Page 45 of Ice Bet

“What was that?” Aasher stopped mid-movement. He was stripping the sheets off his bed because God forbid my scent be on them.

“Nothing. I’m leaving,” I said, sighing. He pissed me off, but hedidtake care of me last night, so I attempted to wave a white flag, too exhausted to keep arguing. “Thanks for…”

“Carrying you home, helping you while you threw up in my bathroom, letting you sleep on my bed, and not calling your dad the second you stripped off that leather jacket and showed your tits to a house full of horny jocks?” He scoffed. “No problem, Duster.”

I gritted my teeth and turned around. I was fully prepared to put our sparring to rest, but then he flung another insult at me.

“Don’t come to any more parties if you’re just going to get wasted and make stupid choices. I’m not always going to be there to save you.”

“Save me?” My heartbeats were like punches against my ribs. I breathed out like a dragon, and I wished fire came out of my mouth so I could burn Aasher in his spot. “I donotneed saving.”

He was winning our game, and I hated him for it. The next thing he said pushed me off the ledge. “Oh, and if I wanted to weasel myself into your pants, I could. You’re just not my type.”

I froze when the realization came to light. “It was you.”

Unbelievable.

“You were the one who said cold and detached wasn't your type in the locker room that day while the rest of the team was scheming to get in my pants.”

Why did it bother me knowing it was him?

Aasher’s sighs were becoming as normal as blinking. He was socomposed leaning against his dresser while I was sweating from anger.

“Fine,” I snapped. “You want to know why my dad is so protective over me?”

“I actually want to know why someone as talented as you can’t seem to take a blade to the ice even when she thinks no one is watching, but sure, I’ll take that explanation too, considering I’m the one who has to deal with your behavior.”

My anger was fiery, but instead of burning Aasher, I burned myself. “I wasn’t some slutty party girl like you’re assuming, and it has nothing to do with Gray. I didn’t putthatmuch stock in a stupid hockey player to give him the ammunition to turn me into this! It started years before I even met him!” I threw my hands up, and I knew I was acting crazy. My voice was shaky in all the wrong places, and by the look on Aasher’s face, he thought I was acting crazy too.

“Turn you into what?” he finally asked.

“A failure.”

I cracked. I was tight all over. My shoulders bunched, and my arms went around my unsettled stomach. “I can’t even step foot on the ice without panicking.”

The warmth of Aasher’s body surrounded me, but I wouldn’t look at him because I was afraid to see what was on his face. I was afraid he’d assume something else, or worse, feel sorry for me. “You’re not a failure because of one fall. Do you know how many times I’ve fallen on the ice? You just have to get back up.”

He said it like it was easy, and his presumptions of the simplicity of my fall egged me on until I was stepping on his toes and peering up at his stern face. “You don’t get it.”

“Then explain it to me,” he said matter-of-factly. His arms brushed mine as he crossed them over his chest, and when I looked away, I saw our reflection in the bathroom mirror. We were head-to-head. Toe-to-toe. He was towering over me with his dark features and arrogance, but he was about to rethink every thought he had ever had about me.

“It wasn't just a simple fall. I didn’t trip or slip on the ice.” I looked away, unable to fathom what his expression was going to show. “I fell because I hadn’t eaten a full meal in weeks and was so malnourished that I fainted. Sleep was nonexistent, and I worked my body so hard that my muscles were too weak to hold me up.”

Aasher’s arms dropped abruptly, and he took a step away from me. It wasn’t the reaction most people gave, but I kept going.

“I developed an eating disorder because I thought the thinner I was, the lighter I would be on the ice. I lost sleep because I spent so much time in the rink, perfecting my twists.” My lip trembled, and my throat grew tight. “I was out of control, and it was all because Ineededcontrol. There was an incident with a guy, and it—”

I stopped talking the moment I realized what I was saying. This wasn’t part of the careful explanation that I had planned over and over again in my head. I didn’t tell people this part. In fact, I didn’t tell most peopleanything.

“Don’t stop now.” His voice was nothing more than a whisper, and I knew if I backed down, he’d never leave it alone.

“A hockey player…” I glanced away, and I wasn’t sure if I could keep up my façade, but suddenly, Aasher’s finger was on my jaw, and he pushed my face back toward him. His eyes were soft around the edges, and they made me feel safe, despite the fact that I was jaded when it came to guys like him.

“Your ex?”

I shook my head. “It happened in high school. The hockey players and figure skaters shared a rink. They all used to watch me practice after theirs ended.”

The hockey team always got first dibs when it came to their practice times. Hockey players took precedence over figure skaters, unfortunately.

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