Page 2 of Waltzing on Ice

He grins like I just told him the best news of his life. “But you won’t.”

I scoff. “And why’s that?”

Finn shrugs, skating backward effortlessly while facing me. “Because you love this. The push, the fight. Admit it, Daisy, no one makes you skate like I do.”

That’s the worst part—he’sright. I do love it. I love the fire, the way he pushes me in ways no one ever has before. But I’ll be damned if I let him know that.

Instead, I roll my eyes and skate past him. “Enjoy your ego trip, Finn.”

His laughter follows me as I exit the ice. And even though I won’t admit it, I feel it too—the energy, the heat, the undercurrent of something dangerous and exhilarating between us.

And the worst part of all of this? Somewhere, buried beneath all the irritation and exasperation, I like it.

Chapter Two

Daisy

It happens so fast, that I barely have time to react.

One minute, everything is perfect. I’m at a high-profile sponsor event, dazzling in an ice-blue gown that shimmers under the ballroom lights, my hair swept into a flawless updo, and my makeup meticulously applied. The cameras flash as I move through the crowd, smiling just enough to be warm but never too much to seem overeager.

This is the game. The balance of charm, grace, and control.

I pretend to sip champagne, laughing lightly at a joke I barely heard. My sponsor, Richard Calloway, a well-connected businessman who funds a huge portion of my training, has been particularly attentive tonight. We’ve worked together for years. He’s always been friendly and professional.

When he offers to walk me back to my hotel room after I mention a migraine creeping in, I don’t think twice about it, a total mistake.

By morning, my name iseverywhere—for all the wrong reasons. The headlines are brutal:

DAISY WHITTAKER CAUGHT IN HOTEL ROOM WITH MARRIED SPONSOR!

OLYMPIC FAVORITE OR GOLD-DIGGING HOMEWRECKER?

SCANDAL ON ICE! DAISY’S SECRET AFFAIR EXPOSED!

My hands tremble as I scroll through article after article, each one worse than the last. They paint me as some ruthless seductress, climbing my way to the top by sleeping with the right men. They take a harmless moment—a sponsor escorting me to my hotel room after I’d had a migraine—and twist it into a salacious scandal.

The knock on my door makes me jump. I yank it open, already knowing who it is. Kara, my agent, storms in, her face tight with stress. She doesn’t even sit. Just starts pacing the room like she’s calculating the odds of my career surviving this. “Tell me you didn’t actually do this.”

My stomach churns. “Of course I didn’t! Nothing happened! He walked me to my room, that’s it!”

Kara exhales, pinching the bridge of her nose. “The media doesn’t care about the truth. This looks bad, Daisy. Really bad.”

I sink onto the edge of the bed, my pulse pounding in my ears. “What do I do?”

Kara hesitates, then drops another bomb. “We’re going to spin it.”

I look up sharply. “How?”

She sits beside me, smoothing out her skirt like she’s preparing for battle. “We give them a better story—one that makes it impossible for this scandal to be true. We make you untouchable.”

I narrow my eyes. “What kind of story?”

Kara takes a breath. “You and Finn. We go public with your relationship.”

I recoil like she’s suggested I throw myself off a cliff. “What relationship?”

“The one you and Finn have been hiding from the public eye,” she says calmly. “Or at least, the one everyone is going to believe you have. If you and Finn have been secretly dating, then this whole sponsor affair story falls apart. No one willbelieve you were sneaking around with some married man when you were supposedly in a whirlwind romance with your skating partner.”

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