Hat Trick (D.C. Stars, #4)

by Chelsea Curto

For the ones who fight even when they want to give up. I’m rooting for you.

I wish I had the balls of a mediocre white man who thinks he’s hot shit. I’d be unstoppable.

I’m not supposed to have a favorite player on the team—and I love all the guys I work with—but Riley takes the top spot.

“I’m a good boy, Lex,” he tosses back. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

The life of every party and vivacious as hell with witty comebacks and a laugh that would bring any man to his knees. And if it were me down there, I’d wear a collar and crawl if she asked me to.

“I’m going to get him skating again,” I whisper to Piper and Emmy. “Lex, I don’t⁠—” “Hockey is his whole life.” I stare at the doors leading to the patient rooms. “I’ll work with him. We’ll do it together.” I’ve always been a determined bitch. Once I put my mind to something, I don’t stop until it happens, and I’ll be damned if Riley goes down without a fight.

“She wasn’t finished speaking,” Riley says, deathly low. The look in his eye is murderous. A shiver races up my spine when he curls his fingers into a fist. My cheeks turn bright red when he stares at my boss and tilts his head to the side. “And her name is Lexi. L-e-x-i. That’s not difficult, is it? Treat her with respect and get it right, or I’m leaving.”

The romance books I read are right: having a guy turn a little unhinged and defend your honor is sexy as hell.

Women in the past have used all sorts of phrases to describe me: cute. Sexy, but in a nerdy way. Hot as hell when I slide a blindfold over their eyes. The man of their dreams when I kiss their wrists, untying them from the ropes I like to use to keep them still while I eat them out.

“You’re so fucking bossy. Is this how I get you to shut up? By giving your mouth something to do?”

I watch her go, a single thought echoing in my brain. Funny how all my good days include her.

“Women.” Grant sighs. “So complex. So brilliant. We’re so undeserving.”

The other reaches down and wraps around my neck, and I’d like to walk around with his palm there every day, a pretty necklace to show off I’m having the best sex of my life.

“Today was a good day,” I murmur. “They’re all good days with you, Riley,” she whispers, and I hold that as close to chest as tight as I can.

“A really good day,” I agree. “But they’re all good days with you, Lexi baby.”

“All three. To liking you. To loving you. To spending the rest of my life with you, however that might look for us. I want all of that, Riley, and more.” “That’s a hat trick, Lexi baby, and that means I win.” “Win?” She wrinkles her nose, and I kiss away her frown. “What the hell do you win?” “You, obviously,” I say. “I don’t need anything else.”