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Daring me to push her harder.

I leaned in, voice dropping into something rough and quiet. “Prove it then.”

Her nostrils flared, her breath sharp.

“Take the hit," I said.

Her fingers twitched against mine.

“Get back up.”

She swallowed, fire raging in her eyes, but there was something else there too. Something deeper. Something she didn’t want me to see.

“Show me you want it.”

For half a second, she wavered.

And then—she ripped her arm free like I’d burned her.

“I don’t need to prove anything to you," she growled.

The lie sat between us, thick and obvious.

I held her gaze, refusing to back down. The air between us was a live wire, sparking, ready to ignite. This wasn’t just about hockey. This was about us. A challenge. A battle line. A fucking war waiting to happen. And we were just getting started.

Silence stretched between us, thick, charged, suffocating. The air was heavy as a glove drop, tense as a fight waiting to break out. Every breath she took, every sharp rise and fall of her chest, only pushed me closer to the edge. She should walk away. She should shove me again, should spin on her heel and get as far from me as possible.

But she didn’t.

She stood there, shoulders squared, chin tilted up, staring me down like I was her next battle.

And fuck—maybe I was.

Her eyes flickered—hatred, defiance, something else. Something that coiled low in my stomach, dark and insatiable. She wanted to destroy me just as much as she wanted to close the distance.

And I couldn’t decide which one I wanted more.

My fingers twitched at my sides, aching to reach for her. To grab her jaw, tilt her head back, and see what kind of sound she’d make if I pushed her past her breaking point.

Her breath hitched, just barely, and then—she licked her lips.

Slow. Deliberate.

My gaze snapped to her mouth, a single second too long, and I felt the shift—the way the air crackled, like this was already spiraling out of control.

Goddamn it.

Everything around us blurred. The rink, the weight room, the world beyond this moment—all of it faded to nothing.

Just her.

Just this heat, this fucking pull that gnawed at my insides and refused to let go.

Her chest rose and fell faster now, tension wound tight enough to snap. That fire in her gaze burned dangerously close to something more—something raw, something untamed.

And I knew, in that split second, that whatever this was between us—it wasn’t going away.

It didn’t matter how hard I tried to fight it.