and her tongue to tease him until he gasped that he was close. Once more she took him in her mouth. This time she used her hand to stroke him as well. She felt his fingers tangle in her hair and his body started to jerk. She kept her rhythm steady as he came, not releasing her mouth until he sagged back against the wall.

Reaching down, she scooped up some water and rinsed her mouth. It's not love yet, she told herself. Placing a hand on the edge of the tub, she carefully levered herself up, making sure she didn't slip.

"You okay?" she asked, unable to keep the grin out of her voice.

"Fan-damn-tastic," Dom said, still breathing hard. She laughed. She stopped when he fixed his eyes on her. "You know I can't just leave it at that."

He switched off the water and held her hand while she stepped out. She grabbed a towel but had barely dried her face when he scooped her up and dumped her on the bed, moving over top of her.

"Hey!" she protested. "We'll get the sheets all wet."

"Here's hoping," said Dom, and kissed her deeply. Lani shivered at the sensation of his warm body against hers as the water cooled off. His wet but cool hands moved over her body and she twisted under him, not sure whether she was trying to get away or looking for more. Slowly, he ran his hands over her breasts and followed with his lips and tongue. When she gave a small whimper, he abandoned the slow approach and placed his mouth between her legs. His tongue darted out, tasted her and she arched up immediately.

"Dom..." she pleaded, not exactly sure what she was asking. He kept one hand on her hip and let the other roam over her, touching as much of her soft skin as he could.

He loved her voice, he loved the sounds she made, and he damn well loved the way she tasted. He couldn't get enough of that, or of the way her body responded to him. I would have chased her across the state, he thought. Relentlessly, he teased her with his tongue and drove her on. He refused to change his pace or rhythm even when she began to plead, breathlessly, for release.

He slid his tongue over her and delved inside, all the while driving himself as crazy as he seemed to be driving her. It was an effort not to just stop, move up, and thrust inside her. He remembered how it had felt to have her completely around him, and he was anxious to do it again. For now, though, he wanted to return the favor she'd given him in the shower. With interest.

Lani wondered if she would pass out from the anticipation. He kept pushing her so close to the edge, then pulling her back. It wasn't fair, but she couldn't form the words to tell him so. Then, at last, he flicked his tongue and she cried out as she rode wave after wave of pleasure. She barely noticed when he stopped.

Dom reached over for another condom. He had to have her again, to bury himself in her. She had tasted so sweet and felt so good; he needed—craved—to feel her around him again. He rolled the condom on and turned back to her, taking in her half-closed eyes and slightly parted lips.

"Do you have any idea what you do to me?" he murmured, lowering his lips for a gentle kiss.

"When I can think again, I'll let you know," she answered with a half smile. She slid her hands up his arms to his shoulders, holding him tightly as he thrust inside, and raising her hips to meet him. It was her turn to whisper to him, not that she even knew what she was saying. Whatever it was, Lani decided it must have been the right thing, as Dom captured her lips again, caught her hips in his hands, and increased his pace. She wrapped herself around him, letting his body carry hers along for the ride.

Dom hoped it would never end, but he could feel himself tightening. He fought off the release as long as he could, slowing down his thrusts and concentrating on the feel of Lani's hands on his shoulders, and tangling in his hair. When she breathed his name and her teeth grazed his skin, his control snapped and he grabbed her tightly. She shuddered around him and he let himself go, drowning in the pleasure that rolled over him.

They lay quietly for several minutes before Dom had the energy and balance to move and dispose of the condom. He came back to the bed, found that Lani had barely moved, and gathered her to him.

"Do you have to work today?" he asked.

"No," she said, resting her head on his shoulder. "But I figured you had practice or something. I was going to shower and then go, but I planned to wake you up first."

"Spend the day with me," he said quietly, "please."

She tilted her head back to look at him. "Are you sure? I don't want to be in the way or..." Dom shook his head.

"I've got the day off. We've had a busy schedule, and now we're taking a small break." He gave her a hopeful look. "But tomorrow we have to go on the road. So please, stay with me?"

Lani laughed. "Is that the new version of 'Hey, baby, my unit's shipping out in the morning?'"

"If it gets you to stay, then yes," he said, grinning.

"Sure," she said, brushing his hair away from his eyes. "I just need one thing."

"What's that?"

She smiled. "Another shower. Something interrupted mine." Dom laughed and she yelped when he carried her back into the bathroom.

x-x-x-x

"Oh, wow," said Dee, throwing her head back on the sofa. "That was great. I'm so glad they won."

Lani grinned. It was Monday night and Dee had invited her over to watch the first game of the road trip. They'd won, four to two. Even over the television, they could see Dom's frustration. He had been screened on the first goal, but the second had been a bit soft. Lani hoped that the victory would dull his anger at letting those shots through. When the cameras had shown the team skating off, she had seen the absent nods he'd given his teammates as they all gathered around to tap his pads or pat his helmet. He was thinking about the ones that had gotten away, she was sure.

"You studied up on the rules," Lani observed. She stretched out in her chair, putting her feet up on the coffee table that was covered with the debris of game-watching. Bowls of popcorn, glasses of soda, and the remains of a half gallon of cookie dough ice cream from when the tension had gotten bad in the middle of the third period.

"I did," said Dee with a grin. She'd learned enough to argue—knowledgeably—with the refs when they'd made calls she hadn't liked. Then she blushed slightly. "Karl taught me a lot."

"Did he now?" Lani raised her eyebrows inquiringly. "Let's hear about it."

"No," said Dee, now embarrassed. She started fidgeting, piling up the dishes. "You haven't told me about you and Dom, so I'm not sharing first."

"We could draw straws," Lani suggested. Truthfully, she'd wanted to talk to Dee, but she'd spent all Sunday with Dom and had only rushed by Dee's early this morning to get her computer. When Dee had suggested getting together to watch the game, Lani had jumped at it. The idea of Cherie watching a hockey game was laughable, and she didn't have a TV in her room. Then the game had started, and conversation had fallen by the wayside.

"It's my apartment," Dee pointed out, "and my food you scarfed down. So you can go first."

"Oh, all right." Lani sighed and helped gather the dirty dishes. They dumped them in the sink, filled two glasses with some celebratory wine and returned to the living room. Dee stretched her body out on the couch, and Lani curled up in the chair. She was jealous of Dee's height and figure only for a minute or two.

"Okay, spill," said Dee. "I didn't hear from you all day Sunday. You must have been having a lot of fun." She winked suggestively.

"I did," Lani confessed. "It was great, Dee, really great." She sighed. "After you left, we took a cab back to my place." She made a face. "I tried to keep him from coming with me but he did anyway and when he saw the show Cherie was putting on, he asked me to come back to his place."

"Which you did," Dee observed. She was curious to find out just what Cherie had done, but put that on the back burner for a moment. It was fun to see Lani, who was usually so methodical about everything, including relationships, go gooey over someone.

"He said 'please, '" Lani told her, as though that explained everything.

"So, what? Then you had sex?" Dee asked. Now it was Lani's turn to blush.

"Dee!" She fidgeted in her chair, couldn't hide a grin. "Yes."

"Oh, you ... you didn't tell me!" Dee grabbed a throw pillow from the floor and launched it at Lani. "How could you not tell me?!"

"I'm telling you now," Lani protested. She settled the pillow on her lap and rested her glass on it.

"It doesn't count," Dee pouted. "You waited more than twenty-four hours. It's like being out of the loop completely."

"I was hardly going to call you while things were in progress," Lani said dryly. Dee let out a deep, hearty laugh at that.

"So it was good then?" Dee asked, her tone somewhere between anxious and dreamy.

"Yes, it was," Lani said thoughtfully. "It really, really was."

"Good," said Dee decisively. "You need something like that. Someone like that." She paused. "You are going to see him again, right?"

"He said I would," Lani said with a smile. "He has my number, I have his. I don't want to crowd him, though."

"How could you do that?"

"Oh, I don't know." Lani shrugged. "He's a goalie. He's different, like I said."

"He's a guy," said Dee. "He can't be that different from other guys." Dee began to suspect that Lani would use "he's a goalie" to excuse things when she shouldn't. I'll keep an eye on that, she decided.

Lani shrugged again. Although the day spent with him had been wonderful, and more fun than she'd had in a long time, a few things weighed on her mind. She thought about talking them over with Dee now but decided to wait, as she wasn't entirely sure what she thought herself. If she tried to set it out now, she'd only confuse herself, or think in circles.

"Okay, I talked," Lani said, changing the subject. "Now tell me about Karl. You must have spent your day with him to learn so much."

"He's too good for me," Dee said, and Lani scoffed. They'd covered this ground before.

"You're a queen among women, Dee," Lani said. "The question is whether he's good enough for you."

"He was such ... such a gentleman," Dee said, her voice soft. "He let me talk, he listened to me, he asked me questions..." her voice grew almost wistful. "He'll find some girl and sweep her off her feet one day, I know he will."

"Sounds like he already did," Lani observed. The one frustrating thing about Dee was her lack of self-confidence. She never felt she was quite good enough for anyone, which was completely ridiculous. She'd worked her way, with long hours and lots of effort, out of a bad family situation. Although Dee was rightly proud of what she accomplished, it seemed that she let her origins hold her back, especially in relationships.

Lani remembered when they'd met in college. Even with her, Dee had resisted friendship. Lani had been in the student center checking her mail, and turned to find herself hemmed in by a circle of swaggering freshman guys. Dee had muscled her way in, casting an evil eye on each one of them, and they had suddenly decided Lani wasn't worth their time. Once they were gone, Dee had changed; her eyes slid to the floor and she barely acknowledged Lani's words of thanks.

It had taken weeks of persistence on Lani's part for them to become friends, but it had been well worth the effort. Seeing Lani cornered had gotten Dee's protective streak in gear, but in most situations, Dee tended to fade into the background. Dee did, however, have an unexpected adventurous streak, and started dragging Lani to all kinds of things that she never would have tried on her own. Dee would happily jump from a bungee cord, but she recoiled from relationships with men whenever it seemed like it would move beyond friendship.

"Karl's sweet," Dee admitted. "He's handsome, and funny and ... oh, he's too good for me. But that's all right. Friends is good."

"You sell yourself too short, you know," Lani admonished.

"Karl's a famous hockey player. He can do better than someone who came out of the projects," Dee said dismissively.

Lani sat up straight as her anger flared up. "Stop that, Dee. Stop that right now. You know it isn't where you come from. It's where you go, it's where you are." Her eyes flashed. "You had a lot of obstacles and overcame them; I don't know why you keep seeing that as a bad thing instead of the testament to your strength that it is."

"Celia called me," Dee said quietly, sipping at her wine. Lani's anger fled immediately, was replaced by concern.

"What did she want?"

"Money." Dee shrugged. "What she always wants."

"What did you say?"

"I told her no." Dee stared at her wine and Lani exhaled silently in relief. "But she'll just ask again, you know how she is." Lani did indeed. Celia was Dee's cousin, raised next to her in the projects, and had taken the exact opposite path. She'd been involved in drugs and prostitution and in and out of too many rehabs to count. Celia continually came to Dee when she reached bottom, knowing Dee was often a soft touch.

"I know," said Lani, "and you know you should tell me if she calls again. If she keeps it up, you should call the police."

"It's hard to call the police on family," Dee said, but she wasn't angry. "It never helps anyway. She doesn't need jail; she needs counseling, therapy, things like that."

"I just worry," Lani said gently, and reached over to pat her friend's leg.

"I know," said Dee, with a grateful smile. "I won't help her, Lani. I refuse to give any of my hard-earned money to her when I know it'll just go to her next drink or next fix."

"There, see," said Lani lightly. "You're doing great."

"But can you imagine if I did date Karl?" Dee said, abruptly sitting up and nearly spilling her wine. "Celia would know right away. She always does. If she knew I was seeing someone with money..." Dee shook her head. "She'd never leave me alone."

"I'd help you," Lani said seriously. "You know that. And I don't think she'd scare Karl off. You need to give him a little more credit, Dee. Yourself, too."

Dee shook her head more vehemently. "No, I wouldn't expose him to that if I could help it. He doesn't deserve that."

"Neither do you," Lani said.

x-x-x-x

"What are you waiting for?" Karl asked.

"What?" Dom looked up. He'd been resting, listening to some music on his iPod. Nothing relaxed a person like Avenged Sevenfold.

"Why haven't you called Lani?" Karl persisted. He reached down and pulled the earbuds out, earning a glare from Dom.

"She's probably busy," Dom said, grabbing his earbuds back. "Not everybody works our hours, you know."

"I thought you liked her," Karl said.

"I do," Dom snapped. He sat up. Sometimes best friends can be a real pain in the ass, he thought. "And she could call me, you know."

"Sure," said Karl, "she'd be so anxious to interrupt a practice, or a video session. She must know all the travel itinerary, right, so she doesn't call while we're flying?" He shook his head. "Come on, Dom, I saw you the next day." He had never seen Dom in quite that mood. He suspected it involved happiness, but Dom was so closed off sometimes, it was hard to tell.

"So what?" Dom grumped.

"So call her," Karl said.

"And I suppose you've been calling Dee all the time?" Dom said.

"Yes, I have," his friend said. "I'm about to call again now." With that, Karl left the room.

Dom snarled and threw a pillow at the door once it was shut. Karl was right; he should call. He wasn't sure why he hadn't, and even he knew that blaming Lani was just ducking the issue. The truth was that Lani had gotten to him in a way few people ever had, and that had all his red flags waving. She was adorable, smart, had a great laugh, and he was missing her fiercely.

So why didn't he call?

Because, he had to admit, in the light of day and when she wasn't right next to him, he had time to think. Thinking led to worrying. He worried about himself because if he didn't know better, he would think he loved her, or at least could. She had made him feel so relaxed, and even ... oh hell, she'd made him feel happy, and that hadn't happened in a long time.

He had immediately felt concerned for her, protective of her. When he'd seen her reaction in her apartment, he hadn't even hesitated about inviting her to his place. The idea of her going to a hotel hadn't even entered his mind until she said it, and then he knew he simply couldn't do it. He had needed her with him and that was a scary concept.

Other people he had needed or cared about had left. His parents were the prime example. He was extremely grateful to his grandparents, who had managed to extricate him from the foster care system and had supported his efforts to play hockey. Other than that, he'd had very few people in his life who'd cared and stayed. He'd been engaged once, but then even that girl had gone, claiming he didn't trust her because he wouldn't talk to her about the important things.