Page 23 of Ice Block

After a couple of drinks at the bar while checking emails on my phone, I take the little paper envelope out of my pocket and check the room number. 637. I’m ready to get settled in the room and take a shower to rinse off the airport nastiness on my skin and hair from the planes recycled air. Not to mention the sand from the walk on the beach.

God…what am I doing?My heart pounds harder with every step I take. How am I going to stay in a room with him for a week?You are strong, Magdalina.I steady my hand as I hold the key card on the scanner and enter the room.You can do this.

“You in here, Vladi?” I call as I’m jolted by a draft of freezing cold air. “Geezus; it’s so goddamn cold in here!” I say to myself,closing the door behind me. “Does he have the air-conditioning set to Arctic Circle?” I quickly scan the room, looking for the thermostat.There!Stomping over to it, I see it’s set at sixty-five. “What the actual fuck? Hell no,” I grumble, quickly turning it up to seventy to stop my teeth from chatteringpracticallymiles from the equator.

Taking another look around, I immediately check the cheese factor of the artwork. Usually, hotels and resorts have the worst art prints covering the walls. Not here. My eyes widen as I walk toward a framed print on the wall, brushing my fingers along the edge, its familiarity drawing me in. It’s a painting of a beach, but the water is not the Caribbean. I gasp. This is Lake Michigan. My mind whirls.Why does a resortherehave paintings, and beautiful ones at that, of the beach from my hometown?

“Hello Magdalina,” a deep, gravel-like voice calls from across the room, breaking me out of my trance. I quickly turn, seeing Vladi walking across the room. Powerful. Confident. And fucking naked as the day he was born.

“Wh…wh…what are you doing?” I scream, trying to look away, but my eyes are frozen on his goddamn chiseled-ass body.

“Walking to get my clothes.”

“Why are you—wait, is your nipple pierced?”

“Yes.” He looks down and brushes his knuckles over the silver bar, then continues to walk toward me, his usual stoic face void of any goddamn ounce of emotion or embarrassment. “I’d love to talk about this more, but as I mentioned, I’m walking to get my clothes. You shower, then get dressed, yes?”

What the hell kind of game is he playing flaunting his assets without any shame? And he got a nipple piercing?!My mind is spinning so fast I can’t keep up, and I can barely form words at the sight of him in his goddamn birthday suit.“Why don’t you have a damn towel or something?!”

“When I got in the shower, I was here alone,lisichka,”he says,stepping closer. “I didn’t think I needed to cover myself.” He’s now inches from me, the heat from his post-shower body radiating onto my skin.God, he smells so good; amber and citrus and…him.I subconsciously lick my lips.Delicious.

“Can you just…just…put some clothes on? Please?” I stutter, trying not to let on how shaken I am by him standing so close.

“I’d be happy to,” he groans in a low rumble, remaining perfectly still.

Neither of us move. “Then why are you still standing here, Vladi?”

He leans over to whisper in my ear, my skin electric with how close his body is to mine. My heart races, and I feel more parched than I ever have in my life. I need a goddamn drink to quench this thirst, and it’s not water my body is aching for.

“You’re standing in front of the dresser where my clothes are. If you move, I’ll gladly put them on for you,” he growls, sending a shiver down my entire spine. “But I have a feeling you’re enjoying the view. Are you not?”

God, I want to melt into him right now. I rock on my toes, our chests nearly touching before I force myself back. He doesn’t want this. He doesn’t want me.Not to keep, anyway.I force the rage up into my face as I quickly shuffle away with a huff, averting my gaze while he pulls his clothes out of the dresser.

Who the hell unpacks their suitcase at a hotel?

“I am not, as you claim,enjoying the view.You can tell your ego to take it down a notch, asshole. I’ve seen the goods, and I’m not buying.”

He snorts a laugh as I hear the rustle of clothing.Fuck him and his damn hot body.

“Alright. I’m clothed. You may turn around.”

“Listen up, goalie man, let’s set a few ground rules for this week, shall we?” I spit out, my arms crossed to let him know Imean business, but also because I know my damn nipples are hard as hell from this freezing cold room and I don’t need him staring at the titsicles on my chest.

“First of all, no more nudity in this room,” I bark as he nods in agreement. “Second, my name is Maggie. Not Magdalina or whatever the hell Russian nicknames you come up with. It’s Maggie, Maggie James, or if you prefer, Maggie fucking James. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“Third, I still hate you. I doubt I’ll stop hating you, but we need to get along and not cause a scene at our friends’ wedding.”

“Agreed,” he grunts.

“Fantastic. This week is about Hayes and Olivia, not our…” I gesture my hands back and forth between us, “…ourdrama. Finally, we need to come up with some sort of bathroom and sleep schedule so we don’t have to be on top of each other all weekend.” His eyes light up at my words, his body invading my personal space once more. “Dammit! I didn’t mean…Ugh!You are infuriating. Get your mind out of the gutter. You know what I mean!” Flustered and needing a distraction, I march over to my suitcase and rifle through it to find my toiletry bag, more than ready to finally take my own shower.

“There is no need for a schedule, Maggie. I will sleep, as you suggested earlier, on the floor. You can have the bed.”

Why does he have to be so nice?I bite the inside of my cheek, guilt washing over me at the thought of him sleeping on the cold, concrete floor.Goddammit, I’m trying to hate him!

I sigh loudly, surprising myself at not wanting to be a total bitch. “You can’t sleep on the floor all week. It will wreck your back, and I don’t need the entire Riders team plotting my death because their goalie has back issues. This was your room to begin with. And while Idespiseyou, I think listening to you whine about your back would make me hate you more. I’ll sleep on the floor. It’llbe just like the awful camping trips my mom used to take me on as a kid.”

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