Page 20 of Ice Bet

“I’ll stop calling you that.”Good.“As long as you let me walk you home.”

My shoulders fell. “I don’t want you to walk me home. In fact, I think I’d like to go back to the party.” I tried spinning around, but Aasher stepped in front of me, blocking me from the house.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked in a huff. “You’rethatafraid I’m going to sleep with one of your overly cocky teammates and ruin the team? You must think very highly of my pussy, Aasher.”

His mouth opened, and a quick rush of hot air came with his surprise, but his comeback came even quicker. “Who’s to say you won’t? I mean, you came over to our apartment half naked the other day. For all I know, you’re a wannabe puck bunny, or maybe you just wanna piss ol’ daddy off.”

My mouth flew open at his insult.

“Go home, Riley. You’ve already annoyed me by taking a drink from some random guy.”

“Sully isn’t some random guy. I’ve known him longer than I’ve known you.” I turned and stomped away because I was arguing with an oversized toddler who was treating me like I was his favorite toy that he was unwilling to share. I picked up my speed at the sound of Aasher’s thumping steps behind me.

“Stop walking so fast.”

Naturally, I started to run.

His laugh followed me, echoing down the street. His long, easy strides caught up to mine quickly, so I stopped abruptly and swung around. “Stopfollowing”—I tried to catch my breath—“me.”

He wasn’t out of breath in the slightest. “Sorry. Not only will your dad kill his players for touching you, but he’ll torture us slowly with back-to-back drills during practice if he finds out that one of us let you walk home alone from a party dressed like that.” I rolled my eyes.I knew he’d mention my dress.“You never know when Sully or Rogers is going to pop out from behind a bush and offer you a ride home in their sports car.”

I scoffed and started to speed walk again. Aasher stayed a few steps behind me, and the only reason I didn’t take off into a full sprint was because no matter how fast I ran, Aasher was going to end up at the same place as me since he was my neighbor.

He continued to half-chase me until I finally slowed my pace. The night grew cooler, and a chill shook me. The mesh tights did nothing to shield me from the wind.

“Here.”

I peeked out of the corner of my eye and saw Aasher’s hoodie dangling from his steady hand for the taking. I silently declined and kept walking, butfine,I’d admit it was a nice gesture.

Too bad he couldn’t get me to surrender because of one nice act. I was fed up with his insults and constant watchful eye. I would never purposefully lure a hockey player into my bed simply to go against my father’s wishes like he was suspecting. That wasn’t to say that I wasn’t going to flirt and tease every last one of them—except Aasher, because it was very clear that he detested me as much as I detested him—so they were tripping over their promises of being the first to have me.

“Just take my hoodie.”

“No.”

“So stubborn,” he mumbled.

“Such a dick,”I mumbled right back.

The moment the tall brick building appeared in front of us, I practically ran to the doors to get away. I reached for the door handle after swiping my card, butof course,Aasher was a step ahead, opening it for me. I raced up the stairs, refusing to get in an elevator with him. His patronizing laugh followed me until I was standing in front of my door, fumbling with my keys to get inside.

“Do you need help?” he asked, slinking up beside me.

I glared at him. “No. I’m just trying to get as far away from you as quickly as possible.” I gritted my teeth and clumsily tried to work my keys into my door but couldn’t because my stupid cold fingers were numb.

“Here.” Aasher’s steady hand fell to mine, and I quickly pulled away, frustrated at the warmth covering my skin. It was as if he’d burned me. My door was unlocked a breath later, and he stepped back into the hallway and ushered me through. “Now stay put.”

A rush of rebellion zipped through me as I stood in my apartment and stared at Aasher as he backed away toward his door. His jaw flexed, and he sighed. “I’m serious. Don’t make my life harder than it already is.”

“No one is asking you to be my shadow, Aasher. Mind your business, and stop assuming that I’m some little minx set out to ruin the hockey team.” I rolled my eyes because did he truly think I wasthatpathetic? As if the only thing on my mind was how to get his teammates to sleep with me. “I’m the furthest thing from a puck bunny.”

Aasher’s lazy gaze slipped down my body, and I started to sweat. His eyes slowly brushed each of my curves before he snapped to attention and stared right at me. “Prove me wrong, then. Because so far, you seem to be nothing but a little tease.”

I slammed the door to block out his cunning face. I tripped over my untouched skates and cursed under my breath.

I had nothing to prove to Aasher.

But with my eyes set on my skates, I knew I had something to prove to myself.

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