Page 67 of Treacherous
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Conner steals the puck before his opposing player can, sending it towards Willow.
She doesn’t skate with it for more than three seconds, spying an opening for me. She passes the puck down the middle of the ice, providing me with a breakaway opportunity. I pick up speed, wind up my stick and send the puck past the goalie.
Screams echo in my ears, the crowd is on their feet to celebrate not only my second goal of the night, but a comprehensive win. My teammates skate towards me, slapping me on the back and voicing their praises.
“Four goals to nil. What a fucking night!” Aiden yells.
I smile. “I can’t take all the credit, Toby, that was the best game you’ve played all season.”
“Thanks, Cap.”
All of us skate off the ice, heading into the locker rooms. Coach West and Harris have smiles plastered on their faces and positive feedback for every player. They don’t keep us any longer, letting us shower and pack up our shit.
At the beginning of the season, I forced all the guys to shower as fast as they could, so Willow didn’t have to worry about running into any of us when she left her shower. I scrub my body quickly, wincing when I place too much pressure on bruises that are embedded in my skin.
I join everyone in the locker room, where everyone except Willow is present. She enters the room a couple minutes later, Cooper takes this as his chance to talk.
“You know what this calls for…” he says, trailing off.
“Party time!” Willow yells, finishing off Coops’ thought.
I shake my head, a small smile forming on my lips. For once, I agree with them. Everyone was on fire tonight, so a little celebration isn’t going to hurt anyone.
“Last one back to the Hockey House has to do a shot for every goal we scored tonight,” Aiden says, rushing out of the locker room to his car.
Fucking hell. So much for no one getting hurt. In saying that, it is quite funny to watch all my teammates be hungover the following day. I sigh, throwing my duffle bag over my shoulder and heading for my car.
Someone responsible should be at the Hockey House before everyone else crashes the place, an inevitability when Aiden and Cooper throw a party.
The music grows louder as I edge closer to the house. Tonight is going to be a long night.
Chapter 25
Willow Rogers
The blinding strobe lights flash throughout the room, music pounding in my ears. The team was down to celebrate after our first win back from the Christmas break, even Jayden agreed, surprisingly.
Lakewood had a shutout victory, meaning Miami, our opposing team, didn’t score any goals. And on top of that, we scored four goals.
Jayden ended with two, me with one, and Sam with the other. It was a great fucking game.
Now, I’m sipping alcohol and doing my best to smother the flames that Jayden ignites inside me. Over the break, we broke the rules. It was only once, while babysitting Daisy, but everypart of me wanted to kiss him during the New Years Eve countdown.
I didn’t go to the beach party with Jaz and Theo, as well as some of our old high school friends. Instead, we sat inches away from each other in his treehouse, neither of us bothering to hide the fact that we were staring at each other’s lips.
These dangerous desires are fucking with my head, yet part of me wants to dance closer to the flames that explode when we are together.
I promised to avoid men, not wanting to expose my heart to being shattered again, but something about Jayden is different.
I sip on my drink, nodding as Cooper tells me something about his class. To be honest, I’m not paying attention to him. I’m searching the crowd for the person I wish I could avoid.
My breathing stalls, muscles tensing as I spy a woman trying—and failing—to flirt with Jayden. My teeth clench, watching as this woman places a hand on Jayden’s shoulder.
Something inside me snaps. It doesn’t matter that Jayden’s body tenses, and he is stepping back from her touch.
“Sorry, Cooper. We’ll talk later.”
