Page 64 of Born of Ice

Damn it!

“Electra!” I say louder, harsher but she’s still not here and then her body starts shaking, violently, and a fear like I’ve never known runs through me. Hell, I never even knew what fear was. I never experienced it, not on the ice when two-hundred-pounds of hockey muscle barrels into me and not when dad punished me. But watching her falling apart right here, right in front of myeyes, I realize that’s it. Here it is because I’m choking on the air same as her. I’m dying right alongside.

I don’t think. I just act, pressing my lips to hers and feel her breath hitch as my whole world tilts on its axis. It was supposed to be a distraction, something to juggle her out the state she was in, but it’s my body that goes into shock.

Just a kiss. That’s all it is and a PG version of it too, but it’s enough to set me on fire.

She’s so soft and sweet and warm, I don’t want to pull away. I don’t want to stop, and I feel my hands slipping past her cheek to the back of her slender neck, holding her. I need more.

I need her.

With each next thought my mind scrambles more and more. Her hands land on mine, halting me and I open my eyes, not realizing they were closed in the first place. But as soon as I do, I’m met with her wild, confused ones and it hits me.

It fucking hits me what I just did. I kissed her. I kissed Electra Monroe.And I liked it.Hell, I liked it too much based on the state of my sweatpants, but she looks at me like a deer caught in the headlights and it’s a fucking gut punch.

Fuck…

I pull away, swallowing a thick lump in my throat.

What the fuck had I done?

“Y-you…wh-what…kissed me…” she stutters, her fingers prodding her lips as if she can still feel mine on them.

I sure can feel hers, they are branded onto mine, adding some more to my already confused head, but she’s breathing, her panic attack long-forgotten.

“You were having a panic attack, so I had to do something to bring you back. A shock to the system.” My voice is extra thick and gruff as I come up with some bullshit excuse. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that…you know.” I gesture to her pink lips and some loose strands of hair that I evidently pulled on with my fingers.

Electra blinks away her confusion, shaking herself out of whatever stupor she was in and casts her eyes away from mine but not before I catch something in them.

Is that…disappointment?

She clears her throat, those pale cheeks turning a pretty shade of pink. “Oh, um, yeah, okay…thanks,” she adds quickly, looking anywhere but at me as she frantically fixes her hair.

A flicker of hope lights up my chest, same one as I’d imagine a boy in middle school would have when his crush looked at him. Yep, it’s official, Exton Quinn has lost his damn mind. Maybe Zima did more damage to my brain than I initially thought that day.

But…she likes me.

I feel that stupid, love-sick fool kind of grin pull up on my face and there’s nothing I can do about it.She likes me.

“So.” She looks up, her feelings well-hidden again. “Let’s work out or whatever?” We still have to get to the bottom of what triggered her just now, but for now I’ll let it go.

I pick the lightest ball as she eyes me and I see the precise moment Electra realizes what I’m going to do because those icy blue eyes widen and she opens her mouth to yell at me, but the ball is already flying her way, and she has no option but to catch it. And she does.

“Exton!”

“Please don’t start with your ‘Are you insane’ stuff.”

“Oh, no this time I was going for the ‘I’ll kill you’ kind of stuff.”

“Mm-hmm, good luck with that.” I pick up another ball and send it her way. Electra keeps yelling profanities my way, but she catches each one, not realizing how well her upper body is moving and twisting each time because I change the angles every time I throw, challenging her and it works.

Electra is as stubborn as they come, and it works great for her professional career, but it sucks when it comes to getting her todo something. Once her mind is set, there is no breaking it. Well, not for others, I smirk internally, but I love me a challenge and I found the key to unlock hers.

Playing.

I put her though a few exercises, mostly for her upper body and then we go to the mats where I help her to one and start working on her legs, stretching, massaging, bending, and just doing whatever comes to my mind to get those muscles in there warmed up again—all while having my hands on her. Touching her and feeling her like she’s mine. And that simple, almost platonic touch does what nothing and no one else could do. It calms the storms in my heart, cools the rage in my blood, and I’m feeling the lightest I’ve felt in days. Years…

Because A, my hands are on her body, and B, she likes me…

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