Page 68 of Cold as Ice

Truthfully, he wanted to stay. But instead, he left and felt as he walked home that he was floating, feet barely touching the pavement.

Chapter 9

Elliott was a freakingpro.

He could do this.

He could walk into the locker room and get ready for tonight’s game without his whole body turning into mush the moment he spotted Malcolm.

You got what you wanted.

Yeah. He had.

But unlike every other time he’d hooked up, it hadn’t felt like the end, but instead like the beginning.

Usually when he scratched an itch, it was scratched, and he didn’t need to do it again.

But all Elliott had freaking thought about today was doing it again, over and over again, Mal’s eyes going blurry and soft as he sent him over the edge.

It was becoming a litany in his mind, an obsession that he wasn’t sure how to handle.

Thus, why he was loitering outside the rink, half-hidden as he pretended to be fascinated by something on his phone.

Was it because Malcolm had been, unbelievably, a virgin?

Elliott had had sex with virgins before, but it had never felt like this before. Like the guy had sunk his hooks into him, and Elliott was perfectly, wonderfully happy with that situation.

He’d meant what he’d told Mal in the aftermath, last night. He didn’t want anyone else. He couldn’t even imagine flirting uselessly with the guy at Koffee Klatch or any one of the many cute boys at the Gamma Sigma house.

But would this fuck with his mind? His focus? His play?

He remembered, too well, what had happened the last time he’d decided to change something between them.

His edge had fucking vanished.

“You okay, Ell?”

He looked up and Ramsey was walking towards him, a frown on his face.

“I . . .uh . . .yeah.”

Ramsey didn’t look convinced. “Brody mentioned seeing you out here, dawdling. You aren’t trying to avoid Mal, are you?”

Elliott winced, internally. “No. No. Not at all.” Then winced, in full view of Ramsey, who had a brain like a freaking trap.

Ramsey’s gaze narrowed. “That’s not convincing, Ell.”

“It’s fine. It’s really fine.”We fucked, and it was glorious. I’m never getting over it.I’m gonna walk into the locker room and he’s going to be there, all stern and hot and I’m gonna melt like ice cream on a hot summer day.

Ramsey shook his head. “I still can’t fucking believe you wouldn’t take my advice.”

Elliott managed to hide his surprise,barely.Ramsey hadn’t guessed why he was out here. He thought he reallywasavoiding Mal because they were fighting. Not because they were fucking.

“You’re not always right about everything.”

But, Ramseyhadbeen right about this. The high that he’d convinced Malcolm McCoy to come to him, and tocome—notjust once, buttwice—was never gonna fade. And, unlike what Elliott had always imagined, it wasn’t really about ego at all.

It wasn’t even about accomplishing something that nobody ever had done before.

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