Page 40 of Breaking Point (IceHawks #1)

Grayson

GRAYSON

are you free tonight?

BELLA

yeah, is everything all right?

GRAYSON

be ready at 6 p.m.

BELLA

for…?

GRAYSON

our weekly date

BELLA

*gasp* am I finally being taught how to skate?

GRAYSON

by the best of the best ;)

BELLA

cocky much?

what if I wanted Kieran to teach me?

GRAYSON

I think you need a reminder of what happened the last time you wore his jersey

BELLA

no reminder necessary boss

GRAYSON

*boyfriend

BELLA

*fake boyfriend

I ’m desperate for another kiss.

Utterly desperate.

Bella is sitting in the passenger seat of my truck, her cheeks slightly flushed as she bites her bottom lip. I want nothing more than to pull over and rake my hands over every inch of her, but instead I force myself to ground out, “Have you ever skated before?”

I can see her shoulders shrug out of the corner of my eye. “A few times when I was younger, but I’m warning you, my coordination isn’t the best.”

A thrill shoots down my spine.

If she’s as horrible as she’s been warning me for the last ten minutes, then I’ll be able to keep my hands on her waist to steady her.

Shifting in my seat, grateful for the darkness of the night to hide the tint of excitement in my pants, I boast, “Lucky for you, you have one of the best skaters in the league to teach you.”

She cranes her neck, peering at the back seats. “Kieran’s coming?”

I can’t help it, my head throws back on a deep gravelly laugh. “You’re playing with fire.”

She rights herself in her seat as I flick my blinker on to turn into the stadium. Her grin is smug as she purrs, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you don’t,” I tease as I place the car in park.

She peers up at the stadium. “Are we allowed to be here after hours?”

Turning in my seat, I observe her—the slight crease between her brows, the frown marring her features, the hand on her thigh doing a slow, rhythmic tap .

“Are you a stickler for rules, Miss Stratford?” I ask.

Her swallow is audible. “Maybe.”

I let out a small chuckle, and before I can think about it, I slide my rough calloused hands across her smooth ones, halting the taps and squeezing in reassurance.

“I called Coach. It’s okay, they know we’re using it tonight.

” Her head drops to our joined hands before her gaze slowly returns to my face.

Before she can be the one to pull away, I give it a squeeze and remove my hand, opening my door. Quickly rounding the truck, I open her door right as she reaches for it.

Her brow quirks. “Pulling out all the stops tonight.”

Winking, I muse, “Always for you.”

She blinks.

Fuck, was that too much too quickly? She’s like a bear in the woods, sizing me up to see if I’ll be predator or prey.

Quickly scrambling to get rid of that hesitant look, I rush on, “Can’t have word getting out that I treat my pretend girlfriend horribly.”

Her lip quirks. “Come on, Casanova, let’s go.”

Breathing out a sigh of relief, I close the door, then lead us through the facility to the rink. Bella whistles low as it comes into view, her breath puffing out in front of her face.

“It’s different without the crowd screaming,” she says softly, her gaze taking in everything.

“Peaceful.”

She turns to me, and whatever she sees on my face has her saying, “You really love it, don’t you?”

“The rink?”

“Skating.” She gestures to the ice. “Playing.”

I can’t stop the smile that spreads across my face. “More than love. It feels like coming home. The second those skates slip on I feel like I’m right where I’m meant to be.”

“It’s a beautiful thing to have something in your life that makes you feel that way, and lucky that it’s your profession.”

My head cocks to the side. “Does anything make you feel that way?”

A faraway look enters her eyes before she softly says, “Drawing.” Before I can comment on it, she shakes her head, giving me a smile. “So where are my skates?”

I let her change the topic—for now. “This way.”

When Bella stopped by the house this morning and slipped her shoes off, I took a quick peek at the size and ducked out to buy her a set of skates. Something tells me that if she knew they were new and not secondhand, I’d get a scolding.

Stopping outside our locker room, I pause. “Perhaps it’s best you stay out here while I grab the skates.”

Her brows rise. “Sacred locker room?”

“Something like that.” And I don’t want to traumatize her with the smell. No matter how much it gets cleaned, it constantly reeks of sweaty men.

Her nose scrunches up and it’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. “I don’t even want to know, do I?”

“No,” I say with a chuckle.

She points behind her. “I’ll meet you by the rink.”

Bella’s soft hands are in mine, her eyes are bright with happiness, and my heart is full. So incredibly full just by the sight of her, even as her lips part with a sharp cry of surprise as she slightly stumbles.

My hands tighten, catching her before she falls.

“Damn, you weren’t lying when you said your coordination is shit.” That’s putting it nicely. She’s like a wobbly newborn giraffe.

Her eyes flick to mine but wisely dart away to concentrate on the ice. “Just be grateful I haven’t accidentally sliced your finger off.”

“How would you be able to do that?”

“Never say never,” she huffs out.

Her legs tense, her hands clutching mine in a death grip as the boards come into view .

“Loosen up, Blaze. You’re as hard as a rock.”

“I’m trying not to fall!”

“Have I let you fall?”

She pauses, her legs jerking. “Well…no.”

“Exactly.” I shake my head slightly. “I won’t let you fall. Just give me a little trust on this.”

At the word trust , something clouds her gaze, making her body tighten even more. I sigh, slowing us to a stop. There’s one thing that might work better.

“Can you trust me for just five minutes while we try something new?”

She bites her lip, her gaze turning quizzical. “What would we try?”

Instead of explaining, I keep a hold of her hand, skating around her, then come to a stop behind her, my chest flushed against her back. I feel her sharp intake of air.

“Grayson?”

Sliding my hands along her forearms and up her biceps, I savor the feel of her smooth skin, the way goosebumps pebble her flesh as I slowly trail my fingers down to rest on her hips. My fingers flex at how close we are, yet not close enough.

Bending, my lips brush the shell of her ear, and I love how she shivers at the delicate touch. “Skate for me, Bella.”

Her swallow is audible. “But what if?—”

“I’m not going to let you fall.”

Her body, tense against mine, begins to melt ever so slowly as she leans back into my warmth.

“That’s it,” I whisper.

She releases a small breathy sound as I slowly guide her forward. I can’t help but smile as she places her hands atop mine—still on her waist—holding them in a death grip.

“Okay, I’m trusting you,” she heaves out. The words sound like she’s had to ply them out with tweezers.

For the first time since her wobbly legs stepped foot on the ice, her movements are smooth and languid, her body flowing with mine as we skate around the rink .

She huffs a laugh. “Oh my god, I’m doing it! I’m doing it, Grayson!”

My smile is stretched so far my cheeks ache. “See? I said you could do it.”

“This feels amazing,” she breathes.

“Now you know why I love it so much.”

She laughs, her head tipping backwards to rest against my chest. My gaze gravitates down toward her and the pink of her nose from the cold, where her hands grip mine, her hips beneath my touch.

God, she’s fucking perfect.

Molded against me I swear it’s as if we were made for one another.

We lap around the ice like that twice, her head tipped back, her eyes closed. And despite how much I love every second of this, I want her to know she can do this on her own. Slowly, I ease away, only for a high-pitched scream to leave her.

Bella panics, half flailing, her nails digging into my skin. “No, no, no, no!” she yelps. “If you let go of me, Grayson, so help me God I will cut off your balls and shove them down your throat.”

My head drops back with a burst of shocked laughter. “Jesus, Bella, graphic much?”

“I’m serious!”

“Oh, I know.”

Sliding my hand across her back, I test the waters and move to skate beside her. From here, I can see the deep frown on her face. “I don’t like this position.”

My brow quirks. “Prefer me behind you, baby?”

Her eyes widen, and I smirk as I move in front of her. She scrambles forward, clutching my hands again as I skate backwards, facing her.

A low growl slips from her throat. “The other way works better.”

“I must admit, I’ve never had a woman so desperate to have me behind her.”

She sends a seething glare my way. “Stop it.”

“Stop what? I’m just practicing my flirting. ”

“You don’t need to practice,” she huffs, her eyes focusing on her feet.

My grin is downright dirty as I drawl, “Because I’m so amazing at it?”

“Because you can get whomever you want without trying.”

The words douse me with a bucket of ice, and a muscle feathers in my jaw. “Well, maybe I don’t want easy. Maybe I want someone who’s stubborn and has a mind of their own.”

I come to a screeching halt, catching Bella as she slams into my chest, a small grunt of shock leaving her as I hold her to me.

“Find someone else to practice on,” she snaps, irritated. Either from the conversation or my sudden stop, I’m unsure.

She’s full on glowering at me now, and my own frustration bubbles up within me. Can’t she see that I want her ? Or does she only see me as an employer? It sure didn’t feel like it when she was in my arms as I kissed her last night.

But that was under the guise of practice for the arrangement.

Fuck this fucking arrangement.

“No.”

She raises an eyebrow. “No?”

I cross my arms over my chest, grinning as she scrambles, her hands shooting out to hold onto my T-shirt. Her frown deepens.

“No, I don’t want to flirt with anyone else.”

Her eyes seer into mine. “That…” She swallows. “What are you doing, Grayson?”

“Flirting.”

“Why? There’s no one around.”

I can see I’m losing her, can see those walls rising, and it kills me that I don’t understand why she has them. Why she can’t allow herself to embrace what’s between us. I understand boundaries, I do, but…I can feel it. I catch the way she looks at me sometimes, the heat and longing in her gaze.

I’m not delusional. I know she feels it too.

So that begs the question, why won’t she do it?

I look behind her as I shrug, choosing the safest route, the one I know I won’t lose her on. “There could be a janitor, cameras…crazy puck bunnies following us. ”

Her lips twitch. “Do the bunnies usually stalk you in the arena at seven o’clock at night?”

“Yes, actually, they do.” That’s a lie. Security is top notch here, but Bella doesn’t need to know that. As if the arrangement is a safety blanket, her smile comes back, the hardness in her gaze receding.

“And what if there was someone here?” she asks coyly.

“Then they’d see us having our first spat.”

“A spat?”

I dip my chin. “A spat. You’re frustrated with my flirting skills.

” Coming up behind her again, I slide my arm around her waist, fighting a chuckle as she grabs onto it with both hands immediately.

With my free hand I cup her chin, turning it so our lips are a hair’s breadth away.

“Although they wouldn’t understand the reason for it because, after all, you’re my girlfriend, aren’t you? ”

“Yes,” she breaths, her eyes locked on my lips.

There’s my blaze. With no walls in sight.

My thumb brushes over her bottom lip, savoring the feel of her warm breath fluttering against my skin.

“Tell me what you want,” I whisper gutturally. “As my girlfriend, right now, tell me what you want.”

“You.”

The word has barely left her lips and I’m already upon her. I flush our bodies together, both my hands cupping her chin as my lips land against hers, greedily swallowing her gasp of shock.

I groan with pleasure, electricity dancing along my skin as I skate us backwards. Bella’s hands fist my shirt, and at first, I think it’s to hold on as I move us, but to my utter delight, it’s to get her hands under my shirt.

My resulting moan should have me feeling embarrassed, but all I can feel is the heady sensation of want as her hands land on my bare stomach.

Growling into her mouth, I slide my hands below her thighs and lift. She wraps her legs around my waist with ease, and I continue skating like that around the arena that I know like the back of my hand as I devour her .

There’s no other word for it.

Her sounds, her touch, the taste of her. I’m devouring it, committing everything to memory.

And I was right.

Last night wasn’t a fluke. It’s just as good, if not better.

Her hands slide up my neck and into my hair, gently pulling me closer to her, the move going and stealing my heart and eliciting another groan that she eats up. Her body begins to move, seeking the friction that my own hips want nothing more than?—

A door suddenly slams in the arena, jolting us apart.

Fucking doors.

Bella unwraps her legs, slowly sliding down my body, causing another groan to leave me as her breasts rub against my chest.

Footsteps pound down the hall, and then I’m glaring at Ben, the janitor, as he rounds the corner. His cheeks turn crimson as he sees Bella in my arms, huffing and puffing.

“Hey, Crawford,” he calls out half-heartedly.

I love the kid, but not right now.

“Hey, Ben.” My voice is so hoarse it shocks even me.

He ambles on, moving the janitor cart down the hall, averting his gaze.

“Told you someone could be watching,” I murmur.

Bella, with her lips swollen and pink, slides her eyes from me to Ben. Then her husky voice rolls toward me as she stretches up, her hand sliding in my hair once more as she pulls me down. “Then keep kissing me.”

I don’t need to be asked twice.

Bending, I seal my lips against hers, cradling her like she’s the most precious thing on this earth.

Because, let’s face it…she is.