Page 54 of Ice Bet

“I agree. Thisisimpossible.” Riley turned around and stomped toward the doors. As much as I enjoyed her backside, I flexed my jaw and jogged after her. I gripped her waist and pulled her into my front.

A fleeting breath escaped her lungs when I said, “I wasn’t aware that your father bred a quitter.”

“I’m not a quitter.” The heel of her fuzzy boot landed on my foot, and I grunted, dropping my hands and letting her slip through my fingers.

If only she’d use her anger at me to get back on the ice, then we’d make somerealprogress.

Wait, that’s it.

The idea was as bright as her smile the other night when she was busy secretly seducing every hockey player on the team to piss me off.

“Then prove it,” I whispered in her ear, grabbing her hips. I inhaled the scent of her shampoo and loathed how much it turned me on. Her fiery attitude toward me was fucking with my head, and everything about her seemed more desirable simply because I knew I couldn’t have her.

Riley’s back arched, and her ass rubbed against my front. I panicked and dropped my hands like she was a smoking ember. She rounded me, and her eyes burned with so much determination they looked like a blue flame.

I recovered quickly, flicking an eyebrow while lifting my lip. “I’m waiting.”

“So this is your plan?” she asked, reaching up and ripping the hair tie out of her hair. Long locks of dark, wavy hair fell around her shoulders, cupping her heart-shaped face. “Bully me onto the ice? You’re not going to win this bet after all.”

My confidence never wavered, and I didn’t feel bad for pushing her to her limits, because I knew, deep down, she was as tough as nails—especially when it came to me. There wasn’t a single person I’d ever heard her talk to the way she talked to me. Not even Sully, who she knew was playing her like the strings of a guitar.

I stepped toward her, and Riley stepped backward. We did this all the way until her heels were at the very brim of the opening for the rink. She was so focused on sending me a scathing look that I didn’t think she noticed when I dropped my eyes down her legs and eyed the ice behind her.

The rink was blanketed in darkness. The bright lights that were usually caught between the sheen of ice were nonexistent, and if I could just keep up our spar and get her to step backward, the hardest part would be over.

It was the first step that was always the hardest.

The first step.

The first look.

The first touch.

The first kiss…

I continued walking toward her, pretending I wasn’t just thinking about the kiss we shared. “I’m not bullying you,” I reassured her. “I’m only stating the facts.”

“The facts?” Riley was offended. “I amnota quitter.”

“Says the girl who is one of the best figure skaters of today’s time but can’t even fathom stepping on the ice.”

I insulted her, but it was for the greater good.

Just how angry are you, Riley?

My fingers twitched inside my pockets. I wanted to grab her hand and pull her onto the ice with me and whisper into her ear that she was safe. There was no sense in panicking. She was born for the ice. I knew that without even truly knowing her.

The ice wasn’t her problem.

It was everything else.

“You’re an asshole,” she spat, pushing on my chest and stepping backward.

Riley was trying to escape me so quickly that she didn’t realize she was actually in the rink. Hardly, but if she were to look down, she’d see ice.

“You don’t really believe that, do you? I’m here helping you get ready for tryouts. I’m the one who has been trying to get you away from the team because I know they don’t have your best interest in mind.”

“Don’t act righteous,” she countered, crossing her arms over her pink sweater. “You’re doing it for your own selfish needs, and you know it.”

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