ten

“Wow,” Danny said.

He went to get something out of the car and come back to an empty house.  The kids had gone to bed and Sara was nowhere in sight.  He walked past closed bedroom doors until he got to his own.  A little glow of light bled out from underneath.  Danny opened it a sliver and slipped inside, hoping there was something worth hiding  behind the door.

Sara lay on her side, wearing Danny’s jersey.  He assumed there was nothing underneath.  For all the cheesy puckbunny-ness of it, both his chest and pants got tighter at the sight of her bare thighs disappearing underneath the sweater.  His #48 was clearly visible on the arm.  She moved across the bed and got to her knees, the jersey ending just south of her hopefully bare backside.  He threw off his jacket on his way to the bed.  She pawed at his tie and Danny pulled his shirt and all over his head.  His pants were next.  When he leaned over to ditch his shorts, the temperature in the room went up twenty degrees.  Danny kicked his last piece of clothing away and slid his hands up under the jersey.  No panties as he crossed her hips.  She tugged at his bottom lip like a plea and Danny moved his fingers right down between her legs.

“Yes,” she said softly as he hit her soft spot.  Finding her wet made Danny’s cock twitch, and his impulse to be gentle disappeared with that word.  He delved two fingers right up inside her.

Sara’s heart was racing.  Being with Danny, officially, gave her a heady and almost drunk feeling.  The way he’d looked at her in the jersey - gratitude mixed with lust - was a feeling she wanted to return, and right now.  The sweater was like a costume and this version of her did what it wanted.  There was no point in her panties anyway, she’d been wet since he kissed her.  His thumb grazed her clit and she gasped his name.

He followed up the bed, with the intention of climbing on top.  She stroked his growing erection brazenly.  Their eyes met and Sara bit her lip to hide a smile, then guided him down onto his back.  She kissed his mouth, then moved down his body without ever stopping her hand.  Her lips met his chest, stomach and then Danny let his eyes roll back as she licked a tiny trail just inside his hip.

“Baby,” he said.  He wanted to tell her she didn’t have to, but he was dizzy with desire to feel her mouth.  Schoolteacher Sara, so smart and polite, in his bed and wearing his jersey, halfway to giving him a....  “Oh God.”

Her lips touched him and Danny groaned.  The velvety surface of her tongue swirled around, then she quickly moved along his shaft.  He lifted his hips to meet her.  Sara looked up through her bangs as she took him deep.  All he could see was playful desire in her eyes and his number on her arm.  Danny swore, she pulled free and used her hand to tease him out to full hard.  It was dirty hot and his blood boiled.

Sara went for it.  She could have been embarrassed at the show she was putting on, but it was a private performance and she wanted to make him happy.  He’d probably been with a lot of women - she couldn’t fault a grown man for that.  But she would have to outdo the competition and she was more than willing.

Danny wrapped his fingers in her hair and she let him steer.  He never pushed, ever the gentleman, but his breathing did get short.   His abs and thighs flexed taut as she bobbed along his length, her grip hard to get the most from every stroke.  A drop of salty moisture spilled onto her tongue.

“Sara,” he said, and something in French she assumed meant don’t ever stop.  She had no intention of it.  It was too sexy to have him at her mercy, to feel this closely how badly he wanted her.  Sara worked her mouth on Danny until he came.

“Fuck,” he grunted as his body locked.  There were few things on Earth as incredible as a blowjob from a beautiful woman, and Sara was more than that.  Spasms of pleasure rocked him several times before he lay spent.  It was all he could to do keep his eyes open and watch Sara wipe her lip.  Danny her down next to him.  “You’re so fucking sexy.”

She giggled.  “You’re not the only one who can score in this sweater.”

It reminded Danny that Sara had innocently done something really sweet for him, and it had been the last innocent or sweet thing of the night.  She didn’t even know why it mattered so much to him.  There were a number of topics he’d been putting off talking about.  Now he just wanted to lie still long enough to get hard again and give Sara a fraction of the ride she’d given him.  But soon, they’d talk.

He rolled to face her.  “You were perfect tonight.”  

“It was really nice to be able to kiss you.  You play so hard, you deserve to be kissed.”

“And you deserve something else for your hard work,” he rolled on top of her playfully, ready to deliver.
____

Danny was in the kitchen getting cereal bowls from the cabinet when he heard it: the crunch of tires in the driveway.  Everything happened at once.  His brain popped into gear - what day was it?  What time?

Oh shit.  Carson had broken his arm a few months back, spent weeks in a cast.  Sylvie had scheduled his last doctor’s appointment during Danny’s practice.  it was the kind of thing she did to try to catch him slacking.

Fuck.  He tossed the bowls onto the counter almost hard enough to shatter.  Voices from elsewhere in the house sounded crystal clear: Carson in the fridge, looking for juice.  Cameron in the living room.  Sara in the...

“Hey Cam, you should bring this for class.  I’ve got copies, we can compare it to....”

Danny turned the corner to see Sara holding out a copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in French that Danny had bought so the kids wouldn’t lose their bilingual abilities.  Which is exactly what his ex-wife saw as she opened the front door.

“Bonjo... hello.”  Her tone snapped like a rope breaking.  The smile disappeared from her face.  Sara froze, eyes wide, and Danny tried to shorten his stride and cover his hurry.

“Mom!” Cameron hugged his mother happily.  It wasn’t until he turned around that he realized that Sara was there... and Sara was there.  

“Cam, go get your bag,” Danny said.  Sara was still locked in place.  She wore a long-sleeved boat neck dress in navy blue with a yellow belt around her shapely waist.  Her hair hung loose, her makeup fresh.  She was young and gorgeous and had clearly woken up in this very house.

“Sylvie, hi.  This is Sara,” Danny croaked.  “Sara, the boys’ mother, Sylvie.”  

He hated the term ex-wife, but that’s what Sylvie felt like.  The woman he’d once loved was achingly familiar - older, a little rounder than the image Danny held in his mind.  But she was still beautiful to him, even if other people couldn’t see it.  It mirrored how Danny felt about himself.  But Sylvie had been so angry when their marriage fallen apart, and had taken every opportunity to rake him over the coals.  The good things he held onto were tarnished by every real-life experience.

“Sara is my... girlfriend,” he stuttered.  Danny had never called Sara that out loud, and the first time he said it sounded like a defense in court.  “My girlfriend.  She’s also Cam’s teacher.”

Sylvie’s expression was carefully, precisely blank - the kind of restraint that came with practice.  Her dark hair was cut in a bob, her jeans tending toward mom-ish.  Sara offered a smile but got nothing in return.  Her pulse was racing.

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you,” she crossed the room, hand extended formally.  For a horrible second she thought Sylvie might decline to touch her.  But the older woman reached out, albeit stiffly.

“Cam’s teacher?”

“Homeroom and English,” Sara jumped to reply.  “Just this year.”

“Hmm.”  Sylvie did not look impressed.  

“I’ll go check on the boys.”  With a forced smile, Sara slipped into the hallway before like racing before an avalanche.  Just out of sight, she was still within earshot when the whispered argument started.

“How old is she?!” Sylvie hissed.

“Stop it,” Danny said.  He assumed Sara could still hear them, and he was glad.  She should know Danny was capable of sticking up for them, so he continued in English.  “She is my decision and she’s wonderful.  The boys adore her.”

“My sons.  My sons adore your live-in girlfriend?!”

“She doesn’t live here.  She stayed over after the game.”  Danny fell silent, waiting for Sylvie’s reaction.  The house had always been a sticking point - it was expected that Danny keep his pro athlete calibre extracurriculars away from their kids.  Their home was off-limits.  The same would have gone for Sylvie, but she had left Danny for another man and remained serious with him.  It was their house the boys went to for weeks at a time while the Flyers were on the road.  Danny had always supported that agreement thought he knew Sylvie doubted his conviction.

“You’re bringing them home now,” Sylvie said in a voice full of venom.  As if Danny were traipsing girls through his house, a different one - or more - every night.

“I’m only seeing Sara.  And yes, she’s started staying over.”  Danny felt sure Sara was listening.  He would have been.  “I met her at....”

Sylvie cut him off.  “At least she looks nice, this one.  You had some cheap whores going there for a while.”

“Stop it.  This is serious, Sylvie.  I am serious,” it was the first time he’d said it out loud, “about her.”

“Serious,” Sylvie scoffed.  “Serious like the nights you didn’t come home, Danny?  Serious like the pucksluts I had to hear about at the rink?  The last thing you were serious about was me, and look how you fucked that up.”

Sara stifled a gasp.  She leaned against the wall, out of sight, trying to be silent as she eavesdropped on her new boyfriend and the woman he’d once meant to spend forever with.  It was a trove of emotions and ideas she had never considered before this morning.  So many things with Danny were new and uncomfortable.

“Remember the agreement, Danny.  Keep your flings away from my children.  I don’t care what they do in the daylight.”  Sylvie’s voice was ice cold.  “She’ll trade you in for a teammate soon enough anyway.”

Every hair on Sara’s body stood on end against the tension in the next room.  She wanted to barge back in and punch this woman who presumed to know her, to paint her with the same brush that supposedly ended their marriage.  Sara had read about Danny’s conquests online, and questioned most of them.  The same lies were slipping from his ex-wife’s lips now.  It was so easy to disparage someone, and not know an ounce of truth.  If anything, Sylvie’s wrath made Sara more confident in Danny’s honestly.  But maybe not his fight.

“You don’t get to make rules here,” he said in a low, thick voice of surprising sureness.  “You lost that right when you walked out on your family.”

A moment later, Sylvie’s heels clicked angrily on the hardwood floor.  Sara bolted into the kitchen, the boys loud conversation and slurping of milk covering her arrival.  She went for the fridge, acting natural.  Sylvie was only a few steps behind her.

“Carson, ready for the doctor?  Last visit for your arm.”  Sylvie hugged her eldest son from behind as the middle one dumped his breakfast in the sink.

“Oh yeah, I forgot!  Dad, you forgot!”

“I know, buddy,” Danny answered from the doorway, but he was looking at Sara.  “Sorry.”

They stayed awkwardly on opposite sides of the island as Sylvie collected Carson and kissed the other boys goodbye.  “Nice to meet you,” she tossed over her shoulder as if Sara was hardly worth it when she obviously wouldn’t be around long.  Then to Carson, “Let’s go.”

The four of them were still until the front door closed, the boys fully aware of the storm raging around them.  Danny pushed a hand through his hair, mortified.  He hadn’t even talked to Sara about his ex, forget mention anything to Sylvie.  What an shitty, unfair thing to do to both of them - except he really only cared about Sara.  Anyway he presented his new girlfriend, his ex-wife wasn’t going to like it.  Sara motioned with a nod and the two of them retreated to the living room.

“I’m so sorry, Sara, I....”  She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight.  Danny was so surprised he lost his train of thought.  “I’m sorry,” he said again, words falling out of his mouth.  “She hates me.  She hasn’t gotten over anything that happened.  I can’t believe I let that happen to you.”

“Stop.  Whatever happened, you don’t have to explain yourself to me.  I want things to get better for you, Danny, not be the same.  I don’t care what happened,” Sara protested.

“You should.  I did some stupid things, Sara.  I would never, ever do them again. I would never do them to you.”

Sara wanted to cry.  Honest as she knew Danny’s words were, they were awful coming from his perfect lips.  She kissed him to shut him up.  He was so tense she barely made a dent.   It took a  moment before he relaxed, letting his hands meet at the small of her back.

“I meant what I said.  I’m serious about you.”  A tiny crack was spreading through Danny’s voice.  He wanted to plug the holes Sylvie had just shot in their boat, but knew these things needed to be said.  This was his punishment for not saying them sooner.  

“I’m serious about you too, Danny.  I thought I was going crazy.”

He shook his head.  “I should have warned you.”

“Let me warn you about something then, since we’re being all serious.  Come home at night.  Don’t let me hear about pucksluts at the rink.  I’ll try not to look cheap.”  That got a weak laugh.  Sara tucked her fingers into the collar of Danny’s shirt and gently brushed her nails against his chest.  “And let’s try not to fuck this up, okay?  I really like you, Danny.  I really like this.”

Danny wanted to take Sara upstairs and hold her hostage all day, maybe all week, just laying together.  Encounters with his ex-wife always left his heart feeling broken and kicked.  Sara soothed the worst of the wounds.  If she could get through this... there would be more to come.  Danny silently promised himself they’d talk about it all, as soon as possible.

“Can I stay at your place tonight?”  Danny asked.  He had never even been there.  

“If you answer one question.  What exactly is a puckslut?”

Danny laughed, feeling better already.  “I wish you would never find out, but you will soon enough.”
____

Sara made a simple dinner of spaghetti and meatballs.  Sean agreed to watch the boys and Danny arrived at Sara’s front door around seven in the evening.  He buzzed her apartment and climbed the three flights to her door.

“Hi.”

She was impossibly beautiful.  It didn’t seem fair to Danny that she should have to look at him all night.  But the way she kissed him before he even got across the threshold said that she wanted nothing else.  The smell of sauce on the stove was almost as warm as her lips on his.

“Make yourself at home!”

Her living room was a combination dining room.  A low, overstuffed bright blue couch divided the space, facing a flat screen TV.  Beneath it, a white and blue striped bookcase held DVDs and the cable box.  The coffee table was dark wood, second-hand and heavy.  Against the wall, another bookshelf was stuffed full and a few pictures displayed at the front.   Behind the couch, a small dining room table was set for two.  Above it a completely random array of mirrors and photo frames in all shapes and sizes hung in no apparent pattern.  The effect was surprisingly comfortable.  Danny inspected some of the photos, and a few times caught his own reflection.  The space was more comfortable than his own, minus the kids and dogs.

“It’s so homey,” he said, entering the kitchen.  An assortment of mismatched appliances lined the poured concrete countertop.  The cabinets were white with red knobs, and Sara had put red fleur-de-lis wall decals along the dasher.  She wore a purple sweater with jeans and slippers, her hair tied back and an apron on.  Danny approached from and pressed a kiss to her neck.  “It smells incredible.”

Sara held the spoon out and offered Danny a taste.  His black pullover was cashmere, so soft in her fingers that she had to kiss him.  The sauce tasted good but he tasted better.  Already Sara knew this was going to be a really important night.  

Danny opened a bottle of Malbec he’d brought, and poured her a glass.  She pushed garlic bread onto a platter than they carried everything to the dining room table.  Before sitting down, she hit the iPod speakers and Frank Sinatra started to play at a low volume.

“Very Italian, right?” she laughed.

Dinner was delicious, but Danny’s mind was wandering.  After the events with Sylvie, he wanted to tell Sara a hundred things and get them all out of the way.  Some of them were not pretty though, and he hated to ruin something she’d gone to trouble to create.

“Danny.”

He looked up, realizing she’d been talking to him.  “Sorry, sorry.  I feel so bad about this morning.”

“I told you not to.  You could have a fight with one of my crazy ex-boyfriends if it’ll make you feel better.”

“Maybe.  Are they big guys?”  Danny laughed, but he felt the opportunity to press on.  “There are some things I should tell you, though.  Is that okay?  Do you want to wait?”

Sara motioned that he should go ahead.  Danny took a deep breath and did just that.

“I cheated on Sylvie.  We were seperated already, but not divorced.  I thought it would make me feel better, because she was already seeing someone new, but it didn’t.  And the media was pretty sure, so they printed it anyway.  It was pretty ugly.”  Danny stopped.  “Did you read any of this online?”

Sara bit her lip, feeling guilty.  “I kinda looked it up.”

“Then you know about the girl, the actress.”  He didn’t say porn.  He didn’t have to.  Sara shrugged like she had read one thing and would love to hear another.  “I did talk to her, but I never slept with her.  We met them at some club in a casino.  She knew I was separated and was just golddigging.  I certainly never sent her pictures of... anything.  I’m not stupid.”

“I know, Danny,” Sara cut in.  “You don’t even do locker room interviews with your shirt off!”  

He blushed.  “The guys make fun of me for being shy.  I... I hear Claude ran in and hugged Nora the other night.  I’m sorry I didn’t do that for you.  I will, if you want.”

“Stop.”  Sara put down her wine glass and reached for his hand.  “I like that you’re shy, Danny.  No one’s shy anymore.  I think it’s the sweetest, most genuine thing.  It makes me feel special that it’s just between us.  And the kids,” she smiled.

“And G and Hartsy and...,” Danny added.

“You don’t tell them everything,” she said.  “Wait.  Do you tell them everything?”

“No.”

Sara held up her butter knife as menacingly as possible.  “Did you tell them about the jersey the other night?!”

“No!” He waves his hands in surrender.  “God no.”

“Good,” she put the knife down.  “Because Scott would just be disappointed.  His jersey’s so big it would cover everything, and potato sacks are not sexy.”

They laughed and Danny let the conversation drift to other things.  It was easy to talk to Sara, but not to keep his hands off her.  When the food was gone, he turned serious again. “Now that we’re dating, the media will want to write about you.  At first they’ll probably try to take your picture and stuff, and dig around about you online.”

“I already made my Facebook private and took down any incriminating photos,” she said to his surprise.  “I’m not stupid either, Danny.  Plus, with school, there isn’t much up that could be considered objectionable, and it was under my first and middle name, not my last name.  Fifth graders can find that stuff too.”

“Good, I feel better.  They were horrible to Sylvie, and to a few other girls I was... seeing.”

Sara chuckled.  “Seeing.  You’re so cute.  Just call it your slut phase, Danny.  Everyone has one.”

“Did you?”

She gave him a wicked grin, then it broke and she shook her head.  “No.  But all the more reason for you to behave.  Don’t want me working my way through your teammates and posting it all on Crossing Broad.”  Danny went pale.  Sara put a hand on his arm.  “I would never, ever do that, Danny.  If I wanted to get famous, I’d go after Max.”

“They’ll wonder why you don’t,” Danny’s voice dropped to a sullen note.  This was the worst part for him, all the more because it was so true.  “They’ll wonder why you’re with me, and say it could only be for the money.  Because you’re perfect.”

She’d tried to keep this conversation light but if Danny needed to say this part then she would do the same.  The pain in his dark brown eyes made her angry.  Who were these people to judge him, when they didn’t have a fraction of his talent?  On top of that, it solidified Sara’s opinion that they were all stupid.  “Have you ever been in a fight?”

“Yes, why?”

“You’re not that much bigger than I am.  I want to know how I’d do if I had to to knock somebody out.”

Danny made a face.  “You’d do okay, I think.  You’re scrappy.”

“Good.  Because the first person who says that to my face is getting punched.”

He laughed, but Sara pushed the point.  

“Danny, you’re amazing.  And I don’t need you or anyone else to believe me to know that I’m right.”
____