Page 50 of Ice Bet

My pulse kicked up a notch, and I knowingly stood there and let her take all the control. She slowly pulled out her phone and opened up her camera. The bright light illuminated her deceitful features, showing off the gleam in her eye.

“Sit,” she said, pushing me against my chest.

Why am I listening to her?

I sat down, and when she climbed on my lap and straddled me, I stopped breathing. I should have pushed her off or,at the very least, asked her what the hell she was doing, but I didn’t. I let her do whatever she wanted.

“Now kiss me to seal our bet.”

“Wh—” I stopped myself from asking because I was afraid she’d change her mind. I clamped my mouth shut and put my hands on her hips, holding her steady. She leaned down low, and our lips brushed. I attempted to control the situation when I gripped the back of her head. I thrust my hips up so fast it pulled a breath from her lungs, and I pushed her face to mine.

The kiss started off slow. A peck, really. When she pulled away—after taking a quick picture to use against me, I’m sure—I smirked and moved my hand to the front of her neck, just below her scarf. Her pulse was wild against my fingers. I gripped her a little harder than before, and even in the dark arena, I watched her pupils dilate.

I licked my bottom lip before whispering, “That one was just for the picture. Now this is the real seal to our ice bet…which Iwillwin.”

I gripped her chin with force and captured her mouth. My tongue slipped inside, and I ate up her sultry gasp, luring her into me. The hand wrapped around her waist moved to her leg, and I pushed it wider, opening her farther. Our bodies were flush, and my lips moved against hers like I was starving and she was the only one to feed me. I licked every single part of her mouth until I was satisfied and felt the swell of her lips. Then I pulled back, but I refused to let her go. I took my thumb and swiped it over her bottom lip, wiping my taste away, and said, “Be here Monday evening. Seven sharp.”

Riley climbed off my lap quickly and said nothing as I turned and began to climb the steps.

I knew her mouth was feeling ravished—branded, even.

Because so was mine.

16

RILEY

My mouth stillfelt different,even days later. Aasher continued to surprise me every step of the way with his behavior. Our own ice bet? Why did I agree to that? And why thehelldid I slide onto his lap and make him kiss me to seal our deal?

Aasher was messing with my head, and I didn’t think he even knew it. I’d been hyper-focused on tonight, wondering what it would feel like to have the ice beneath my skates again. During class, my leg bounced up and down a million miles a second as I counted the hours between then and now. Everyone stared at me like I was crazy, and a few younger hockey players smirked at me as they looked down to my thumping leg and back to my face.

I ignored them, though, because there was only one hockey player on my mind. He was so certain he’d get me back on the ice that he allowed me to take a picture of our kiss for blackmail.

It was all a ploy, though.

I’d never do something like that, unless severely provoked, but it felt good to have the upper hand for a second before he ambushed my mouth and tricked my body into thinking things that were downright forbidden.

“I see you are punctual.” Aasher’s voice came from behind me, but I didn’t turn around.

I hadn’t seen him since we made our bet, but when Sutton and I put their away game against Shadow Valley on the TV and watched them slay against an equally good team, I noticed how my eyes kept following him on the ice.

“And I see you are not,” I countered, seeing his shadow move along the stairs before he made it to where I was sitting. He took a seat beside me, and I could tell he had showered after practice, because his clean, inviting scent was even stronger than before.He smelled good.

“I had to wait for everyone to leave before I could come back and lock myself in the rink with the coach’s daughter.”

There was an uptick in my pulse that I blamed on nerves instead of the thought of being locked away with him.The kiss. It messed me up.

“I didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.”

I chose to look over at him. I stopped breathing when our eyes clashed. He looked at my mouth before pulling away at the last second. Heat rushed to my cheeks.

“Sully and I have a bad reputation for competing against each other. If he thinks I’m trying to get to you before him, he’llreallytry to score with you.”

I crossed my arms over my sweater and sunk back into my normal self, riding the wave of irritation at the mention of the other ice bet. “I can handle him.”

Aasher reached over and tugged on a piece of my hair like an eight-year-old. I gasped and shot him a dirty look. His freshly shaven jaw was sharp with authority, and I shut my mouth the moment he opened his. “I know you can, but when I win this bet and get you back to doing triple-triples on the ice, you’re not going to talk to a single hockey player again. Right?” His eyebrow crooked upward as he waited for my agreement. “That’s part of the bet, Riley. Say it with me.”

My scoff was as good as a refusal. His chuckle rubbed against me like ice on my skin. “You are such a brat.”

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