Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 104081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
I watched her for a moment more before I closed my eyes, and set my gaze back to the game.
Before her, it had never been an issue for me to focus on hockey. It didn’t matter what kind of pussy I was getting before or after the games — when I was on the ice, that was all that mattered.
But with her in the tunnel, it was impossible not to notice.
I felt her eyes on me, felt her smile like it was my own. I could predict the exact shape of it, how it would spread slowly, like she was fighting it before she let it take over her completely. I could close my eyes and see hers, could feel her pulse under my palm just like the stick I held right now.
She was engrained in me.
Which was a real fucking problem, considering what she wanted.
An unfamiliar numbness fell over me like fog as we did our victory lap around the rink at the end of the game. We were on fire. I was on fire.
And yet I felt like a man standing on a hilltop watching a tornado touchdown, knowing it would be blazing a path of destruction straight toward me, but unable to move my feet.
Maven was laughing in the locker room when I made it back after the star ceremony, and her eyes caught mine from across the room. She smiled, her gaze mischievous and stirring my body to life.
I could fuck that girl twenty times a day and still not ever get enough.
“So… Boomer’s?” she asked me when I walked over to where she and Carter were.
I hoped my smile was more convincing than it felt. “Of course. I just want to run upstairs and bike for a bit. Legs are tight.”
She nodded, smirking a little bit as she reached up and thumbed my brow. I still had a little bit of dried blood on it from the fight.
“What did he say to get you so worked up?”
I shrugged. “Nothing. I just felt like fighting.”
She gave me a look that said she knew better, but dropped it. “I’m going to go change. Text me when you’re wrapping up?”
With a nod from me, she swept out of the locker room, and I watched her go with a boulder sitting on my chest.
When I turned toward my locker to start changing, I found Will Perry staring at me.
He didn’t say a word, but when I went upstairs to the team gym, he followed. Silently, he climbed onto the bike next to mine, and it was just the sound of the equipment whirring for a while before he finally spoke.
“When are you going to tell her?”
Sweat dripped into my eyes, my ribs burning. “Don’t.”
He shook his head, sitting up and slowing his stride. He watched me in the mirror, but I stayed bent, pedaling faster. The longer I felt his eyes on me, the harder I worked, until I was out of breath and cursing, sitting up to mirror his stance. I swiped my towel off the handlebars and covered my face with it, slinging it over my shoulder before my hands wrapped around the bars once more. I stared at my knuckles where they were turning white, all while he stared at me.
“You love her.”
I closed my eyes on a long exhale.
“You don’t have to admit it,” he continued. “I know it when I see it.”
My brows bent together then, and I turned to look at him, stunned to see a bit of vulnerability on that normally grumpy face of his. He didn’t have to tell me for me to know the ghosts in his eyes were the ones of his late wife.
I sighed, sitting up again and folding my arms over my chest. “I’m going insane.”
“It’s terrifying, isn’t it?”
I laughed through my nose, but didn’t say anything more.
“Have you two been…”
“Fucking like porn stars every waking minute of the day? Yes.”
He smirked, wiping a hand over his mouth. “Not what I was going to say, but good to know.” He fell quiet for a moment before adding, “So, what’s wrong?”
I didn’t even try to say nothing, because the fact that he could read me well enough to follow me up here told me I didn’t stand a chance of convincing him of that.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “We’re having a great time. She’s… God, she’s fucking phenomenal. Funny. Smart. Stubborn as hell. That woman knocks me on my ass daily.”
“She’s a good one.”
I nodded.
“So… again, what’s the issue?”
I swallowed. “The issue is that I think you might be right.” I looked at him then. “I think I love her.”
Saying the words out loud felt like stabbing my own chest with a dull, rusty knife. I felt the air leak out of me along with them, and I stared down at my shoes on the bike pedals.