Page 81 of The Overtime Persuasive

His gaze returns to mine, and some of the tension leaves his shoulders. “Awesome. Put me to work.”

“Oh, I will.” I walk around the counter, catch the front of his sweatshirt, and then slant my lips across his.

Liam goes still, but only for half a second before his hands find my waist.

I expect the familiar rush I’m getting used to when our bodies connect. His grin against my mouth. The heat that usually arrives almost immediately, as if kissing me flips a switch inside him.

Instead, Liam kisses me slowly.

There’s no rush to it. No teasing smile and no urgency in the way he touches me. I want to pull him closer, to kiss him hard enough to coax the familiar Liam back into place, but something in his stillness stops me. This doesn’t feel like he’s asking for more. It feels like he’s asking me to stay.

So, I slide my arms around his neck and follow where he leads, giving him what he seems to need.

His hands tighten at my waist, and he exhales across my lips as though he’s been waiting to be right here, exactly where he is now, all his life. The sound catches somewhere deep inside my chest.

I want to ask what happened after the cameras stopped rolling, what is it that put that look in his eyes. But my questions could break whatever shelter he’s found in this moment, and I can’t bring myself to do that. Not yet.

When our mouths finally part, he doesn’t let me go. He sighs and rests his forehead to mine, and I keep my arms around him.

Whatever cracked open last night followed him here.

I lift one hand and touch the uninjured side of his face. “Have you talked to your coach?”

“We met this morning.”

“How much trouble are you in?”

“I don’t know yet.” His jaw tightens. “We handed them the game, and I can’t argue that. He’s right. I let seventeen bait me into fighting, which is not who I want to be. The official was calling it. If I’d stayed down for another second or gotten up and skated away, we would have had the power play.”

“But instead, you hit him.”

“I did indeed. Several times.”

“I saw.” Something almost resembling pride flickers through me, which is inappropriate. There should be nothing attractive about watching Liam throw a punch. Unfortunately, my body and my principles are not always in direct communication. “It wasn’t ideal, but you were pushed in the heat of the moment. Did you ask if it would affect your chances for the alternate position?”

“Not directly.” Liam steps away from me and pushes both hands through his hair. “He had Tripp leave first, then when we were alone, he reminded me that wanting more responsibility means having control when someone is trying to take it from me.”

He looks toward the front window, but I don’t think he’s registering anything outside.

“Is that what’s bothering you?”

“We lost, Eva.”

“That isn’t what I asked.”

His gaze comes back to me. “Tripp got a misconduct,” he finally says.

I nod. “I saw him come in.”

“He was supposed to be changing on for Campbell. Instead, he saw the second guy grab me and went straight after him.”

“Sounds like he helped you.”

“He made it worse.”

I want to laugh. Whether this man realizes it or not, he’s caught up in a bromance with a guy he sees as a rival. “Those two things can both be true.”

Liam’s mouth tightens. “Coach said the same thing. Not in those words.”