Page 124 of Game Misconduct
It’s the most arresting thing I’ve ever seen.
She lookshomehere.
“Ready to get your ass handed to you, Lasker?” she asks, stopping inches from me with a controlled spray of ice.
I arch a brow. “You mean, are you sure you can handle the humiliation?”
She just smirks. “I was landing triple lutzes when you were still learning how to tie your skates.”
“Big words for someone who’s about to eat my snow.”
She snorts. “Please. I’m a figure skater. I don’t fall. I descend.”
I bark out a laugh and skate backward, giving her space. “Fine. You set the terms.”
“Three laps. Full length of the rink. First one back to the blue line wins.”
“And what’s on the line?”
“If I win,” she says, tapping her blade against the ice, “you buy me dinner again. And this time,Ipick the movie.”
“And if I win?”
“You won’t.”
I lift a brow. “That confident?”
“That terrified?” she tosses back.
Christ. She’s having fun and it’s fucking gorgeous.
We take our marks at the blue line, and she does a little bounce on her skates like it’s nothing. Just a casual weeknight duel with the guy she’s been riding all weekend.
“On your count,” I say.
“Three…two…one—go!”
She takes off like a shot.
For a second, I keep pace easily. I’m bigger, more powerful. My strides cover ground, and I know how to cut corners like I’m guarding the net from hell itself.
But by the second turn, I start to notice something.
She’scleanerthan me.
Every push is efficient. Her blade edges bite perfectly into the ice. She doesn’t muscle her way through—sheflows. There’s no wasted movement. No effort burned on anything that doesn’t matter.
By the start of lap two, she’s ahead. By the end of it, she’s so far in front I’m questioning my entire damn athletic career.
Lap three is just damage control.
She crosses the blue line with both arms in the air and a triumphant, breathless laugh that echoes off the walls.
I coast in behind her, panting, stunned, and grinning like an idiot.
“What—” I gesture wildly. “What thehellwas that?”
“Told you,” she says, turning toward me with flushed cheeks and bright eyes. “You’re all power. No finesse.”
