“Don’t worry, it's a cute vein.” I glanced at her forehead, but there was no vein there. Her pale skin was flawless.
“Mateo Boone.”
I could see she was seconds away from lunging at me. All she needed was one more little push. So I did just that. “Maybe I should name it something. Patricia is nice.”
With a low growl and flashing teeth, she darted across the ice at me. I was still faster at pivoting than she was. Her fingers barely even grazed my arm before I skated past her.
“I cannot believe you just said that!” Emmie yelled from behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder to see her chasing after me. With a wild grin, I shot her a wink, which earned me another growly noise from her throat.
“Come and get me.”
By the timewe left the rink, the sun was set low on the horizon. The air was still a bit warm from the afternoon sun, but it felt nice after being in a cold area for the last two hours. Emmie was probably more used to it, but I was chilledto the bone. My days outside practicing in the sun did me no favors.
“Crap,” Emmie muttered, patting her left arm as if searching for something.
“What is it?”
“I lost my hair tie,” she huffed. “I usually keep a spare in my bag, but I can’t find it. Ugh, this always happens.” She cursed under her breath.
I swore my mouth went dry when she tucked her red hair behind her ear. Who knew such a simple act could be so damn attractive?
She let out another sigh as she veered to the left where her car was parked. Even though mine was in the opposite direction, I kept pace alongside her, my gym bag on my shoulder. The parking lot was surprisingly empty for a Wednesday.
“Are you trying to scope out my car to stalk me?” Emmie asked a moment later.
“I am. That way I can find out where you live and camp outside to wait for you in the mornings.”
She nodded. “Sounds like something you’d do.”
“You’re hilarious.” I fixed the strap of my bag as we slowed down and neared a dark gray SUV. “For the record, I saw your car the other day when we went to Alessandro’s, so I could already be stalking you.”
“You do seem to be around a lot lately,” she teased right on back. I liked that she could verbally spar and didn’t take everything so seriously. As the resident joker, I liked being around people that didn’t mind teasing.
Emmie stopped in front of the driver's side of her car and turned to face me. I held back a remark as she looked me up and down. She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth, an act I wasn’t sure she knew she was doing.
“My mom always taught me to walk beautiful women to their cars.”
Satisfaction sparked in my chest at the blush that spread over her cheeks. I liked knowing there wasn’t a trace of makeup on her face. Instead, all I saw were those freckles splattered on her nose and cheeks, pieces of her hair framing her face in an effortless way.
Until then, I hadn’t seen her with her hair down. It had a waviness to it as it fell past her shoulders, the last of the sun rays hitting the red strands and making it almost look like burned ember.
The urge to kiss her swelled in my chest. I clenched my right hand into a fist so I wouldn’t reach out and do just that. The way she stared up at me, bright eyes sparkling and lips quirked into a smile, didn’t help my inner fight to keep my hands and lips to myself.
“You’re a smooth talker,” she murmured.
I shrugged. “I just speak the truth.”
Emmie was beautiful. The kind that stopped you in your tracks and hurt like a bitch when she left.
Her eyebrow was raised, hip cocked out. “Bet you think I’m going to fall at your feet.”
“More like hoped.”
A deep sigh left her mouth. “Again, why am I here?”
“Cause you enjoy my company.”
