Page 11 of Beneath the Surface

My fingers were wrapped around his throat before he’d even finished speaking, and I shoved him up against the side of the nearest car. His body was thrumming with tension against mine, his gaze dark and hot as he bared his teeth at me. “Fuck. You,” I growled, tightening my grip on his throat. “What’s your fucking problem with me?”

I never got an answer because Ava was suddenly there, pulling us apart. She shot me a look that was a combination of frustration and disappointment, and that deflated my anger almost instantly. Turning away from them both, I scrubbed my hand across my face, pacing up and down as I attempted to compose myself.

“Okay. Look, I was only trying to help. Do either of you even know who that man is?” I jerked my head toward Ricky. “That’s Big Dog.”

Ava’s eyes widened. “The drug guy?”

“Yeah. That’s him. See why I wanted to keep you both away? I was trying to protect you.” Giving Micah a pointed look, I added, “It wasn’t me being arrogant. If Coach found out we were hanging out with the local drug lord, we’d be in serious shit.”

Ava bit down on her bottom lip, thinking, and out of nowhere, I had a sudden urge to kiss her. Not that I could have acted on it—it was completely inappropriate, given our tense situation. Now was not the time or the place, and even if it was, she wasn’t interested in me in that way. She’d made that clear enough in our sophomore year. Now, though… No. Nothing had changed.

She sighed. “I get that, but it’s irrelevant. We need to speak to Cruz. Let’s stay back, and we can confront him when he’s on his own. We can’t let him get away with what he did.”

Some of the tension seeped out of me at her words, and I smiled at her. She returned my smile with a hesitant one of her own, and something inside me warmed. Fuck, she was so gorgeous.

“Have you two finished eye-fucking each other, or can we get on with what we came here for?”

Ava flushed at Micah’s clipped words, and my smile widened into a grin. Micah glared at me as I stepped up to him, slinging my arm around his shoulders. “Aww, sorry, baby. Were you feeling left out? We can eye-fuck you too, if you want.”

He stiffened, and then viciously shoved my arm away, moving to the other side of Ava. “Fuck off, Cross. I hate you.”

“Yeah, I got that. I don’t understand why, though.”

Muttering something under his breath, he slid his arm around Ava’s waist, and she leaned into him with a small smile. The way they looked so comfortable together made something inside me hurt. I envied their ease with each other. The truth was, I hadn’t formed any close friendships since my move from England. I trusted my teammates with my life on the ice, and yeah, they were my friends, but this…this was something deeper that I’d never experienced before.

Also, fuck Micah Pierce for having the hottest girl at Blackwell Lake U wrapped around him.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed my inconvenient jealous thoughts aside and began walking in the direction of Cruz. It was time to get what we came here for.

7

MICAH

Istared after Grayson, my heart pounding as he strode away from us. His comment echoed in my mind.

I don’t understand why, though.

How did he not understand why I hated him? The golden boy who was everything my dad wished I was, and even if he hadn’t been, he was so arrogant and self-absorbed, I would’ve hated him anyway.

“Ignore him,” Ava murmured in my ear, and as I turned my head, I caught the subtle scent of her perfume, sweet and fresh, and it made me want to bury my face in her throat and kiss her soft skin. I found myself meeting her gaze, leaning closer?—

A throat cleared, loudly and pointedly. My head whipped around to see Grayson giving me an impatient look. “If you could stop thinking with your dick for five minutes, maybe we could do what we came here for.”

Seriously, fuck him.

“Fuck off, Cross. Some of us are capable of being friendly to someone without it being an excuse to get in their pants.”

“Yeah, but you want Ava, don’t you.” He phrased it as a statement, accompanied with a smirk, and I was going to killhim. Right now. I’d never been predisposed to violence before, but I guess there was a first time for everything. I could feel my cheeks heating both from what he’d said, and the rage that was filling my body as the arrogant hockey god stared me down with a challenge in his eyes.

“You—”

Ava leaned into me, her lips brushing against my ear, sending a shiver through my body. “Micah. Please. You’re better than that. Don’t let him get to you.”

I gritted my teeth. “Yeah,” I said, too low for the asshole to hear. “Sorry.”

“Seeing you get so worked up…this is a side of you I’ve never seen before, and it’s…kinda hot,” she whispered, and okay,nowI was thinking with my dick, because the hottest girl I’d ever known was telling me she found me hot.Me?

I had no fucking idea what to say in response, but I didn’t have to, because Ava drew back from me, staring at Grayson. Her eyes narrowed. “Is it Micah you’re jealous of, or me?”

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