Pucking Around With My Ex's Older Brother

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Lena's POV

I woke up in Rhys Maddox's guest bed wearing his team hoodie, and my phone had forty three missed calls from Cole. The hoodie smelled like him, clean and cold and expensive, and the sheets were black and soft enough that I felt guilty for sleeping in them.

I did not remember falling asleep, I remembered the garage and the SUV with no plates and Rhys's jaw going tight when he read that text, and then I remembered his penthouse elevator opening straight into his living room, and him handing me a hoodie without a word.

He had not touched me after the kiss in the box, not once, and that should have made me feel better, and it did not.

I found my scrubs folded neat on the chair by the door, and my shoes lined up underneath, and there was a new toothbrush still in the package on top, and that small kindness made my throat close up.

I brushed my teeth and pulled my hair back and put my own clothes on, and I told myself I was leaving before he woke up, and then I opened the bedroom door and smelled coffee.

Rhys was in the kitchen barefoot in gray sweatpants and a black t-shirt, and he was reading something on his phone with a deep line between his eyebrows, and he looked up when I walked in.

He said, "Morning."

I said, "Morning."

He slid a mug across the island toward me, and he said, "Black, right."

I said, "I take oat milk, two sugars, you are thinking of someone else."

He blinked once, slow, and he said, "No, I am not."

I took the mug anyway, because I needed something to do with my hands, and the coffee was black and bitter and exactly how I liked it when I was working a double.

I said, "You were right."

He said, "About what."

I said, "The coffee."

He almost smiled, and then his phone buzzed face down on the counter, and his expression went flat again.

I said, "Is that about me."

He said, "No."

I said, "Liar."

He looked at me then, really looked, and he said, "You slept four hours, you kept rolling toward the door like you were going to run, you talk in your sleep."

My face went hot, and I said, "What did I say."

He said, "You said do not touch the table, over and over."

The memory hit me hard and fast, Cole and that girl on my table, and my stomach turned over.

I set the mug down too hard, and coffee sloshed over the rim, and I said, "Sorry."

Rhys grabbed a towel and wiped it up before I could move, and his hand brushed mine, and neither of us pulled back right away.

He said, "Stop apologizing."

I said, "It is a habit."

He said, "Break it."

My phone buzzed in my hoodie pocket, and I jumped, and Rhys went still.

I pulled it out, and the screen said Cole again, call forty four, and I hit decline without thinking.

Rhys watched me do it, and he said, "You do not have to answer him."

I said, "I know, I am not going to."

The phone buzzed again immediately, and this time it was not a call, it was a text, and then three more stacked on top of each other fast.

I opened them before I could stop myself.

Cole said, baby please pick up, and then, they are saying I got you fired, I did not, and then, I love you, come home.

My hands started shaking again, and I locked the screen and shoved the phone face down on the counter.

I said, "He thinks I will come crawling back if I lose the job."

Rhys said, "Will you."

I said, "No."

He said, "Good."

I said, "You sound very sure for a man who watched me climb into his lap twelve hours ago because I was mad at my boyfriend."

He said, "Ex boyfriend."

I said, "Fine, ex."

He leaned against the counter, and his arms crossed over his chest, and the t-shirt pulled tight, and I tried very hard to look at his face.

He said, "You did not use me, Lena."

I said, "I absolutely used you."

He said, "Maybe, but I wanted to be used, I have wanted to be used by you for three years."

The kitchen went quiet except for the fridge humming, and my pulse was loud in my ears again.

I said, "Do not say things like that."

He said, "Why."

I said, "Because I am a mess right now, and you are being nice, and I will believe you."

He said, "Good, believe me."

I laughed, and it came out shaky, and I said, "You do not even like me, you barely talk to me at practice."

He said, "I do not talk to you at practice because if I start talking to you at practice I will not stop, and then Cole will notice, and then I will have to break his jaw in front of the rookies."

I stared at him, and he stared right back, calm as ever, like he had not just said that out loud.

I said, "You are serious."

He said, "I have never been more serious about anything in my life."

My phone buzzed again against the marble, and we both looked down, and this time it was not Cole, it was Mara.

I answered fast, and I said, "Hey."

Mara said, "Oh thank god, are you alive, are you at his place, tell me you are at his place."

I said, "I am at his place."

Rhys raised an eyebrow, and I turned away toward the windows.

Mara said, "Good, stay there, do not come to the facility, do not turn on your phone, do not look at social media."

My stomach dropped, and I said, "Why, what happened."

She said, "Someone leaked the security footage from the physio room last night, not the cheating part, the part where you are alone after, and it looks bad out of context, Lena, it looks really bad."

I said, "What do you mean bad."

She said, "Like you are taking something out of the med cabinet and putting it in your bag, but I know that is not what happened, right."

The room tilted a little, and I gripped the counter edge.

I said, "I was restocking my kit, I always restock after a game, you know that."

Mara said, "I know, but the league does not, and the comments are awful, and Cole is telling reporters you have been unstable for months."

Rhys moved closer, close enough that his arm brushed mine, and he said, low enough that Mara would not hear, "Put her on speaker."

I hit speaker, and I said, "You are on speaker, Rhys is here."

Mara said, "Hi captain, no offense, but your brother is a rat."

Rhys said, "None taken."

Mara said, "Lena, listen to me, Silas called an emergency press conference for noon, they are going to terminate your contract publicly, I am so sorry."

I closed my eyes, and I said, "Okay."

Mara said, "Okay, that is it, just okay."

I said, "What do you want me to say."

Rhys took the phone out of my hand, gentle, and he said, "Mara, this is Rhys, do not let her come down here, keep her name out of your mouth at the facility, understood."

Mara said, "Understood, take care of her."

He ended the call and set my phone down, and he said, "You are not going to that press conference."

I said, "I have to defend myself."

He said, "No, you do not, I will."

I said, "You cannot, you will get fined, you will get suspended."

He said, "Let them."

He was standing very close now, close enough that I could see the scar through his eyebrow up close, close enough that I could count his eyelashes if I wanted to.

He said, "Lena, look at me."

I looked up, because I could not seem to do anything else when he used that voice.

He said, "I need you to trust me for forty eight hours, can you do that."

I said, "Why forty eight hours."

He said, "Because in forty eight hours I can fix the league complaint, I can kill the video, and I can make Cole disappear from your life for good."

I said, "That sounds illegal."

He said, "Do you care."

I thought about the footage, and the texts, and the way Cole had said baby please like I was a problem he could smooth over, and I said, "No."

Rhys nodded once, like that was the answer he expected, and he said, "Good girl."

The words hit low in my stomach, hot and sudden, and my breath caught.

He heard it, I know he heard it, because his eyes dropped to my mouth for half a second before he stepped back.

He said, "Pack a bag, Mara will bring your things this afternoon, you are staying here until this is over."

I said, "Rhys, I cannot just move in with you."

He said, "You already did."

My phone lit up again on the counter, not a call this time, a news alert, and the headline preview said Vipers physio scandal, and underneath it was a photo of me kissing Rhys in the owners box, clear as day.

Before I could grab it, Rhys's penthouse intercom buzzed loud through the kitchen, sharp and sudden, and the doorman's voice came through tinny and nervous.

He said, "Mr Maddox, sorry to bother you, sir, there is a Mr Cole Maddox down here, he says it is an emergency, he says if you do not send Miss Hart down he is calling the press up."