Page 52 of Ice Rebel

I’d been doing that since I was a kid. Likely since I had two older brothers who liked to lord things over me.

I laughed as I headed to the rink. Before I even made it to the tunnel, I heard noise. Someone else was practicing. Well, shit. There went my alone time. There was plenty of room, but I’d needed time alone.

Partially to process the time spent the night before. Usually thinking about a girl prior to a big game had been easy to shove aside. None I’d been with had given me any real trouble with channeling all my energy to the game. But I needed a way to get Clementine out of my system.

We hadn’t exchanged numbers or made any promises to each other. We’d had hot sex three times and I’d left before the sun came up.

The only person who’d caught me coming back into the house had been Darren’s brother, who’d been sent to pack up his things.

Everything had happened so fast that I was shocked my buddy’s family had pushed for removing any existence of him from the house. I only hoped the owner wasn’t eager to rent out the room.

Since my body was still aching, making a few shots while working on those pivots would do it some good. Hopefully, my mind as well. I’d pretty much decided I’d go see her after I got back.

Not that I had an excuse any longer since I really had cancelled my membership. The things men did for a woman.

As soon as the player on the ice took a lap, I froze. Jagger Fucking Black. How the hell did I get so damn unlucky? Oh, yeah. All my dad had to do was to mention gambling.

Fuck. I’d ignore him. Yeah, I knew I’d eventually need to talk with him since the coach wanted us to be co-captains, but not today.

With a couple of pucks in hand, I skated onto the ice, purposely not even looking in his direction. He wasn’t paying a damn bit of attention to me, but there was increased tension as well as a heavy dose of testosterone in the air.

I started easy, moving around my half of the ice, ignoring the annoyance crawling up my ass. He took a couple of shots, which were nice and easy for him. He was a damn good player, although his arrogance was usually what kept him from excelling.

Not that he’d want to hear that.

I smacked a few in myself just to warm up. It felt good so I continued doing it, dragging few more pucks into the mix.

With a few exercises completed, I skated in a circle as if to cool down. At first, his volleys were spot on, one going into the net after another. And from all angles.

Then something happened. He couldn’t get a goddamn puck in to save his life. What the hell was his problem all of a sudden?

Seconds later, I sensed his disgust. Stick over his head, ready to snap it in two. Hell, I’d been there many a time. He caught me looking, his face turning beet red.

“What the fuck do you think you’re looking at?”

He’d been off the rails like I’d been before, but whatever had crawled up his ass was the size of a freight train. At first, I threw up my hands, the little voice inside my head telling me the shit could escalate quickly.

But he wasn’t interested in leaving it alone.

“I was talking to you, Rebel without a cause.”

What the fuck? Comparing me to James Dean? “What’s that supposed to mean?” The sure-fire way of getting under my skin was tossing out some cryptic shit because it almost always led to the perceived problem being I was a shifter. That never boded well for anyone in the end.

“It means you’re a lousy defenseman. I’ve seen more aggression from a turnstile.”

What. The. Fuck?

“Yeah, well, you couldn’t make a damn shot when it counted if the ice was wide open, so I’d shut your damn mouth.”

He puffed up much like I was doing. “Oh, yeah?”

“Hell, yeah.” We were skating around each other, every circle becoming tighter. “Besides, I’m a much better player.”

“You want to put your money where your mouth is?”

His challenge was unusual. From what I could tell about the guy, he was rich. He could afford to lose a few bucks. I was just hoping to save enough money to move into a place of my own. Plus, there was the gambling curse again.

My hesitation caused him to laugh. “And the coach thinks you’re a damn leader. I’m a much better captain.”