Page 115 of Cold as Ice

Maybe fall to his knees and do a few other things, too.

He finished dressing for practice, and thankGod, Elliott did too, and by another goddamn miracle, by the time they made it to the ice, the opposite end was empty and nobody—hopefully—would notice if Mal lost what was rest of his mind and dragged Elliott over to the boards.

Under what pretext?

Mal didn’t even fucking care anymore about pretext.

“That was fun,” Elliott said, eyes dancing with amusement.

Mal wanted to throttle him. “I love you,” he ground out, “and yet I just told our teammates, ourfriends, that I’d have to have shitty taste to touch you. Why does that not bother you?”

Elliott’s smile was luminous and that was the moment Mal realized what he’d said.

Damn it. He’d meant to be smoother about this. Sweet. Romantic, maybe.

Not with chocolates or roses or a metric ton of candy hearts, but he’d meant to make his confession heartfelt. Maybe when they were lying together in bed, and Mal could feel their hearts beating with the same goddamn rhythm. He’d tell Elliott,I’ve never been so happy in my whole life. You make me the happiest.Nobody’s ever done that for me before—and I don’t want anyone else to do it. Just you. Only you.

But instead, they were on the ice, in their practice gear that still carried a whiff of locker room, and Mal couldn’t even touch him. Make sure Ell knew he was serious.

“It doesn’t bother mebecauseyou love me,” Elliott said. “And it didn’t bother me before this, because I could practically see you melting down over the whole thing. You thought after I said something about Brody’s guy, I was going to announce to the whole locker room that we were together.”

Mal wanted to deny it but he didn’t.

“Yes,” he agreed. “I was definitely worried you were going to tell everyone.”

“We said we weren’t going to tell anyone, and that hasn’t changed, though I will admit, I was thinking I did want toproclaim,at some point, that you’re mine and I love you, too. But . . .I get it. Not great timing.”

Mal hadhopedthat was true. That Elliott wanted to tell peoplebecausehe loved him. Not because he wanted to brag. That didn’t sound anything like the Elliott he’d discovered underneath his party-hard, fun-loving persona.

“No,” Mal agreed. Hesitated. “You really—”

“I love you, you big dumb lunk,” Elliott said, smiling. He reached up and patted him on the cheek. “After practice, I’ll beveryhappy to show you just how much.”

“Yeah?”

“Or maybe you could even make it up to me,” Elliott teased. “Prove just how unbelievably exceptional your tasteactuallyis.”

And that, Mal thought, was absolutely something he could do.

Chapter 15

“Well, that was astart anyway,” Elliott murmured as he lay on Mal’s chest, listening to his heartbeat.

“Just a start, huh?” Mal asked drowsily, underneath him.

“Agoodstart.”

They’d barely made it to Elliott’s room before falling into each other. It was always so white-hot between them—at least the first time around—and tonight had been no exception. Mal had gone to his knees, giving Elliott a blowjob he’d remember for a long, long time.

But even though it had been just as intense as it always was, it had felt likemorethis time. Maybe because with every kiss, every touch, every lick, he’d felt Mal’s love. Given him his own in return.

“Well, if it was just good . . .” Mal paused.

“Hold your horses, turbo. We’ll get there. Let’s just enjoy the afterglow for a minute.”

Elliott felt Mal chuckle underneath him.

“Can you blame me for wanting as much of you as I can get?” Mal murmured. “And uh . . .speaking of that.”

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