Page 52 of Meet Me in the Penalty Box

I smiled down at her, my laugh matching hers as I pushed the door shut. She wasn’t wrong there. Although, I would much rather eat her than dinner right now.

I took her back to Dare and I watched the excitement in her eyes as we were seated at another private booth. The last time we were here, things got heated pretty quickly and we ended up taking our food to go. Tonight I wanted to do things a little differently. If she was going to make me wait, then I wasn’t going to make it easy for her at all.

We were seated with our drinks, and our food was already ordered, as I sat next to her with my hand on her thigh. “I had some other ideas for what we could do tonight, but I wasn’t sure if you would be interested or not…”

Harper raised an eyebrow. “What did you have in mind?”

I slowly moved my hand between her thighs and gripped her flesh. “I want to take you ice skating.”

“Umm…” Harper paused as a nervous laugh fell from her lips. “So, I’m embarrassed to say this since you do it for a living, but I’ve never ice-skated before.”

A smile pulled on my lips and lifted them upward. “I was honestly hoping you would say that.”

“Why’s that?” she said with a curious look in her eyes as she tilted her head to the side.

“Because I want as many of your firsts that I can have.”

Her tongue darted out to wet her lips and I watched a wave of emotion pass through her bright blue irises. She ducked her gaze down to the table as she lifted her drink. I watched the hues of pink appear on her cheeks and I couldn’t help but feel satisfied.

“Where were we going to go?”

I winked. “I think I might know of a place.”

* * *

As we stood outside of the stadium, Harper glared at me. “You want to break in? Do you want us to get arrested?”

I laughed as I looked over at her as we reached the players’ entrance. My hand dipped into my pocket and I pulled out a key. “It’s technically not breaking in if you have a key, right?”

She didn’t look amused. “Nico… if anyone catches us here, we’re fucked.”

I swiftly pulled her flush against me and dipped my face down to hers as I nipped at her bottom lip. “This is what you’re worried about getting caught doing with me?” I laughed quietly as I pulled her bottom lip between my teeth. “I think there are worse things we could get caught doing.”

“Nico…” She said my name in a warning tone, yet her voice was hoarse and thick with lust.

Releasing her from my grip, I stepped away from her as I slid the key into the lock and opened the door. I looked back at Harper who was standing behind me with her arms crossed over her chest. “Are you coming with me or are you going to play it safe instead?”

Conflict washed over her expression and finally she sighed and took a step after me. “If we get caught, this is your fault.”

“I’ll gladly take all the blame, love.” I laughed again as I pulled her into the stadium with me. Whether we got caught in here or for doing something else together, protecting Harper was my number one concern. If there was one of us that would take the fall, I would do everything I possibly could to make it be me and not her.

It was quiet as we walked through the concrete halls. There was no one here but us and it was the first time I had ever experienced this before. When I was in high school, we used to sneak into one of the local rinks to play pickup games in the middle of the night. It happened a few times before we got caught, but then the owner just started leaving the door unlocked for us instead.

There were soft lights glowing throughout the building, probably for actual security if and when they patrolled the area. It was just enough light to guide us to the locker room and I pulled Harper inside. The room was dark and I flicked on the light as it illuminated the entire room. Harper walked over and sat down on the bench as she looked up at me.

She sat right by my name and I couldn’t help but smile down at her. “Do you even have skates I can wear?”

Shit.

“I was thinking you could probably just wear Wes’s or something. They’re not going to fit but I’ll tie them tight enough that it shouldn’t matter.”

She continued to look at me, unconvinced, but shrugged instead. I walked over to grab Wes’s skates as she kicked off her sneakers. I moved back in front of her and slid each of her feet into the skates before lacing them up. She was quiet and watched me as I tied them tightly and set them back on the floor.

I grabbed my own skates and put them on before helping her up to her feet. She was a little wobbly and I held my arm out for her to hold on to for support.

“This feels like a terrible idea,” she muttered as I began to lead her down the tunnel toward the ice. “I’m going to break my ankle or something.”

I chuckled and shook my head at her dramatics. “Are your skates not tight enough?”

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