Page 74 of Knot Broken

Grey almost smiled, then went and started rummaging through the fridge before depositing a smorgasbord of delights onto the coffee table. Grabbing a share bag of chocolate, I opened it and snagged a few myself before offering them to the others.

“So who’re these guys?” Ethan asked as I cued up the right episode.

“They’re some American hockey team at a university, I think?” Tex said.

As he summarised the previous episodes, his arm went around me and that weight was welcome. I snuggled in closer because as soon as we were touching, all tension leached away. My feet propped up on the coffee table, my favourite show playing, and chocolate to eat. It felt like this was the pitstop I needed on the journey to meeting my wolf.

Then my hand found Tex’s thigh.

His voice trailed away, his eyes finding mine, and for just a moment, it looked like he felt it too. That feeling of wonder that this alpha was one of two guys fate decided to make mine. Rubbing small circles at the hem of his shorts, I grinned as his eyes dropped down to follow the path of my fingers.

“Keep going,” I prompted. “Everybody needs to be familiar with the plot because there will be no further questions once I hit play.”

“Bunch of hockey players that like the girl with the nice tits,” he said in a great rush. “But for some reason they can’t just come out and say they like her. The end.”

“It’d be a really short show if they did,” I said, settling back against the cushions.

“And the female lead might be overwhelmed by some sudden declaration of love.”

Grey sat down on the chair facing ours, not even pretending to watch the show.

“Maybe.” I shrugged. “Let’s find out.”

Chapter 35

Tex

Why the hell didn’t people just talk to each other?

Not the stupid, way too naked all the time, hockey players. It wasn’t the show I was focussed on, but Nadia and Ethan. Golden Boy hadn’t said a word about anything he talked about with us. Instead, he sat there, watching this show like he really was just her friend.

“So do these guys ever get on the ice?” he asked. “Shit, you said no talking.”

“It’s OK.” She thrust her hand into a bag of Cheezels, emerging with one on the end of each finger. “And no, not really. The sports part isn’t as important as the romance bit.”

Just like watching this show wasn’t really why we were all clustered around the TV. Grey didn’t even bother pretending, his focus entirely trained on Nadia. Watching someone eat highly processed foods usually had his mood turning sour, but he seemed to find the sheer amount of crap our mate inhaled mildly amusing.

“So its mainly just a pretext for the girl— What the fuck?” Apparently one episode featuring male full-frontal nudity was not enough. Ethan threw up a hand, putting it between him and the locker room scene on the screen. “Why am I seeing so much dick right now?”

Nadia started to chortle, almost choked on a Cheezel, so I was forced to lean forward and slap a hand down between her shoulder blades. After a cough and splutter, she kept on cackling.

“Is it over?” Ethan peered over his hand, then shrank back. “Nope. Tell me when it’s done, because it’s bad enough that this dickhead has an exhibitionist streak a mile wide.” He jerked a thumb my way. “I could spend the rest of my life not seeing another man’s cock and die happy.”

“The boys need airing out sometimes,” I replied with a shrug.

“Maybe you should just save that sight for me going forward?”

The way she looked up at me, eyes dancing as she grinned, was everything I didn’t know I needed. My arm curled around her tighter, pressing her into my side.

“I’ll put on whatever show you like.” With a nod at the screen, I continued. “Could even buy an ice hockey jersey.” Pressing a slow kiss to the top of her head, I breathed her in. “We could re-enact the scene of your choice from this show.” Her phone appeared in her hands and she started scrolling furiously. “Um… whatcha doing, omega?”

“Looking up how expensive hockey jerseys are,” she said.

Which meant she missed the look Ethan gave her. Lowering his hand, it wasn’t the next scene where the team captain was taking the female lead out on a date he was focussed on. His smile faded and something raw and hungry replaced it. Over the top of her head, I shot him a meaningful look, glancing from him to Nadia and back again. That earned me an equally intense look, making clear that Golden Boy wasn’t about to fess up.

Turns out the show was pretty true to life.

People seemed to need to make everything so damn complicated, I thought, as we all settled back into the couch. We got through another few episodes that were far more intriguing. The male leads finally made a move on their girl and when the three main guys surrounded her on her bed, each drawn closer, it started giving me ideas.