Dumped On Live TV, Claimed By The Hockey King

CHAPTER 1

AVA

"Finally," I muttered under my breath as I shoved my way through the sea of students packed inside the university hockey arena.

"Hey! Watch it!" someone shouted after I slammed into their shoulder.

I didn't stop; I didn't even apologize.

Right now, I honestly didn't care who I offended.

"Nic!"

My voice was swallowed by the deafening cheers echoing around the rink, not to mention the drumming of my baring heart against my chest.

My heart pounded so violently against my ribs that it hurt to breathe.

The video.

God.

The damn video.

It had been sent to me barely an hour ago.

No caller ID, no warning.

Just a message from Stacy Montgomery.

Thought you deserved to know.

Attached beneath it was a twenty-second video.

Twenty seconds.

That was all it had taken to destroy two years of my life. In those two years we had celebrated two birthdays and two Christmases together, believing I was building something real with him.

I knew his coffee order by heart; I knew his game schedule better than I knew my own class timetable. I knew exactly how he liked his food and the way he went quiet whenever he was stressed.

Nic had once told me that when he finally won the hockey championship, I would be the first person he brought home.

He had talked about the future like I was already standing in it. I had believed him all this while.

God, I had actually believed him!

The footage showed Nic in a hotel room.

With Stacy.

There was no room for misunderstanding.

No way to convince myself I'd seen it wrong.

It was clear as day that my boyfriend was fucking someone else.

From the kiss to the aggressive making out to the moans...

I hadn't been able to breathe since.

Hadn't been able to stop mowing. I needed him to tell me it wasn't true. That this was all a big misunderstanding.

As I reached him in the middle of the rink, I couldn't help but scream.

"How could you do this to us?! I seethed.

All of the calm dialoguing I had convinced myself I was going to do was out the window.

All I could see was cold, red-hot anger pumping through my veins.

"Ava? What the hell?" Nic raised a brow as if genuinely surprised by my presence. "I thought you wouldn't be able to make it to the game..."

I wasn't because I had a meeting with Professor Caleb, but when I had seen that video... I went into autopilot.

"And I thought you loved me. Stacy of all people? How could you?! After two fucking years?!" Tears blurred my vision.

I could barely breathe. It didn't help that all eyes were on us now, but I didn't care.

God, I just wanted the pain to stop.

"Keep your voice down, will you? This is being televised live."

"That's all you're going to say to me? After fucking my worst enemy?" I laughed bitterly.

An audible gasp could be heard from across the crowd.

"Can we talk about this some other time? This is important."

"No. We are talking about it now, Nic. God, you told me you were going for an interview, and I found out you went to fuck some other girl?" My voice broke.

Nic's lips straightened into a thin line of disapproval.

"I didn't fuck anyone." He whispered.

"Oh yeah, then what the fuck is this? " I pushed the GR phone in his face. Camera flashes went off at that moment, but I didn't care.

Nic stared at the video on my phone, every trace of color draining from his face.

"Where did you get this?" he demanded quietly.

"It doesn't matter where I got it." My voice trembled. "Tell me it's fake."

He ran a hand through his hair, glancing around the arena.

The cameras. The reporters.

Thousands of students watching.

"It's not what you think," he muttered.

"Then explain it!"

"I can explain, Ava."

"Explain why you're in a hotel room with Stacy!"

His jaw tightened.

"Can we please do this somewhere else?"

"No."

"Ava-"

"No!" I shouted, my voice echoing through the arena. "You lied to me! You told me you had an interview!"

Another round of camera flashes exploded around us.

He looked over his shoulder at the reporters before lowering his voice.

"You're making a scene."

"I'm making a scene?" I laughed through my tears. "You cheated on me!"

"I said I can explain."

"Then explain!"

For a split second, I saw something almost like panic in his eyes.

Then one of the cameramen stepped closer.

Nic noticed. His expression changed.

The panic suddenly disappeared, and his shoulders straightened.

His face became cold, almost bored even.

And suddenly, that was when it all became clearer to me; he wasn't scared of hurting me, he was just scared of being seen hurting me.

The realization cut deeper than the video ever had.

He only cares about his reputation on cameras and....

Not me.

He looked at me as though he'd never seen me before.

"What exactly are you so upset about, Ava?"

I blinked. "What?"

"You honestly believed there was something serious between us?"

My stomach dropped. "You can't be serious..."

He let out a short laugh. "I never asked you to be my girlfriend."

The arena fell eerily quiet.

"You just... assumed."

His lips curled into a mocking smile.

"I never corrected you because it wasn't worth the effort."

Every word landed like another knife in my chest.

"We had fun," he shrugged. "But let's not pretend it was anything more than that."

My vision blurred.

"Two years..." I whispered.

"You knew what this was."

"No..." My voice cracked. "No, I didn't."

"Then that's on you."

He leaned closer, his voice low enough that only I could hear.

"I have too much to lose right now."

When he pulled back, his expression was once again loud enough for the cameras.

"I think you've embarrassed yourself enough."

The murmurs from the crowd erupted.

I couldn't hear them anymore.

All I could hear was my own heart breaking.

Then,

"Watch your mouth, Sterling."

A deep voice cut cleanly through the noise.

"That's my girlfriend you're talking about."

He smiled as his hand wrapped around my waist.

The arena went quiet.

I blinked, completely unsure of what I had just heard.

Liam Hayes was touching me.

The star hockey player was touching me and had just called me his girlfriend.

Confusion clouded my mind. I had never even spoken to this man before.

We weren't even in the same social circles.

His father was a senator, and his mom was a renowned surgeon.

The only thing we had in common was that we both had parents.

What the hell was he doing?

I should have pushed him away. I should have told him to get his hands off me and demanded an explanation.

But then I glanced past his shoulder.

The cameras were still pointed at us, and the reporters were just everywhere watching us. Nic was standing there with that same cold, dismissive look on his face.

I suddenly understood the situation; Liam wasn't actually claiming me. I knew he was only putting on a show. I wanted to push him away, but then I remembered how Nic had looked at me when the cameras turned toward him.

Like I was a problem he needed to get rid of, like an embarrassing girlfriend who had just ruined his perfect night.

No!

I wasn't going to stand there and let everyone watch me fall apart.

So instead of pushing Liam away, I took a small step closer.

His arm tightened around my waist.

I didn't know if he was surprised that I was playing along, but I felt his body go still for half a second.

"Girlfriend?" Nic asked, disbelief written all over his face.

I lifted my chin and looked straight at him.

"Yes," Liam answered before I could say anything. "Got a problem with that, second place?"

"Girlfriend?" My ex asked with a smug look of disbelief on his face.

"Yes. Got a problem with that, second place?" Hayes mocked.

The smug smile from Nic's face dropped almost immediately. The crowd burst out laughing, and Nic looked like he was about to kill everyone with his eyes.

Nic and Liam had never seen eye to eye, especially since Liam was a gold Olympian medalist and had beaten Nic's record every time he decided to play.

I stood there, stiff as a board and still very confused about what the fuck was going on.

"What's wrong? Don't have anything else to say?" Hayes smirked.

Nic couldn't speak, just stared with a clenched jaw and fist.

I would laugh if I weren't so fucking confused.

"Fuck You, Li," Nic said before turning around and walking off.

Hayes led me out of the arena, his hand still at the small of my back. He didn't let go until we were out a safe distance, away from everyone.

I slapped his hand off.

"Not that I am not grateful for helping me out of a humiliating situation, but um, what the actual fuck was that?"

"Consider it a favor." He smirked. "I'm Liam Hayes."

"I know who you are. Everybody knows who you are."

"Excellent then. My reputation precedes me."

I stared at him open-mouthedly. Up close, he was a fine specimen of man. Dark hair, a beautiful dark piercing gaze, a straight nose, and lips that I knew most women had gotten drunk in.

"Why did you help me?" I finally asked. "I mean you don't even know me. Why would you claim I was your girlfriend... Did someone put you up to this?" I demanded

I was not new to the fake asking-to-prom situation.

He chuckled. "Nobody puts Liam Hayes up to anything. I put people up to things." He said confidently.

"What?"

"Honestly? I've always hated Nic. And I saw a perfect opportunity to make him look like a fool, so I took it."

"That was your entire reason to do that? That makes no sense...like at all."

"Everything doesn't have to make sense, Bennett. Besides, there's a stronger reason standing right in front of me." He winked. I ignored it.

"I strongly disagree. You realize that nobody is going to buy the fact that I am your girlfriend, right?"

"Not if we play our cards right."

"Our cards? What cards? What are you talking about?" I asked.

It felt like I was having one of those bizarre fever dreams where everything was in complete disarray and the succession of events made no sense.

I didn't even have time to process the heartbreak I had just gotten.

"Oh, that's right. I haven't officially asked yet." He cleared his throat.

I blinked as he stood in a mock proposal stance.

What the fuck was he doing?

"Ava, will you be my fake girlfriend?"

I blinked. This was definitely a fever dream.

I stared blankly at him, waiting for his words to make sense, but no matter how much I thought about it, they didn't make any sense.

"I'm sorry, what? Are you insane?"

Liam glanced at the crowd gathering around us. More cameras. More reporters.

His jaw tightened.

"You're overwhelmed," he said quietly. "Go home. Get some rest and call me at six pm." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a sleek black business card and placed it in my hand.

I stared down at it, and it was written "Liam Hayes." A private number was printed beneath his name.

I frowned.

"What? Call you?" I asked in disbelief. "For what?"

"I'll explain everything to you by then."

"No." I shook my head. "You're explaining it now. You don't get to call me your girlfriend in front of thousands of people and then disappear like some psychopath."

The corner of his mouth lifted.

"Trust me. Right now isn't the right time."

I looked around.

Reporters were already pushing through the crowd.

Cameras were still pointed directly at us.

"Call me at six," he repeated. Before I could stop him, he turned and walked away.

I stood there staring after him.

"He's insane," I muttered.

Absolutely, completely insane.

Clutching the card tightly in my hand, I hurried away before another reporter could stop me.