Page 42 of Ice Bet

Thankfully, we had a blue one all the way in the back. I took my time getting back to my room, hopeful that my housemates wouldn’t roam out of their rooms to see what was going on.

I trusted them because they were my teammates, but sometimes they had guests, and I didn’t want it to get around campus that Riley was in my bedroom. I knew for a fact that if Ford was here, he’d make mention of it, because he didn’t always think clearly with whiskey in his system.

I unscrewed the lid to the Gatorade, took a swig of it so it wasn’t so full at the top, and opened the bedroom door. I stilled. The bottle of Gatorade nearly slipped out of my hand.

Riley was no longer in my bathroom, and her clothes were strewn all over the floor. The see-through top she teased everyone with was dropped inches from the bathroom door, and her jeans were bundled near the foot of my bed. I swallowed the Gatorade and ran my tongue over my bottom lip before cursing under my breath at her on my bed.

She was in nothing but her panties and one of my T-shirts. Thankfully, her cleavage was covered, but without her tight top on, I saw the true size of her breasts against the thin cotton, and they were a perfect, perky handful. The black lace of her panties peeked out from below as my T-shirt rode up over the curve of her hip, and I had a hard time pulling my eyes away. There was no fucking way I was sleeping in my bed with her looking like that.

Tear-streaked face or not, she was attractive.

And the kiss.

The fucking kiss.

She was dead asleep, chest rising slowly with her eyes shut. I reached over her and stole one of my pillows. I put it on the floor several feet away from her, because with my luck, she’d throw up on my face, and then I’d have to fling myself off a building.

I lay there for too long, listening to her soft breathing. I forced myself to keep my back to her in hopes that I would forget about her presence.

I should have been exhausted. Iwasexhausted, but instead of falling asleep on my makeshift bed on the floor, I opened my phone.

My fingers flew over the screen as I typedRiley Lennoninto the search bar. The first thing that popped up was Coach and his stats and some other “suggested” searches on Riley that were nothing of interest to me.

Is Riley Lennon single?

How old is Riley Lennon?

How tall is Riley Lennon?

How much does Riley Lennon weigh?

But underneath those was a video with the title,Riley Lennon’s career-ending fall.I was laser-focused on the video as it opened up on my screen, wondering what it was. When the ice rink came into view, I quickly silenced my phone and listened to make sure she was still sound asleep on my comfortable bed while I was down below on the hard floor.

I was pulled back to the video, mesmerized by the light-blue outfit she wore as she skated across the ice. She made it look effortless. Her hair was pulled into a tight bun, showing off her shimmering cheekbones, and there was a lightness to her that I had yet to see in person.

I felt an undeniable pull to continue watching her as she skated with vicious speed, and when she did a twirl in the air, my lips parted.

According to the captions on the bottom of my screen, it was atriple-triple. There was a brief clip of the crowd, and they were just as slack-jawed as I was. We were all in complete awe of Riley. My heart sped up when the camera pulled back to the ice, but it skipped a beat when Riley had landed hertriple-triple.The pair of skates beneath her toned legs didn’t look as steady as before, and she slowed her speed down tremendously, something that was noted from the captions. If I had to guess, Riley was dizzy or lightheaded. Her head tipped to the side, and the blue of her tiny outfit swayed around her as she tilted one way and then the other.

My stomach was in my throat, and suddenly, I was watching a horror film instead of some figure skating competition. The battle was all over her face. She squinted and shook her head, but as soon as she took off to do another leap, she crumbled to the ice.

I’d fallen on ice before, and it hurt, even with pads.

Jesus.

Her head slammed against the ice, and my closed fist went up to my mouth in shock because she didn’t get up.

There were other videos of her, and by the time I was finished watching her skate in numerous competitions, my eyes burned. I eventually turned on my back and glanced at her asleep on my bed. Her forehead was smooth, and her cheeks were relaxed without that adorable little scowl she always had when talking to me. The pout of her lips was soft with her quiet breathing.

That was the first night I went to bed thinking about something other than hockey, and I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be the last.

14

RILEY

I was sore.My eyes moved behind my closed eyelids, and I searched my memories in an attempt to figure out what I’d done to make my muscles ache.

As soon as I opened my eyes, the night came flying back, and I popped up. My tangled hair rushed past my face, and I reached for my head. I had a pounding headache, and my stomach was uneasy. The Bexley U logo on my shirt caught my eye, and I vaguely remembered scrounging through a dresser drawer for something to wear other than my uncomfortable outfit. I didn’t have to look down onto the floor at the other human in the room to see where I was, because I knew if I had ended up with anyone, it would have been Aasher.

---