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I can't get caught looking at her.
Quickly, I divert my gaze down to the black rubber flooring as I turn and drop down onto one of the benches along the boards. As I pull on the zipper of my bag, I see Aria moving from the corner of my eye. It takes everything in me to ignore her presence as I take out my skates and kick my sneakers off my feet.
"Hey," Aria says quietly as she steps over to me. Her voice is soft and warm. I hate how much I love the sound of it. "I wasn't sure if you were going to show up."
I lift my gaze to hers, finding her steel-colored eyes trained on mine. "I wasn't sure I was going to either."
It's not a lie. It still feels weird, the thought of skating with her. We've spent years in silent competition with one another. Years of avoiding each other after she started dating my rival in high school. Years of this fucking tension between us that you could practically reach out and pluck from the air. Something about her has always been like a thorn in my side.
Probably the fact that I've never been able to get her out of my head.
"Well, I appreciate the honesty." She smiles and nods. I direct my attention back to my feet and finish tying my skates as she watches me. "Did you have a preference for music?"
Shaking my head, I stand up. Aria's already well over a foot shorter than me, but standing on skates, she appears that much shorter. "Just put on whatever you like."
She tilts her head to the side ever so slightly that if I weren't studying her, I would have missed the moment. I see the unreadable look pass through her expression before it disappears. She gives nothing away, holding her cards close to her chest. Add that to the list of things about Aria Reed that drive me fucking insane.
"I'll meet you on the ice," she tells me with a bright smile before she walks past me. I catch a whiff of her perfume again and I can't help myself as I inhale deeply. That smell has been etched in my memory since the night I had her against the wall in the foyer of her house. I want to go back to that night. I should have fucked her then so I could have gotten her out of my system.
I'm not sure how avoiding her is going to work anymore since we're stuck together indefinitely.
I get on the ice while Aria goes to the sound system and connects her phone to the speakers. A classical song starts playing, one I don't recognize. My blades slide across the surface and I use the muscles in my thighs to generate power as I bend my knees. I move swiftly around the rink, warming up my legs while tuning out the world around me. The music is background noise and my mind is finally in a state of nothingness. I breeze past Aria, who is slowly moving around, going through her own warm-up routine.
We skate separately for the duration of the song, both of us ending up at opposite sides of the rink from one another. The song shifts into another, the sound of the cello and piano melting together through the speakers. Aria's eyes meet mine from across the ice. I swallow hard as her gaze holds mine and she begins to skate toward me. My breath hitches and I start to move, following her lead.
We meet in the face-off circle in the center of the ice. Our toes just barely touch each other as we lock our gazes, listening to the tempo of the music beginning to pick up. Aria moves first, positioning herself so her hips are facing me as she begins to skate around me. Pushing off with the inside edge of my skate, I move in synchrony with her, both of us circling around each other. The way we move together, there's a subtle push and then a magnetic pull, drawing us back to one another.
Aria moves in front of me as she does a mohawk so her back is facing me. She comes toward me with her arms stretched out to the sides. I hook my hands under her arms and lift her into the air in one swift movement. Her legs stay straight and I skate backward for a few strides before slowly spinning her in a circle. I set her down on the ice, sliding my hands out to hers, and we begin to skate together, moving across the rink.
The pounding sensation is gone from my head. My muscles are warm and pliable. My heart beats hard and strong in my chest, my breathing picking up. Nothing else matters in this moment except the perfect harmony that is being created between Aria and I.
I hate it so much.
I hate that I fucking love this.
Releasing her, we break apart, skating separately before we come together again. This isn't a planned routine or anything we've done before. We're simply moving together, making it up as we go. We're doing whatever feels right in the moment.
I spin to face Aria, my hands instinctively grabbing hers. I start to skate backward, pulling her with me as she skates forward. "Do you trust me?" I ask her, my eyes searching hers as we round the corner of the rink.
Aria’s pink lips part and her gaze is trained on mine. “At this moment? Yes.”
“Good answer,” I say, pulling her along. It’s a risky move, especially since we’ve never done it together before, but the adrenaline rushing through my body has me ready to do it now. If we're going to be a pair, this is something we will have to do together. "I'm going to spin you around and throw you into a jump."
She nods as she folds her lips in between her teeth and then releases them. "I'll do a triple toe loop."
"Perfect. Are you ready?"
As we come back around the opposite side of the rink, Aria's gloved hands leave mine and she spins around to face the other direction. She glances over her shoulder, extending her hand back to me as we both begin to skate backward. I pull her along and she does a few crossovers as we skate past the benches. When we pass through the neutral zone, I reach for her hips and she keeps her feet crossed over one another.
Bending my knees, I press my weight into my feet and grip her hips harder as I begin to lift her into the air. It all happens so quickly and she doesn’t miss a beat. I spring up, spinning to face the other direction. Her body leaves my hands as I throw her upward. I watch her spin and I’m completely captivated at how effortless she looks spinning through the air. I skate forward as she lands the jump perfectly, coming down on one skate with her other foot out behind her.
Her eyes quickly meet mine. Her chest heaves with a rushed breath, cheeks tinted pink. My mouth is instantly dry and the depth of my own breathing matches hers. My heart pounds erratically in my chest and I meet her again on the ice. My hands instinctively drop down to her hips and I pull her closer to me.
"Leo," she murmurs, her voice like velvet as we slow to a stop. Our skates shave the ice, creating a dusting of snow. Aria tips her head back to look up at me as she holds on to my biceps. Her chest rises and falls with every breath that escapes her. My gaze drops down to her lips.
I shouldn't do it.
Do not do it.
