“Poor Kallum,” I said.
He nodded. “He’ll charm his way out of this. I just wish it didn’t coincide with me trying to rebrand myself as this squeaky-clean reformed bad boy.”
“Yeah,” I said softly. “There is that.” I did feel bad for Kallum. And Nolan too. But my whole life was one giant sex tape. If Nolan’s reputation was in danger over his best friend’s sex tape then what did that mean for us? Nolan said he wanted to be together after all of this was done, but what did that actually mean? What did that reality even look like for us? If his career couldn’t withstand an ex–band member with a sex tape, there was no way it could handle a porn star girlfriend.
“Welp,” he said as he stood, “my hot chocolate is no longer hot, so I think that means it’s time.”
“Time for what?”
“Ice skating, baby.”
“I don’t know how,” I said as he pulled me to my feet. “How do you even know how to ride horses and ice skate? Are you secretly rich? That’s too many advanced-skill hobbies for one person to have.”
“The music video for ‘All BeClaus of You,’” he said simply as we walked over to the skate-rental hut. “Plus, you know, I did pick up a few tips at the Duluth Olympics.”
As we requested skates in our sizes, I tried to breathe through my nose, thinking of every possible outcome, including me falling and accidentally slicing off one of our limbs.
We settled onto a bench by the shoe cubbies. Nolan knelt in front of me, loosened the laces on my boots, and removed them before helping me pull a skate on. It all felt intensely intimate.
“What if someone sees us?” I asked.
“You mean what if someone sees Nolan Shaw helping his costar with her ice skates because she’s never skated before?”
“Well, I guess when you put it like that, it doesn’t look as salacious as it feels. And Ihaveice skated before, by the way. I just don’t actually know how to.”
He ran a hand up the back of my calf, making my breath hitch, as my foot slid into my other skate. “Salacious, you say?”
The exhibitionism kink switch in my head officially flipped on. But my horny ice-skating moment was interrupted as a man in a puffy pink snow jacket and matching pants sauntered behind Nolan with his arms crossed. With his icy-blond hair and reflective ski goggles artfully placed like a headband, he definitely stood out in the cozy Christmas village. “Well, well, well.”
And it took only those three words—those three signature words that opened every video and article he’d ever published—for me to recognize him. Dominic Diamond.
“Oh my God,” I stuttered.
Nolan looked up at me, and I could see the dread furrowed into his brow as he stood and turned. “Dominic,” he said through gritted teeth.
Dominic’s smile dazzled, like he’d been waiting for thismoment his whole life. “Nolan Shaw, I never expected to see you ice skating on a Thursday night. Well, fully clothed and sober at least. How . . . innocent.”
Nolan’s jaw twitched, and I could see his brain cycling through every possible version of what he could say in response—most of which would get him in enough trouble to turn him into Steph’s old-timey bandstand bunting. He took a deep breath, and his lips curved into the same charming, rehearsed smile I’d come to associate with the duke. “’Tis the season for new beginnings.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Nolan
I stepped forward, still smiling, but also inserting myself ever so slightly between him and Bee. It was probably a mistake, because there was a snakelike gleam in his eyes now, as if he’d just smelled a juicy young vole nearby.
“And who might this lovely lady be?” Dominic asked, his gaze running over Bee in a way that pissed me off. Smiling through the anger currently tightening every muscle in my body, I stepped even further between Dominic and Bee, blocking his view.
“This is Bee Hobbes, my costar,” I said.
“Hi,” said Bee, peeking her head around my hip. “We were just about to go skating, as you can see, so...”
It was clearly an invitation for Dominic to screw off, buthe only leaned against the rink wall with a smirk. He had his phone in his hand, and I could see the lit screen between his fingers. It was on, and probably recording. That fucker.
“Lucky girl,” Dominic said lightly. “I never would have guessed that Nolan would do the skating before he did the skater. Orskaters.”
“That’s enough, Dominic,” I said, as pleasantly as I could while my entire body vibrated with the need to... to... punch. Punch something. Many punches. “Bee is new to the business, so let’s have some respect, shall we?”
“Interesting. Would you say that respecting young women is something that’s important to you? Given what happened in Duluth?”
