Kara hardly slept during the night. She’d been lying awake in her bed until about four in the morning, replaying that scene in her head over and over again. Why hadn’t she kissed him? Why had she chickened out?
The truth was that she didn’t know. Being this close to a man again, especially Benoit, had felt so good, but it had been too much at that moment. She’d wanted to kiss him so badly, feels his hands on her body and not let him go for some time. Somehow her head had told her to not go through with it. The ancient dispute between heart and mind.
She was tired and frustrated when she had to leave for the game. She hadn’t talked to any of the guys or the coaches, instead she’d spent the day in her room trying to get some rest, but giving up on that after two hours. It was useless.
When her mobile phone rang and she saw the familiar face staring back at her she relaxed a bit. She hadn’t talked to Mika in about two weeks. Her ice blue eyes stared back at Kara through huge black plastic glasses. She adored this photo. She’d taken it about a year ago when she’d visited Mika in Los Angeles. The light blond hair with pastel pink undertones framed her face perfectly. There was just a hint of a smile on her lips perfected by the lipring on the left side.
They’d known each other for 5 years now. Mika was originally from Finland with a Finnish mother and a German father. Their fathers had known each other since they were twelve. They’d met at the soccer team of their town and become friends.
Mika was now twenty-one. When she had come to America, just sixteen years old, Kara’s family had offered her a place to stay. At that time Kara had already lived in her own apartment, selling books, going to a few events and she’d always taken Mika with her. She was like the little sister she never had.
But Mika hadn’t wanted to stay in Boston. She’d wanted to study at the Fashion Institute of Design Management in LA. Kara flew out as often as possible. It was Mika’s turn to come to Boston now and she would be there in less than a week. Just in time for the book release party. For a moment Kara had forgotten about that. She hadn’t told Mika that she was traveling with the Boston Bruins so far, she would probably mention it now, but not get too much into detail and tell her the rest in person.
“Hallo Schätzchen (Hello darling)” Kara said into the phone while looking around for her jersey. She had to put it on before she left.
“Hei kulta (Hi, honey)!” Kara could hear Mika’s smile in her voice. They always greated each other like this. Mika was Schätzchen and Kara was kulta. Always.
Kara turned the loudspeaker on her phone on and put it on the vanity table in the corner. “What’s up?” Finally she found the jersey and pulled it over her head. Seeing herself in Benny’s jersey after the incident last night felt a little strange. Not bad, just strange. She took a deep breath and shook her head.
“KARA!” Mika nearly screamed into the phone. She’d tried getting Kara’s attention twice now and nothing had happened. Kara nearly jumped out of her skin, looked down at the phone and apologized a couple of times. “Okay, what in the world is going on with you?”
Kara sighed. “I can only give you the short version, because I have to get ready to leave the hotel.” He rearranged her bangs and pushed them to the side. Her hair didn’t look the way she wanted it to, but it was acceptable. “I am going to every Boston Bruins game and I‘m traveling with the team which is why I’m at a hotel right now. This is research for my next book.” She leaned closer to the mirror to apply her mascara. She would leave it at that for today. “The guys on the team are great and a lot of fun to be around. But there’s one of them who makes me get all kinds of thoughts.” She sighed again. When Mika was there, she definitely had to tell her the whole story. “And last night we nearly kissed but I chickened out and kinda hid in my room.”
“What’s his name?”
“Benoit Pouliot.” Kara heard Mika clicking away on her keyboard. Except for that there was complete silence.
“Okay, I think I’ll have to talk some sense in you when I get there.” Kara took her purse and threw everything she needed inside while she listened to her friend on the other end of the line. “That man is ridiculously hot and you shy away from him?”
“I know.” Frustration was welling up in Kara again and she had to take a deep breath to keep herself from screaming. “I think I’m still a bit too scared of what might happen.” She put on a black cardigan, grabbed her purse and her phone.
“Well, you should try and relax a bit more. You always tell me the same thing.”
“I know. I know.” Kara grabbed the keycard for her room before she left. “Listen, I gotta go. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay. Have fun!”
Kara dropped her phone in the purse and practically ran downstairs. This was the first time she would be in the dressing room between warm-ups and the actual game. She would stay there until the guys were all out on the ice, then she would go to her seat in the middle of the Bruins fanbase.
She was running late, but got there just in time to see the boys enter the locker room. Coach Claude greeted her with a smile and offered her to sit down in the corner. Most of the players acknowledged her, smiled or waved at her. They were already in the game with their minds except for one guy directly across from her. Benoit’s eyes were fixed on for a good minute before he diverted his attention to the other players and the coach.
Kara felt tiny in this room full of big men who were even bigger now wearing their skates and other hockey stuff. If she hadn’t known the guys in the room, she would have felt intimidated. Still, she wanted to get out of this room as soon as possible, not because of the team but because of Benny. Knowing he was sneaking a look at her in between made her knees weak. She couldn’t concentrate on what Coach Claude was saying. She didn’t even hear his voice because the beat of her own heart was much louder in her head.
This was ridiculous.
When it was time for the team to leave the room, Kara was more than relieved and wished them good luck for the game. The only problem was that everyone left except for Benoit. The others didn’t really think about this, because they were already focused on the game.
Kara couldn’t move. The more she wanted to leave the room, the less her feet wanted to move and get her out of the room. When Benoit stood directly in front of her, she had to tilt her head back to see his face. Thank God she’d decided to wear her black heels tonight.
“What happened yesterday night?” Benoit’s voice was soft, but a fire burned in his eyes that made Kara’s knees go weak all over again. Instinctively she held onto his arm to keep from dropping to the ground. Why did he do this to her?
“I… I don’t know,” she mumbled more to herself than to him.
Benoit pulled her close to his body, placing his hand on her back. She shivered involuntarily. He brushed her hair from her face, placed his hand on her neck and brushed his thumb along her jaw line. First he lightly touched his lips to hers, but then he ran the tip of his tongue along the seam of her lips. A little moan escaped her lips when she parted them. She leaned into him, ran her fingers through his hair and tried to get even closer to him.
The kiss started out slow, just a light touch of tongues, but then it turned carnal. Benoit couldn’t get enough from her. His hand on her back dropped a few inches and was now on her bottom. Ever since he’d talked to Soupy about this luscious ass, he’d wanted to get his hands on it.
With her own pulse thundering in her ears, Kara carefully pushed Benoit a bit away from her. They stood in complete silence before Kara could finally lift her head and put her thoughts into words. Her lower lip was slightly swollen from his kiss, her hair a little disheveled. It was the best thing he’d seen in a long time.
“You have to go,” Kara said and took a step back. “You’ve got a hockey game to win.”
She was right, but Benny wasn’t ready to let her go just now. He leaned down to her again and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “You’re right. I’ll see you after the game, okay?”
Kara nodded and watched him leave the locker room. Her heart was still racing and she wasn’t sure whether she’d be able to concentrate on the game.
For a few moments she stayed in the locker room until her legs allowed her to walk properly again. The crowd was already screaming their lungs out and she didn’t need as much time to get into the game as she’d thought,
Needless to say, that night the Bruins won 6-0.

Notes

I think this is the last chapter until somebody says something. I feel like I'm posting this just for myself which is ridiculous since I have the whole script ^^