The rink was empty. Just like it had been for several nights. I had been doing just fine with the sting of disappointment from Aasher not showing up. Maybe it was all part of his plan—forcing me onto the ice without his help. Or maybe he didn’t trust himself around me anymore.
I could say the same.
I should have listened to him when he told me to back away. But I didn’t, and now I was forced to live with the consequences. I secretly hoped that I’d catch him in the hallway or run into him on campus after my marketing class, but he was nowhere to be found. I even stooped so low to act interested in Sully’s attempt to squeeze his way into my pants by acting righteous, but it didn’t bait Aasher like I thought it would. Instead, it just made me feel desperate and stupid.
I replayed the conversation that I was forced to listen to while stuffed in a locker. It only proved what I already knew about him. Taking a hit from his ex-girlfriend’s father, years after their breakup, because he thought he deserved it for being a shitty boyfriend was a pretty honorable thing to do.
But it was painfully obvious that there were some similarities between his ex and myself. I couldn’t help but wonder if Aasher was trying to make up for his past by helping me, and I understood why he was so adamant that I stay away from the team. His future had been messed with before, and his goals—along with his parents’ bank account—were the casualties. It was something he was still paying for, whether he deserved it or not.
He had a second chance at securing his future. No hockey player was picked in the first draft after having a shitty season, and especially not if he seemed disloyal to his teammates. Word of mouth was everything. He couldn’t tell my father about the bet, even if he wanted to, because the team would suffer, and then his future wouldn’t be set in stone.
Who was I to think that Aasher would screw up his future and his relationship with his coach for me?
I was angry that I thought his kisses were something more than attraction. It was hard to fault his need to put necessary distance between us so he didn’t screw everything up.
His future meant everything to him.
My future meant everything to me.
We were alike in that aspect.
“Have you thought any more about what I said?”
I jumped at the sound of Sully’s voice echoing down the arena. It bounced off the glass, and I spun around, putting my hand on my chest. “Jeez. Make a noise next time!”
I wasn’t afraid of Sully. He was a dick, but he didn’t scare me.
“I did. By talking.” He chuckled and hopped down the steps on light feet.
I saw the jersey in his hand and pushed Aasher out of my head, because even if he was avoiding me, he wouldn’t be happy with this.
It had nothing to do with Aasher, though, and it wasn’t like I was spreading my legs for Sully. I wasn’t doing it for him to gain points for their ridiculous point system either—something I would make sure to let him know because I didn’t have time for their games. Making them pay didn’t seem as appealing anymore.
I stretched out my hand to grip the Rosewood jersey Sully was handing to me. “You know Gray is going to lose it, right?”
Sully didn’t let go when I grabbed on to the fabric. Instead, he crept his hand closer to mine and brushed my fingers with his.
He waited for a reaction, but there was none.
His touch did nothing but annoy me.
“Are you trying to score some points?” I asked, arching my eyebrow.
“What?” His grin wavered. “With you? Always.”
I snatched the jersey and shoved it into my bag. “I hope this isn’t your attempt at a bargain, Graham.” I used his first name to really gain his attention. “Wearing your jersey to the Rosewood game doesn’t mean I’ll sleep with you.”
His jaw slacked. I crossed my arms and popped out my hip. I knew he was going to lie, so I made sure to beat him to the punch. “I know about the bet. I’ve known the whole time.”
I put my back to him and sat down to lace up my skates.
Maybe tonight will be the night I climb onto the ice by myself.
He remained quiet, and when I finally glanced at him, he looked caught.
“Are you going to tell your dad?”
I shrugged. “Should I?”
He moved to rest against the glass and pulled his hood up. His sweet-and-innocent act was gone. Instead, it was the Sully I briefly got glimpses of while attending Rosewood. He was that same smug college guy that started a bet with his teammates over who could sleep with me first.
“Aasher told you, didn’t he?”
I played stupid. “Aasher? He wasn’t in on the ice bet that you started.”
Sully looked like he was thinking over something, but I didn’t pay him too much mind as I finished lacing my skates. I wiggled my toes, happy with how tight they were. He finally broke the silence.
“You’ve been playing us this entire time, haven’t you? That night at the party? When Aasher made you leave? You both have known this whole fucking time.” He scoffed with humor, but I sensed the discomfort.
I stood and grinned. “You shouldn’t underestimate me, Graham.”
“You really shouldn’t.”
I snapped my head to the right, and my lungs deflated. Aasher stood at the top of the stairs, wearing the same hoodie that Sully had on, except Aasher looked ten times more dangerous and a million times hotter.
Sully pushed off the glass and stared at Aasher as he walked down each step slowly. His stride was confident, and I smelled his arrogance like a shark sniffing out blood.
“Everything suddenly makes sense now,” Sully said, shaking his head.
I sensed the tension well before Aasher reached us. It was hard to look at him. My cheeks burned, and I quickly put my back to both of them and walked down the aisle. When I made it to the hall leading to the ice, I paused to listen to their arguing.
“You’ve been keeping your own score, haven’t you?” I recognized Sully’s sarcastic laugh, and the thought of Aasher participating in their bet was the push I needed to scramble onto the ice. Alone.
Aasher didn’t answer him. Instead, he said, “Can you make yourself disappear please?”
I smiled at the smooth way he’d said it.
Sully was unsettled. It was clear in his desperate attempt to goad Aasher, but Aasher seemed as cool as a cucumber. I looked through the glass and met his eye. He was sitting in the seat that I sat in, leaning back with his arms crossed over his chest, with a smooth face, free of any emotions.
“You’re off the hook, Sully. No one is going to run to Coach and tell him what a disrespectful ass you are unless I find out that you or anyone else on this team has touched her. Then all bets are off.” Aasher dropped his eyes to mine. “All of them.”
I gulped before spinning on the ice and blocking him out. There was something so incredibly hot about his threat. I also realized that there was something seriously wrong with me, because up until now, I had been trying to soothe the sting of him avoiding me.
I pushed off the wall and slid forward, picking up speed the more I tried to push Aasher out of my head. Instead of thinking about his mouth moving against mine and how it felt like the start of something dangerous, I thought of how he told me that it meant nothing. Instead of finding a serenity in his calm breathing while we studied on the ice, I remembered how he made sure there were several feet in between us at all times. Instead of brimming with heat when he hoisted me up and pressed me against his locker to swallow my kiss, I recalled how it felt to be shoved aside like it was a mistake.
Damn it.
It bothered me.
I hated that it bothered me.
All of a sudden, I was flying in the air, spinning and in the midst of a triple lutz—my go-to move. When Aasher’s arm wrapped around my waist to steady me as I landed, I gasped with surprise. He tightened his grip before I fell forward from the momentum, and I froze. My lungs screamed, and my muscles tightened. Holy shit. I whipped my head up to him, wide-eyed and confused.
Aasher smiled, showing me his perfect white teeth. “Good girl,” he said, dropping his hands and stepping away. “Now go do it again.”
“I…” Confusion left me speechless.
I looked back at the marks my skates left over the ice and then down to my feet. My eyes blurred, and I blinked back the moisture. “But—”
“No buts. Do it again.”
I spun with my chest still heaving. We were alone. Sully was no longer standing behind the glass, and I had been too busy skating, lost in my own world that seemed to revolve around Aasher, to know if he’d left on his own or if Aasher had said something else to make him leave.
“Go, Riley,” Aasher urged.
“Or what?” I asked, hearing a bite in my tone.
I was feeling more confident than ever, standing here on the ice, looking at him like I actually had the upper hand.
I did it. I felt so much satisfaction that I wanted to cry.
My eyes welled, but I pulled it together.
Aasher’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down before he shook his head. “Don’t tempt me, Riley.” He turned and walked off the ice.
The disappointment was enough to push me further. I skated away quickly and couldn’t believe my ability to glide over the ice without my chest constricting.
I blew out a shaky breath and shoved him out of my head. I spun when I heard the clink of a blade against the ice. Aasher skated over to me, and the arching of his eyebrow was a challenge like no other. “Show me what you’ve got.”
“I thought you left.” I looked at his black skates and pretended I wasn’t pleased that he’d stuck around.
“Nope.” He skated to center ice. “I was just putting these on in case you kept tempting me.”
“I’m not tempting you to do anything. No one invited you here tonight.”
“You tempt me by breathing,” he said. “Now do it again before I throw you in the sin bin.”
I sucked in a smile. “You’d have to catch me first.”
“Better run, then.”
