Chapter 27

“So am I going to meet your family while we’re here?” Sidney asked as reached for her hand. Mya wiped her clammy hand down the side of her pants before sliding her hand into his as she eyed the approaching figures of his parents with trepidation.

“We’ll see,” she replied quietly, trying to decide if the smile she was forcing would make her look pleasant or maniacal. She heard Sidney’s deep sigh but was thankful that he didn’t have time to belabor the point as his bear of a father had pulled him into a handshake that looked like it would crush the metacarpals of a smaller human being. His son seemed to handle it like a seasoned pro. Mya watched nervously as Sidney greeted his father, whom he’d warned her was apparently either going to pretend she didn’t exist or was going to be openly hateful. His mother, on the other hand, who looked like a church mouse in comparison to the barrel-chested Troy, beamed at her son and at his girlfriend and pulled them both into a warm hug.

“I’m so glad to see him settling down. I worry for him around some of those boys,” Trina admitted in a whisper before she let Mya go. Mya felt her own smile grow warmer as she pulled back from the woman who was still glowing in her son’s presence. She felt a pang of jealousy that threatened to close up her throat but she managed to keep smiling all the same.

“So, son, are we gonna kick some US ass today or what?” Troy asked, doing exactly as his son predicted he would, ignoring Mya’s presence altogether, but just as she was about to allow herself to fade into the background, for his sake she told herself, she felt Sidney’s arm slide around her waist and felt herself pulled protectively and proprietarily against his side.

“Mom, Dad, this is my girlfriend, Mya.”

Mya felt herself stiffen though she couldn’t stop herself from grinning like an idiot. Girlfriend. It sounded so official. She’d never heard him call her that before and even though she was wearing his promise ring and he’d told her he loved her, somehow this made everything so much more real.

Troy glowered at her but Mya just kept grinning and almost broke into out and out giggling when she felt Sid’s arm tighten around her waist. As hard as it was to have Troy’s piggy little eyes glaring at her, she imagined it was much worse for Sid to have his father behaving like a petulant child. Parents could be so embarrassing; Mya thought to herself. That was something with which she could entirely sympathize.

“Nice to meet you,” Troy grumbled finally, pushing his meaty paw towards her. Mya looked down at his thick, oversized hand and wondered how many seconds it would take to crush her fingers. She put her hand in his anyway and gave him her biggest, brightest stage smile. For his part, Troy made a noise in his throat that the rest of his family obviously recognized as some kind of ascent, as they all turned to head out of the Airport Terminal.

“Lunch?” Sid asked, looking over at his mother with a satisfied Mona Lisa smile on his face.

“Do they have good food in the athlete’s village?” his mother asked, the same sort of secretive half smile gracing her face as she tucked her arm into her son’s.

“No, well...yeah it’s okay but Mya knows this some great places around here. We thought you might like to try some Indian?” Sidney turned to look at her and Mya felt her knees go weak. He had his family around him and he’d won some kind of battle with his father and now he was looking at her like he was so glad she was here and all she could think was...fuck I love this man.

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“I just ate too much and it was spicy and your dad was staring at me like he was trying to make my head pop off with the power of his mind,” Mya insisted as she took the tissue Sid offered and wiped the blow back off from around her mouth before leaning back against him. He was still holding her hair back and now reached with his free hand to feel her forehead for a fever. “And you can cut that out too,” she insisted, brushing his hand away. “I wouldn’t come anywhere near you if I was sick.”

“First the headaches, now you can’t keep anything down...My, I’m worried,” Sidney began but she only shook her head and then winced at the movement.

“It’s stress. Not all of us can be calm and cool and collected all the time,” she sighed, turning to bury her face in his chest. Sidney wrapped his arms around her and held her there, on the floor of the bathroom in his room in the athlete’s village. She wasn’t supposed to be here. If Yzerman found out....

Well it was a good thing that Nash was down in the village looking to hook up with some figure skater or something Sid thought as he ran his fingers through Mya’s long dark hair. Not that he thought Nash would say anything. He didn’t seem to be the kind of guy that would snitch on a teammate. Besides, Sidney was pretty sure he was going to have to bunk with one of his teammates at some point if Rick actually managed to score.

“You can stay, if you want,” he offered but Mya just shook her head.

“Have you seen the size of the kiddie beds you have? No thanks. I think I’ll go back to my king size bed at the bed and breakfast thanks,” Mya replied with a chuckle as she struggled to get up onto her feet.

“Speaking of which,” Sidney began, helping her up and turning her to face him. “Why, if your parents live here, are you staying at a b & b?” Mya made a face and then shrugged, turning away and reaching for his shaving kit. He watched her pull out his tooth brush and toothpaste and made a mental note to stop at the store they’d provided for the athletes in the village and get another toothbrush.

“You’re not going to leave that alone are you?” she asked quietly as she squeezed the toothpaste onto the brush, glancing back at him in the mirror.

“Well now you have me worried, like maybe you’re hiding some kind of weird mutation in your family tree or something,” Sidney replied, trying to keep things light so that she wouldn’t shut down, like she did every other time he tried to bring up her past. Mya had begun to brush her teeth and now looked back at him in the mirror with narrowed eyes. “Like someone with an extra toe or...something like that?” he muttered, wondering if he’d come a little closer to the mark than he’d intended.

Mya finished brushing her teeth and even added some mouthwash before she spat and rinsed out the bowl, taking her time, like she was thinking about her response. Sidney waited, silent, wondering just what had her so concerned. Could she really think that he was that shallow, that ego centric, that he’d really care if some kind of physical deformity actually did run in her family? Did she really think that little of him?

“Okay,” she said finally, putting his toothbrush down and shutting off the water before turning to face him, her expression carefully veiled. “Tomorrow, after your practice, I’ll meet you outside the rink. I was going to do my dutiful daughter act anyway. You may as well tag along.” Sidney tried to read the guarded expression on Mya’s face but she wouldn’t meet his gaze, not quite. Finally he reached out and tipped her face upwards, his grip just strong enough to make her look at him through narrowed eyes.

“If there’s something you’d really rather I not see...,” he began but Mya only shook her head and with an acerbic laugh shook her head.

“No...no you should see. You should know what you’re buying into,” she replied with a heavy sigh, pressing her lips briefly against his before inching around him and heading for the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Sidney watched her go, watched the door close behind her leaving him with his imagination swimming with images of circus side show freaks.

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It looked like a nice apartment from the outside. Mya always thought that as she walked up the street towards it. It looked like a nice neighbourhood with tree lined streets and cheerfully painted terraced apartments and it was, for the most part. It was only as you got to the alarmed doors at the front and saw the wheelchairs lined up outside in the sun that you would begin to realize there was more to this place than just a place to live.

If you could call it living, she thought uncharitably as she felt Sidney go very still as they waited for the doors to slide open and admit them, the antiseptic tang of bleach mixed with the underlying stench of sickness and death. It made her skin crawl. It always did.

She could feel Sidney’s eyes on her but she could barely make herself look ahead. She could barely make herself walk through the doors of this place. She couldn’t worry about him now or what he was thinking. This was hard enough for her as it was.
She felt his hand curl around hers’ and just for a split second she felt better, like she had back up, like she had a wing man, but then she heard the whoosh of the automated doors closing behind her and that brief respite was replaced the same overwhelming nausea that she always felt as she walked past the security station and the nurse’s station, past the visiting area where the more mobile patients sat listening to someone play on a piano.

Of course most of the inmates, she didn’t think of them as patients, not these ones who still could get up out of their beds and interact with their limited world, were older, gray haired and wizened. That was one of the reasons she’d fought against putting her here. What would her mother have in common with these old people?

It didn’t matter though, as it turned out, she thought as they turned the corner and walked down a dimly lit corridor, past rooms filled with patients who no longer left their beds hooked up to monitors that told the nurses by beeps and alarms if their comatose patients were alive or dead. Sometimes that was the only way you could tell.

“Hi mom,” she called out, forcing a smile onto her face as she walked through the last door, dropping Sidney’s hand as she crossed the floor to place a soft kiss on the top of the head of the emaciated woman in the rocking chair by the window. She was up today. That meant she was having a good day. She waited the long, agonizing moment it took for her mother to drag herself out of her dark little dream world she was in and turn her grey blue eyes toward her.

“Oh!” her mother smiled and Mya felt her heart leap in her chest. It must be a good day. “Myrna, is school out already?”

“Yeah...yeah for today,” Mya nodded and brushed her mother’s sunken cheek with her hand. Maybe it wasn’t such a good day after all. She thought she was her Aunt...her Aunt who was dead. “How are you? Did you watch any of the Olympics on the TV today?” Mya turned away from her mother to hide the tears that sprang to her eyes. She doesn’t recognize me anymore, she thought as she busied her hands making the bed, folding the afghan that lay at the end of the crisp white hospital bed, fluffing the crunchy hospital pillows. She’d known this time would come and she had been away for a longer this time.

“Oh...oh Frank...Myrna you didn’t tell me Frank was here.” Mya turned to follow her mother’s gaze, and saw Sidney standing in the doorway, watching the two of them with wary eyes. Frank was her father. She wondered when he’d last bothered to visit. She opened her mouth to correct her but it always confused her more when anyone did that. It was easier to play along, to keep her happy in her imaginary world. The last time she was happy, when she’d been a teenager.

“That’s right. Frank’s here to see you,” Mya beckoned Sidney in and watched his brow furrow as he crossed the room, holding the bouquet of flowers they’d stopped to buy on their way here before him like a shield. She watched her mother take the flowers and bury her face in them, a huge happy grin on her face and couldn’t help but wonder if her father had ever bought her mother flowers. She couldn’t remember ever seeing any in the house, none that hadn’t been grown lovingly by her mother in their yard. She always brought her mother flowers. They never failed to make her smile.

“Oh Frank, these are lovely. Did you bring over any new records to listen to?” her mother asked, beaming up at Sidney who looked helplessly towards Mya.

“Not today, did you Frank. But he brought a book to read to you, didn’t you...Frank?” she said pointedly, glancing over at a chair and then back at her mother with a raised eyebrow. He’d wanted to come, the least he could do was play along.

“Ummm that’s right. Mya...Myrna said you like Maeve Binchy?” he asked quietly, dragging the chair next to her mother and holding the book out he’d had under his arm. Her mother beamed and it tore at Mya’s heart to see the adoration in her mother’s eyes when she looked at Sidney. She couldn’t imagine her mother ever loving her father that much. She must have though, at one time, she thought as she watched Sidney settle into the chair and open up the book and begin, patiently, to read to her mother.

Mya glanced at the picture of her father on her mother’s bedside table. It was a picture of him taken when they’d just begun dating, leaning against his black Trans Am with the golden screaming eagle on the hood. His dark hair was slicked back and he was wearing a black leather jacket and dark jeans. A real hood. A greaser. Mr Cool.

Mya picked up the photo an looked down at the boy looking back at her from the inside the frame. He’d been hard on them all, strict and unforgiving. As far as she knew, the last time he visited her mother was the day they’d brought her here after...after she’d wandered away from the house in the middle of the night in her nightgown.

Putting the picture back in its’ place, Mya fought to keep the bile down that crept up her throat. They’d fought then. A wild, screaming fight full of accusations and horrible things they couldn’t take back. That’s when Myrna, her Aunt, had told her it was time to leave, time to stop putting her life on hold to take care of her parents. She was too young to be doing that.

Maybe she had been but still....

Mya turned back to watch her mother’s hand close gently, but possessively around Sidney’s. She watched him go still, heard his voice falter mid sentence. But then he smiled and gave her mother’s hand a squeeze and tears rolled down Mya’s face. She couldn’t remember the last time she saw her mother so exquisitely happy.
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“That was what you were so worried about?” Sidney asked quietly as they walked out of the building. Mya turned her tear stained face up to his and they stopped in the middle of the parking lot as she tried to speak through her tears.

“That? You say it like that was nothing and that....That is my mother and she doesn’t even know who I am...do you have any fucking idea what that fucking feels like?” she asked, tears streaming down her face.

“No,” he replied quietly, cupping her face in his hands and pressing a soft kiss to her furrowed brow. “But I think what you did...are doing...is all you can do for her My. It’s not your fault.”

“I know that, don’t you think I know that?” she sniffed, stiffening as he tried to wrap his arms protectively around her.

“No I don’t,” he whispered into her hair, feeling her gradually relaxing against him until her arms wound around his middle and her cheek rested against his shoulder “I think you probably think you should be looking after her but you couldn’t...not all the time and...well she doesn’t know you’re not there so...I know you probably feel bad but it’s not like she can miss you.” He held her close, tightening his grasp on her as she struggled against him. He knew that she probably didn’t want to hear what he was trying to say but he knew he was right when he said it.

“I’m hundreds of miles away from her. I miss her...I miss her all the time,” Mya sobbed, slamming her hand against his chest. “You don’t know...you have two fucking moms with Nathalie...I don’t even have the one I have.” Sidney tried to think of something motivating to say but he came up empty and decided that the best thing he could probably do for her was exactly what he was already doing, and that was just to hold her. “I can’t even call her, you know?” she sniffed finally, wiping her nose with the back of her hand before looking up at him, her green eyes red rimmed. She looked exhausted. He nodded, realizing this was probably the most vulnerable she’d ever been around him. Even when she’d been in that holding cell, she’d been tough and resilient. Not now. Now she was shaken to the core, and this was the first time he felt like maybe she really needed him.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, brushing a tear away from her cheek before lowering his mouth to capture hers’. His chest swelled as she clung to him, her lips moving eagerly under his. “And if you thought this was going to scare me away My...it’s just not going to happen.” She gave him the ghost of a smile and then dropped her gaze from his.

“That could be me...will probably be me...,” she began but stopped when his fingers cupped her chin and forced her gaze to meet with his.

“If that ever happens, I promise you that you will never end up in a place like this and I promise you...I will never leave you My...never.”

Chapter 26

**First and foremost thanks for the patience. I don't normally take this long to write a chapter but I had a lot of running to the loo this week & yeah I get that that's too much info, but I wanted to put it out there in case this doesn't make sense.


“Merry Christmas,” Steve grinned, clinking his mug of rum and eggnog against Mya’s as he joined her on the couch, wearing his brand new festive socks and matching Ho Ho Ho red sweater. “Another year, we’re still here.” Mya laughed and took a sip of her eggnog, making a face at how strong the beverage was. “Lightweight.”

“It’s ten in the morning,” Mya reminded him, accepting the stocking he dropped into her lap.

“Egg...that’s breakfast isn’t it?” Steve countered, promptly turning his stocking upside down and dropping the entirety of its contents on to the couch between them. “Besides, I’m pretty sure it’s five o’clock somewhere.”

“Just tell me there’s an orange in here somewhere,” Mya coughed, digging more carefully into her stocking, pulling out the usual Playgirl magazine that her Aunt had filled her stocking with ever since she was sixteen, much to her mother’s displeasure. It made her smile, despite the sting of missing both women at this time of year. Still, at least it seemed by the package under the tree that had arrived some time the day before, she hadn’t been entirely disowned. So there was that.

Mya pulled the obligatory mandarin orange and began peeling it, careful to keep the peel in one piece. That was supposed to be good luck wasn’t it, she thought to herself. Or was it just to get that elephant shape?

“Okay, maybe I should get you some coffee, preferably the heavily caffeinated kind,” Steve mumbled, giving her a shove with his foot and bringing her back to the present. “Who are you and what have you done with Mya?”

“What? I’m not allowed to be...contemplative?” she asked, blinking at him sleepily.

“No, and especially not on Christmas day. You’re usually bouncing off the walls. What is with you?” Steve replied, still looking over at her like she was someone he didn’t recognize.

“I’m tired. I’m allowed to be tired aren’t I?” Mya replied, hiding a yawn behind her hand. Steve narrowed his eyes at her and then shook his head as he pushed himself back up onto his feet and headed for the kitchen.

“Not as long as the reason is what I think it is,” Steven called back from the kitchen. Mya grinned, though she felt the tips of her ears begin to burn at the idea of her Uncle knowing about her sex life. “Is it what I think it is?” he asked, peeking around the corner and grinning at her which only caused Mya’s entire face to heat up.

“He stayed last night, if that’s what you’re trying to ask,” Mya muttered, trying to hide behind her mug but another sip of the spiked egg nog had her looking for somewhere to spit out the vile liquid in her mouth. Whoever thought that alcohol goes in milk products...she thought to herself, putting the mug down on the coffee table and pushing it as far away from her as she could. She was decidedly thirsty but that was just not going to do it.

“I could tell by all the bling,” Steve smiled and lifted his eyebrows as he slid back onto the sofa beside her, “must be nice to have a sugar daddy.” Mya opened her mouth to argue but shut it again. He was being facetious and she was being oversensitive.

Speaking of which....

Mya pinched the bridge of her nose and screwed her eyes shut. That pain in the back of her head was back. She’d had it for a while at the club and the day before....

“I need something to eat besides this orange,” she grumbled, spilling her gifts and his onto the floor as she rose and then promptly stumbling dangerously close to the Christmas tree before Steven caught her. She found herself looking up into his concerned face and felt the flat of his hand on her forehead.

“When’s the last time you ate something? How long have you been having these headaches? Are you drinking enough water? How late were you up last night?” Mya chuckled and pushed her uncle away, fending off his well meant ministrations.

“What is this – twenty questions? Holy shit Sherlock Holmes. Just get me some fucking toast and quit grillin’ me,” Mya laughed, stumbling to the fridge and pulling a bottle of water out of it, twisting off the lid and gulping half of it down before leaning back against the counter. “Mmmmuch better.”

“So it’s like that is it? Hung over and hormonal. Sometimes you remind me so much of....”

“Yeah yeah, less talking, more toasting,” Mya laughed wiggling her way up onto the counter and reaching over to open the cupboard where the bread and crackers and other snack foods were kept. “Ohhh chips,” she smiled, reaching for a bag of Herr’s Boardwalk salt and vinegar chips.

“Hormonal...,” Steve muttered, causing Mya to turn and glare at him. “What? You’re denying your pms’ing?”

“Why is it you men always go there? A woman wants salt and it’s all about her vajayjay? Christ,” Mya muttered, ripping the bag open and reaching in for a handful of crunchy salty goodness, closing her eyes to enjoy the sheer bliss of the salt dissolving on her tongue. “You guys just wish you had a biological reason to eat whatever you want.”

“We do. It’s called watching Football. Speaking of which, where is your boy toy today?” Mya opened her eyes and stared at her uncle, narrowing her eyes and shaking her head.

“He plays hockey. Now I know you Americans have a tough time understanding ice sports....”

“I know who he is and exactly what he does. I’m just not interested in anything that’s not a blood sport,” the one time Marine said, grinning. He was baiting her and Mya knew it, but now that she had some sustenance going into her stomach, she felt up to having a good old fashioned argument.

“Blood sport? Let me tell you about this guy that used to play for the Pens named Jarkko....”
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“Put that thing away, you’re going to blind someone with that thing,” Cookie laughed as he walked by with a roll of tape in one hand and three sticks in the other. “What is that, two carats?”

“Three,” Sidney corrected him quietly as he placed the platinum set cushion cut diamond ring back in its box.

“Tabernak!” Sidney looked up at his friend and teammate and then down at the small velvet box in his hand. “Merde Sainte! Sacrament! What is wrong with you?”

“Leave him alone Max,” Jordy sighed, stowing his runners beneath the bench before reaching for his skates.

“Why? Just tell me why? Why must you forever be trying to tie yourself to the first pussy that comes along?” Max insisted, standing over Sidney, his thick hands rolled into fists that looked more like mallets used to break down walls than fingers. Sidney turned the small velvet box over in his hands thoughtfully. He had his reasons. He didn’t expect Max to understand.

“I thought you were over this Talbo,” Flower piped up, a toothy grin on his face, the exact opposite expression to the dark thundercloud that filled Max’s eyes. “I thought you were coming around to our way of thinking. Nice girl, cooking, cleaning, warming our bed....” Flower’s grin faded around the edges when Max turned his dark glare on the pale young goal tender.

“This is him we’re talking about,” Max growled in Flower’s direction, “not good little Catholic boys like you,”, and as he so often did when faced with any act of aggression that wasn’t on the ice, Fleur slunk silently away. Sidney watched him go as if he was watching his best friend disappear off in the distance forever. The last thing he needed before a game was yet another one of Max’s tirades. Usually Fleur could distract the stocky forward and he knew the only other hope lay in the long haired defenseman sitting across the room but Sidney knew damn well there would be no help coming from that corner.

“Ease up Max. Save it for the game,” the older, and thank god, wiser Cookie tapped Max on the back of his shins but Max didn’t waver.

“No I will not fucking ease up. C’mon! Who’s with me here? Why does our captain have to pussy up every time a cute piece of tail goes by and gives him a fucking wink? Sacre crisse! Por fucking quoi? Why can’t you just fuck the girls like the rest of us do?” Sidney glanced up at his heated line mate and then back down at the velvet box. He hadn’t the first clue why he couldn’t enjoy a one night stand like Max seemed to. He just knew that he couldn’t. But he didn’t get a chance to open his mouth and tell the furry Frenchman that. Not before the other hirsute Frenchman put his hands on Max’s shoulders and gave them a squeeze.

“Mon ami...I don’t know how, exactly to explain to you but...elle n’est pas d’aucune fille ordinaire. Elle est quelque chose différente tout à fait. If he loves her...well it’s no wonder,” Tanger said, his voice quiet, strained as he looked over Talbot’s shoulder and met Sidney’s gaze. “I know exactly how he feels. Exactement.” Tanger gave him a nod and then turned and walked out of the room, heading for the ice.

Sidney watched him go, not entirely sure what to make of the quiet defenseman’s words, except that he couldn’t imagine...no, he didn’t want to imagine what he felt like. Looking back down at the small velvet box in his hand, all Sidney did know was he couldn’t lose her. He might have slept, breathed and ate hockey before, but now...now he couldn’t breathe without her and the last week...being away from her had only cemented that sentiment in his mind.

Turning his attention back to Max, Sid felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he slipped the box back into his bag before standing and putting his hands on his friend’s shoulder pads just where Tanger’s had been.

“I’m sorry you don’t get it Max but you know, it’s not going to be pretty when you’re ninety and chasing college girls around a bar you know?” He grinned at the idea of it and then gave Max’s cheek a gentle slap before turning to head out of the room himself, whistling all the way.
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Mya lit the last candle and then stepped back to survey her handiwork. She’d spent her first pay check on this dinner and all the accoutrements. The vanilla and jasmine candles, the baseball steaks, the new push up bra and matching thong from Victoria’s secret and last, but not least, the new little black dress. It was actually very tasteful, for her, she thought as she blew out the match and turned to run it under the tap before tossing it in the garbage.

He’d texted to say he’d come to her after the game and Mya had felt her heart flutter in her chest. She’d been just about to go on air, just about to set up the game and she hadn’t been able to keep the grin off of her face as she talked about how his scoring streak was still intact heading into the Olympic break.

Speaking of which, she thought happily as she stuck her head in the oven to check the colour of the crust on her home-made apple pie, her tickets were sitting on her new boss’s desk. She’d only been working at the station for a couple of weeks but they’d decided to send her to Vancouver to do the coverage. It was pretty freaking unbelievable and she couldn’t wait to tell Sidney. Not that he’d have time to see her there. After all he was going to be under an unbelievable amount of pressure to get the gold medal.

Still...Mya grinned to herself as she looked around the darkened, candlelit room. There was always the opportunity for a quickie in the athletes village. How naughty would that be, she mused as she fidgeted with the linen napkins on the table and straightened the chargers for the umpteenth time.

She was nervous. It had been a close game and Sid had rung a couple of shots off the crossbar and had taken an undisciplined penalty in overtime that had cost the team the game. That being the case, she wasn’t sure what was going to happen when he walked in the door. Would he be moody but willing to be cheered up or would he inconsolable? Either way....

Mya picked up the simple blue cardboard box, faded and tattered at the edges with the intertwined gold B’s in the top corner, and opened it. Running her fingers lightly but lovingly over the thick gold band inside, Mya thought about her grandfather and felt the sting of tears filling her eyes.

Christ she missed the old man.

Her grandmother’s rings sat beside it, too tiny for her own finger. But maybe one day, she thought putting the lid back on the box and putting it back on the table beneath her napkin. Maybe one day she’d have a daughter who would be a little more demure and diminutive. Her grandfather, on the other hand, had been a big man, a man who used his hands, a man who when he held you made you feel like you were being hugged by a grizzly. Sid had hands and arms like that she though, smiling to herself. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought her grandfather’s ring might fit him perfectly.

That was, if she got up the courage to ask him the question that was flitting around in her mind like a bat in an empty belfry.

Did women actually do this, she wondered as she peeked into the casserole staying warm on the top of the stove. Did they pop the question? And more importantly, was Sidney old fashioned enough to be offended if she did? Or would he be relieved to have the pressure off of him? Or...god forbid, would he say no?

Mya felt her stomach clench at the thought of his turning her down. Maybe it was too soon, she decided, her hand hovering over the napkin hiding the box from sight.

On the other hand, even if he did say no, the thought of which made her stomach hurt, at least he would know she was all in, she was committed and most importantly that she was ready to do whatever it took to make this work. He’d given her the promise ring and she just wanted to give him something that said ‘mine’ just as much as the ring on her finger did.

Not that he’s be able to wear a wedding ring in public, she realized, her hand sweeping the napkin away as she reached for the box....

Mya’s head snapped up at the sound of a knock on the door. Too late, she thought, her heart beat doubling as she replaced the napkin over the old, frail box. She’d just have to leave it there and hide it later, maybe between courses.
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He’d tried, ever since he’d left the ice, he’d tried to shake the irritation at the loss. It wasn’t just that they’d lost though, Sidney knew. It was that he felt responsible.

No, not felt, he corrected himself. He was responsible. Not only had he been unable to put the biscuit in the fucking basket but he’d taken that stupid, stupid slashing penalty in the first few seconds of overtime.

He’d been getting better at corralling his emotions, controlling them, channelling them into his play but every once in a while....and Ruutu knew his buttons damn him. He’d been ignoring the feisty Fin’s chirping for the entire game but when he’d tripped him on the way back to the bench and there was no call....

Let it go, he told himself as he found himself in front of her door. He’d promised her that he’d come after the game and he did want to see her but the right thing to do was probably turn around and go home, call her and apologize. If he explained about the game, which she’d no doubt seen the highlights – make that low lights – considering she’d have to go over the game on the news tomorrow....

He knocked on the door, his hand moving before his brain had made the decision, and as soon as he heard her moving on the other side of the door, he felt his heart begin to race. His body knew what he needed, even if his brain didn’t fully grasp it.
No sooner had she opened the door than he had her head cradled in his hands and his lips had captured hers’. He kissed her like he hadn’t seen her in a year, like if he didn’t he die and that was exactly how he felt. Like if she didn’t take away the pain he felt in his chest, didn’t help to ease the dishonour he was feeling he’d go insane.

He pushed the door closed with one hand and slid the other down over her breast and felt her gasp into his mouth. His body reacted accordingly and he pressed his groin against hers’ as their tongues duelled for supremacy. Not that he was going to let her get the upper hand, he knew, as he slid his hand down between them and began to push the hem of her dress upwards.

She threw her head back and gasped as he slipped his fingers into her panties and slid them inside of her. He found the pulse in her neck and fastened his teeth around it as she whimpered and pressed down against his hand, her muscles pulling at him, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps as pumped his fingers into her.

As satisfying as it was to have her shuddering and whimpering, it wasn’t what he wanted and soon enough, Sidney grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him down the hall and pressed her down onto the bed. His heart was leaping in his chest as he stood there staring down at her and it was on the tip of his tongue to apologize but something in her eyes stopped him.

She gazed up at him, her teeth digging into her full bottom lip, and the look in her eyes told him that not only had he no need to apologize, but that she liked it. He stood there at the end of the bed, stock still, while she lay on the bed before him and ran her hand slowly, achingly slowly, down over her breast, her stomach and lower still until it was inching northward again, taking the hem of her dress with it. Sidney licked his lips as he watched her hand disappear beneath the waist band of her panties, but as much as he wanted to push her hand out of the way and drag her panties off of her, he got the distinct impression that she didn’t want his help and that this was all for him.

He let his jacket drop to the floor and loosened his tie, his gaze fastened to the movement of her fingers beneath the black satin thong, which, from time to time, moved just enough for him to see a flash of smooth, pink skin. It was hot and fucking painful at the same time and he couldn’t get his shirt unbuttoned fast enough and ended up pulling it over his head, balling it up and tossing it impatiently across the room before reaching for the buckle on his belt.

She was getting the upper hand, or he was giving it to her or...or...fuck it. It didn’t matter. He’d forgotten all about the fucking game and that was why he’d come here in the first place.
______________________________________________________________

Mya licked her lips as his six-pack appeared beneath the hem of his shirt. Her gaze followed his skin, inch by solid inch until his shirt sailed, in a wadded up ball, over her head. He reached for his belt then but she wasn’t done teasing him, which, in his present mood, was probably a dangerous thing and yet she couldn’t resist. He was even more handsome than usual when he was angry. His eyes flashed more gold than brown, like a lion on the prowl and heat radiated off of him in waves.

Pressing the ball of her foot against his hands, she stilled them and then ran her foot up over his abs and then down again. Down, down over his erection that strained and twitched against his suit pants. Biting down on her bottom lip to silence the moan that bubbled up in her throat as she rubbed her clit in slow circles, Mya wrapped her leg around the back of Sidney’s thigh and pulled him toward her.

“I want to watch you,” she whispered as he leaned over her, looking turned on and pained all at once.

“W...watch?” he stammered, as he leaned down as far as he could without kneeling on the bed.

“What’s good for the goose...,” she grinned up at him, whetting her bottom lip with her tongue and then letting her eyes fall closed and sliding her hand down, pushing the satin thong aside.

He moaned then, and Mya imagined his gaze following the movements of her fingers as she dipped them inside of herself as she pulled her knees up and apart to achieve a better angle. When she opened her eyes again he was standing there in front of her, his cock rock hard, and with that upward angle that made it stand up almost straight against his stomach. It was a challenge to make herself look up into his hazel eyes and away from his nearly perfect body.

He looked...sheepish. She couldn’t think of any other word for it as she watched his hand gradually, slowly curl around the width of his cock. He didn’t want to do it, but she could tell he didn’t want her to stop either. He’d already had a bad day, she decided, holding her free hand out to him by way of invitation. She wasn’t going to be the one to torture him further.

He lay down beside her on the bed and leaned over to place a tender kiss on her lips that belied the heat and passion clearly blazing in his eyes. She, in turn, took his hand and guided it down between her legs while she struggled out of her dress.

It was her turn to moan as his fingers took up the work hers had just been doing, except that his were thicker, stronger and with the addition of his lips and teeth at work on her neck, Mya felt herself descending quickly into the abyss.

This was when her body felt like it became one huge g-spot, as if he could touch her anywhere and she would cum immediately for him. He’d learned her body so well, she was almost sure that all it would take was for him to whisper it in her ear and she would cum.

As it was, his teeth digging through the fabric of her new push up bra to find her nipple did it. Her body arched off the bed and she cried out, her nails digging deeply into his back.
____________________________________________________________

He loved to slide inside of her when she was still riding the edge of the orgasm, her body still taught with the strength of the spasms, her muscles clenching tightly around his dick. He had to breathe and concentrate in order not to have her pull him over the edge, but fuck it felt good! She was so warm and wet and soft all at once and it was easy to forget all about the shitty game and concentrate on making her make those little noises, making her whimper, making her writhe beneath him.
With his hands behind her knees, he pressed her legs wide and back and found that sweet spot that made her breathe quickly, that made her dig her fingers into the quilt and toss her head from side to side, her eyes screwed tightly shut. She was close again. He could feel it.

Using his shoulder to keep her legs in place, he reached down to stroke her clit and watched her bite down on her bottom lip as she squirmed. Pressing harder , Sidney withdrew, almost entirely, until just the head of his cock remained inside of her and still he could feel her muscles clutching hungrily at him.

“Nooo,” she moaned, her eyes snapping open to look up at him with angry eyes. “Don’t stop. Please.” With a chuckle he obliged her, thrusting deep inside of her and she rewarded him with a long, high pitched cry as her body bucked beneath his.

This time he couldn’t hold back, though he wanted to. He wanted to keep going but it felt too good and his body answered hers the only way it knew how. With a deep groan, he spent himself within her, his entire body shuddering with the strength of the orgasm.

No wonder they called it the ‘little death’, he thought as stars swam in the way of his vision. He almost felt like he was outside of himself, like his heart had stopped, like he couldn’t breathe, like the world had stopped around him.

He curled around, his body still quaking, and held her close, nuzzling her hair, and let the warmth of her body and the languid feeling of his muscles relaxing after a strenuous work out pull him towards sleep. He had, after all, played over twenty minutes and his body knew it, even if his mind did not.

She, on the other hand, seemed to have a different agenda altogether.

He felt her fingertips running along the length of his thigh, light, gentle brushes and even as relaxed as he was, as tired and as close to sleep, his body reacted, stirring back to life. He thought about playing possum, lying there with his eyes closed, breathing slowly and evenly and hoping that she would think he was asleep, but her breathy chuckle as his cock came to attention told him it was no use.

“You’re going to have to do the work this time,” he sighed, rolling onto his back.
It was her turn to oblige him, and she straddled him, lowering herself down over him until he was sheathed inside of her. He watched his cock disappear up inside of her. Watched her freshly waxed pink skin meet his and groaned.

She leaned forward, letting her hair fall around his head like a canopy and she grinned down at him.

“I love you,” she smiled, nipping at his lower lip.

“I fucking love you,” he whispered back, reaching around to get a firm grip on her shapely ass, holding her down over him. “Don’t fucking move. I swear I’m going to cum again.”

“You mean like this?” she answered with a grin, sliding forwards and back and tilting her pelvis against his, making little circles with her body still pressed firmly against his. Sidney moaned and shook his head.

“God…so good,” he sighed, pushing up against her and into her. “God it’s so good I think I’m going to stroke out,” he added, sliding his hands up and around her until he was cupping her breasts, stroking them, rolling her nipples between his fingers. “What is it you’re supposed to smell right before you have a stroke? Toast?”

“Oh my god, oh my god, my pie!”

Sidney watched Mya jump off the bed and run out of the room with a certain amount of amusement mixed with an acute feeling of loss. Grudgingly he pushed himself up and looked down at his aching, engorged cock.

“Sorry buddy. Me and my big mouth,” he muttered, glancing down at his pants sitting in a heap on the floor before dismissing the thought of getting dressed again so soon and merely following the sound of her curses out into the kitchen.
______________________________________________________

“Damn, damn fuckity damn,” Mya cursed as she pulled out the scorched pie. It was less a pie than a big block of cinders now and the casserole had bubbled over. Looking down at her ruined dinner, Mya felt tears welling in her eyes. Her perfect night…ruined.

“Don’t cry babes.” She felt his hands on her arms, his lips on curve of her neck as he peered over her shoulder at the ruined meal. “I wasn’t that hungry anyways.”

“Don’t lie,” she sniffed. “You’re always hungry after a game.”

“There must be…I don’t know, popcorn or chips or….”

“You don’t eat junk food!” Mya snapped, tugging herself free from his grasp and turning to toss the pie into the garbage. “I wasn’t even sure you were going to eat any of the pie but I wanted to do something nice for you for once. Not just have you come over for sex,” she added, snarling at him and turning to avoid his outstretched hand. She didn’t want to be coddled, she wanted to be angry.

“I don’t just come for sex and you know it,” he said quietly, walking past and through her defences, even when she tried to push him away. Somehow he still managed to gather her into his arms and press her close to his chest, cradling her head in the curve of his neck. “You know when I tell you I love you it’s not just because you let me in your bed.” She nodded, sniffing against his shoulder, but her hands were still clenched into fists against his ribs, refusing to hold him, to hug him. Not while she was still angry and disappointed. “And I don’t need you to cook me nice meals…I mean it’s nice if you do but I don’t need that either. We can always order in and when we have our own place….”

“Our own…what?” Mya looked up at him and found him smiling down at her.

“What do you think we’re doing here? I gave you a promise ring My. I love you. I want to spend some time getting to know you still but…I see us together long term. Don’t you?” he asked quietly, brushing a tear away that spilled down onto her cheek. Mya nodded, not trusting herself to speak. “Good, as long as we’re on the same page. Little shit like this…,” he glanced at the casserole and then back at her, “are just not important.” She nodded and sniffed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she felt the ache of another one of her headaches coming on.

“I just had all these plans for tonight. I wanted it to be special,” she sighed, leaning her forehead against his chest.

“It is, as long as we’re together,” he responded quietly, kissing the top of her head. His hand slid beneath her chin but Mya steadfastly refused to raise her eyes to meet his. “My…are you sure there isn’t something…else going on?”

“No, no, just…I get these headaches,” she mumbled, pulling back from him and rubbing at her temples which had begun to throb painfully.

“Headaches?” he asked, pulling her hands away from her head and peering at her with concern clearly marked on his face as he tried to search her gaze. “Have you been to the doctor about this?” Mya waved him away and turned to lean on the counter, closing her eyes tight.

“They're just headaches, everyone gets them,” she mumbled, gripping the edge of the countertop as hard as she could as she sucked in a ragged breath through her teeth and wondered if this night could possibly get any worse.

“I could get you in to see the team doctor if you wanted,” Sid offered quietly, placing his hands gently on her shoulders and leading her back towards the bedroom. Mya shook her head, though even that small a movement sent a sharp pain ricocheting behind her eyes.

“I’ll be fine…I just…sometimes if I eat something they go away,” she managed to mumble as she crawled onto the bed and rolled herself up in the quilt. She listened to the pad of Sidney’s feet down the hall and took a deep breath. It was probably stress, she told herself. New job, finishing her thesis, missing her parents, dating a big hockey star….

She managed to smile to herself for a moment and then decided against even that much flexing of her facial muscles and settled into her deep breathing exercises while she listened to Sidney clanging and crashing around in her kitchen.
______________________________________________________

Headaches.

Sidney couldn’t help it. He wondered if that was how it had started with Randi. Had she had headaches? He couldn’t really remember. Towards the end, sure he remembered once or twice, but had it been the cancer or the medication?

He was jumping to conclusions. Getting ahead of himself. It was a headache. She was upset. He shouldn’t read anything into it. She’s made this dinner, baked a pie and it was ruined. She was just upset. It was a headache; that was all. It was perfectly natural. He got them. His mom got them all the time.

At least he hoped that was all it was.

So if that’s all it was, why did he suddenly have this ache deep in his gut?

Chapter 25

“Could you two stop it? You’re seriously putting me off my food,” Max complained loudly as Mya nuzzled at Sidney’s neck. She was sitting on his lap, having found that sitting on the stool next to him was just not nearly close enough in the loved up mood she was in.

“I find it hard to believe that anything can put you off your feedbag Superstar,” Jordy laughed, slapping Max on the back and stealing a wing off of his plate as he passed. Blush may have been closed to the public, but the management had made an exception tonight for the man who had freed their employees and so the Pens were taking advantage, including the married men, some of whom had their wives with them. Not Jordan though.

“I can’t believe Tish let you out,” Mya laughed, slapping the tall forward’s hand away from the bowl of pita chips that she and Sidney were sharing. Pita chips, slightly healthier than regular chips and the only thing on the menu that he would eat besides the Caesar Salad and even that had to come without the croutons.

“He probably escaped out the window and shimmied off the roof,” Max replied, pointing one of the wing bones accusingly at his friend. “She’ll probably show up here screaming like a banshee and then we’ll all be in trouble.”

“Wow, so bitter Max. I thought he was supposed to be the funny guy on the team,” Mya noted, shaking her head at the stocky forward even as she tried not to laugh at him. She was doing her best to forgive and forget his actions of the night before as it seemed that Sid had either entirely forgotten, or had that gift to just get over shit like that. That was something that seemed to come with having a penis Mya had noticed.

“Mr. Grumpy needs to get laid,” Sidney noted bluntly, shooting Max a look that told Mya clearly that he had not, in fact, forgotten a thing.

“C’mon! You’re telling me Superstar has trouble with the ladies?” Mya teased, which earned her a dark look from Max.

“A guy has other needs aside from getting his rocks off,” Max mumbled, causing everyone within hearing distance to fall silent. “What?” Max grumbled, mid chew, looking around at all the gobsmacked faces staring back at him. “You think I don’t look at you and Mya and Jordy and T and wonder what I might be missing out on?”

“Honestly? No,” Sidney replied glancing at Mya who was still staring at Max, jaw slack.

“I thought you loved being a man whore. I thought you were proud of it. I thought that you hated that all the boys were pairing up on you,” Mya shot back at him to which Max only rolled his eyes.

“And a guy can’t change his mind?” Max mumbled, half under his breath, grabbing another chicken wing and biting vicously into it. “What?” he growled, his lips smothered in buffalo sauce as he returned he look of stunned disbelief with a look of his own that clearly said he’d discussed this topic about as much as he was willing to for the moment.

“Well if you’re serious,” Mya began, giving Sidney’s hand a gentle squeeze before slipping off of his lap and heading towards Max before turning and heading to the dj booth. “Marti, you back there girl? Get your pasties on and come out here.” The sexy and curvaceous Latina emerged from behind the beaded curtain wearing not much more than a red bikini and a smile. Max, who had taken up his usual seat at the very end of the catwalk looked up from his plate of wings and nearly choked. “Yeah, didn’t think you’d seen Marti yet,” Mya mumbled to herself as she hit play on the cd she’d just put into the disc drive.

She didn’t head back to the comfort of Sidney’s arms though. Instead, she headed behind the stage where she found Hannah putting the finishing touches on Tish, who was poured into a slim fitting black latex dress and matching thigh high boots.

“Holy shit mama. I am so hating you for losing the baby weight that fast,” Mya gushed as she carefully hugged Jordy’s wife.

“Well it’s not all gone but this sort of sucks it in and damn, I look fine,” Tish grinned at her reflection in the mirror, cupping her breasts in her hands. “And I may as well enjoy these while they last too.”

“Jordan is going to shit his pants,” Mya agreed as she shimmied out of her jeans in favour of a bright, neon green latex elf outfit, complete with matching pointed hat and striped knee socks.

“The things we do for our men huh?” Tish asked as she carefully applied a set of fake eyelashes, leaning towards the mirror, which nearly resulted in her considerable cleavage coming loose from her dress.

“Well, they do some pretty great things themselves,” Mya smiled to herself, thinking of the way Sidney had erased that heart from the shower door.

“Ah, that must mean he’s given you your prezzie,” Tish said in a way that said she knew exactly what that present would be.

“Oh, you mean this?” she replied, flashing her ring nonchalantly in Hannah’s direction, who promptly let out a whoop like a kid on Christmas morning on finding a puppy under the tree.

“That better not be all he’s given you,” Tish responded, arching her eyebrow in the mirror as she glanced at Mya’s reflection.

“No?” Mya asked, feeling her heart flutter like a caged bird in her chest.

“No,” Tish replied with an eloquent smile.

_____________________________________________________________________

“Look at him. It’s like he’s never seen a pair of tits before,” Jordy chuckled as he slid onto the bar stool next to Sid, who was also watching Max with a certain amount of amusement.

“You have to admit, she is pretty damn hot,” Sid replied, finding something fascinating in the bowl of chips in front of him when Max shot him an evil glance.

“This, from the guy that just bailed his woman out of jail? I’m shocked. I didn’t think you even noticed other women now,” Jordan teased, elbowing his friend in the ribs. Sid shrugged, taking a sip of his coke and whiskey.

“I’m off the market. Not blind,” Sid replied coolly, much to Jordan’s amusement.

“Oh, like you’d dare even look at another woman with Tish around? Where is the mouth that roars by the way? I can’t believe she’d miss this,” Sidney asked, stirring the ice in his drink thoughtfully. He was beginning to wonder where Mya had disappeared to. They only had a few more hours before he had to meet his parents at Mario’s and he still had things to say, not to mention a trunk full of presents to give her yet.

“I think she’s afraid to leave the twins with her parents. She thinks her mother will sell them on the black market or something,” Jordan replied with a grin.

“How’s that going, the Asian in laws?” Sidney asked, wondering why it was that Mya never mentioned her family. Why she wasn’t disappearing somewhere to be with them. He made a mental note to ask her.

“Tish made it pretty clear if they started talking in Cantonese around me that she’d kick them out of the house,” Jordan nodded to himself, looking pretty proud of his wife. “They’ve been pretty good so far and you should see the shit they got for the twins. Holy fuck! It makes the prezzies that my parents brought look like shit you’d buy at Walmart or something.”

“And what is wrong with Walmart, exactly?” Fleur asked, grinning at the two of them as he tossed a card in front of each. “And here I am, with K-Mart gift certificates.”

“You’re not,” Jordan’s mouth turned down in a disappointed frown and both Sid and Fleur just about pissed themselves laughing.

“Mon dieu. As if. Do you think Vero would allow such a thing to occur?” he asked, shaking his head and reaching up to muss the blonde forward’s hair. “Moda, of course. Vero practically owns everything from that store.”

“Sweet,” Jordan grinned, offering his arms to the diminutive goal tender, who only narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips as he shook his head. Sidney gripped his ribs sure that he was about to pull something when Max let go a long high pitched whistle, before jumping out of his seat and giving the dancer, who was now walking away from them all, a standing ovation, which reminded Sid that Mya was still missing.

“Does anyone know where Mya went?” he asked, glancing around, specifically at the table where Tanger was sitting on his own, nursing a beer. One of these days he hoped the defenseman would forgive him, but it didn’t look like that would be happening tonight.

“Up here boys.”

Sid looked up to find Mya, Tish, Vero and Oskana looking down at him from the stage, wearing.... Well it could have been worse he thought to himself, though he had to blink and rub at his eyes before he could believe what he was seeing.

“Once more,” Mya cooed, kneeling so that she could brush her fingertips down his cheek until the pad of her thumb came to rest on his bottom lip, though it was hers’ that was sticking out in a classic pout. “Don’t be mad. The girls have practiced so hard.” Shaking his head, Sid found that he was laughing and not at all upset.
Hell, it wasn’t like she hadn’t been naked in front of most of his teammates before.

“Woooohoooo! Will you look at my Baby Momma!” Jordan had leapt to his feet and was cheering wildly, clapping and bouncing on the spot like a high school cheerleader. “My wife is hawwwwt!”

It might have been true, and Geno and Flower certainly seemed to agree as far as their significant others were concerned. For his part, Sidney only had eyes for Mya and as the first notes of “Santa Baby” filled the room, Sidney thought he could have been given worse Christmas presents than this.

___________________________________________________________________

Staring at the crackling Yule Log on the TV, in the dark, wearing his new sweater, with the woman he loved cuddled in his arms, Sidney couldn’t help but think that this had to be one of the best Christmases he had ever had. He didn’t even allow the knowledge that he would have to leave this little piece of heaven soon ruin the moment. Closing his eyes, he felt his heart beat slow and paced his breathing with her slow, deep breaths. He could sleep, for a little while, before he had to go and play happy families.

“Sid?” Mya mumbled, her voice low and drowsy and partially muffled by her cheek being pressed against the cashmere sweater she’d bought him. He looked down at her dark glossy hair and pressed a kiss to the top of her head in reply. “I just...I’m so happy right now. I love you,” she added, her words nearly lost as she tried to stifle a yawn but lost. The flickering light from the TV caught the diamonds in her ring and Sidney found his gaze locked on her hand as she lifted it to cover her mouth.

“Me too sweetheart,” he whispered, capturing her hand and lifting it to his lips, pressing his lips to the back of her hand before placing it back on his chest, over his heart.

“I wish you didn’t have to go at all. I wish we could spend another day, just you and me,” she continued, snuggling closer, though he wasn’t sure it was possible to get any closer than this. At least not with their clothes on and though that was tempting, he kind of liked just being like this, relaxed. Calm. Quiet.

“I don’t have to go yet,” he reminded her, cradling her head gently in his hand and pressing it back to his chest. “Go back to sleep.” She nodded and he felt her settling against him once again but only for a moment before he could feel her stirring again and he looked down to find her lifting her hand so that the diamonds in the ring caught the light again.

“I love my presents,” she added, sounding genuinely pleased as she reached to tug on the one carat diamonds in her ears, before settling back against him.

“And I love mine,” he agreed, sliding his hand down over the smooth satin of the black baby doll she was wearing, which she had modeled for him as soon as they’d arrived at her apartment. There were other, equally enticing pieces of lingerie in several boxes that were now stacked beneath the purple tinsel tree beside the TV. Just because she was giving up stripping didn’t mean she was going to go back to wearing cotton granny panties she’d promised.

Sidney smiled contentedly. They were good presents and he was going to have a good time trying them out. People were always complaining that he was hard to buy for.
‘What do you buy a millionaire who can buy himself anything?’ Mya had done a pretty damn good job he thought as he looked at the mound of wrapping paper peeking out of the garbage bag near the door and then down at the stack of books topped by the iPod under the tree. It gave him a strangely warm feeling in his chest to think of all the time she’d taken to download all that music and all those videos just for him.

And it wasn’t just stuff she thought he should like, it was stuff he did like. It was stuff that he’d hummed along to on the radio but hadn’t known the name of the group. It was stuff other guys played in the locker room or the weight room that gone him going but he’d never had the time to go looking for. It was stuff that he’d meant to download but just never actually had the time to actually do it.

She knew him. She got him. And she loved him. How fucking cool was that?

__________________________________________________________________

He was warm, like an electric blanket. No, strike that. He was like a giant hot water bottle that she could wrap herself around and go to sleep as comfortable and warm as a bug in a rug.

Bug in a rug? Where did that come from, Mya thought as she lay, contented, wrapped in Sidney’s arms. She could hear the crackle and pop of the Yule Log on the TV behind her and that, mixed with the sound of his steadily beating heart, had Mya yawning, barely able to keep her eyes open.

Well, that and she’d ridden him like a prize race horse almost as soon as they’d walked through the door.

Mya grinned to herself and cuddled closer to him. He’d liked his Christmas presents, a lot. Actually she hadn’t been sure which he’d liked more, the stuff from Fredericks of Hollywood or the iPod. He’d really been like a kid on Christmas morning, tearing through the carefully wrapped presents, sending paper flying in every direction. He’d actually pouted when she told him he could only pick one of the outfits for her to wear for him tonight. But he had spent a long time scrolling through the playlists she’d loaded onto it.

That had been as good any present, Mya thought as she yawned again. Watching him be really happy. She got the distinct impression that he didn’t get that many moments where he could just really lose himself like that.

Turning so that she could look up at him, resting her chin on the back of her hands where they rested in the middle of his chest, she looked up into his boyish face. He was leaner now than he had been back in the summer when she’d first met him. Paler too. He also looked exhausted and that made her feel just a little guilty. She hadn’t left much of him for his parents.

“Babes...maybe you should go home, to your own bed? Get some actual sleep?” she suggested, giving him a little shake. He opened one and looked down at her like she’d just said something in Swahili. “If you stumble into breakfast with a sore back from sleeping on my couch, Mario will have my ass, not to mention what your mother will think.”

Sidney’s arms slid from around her as he shifted his weight to his elbows and pushed himself up into a seated position, still blinking sleep from his eyes.

“If you’d said something about my dad, I would have ignored you,” he muttered, giving her a half smile as he rubbed at his eyes.

“Well I’m pretty sure from what you’ve said I don’t stand much of a chance winning him over unless your mom and Taylor have my back so I thought I’d try and get you to them in one piece so they don’t hate me too much,” Mya replied, shimmying up so that she could sit across his lap. “But only if you think you’re okay to drive.”

“Is that your way of asking me to stay?” he asked as his smile widened, his gaze sweeping eagerly over the black satin ensemble. It was tempting, damn tempting to keep him to herself, to stay hidden away from the world, together, making love all day, but Mya shook her head and pushed herself to her feet.

“You should go,” she sighed, reaching for one of the throws she’d left on the back of one the chairs and drew it around her shoulders to keep the chill at bay while she walked him to the door. Funny, she thought, even knowing he was going made the place suddenly feel empty.

“But I don’t want to,” he moaned, coming up behind her, brushing her hair aside and pressing his lips to nape of her neck, sending a shiver down her spine. Mya closed her eyes and leaned back against him. She opened her lips to agree but she felt something cool and slippery fall between her breasts and was too shocked to speak as she tried to step back away from it but only found herself in his arms.

Sidney chuckled as she squirmed in his grasp, and eventually Mya stilled as he lifted the pendant in his hand so that she could see it. It was another heart, a big one, the size of a silver dollar, maybe larger, and made entirely of diamonds, except where a pair of red horns and a tail had been added.

“For my little devil,” he whispered in her ear, his breath warm where it tickled the back of her neck, “merry Christmas sweetheart.”

Mya felt the weight of the pendant fall between her breasts and then his hand sliding over her breast until the palm of his hand brushed over her nipple. Sucking a sharp breath in between her teeth, she leaned back into him and reached up wrap her arm over his neck, urging his lips toward the spot on her neck that made her whimper when he found it.

“This isn’t getting me to my own bed any faster,” he whispered in her ear, his hand gently massaging her breast while his other hand, she could feel, was working at the zipper on his jeans.

“Well, we can make it quick,” she sighed as she felt his cock slide up against the smooth fabric that barely covered her ass.

“I never want to make it quick with you,” he hissed, as his other hand now slid beneath the fabric of the teddy and found its own breast to play with.

_________________________________________________________

She was sleeping soundly, her soft lips slightly agape, her hand clutching the corner of the pillow he’d recently vacated. She looked worn out, but truth was, he knew if he woke her now, she’d be able to go at least another two rounds, whereas him....

Sidney smothered a yawn with his hand. He was done in. He was going to be taking his life in his hands just driving to Mario’s but if he didn’t leave now, he wasn’t going to get showered and shaved in time for breakfast. Sniffing near his pits, Sidney made a face. There was definitely not going to be any avoiding the shower.
Still, he thought as he leaned down to plant a soft kiss on her temple, it had definitely been worth it even if the last time he remembered being this tired was after being up nearly thirty six hours after they’d won the cup.

Pocketing his keys, he tip-toed out of her bedroom and into the living room where he shut off the TV and its’ Yule Log, turned the lights out on the Christmas tree and gathered his presents. He smiled as he slid the iPod into his other pocket. He planned on plugging that in as soon as he got into the car and cranking it, hoping that would keep him awake long enough to get home and into his shower. Then he just had to stay awake long enough to play nice with his father.

He’s promised her not bring her up to his parents and if his father did bring her up, to ignore it. For her, he thought to himself as he pulled the apartment door shut behind him. For her he’d turn the other cheek – today. After that...well, he wasn’t about to make any kind of promises. Because after today, well, he didn’t know how long he was going to wait until he put the other ring he’d bought when he’d been out Christmas shopping on her finger.

Chapter 24

Sidney emerged from beneath the sheets and between her thighs to find Mya with her eyes screwed shut, still shuddering in the aftermath of yet another orgasm. Feeling pleased with himself, he joined her amongst the pillows, pulling her close.

“I only got to M,” he protested, chuckling.

“You were humming, that isn’t fair,” she complained, laying her head against his shoulder. “That’s cheating.”

“I was spelling out loud,” he responded, dropping a kiss to the top of her head before laying back and tugging the covers up around them. The room had grown chilly with the oncoming dawn.

“I’m not complaining,” she sighed, her hand splayed over his heart, her breath warm against his neck. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this...relaxed in my life,” she added, giving one of his nipples a quick tweak before settling in beside him, her warm body pressed against his. Sidney ran his fingers through her thick dark hair as he let his eyes fall closed. Relaxed, yes, he certainly felt that, and then some. Sated, satisfied, whole.... “I’m sorry you never got to sit on Santa’s knee,” she mumbled, her toes finding his under the sheets as her body molded to his. “What were you going to ask for? Another Cup?”

“That,” he agreed with a smile, “amongst other things.”

“Other things like what?” she prodded, digging her nails into his chest, causing him to wince.

“What are you looking for? A Christmas list? Haven’t you done your shopping yet?” he teased, sliding his hand down her back and giving her round ass a gentle tap.

“Ow! And yes, I have done my shopping. Your present is back at my apartment. You can have it when you drop me off,” she shot back, yawning and then settling deeper into the blankets, even as her fingers sought his, lacing themselves into his and pulling his hand up so that she could press her soft lips to his scarred knuckles.

“Drop you off? Are you planning on having Christmas without me?” he asked, trying to keep his tone light and teasing even as his eyes opened so that he could look down at her, surprised and concerned.

“I just thought...,” she pushed herself up to her elbows and blinked at him. Sleep was obviously tugging at her, but she yawned and stretched and then faced him with a serious look. “I thought you’d be with Nat and Mario and your parents and sister and....”

“And you. Don’t forget you,” he insisted, reaching out to brush away the hair that had stuck to her face where the sweat from their night of cementing their love was now cooling. She looked back at him, bashful, colour rising from her neck to fill her cheeks with a rosy glow.

“I just assumed...I mean I naturally thought it would be too soon for that kind of thing,” she mumbled, finding some loose thread at the edge of the sheets to pick at, refusing to meet his puzzled gaze.

“But I love you so...you have to spend it with me,” Sidney said, thinking it made obvious sense to him. Sure Troy was going to hate it, but that didn’t matter. Not after last night.

“And you don’t think your parents might be a little concerned about...me? I mean, Nathalie was so nice and everything tonight but...with all her girls....Do you really think they’re going to want me in their house? Dating me is one thing Sidney but Christmas...I don’t think they’re going to be too thrilled to have a stripper for dinner.” Sidney stared at her, shaking his head.

“But you’re not that anymore. You’re a sports reporter, and you’re my girlfriend...and...and I love you so....” Mya smiled brightly and leaned forward to press her lips softly against his.

_______________________________________________________________

“But I am that,” Mya responded quietly, loving the way he immediately looked as if he wanted to jump to her defense. It was sweet, and a little more than just naive, but she loved it just the same. “That’s what people are going to think about me for a while. Especially after the stupid shit I did last night. That is what they’ll think and it will be a while before the booby girl on the Sports network isn’t just the stripper talking to a football player. So...I think we should give it some time to blow over before you take this...us public, okay babe?” Sidney shook his head immediately, but Mya just grinned back at him and wrapped her arms around his chest and snuggled into the spot she liked best, resting her head just beneath his chin. “It’s okay. I can handle being booby girl for a while.”

“But you’re not just that. You’re not one of those...dumb bimbo bitches who can’t do anything but flash their boobs,” he insisted and Mya couldn’t help but smile as she closed her eyes and held onto him, feeling his big, muscular arms wrapping around her in turn.

“And, after some time has passed and they realize I have an opinion that actually counts and that I have a brain in my head and I give a few in depth reports and people start to see me a little differently, then, hopefully next Christmas, if you’re not tired of me....” She felt Sidney’s fingers digging into her shoulders and looked up into his hazel eyes to find him staring down at her, furious.

“I’m not like that...if I love you now I’ll...,” Mya reached up to kiss the stubble on his chin, the corner of his mouth, and tried to kiss his lips although he pulled back so that she couldn’t.

“Okay, okay, I believe you. But things happen and I’m just trying to be realistic here,” she insisted, meeting his angry, determined gaze unblinking. He was so hot when he was mad and resolute like this.

“I don’t say it to just anyone,” he hissed, staring back at her, daring her to take it back.

“And I’ve never said it to anyone but that doesn’t mean some pretty young pop star, model....” Mya’s voice trailed away as Sidney turned his face from hers’, as if he couldn’t or wouldn’t look at her if she was going to talk about things like this.

“I. Love.You,” he repeated, enunciating each word separately and carefully before turning his attention back to her. “I don’t want anyone else...ever.”

“Oh Sidney don’t,” Mya sighed, reaching for him, only to have him brush off her hands. “It’s very sweet and I believe that you mean it and....” Mya watched him as he slid out of the bed and paced across the room. She had to remind herself that he was angry. It was too easy not to just stare at his thickly muscled legs, his tremendously round derriere and the wide expanse of his back that, even in the early half light of a wintery dawn, she could see the angry criss-crossed welts her nails had left behind.

He came back with a gift bag, small, about the size of a lunch bag, tied with a chiffon bow and filled with colourful paper. Mya opened her mouth to object that it was only Christmas Eve and not Christmas day, but the thunderous look on his face made her hold her tongue.

“Go on,” he said, dropping it onto the bed in front of her. “Open it, and then tell me I don’t mean every god damned fucking word I say.”

Mya’s hands shook as she reached for the bag, the tremors racing up her arms to involve her entire body once she began to pull on the bow that tied the handles together. She looked up at him, and he only stared down at the bag, refusing to meet her gaze.
_________________________________________________________________________

Her hands trembled as she undid the bow and laid the glittering fabric aside, and then she looked up at him again, as if she needed his approval to continue, but he didn’t trust himself to speak so he only stuck his chin towards the gift and waited. He too was trembling, but with anger and that was not entirely aimed at her.

She was right, of course. He could already hear his old man in his head, snarling about having Taylor corrupted by his whore of a girlfriend. It was definitely something his old man would say. What Mario would say...now that was anyone’s guess. He neither seemed to approve nor did he outright disapprove. Or at the very least he was keeping his opinion to himself for the moment, but around his daughters? Mya could very well be right about that, but that didn’t mean that he had to like it.

“Sidney....” She turned those emerald green cats’ eyes to him, wide and searching, her mouth agape. He looked down at the blue box in her hand and didn’t feel the excitement and rush of emotion he’d thought he would when she opened it. Of course he’d planned for her to open it when they were alone, after everyone else had gone to bed and they would both be full of Christmas turkey.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he mumbled, reaching for the black onyx and canary diamond heart ring. “It’s a promise ring. If it was...if it was for that then it would be bigger. You do know what two months of my salary would buy?” He tried to smile but the line didn’t seem as funny now as it did when he’d come up with it.

“It’s beautiful and...and too much. Especially after everything last night and...,” Sidney took the ring out of the box and, grabbing her wrist a little too tightly and slid it onto her ring finger.

“I keep telling you that all that shit...it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you start to understand that you fucking mean something to me and that no matter what crazy shit you come up with to try and scare me away, I’m not fucking going anywhere. Do you hear me Mya? I fucking love you and I’m not going anywhere. No matter how hard you try to make me.”

She looked up at him with tears in her emerald green eyes and he knew in that moment that if he could take it all back if he could. The last thing he wanted to do was make her cry.

And then she threw her arms around his neck and climbed into his lap and he found himself laughing, as much in relief as because of her reaction, and pushing her back into the pillows. With his body pinning hers, her arms still wrapped around his neck, he looked into her face and felt his heart swell in his chest.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he sighed, brushing her hair from her forehead before planting a kiss on the tip of her nose. But he couldn’t stop there. He kissed her, softly at first. Gentle butterfly kisses, lips brushing, meeting and then retreating and meeting again. Then he kissed her as if her lips were water and he was dying in the desert. He drank from her mouth and still wanted more.

Her body opened to his and he heard her sharp intake of breath when he entered her. He should be gentle. She’d already warned him that she was...tender after he’d claimed her as his, over and over again until both of them were bathed in sweat and fell into an exhausted slumber, only to wake again in the early hours to fumble and roll around, giggling like school kids finding new and more exciting ways to come together.

Now he only wanted to be deep inside of her, part of her, with her.

He pressed his lips over the strong steady pulse in her neck, breathing in the heady scent of her perfume mixed with aroma of sweat and sex. This woman...this woman did things to him, made him do things....

Lifting her leg, his arm under the back of her knee, Sidney changed the angle of his stroke, making it long and shallow as he dug his teeth into her shoulder. He heard her moan, felt her arch off of the bed, pushing up against him. He found that spot that made her shiver, that made her sigh as he slid over it. His lips found hers’ and he kissed her, tasted her lips and wrapped his tongue around hers’.

Hockey be damned, making love to this woman was better than scoring a goal in overtime. Maybe not better than winning the Cup but...damn close. Her green eyes opened and it was like watching the sun rise. They glowed as she smiled up at him and Sidney felt his heart stop in his chest.

“I love you,” he whispered and saw her smile widen.

“You’d better,” she replied, reaching up to touch her fingers to his cheek. He turned his head so that he could kiss each and every one of her fingertips. He’d never cried before, not in bed, not like this, but he felt a tear roll down his cheek as she wrapped her arms around him and her lips whispered words in his ear that made him feel safe, made him feel wanted, made him feel loved.

________________________________________________________________________

“Do you think there’s any place open we can order delivery from?” Mya called as Sidney leaned closer to the mirror, shaving away the last of the shaving cream. Not that there was really much growth after one day but had been enough to make her squirm the last time he’d kissed her and that had sealed it. He’d shave before they went out to for drinks with the rest of the gang.

“Are you too hungry to wait until we get to the bar?” he asked, reaching for a towel and then thinking better of it turned toward the shower.

“I’ve kind of worked up an appetite,” she whispered, nipping at his ear and grabbing him and digging her nails into his ribs. “I could eat like...maybe three Big Macs.” Sidney made a face as he stepped into the shower.

“How could you eat those things?” he asked honestly. Just thinking about those horrible things made his stomach turn.

“Don’t you ever crave anything bad like that when you’re starving?” she asked, wrapping her arms around his waist and laying her cheek against his back. Sidney closed his eyes and turned his face up into the spray. He did, sometimes. It was just usually something like cheesecake.

“I crave you, I know that,” he replied, laying his arms over hers’ and grinning to himself. How many times had they made love now? Ten times? More? They’d hardly slept and he didn’t even feel tired.

“Mmm, I guess I could eat you up,” she giggled, biting down on the soft skin at his waist, his love handles she’d called them when he’d made a face earlier when she’d grabbed a hold of them. She’d said that she liked that he wasn’t all hard. He’d reminded her, in no uncertain terms, that she liked it very much when he was...hard that is.

He felt her now, kissing and biting her way up to his shoulders and felt his cock stir. Again? God, this woman did things to him that were...had to be illegal.

“Keep that up My and we won’t make it to the bar,” he chided her, turning to wrap her up in his arms, covering her mouth with his in a hungry kiss. God yes! He could happily devour her.

“You hardly drink anyway,” she reminded him as he kissed his way down her neck to the pale round of her shoulder. “And then I won’t see you for...days,” she added, her bottom lip promptly sticking out in a cute, childlike pout.

“A few days, and I thought you told me earlier that you were going to need that time to recover,” he grinned down at her and it only took a moment for her to lose the pout and smile back at him.

“Well...I might need one more reminder,” she giggled as she slid her hand down over his slick stomach and wrapped her fingers around his cock. He groaned, screwing his eyes tightly closed as she stroked her hand along the length of his dick. He fisted his hand in her hair and a shudder ran down his spine as he felt her lips close around one of his nipples. Oh Christ! Did he have no control when it came to her?

He reached out to steady himself and pressed his hand flat against the glass and his eyes popped open. He looked over to where his hand was pressed, his fingers splayed, and found, to his relief, that he had not erased the tiny heart. He could see it, just at the edge of his fingertips and his breath caught in his throat.
_________________________________________________________________

Mya felt him stiffen, his fingers in her hair going slack and then gripping her shoulder, hard. She turned her eyes up to his face and saw him turned away, staring at a crude heart that had appeared on the glass with the steam.

His initials were drawn in the heart, and it didn’t take much of a leap of imagination for her to realize who had put the heart there.

“Randi,” she breathed, the name escaping her lips before she could take it back. Biting down on her bottom lip, Mya cursed under her breath.

“No...it’s okay,” Sidney said, relaxing his grip on her shoulder and turning to search her gaze. “I don’t think about her that often anymore.” He made a face, like he felt a little strange thinking that way and then inched his hand towards the heart, as if he to wipe it away.

“Don’t.” Mya reached out and grabbed his wrist, stopping him from doing something she assumed that he would regret.

“It’s okay,” he repeated, his other and sliding up to the cup the back of her head as he leaned down to touch his lips to hers’. “It was only like...a security blanket and I don’t need that anymore. I have you.”

Mya felt her heart leap in her chest and kissed him back, pressing her lips up against his before turning to watch him wipe away the little heart, erasing it with his hand, until the glass was clear but for the drops of water running down it.

They both stared at it for a long moment and then Sidney turned back to her and wrapped his strong arms around her and held her close. Mya pressed her cheek to his chest and listened to the strong, steady beat of his heart and thought she’d never felt more safe, or loved, in her entire life.

Chapter 23

“I didn’t want to put you in this position,” Sidney whispered as his hand wrapped around hers’ as they walked into the hotel foyer. “I didn’t want people to be whispering behind your back. I just thought, with that video...people will put two and two together and....”

“And get four, because it’s true,” Mya whispered back, keeping her chin high and her gaze straight ahead as the few well dressed guests milling around near the elevators turned to stare at the girl decorating Sidney Crosby’s arm. “I am the girl in the video. I am the girl flashing her tits at the game. I’m that girl and either I am or I’m not your girlfriend, but you’d better decide before we get up to your little soiree. Because yeah, people are going to stare and point and talk, but if I’m your girlfriend, then I will smile and I will bite my tongue and I will put up with it. If not, then let me go home and sulk by myself.”

“You’re my girlfriend,” Sidney replied firmly, giving her hand a squeeze as the doors slid open. “I’m going to hate this, but if you can do this, then...I can too.”

“You forget,” Mya whispered back, tilting her head so that her lips were nearly touching his ear, “I get naked in front of a crowd for a living. This...this won’t be anything for me.”

“You obviously don’t know hockey people,” Sidney replied, a smirk tugging at the corners of his full lips.

“Oh, I don’t know. After all, I’ve been naked in front of the best,” she whispered back, her tongue darting out to flick inside of his ear. She felt Sidney shiver.

“Keep that up and we’ll be going back downstairs, getting a room and forgetting all about the party,” Sidney growled, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, thinking about the smell of Jordy’s shoulder pads, all the junk food wrappers in the back seat of Max’s car, the frunk of TK’s skates...anything but the soft, smooth feel of Mya’s skin, her sugar sweet lips, and the taste of her....

“You two keep this up and you Santa will definitely have to add you to the naughty list,” Nathalie chimed from behind them, and both she and Mya dissolved into a fit of giggles just as the elevator doors slid open right in front of the doors to the ballroom.

“They made it!” Max yelled as he stormed towards them, a Santa hat pulled low over his forehead, an overstuffed red velvet bag under one arm. “I’ve been saving your present mon capitain.”

“Let us get in the door Maximus,” Sidney sighed, giving Mya’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “Ready?” he asked, looking over at her. Mya gave him what she hoped was her best, on stage, happy smile. Shrugging, Sidney stuck his chin out and got that determined, don’t mess with me look, that he often wore facing an opponent across the face off dot. Then he squared his shoulders and lead the way into the noisy, festive party.

_______________________________________________________________

They did talk, and point, and whispered behind her back, but Mya, as good as her promise, did her very best to ignore it. Once or twice she felt Sidney stiffen, bristling at some whispered comment but a firm squeeze from her hand and he would take a deep breath and ignore it.

But now, now he’d been swept away by Mario to meet someone or other and Mya had been left, standing near the punch bowl, alone.

She felt like a gazelle surrounded by tigers – or maybe it was the other way around. She watched the other wives and girlfriends making wide circles around her, as if they were maybe afraid of catching something, or maybe afraid of being bitten, Mya mused as she sipped at the punch that tasted more strongly of Rum than it did of fruit.

“He’s crazy about you. You know that don’t you?” Mya didn’t have to even look to know that it was the crazy Frenchman that was the one standing beside her. Sid had warned her about him. Not that she needed a warning. After all, she’d met Max long before she’d ever laid eyes on Sidney.

“Jealous?” Mya asked, hiding a grin behind the cup she was holding.

“Hugely, insanely jealous,” Max replied, leaning in so that his breath, warm and laced with the smooth taste of expensive Brandy, tickled across her bare shoulders.“I ask myself, what has that Irish gypsy got, that I don’t?” Mya’s grin grew as she tried to stop herself from laughing. Sidney was watching them from across the room, distracted from the conversation she guessed he ought to be engrossed in. She watched his mouth twist in an angry, frustrated line when Max raised his glass in salute as he slid his other arm around her waist.

“Well, for a start, he doesn’t have a habit of going to the rippers,” Mya replied coyly, peeling Max’s arm from around her waist and stepping just out of his reach. “And for another, he doesn’t seem much interested in anyone else, unlike someone I could mention.”

“What can I say? There’s enough of me to go around, and I like to share,” Max grinned at her, holding his arms out as if to plead for innocence, something he was far from as far as Mya was concerned.

“Max...,” she sighed, shaking her head as he grinned back at her, unrepentant.

“Okay, mon dieu! Just tell me one thing.” His shit eating, superstar grin disappeared, replaced by a look that was far more serious than Mya ever remembered seeing on the stocky Frenchman’s face. “Do you love him? Or is it like it was with Tanger? Because he says you haven’t told him so and....”

“And do you think I would tell you first before I tell him?” It was Mya’s turn to grin, assuming Max was going to break out in his caricature Cheshire Cat grin at any moment.

“Well I think it’s very serious, or neither of you would be here, but I think that if you loved him....”

“Is he bothering you?” Mya turned to find Tish, wrapped in a red and gold silk jacket holding one of the twins in her arms with her tall blonde husband close on her heels. “I haven’t tried it yet but I have this idea in my head that if you sprinkle salt on him, he’ll shrivel up and go away.”

“Ouch. Such nastiness! And at the Holidays too, I’m wounded,” Max complained loudly, to which all of them laughed.

“As for you,” Tish offered her free arm and Mya slid into it, hugging the new mother as close as she could. “I have to say, that move tonight, crazy, but brave.”

“And stupid. Don’t forget stupid,” Mya added, looking down into the bundle Tish held in her arms. The softly pink, red fuzz topped bundle that was sleeping soundly, despite the music and the general din of a couple of hundred people all talking at once.

“Are you kidding? Right now you’re more famous than Sid and Roethlisberger put together,” Tish pointed out, steering both Mya and her husband towards Santa. “Congrats on the new job by the way. You must be looking forward to it.”

“Well I was, before tonight. Now...now I’m just going to be the booby girl and no one is ever going to take me seriously.” Mya sighed, and narrowed her eyes at Jordan when he snorted.

“What? She said booby. That’s funny,” Jordan complained to his wife who only shook her head at him, obviously disappointed.

“Can you believe he’s a dad?” Tish asked.

“Can you believe you married him?” Mya countered to which Tish could only nod and shrug. “How’s the head by the way?”

“He’ll live, if I don’t cleave his skull with the baby monitor the next time he refuses to get up for at least one of the feeds,” Tish replied for her husband, as if he didn’t have an opinion on the state of his own health.

“Ouch,” Mya shuddered at the thought and absentmindedly reached up to touch the top of her own head and, just for a brief moment, wondered where her police hat had ended up.

“Have you had your picture taken with Santa yet?” Jordan asked as they reached the dais and got in line behind TK and his posse. Mya shook her head and glanced over her shoulder to where Sidney still seemed to be ensconced amongst a number of older men. He didn’t seem to actually be taking part in the conversation and she wondered if it was her duty, as a good girlfriend, to go over and drag him away.

“Mon ami, you do know Monsieur Claus is not real, oui?” Max asked, still sticking very close to Mya’s side, despite the fact that she was ignoring him, or doing her best to ignore him, despite the fact that he was practically velcro’d to her side it seemed. Jordan narrowed his eyes at his shorter friend and made a face but Max only laughed, not even bothering to move out of range of the taller forward’s formidable reach. “You, on the other hand, in that beautiful gown,” Max continued, pitching his voice low, so that only she could hear. “You look like you could be Santa’s hot mistress. Hot...dirty mistress.” Mya felt his lips on her bare shoulder and practically jumped out of her skin, turning and laying the flat of her hand across his face before she’d even had time to fully deliberate on the ramifications of slapping a Pittsburgh Penguin in public, and the hero of game seven at that.

Horrified, Mya hand flew up to her mouth to stifle a list of highly descriptive curse words. But before she could turn, hike her dress up and run out of the ballroom, which had been the very next thought that came to her, she felt a pair of strong arms pulling her back against the width of an equally strong chest and nearly fainted against him in relief.

___________________________________________________________

“You never know when to stop, do you Maxim?” Sidney did his best to make his voice sound light, non-threatening, but the look in his eyes, he knew by Max’s reaction, was murderous.

“You know me, le clown de classe à vôtre service.” Max smiled and made a show of a low courtly bow, but the look in his own eyes was far from apologetic. This wasn’t the first time, Sidney thought as he tightened his grip around Mya’s waist, almost without thinking of how much that was a declaration of territory. As much a way of saying ‘mine’ and ‘not yours’ as it was a protective gesture. Max’s eyes flicked from Sidney’s to Mya’s and his grin grew, but it was the grin of the sly fox near the chicken coup. Thwarted this time by the guard dog, but knowing there would be other times, other opportunities. That grin made Sidney’s blood boil.

“You have a very good right hand, mademoiselle. Je peux penser a d’autres utilisations pour lui, mais, peut-être une autre heure.” With that, Max bowed low over his hand and then turned on his heel and, whistling as if nothing untoward had happened, headed towards the dance floor. To look for more trouble, no doubt, Sidney thought darkly as he loosened his grip on Mya’s and let out his breath in a long whistle of his own.

“You two...I don’t get it. One minute best buds the next....” Sidney shot Jordan a look that shut the tall blonde up immediately and he was glad when Tish urged her husband towards Santa’s knee.

“I’m sorry about that. That you had to...that Max....” Mya turned in the circle of his arms and laid her head affectionately on his shoulder, despite the fact that the heels Nathalie had helped pick out made her as tall as him.

“It’s kind of nice to be fought over actually,” she chuckled and the reverberation against his neck sent a shudder down Sidney’s spine. “It does a girl’s ego good.” Sidney rubbed her back in a comforting sort of way, realizing that she was giving him the opportunity to be the comforting, protective boyfriend, that it was obvious from the large red welt on the side of Max’s face that she didn’t really need protecting. That too made Sidney’s blood pressure rise.

He looked over her shoulder at Jordan and the babies getting their picture with Santa and realized that he hadn’t gotten his time on the Jolly Old Elf’s knee, but the pounding of the blood in his veins was something he was no longer willing to ignore.

“Come. Now.” He managed, just about, to speak as he unwound her body from his and wrapped his hand around hers’ instead. Mya’s eyes got wide, but she didn’t question him, just stumbled after him as he dragged her through the crowd, out the doors and down the hall.

He tried to think of the fastest way to get to a secluded spot where he could administer his own brand of justice but everywhere he looked, there seemed to be people, down the hall, towards the bathrooms, even coming out of the elevator.

Jesus Christ, it was almost two in the fucking morning. Didn’t these people have homes to go to?

The car!

Sidney felt in his pocket for the keys that Mario had handed him about an hour ago after partaking in about his fifth glass of wine. He and Nat could take a taxi home, he reasoned, dragging Mya down the emergency stairs. He didn’t have the patience to wait for an elevator.

He could hear her heels clicking on the marble floors behind him as they practically ran through the lobby and he could see people staring, wondering why he was dragging her behind him like a dog on a leash, but he couldn’t care. All he could think about, the only thought in his head now was having her, taking her, being inside of her. Even if she didn’t want it, he knew he’d do it anyway. He had to. It was the driving force in his head now, to make her pay for what she’d done, how she’d humiliated him at the game and how he’d had to pander to the cops who’d loved every minute of making him beg for her.

Now it was her turn to beg, he decided as he pushed her ahead of him towards the car, unlocking it from the key fob. He watched her climb inside, her plump round ass wrapped in that red velvet making his cock stand to at attention.

“On your knees,” he growled, glancing around the dark, damp, parking lot. There was no one around, but still.... He pulled the door closed behind him and ducked his head as he yanked his cock free. This tux was going to be a write off.

He kneeled on the plush leather seat behind her, dragging her dress up over her ass and baring her lily white skin to his greedy eyes. No panties. The thought of her pussy, bare and inviting, had been driving him crazy all evening. Now it was convenient, almost too convenient. He almost missed the sight of lacy under things. But still....

His breath escaped in a ragged gasp as he shoved his way inside of her. He heard her whimper and it made him smile. She was going to do more than whimper if he had his way.

Leaning over her back, he grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled, thrusting inside of her again as he did so and she moaned like a whore.

“Do you like that?” he asked, his voice hoarse, breathy, as he leaned into her, reaching around with his other hand to slide his hand inside the top of her dress, grabbing a handful of tit, pinching her nipple, hard. “Do you like my dick inside you?”

“Yessss,” she sighed, pushing back against him, trying to take him deeper. He laughed and withdrew, dragging her head back by her hair so that he could kiss her. He licked her lips, bit them, felt her pushing back against him, her pussy hunting his cock.

“Do you want it? Do you want me to fuck you with my dick?” he asked, massaging her breast with ungentle hands.

“Please,” she begged, her ass pushing against him so that his cock slid against her hot, wet folds. The head of his dick slid over her clit and she groaned, pushing against him urgently. “Please Sidney. Please,” she begged, pushing down and back, rubbing herself over him, making his dick slick with her juices.

“I don’t know,” he whispered, biting on her earlobe, her shoulder. “After what you’ve done tonight, you’ve been such a bad girl.” She whimpered again, pressing down on him and reaching back, her nails scratching at his thighs as she tried to pull him into her.

“Then show me who’s boss. Fuck me. Fuck me like the whore I am,” she begged, almost sobbing now as he teased her clit with the head of his cock, rubbing against it, over it, and then pulling back.

“My whore,” he corrected her, dragging her head back so that she was forced to look at him. “No more, do you hear me? No one else ever gets to see you like this but me. Say it!” She might be whimpering, might be begging he thought, but the dark fire in her eyes as she looked at him was far from acquiescent.

“I’m yours,” she promised, her gaze holding his for a long moment so he could see the truth there before she allowed her gaze to slide down, lingering on where their bodies where nearly joined before her gaze once again locked on his. “I love you and I don’t want to lose you,” she added, her gaze softening for a moment. “I don’t want to fuck up and lose you so if that means I have to be your bitch Sidney, then yeah, I’m yours.”

His heart stopped beating for long enough that he had to cough to breathe, and then he let go of her all at once and backed up until he was sitting as far away from her as he could. He was staring straight ahead, but he could hear the leather creak as she moved to sit beside him. He felt her hand on his cheek, and let her turn his face to look at her.

“You love me?” he asked before she could say any more.

“Yes, dummy,” she smiled, touching her lips to his briefly, the truth of it shining in her cats’ eyes. “I love you. I can’t think of anything but you, waking, sleeping, eating...all I do is think about you and...I keep hoping you still feel that way about me.” He nodded, feeling this enormous lump in his throat as he tried to swallow. She smiled, a sort of cat who got the cream sort of smile, and then she kissed him, hungrily, forcefully.

________________________________________________________________

He was surprised, which meant Max had been right. He’d needed to hear her say it. Under all that tough little boy stuff was an insecure young man who needed to hear her say that she loved him.

It made her feel tender towards him, maternal, protective.

It made her hot as hell to see him bite his lip and look over at her with tears in his eyes.

“You love me?” he asked, in an almost whisper, as if it were hard for him to say.
“Yes, dummy,” she replied, letting him see just how much as she gazed into his gold flecked orbs. “I love you. I can’t think of anything but you, waking, sleeping, eating...all I do is think about you and...I keep hoping you still feel that way about me.” He nodded and she felt triumphant.

It had been a stupid day. Maybe one of the worst days of her life, but this made up for it. Seeing him looking back at her, young and vulnerable, with his dick sticking out of his pants, saluting her...well maybe technically the day was already over but she intended to make this day end well anyway.

Hiking her dress up to her hips, Mya kissed him, softly, hungrily, as she straddled his hips and lowered herself over him. She had to tilt her head or hit it on the roof of the car, but with his lips locked on hers’ she was far from caring if she had a sore neck later.

She moaned into his mouth as he thrust up inside of her. By now she was so wet that she had to hold onto his shoulders or risk sliding off, so she dug her fingers into the shoulder pads of his jacket and pressed her forehead against his, holding his gaze as she moved over him.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered again as his eyes closed and he uttered a low groan.

“It’s over,” he whispered, back, offering his soft lips up to hers’ and she kissed him, softly, gently. “I’ve already forgiven you,” he said softly, his lips still brushing hers, his hazel eyes now open, searching her face. “I love you. I think I have since that day in the bookstore. I just had all that other shit going on....”

“Shhhh,” she kissed him again, silencing him as his hands cupped her ass, slowing her movements until they were barely moving at all. Until they were just being, as one, joined together, their hearts beating in unison.

“No, I need to say it,” Sidney began earnestly. “I think...I’ve decided that maybe Randi...maybe it was like a dry run, a practice. Maybe it was just to let me know I could do this, be in a relationship, love someone unconditionally. Maybe it was to let me know what it felt like to lose someone so that I’d know how much I don’t want to lose you.”

Tears sprang from her eyes and Mya felt a sob bubbling up in her throat. She couldn’t remember anyone, not even her parents, ever saying anything so amazingly sweet in her entire life. She felt his hand slide up her side, up her arm, onto her cheek. His hand cupped her face and then he kissed her, so softly that his lips barely brushed hers’ but she couldn’t think of a single kiss that meant more than this one.

“I love you,” she sniffed, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her cheek to his. “I don’t deserve you. I’m such a fucking pain in the ass and you could have anyone and I don’t know why you’d even bother with someone like me and....” Sidney’s thick fingers dug into her shoulders and he pushed her back, holding her so that she had to look down at him.

“I love you...and sure you can be a pain,” he said, smiling up at her. “But I do love you Mya. So much it fucking hurts. Do you have any idea what it’s like to look at someone and not be able to breathe? To know that that person could rip your heart out and you wouldn’t even care? That’s the way I feel about you. So I don’t want to hear about why I wouldn’t love you. I do okay? I just fucking do.”

He kissed her fiercely then, his tongue demanding and forceful as it twined with hers and he pushed himself up into her so hard that she lost her breath and everything else just disappeared.