Chapter 182
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The suite was too quiet after the girl left.
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I stood in the kitchen like an idiot. Shirtless. Still smelling like a girl whose name I could not remember. Staring at the space Charlotte had just occupied and a look that made my chest feel wrong. She had gone back to her room.
She should have slammed her door after what just took place. She didn’t.
That was worse than if she had yelled at me for bringing such a woman back to the hotel.
I tried to figure out why I had gotten so angry.
Well. I knew why. Charlotte was my best friend. I would never let anyone speak to her like that. How could she call her not attractive and then say she was living off me? The words still refused to leave me. Charlotte was the reason I am successful today. No one else as much as her. She dropped everything to help me.
I had laughed off worse comments aimed at me. And there were plenty because of my reputation.
But aimed at her, they turned the night into something I wanted to put my fist through.
Tonight, for some reason, it had felt like more.
Not just loyalty. When that girl looked at Charlotte like dirt, something in me went cold and full protection mood.
Protect her. That’s all I heard in my head.
I had said she was not replaceable.
I had meant it so much it scared me.
I checked my phone.
Twenty messages. Girls I had given my number to at the wedding, in the lobby, in the five minutes Charlotte walked away for a drink. Names I would not remember by morning. Photos I had not asked for. A you up that made me want to throw the thing across the room.
I deleted all of them.
After tonight I did not plan on having anyone over for the rest of our time here. In Monaco I could find new girls. Different hotel. Different crowd.
I still stayed up extra late.
The bed smelled like the girl I had kicked out. I stripped the sheets, left them in a heap, and lay on the bare mattress like that would help.
It did not.
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
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I could still hear Charlotte saying she always heard things like that from girls I’d brought over. Now before bringing anyone around, I had to make sure they were aware of the rules.
No insulting Charlotte. No talking to her rudely. No looking at her in any way or form that could hurt her.
Then the other thing came back. The thing sitting under the anger the whole drive home from the wedding.
Marco.
‘You know Marco is kind of cute. I wouldn’t mind dating him.’
I had growled at her in a parking lot like she had suggested setting the car on fire.
Why had that upset me so badly?
Marco was my brother. Older. Cleaner reputation. Same last name, better manners. Girls went crazy for him. If Charlotte dated him she would still be in the family. Still on flights. Still at races. But she would be supporting him. Waving at him. Giving him that smile she always gave me after a win.
I wanted to put Marco through a wall and he hadn’t even done anything.
The thought of his hand on her waist made my jaw ache. The thought of her in his garage, laughing that easy laugh she used on me, wearing his jersey instead of standing in my kitchen calling herself my best friend-that thought was worse than Olivia marrying Vale.
Olivia had never been mine.
Charlotte had always been next to me.
I had never had to name what that meant, because naming it would stir things up I didn’t want to admit.
I sat up. Rubbed my face. Told myself I was tired. Told myself I was still upset from a wedding where the girl I liked had walked down the aisle toward someone else.
Charlotte had said dating Marco like a test she did not know she was running.
Her tone was different. Not teasing. It worried me.
Did she like my brother?
I had brought a stranger home and fucked her hard, hoping to forget my best friend’s words. It did not help in the least. Then I had thrown the stranger out for disrespecting Charlotte. I ran a hand down my face.
No more girls until Monaco.
I said it to the dark like a rule.
The rule did not explain why I was still awake. Why I kept glancing at her closed door. Why you’re not his type had come out of my mouth in the parking lot like I had the right to decide who touched her.
I lay back and stared at the ceiling until the sky started to change.
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
Charlotte was not replaceable.
She never will be.
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12:24 Fri, Sep 25 1 TF·
The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.