I deserved it.
The rink opened up in front of me, the white ice glowing under the industrial lighting. There were a few people scattered around the rink, a figure skater practicing jumps on the far end,a couple of kids taking a lesson near the boards, and a group of hockey players near the box.
And then I saw her.
She was the petite blonde in the middle of the group of hockey players; her laugh carried across the ice. Austin Miller had his arm braced on the boards beside her head, leaning in close, saying something that made her tip her head back and smile.
My vision went red around the edges.
Austin fucking Miller. The guy who went through girls like tissues, discarding them the second the chase was over. The one who was bragging in the locker room last week about breaking in some freshmen. He was currently standing way too close to Harlow, looking at her like she was his next conquest.
Over my dead fucking body.
I was moving before I made the conscious decision to do so, my skates slicing into the ice. Harlow’s gaze lifted, catching mine across the rink, and I watched her expression shift from recognition to something harder. Colder.
I jerked my head toward the exit.
Her jaw flexed, and those pretty blue eyes narrowed, shooting daggers at me with enough force to draw blood. But she got the message. She said something to Austin, and he frowned as he reached for her arm, but he was too late. She was already heading toward the exit.
I was hot on her heels until we made it through the tunnel and into the empty hallway.
“Austin?” I groaned, the name tasting sour on my tongue. “Really?”
She stopped so fast that I nearly slammed into the back of her. She whipped around, her eyes blazing, cheeks flushed with anger. “Yeah.” She shrugged, the gesture deliberately casual. “Why not?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” I huffed out a humorless laugh, running a hand through my still-damp hair. “Maybe because the guy is a dick. He’s a love ‘em and leave ‘em type. He’ll tell you everything you want to hear, get what he wants, and then pretend you don’t exist.”
Something flickered across her face, hurt, maybe, or recognition, before she locked it down behind that wall of ice she’d been constructing since the wedding.
“Well then,” she said, her voice deceptively light, “it wouldn’t be much different than my first time, would it?”
I winced as she turned and stomped off down the hallway.
I followed her. “Hey.” My hand shot out, wrapping around her arm, fingers closing over the soft fabric of her sweater as I jerked her to a stop. She spun to face me, and suddenly we were close, too close, her face inches from mine, her breath coming fast and angry.
“That never should have happened,” I said, and immediately realized how wrong it sounded.
She shook her head slowly, that bitter smile curving her lips. “Thanks for reminding me I was a mistake.” She tried to jerk her arm away, but I tightened my grip, my thumb pressing into the soft skin of her inner wrist where I could feel her pulse racing.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“No?” She cocked her head, challenge written in every line of her body. “Then what did you mean? Please. Enlighten me.”
“I don’t regret that it was you or that...” I paused, my words jamming in my throat. How was I supposed to explain this? How was I supposed to tell her that what I regretted wasn’t her, wasn’t us, but the circumstances? The timing? The fact that I’d been too drunk to remember any of it and too stupid to handle the aftermath with anything resembling grace?
“Come on, Harlow,” I tried again. “Did you want to hurt Cam?”
The tension in her shoulders relaxed slightly. She shook her head. “No. Of course not.”
“Do you not regret it?”
Her blue eyes held mine, something complicated moving behind them. The anger was still there, simmering beneath the surface, but there was something else too. Something that made my chest ache.
“I guess I regret the timing,” she finally said. “But not that it was you.”
My eyes widened. Of all the things I’d expected her to say, that wasn’t even on the list. “So are you saying that you wanted to lose your virginity to me?”
“I won’t lie and say I’ve never thought about it.” Her gaze dropped to the ground, a flush creeping up her neck. “Which is incredibly embarrassing because you obviously never thought…”
