Chapter 22

Another rum and coke appeared in front of him as he heard a butt settling into the seat at the bar immediately beside him. Shaking his head, Jon sighed and picked up the drink to take a sip.

“How’d you know where to find me?”

“You’re so fucking predictable,” Kaner replied in that way of his that said he’s pretty proud of himself and everyone else should be too.

“Am I?” Jon asked, swirling the ice around in the drink before taking another sip. “Yeah, I guess I am.” I must be, he thought, or Patrick wouldn’t have found him in this random hotel bar. Not the hotel they were staying in. He wasn’t even sure which one it was. He had just walked until he got hot and thirsty and then went into the closest door and looked for a bar, which, luckily, hadn’t been that hard to do in Vegas.

“So, are you crazy about the chick or what?” Jon tursn and look quizzically at Patrick who’s just staring back at hin like he’s actually interested in the answer, which can’t be right. Kaner doesn’t give a shit about anyone’s life but his own.

“You don’t have to keep me company or make small talk and shit,” he muttered, downing the rest of the drink and then signaling the bartender for another.

“No, man…really, because your fiancée is pretty upset that you walked out on her.” Staring at the bottom of his empty glass, Jon considered chewing on the ice.

“She’s not my fiancée. She said no. Or did you miss that part?” he grumbled, deciding that he would chew on the ice after all, tossing a couple of cubes into his mouth. They make a satisfying sound as he crunches them into a hundred pieces which he then proceeds to roll around his mouth so his tongue can feel as numb as the rest of his body does.

 “I don’t think she meant no,” Kane replies, like there’s an actual possibility that he had heard wrong, which couldn’t be right. Jon knew what he’d heard. He also knew that she had tried to put a positive spin on turning him down. Like that’s possible.

“Yeah? Well, you’re the only person I know that would think no meant something else,” he grumbled, reaching for the drink the bartender was putting in front of me before he can even stop filling it. “Shots…tequila…like ten of them,” Jon instructed him, right before downing the entire glass of rum and coke, leaving a satisfyingly smooth burning sensation at the back of his throat.

“You don’t do shots,” Kaner shook his head at the bartender and made one of those faces that says ‘my friend is crazy, don’t listen to him’.

“I don’t propose very well either, apparently,” Jon showed his friend his teeth like he was some kind of rabid dog and Patrick just rolled his eyes in return. “I guess there’s a first and last time for everything.”

“I’m sorry to hear about that,” Patrick shrugged and grabbed the first shot the bartender pours and threw it down his throat.  He didn’t reach for the salt or the lime, hardcore.“You’re no fun when you’re pissed about something. This weekend was supposed to be fun and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re kinda bringing down the tone.” If he hadn’t already been in such a foul mood, that might have made Jon laugh, as it was, he afforded his teammate the briefest of smiles as he reached for the next shot but Pat’s reflexes were that much faster and he was already tipping the golden liquid into his mouth. “Ya snooooze ya loooose,” he shrugs and then, surprisingly, waves off the next pour. “That includes your girlfriend. If you want to salvage the weekend and stop moping around then you’d better get a move on. Sharpie was going to take her to the airport.”

Jon wanted to shrug it off, to act like he didn’t care but almost as soon as he thought to do that, he found himself already pushing away from the bar and sliding off of the bar stool. H was pissed and more than just a little humiliated but he still loved her.

“Well don’t just sit there Kaner. Let’s go.”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Kane grinned and spun his chair around before hopping off and marching ahead, like a man on a mission. 

Looking like something from the set of a Star Trek movie, Moon was the bar at the top of the Palms with a roof that slid open to let in the cool night air and the sparkle of the stars overhead. That wasn’t the reason she’d picked it, nor was it because it was in the same hotel in which they were staying. The reason she’d chosen this spot was for the dramatic staircase on which she was currently standing, nervously rolling a thick, silver band in the palm of her hand.

“Here they come!” Sharpe came running into the private club, waving for one of the servers to dim the lights until only Edie was lit. Her skin prickled in anticipation. Her stomach felt like it was home to a hive of bees.

“I thought we were going to the airport,” she heard Jon complain loudly as Kane pushed, pulled and dragged him into the empty club. She didn’t know how they’d done it, or how much it had cost, but she was grateful to the two Patrick’s. She’d have to figure out some way of thanking them, later, if this went well.

“Stop yer bitchin’ and get in here,” Kane cajoled, giving her a thumbs up and a wink as he gave Jon one, last hard push that brought him, stumbling to the bottom of the stairs.

He blinked up at her, clearly surprised. Well, that had been the idea. The element of surprise and the ethereal lighting added to the drama of the moment. Edie knew what the dress she was wearing had looked like under the harsh light of the boutique shop she’d bought it in, or rather Seabrook had handed over his credit card once he’d seen her go a little green around the gills when she’d looked at the price tag. As Jon looked up at her now and any and all trace of annoyance leaked out of his features, she knew that even if she had to pay his teammates back a few dollars a week for ten years, this moment had been utterly worth the exorbitant price tag and double sided tape that was keeping the Grecian style strapless dress in place.

“Jesus…fuck you’re beautiful,” he breathed, still standing at the foot of the steps, staring up at her now with an expression that could entirely summed up in one word, astonishment. Taking a deep, steadying breath Edie slipped the ring on her thumb, held out her hand and watched each and every step he took until he was just one step below her and they were eye to eye.

“Still mad at me?” she asked quietly and watched while he fought with the obviously warring emotions inside him at that moment.

“Disappointed,” he answered finally, taking her hand in both of his and looking down at it as he turned it over and ran the pad of his thumb along her life line. “I thought we were on the same page.”

“I don’t think we’re all that far off,” she told him sincerely. He looked up at her through his long, dark eyelashes. There was a brief glimmer of hope in his eyes that, as quickly as it had risen, was swallowed up by hurt and anger. She hated that she’d wounded his pride. “I do love you.”

“I know,” he shrugged and cast his eyes back down to their joined hands. “I guess I uh…I guess I just rushed things…or whatever.”

“Maybe just a bit,” she smiled at him, trying to be encouraging and squeezed his hand but when he looked up, there was no sign that he was going to find any humor in this situation. Okay, get on with it girl, put the poor boy out of his misery she told herself, taking another deep, centering breath. “Jonathon Brian Toews, will you not marry me?” she asked, and waited for him to decipher what she’d just said. She knew he had when he looked up at her with his dark eyes narrowed and his lips pursed. He thought she was making fun of him. “Will you let me quit my job and move to Chicago and meet all your friends first? Will you invite your parents down so we can have that awkward moment at the door when your mom realizes that I’m actually living with you and she doesn’t even know me? Will you take me shopping and let me use your credit card so I can make some little stock girl jealous?” That did it. That had finally made Captain Seriously upset smile. Cradling his cheek with her other hand, Edie let all of her feelings for him fill her eyes. “Then, when the summer comes around, will you take me to your lake and let me bait your hook and cook the fish that you catch and figure out just exactly who Jonathan Bryan Toews not the hockey player is? And then, after all that’s done and if you still think that you can put up with me,” she worked her hand free from his and slid the solid, silver wring from her thumb and reached for his hand, “will you do me the honor of making me the luckiest girl in the whole world and marry me?” His chocolate brown eyes filled with silvery tears and the relief on his face was palpable as he nodded exuberantly before throwing his arms around her and lifting her off of her feet. 

“Yes, fucking yes!” His voice was muffled with his face pressed into her hair but she could tell by the clapping and earsplitting wolf whistles that were coming from below that his boys didn’t need to hear the words to know that he’d said what she hadn’t been able to. Not that any of that seemed to matter now. 

“So do you forgive me now?” she asked as he watched her trace invisible patterns on his chest as I ran my fingers through her hair. The lights from the strip kept catching the ring on his hand and every time it did, it made him smile.

“Mmmm, if you do that again, I might think about it,” Jon teased, grinning down at her as she wrinkled her cute little nose up at him. He wondered if he’d ever get to the point where he could take for granted how this woman made him feel, if he could ever get bored of watching her eyes roll back in her head as she screamed out his name and dug her fingernails into his back. Maybe he would, maybe not. He hoped he never did.

“Seriously though, do you?” she asked, resting her chin on the back of her hands in the middle of his chest and staring up at him. “Do you understand why I said what I did?” He noticed that she didn’t bring up the whole ‘no’ thing, which was probably wise. There was still a part of him that was stung over it.

“Yeah, I get it,” he sighed, twirling her hair around his finger and wondering just how many shades of brown there was in the world. He could see milk chocolate, espresso, bronze, walnut….

“Then what are you thinking about?” she asked, digging her nails into his pectoral muscle until he flinched.

“Nothing much,” he answered honestly, letting the curl slide off of his finger and watching as it bounced back into place. “Right now, I sort of feel like I don’t have to think about anything and…,” he grinned down at her and smiled, “I really like that feeling.” Her eyes danced and he full lips turned up in a grin that he knew as well as he knew his teammate Kane’s, meant nothing but trouble.

“So you’re all…relaxed?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. Jon shook his head and laughed.

“What? What are you gonna do?” He watched her disappear backwards beneath the sheets and closed his eyes, anticipating her warm, wet mouth sliding down over his…and then he heard her footsteps on the floor and his eyes sprang open. She was still wearing the gold strappy heels that laced all the way up to her knees, but now she was also wearing his away jersey and leaning, suggestively, against the floor to ceiling glass wall, biting down on her bottom lip and giving him that ‘come hither’ stare of hers’ that he had not been able to resist, ever.

“Are you sure you’re not still just a little bit mad?” she asked, her bottom lip jutting out as she batted her eyelashes at him coquettishly. Shaking his head, he tossed the sheets aside and walked over to her, pressing his body against hers and his hands, flush to the window on either side of her head.

“Oh, I’m still a little mad,” he growled into her neck and felt her entire body shudder in response. He felt her hands sweep up his back as he kissed his way up to her lips, capturing her mouth beneath his as her fingers dug into his shoulders. He felt more than heard her moan as he slid his hand down and then up under his jersey, sliding it slowly up over the curve of her hip, into the valley of her waist and then up until he was cupping her breast, feeling the weight of it in his hand. He ran his thumb over her nipple as it hardened into a tight little peak that made her gasp when he pinched it. Her hands slid down his back, making him shiver or was the room cold? There was one spot that was hot, of that he was certain. “Turn around baby,” he whispered against her mouth.

She needed no more encouragement than that. With her hands pressed against the cool pane of glass and her feet spread wide apart to give him the best access, he sheathed himself inside of her, groaning as her warm, wet heat enveloped him. How many other couples were doing the same thing in Vegas tonight he wondered as he slid his arm around her waist and pulled her back against him, steadying her as he buried himself as deeply in her as her body would allow.

“I love you,” she sighed, arching her neck and looking back at him, offering her sweet mouth to him. He kissed her, hard, forcing his tongue into her mouth as his free hand sought out the sweet ripe berry of her nipple. She bucked against him when he pinched it, pressing the soft flesh of her ass against his thighs.

“You feel so good,” he told her, sliding his hand down over her stomach and down, into the slick cleft between her thighs. She cried out when his fingers began to work her clit. Her body tightened around his and he felt his balls tuck up tight. “Cum with me baby,” he asked, working her nipple and her clit at the same time, her little whimpers and moans egging him on, making him harder, thicker until he thought his brain was going to explode from the amazing sensations. “I’m gonna fill you up,” he promised as pushed back against him, meeting each of his thrusts as best she could.

“Do it. Fucking do it. Cum in me baby,” she whimpered, bending at the waist and shoving her ass against him.

“Cum with me Edie,” he hissed, knowing he was close, that buzzing in his ears and the almost painful tightening of his scrotum serving as a ten second warning.

“So close…yeah baby,” she sighed, one of her hands reaching down to press his hand down more firmly over her clit. “Like that, oh god, yeah like that,” she gasped, her head falling back, her eyes closed, a depraved smile on her face.  He felt her pussy clenching around his dick and then her entire body twitched and he was gone.

“Oh fuuuuuuck Edie. Fuck I love you,” he groaned, his knees almost buckling as stars swam in front of his eyes or was it all the lights of the strip and did it matter? All was right in his world. “I love you,” he whispered again as her body went limp in his arms, as they slid apart and with the last of his strength he swept her up into his arms and carried her over to the bed.

“I’m such a lucky girl,” she mumbled, curling her body against his as he pulled the sheets up over them both, tucking them under her chin as he put his arms around her. “I love you Captain Serious,” she whispered against the curve of his neck and Jonathan grinned to himself as he closed his eyes.