I was a confident guy with an ego bigger than the entire ice rink, but I was flying blind with Riley an inch away from me.
The ideas to make her comfortable on the ice were all off the table. If she were any other girl, I could distract her with one brush of my palm against her hip, but she was off-limits, especially after knowing how it felt to kiss her. So instead, I had to work in ways that were going to be infinitely harder.
I took a step back and rested my heels on the very edge of the opening, teetering back and forth over the ice. Riley stood unmoving in her tight black leggings and pink sweater. She had on fuzzy boots, and I thought about just picking her up and placing her on the ice, because how on earth would she even know the difference with those things on her feet? But I didn’t want to push her too far. Her chest was heaving, and although mine was too—for different reasons—I decided to go easy on her.
“Walk to me.” Riley opened her eyes, and the blue color was deeper than before. Panic filled them, and instead of walking toward me, she stepped backward.
I laughed and threw my hands up. “You just did the complete opposite.”
Her hands made a home on her hips. “You think that it’s going to be that easy to get me back in the rink? By just demanding I get on there? Don’t you think I’ve tried that before?” Her arms flung to her sides in defeat. “I start to…panic.”
Typical of her to twist my words.
“I didn’t ask you to get back in the rink. I asked you to walk to me.”
Her hip jutted out with attitude. “You didn’t ask me anything if we’re being technical. You demanded.”
I smirked, knowing this was never going to work if I continued to rile her up, but it was so fun to watch her cheeks fire with heat. “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you enjoyed being the submissive one.”
Riley’s lips parted. She sucked in a breath, surprised by my words. I winked and shot her a playful smile before I walked a little closer to her, closing the gap. “Come on. Close your eyes and take a step.”
Riley wanted to refuse. I could tell by the way she looked at me. But in the end, she did as I said and took one teeny-tiny step toward me.
“That was hardly a step, but progress is progress.”
Her eyes remained shut, but there was a small smile on her lips. “You sound like my dad.”
Good. The more she brought up her father during our time together, the more I could be reminded of who she was.
Silence passed between us, but I could feel the tension surrounding her. It was rare to see her relaxed, which was why it was bizarre to watch her sleep last weekend, but right now she looked as if she were ready for a fight.
Fuck, what can I do to distract her?
“Let’s play a game.” I rubbed my hands together and dove into the first thing that came to mind. “You tell me two truths and a lie, and if I get it right, you have to take another step toward me.”
Riley opened her eyes. “Keep ’em closed, Duster.”
“Or what?” she countered, laughing under her breath.
“I can always blindfold you.”
She sucked her lips in. I wasn’t sure if her head went where mine went, but there was a wicked visual of her on my bed, but instead of sleeping, she was blindfolded and in zero clothing. I got a very quick snippet of her bare chest when she decided to flash me last weekend to prove a point, but it was embedded into my brain. It absolutely proved a point.
Shit, stop it.
“Fine, but just a warning, I don’t like to lose.”
“Well, you won’t really be losing if I get you closer to the ice without freaking out, right?”
She knew I was right, so she cleared her throat, leveled her shoulders, and started our little game. “My favorite color is blue. My favorite drink is pumpkin spice. My favorite season is summer.”
I laughed. “Too easy, ice princess. Your favorite season is winter. Take a step forward, baby.”
I looked behind my shoulder, knowing no one was there, but I still checked to see if anyone just heard me call her baby. That’s a no-go. It was a habit, but I could only imagine what her dad would say if he heard me call her baby—not once, but twice.
She grumbled something under her breath before peeking one eye open and taking the smallest step forward.
I put my hands in my pockets to keep me from picking her up around her waist and walking her onto the ice myself. “You peeked.”
“I didn’t want to trip over something.”
I smiled at her lie. “You’re impossible.”
“I agree. This is impossible.” Riley turned around and stomped toward the doors. As much as I enjoyed her backside, I flexed my jaw and jogged after her. I gripped her waist and pulled her into my front.
A fleeting breath escaped her lungs when I said, “I wasn’t aware that your father bred a quitter.”
“I’m not a quitter.” The heel of her fuzzy boot landed on my foot, and I grunted, dropping my hands and letting her slip through my fingers.
If only she’d use her anger at me to get back on the ice, then we’d make some real progress.
Wait, that’s it.
The idea was as bright as her smile the other night when she was busy secretly seducing every hockey player on the team to piss me off.
“Then prove it,” I whispered in her ear, grabbing her hips. I inhaled the scent of her shampoo and loathed how much it turned me on. Her fiery attitude toward me was fucking with my head, and everything about her seemed more desirable simply because I knew I couldn’t have her.
Riley’s back arched, and her ass rubbed against my front. I panicked and dropped my hands like she was a smoking ember. She rounded me, and her eyes burned with so much determination they looked like a blue flame.
I recovered quickly, flicking an eyebrow while lifting my lip. “I’m waiting.”
“So this is your plan?” she asked, reaching up and ripping the hair tie out of her hair. Long locks of dark, wavy hair fell around her shoulders, cupping her heart-shaped face. “Bully me onto the ice? You’re not going to win this bet after all.”
My confidence never wavered, and I didn’t feel bad for pushing her to her limits, because I knew, deep down, she was as tough as nails—especially when it came to me. There wasn’t a single person I’d ever heard her talk to the way she talked to me. Not even Sully, who she knew was playing her like the strings of a guitar.
I stepped toward her, and Riley stepped backward. We did this all the way until her heels were at the very brim of the opening for the rink. She was so focused on sending me a scathing look that I didn’t think she noticed when I dropped my eyes down her legs and eyed the ice behind her.
The rink was blanketed in darkness. The bright lights that were usually caught between the sheen of ice were nonexistent, and if I could just keep up our spar and get her to step backward, the hardest part would be over.
It was the first step that was always the hardest.
The first step.
The first look.
The first touch.
The first kiss…
I continued walking toward her, pretending I wasn’t just thinking about the kiss we shared. “I’m not bullying you,” I reassured her. “I’m only stating the facts.”
“The facts?” Riley was offended. “I am not a quitter.”
“Says the girl who is one of the best figure skaters of today’s time but can’t even fathom stepping on the ice.”
I insulted her, but it was for the greater good.
Just how angry are you, Riley?
My fingers twitched inside my pockets. I wanted to grab her hand and pull her onto the ice with me and whisper into her ear that she was safe. There was no sense in panicking. She was born for the ice. I knew that without even truly knowing her.
The ice wasn’t her problem.
It was everything else.
“You’re an asshole,” she spat, pushing on my chest and stepping backward.
Riley was trying to escape me so quickly that she didn’t realize she was actually in the rink. Hardly, but if she were to look down, she’d see ice.
“You don’t really believe that, do you? I’m here helping you get ready for tryouts. I’m the one who has been trying to get you away from the team because I know they don’t have your best interest in mind.”
“Don’t act righteous,” she countered, crossing her arms over her pink sweater. “You’re doing it for your own selfish needs, and you know it.”
I shrugged, acting nonchalant and stepping right up to her. Our chests were touching, but the closer I got to her, the more she’d be distracted. “Maybe. I’m not a bully, though. It may seem like I’m bullying you, but this is the only plan that I won’t be killed for.”
“What does that mean?” she asked, scrunching her cute nose.
I leaned down to her level and tilted her chin with my finger. “If you were any other girl, I’d do more than creep into your space and offend you. I’d touch every part of you until you were so sweaty you had to get on the ice.”
Her tongue slipped out of her pouty mouth and misbehaved. It swiped over her plump bottom lip.
I was the one sweating.
Fuck.
“Look down.”
“Huh?”
I pulled her face down with my thumb on her chin.
Her gasp was as loud as the snapping of her back. When she stepped away, fully flustered, she slipped. I caught her around the waist before she face-planted, and when her nails dug into the skin of my arm and we both went flying backward, I decided that the risk was totally worth the fall, because she was in my lap, and I enjoyed it.
