Page 34 of Heart on Ice

“Who wouldn’t want to go to Paradise and have all your fantasies delivered? Most men in the city are self-absorbed and there for their own pleasure, not yours.”

“Sounds like you’ve been dating the wrong men. I was never selfish in that department.” He smirks. My cheeks heat at the memory. No, he was most certainly not selfish, and again another reason why he has ruined my life. “So, this place lets you do anything?” he asks when I ignore his remark.

I smirk. “Anything, within reason.”

“What were your fantasies then?” he questions.

“I’m not telling you that. We are not there in our friendship,” I snap.

A big smile falls across his stupidly handsome face. “You just called what we have a friendship. I’ll take it.”

I roll my eyes, but a stupid smile pushes against my lips. “Keep asking me questions about my sex life and you will be demoted,” I warn him.

He grins. “Noted. No personal questions, yet.” He arches a brow at me.

I shake my head. “Speaking of personal questions, can I ask what went wrong between you and Kitty?”

“So, you can ask about my sex life, but I can’t ask about yours?”

“I wasn’t asking you about your sex life. I was asking about your relationship,” I remark.

“Same thing. That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?” He lets out a deep sigh. “Honestly, I don’t know. I thought we werein love, but now I think she loved the idea of us more than she loved us. Since getting together her online presence has grown, and I was happy for her at the start as she has been working hard on building her modelling brand. As her following grew and the more opportunities she got, she made new friends, and I saw the girl I thought I knew start to change. She was partying a lot behind the scenes, she stopped coming to my games, she started spending money on extravagant things, and she became distant. For example, after your father’s funeral, she didn’t come home for two days. I needed her, I was a wreck, and we had a do-or-die game. When she came home, I found out she had been partying in Vegas.”

Oh wow. They always looked so happy online, not that I was stalking them or anything.

“And when we lost our last game, she left the stadium because she was embarrassed. She had the audacity to tell me that my losing the game embarrassed her in front of her friends.” Damn that’s cold. I saw that game, it was brutal. “She left me that night and partied with her friends.”

“I’m sorry.” And I mean it.

“I don’t know what I did wrong for her to cheat.” He stills. “Shit,” he curses, raking his fingers through his hair. “That just hit me. I get it now. I don’t understand why Kitty cheated, just like you didn’t know why I did it. I’m sorry. This sucks being on this side.” No shit. “I know dating a hockey player is hard, we are always away working, and I’m constantly training, but I didn’t think it was enough to break us up.”

“Maybe the two of you started growing in different directions. Her career was taking off while you’re at the height of yours,” I suggest. Pierre ponders this. “Is that why you kissed me?” I ask him.

Pierre sits there quietly mulling over my question. “I kissed you because I wanted to.” Oh. He then looks uncomfortableas he rubs his neck again. “I’ve been thinking about this for months. Why would I kiss you if I was happy in my relationship? Kissing you made me realize that my feelings for Kitty had changed.” Wow. “You know I’m sorry for kissing you. That wasn’t the right thing to do, especially then. It was an emotional day, and my emotions got the better of me, which is still no excuse.” Wasn’t expecting that apology. “Was a good kiss, though.” He looks up at me, giving me a heated stare.

My cheeks suddenly turn red reliving that kiss in my mind. It was good. And I hated how much I liked it. “I didn’t appreciate you making me the other woman, though.”

Pierre rubs his chin. “Yeah, I see how that looks now.”

“Why do you think Kitty fell for Bill? It’s such an unlikely coupling other than money,” I ask him.

“Honestly, I think that’s all it is, money. I remember her telling me about one of her girlfriends dating a billionaire and he was buying her all these extravagant things.”

“It’s not like you’re poor. Did Kitty get anything extravagant recently?” I ask.

Pierre frowns. “I don’t know, she always seemed to be shopping. She was making her own money, so I never questioned what she spent it on. Maybe Bill was financing her. I just don’t understand why he would do that to me. We used to go over once a month for family lunches on a Sunday. Bill would take me and some of the boys golfing. Kitty used to shop with Bill’s daughters, they were friends.” Wow. I had no idea they were that close, it kind of makes it worse.

“Do you think Kitty is going to try to get you back?” I ask.

“She is going to try to save her image. Most things at that wedding were in exchange for publicity. I have her muted on everything right now, so I’m not sure what she’s up to. Harper told her that she needed to say there was a family emergency. I’m not sure what’s going on because the thought of checkingmy messages gives me a panic attack, as you’ve bore witness to yesterday.”

“Do they happen a lot?” I ask him.

He shakes his head. “Not really, but they started to happen more frequently since the funeral.”

Am I giving him anxiety? Now that makes me feel shit and I shouldn’t feel shit, but I do. “Want me to check your messages?” I ask before I realize what I’ve said.

Pierre seems as surprised as I am. “You would? Harper’s checked yesterday’s but mainly she was focused on Kitty and her family’s texts.”

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