Page 65 of Against The Boards

I sighed. “I haven’t been on the ice in three years. One look from you, and I crumbled. Whatever’s going to happen between us...let’s just enjoy it.”

He nodded, and then he kissed me again, hot and needy, and now I was pissed at him because I had to sit in his SUV for hours, and I couldn’t touch him.

He pulled away reluctantly, and we skated off the ice together. He went to return his rentals, and I unlaced my skates and changed back into my flats. I checked my phone and saw some notifications from Instagram. I smiled at the post Benny had tagged me in. He posted a video of me skating across the ice with a caption reading, ‘Look at this beauty go!’ with the heart-eye emoji.

A smile turned up on my lips, but then I saw my brother was calling me.

“Hey,” I said into the phone.

He cleared his throat. “You got on the ice today?”

He must have seen Benny’s post.

Shit.

“Yeah. It felt great,” I admitted.

“What made you get back out there?” he asked.

Tristan was concerned when I had that concussion but supportive when I said I was done with hockey for good. Even if he didn’t agree with me. Dad retired from hockey because of concussions, and we took them seriously in our family.

“Oh, Benny insisted before we drove back home. It felt good,” I said again.

“Wait, where are you?” he asked.

I sighed. “I had to drive up to St. Catharines to get shit from Lisa.”

“Shit, Roxie. You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m good.”

“Benny went with you? And you didn’t murder each other?” he asked with a laugh.

Nope, he’d murdered my vagina with his amazing cock, but I couldn’t tell my brother that. I didn’t want Benny to lose a limb or some shit. It was why we were keeping this a secret. My brother could never find out.

I sighed. “We don’t hate each other anymore.”

I could almost see my brother clenching his jaw. “He got you on the ice? Him?”

I laughed and mouthed ‘my brother’ to Benny as he joined my side again. I followed him outside to his SUV, and he started it up so we could begin the trek back home.

“Yeah, we learned to live with each other. You’re right; he’s not a bad guy. He helped me out with dealing with Lisa. He’s a good man.”

I cut my gaze across to the man driving next to me, and he sunk his teeth into his bottom lip, trying not to laugh. Ugh, those lips. I wanted to feel them on mine again.

“Say it again,” Tristan demanded.

“What?”

“That I’m right.”

“Oh, for fucks’s sake! Goodbye, Tristan!” I snapped and hung up on him.

“I’m proud of you,” Benny said after a few minutes of silence.

I eyed him carefully. “For what?”

“Getting back out there, facing your fears.”