Page 9 of Spite Crush

“You’re not going to tell—”

“Whoa.” I cut him off, covering his hand with mine and squeezing gently. Damn, this guy clearly had more issues than Sports Illustrated if he thought I would run to tell people he nearly had a breakdown before his show. “I’m not that big of an asshole. Personal shit is off limits,” I assured him. “Professional beef only.”

“Music and hockey.” The tension in his face disappeared, replaced by a smile that…I swear to fuck…lit up the locker room. Who the hell was this guy? “I can live with that.”

We stood there for a moment staring at each other again. The tension between us was shifting and as my heart started racing in my chest, I wondered if I were on my way to my own panic attack.

I wanted to kiss him. And he looked like he wanted to absolutely eat me.

“I’d better get upstairs,” he whispered. “Someone is going to come looking for me.”

“Someone should have already been with you,” I said, a bite of anger in my tone.

“Someone was.” He gave me another soft smile and backed away. “See you around, Dempsey.”

“See you, Fox.”

He brushed past me and headed for the tunnels leading up to the arena and I watched the hallway until his feet were no longer visible, thensank down onto the bench he’d vacated.

It was good that he’d left. Good that I hadn’t given in to the urge to kiss him. Not that I was totally sure it would have been reciprocated. Or even welcomed. It had been a strange situation. I was glad I’d been able to help him but now we could just move on with our lives.

Maybe I wouldn’t call Naomi. Maybe he was right and I should just let everything die down. Because if we kept chirping at each other, the pressure to publicly make up wouldbe too strong. And I knew that if I ended up in the same room as Kellen Fox again, I might not have the willpower to resist changing our dynamic.

I didn’t know his orientation, but I recognized the look he’d given me. It was the same one I knew I’d been giving him. And if I wanted to keep my life private, I wasn’t going to be able to do that with a rock star who was even more famous than I was.

No, the Kellen and Zak show ended right here. Right now.

I huffed out a sigh as I stood up again and turned to my locker, grabbing my wallet and sliding it into my pocket before slamming the door shut.

This was for the best.

Upstairs, the music started again and while I couldn’t make out much beyond the bass rolling through the building and the roar of the crowd, I knew that Kellen was going to be great tonight.

For just a moment I considered going up there. But it was his night and the odds of me getting in and outof that concert unseen were practically nonexistent. So I turned and walked out of the building, leaving him to do his job unbothered by me.

For now.

Chapter Five

~Kellen~

We’d definitely shared a moment in that locker room. It may have started with him just being a decent human being and helping me through my attack, but those touches, those looks…Zak Dempsey was into me.

Which was why I was actually surprised when he was back in the press, running his mouth about me again. Yeah, he’d warned me that he wasn’t a nice guy, but…his actions begged to differ.

“Turn it off,” Tim complained as he reached over and tried to grab my phone out of my hand. “Why do you care what this guy says about you anyway?”

“I’m done having this conversation,” I said, turning out of his reach. “Even Craig agreed that the publicity is good for the band. So if he’s talking about me, I have to talk back, otherwise I look weak.”

And I didn’t ever want to look weak in front of Zak again.

I started the video of the press conference that Naomi had sent tome. I wasn’t sure how she got my number, but I couldn’t help thinking that Craig had something to do with that. Even though he denied it.

“You’re on a win streak,” Naomi said to Zak.

“Two isn’t a streak,” he insisted with a dazzling smile. “Three is a streak.”

I didn’t know much about hockey, but I was surprised to see that Dempsey had all of his teeth. I’d always assumed all players got at least one knocked out on the ice at some point. Then again, he couldhave false ones in and I wouldn’t actually know the difference.

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