Page 40 of Fake Skating

I saw the vacant family room/lactation lounge across the hall, so even though we hadn’t discussed the where of this scenario, I pushed him in that direction, then locked the door behind us when we got inside.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Collins,” he teased, but his eyes were serious. “I don’t know what you have in mind, but I am not interested in any—”

“You’re hilarious, shut up,” I said, pulling the box of patches and the tube of Icy Hot out of the Walgreens bag.

The quiet of the tiny room seemed deafening as I said, “So, um, I think you should unbutton your shirt but don’t even try to take it off, okay?

You don’t need to make your shoulder worse, so tell me when you’re done and I will just, like, lower the shirt enough to put on the patch. Okay?”

His eyes moved over my face like he was having a lot of thoughts, and my breath was a little frozen in my chest as those dark brown eyes held me in place. “Okay.”

He looked down at his shirt as he unbuttoned it, and I gnawed on my bottom lip and opened the patches, keeping my eyes on my hands as if completely unaware of the unbuttoning going on in front of me.

“Okay, I’m unbuttoned,” he said, making me swallow hard and clear my throat.

What a thing to say.

“Good,” I said, my voice sounding a little… airy as I raised my eyes to the shirt hanging open in front of me, a long vertical strip of bare skin exposed.

“So, um, I’m going to lower your shirt,” I said, painfully aware of how close our faces were as I looked up at him. The air was charged, and it felt like the room was too small.

And my face was too hot.

I said, “Tell me if I’m hurting you.”

His Adam’s apple was all I could see as it moved around a swallow. “You won’t.”

I reached up with both hands and grabbed the two sides of his shirt carefully, gingerly, lowering it around his shoulders. I tried hard not to touch him, but my breath got stuck in my chest when my fingertips grazed his skin.

He didn’t say a word, only took a deep and sharp inhale.

Is he cold? Or…?

My throat was so dry all of a sudden.

My carefulness was a failure because the shirt slid off his arms and immediately fell onto the floor.

Which meant he was completely shirtless and so close that our bodies were almost touching.

“Dammit,” I whispered, feeling so flustered that I was a little lightheaded.

“Just. Leave it.” His entire face looked hard, like he was so flexed that his tight jaw might just shatter at any moment.

I nodded, swallowed, then nodded again, trying not to look at the ridiculously muscular chest in front of me, dear God .

“I want to make sure I get it in the right spot,” I said. “Tell me when I’m in the right area, okay?”

He swallowed again and his jawbone tightened. “Okay.”

He turned around, and for some reason I felt no less…

unnerved looking at his back. It was ridged and hard, like his skin was stretched tight over those lean muscles.

I held the patch in my left hand and raised the fingers of my right hand to his shoulder.

I gently set my fingertips on his skin, my heart beating in my ears as my fingers slid over his shoulder blade.

“Right here?” I asked in what came out as a whisper.

“A little higher,” he said, and everything between us was somehow in slow motion all of a sudden. My fingers brushed his skin, slowly, and I swear I felt him shiver under my touch as I traced higher.

“Here?” I managed to croak.

“Yeah,” he said.

I peeled the backing off the patch and stuck it to his shoulder, using my palm in slow circles to gently press it to his skin.

“You’re fine,” he said in a gravelly voice. “You’re not going to hurt me.”

“Good,” I said, my voice more a breath than a sound as my palm smoothed over the patch. “Turn around so I can get the front with Icy Hot.”

He obeyed, his dark eyes full of questions as he looked down at me, but he didn’t say a word.

I placed the cream onto the right side of his collarbone, set down the tube, then lifted my fingers to his shoulder.

“Is this all right?” I asked, noticing my hands were shaking just the tiniest bit as I put them on his body. I had no idea what I was doing anymore, I only knew that I was under the influence of something as I started rubbing the slippery lotion over his skin.

“Yeah, but you don’t have to do this,” he said, his jaw flexing and unflexing. It felt like something huge was hovering between us, something thick and heavy that stole the air from the room.

I didn’t know what it was, but breathing was suddenly difficult.

“I—I want to,” I managed, feeling like I couldn’t think when he looked at me like that. I wasn’t even sure my lips were moving when I said, “I don’t like when you’re in pain.”

He raised his left hand and cupped my cheek, his eyes impossible to read as those big fingers grazed my skin. I wasn’t sure how, but the moment felt more intimate than the kiss that hadn’t left my mind since last night.

His gaze locked with mine, both of us breathing harder as he leaned in, inching closer—

“Is someone in here?” The door handle jiggled as someone said through the crack, “Is this open?”

“Y-yes,” I yelled, looking up at Alec while jumping away from him, quickly wiping my fingers on my skirt, my heart about to explode in my chest. “I’ll be out in one minute!” I yelled.

Oh God, oh God, oh God.

He was watching me, his expression unreadable, and I wished I knew what he’d been about to do. I bent down and quickly picked up his shirt, then helped him slide his arms into it before gathering my bags off the floor while he buttoned.

“Okay, we’re good,” he said, and when I turned around, he was all put together again.

But he was still looking at me in that way, the way that I couldn’t figure out.

What the hell just happened?