“It’s what I’m saying.”
I can hear him exhale. Not frustrated - something more complicated than frustrated.
“Okay,” he says quietly. “Okay.”
I push past him, nearly wipe out on the ice, catch myself on the boards. My legs are still shaking. I can feel the heat in my cheeks, my throat, the place between my thighs that’s still pulsing withalmost.
I’m not angry at the interruption. I’m not even angry at Russo.
I’m angry at myself for wanting it so much. For saying no when I should have kept saying yes. For letting him see me like that - needy and wrecked and so close to coming on his tongue in a public fucking rink.
MATEO
I stand at the boards for a moment after she goes.
The rink is empty again. The ice is still marked from thesession, every edge and stop visible in the surface.
My mouth on her.
Her hands in my hair.
I sit down on the bench and put my head back and stare at the rafters.
The banners look the same as they always do.
I’ve wanted things before - the draft, the scouts, the season to go right, Zane to still be here - and I know what that wanting feels like. This is different.
I know what this is.
I think I’ve known for a while.
I head for the locker room.
In the corridor I pass Tara going the other way. Her expression is half concern and half something I can’t read. She keeps walking.
ELIDA
I lock my apartment door and lean against it with my eyes closed.
My legs are still shaking. My heart is still being ridiculous. And between my thighs, I’m still wet and aching and furious about all of it.
I push off from the door and walk to the bathroom. I turn the shower on as hot as it goes and I stand under the spray.
I think about his mouth.
I press my forehead against the cold tile and let the water beat down on my back.
This is exactly what you said you wouldn’t do.
I told myself I wasn’t going to be that person again. The one who let the lines blur, who let wanting someone become moreimportant than protecting herself. I told myself I was done with that version of me.
And then he dropped to his knees on the ice and I forgot every single promise I made.
I turn the water off.
I stand in the steam and wrap a towel around myself and look at my reflection in the fogged mirror. My cheeks are still flushed. My lips are still swollen.
You look like someone who just got kissed within an inch of her life, I think.Because you are.
