Page 44 of The Bitterness of Venom

"I can't," I whisper.

His lips thin and he looks away. "I have no clue what kind of shady shit you're into, but it stops now." He looks back at me. "Do you understand me?"

I nod, tears of gratitude spilling down my cheeks. "Yes."

"Freckles," he commands my attention, "you're mine now, and no one hurts what's mine." And I believe him.

The thing is, I don't deserve Desmond Rickman.

THIRTY-ONE

"The jersey is giving domesticated vibes,"I tell Destiny as I pull on the hockey jersey. For some reason, everyone—including me—is standing even though we have these horrible seats we could be sitting in.

Destiny laughs, slinging her arm over my shoulders. "Welcome to the hockey girlfriends club. Be prepared for every girl to hate you and puck bunnies to test your last nerve."

I grimace, watching the team skate around on the ice, doing warmups, I think? I have no clue. No matter how hard Jasper tried to teach me all the positionsand terms this week, I simply couldn’t remember it all. He was pulling his hair out by the time we were done. All I know is, he and Elisha make scores and Desmond sits in the net and uses his body to block pucks.

It gives soccer and American football vibes on skates. I actually said that to my roommates and they almost threw me in the dumpster in the alleyway. It took a lot of convincing that I was kidding. And that was hard because we all know I don't kid. Ever.

"Pay attention. It's about to start." Destiny elbows me in the side and I scowl at the rink. I watch as a player from each team faces off. The puck is dropped and someone from our team gets it first. And then it's a fucking blur. I can barely keep up with the puck, it's so small. Thank God they didn’t make it white or some dumb shit like that. The puck honestly looks like an ant on the white ice. I hear it hit stick after stick and my neck hurts as I try to keep up with it.

The buzzer on the opposite side goes off and I see a point getting added under our team’s name. Jasper showboats a little but then he's focused again almost instantly. Destiny jumps and cheers for her man but mine is literally just standing in a net. He picked such a lazy position. Or that's what I think until someone takes a slap shot at him and he blocks it, sending it to Destiny's boyfriend. Paul passes the puck to Elisha just before he gets smashed into the glass. We allooooh, and that's when I realize I love hockey.

Men getting slammed into walls is the best thing ever! It would do Desmond some good to be smashed into a glass wall from time to time.

The game continues until halftime. The score is two to one in our favor.

When it starts up again, a player from the other team is sent to the time-out box. "What did he do?" I ask Destiny.

"Illegal body check."

I frown. "But they're literally out there hitting each other."

"Yes, but you have to do it in a proper way."She pauses. “You know, I’m surprised Desmond isn’t a forward since he’s so aggressive in real life.”

I shake my head, taking a seat as I watch the ice circus performers smash into each other and fight over the little black disk.

Destiny laughs. "You'll learn eventually."

"Yeah, fat chance of that. And he is aggressive… Guess he wanted the lazy position."

Destiny frowns, opening her mouth, probably to correct me, but thinks better of it. She knows I won’t retain any hockey information.

We end up winning. Don't ask me how; I could barely keep up.

Desmond swingshis arm around my waist as I sit in his lap at the bar. He and his hockey goons are celebrating their win.

"Okay. What was your favorite part, sunshine?" Jasper asks.

"When you went to the box for time-out."

He scowls. "That was a bullshit call, and you know it."

"I mean, do I? I barely knew what was happening the whole time."

Elisha laughs, nearly spitting imported beer on his boyfriend. "Leave it to Blaise to be brutally honest."

Desmond laughs behind me, his fingers running under my jersey and petting the skin on my stomach. He's not drinking, and neither am I. Not because I can’t but it's just not something I do often. I recline back, laying my head on his shoulder as I watch his team laugh and joke around us. Ishould have known the moment was too peaceful to belong in my life.

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