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Laurie started to close in on him once again, and Cole glanced over his shoulder as he heard the scrape of her skates behind him. With Cole distracted for a brief moment, I took off toward him.

He quickly noticed I was coming though. He shot me a smirk and started to skate away. Cole was better than I remembered on the ice, but I was faster, and I could feel myself gaining on him.

The ice slid smoothly beneath my skates as I powered across the rink. Skating had always felt as natural as breathing to me, and I found myself grinning wider as I continued to build momentum.

I was practically flying I was going so fast, every second inching closer and closer to Cole. When he neared the far end of the rink, he slid to a stop and turned. His eyes were determined as he watched the distance between us growing smaller. I knew he was waiting for me to draw close enough so he could dodge around me. He had to wait until the last second so I couldn’t alter my trajectory and catch him.

What he wasn’t counting on was the fact that I wasn’t afraid to continue toward him at full speed. I surged toward him faster, not giving him a chance to try and outwit me.

I was almost to him when he started to move. He accelerated too slowly though, and I collided with his chest, throwing the two of us to the ground. A pair of arms wrapped around my waist as we slammed into the ice.

I clenched my eyes shut as I felt the impact. It was hard but not nearly as bad for me as I suspected it had been for Cole.

“Geez, Matthews,” Cole wheezed. “Are you trying to kill me?”

I slowly blinked my eyes open and found my face hovered right over his. I was looking directly into his eyes. They were more blue than green today and were filled with concern. His hands still gripped my waist, and I was pressed firmly against the hard planes of his chest. I’d never been this close to Cole before, and I found myself not wanting to move away.

“Did I hurt you?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Nah, I’m pretty big and strong, if you haven’t noticed. No injuries here. How about you?”

“I’m fine,” I replied, still staring into his eyes. I knew I should be trying to get up again, but I also couldn’t seem to drag myself away.

The sound of clapping brought reality crashing back to me though, and I finally pulled my eyes away from Cole in time to see Angus and the film crew approaching.

I blinked and quickly shook my head as I went to roll off Cole and scramble to my feet. For a moment I’d completely forgotten anyone else was there. As we both stood up, I found Cole’s red handkerchief lying on the ice beside us. I picked it up and passed it to him.

“I guess I won,” I said.

He looked down at the handkerchief and smiled. “You do realize that means you have to spend some time alone with me, right?” he asked, with a laugh.

“I’m sure I’ll survive,” I replied.

He smiled and lowered his lips to my ear, his hands lightly touching my waist as he drew near. “Don’t lie,” he murmured. “You know you can’t wait.”

His words caused my stomach to drop and my heart to flutter rapidly. Before I could respond, Angus came up beside us, and Cole pulled away. I almost missed his touch but resisted the temptation to reach out and stop him.

“No broken bones?” Angus asked. He almost sounded disappointed, like he wanted one of us to be injured.

“We’re both fine,” Cole replied, and I nodded my agreement.

I couldn’t seem to look Cole in the eyes after his whispered words, so I was glad of the distraction Angus brought.

“Congratulations on a great win, Madi,” Angus said. He directed his comment more at the nearest camera than at me.

“Thanks,” I replied with a tight smile. I wasn’t sure I’d have called what happened a great win. There was no mention of Laurie’s cheating, and Angus clearly wasn’t concerned about the fact I had been close to injuring myself.

I looked past Angus to find Laurie scowling at me while Teagan and Evan both talked with her. Their expressions were angry, and their motions were exaggerated. They kept pointing in my direction as they spoke, so I got the feeling they were having serious words with Laurie about what she did to me.

Brett had his camera focused on the whole interaction, so I had a bad feeling the drama would end up on the show come Sunday night. Skye went over to calm them down. As they listened to her, she started directing them off the ice along with the rest of the contestants who had stayed to watch the last challenge. Teagan caught my eye as she was leaving and gave me a small wave and mouthed, “good luck.”

“Thanks,” I mouthed back at her. I was probably going to need it.

“So, what now?” I asked, focusing back on Angus.

It wasn’t Angus who replied though. Cole reached out and took my hand in his. “Now we have our one-on-one date,” he said. I was surprised by how warmly he was looking at me. He seemed happy I’d been the one to catch him, and that I was the one he wanted to spend some alone time with.

Not that we were really alone. One of the film club guys stood only a couple of feet from us with his camera, and Angus was whispering in his ear from beside him. I could see Brett fixing his camera on us from further down the rink, while Skye and some of the other members of the club watched from the sidelines. It was easy to forget the cameras were filming when the crew had to split their time between multiple contestants. But when it was just Cole and me, and all the cameras were trained on us, it made me feel like some kind of strange attraction in a zoo.