“You should only believe half of what you read about me,” I advise her seriously as we still hold hands.

“So true or false?” she asks slyly. “Did that woman really try to blackmail you over that photo?”

“True,” I say unabashed.

“And was she engaged to one of your teammates?”

“Also true,” I say, and manage not to wince, because that could be a total turnoff for most women. I also press forward with some of my better qualities before she asks me about the video my ex-flavor-of-the-month posted online of me in the shower singing. The glass was frosted and you couldn’t see details of my body, but my singing is fucking awful. “But I have many good points. I work with a local golden retriever rescue organization, transporting animals when I have time and writing hefty donation checks. Doesn’t that make me an upstanding guy?”

“You get chronically ejected from games for underhanded hits,” she points out.

“But golden retrievers,” I say with an exaggerated mock whine. “Puppies…warm bundles of puppy fur. Surely that makes up for my rotten temperament on the ice, right?”

“You really are bad, aren’t you?” She laughs as she pulls her hand from mine and takes a step back. Oddly, I don’t like this, but then I’m relieved when she merely hops up onto the therapy table behind her. “Trying to bribe me with puppies.”

“Well, what else could I bribe you with to go out with me?” I ask as I step closer to her.

She crosses one ankle over the other, plants her palms on the vinyl top, and casually swings her legs back and forth. “What did you have in mind?”

My mind blanks for a moment, because I hadn’t really thought where we’d go on a date. I’d sort of jumped ahead to what would happen after the date, which I hoped might involve being naked.

“We could go out to dinner tonight,” I throw out to her. It’s classic and is easier to get to know someone a little better rather than sitting through a movie.

She shakes her head and a wave of disappointment hits me. “I have to work tonight.”

“Tomorrow night?” I counter quickly, only to remember I can’t because I have a game. “Shit…not tomorrow night. How about the night after?”

She shakes her head again. “Also have to work.”

I take a breath, let it out, and try to put things in better perspective. “Okay, let’s start with what do you do for a living and when you do have time to go out with me.”

Lexi smiles at me in amusement, and for the first time I realize she’s not falling all over herself in an effort to have a date with me. I mean, most women would skip out on work or cancel other plans to go out with me. Well, with any hockey star to be honest. But she’s just sitting back and enjoying the fact that I’m slightly flustered here.

“I work at a coffeehouse called The Grind,” she says as her legs continue to swing back and forth. “Mostly nights, but sometimes day shifts.”

I blink at her in surprise, as I’m not a coffee drinker. “You mean people actually drink coffee at night? Doesn’t that keep you awake or something?”

Lexi snorts at me and says dryly, “There are other things to drink there that don’t have caffeine in them.”

Huh? Learn something new.

“Okay, how about we do this, since I am getting to practice later and later,” I tell her as I take one more step that puts me so close, the tips of her swinging feet bump into my shins and I’m towering over her. “You give me your phone number, and we will work out a time we can go out.”

She looks up at me, still amused, but also with a tinge of attraction given the proximity of our bodies to each other. Lexi doesn’t back down or attempt to lean back, and instead tilts her chin up. “You’re awful pushy.”

“When I see something I want,” I concede in a low voice, and there’s no mistaking my meaning.

“And you want me or you want to go out with me?” she asks slyly, tilting her head to the side.

“Given how close I’m standing to you, would you kick me in my balls if I admitted both?” Her legs have stopped swinging and I inch in a little closer, which has me peering almost directly down at her as her head cranes back to look at me.

“I admire honesty,” she murmurs so softly in that sexy, husky voice that seems to flow through my body and straight down to my dick. I’m fascinated that the blue in her eyes has now constricted so tightly I see nothing but the silvery gray with tiny flecks of gold in them, and I have the strange urge to put my mouth on hers to see what she does.

“Sýkora.” I hear a terse female voice behind me and my spine stiffens involuntarily as I recognize it’s from my boss, Gray Brannon. “Practice started ten minutes ago.”

I straighten up and turn slowly to face Gray, but not before glancing at Lexi. Oddly, she’s also straightened up on the table and her back is ramrod, her face a little pale and tense. My instinct is to ask her what’s wrong, but it’s probably more prudent to face the general manager of my team and kiss her ass over yet another infraction.

“He was helping me with my contact,” Lexi blurts out from behind me, and I feel her jump off the table, coming to stand beside me. I don’t dare look down at her, but rather watch as Gray’s eyes slide from me to Lexi as her jaw goes hard. “It folded in my eye and got stuck, and I couldn’t get it out.”

It’s a blatant lie, as I was most certainly not helping her with her contact, and I know without a doubt she doesn’t wear them because I was just staring up close and personal into those gorgeous eyes. I figure Gray knows it’s a lie too, as Lexi’s eyes are clear and without irritation, and besides that…Lexi’s voice was shaking as she told that whopper of a story to cover my ass.

Gray’s eyes cut from Lexi back to me, and she says, “I suggest you get up to practice. I also suggest you don’t forget our talk from the other day.”

And thus is my cue to exit and exit fast. I’m skating on thin ice with Gray—no pun intended—and I need to try to keep my nose semiclean at the very least. Any hope of getting Lexi’s number right now evaporates, because on the off chance Gray fell for her lie about me helping out with her contact, I can’t diminish that perception by letting her in on the fact I was really asking for a date.