Page 63 of Ice Bet

I fell for it. I looked right at him, and his lips twitched.

“I knew that would work. Does this part of the rink look familiar to you?”

A rush of adrenaline forced a breath from my tight lungs, and suddenly, I was thinking about what we did several nights ago, because this was theexactspot where he made my back arch with his fingers deep inside of me.

“It does to me.” He winked, skating past to meet Ford at center ice. “In fact, it’s all I can think about.”

I was left standing near the opening with a flushed neck and face. He was so good at pushing my buttons.

“Poker? That’s what you guys do the night before a game?” Taytum tightened her ponytail before taking a stick from Berkley. He held one out for me, and I took it hesitantly before catching up with their conversation.

“Yeah,” I answered for them, holding on tightly to my stick to ground me. I skated—just a little—toward her, pushing back on the anxiety squeezing every muscle in my body. “They’re loud and rambunctious too, playing until well after midnight.”

“If we win tomorrow night, you girls have to come over and play poker with us instead of going to Rush’s for the party. To make up for tonight.” Ford wiggled his eyebrows.

Berkley skated to center ice and pointed his stick at us. “And this will become the new pregame ritual?”

“Yes!” Ford snapped his fingers.

“Deal,” Taytum said. “Now let’s play.”

Aasher skated forward as Ford twirled the puck in his hand with a shit-eating grin on his face. “We play half-court. Emory is the goalie.” His eyes snapped to me, and I gulped. “Riley and I will do the face-off.”

I shook my head, but there was no point. Aasher would get me over there one way or another, and with Sutton and Taytum cheering me on, as if we were truly on our own hockey team, I pushed past anxiety and thought of what he’d said to me.

No one is making you do a quadruple axel.

I had been skating since I was old enough to walk.

The skill didn’t just disappear.

It was all a mind game.

I put one skate in front of the other, and although everyone was in their own conversations, shit-talking each other, I knew that Aasher’s eyes were stuck to me like glue. I slowly skated over to him, and the slight splitting of his lips was all the encouragement I needed. When we both placed our sticks on the ground, waiting for Ford to drop the puck, he said something that took me by surprise.

“I’m proud of you.”

“Wha—”

“And I expect you in the stands tomorrow night. I want you as close to the ice as possible.”

21

AASHER

I was nervous,and it was obvious.

I stayed quiet through warm-ups and didn’t even crack a smile at Ford's jokes. My team was ready to demolish Green University, but they had no idea that one of them had abigfucking problem with me.

It was evident the moment Van slid onto the ice.

Savannah’s brother’s head swiveled until he found me. His arrogance was far heavier than most. He wasn’t your typical rival.

“You look worried.” Sully skated toward me and started looking into the stands. “What’s wrong? Afraid my stats will be better? They were pretty close last game.”

Like I cared about his stats during a time like this.

Okay, fine. I did a little bit.

---