While the team had been at practice for the afternoon, Kara had used the time to go swimming in the hotel pool before concentrating on her research. There had been a lot of information that she’d needed to write down, so she was happy when she was finished and could get ready for the pub where she’d meet some of the boys. Again they’d invited her to come along and join them for a beer and a round of pool or whatever she felt like.
She’d put on a pair of dark jeans, a white top and a green plaid shirt that she used as a cardigan. That way she didn’t need a jacket, because it was warm enough where they were headed.
The guys had told her to be down in the lobby around seven. They’d go there together. It wasn’t far from the hotel, but they didn’t want to risk her getting lost.
“Excuse me?” Kara heard a voice behind her and turned around. She was down in the lobby, close to the doors, waiting for the boys. Before her stood a man in his late twenties, dressed in a nice suit, disheveled black hair and startling green eyes. “I don’t want to bother you, but you are Kara Robinson, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am.” She smiled at him. He was handsome and seemed really nice.
“I read all of your books and thoroughly enjoyed them.” He smiled at her again. “A friend suggested them to me.”
“That’s nice to hear.” She crossed her arms under her breasts. She had to look up at him, because he was about five inches taller than her in her flat shoes. “I’m glad you liked them.”
“What are you doing here then?”
“I’m here to do some research for the next book.”
“I’d love to hear more about this.” His smile widened. “Would you maybe like to join me for a drink?”
She didn’t know what to say and she didn’t even know his name. On one hand she’d like to that very much, but on the other hand she was supposed to go to the pub with the guys and she didn’t want to cancel them. She didn’t have to make that decision herself though.
She felt their presence and especially Benoit’s arm around her middle before she heard them say a thing. And she could see it in the guy’s eyes.
“So, what do you want from our Kara here?” Soupy asked, crossing his arms over his chest. The look on his face was far from amused. It was much more the look he got when he was on the ice racing towards an opponent. Kara didn’t move a muscle, simply stood there, too stunned to say a word. Her whole left side, where Benny’s body was pressed to hers started tingling. It was a sensation she hadn’t felt in a long time.
“I just,” the man started but couldn’t seem to find the right words. “I better get going.” He turned around and left for his room.
Kara still stood perfectly still, enjoying the heat Benny sent through her body, but then she realized where she was and quickly took a step forward to turn around and face the guys behind her. “What in the world was that?”
“We just saved you from this guy.” Tyler Seguin spoke up. He smiled genuinely at her and took a step closer. “That guy wasn’t worthy of you.”
“Yeah, we’re just looking out for you.” Gregory winked at her and gently pushed her in the direction of the doors. “You can thank us later. Now we’re going to the pub to enjoy a game of pool.”
They were probably right and she would be thankful later on. Especially because she’d enjoyed being this close to such a fine body, feeling his hand on her hip, feeling protected for once.

When they arrived at the pub, they took a table close to the pool tables where they could all sit down. Soupy and Tuukka would play as a team against Johnny Boychuk and Anton Khudobin, their second goaltender.
Seguin and Marchand were responsible for the drinks, which left Kara, Benoit, Shawn, Jordan Caron and Chris Kelly at the table. A couple of the other guys had decided to stay at the hotel and others had opted for a restaurant, to grab some solid food. Not that there was anything wrong with the food at this pub, but they wanted something different. Everyone here would have to be happy with fries. They just wanted to have at least a little something to eat and concentrate more on playing pool.
“What are your thoughts on the game tomorrow?” Kara rolled up her sleeves and thanked Tyler for her beer. They’d brought her Becks on request. “I haven’t seen the Panthers play so far, so I’m really looking forward to that.”
“They’re good, but we’re better,” Shawn said immediately. “They’ll probably have Theodore in goal tomorrow and he’s quite good. Their whole defense is better than last season.”
“But their offense sucks.” Brad chimed in. Benoit thought the same. Their defense might be better this year, but therefore their offense was far worse than a year ago.
“Some of their forwards have improved though.” Chris Kelly looked to the pool table, where their four teammates were in the middle of their game. “Goc is definitely someone to watch- He’s scored in their last 4 games.”
“We’ll win this thing tomorrow.” Tyler smirked at the boys, then at Kara. “I’ll eat my hat if we lose against them.”
“I’d love to see that happen.” Kara took a swig from her beer, savoring the taste of the ice-cold liquid. “But I’d much rather see you win.”
“As long as you’re wearing my jersey, we’re all set.” Benoit looked at her, the hint of a smile on his face. He’d seen her at the games, even though she hadn’t stopped by to talk to them. It had been easy for him to spot her. Seeing her in the jersey with his name and his number on it had distracted him at the first game, but then it had made him smile. She looked good in the jersey even though it was a bit too big for her.
“Don’t worry about that. It’s in my suitcase and I’m set on wearing it tomorrow.”
“We should get you more Bruins stuff.” Shawn looked her up and down. “A shirt, a hat and whatnot. That way you won’t have to go to every game looking like a Pouliot-fan.”
“When we get back to Boston, I’ll get some stuff. I need to go shopping anyway because of the book-release-party, so I’ll do everything at the same time.”
“Book-release-party?” Brad asked and sat up straight. Party always sounded good.
“Yeah, next week, the evening before my book comes out, there’s a party. My publisher invited a few people, there’s food and drinks for free and all that. I’ll have to hold a little speech. I would have made it a casual event, but they insisted on suits and dresses.” That was why she had to go shopping. She still needed a dress for this event, but until then Madison hadn’t had time to go with her, and Madison was the best person to go shopping with. “If you want to go, I’ll be happy to write you on that list. The food is always good and so is the band that’ll play there.”
“Count me in,” Brad said with a huge grin on his face. “Who could say no to free food and drinks?”
“No problem at all. I’ll be happy to have a reason to get away from some of the people there.”
“Why don’t you just write all of us on that list?” Shawn suggested. “I’ll drop by and at least have a drink. I don’t know about the others, but it’s easier that way. Otherwise you’ll have to ask everyone.”
Benoit would go along with the others. He was used to wearing a suit anyway, just like the rest of the team. They’d go there together, grab something to eat, have a drink and check out who was there. They wouldn’t have anything else to do that evening. And they would get to see Kara in a dress, which was definitely a plus.
“Who’s up next?” Gregory stood in front of the table, cue in hand. You could tell by the look on his face that his team had won. Tyler and Brad were already on their feet, ready to play.
“Since my usual partner abandoned me to take part in the fight of the goalies,” Benoit started, casting an accusing look at Gregory. It was more than hard for him to keep a straight face. “I’ll partner with Kara. You know how to play pool, don’t you?”
“I haven’t played in years to be honest and I wasn’t very good.” Reluctantly Kara got up. She wanted to play, but she didn’t want to be the reason Benoit lost.
“Do you like it?”
“Well, yes-“
“Then come on.” Benoit places his hand on her lower back to guide her to the pool table. He felt her whole body stiffen for a moment before she relaxed into his touch. “We’ll beat them one way or the other.”
“We’ll see about that!” Brad took the cue and started the game. None of the billiard balls went in, but they were now spread across the table. Tyler and Brad weren’t bad at pool, but Benoit had a pool table at home and could practice whenever he wanted.
Benny took his cue and looked at the table. This was easy. He buried three pool balls in the pockets before handing the cue to Kara who looked impressed. Good.
Tyler managed to sink one of the balls but nothing more. They’d known from the beginning what they were up against when Benny had gotten up from his chair. That he was teaming up with Kara looked promising to them at first, but they didn’t know what to expect from her.
When Kara stepped closer to the table she felt a bit lost. She scanned the table and finally found a ball that she could play. It looked so easy, but it wasn’t. She took a deep breath before she played the ball that went in with lots of luck.
“You want any help?” Benoit offered when he saw the frown on her face. He had to admit that the next one wouldn’t be easy but it was definitely manageable for him and Kara could do it as well with a few pointers. When Kara nodded, he stepped close behind her. “You can play the orange five. It looks difficult right now, but it’s not that hard. Drop your elbow a bit and lean forward.” Carefully he arranged her hands and showed her the way the ball would go, then he stepped back to watch her.
Kara concentrated, did exactly what Benoit had told and shown her, and buried the ball in the side-pocket. “I did it!” With a big smile on her face she turned around and threw her arms around Benoit who had to take a step back from the impact. He couldn’t hide the smile on his face, when he looked at Tyler and Brad. This game would be over sooner than they’d thought. And getting this kind of hug from Kara was a nice thing as well. She smelled good, like peaches and flowers mixed with beer. Slowly she took a step back from him and dropped her hands. “You’re a good teacher.”
He had to bite his tongue to not say what he wanted to say. The others watched them and would hear what he had to say and that wasn’t meant for their ears. “And you learn fast. Now let’s beat those two over there.”
Kara missed the next ball but it only took them two more turns to win this game. They sat back down and got another round of beers. Hey talked about all kinds of stuff, but mostly hockey. They talked about the second last season, the season when they’d won the Stanley Cup. What it had felt like, what they had done and where they’d taken the Stanley Cup.
Kara listened to every story, fascinated by their enthusiasm and pride. She could relate. When shed seen her first book at a bookstore she’d nearly screamed. On the back of the book was a photo of her, so she’d spent hours at different bookstores holding the book up so that you could see the photo as well as her face. A week later lots of people had recognized her when she’d entered a book store in Boston.
At around eleven they decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel. Tyler and Gregory rode the elevator up with Benoit and Kara because they were all on the same floor. Benny had a room to himself this season, Ty and Greg were sharing a room.
“Good night.” Ty smiled at Kara, then nodded at Benny, because he and Greg had to walk left, while Benoit and Kara had t go right.
“We’ll see you tomorrow.” Greg added, bending down to Kara to press a kiss to her cheek.
“Good night, you two.” Kara watched them for a moment before she turned around to walk along the hallway to her room, all the time aware of Benny next to her. He watched her in the corner of his eye. When she stopped in front of her room, he turned to face her, immediately taking a step closer. She had to tilt her head back to look him in the eye. “I had fun tonight.”
“I can teach you a lot more about pool, if you want. I’ve got a billiard table at home.” Imagining her in his house brought a grin to his face. Oh, yes, he’d teach her pool and a lot of other things for which they could maybe use the table. All that depended a bit on her.
“We could do that.” Her voice was soft and she bit her lower lip. He’d seen her do this before. Jesus Christ. He stepped even closer so that they were only an inch apart from each other. Trying to keep his hands off her proofed to be really difficult so he gave up and put his hand to her side, slowly slid it around to her lower back. Kara’s breasts flattened against his chest and her eyes fluttered shut for a moment.
A soft moan escaped her lips as she placed her hands on his shoulders. When she opened her eyes again, her body hardened a bit. “Good night, Benoit,” she said in a low voice. Quickly she turned around, opened her door and vanished from his sight.
What had just happened? Benoit blinked once, twice, then shook his head. “Dammit!” he mumbled to himself and placed his forehead against the door. He hoped that Kara had a good explanation for this kind of behavior.

Notes

comments? maybe? Please? ^^