Page 2 of Hard to Break

After we got home, he was still edgy, still angry. I asked him what Kevin had confronted him with and he wouldn’t confide in me. When he fell asleep, he was restless.

It’s easy to forget he has any vulnerabilities when he’s big and strong, filling the car, his oversized thumb pressing into my hip.

“We’ll handle it.” I sound confident. Years of rehearsing will do that for you.

“Will you?” Mom scoffs. A car door slams somewhere in the VIP parking section. She doesn’t approve, which I can bolster myself against, but it’s her disbelief that it could ever work that feeds my own doubt.

We’ve only just come out publicly and the Kodiaks were at each other’s throats. They brokered a truce for the sake of the team. We’re in uncharted waters.

Miles’s fingers slip between my legs, playing through the thin fabric of my thong. Pleasure floods me like the sweetest drug.

“You’re not in love with him, are you?” Mom demands.

Her words make my breath catch.

I can’t remember wanting to be somewhere that he isn’t, getting through an entire day without joking with him, how I ever stayed warm an entire winter in Denver without those blazing eyes setting my soul on fire.

Is that love?

Does it change everything if it is?

“I have to go,” I manage.

“He’s not ready for what’s going to happen,” she warns. “And he’ll drag you down with him.”

The idea of him losing everything is a sharper pain than anything from the cramp in my leg or the nip of his teeth.

I click off, dropping the phone onto the seat and blowing a piece of hair out of my face. “My mom says hi.”

Miles pulls away to look down at me, eyes crinkling. “That all she said? You don’t normally grind your teeth when I’m trying to fuck you.”

Since we started this thing, we haven’t put words to our feelings. It’s still new even though I’ve known Miles for years. He’s been part of my world for what feels like forever but always on the periphery. Teasing and taunting.

Miles cares, but that’s different from having someone by your side to see you through the worst times, and the best ones.

Before I can respond, his phone goes off too.

“Chloe,” we say at the same time.

“You have to go,” I say.

He curses. “Pick this up later?”

I’m as reluctant as he is. It’s almost as if we can forget our problems if we’re touching.

But there going to be fallout. We’ll have to deal with it.

“Is there anything you want to tell me about the fight?” I ask.

I haven’t been able to kick the feeling that something is wrong since yesterday before the game. Like Miles has been holding out on me.

He blinks. “No. Your mom didn’t have anything else to say?”

I replay her words in my mind. “Nothing.” I press a quick kiss to his mouth. “Good luck.”

MILES

“I rescheduleda root canal for this, and you know what? I’d rather be at the dentist,” James declares.

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