Have You Checked Out a Hockey Player Lately?

By Cassandra Carr (Guest Blogger)

People have asked me why many of my heroes are athletes (specifically, hockey players). Here are a couple of reasons:

o They're in great shape.

o They're alpha males.

o They have money.

o They are (by and large) genuinely nice guys.

Let's look at those reasons in more detail.

First, hockey players – and all athletes – are in great shape, as shown in the pictures scattered throughout this post. Just to give you an idea, hockey players bench around three hundred pounds during their workouts. And because they do all that skating, they have thighs like tree trunks and asses you could…well, you know where I’m going with that. I don't know about y'all, but I love a man with a hot bod. What's sexier than watching your man sweat through a hard workout (especially if you're the one giving it to him)?

Additionally, hockey players are alpha males. Why do we like alpha males? Because they're fiercely loyal and protective. Witness what happens when an opposing player takes a cheap shot at one of their teammates: even the smallest guy on the team jumps on that guy’s back and starts punching. A man like this is much preferred in my book than one who's laissez-faire. We want our men to fight for us and our love!

Athletes have money. As much as the whole "starving artist" mystique lives on and on in our culture, I'd prefer to be fed filet mignon and take awesome vacations. Maybe that makes me shallow, but come on, admit it – filet mignon has it all over tuna fish! First class plane rides are way more comfortable than Greyhound buses, too. Believe me, I’ve tried both.

And last, hockey players are known for being good, down-to-earth guys. I’ll give you an example: there’s an organization called “Right to Play International” that brings sporting equipment and professional athletes to poor areas all over the world. Athletes from many sports are represented, but who leads in participation? Hockey players. From Andrew Ference to Steve Montador to Alexander Ovechkin and Joe Thornton – these guys not only donate money to the cause, they donate their time as well.

So, as you can see, there are a lot of reasons to love hockey players as romance heroes!

As a special treat for you guys, here’s the entire first (unedited as of yet) chapter of my November release, Head Games, featuring two goaltenders. More information on Head Games, as well as my current release, Talk to Me, and my December release, Caught, can be found on my website at http://www.booksbycassandracarr.com.

GIVEAWAY: Comment on which player in the pictures above is your favorite to win a set of signed Romance Trading Cards from Talk to Me! Everyone who comments wins! Just be sure to leave me an e-mail address so I can get in touch with you for your snail mail address to send the cards to.

FIRST CHAPTER OF HEAD GAMES by Cassandra Carr

“I can’t take it anymore!”

Leo Laporte, goaltender for the Buffalo Intimidators, glared at his teammates as they glided past him after the third goal in the first ten minutes of the game was scored. “You guys either play some fucking defense or I’ll jam my stick where the sun don’t shine! You got that?” Crouching down into his stance, he banged said stick on each post just as he did before every faceoff at center ice. Looking up, he saw the head coach, Tom, waving at him. A quick glance to Tom’s left showed his goaltending partner, Scott Schaffer, warming up. “Fuck!”

Tom called a time-out and Leo skated to the bench, bracing for the tirade. “You guys need to get your heads outta your asses, pronto. You’re down by three already and the game’s hardly even ten minutes old. Since you don’t seem to want to play for Leo tonight, we’ll see how you do with Scott in net.” Tom threw a sympathetic look Scott’s way. “Good luck saving anything with these jackasses in front of you.” Tom wasn’t known for mincing words and tonight was no exception.

Leo opened the door to the bench and squeezed around one of the team’s hulking defenseman as best he could.

Slug’s not good for much tonight; certainly not getting out of my way.

Dude was built like a tank and made a much better door than he did a window, as Leo could attest on that third goal. The puck had been in the net before Leo had even been able to react.

Leo clapped Scott on the shoulder. “Good luck, man.”

Scott nodded and took the ice. Performing a few quick stretches in the crease, he raised his catching glove to signal his readiness to continue play. Leo sat down, taking a long pull from a water bottle he’d grabbed from the shelf in front of him. No one said a word to him, which was just fine.

The team responded to Scott being in net and scored two goals by the end of the first. Leo stalked into the dressing room, heading straight for the can. Just as he’d planned, by the time he got out the second period was about to start. Tom told him he was going to continue to play Scott to see if they couldn’t salvage the game, and Leo nodded. It irked him that he’d been left out to dry, but he also knew damn well they’d done the same to Scott in the past. It was one of those weird hockey things no one could put a finger on, and Leo didn’t even try.

After trundling back to the bench for the second period, his stomach growled. The noise caused his mind to wander, straight to the tall, curvy woman with a mess of curls his hands just itched to plunge into. Right now Kelly was probably pulling her famous apple pie out of the oven at the bistro where he and Scott had been going for dinner after games for nearly a year. Thinking about seeing her made his cock harden inside his jock and he willed it down. Having a hard-on when wearing a cup was a pretty damn unpleasant experience – one he wasn’t eager to go through at the moment.

He’d bet she knew he’d been pulled, but he’d also put money on the fact that if anyone made an asshatted comment about why she’d shut them right up. Kelly knew her hockey, and she watched every game on the big screen TV housed behind the counter at her bistro as best she could in between cooking meals for the customers. He could almost smell her special Sour Cream Apple Pie – the pie she only made on home game days when she knew Leo and Scott would be coming in afterward for their post-game meal. She’d even named it after the team: Intimidating Apple Pie. There was sure as hell nothing intimidating about it, but it was definitely sinful – just how he liked it.

Thinking about her and her pie brought his mind to other subjects, like what she was most likely wearing that night. It drove him crazy the way she dressed – in these cute little light pink t-shirts with Kelly’s emblazoned on the front right across her ample breasts. Even her chef’s clogs – also light pink – were cute. But there was nothing cute about her body. She was all bumps and curves, in all the right places. She wasn’t a dainty little thing, standing only about an inch shorter than his five foot ten, and he loved that about her – gave him something to hold on to should he ever be blessed with the opportunity to get into her checkered chef’s pants.

Leo was jerked out of his lust-hazed stupor by the “heads up” shout from his teammates. A puck was sailing right for him, and he automatically knocked it down with his blocker before it could do any damage. He didn’t wear his goalie mask on the bench and if his reflexes weren’t lightning quick he would’ve taken a puck right to his grill. Head in the game, Leo.

Settling back, he watched his team tie it up by the end of the second. During intermission, Tom took both him and Scott aside and said he wanted to put Leo back in. Scott shrugged – he’d always been the more easy-going of the two men. Their combined personalities meshed well, which translated into a successful goaltending partnership and a friendship that had spanned nearly eight years.

Leo stretched out and took the ice for the third. Their opponent seemed momentarily surprised by another goaltending change, but recovered quickly and gave the Intimidators a challenge. In the end, Leo got the win by one goal. After accepting the congratulations of his teammates, he bopped Scott on the head as they left the ice together. “Kelly’s is on you tonight, bro,” Scott said.

Leo snorted. He’d been expecting no less. “Not a problem. I hope she made apple pie.”

“She always makes apple pie if there’s a home game.”

They rushed through their post-game interviews and hopped into the shower. Only a half-hour after the buzzer they were climbing into Leo’s Range Rover on their way to Kelly’s. When they walked in, she turned from behind the counter to greet them. Leo caught sight of her luscious tits straining the material of her t-shirt and his dick twitched. He quickly ran his hand over it.

Down, boy.

“Hey guys. Good game – both of you.”

“Thanks,” they answered in unison, sliding onto stools.

“How about some apple pie?” Leo said, licking his lips already. An image of him nibbling pieces of it off of her flew into his head. Man, was he horny tonight…

Kelly put her hands on her hips. “You know better than that. I never let you have apple pie until after you eat a good meal.”

Leo rolled his eyes. “Fine.” Perusing the specials written on a chalkboard underneath the TV, he ordered Shepard’s Pie. Scott asked for a chicken souvlaki wrap and they settled back to relax as Kelly went into the kitchen to make their food. “I fuckin’ love those t-shirts. I’d give up a mil of my salary just to be that t-shirt for a day.”

“Don’t I know it…” Since it was late, Kelly was waiting tables herself in addition to cooking, and both of them tracked her as she bustled around behind the counter. Coming back over, she poured them both ice waters and plopped silverware in front of them before going into the back once again. There were still a few customers, but everyone gave the Intimidators their privacy here – it was one of the reasons Leo and Scott loved to come here so much. The primary reason, of course, was Kelly herself. Both Leo and Scott wanted her, and had ever since they’d laid eyes on her. It had only been in the past few months, though, that they’d realized their feelings ran deeper than lust.

Scott had come to him one night and asked him what his intentions toward Kelly were. He’d told Leo if all he wanted was a quick lay he intended to go after her himself. At first, Leo had thought about giving his best friend the green light, but it just didn’t sit well with him, so he’d asked for a few days to think about it. When Leo had made his decision, he’d told him he couldn’t stomach the thought of Scott having her for himself and for a little while after that the two men had been at a stalemate.

Then one night as they were heading home from a game Leo had asked Scott if he’d consider sharing Kelly. At first Scott had misunderstood, thinking Leo was referring to sex, but Leo had explained that no, he’d meant a permanent ménage relationship. Once Scott had wrapped his head around the idea he’d really started to warm to it. Both of them felt it was the best of both worlds – both would have Kelly and neither would be eaten up inside watching her with another man. It was then that they’d begun to send subtle signals of their interest to Kelly to gauge her receptiveness. Though she hadn’t exactly tackled the both of them, she flirted with them every time they came into the bistro, even when the men had purposely steered the conversation toward the idea of sharing her between them.

A few minutes later she backed out of the kitchen, her arms laden with plates, and both men paused to admire her ass in her tight chef’s pants. She caught them staring and just shook her head, laughing.

They were done waiting for her to come around. It was time to put Operation Seduction into action.

***

Don’t forget to comment to win!

~Cassandra

BIO: Cassandra Carr lives in western New York with her husband, Inspiration, and her daughter, Too Cute for Words. When not writing she enjoys watching hockey and hanging out on Twitter. Her debut novel, Talk to Me, was released by Loose Id on March 22, 2011. For more information about Cassandra, check out her website at http://www.booksbycassandracarr.com, "like" her Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/AuthorCassandraCarr or follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Cassandra_Carr.