Page 7 of Arctic Titans of Northwood U: Volume 1

“Are you going to hit me, Brooks?” he asked.

Sudden movement around the soccer table stopped abruptly, as if all the guys were on alert but unsure whether to step in. I held Cameron until his minty breath touched my face and his amused look pierced through my soul.

Every bit of me shuddered as I released him, staring into his cold, brown eyes and discovering what I had known was there all along. Naked contempt. There was so little of my friend in there that it might as well have been a totally different person.

The Cameron Martinez I had known years ago was still gone. He wasn’t coming back. And living with that fact had been easy so long as this creature wearing Cameron’s body was half the country away. But to see this person, who looked identical to my first and only flame, here, disregarding me, soon rendered me into that gullible, delusional boy I had been on the day he had broken my heart.

I turned on my heels and marched right the fuck back to my room, the whispers and chatter that erupted in the basement as I’d shut the door behind me still rang in my ears. Caden only needed to look at me once to know not to ask.

Instead, he shut the notebook, snapped his fingers to get my attention, and gestured at the door of our room. “Let’s go for a run.”

Chapter Two

CAMERON

I tingled all over.

It was like I’d touched a bare wire. The shock coursed through my veins as I wiped the smirk off my face. The blaze that stayed behind him was so much more than I had expected.

I cocked my head at the basement door when Riley slammed it shut and needed a moment before I realized Beckett Partridge was coming up to me with a lazy swagger. “That went well,” he said.

I snorted. “He’s not who I expected.” I examined Beckett’s amused expression and wondered for a moment how he’d gotten me to spill the beans in the first hour of knowing him. He’d sauntered in and slapped my shoulder, then warned me that the captain was coming soon. He’d tried to also warn me about the said captain’s temper, but I’d stopped him there and said I already knew. One thing led to another and I’d told Beckett pretty much everything.

“How long did you say it’s been? Three years?” Partridge asked.

“Three years,” I mused aloud. It felt like it could have been thirty. His reddening face so near mine was etched into my mind, though. It was pressed into my memory as vividly as when he had been bringing his face up close for a whole different reason. But that was ancient history.

Still, my fingertips itched and my breaths were shaky, though I hid that well from Beckett and the rest. Riley Brooks had had his bombastic exit and it left me struggling to think. Those blue eyes were like ice ablaze and his blond hair floppy, falling over the faded sides of his head. He was bigger, too, and definitely stronger than he had been then. And that temper… Phew. It was a recent development.

A small part of me was cocky enough to think I had contributed to its making. Then again, if Riley was so petty that he would be bitter over a hookup that ended for purely geographic reasons, then maybe the temper had been in there all along. He just needed a trigger.

Beckett slapped my shoulder in what was plainly becoming a signature move for him. “You wanna know what I think? You still have a chance.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, albeit grimly. “Yes, because that was the face of pure longing and lust.”

Beckett shrugged. “I’ve seen harsher flirting.”

And I’d seen people hating each other for years of marriage. But I said nothing. It wasn’t worth wasting my breath on. Instead, I slid out of Beckett’s hold and made my way up to the ground floor where my room was. Thanks to an uneven number of guys living in the team house, I had a solo room, which was a nice fucking change from where I’d been holed up for the past three years. It was even nicer compared to the tiny, crowded place I’d called my home for most of my life. The only downside was that it would probably get pretty noisy around meal times because it was right off the kitchen, but that was a small inconvenience.

The corners of my lips dragged down as I remembered those days. They were inevitably leading to other memories that had no place being revisited now that I lived in the same house as Riley. Keeping a cool head was all that separated me from total ruin.

But that was easier said than done. Riley Brooks had always had the ability to push my buttons. Even if it was just a little, it was enough to tip me over and make me act out. I’d always teetered on the edge. The first hike in volume in my parents’ arguments always sent me storming out of the house, seeking refuge in Riley, as a friend, at first. But, as inevitably as taking a breath, that had turned into something far more intimate and problematic.

I managed to pack Riley up and tuck him away in the back of my mind for the rest of the day. The trick was to stay in my room and pretend I was busy unpacking and reviewing all that was still ahead of me. A second chance at hockey and a shot at the NHL.

Moving to Santa Barbara had seemed like such a great idea three years ago. To be far away from Mom and Dad and their endless, useless wearing off of their throats. To get a clean start without all the baggage. To begin meeting guys without feeling like a street dog that got adopted by a nice family. I’d yearned to be a person of my own and it got served on a silver platter.

It was only that the person I got to be was not a nice guy. I was envious of those flashy socialites and competitive to a fault. I got into arguments with everyone who dared to give me a side look. And, slowly but surely, I grew sick of myself.

But here I was, trying again.

By the time I was done setting myself up in the room, the space around me looked only slightly different. I added a few of my hockey trophies to the shelf and sorted notebooks on the desk, filled the closet with my clothes, and stuffed the bathroom with cosmetics. But when I looked around, it could have been anyone’s room. There was no me in here. Not that it mattered. For one year, I could live in a barn’s attic.

As for Riley, I didn’t see him until the next morning. I had only just gotten out of bed. Waking up in a new place left me confused and I needed to saunter out to seek coffee. I stepped out of my room and felt air drain out of my lungs.

Riley, wearing a pair of gray sweatpants and a sleeveless, white T-shirt was closing the door of the room at the top of the stairs and I groaned. It was barely dawn and he was already glowing like a fucking sunflower while I looked like a hobo who owned nothing but a single pair of shorts.

“Oh.” It was a flat, emotionless way of greeting me.