“I know, sparrow,” Cole said, his tone transformed from the harsh degradation of moments before to something surprisingly tender.
“We’re taking you home,” Alek announced. “My place. It’s closest.”
Eva nodded weakly as she sat up. I noticed her wince slightly as she shifted and made a mental note to check for bruises and marks once we got her somewhere warm and comfortable.
“Can you stand, sweetheart?” I asked, brushing damp hair from her forehead.
“Give me a minute,” she replied, the ghost of a smile touching her lips.
Cole’s laugh was low and satisfied as he pulled on his clothes. “Good girl.”
The contrast between how we’d just treated her and this careful tenderness wasn’t lost on me. It was the balance she craved, that we all needed in our own ways.
Alek returned fully dressed, his expression softening as he took in Eva wearing my sweater, shivering under Cole’s arm on the bench. He’d always been the most outwardly stoic of us, but moments like these revealed the depth of feeling he kept carefully controlled.
“My car is out back,” he said. “Cole, grab her things.”
Cole nodded, for once not arguing about being given orders. He slid back onto the ice to grab her panties where we’d dropped them, and she giggled as he pocketed them. I wanted more of that sound, over and over and over, for the rest of our lives.
I scooped Eva into my arms, cradling her against my chest.
“I can walk,” she protested weakly.
“Let me take care of you,” I countered, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “I’ve missed it.”
The journey through the darkened hallways of the arena felt surreal after the intensity of what we’d just shared.
The night air hit us like a wall of ice, making Eva burrowdeeper into my arms. Stars punctured the black sky overhead, silent witnesses to our escape.
“You planned this well,” I said to Eva as we approached Alek’s sleek black SUV. “Right down to the getaway car.”
Her laugh was soft against my neck. “I wanted it to be perfect. For all of us.”
“It was. You are,” Cole assured her, opening the back door so I could slide in with Eva still in my arms. I settled her in my lap rather than letting her go, needing the connection as much as she did.
Alek took the driver’s seat, adjusting the mirror to glance at Eva. “Home, then,” he said simply, the promise in his voice making her shiver against me.
As we pulled away from the arena, Eva’s eyes drifted closed, her body relaxing into exhausted slumber. Cole reached across the seat to stroke her cheek, his touch uncharacteristically gentle.
“She came back to us,” he said quietly, almost to himself.
“And we’re not walking away from her again,” I replied, meeting his gaze over Eva’s sleeping form. Doing it once had been stupid, but twice? We were the biggest fucking idiots alive.
The drive to Alek’s home was quiet, each of us lost in our thoughts. The night was just beginning. We had hours ahead to relearn each other’s bodies, to push Eva’s limits further, to cement what we’d started on the ice. But for now, this moment of peace was exactly what we all needed.
By the time we pulled into the garage of Alek’s building, Eva was stirring again, her eyes blinking open as the motion of the car ceased.
“Welcome home, sparrow.”
The warm glowof Alek’s apartment spilled across Eva’s face, highlighting the dark circles under her eyes, the faint bruises already forming on her throat where Alek’s hand had been.
“Bath first,” I decided, meeting Cole’s eyes over Eva’s head. He nodded, already heading toward Alek’s massive primary bathroom.
“Hungry?” Alek asked Eva, stroking her cheek with unexpected gentleness.
“Starving,” she admitted. “But a bath first, please.”
I carried her through Alek’s bedroom to the bathroom, where Cole had already started filling the oversized tub. Steam rose in fragrant clouds. He’d added bath salts that smelled like a creamsicle—citrus and vanilla and sugar. Cole’s quiet thoughtfulness, paying attention then doing shit for people and telling us it was him being selfish, made my chest tighten.
