Chapter Seven

It was going to be nice to see everyone again. After the game, everyone went their separate ways, to see their family, to celebrate and then disappeared back to reality. It had seemed surreal, travelling back to Pittsburgh, sitting beside a team mate that had, for a brief moment in time, been his fiercest competitor. But it was easy to slip back into the groove. Sid hadn't really had time to think about the experience, reminisce with Flower or be proud of himself for even a moment. He was trying to be respectful of the other players on his team, who had also worked so hard to get to where he was, but hadn't quite made it.

Of course he spent every spare minute he had thinking about her. Why had she left? Had he done something? Not done something? Had he been bad? Did he hurt her? He had looked for her at the hotel, at the press conference and then at the airport but couldn't find her. Of course he had her number but what was he supposed to say? Would she even answer? She had clearly put some effort into sneaking out while he laid there, dreaming about her.

He ran through every possible scenario about finding her in his mind, about seeing her again. He planned his words carefully. Every time the Pens played in Ottawa, he was going to look her up, but then chickened out. How would he feel if some girl from a one night stand showed up at his door?

When he had received the information from Team Canada about the Edmonton celebration, his pulse quickened. She would be there. He would see her in a non-threatening environment and be able to talk to her. He just wanted to know why she left, just to talk to her. Well, he wanted to do more then talk to her, but it would be a start. She really had been the best sex he had ever had, but it was more then that. He felt something between them, it was more then physical. The guys always made fun of him for being so picky but he couldn't be with just anyone. But she was perfect for him. Smart, funny, understood hockey, understood what hockey meant to him, independent, and not blonde, which was his sisters only requirement. 'Don't bring home some stupid blonde bimbo!" Taylor said when he left every summer. Everyone had requirements for his chosen significant other. His mom's requirement was that she was Canadian. His dad's requirement was that she wasn't money hungry. Even Mario had specified that she had to speak French, not that he was serious or cared at all but thought he had to gets his two cents in because everyone else seemed to care.

When he landed in Edmonton he was immediately ushered to his hotel and given his schedule for the day. He wondered if that had still been her job, if she had made this schedule knowing that he was here. He glanced over it to see if she had left in any free time, which of course their wasn't. He shook his head, of course their wasn't, he was being ridiculous. When did he ever get free time? But he would find time, he had too.

There was a meet and greet in the morning, with a ring presentation followed by a public event at the football stadium. This was scheduled to take until 4 o clock. He had from 4 to 5 to get ready for the gala dinner, then a photo shoot and then cocktail hour started at 6:30, followed by a gala dinner. He was slated to stay until 11, but if he found her, he was sure that he would be able to convince her to slip out early with him.

He went through the processes, followed his schedule to a T. He signed jersey after jersey, shook hands with everyone he could, and answered all the questions just the way he had been trained. The whole time he searched the crowds for her. He had asked a couple of the guys if they had seen her. Flower gave him a strange look but made nothing of it, and told him that he would keep his eye open for her. Babcock had said she was around somewhere, that he had talked to her that morning, so at least he knew she was there. Was she avoiding him? 'Maybe this was a bad idea…' he thought to himself. But no, he had to see her. Even if she just slapped him in the face, at least it would be something.

After the event at the stadium, he was ushered back to the hotel. The event had run over schedule, so he had less time to get ready. Not that he needed a lot of time but he was hoping to get a short break before starting the handshaking process all over again. He quickly climbed into the shower and washed the sweat of the day off. He climbed out, towelled off and took note of his now almost completely bruise free body. He had sustained a couple of bad hits during the playoffs which had left his body speckled with large plate sized bruises of varying colours. His sister liked to poke them during the short time he had spent at home with his family but now that they were almost completely gone, she would have to find a new way to torture him.

He unzipped his suit bag and pulled out his wardrobe choice for the night. A black suit with a blue shirt and grey tie. Nothing to flashy, nothing to stylish. He suited up and checked for loose strings or lint. He slid his new Olympic ring onto his finger and imagined it being beside another ring, a ring he would never take off, a ring that maybe she would give him…

He shook his head. 'I guess I have to at least talk to her first,' he chuckled to himself, checking his appearance in the mirror. He grabbed his phone and room key out of his other pants and headed out to the lobby. He wanted to get to the photo shoot on time, in case she was there and he could catch her for a second.

Walking into the room of the photo shoot, he glanced around. A lot of the guys had gotten there early and several already had drinks in their hands. A bar was set up in the corner. There was a lot of laughter in the room, as groups of guys recanted their stories to each other. The younger guys talked about how many girls they had laid after the games, the older guys talked about how much their bodies hurt the next day. A couple of them were talking about how it had been weird going back to their US teams with their Canadian gold medal. Iginla called him over to take part in his conversation and as he walked across the room, he constantly looked for Amber. He couldn't see her anywhere. He had no idea what she would be wearing. He had only ever seen her in suits at work or jeans, after hockey games. This was not exactly the environment for either.

The photos were taken and the cocktail hour was officially declared to be upon them. The guys slowly filtered towards the cocktail area, outside the ballroom of the hotel, where hundreds of people were gathering. They had paid a lot of money to have dinner with the Gold Medal Heroes. He tried to give them his best attention, to answer their questions and seem genuinely interested. A number of the single girls from the women's hockey team were flirting shamelessly with the guys and he did his best to avoid a couple of them, who had been somewhat annoying during the games. A couple of them had even tried sucking up to his sister to get to him, which was despicable to him. He was very protective of his sister, even though she was probably smarter then him and could figure out the posers from the real people all on her own.

Dinner was served and he still hadn't seen her. He questioned Yzerman and Babcock one more time and they both said that she was around. The dinner had been for 600+ people so according to them it would be like finding a needle in a haystack. The both said if they saw her, they would let her know that he was looking for her. Sid was sure that it didn't raise any suspicion because he was always seen as the polite Canadian kid and they thought he probably just wanted to genuinely thank her for all the extra work she had done for his schedule.

Time was running out of his night, as the dessert plates were cleared. His level of desperation was rising, as he found himself staring down at his watch every couple of minutes. He needed to clear his head and come up with a better plan. He stepped out into the hallway of the banquet room and out the side door, to a patio area. He took a deep breath of the non-air conditioned air and ran his hands over his face. It was 9:30. He had an hour and a half to find her, or else his chances of ever seeing her again would be gone… other then of course trying his crazy stalker plan. He paced the patio a couple of times before heading back in. He wasn't going to find her sitting at his table, he was going to have to walk around. 'Mingle with the people', he thought, which unfortunately meant getting through the group of horny female hockey players. Maybe he could recruit someone to walk with him, as a body guard. He quickly looked around for someone he could feed to the dogs. Flower was to shy, Toews was too serious… this is when Max came in handy, he made a great body guard, he could always be counted on to distract the ladies. Eric was nothing like his brother Jordan. Damn. He was going to have to walk it alone. Maybe if he looked like he was on his phone and stuck to the perimeter he could make it. 'Yeah that's a great plan,' he congratulated himself on his brilliant idea, while he dug his phone out of his pocket. He put it to his ear and started walking, scanning the crowd the entire time, while faking a dialogue. He made it half way around the room before he gave up on his plan. He had accidentally crashed into two waiters and one guest while starring out into the crowd. He had thought he had seen her twice, and once walked up to a girl who wasn't her but instead a young daughter of a local politician. He either had to continue his walk and pay more attention of come up with a better plan. People were starting to filter onto the dance floor, in front of the twelve piece band that had been set up.

"Hey, kid. Loose something?" Pronger came up behind him with a glass in his hand. Sid debated telling him he had lost a girl, knowing full well that they would be adversaries again soon enough. But he was desperate.

"Amber, have you seen her?"

"The girl who makes the schedules?"

"Yeah."

"For sure, she is standing at the table right there." Pronger pointed with his drink. Sid turned around. Now he felt like an idiot. She was standing at a table not ten feet behind him. Had he really walked right past her? His heart rate increased.

"Thanks man, see you in October," Sid shook the giant defenseman's hand and headed towards her. She was wearing a full length red satin gown which pooled on the floor behind her. The back was open and gathered to the right at the base of her back in an intricate knot. Her skin shone in the dim light of the room. Her dark hair was pulled up into a French twist, with a few curls escaping. He couldn't see her face but this time he knew it was her. He was positive.

Sid walked over to her. She was clearly deep in conversation with one of the team management staff but he didn't care. He reached out and put his hand on her bare shoulder. Amber turned and faced him.

"Dance?" he offered.

-.-

Amber felt a warm hand land on her shoulder and she knew almost immediately who it was. Several people throughout the night had told her that he had been looking for her and she did her best to stay out of sight. She didn't need to complicate things. Nothing should have happened in Vancouver and nothing was going to happen here. She just needed to make it through the night without being alone with him, or preferably landing anywhere near him.

"Dance?" he asked in a way that made it sound more like begging then asking.

When she turned around to face him, she had resolved in her head to say no. 'Just say no and go back to your conversation,' she told herself firmly. Easier said then done apparently. When she caught his eyes, she forgot to breath, her knees weakened and her thoughts went back to the night in Vancouver. His hand was held out for hers and instead of saying 'no', she put her hand in his and let him guide her to the dance floor.

'Damn it, damn it, damn it!' she thought. This was not how it was supposed to happen. But he was so freakin' gorgeous that she had no control over the situation. They arrived on the dance floor and he turned to her, wrapping his one arm around her waist and twining the other hand with hers. He pulled her close and began slowly moving her on the dance floor. She looked up to meet his eyes and every resolute thought about staying far away from this boy had flown out the window. He smiled at her, and she felt herself melt.

"I have been looking for you all night," Sid whispered, the first to break the silence.

"I heard."

"Did you look for me? Or were you avoiding me?"

She looked back at his eyes. She knew what he wanted to hear and the truth was certainly not it. He knew it and moved on.

"Why did you leave?" he asked. She could feel his body tighten as if preparing for being punched.

"This isn't the time or place for this conversation," She offered firmly. She was dreading this. She had a hundred good reasons to leave, her job, her professionalism, her life, his life. Nothing between them made sense. It was easier to leave then have an awkward conversation in the morning.

"I just need to know… I'm in room 403. Meet me there in twenty minutes?" He pulled her face up to look at his, his eyes searched hers for the slightest hint of acceptance.

"Twenty minutes," she agreed and then stepped away from him and walked across the dance floor back to the table she had come from.

She debated not going. It would be so much easier to leave now. He didn't know where she was staying and her job here was done. She could go put on her pj's and watch bad hotel tv shows and get up in the morning and resume her life. She was heading home in the morning, to see her family and the last thing she needed was Sidney Crosby tailing her. How would she explain that? But she didn't think he would give up now. He seemed desperate for an answer. People had told her all night that he was searching high and low for her. A couple of her co-workers had made fun of it. "Well if you are going to have a stalker, that's not a bad one to have!" Everyone thought it was funny, because nobody knew why he was searching. They might have suspected it but they wouldn't have guessed that it was her that left and not him.

No, she had to go and deal with it now, nip it in the bud. Finish it. 'Just don't look him in the eyes and you will get out of there in tact," she reassured herself.

-.-

*Knock*knock*

Sid practically jumped to the door. He had picked up his clothes, straightened the sheets, hung up his jacket and then stood waiting. Starring at the door – waiting. It had been twenty two minutes and he was nervous. What if she doesn't come? No, he wouldn't let himself think like that. She had to come – she just had to. He had no other plan, no back up. Other then turning into a crazy stalker… which was still the last case scenario in his mind.

But then the knock on the door came.

He opened it slowly, to see her standing there. The front of her dress was just as sexy as the back. It came down in a cross of material, very simple but accentuating her cleavage. The red satin material then trailed down to the floor, flowing over her curvy body. Classic yet sexy. She wore a simple diamond necklace to fill the exposed flesh of her chest.

He stepped out of the way, as she entered the room. He closed the door behind her and thought for a moment that he wished he could put a bell on the, so if she tried to leave again, he would know. But he shook his head, he was getting ahead of himself. She was just there to talk.

He turned around to face her. 'Damn she was beautiful', he thought to himself.

"This will never work. You know that, right?" Amber started. She had clearly rehearsed the line on her way up.

"Why? Why can't it work?" Sid argued.

"Because are lives are so different and so far apart… "

"But we could work something out… I can make it work."

"How Sid? Its easier to walk away now… before it gets complicated…"

"Too late…" he said slowly. "I can't stop thinking about you, you are everything I have ever wanted and… and… I think I am in love with you…"

"You can't be… you don't know me. You know nothing about me. It's not love, it was sex. That's it – sex."

"It wasn't just sex! And I know more then you think. I know that when you smile my heart stops, that when I look in your eyes, I see things I never thought I would… that, that, fuck it, I know how I feel."

"Damn it…" Amber said under her breath. She couldn't believe this was happening.

Sid walked across the room and put his hands on both of her cheeks, tilting her face up to his. He looked into her eyes for some level of understanding, or agreement, or anything. A tear welled up in her eye and fell down her cheek to his thumb. Sid took this as all the encouragement he needed that she felt the same way and he lowered his lips to meet hers. The first time they kissed it had been new and exciting. The last time was passionate and overwhelming. This time was perfect. It seemed right. Sid couldn't imagine anything feeling better. He moved his lips down over her chin and down her neck. She tilted her head to the side to allow him to continue. He pulled her close to him and she could feel his need against her thigh. One hand slid to the back of her head and twined his fingers in her hair, as he kissed the soft tissue around her neck and over her shoulders. He slid his other hand down the side of her dress, over the curves of her breasts, her smooth flat stomach, then around to the small of her back. He continued to kiss her shoulders but slowly turned her around so she was facing away from him. The hand that was in her hair moved down over her shoulder. The hand that had been on her back, travelled up over her stomach, and cupped her breast. He kissed her neck with slow light kisses as both hands moved up to her shoulders. He grasped the thin straps of her dress and pushed it down over her shoulders, exposing more flesh to be kissed and caressed.

Last time had felt urgent, this time he was going to take his time and learn every curve, every dimple, every freckle of her body. He pulled her arm up around his neck and she leant back into him. He continued to kiss her, while caressing her breasts and running his hands down her body. He spun her back around to face him and kissed down the front of her body. He took her nipples into his mouth, running his tongue over each in turn. He continued to kiss down her body, over her stomach. She played with his hair, running her nails over his scalp in circles. He leaned back to pull the dress down over her hips and sat back in awe.

"The dress doesn't allow for a lot of underwear…" She offered in explanation for her missing garments.

"It's sexy as hell," Sid said reassuringly, looking up at her. He stood up and kissed her lips. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up. He took her over to the bed and laid her down, continuously kissing her. She pulled at his tie and loosened it. Then un buttoned his shirt, pushing it down over his broad shoulders. She reached up and kissed his shoulders and across his chest. He smelt so good, and she wanted him bad. She reached down and undid his belt and the zipper on his pants and slid her hand down beneath the material. Sid let out a deep moan and she stoked his throbbing erection. He pulled her hand out and stood up to remove his pants. His resolve to take his time was slowly disappearing. Feeling her hand on him was almost too much for him to handle. He had to take a breath and concentrate on the task at hand. He never wanted this to end.

He leaned back over her and brushed the hair off her face "Tell me what you want…" Sid moaned into her ear.

"I want you… I want you in me now," she replied, out of breath, reaching up to bit his bottom lip.

"That I can do," he whispered back. He pressed himself into her and felt her wetness surround him. She moaned loudly and gripped his back. He moved in and out of her slowly at first and then quickened his rhythm. Her back arched towards him and he felt her tighten around him - she felt so good. He caught her lips and mashed his against them. He quickened his rhythm even more, pounding in and out of her, faster and faster. He pulled her back up towards him, so he could enter her further, submerging the full length of his cock in her tight, wet pussy. She wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to his firm body. She bit down on his shoulder to prevent herself from screaming. She felt like she was about to come, the feelings were more intense then they had ever been. He concentrated on working harder, going deeper and feeling every inch of her on him.

"Oh my God." She moaned, as she slipped over the edge, throwing her head back and arching her back high off the bed. Her hands grabbed at the sheets and wrinkled them around her fingers. He grabbed her breasts, each a perfect handful, and continued to pound into her, feeling her tighten around him and pounding harder and deeper then ever. He felt himself get close, his balls tightened inward and he gave in to the feeling. He erupted inside her with a deep moan and a huge rush of satisfaction.

He looked down at her, as he lowered his head to her chest. She was breathing deeply, as if she had run 5k at full speed. He was exhausted but wanted to stay up and stare at her all night. She was so beautiful and after working hard to find her, he never wanted to let her out of his sight again.

-.-

Amber woke up in the morning and stretched out her arms. She felt Sid curl in closer and nuzzle the back of her neck. It would be easy to wake up beside him every morning, as it had been so easy to fall asleep in his arms. She had listened contently to him make plans for the rest of the summer. How she could come and see him in Nova Scotia. How much his family would love her. How he would come and see her before training camp started. Then he would make it work. She knew he wanted her to quit her job and move to Pittsburgh. He said she could help him with his schedule and help him decorate his new house. He said he was tired of going home to no one and he wanted her there. She let herself listen as he dragged her into his world, listening to who she would get along with and who would hate her. He described events that they would go to, things that he had always wanted to do but had no one to do them with. He had talked for hours.

But the truth was that she loved her job. And she loved living in Ottawa and she didn't want to move to the states. She had been asked to move to Pittsburgh before and declined it then and she was going to do it again.

She rolled onto her back and looked at him. He looked like a child when he slept. So innocent and content. She kinda hoped he drooled or snored or something to make this situation less appealing. She loved letting him play pretend last night, pretend that it was all going to work out. But it wasn't and she knew it.

She rolled out of bed and slipped her dress back on. She grabbed her shoes and headed toward the door. She looked back at him and felt like crap. He was perfect. Just not for her.