Page 74 of Born of Ice

“Axe…” Sava tries, but Exton is already off, wearing a familiar fake smile as he shows Emett something else.

“Sava?” I ask him, not really knowing what I’m asking about but I guess Severin does because he looks at me with a sad smile.

“I’m not sure. I’m not sure what’s going on. At first, I thought he took this babysitting job—no offence.” I wave him off, urging him to continue. “Well, I thought he took it to clear his head. He had some issues with the team. But now…” He exhales a tired breath. “Now, I’m not sure he actually wants to be in the game anymore. You know he didn’t have to come here. He didn’t have to take that ultimatum. Exton is one of the best defensemen the league. Any team would snatch him up as soon as he was let go from Outlaws. Yet he came here. And he’s stayed. And he doesn’t want to come back.” Sava takes a long look at me, one laced with questions and concerns but I’m not sure what those are.

Before I get the chance to ask them, he leaves to join the guys.

“What was that about?” Rory asks.

“I have no idea.”But I plan to find out.

“I think I want to go see one of your games,” I utter into the dead silence of the night that instantly fills with tension.

Exton just carried me back into our room after we watched another Marvel movie, proclaiming that he’s not spending another night sleeping on that awful couch and we got ready for bed, but I can’t put to rest the questions swirling in my mind from a few days ago.

“You mean a hockey game?”

“No, I mean an Outlaws game.”

“Why?” Well, there’s a way to make one-worded question feelthatloaded.

“It’s your team, why wouldn’t I?”

“It’s not my team. It’s a team I play on.”

“That’s an interesting way to put it.”

“Nothing interesting about it,” he bites. “The team hates my guts.”

“Why not switch teams then?”

I feel the mattress shake underneath me as Exton suddenly moves and before I know it, he’s no longer facing the wall, but is turned my way with his long arms reaching for my helpless body and maneuvering us until he’s spooning me from the back like that first night he slept here.

“Wha—” I start to ask but he speaks over me, killing my question with a pin dropping statement.

“They don’t need me.” His voice is barely more than a whisper of cold air, yet it freezes me to the bone and suddenly I understand his need to be close. To hold me. “They don’t need me, and I keep trying to prove to everyone that they are wrong, only to make an even bigger mess of things. Why do I do that?”

The raw vulnerability in it. The desperation and hurt. It’s all there and it’s so familiar to my own soul. I feel it. I feel it with every molecule of my being because no one needs me either. Not anymore. And I ache to take that away from him. To rip that feeling out of his chest.

Is that why he’s here? He feels like I need him?

But do I need Exton?

More than air…my soul whispers into my ear but I shake it off.

“Fine, I guess I’ll keep you.” I sigh, feigning hardship and he sees right through me because his chest shakes with silent relief behind me, drawing me deeper into his body.

“You guess?” I can hear the smirk in his voice, and I nod, knowing he can feel my head moving against his bare, hot chest. “How very altruistic of you, Electra Monroe.”

“No, not really. I’m being opportunistic here.”

“Oh, yeah?” His smile grazes my back, and I can almost feel his teeth against my skin. “And what do you plan to do with me, Miss Monroe?” I don’t miss the innuendo in his husky voice and neither do my nipples that turn into pebbles, jealous of my back and his touch there, but Exton’s arm across my belly starts moving up and my breath hitches, making me breathless.

“Well, since you are hell bent on making me walk again, I will need a new dancing partner.” I break the tense moment, and Exton laughs. The sweet melody of the bright sound, filling the darkness and chasing off whatever chill was in here and I smile to myself, feeling infinitely proud that I was the one who did that.

I’m the one who made him happy in the time of darkness.

“Oh man, angry elf, won’t that be a sight?”

---