Page 40 of Call the Shots
Bear tried to stop me, but I ducked under his arm. “June.”
“I can’t teach you how to play hockey,” I said, slipping the safety pin into the bin’s lock. “But we need to figure out a way to get rid of your coach.”
“You’re stealing his shit?”
“His papers? Yes.”
“What if he’s in his office and he comes out with a weapon or something?”
“What if he coaches you to the Olympics? Let’s keep going with the fantasies.”
“Shut up.” Bear was silent for a moment. “You know how to pick locks?”
“Uh-huh. My friend Kassie taught me.”
With a clicking sound, I pulled open the little door without thinking it through. A mountain of papers flooded the hallway.Shit!I didn’t think there were so many, and I didn’t have a way to carry them.
“Fuck,” Bear muttered and his footsteps followed, leaving me behind.
Whatever, fine. Bear could run to safety, I didn’t care. I hurried to stack the papers. If I could run to the maintenance closet, I could hide them in the mop bucket?—
His footsteps returned with a swishing sound and I glanced up, confused, before Bear brought down a huge trash bag, stuffing the papers inside. Reluctantly, I thanked him.
“I think I found the panel!” Miles shouted.
My heart thudded—I couldn’t tell them to hold off on the power, they’d have too many questions. I didn’t want to implicate the others. Bear and I hurried to throw papers into the trash bag. We were so close—almost done. I slammed the littledoor shut and touched the floor for remaining papers when I felt something else.
Bear’s fingers.
The lights of the Colo flickered on again, bright, painful, and fluorescent.
Bear was a lot closer than I thought.
His eyes were only five or six inches away. Closer than I’d ever been to him by far. Usually, we were so busy fighting, I didn’t get a chance to see his face.
His eyes were a warm, rich brown, nothing cold about them. Which was such a contrast to his personality. Bear was stony and unfeeling, he ignored his teammates’ offers to grab lunch and Montoya’s study sessions. Mostly, Bear gamed in our dorm, alone. Always alone, always thinking that he was better than everybody else and nobody could compete with his favorite company—himself.
But his eyes…hiseyes.His eyes made my chest feel just as warm as the color and my heart thudded in my chest. I couldn’t stand Bear, but I couldn’t say he wasn’t attractive.
“June!” Miles belted out. “King’s here!”
I broke away and tied the garbage bag in a knot, heading for the maintenance closet. Bear didn’t say anything, not even when I said he had to tell the Gladiators that the closet was off-limits. I’d pick up the trash bag tonight.
When I left the hallway, I put a hand to my chest, breathing deeply. Away from Bear and his cologne and his warm brown eyes.
Good.
After the last hookup disasters, I’d been celibate for too damn long. Maybe Xavier wasn’t a god in bed but at least he had the prerequisites down.
It’d been way too long since I had good sex.
Because if I didn’t know any better, I was checking out Bear.
CHAPTER 16
BEAR
BUZZSAW
