My eyes betrayed me then, drifting over her like they had a mind of their own. Her style hadn’t changed, but it was grown now, elevated. She wore understated neutral cashmere, a soft beige sweater tucked into tailored black slacks, and simple gold jewelry, nothing loud or attention-grabbing.
And yet she still lit up the damn room.
She was mesmerizing — soft curves under conservative fabric, alabaster skin that never needed makeup, but radiated when she chose to wear it.
That small, pale scar on her right hand, half-hidden against her side as if she could pretend it wasn’t there, snagged my gaze.
I still remembered the night she told me how she got it, that she’d stepped in front of her mom when Jay was on a terror, and he’d snapped, driving a kitchen knife into the back of her hand where it was braced on the wall, her body serving as armor for her mother.
She’d been only fourteen.
Everything about her tugged on something in me I’d spent eighteen years trying to suffocate, and I felt powerless to fight against my natural urges for her.
She was off limits.
And yet I couldn’t stay away.
“Are you heading home?” she asked, her voice gentle.
“I was,” I said, grabbing the back of my neck. “Long day.”
She nodded, her gaze dipping for half a second before she pulled it back up.
“You waiting for Nathan?” I asked, both a sucker for punishment and a fool for hope. As if there would be any other answer. As if she’d say,Oh, Nathan? No. I’ve been waiting for you, actually.
“Yeah, he should be here soon. He’s got an early flight, probably eager to get home and get what little rest he still can.”
That made my brow arch. “Oh?”
“Heading to Vegas for work,” she answered with a shrug. “Which, I admit, will be kind of nice. I could use some free time to get the house settled.”
Her smile was genuine with that, but then she balked, shaking her head.
“I mean, I’ll miss him, of course, desperately. I just…”
“I get it,” I said, smirking and holding out my hands to let her know she didn’t need to defend herself.
Hell, I loved that she wasn’t destroyed by him leaving town.
I was also committed to being the dumbest version of myself, apparently, because I opened my stupid mouth and asked, “How long is he gone for?”
“Just the weekend.”
I frowned, wondering what business he could possibly have in Vegas, but I never knew what the general managers and team owners got into outside of the rink. So, I let my brain move to the more pressing question I had.
“Do you have any plans Sunday?”
Ariana frowned. “I… I guess just stuff around the house. Maybe treating myself to a Bravo marathon.”
“Think you could spare some time to explore your new city with me?”
There it was, that beautiful blush that grazed her cheeks in the best moments: when our eyes locked in class that first day we met, when I’d stolen a sip from her smoothie and she’d realized we were sharing straws, when I’d kissed her without warning in the quad for everyone to see, when I’d whispered filthy words in her ear while she tried to study…
“I… I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said with a breath of a laugh, tucking her hair behind one ear as her gaze fell to our feet.
“Why not?”
At that, she sucked her teeth, her gaze lifting right back to mine to level me with a glare that told me she saw right through me pretending there wasn’t a single problem with the two of us spending a day together.
