Page 127 of Born of Ice

“Me,” Exton simply states, his hold on me tightens.

“I should have you arrested for what you did.”

“By all means.” Exton’s voice is flat, uncaring but my head just keep piling up with questions.

“First of all, what are you doing here, Erik? And what are you talking about? Arrested for what?”

“Oh, you don’t know?” He shoots me patronizing look. “Your dumb puck chaser assaulted me a month ago. Just showed up at Filip’s rink one day and attacked me out of nowhere. Leaving no explanations other than ‘Say thank you, I’m in a good mood today.’” Erik throws his hands out to accentuate his point butlooks more like the perpetual child he is. “I had bruised ribs, a swollen lip, and a black eye for an entire week, you asshole!”

Exton chucks his tongue. “One week?” He puckers his lips. “I knew I should’ve done more. One week is hardly enough.”

“You…you…” Erik stammers, his face growing red with frustration that for once someone is not falling over their head to accommodate him. To please him. “I haven’t done anything to you, asshole!”

“You’ve hurt her. That’s what you’ve done to me.” I turn toward my boyfriend who has yet to take his eyes off my ex and as I watch his jaw clenching hard. Suddenly, a memory of that day Exton had a sudden appointment in Boston. The one after which he came back with bruised knuckles, resurfaces in my mind.

“Exton,” I whisper, my tone heavy with emotion at the realization. “Baby.” I gently cup his face. “You went to see him that day?”

Exton finally shifts his attention to me, his whiskey eyes softening as he nods.

“But…but…we weren’t even together back then. I was no one to you. Why would you do that? Why would you risk your career for me like that?”

It was the morning after our first heart-to-heart after he looked me up on the internet and saw glimpses of the day I got injured. He drove three hours just to punch a guy for me.

It’s just pure luck that Erik didn’t press charges. Pure luck that he probably didn’t have a clue who beat him up that day.

God, he beat him up for me. It shouldn’t be so hot but I feel my whimper written all over my face.

Exton takes my hand cupping his cheek and brings my palm to his mouth, kissing it. “There hasn’t been a day since I met you that you weren’t someone to me. You were my everything from the first moment I laid eyes on you, it only took me a couple ofdays to catch up to it, to feel that thread starting to weave around us.”

If I look anything like I feel than I should be a melted puddle of love on this ice.

My sweet lunatic. My grumpy caveman. My protector. He fell in love with me when I didn’t love myself. He fell in love with me without knowing if I’d ever walk. If I’d ever live a regular life. He fell in love and fought for mine every day since.

“Elle!” Erik snaps, his eyes wide and shifting between me and Exton. “I’m right here!”

“Good for you, but I still don’t understandwhyyou are right there.”

Before I can process what he’s doing, he’s in front of me, his hand reaching for my face but never makes contact with it. Exton slaps it away with a low, threatening growl.

“Go ahead, try that again and that one week will seem like paradise comparing to what I do next.”

Erik grits his teeth, shooting a glare Exton’s way but then focuses back on me. “Now that you are walking again, I came to bring you back to where you belong.” He softens his voice but unlike a few months ago, this time I can hear exactly how fake and forced it is. “The home is so empty without you. I can’t train properly; everything seems off and the connection with Lisa is not there. I need you back, Elle, just as much as you need me. You know this is your last chance to go to the Olympics. To win that gold. And the only way to do that is together.” Erik’s lips curl into a sweet, loving smile. One I’ve seen so many times. One I’d fallen head over heels for.

One I want to slap off his face now at the reminder.

But that would mean he still has some effect on me. That I still feel something—even if it’s anger—toward him and the truth is, I don’t feel a single thing. None. Nothing good. Nothing bad.

Erik Shishkov simply doesn’t exist for me. He is someone I used to skate with. That’s it.

The feeling of love I had for him was as fake as the whole relationship because it wouldn’t even hold a candle to the inferno I feel for this angry man at my side, the one who’s a second from spilling my ex’s brain over this ice and we can’t have that.

I like this ice too much.

Please, don’t.

Why?

Exton.

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