Page 89 of Ice Bet

He cupped my face, and I was flush against his body. “We have to be smart about this.”

“This?”

A hot gasp rushed from my tight lungs when Aasher spun me around and pressed himself against my backside. I caught his stare in the mirror and gulped. “Yes,this.”

His hand curved around my neck and traveled down to his last name settled between my shoulder blades. I shook with every faint touch of his finger tracing the letters. “We will keep it under wraps until the end of the season. I broke a promise to your dad, and he won’t take that lightly. Trust me.” Aasher lowered his voice. “I have to think about my future, and whether you want to admit this or not, your dad can crumble it with his fingers if he wanted to.”

He wouldn't do that.

“And then what?” I let my head fall back. Aasher’s lips brushed the side of my neck.

Why am I so needy when it comes to him?

My blood sang when he touched me.

Just like when I stepped foot on the ice—something that he helped me find again.

“Well, when he isn’t my coach anymore, he has nothing to hold over me. As soon as the season is over and I sign with the Boston Hops, I’ll make sure everyone knows you’re mine. I respect your dad but not enough to keep me from having you.”

I felt faint from his words, and there wasn’t a single guy I’d ever been okay giving full control to, but with Aasher, Icravedit. So I egged him on by biting down on my lip and staring at him through the mirror. “Do I get any say in this?”I don’t want any say.“What if I don’t want to be yours?”

Aasher’s teeth sunk into my neck, and I dragged in a breath. He slipped his hand into the front of my jeans, and everything burned bright. He blew cool air against the mark he left behind, and I stopped breathing when he slipped his finger inside of me. “You do.”

I whimpered with desperation when he pulled his finger out and stepped away from me. I was dizzy from how fast I spun around to glare at him. The smile on his face only distracted me for a second.

“See?” He held his wet finger up in between us and stuck it into his mouth, licking my arousal off his skin. I swallowed andgripped the sink again, hoping it would hold me up. He was so goddamn hot, and I truly didn’t care that he wanted to keep me a secret. I understood it in a way that not many would. The NHL to him was what figure skating was to me. He wasn’t one without the other, and I wouldn’t stand in his way of getting that. Just like I wouldn't allow my dad to either. Now that I knew what happened to him before attending Bexley U, I understood why he was hesitant. His future was taken from him before, and what was to say that it wouldn’t be again? I could look him in the eye and say it until I was blue in the face, but at the end of the day, I wasn't my father, and I didn’t have any power over his decisions.

The knock on the bathroom door startled me. I knocked the soap off the sink at the sound of Sutton’s voice. “Riley? Are you okay? You’ve been in there for a long time.”

Aasher put his finger up to his mouth and shook his head. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m coming.”

I went to walk past Aasher, and he grabbed me by the arm. “You most definitely will be coming later.”

I half-smiled with a roll of my eyes.

“Wait for my text. When it’s safe, I expect you to sneak your pretty little self back into my room.”

“I thought you said I was going to the sin bin,” I joked, remembering his threat from earlier.

Before I walked through the door, he whispered something that made me pause. “Oh, baby. Youarein the sin bin.”

30

AASHER

Two hours.

That was how long I’d had to sit here beside her and act completely composed about it.

Every time I shifted in my seat, I made sure my knee brushed the side of her thigh. Every time we laid our cards down, my finger touched hers, and it lingered for a second longer than it needed to. We were down to Ford, Taytum, Sutton, Riley, and me. This never-ending game of poker was just the tip of the karma iceberg that I’d continue being served until I told Coach the truth.

I lied right to his face tonight, and I was too infatuated with his daughter to care. The more time I spent with her, the more I fell for her. And the more time I spent away from her, the more desperate I became. I practically had to chain myself to my bed last night to stay away from the rink, knowing she was there with my friends, gliding over the ice with her pretty smile chinking away at everyone’s need to keep her at an arm’s length, per her father’s request.

The few slips in time and my lack of self-discipline wasn’t nearly enough to quench my thirst. She was all I thought about. I wondered what she was doing even when I was supposed to be avoiding her. I wondered if she had tightened up her Biellmann spin in preparation for her upcoming tryouts. I wanted to know if she told her parents that she was skating, because I knew it was something she was looking forward to doing. I wanted to see the glow of elation on her face after sticking a jump on the ice and watch her cheeks turn pink after telling her that I was proud of her.

It was the first time, since Savannah, that I’d ever let myself think of a girl as more than just a means to an end, and no one was more surprised than me. I had loathed Riley the moment her dad named me her babysitter, but now I was here, sneaking behind his back, counting down the seconds until this game was over so I could show her just how much she meant to me.

I couldn’t say it out loud, but even as I sat there and lied to Coach, convincing him that Riley and I were nothing butfriends, I was pretty certain that if I had to, I would choose her.

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