“Yeah, baby?” I ask, the word coming out so effortlessly. It hangs there for a moment, heavier than anything else I’ve said before.
“I—” His gaze drifts from mine, down to my mouth, and I think he’s going to say something, but all he does is kiss me, and then he carefully lets me go. “Nothing,” he says. “Go. Shower. You reek.”
I laugh. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Asshole,” I nip. Hudson shakes his head, and the weirdly charged moment is gone. He smacks me on the ass as I move past him.
“Do you even know how to ice skate?” I ask as Hudson pulls up to the parking lot of the Ice-O-Plex.
“Of course,” Hudson says, eyes narrowing at me. “Don’t you?”
I tense. “Uh… let’s just say the last time I put on a pair of skates was when I was ten.”
Hudson grins.
“Well, I’ll just have to teach you, then.” He shrugs, giving me a wicked smirk.
“Hudson—”
“Come on,” he says, wasting no time getting out of the car.
I follow him, hunching my shoulders beneath my coat if only to try and keep warm. I’d assumed dinner—at an Asian fusion restaurant with a very large order of sushi—was the date, but Hudson told me it wasn’tallof it. Though I would never have guessed we’d be doing this.
There’s a large crowd, for one. Part of me worries it’ll be too much, or that he’ll be uncomfortable, but Hudson assured me he’s fine, so I will just have to take his word for it.
I follow Hudson into the building, and it doesn’t take us long to get our skates and lockers.
“Just… take it slow,” Hudson says carefully as he skates backwards onto the ice, giving me room to glide out.
I suck in a deep breath and set one foot out and nearly go down as a kid whizzes past me. I grab the ledge of the rink to keep myself from falling, rather ungracefully. When I look up, Hudson’s grinning.
I right myself and push off, letting my feet glide toward him.
It’s like riding a bike.
Right?
Wrong.
Because the minute I get out to Hudson, my damn foot goes a little inward and I panic, having nothing to grab on to.
Fuck, I’m going down, I’m—
Warm, thick arms settle around my waist, and I never hit the ice.
I look up to see Hudson holding back his laugh.
“What?” I bite as I right myself, but he makes no move to let me go and I make no move to push away from him.
“You’re like Bambi on ice,” he teases me.
“Fuck you, I am graceful as a figure skater,” I bite as a group of kids speed past us and nearly knock me over. I grab on to Hudson, being as he’s the only thing Icangrab on to since I’m nowhere near the edge of the rink. I glance around me, notingthe crowd skating around us as if we don’t even exist. Like we’re ghosts.
Hudson squeezes my hip lightly.
“I just… need a little practice,” I mutter.
Hudson carefully lets go of me, but I stop him because I feel like I’m going to fall.
“No,” I whine. “Please don’t let me fall on my ass in front of all these people.”
