Page 36 of Melting the Ice

I thought I heard him mutter, “Oh, fuck off,” and I quirked a brow at him.

“It’s in the drawer under the fountain,” he said.

I grinned and stood up, pulling the drawer open. “So nicely laminated.”

“I sweat. It makes sense to have it protected since I use it a lot.” He sounded petulant, and I couldn’t stop my laugh. “If you’re done teasing me?”

“Oh, Micahtron, that’s never happening. But I’ll let you get back to puzzling while I attempt to twist myself into a pretzel.” I scanned the list of poses and illustrations of how to complete them. “So thorough,” I murmured, and he grumbled under his breath.

Oh, yes, this was definitely going to be fun.

Chapter 8

MICAH

She was fucking with me. Legit fucking with me.

She had to be.

And I was getting nowhere with this damn puzzle. As soon as she’d mentioned trying yoga, I should’ve spun on my heel and walked right out of the room, but apparently, I was a glutton for punishment, and I’d spent the last twenty minutes staring at her ass way too much and not focusing on this damn puzzle.

I raked a hand through my hair and dropped another piece on the floor. Leaning down to grab it, I hit my head when she called out.

“Fucking hell,” I muttered.

She was destroying my relaxation vibe—this room—my brain.

“You okay over there?” she asked, and I jerked up, hitting my head on the damn table again.

“Shit,” I bit out, rubbing the spot.

“Are you okay?” she repeated, this time with concern in her eyes.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just going to let you finish here. I need to fold some laundry,” I said, walking out of the room before she could utter another word.

Fold some laundry.

Fucking hell.

I slipped into my bedroom and pressed my head against the closest wall, internally ordering myself to get it the fuck together. Maybe I just needed to suggest we fuck so I could get her out of my system.

I barked out a laugh. On what planet did I really think that was the easy solution? Turning, I walked into my closet and stared at my clean laundry basket. Which was currently empty because I’d just done all my laundry two days ago and put everything away.

I pulled open my top dresser drawer. Maybe I could sort my socks or boxers. Or reorganize my dress shirts by color.

Or really think about why she was slowly driving me insane.

My teammates would have a field day with my brain right now. I shut the drawer a bit forcefully and stalked out of my bedroom and down the hall, refusing to look inside myrelaxationroom.

It wasn’t like I could relax on the couch because even though she pushed her blankets to one side every morning, my furniture still smelled like her.

I should go for a run on the roof garden track or use the building gym. Maybe some of the guys would be working out, and I could focus on hanging out with my teammates instead of thinking about all the ways I wanted to get tangled up in the purple hurricane living with me.

I grabbed my water bottle off the kitchen island and took a long gulp as I leaned against the granite top.

“Phew. I’m done in there if you want to go back to puzzling. Wow.” Her voice cut through my brain and I glanced over at her,mesmerized, as she toweled off the faint sheen of sweat on her neck.

“You put away that laundry fast.”

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