Page 34

vladi

I stand frozen as Maggie jumps from her seat and sprints for the door.

Olivia and all her friends call after her, but she ignores them, bolting like she’s being chased in a police pursuit.

I glance around the room, through the sea of blow up cocks, but every single person is staring directly at me.

What the fuck just happened? The woman I crave more than air itself just publicly declared she wants to fuck me.

And then she ran out the door. Do I go after her?

Do I act like I didn’t just hear her say that?

I look to Larsy, hoping he will tell me what the hell I need to do here.

He simply puts his hand on my shoulder and tilts his head toward the empty doorway.

I don’t have to ask him what he means. He’s my brother, my teammate, my friend.

His approval is the only thing I need as I race out the door to chase down the woman I want so badly I can hardly breathe.

I can see her stumbling across the sidewalk in her impractical high-heeled shoes, heading toward our room. She’s running. She’s running from me. From us. If she gets away, it’s over. There is no next time .

“Magdalina!” I shout as I burst into a sprint, my legs racing as fast as my heart is pounding in my chest. She slips into the elevator, frantically pushing the buttons as I push myself harder than I ever have, but the door closes before I can reach her.

Dammit. I run for the stairs, knowing I have the stamina to quickly climb the six floors.

If I’m lucky, it will make at least one stop before reaching our floor.

My mind and pulse are racing as I burst out of the stairwell and scan the hallway looking for any sign of her. Empty. My heart sinks. Did I lose her?

DING!

I jerk my head toward the sound as she steps out of the elevator.

Her eyes meet mine for a split second, fear and something I don’t dare name swimming within them, before she turns and continues her fast pace toward our room.

I sprint after her. She makes it to the door, shoves it open, then tries to slam it shut behind her.

Not. Happening. I make it just in time to jam my foot between the door and the frame.

I’m not letting her shut me out. Not out of this room and not out of her heart.

“Go. Away,” she screams through the cracked-open door.

“In case you forgot, this is my room.”

She lets out a loud sigh. I can just picture her flared nostrils on the other side of the door. I bet she’s probably biting the inside of her cheek too, which I’ve noticed she does when she’s nervous. Or flustered. Or turned on.

“FINE,” she huffs as she lets go of the door, finally letting me in as she storms away. I close the door, latching the lock behind us. She faces away from me, and I know she doesn’t want to look me in the eye.

She dropped the puck, and the game’s in motion–there’s no going back now.

“Goddammit! Why is it always so cold when I walk in here?” She marches over to the thermostat and starts cranking the temperature up. My blood pressure explodes watching her touch my thermostat.

“What the hell … you’ve been the one making this room so damn hot? I’ve had maintenance up here twice!” I nearly roar, striding over to scoot her aside and push the temperature back down to sixty-five.

“What the fuck, Vladi? You are the one who’s been setting it at sixty-five?! I’ve been freezing my ass off all week!” She uses her hip to try and push me to the side to hit the button on the thermostat again.

“Leave the fucking temperature alone, Magdalina. This is my thermostat, goddammit!” I grumble, batting my hip against hers, pushing back in a battle of wills over the temperature.

“ You leave it alone! You and your damn ice body are not going to melt like a snowman if it’s seventy degrees in here,” she says as our hands collide on the device, both of us fighting to gain control.

“If you touch that thermostat one more time...”

She looks at me, her face a bright shade of red and a fire deep in her eyes. “ What, Wolfie? What are you gonna do about it?”

She’s fucking daring me. I know what she wants and my cock jumps in agreement. She just declared it to all our friends. But if she wants it, I’m going to make her take it. She needs to be the one to break this wall between us.

I spin her around, pinning her back to the wall, trapping her wrists above her head.

“I’m not going to do a goddamn thing.” She looks back at me, her brows narrowed in confusion.

“I’m going to stand here and do absolutely nothing .

” I lean down, whispering in her ear, “It seems like that would be a fitting punishment after what you said earlier. Keeping you from what you want? Keeping you from fucking your roommate. Isn’t that right, Magdalina? ”

I feel the heat radiating off her skin, her legs shaking beneath her. She wants this. Badly. She needs this. And fuck, if I don’t need the same.

“I do not want to fuck you,” she insists, a slight shakiness in her voice.

I pull back to look into her eyes, a hunger there I haven’t seen before. My pulse races at the sight, at her right here in my grasp. Right where I want her.

“You can lie to yourself all you want, lisichka , but I see everything. I see it in your eyes. I see it every day in the way you look at me. Even when you think I don’t see you sneaking glances, I do.

I always see you. You think I don’t notice you at my games?

When the puck is at the other end of the ice, you’re still staring at me alone in my net.

You think I didn’t notice you doing everything in your power to not make eye contact with me when we’ve been around our friends these past several months?

” I lower my face to hers, our lips all but touching.

Her breath whispers against my skin, each exhale like a spark of energy ready to ignite.

“You think I don’t know that you’re dripping wet standing this close to me?

Lie to yourself all you want. I feel it.

You feel it. You want me. About fucking time you admitted it.

But if you touch that thermostat one …more…

time…I will do nothing . We can go to bed, sleep on separate sides of a fucking wall of pillows, and wake up tomorrow the same as today .

Roommates .” I ghost my hand down one of her arms, unpinning it from the wall as I run my fingers across her soft, flushed skin.

“Or you can leave the temperature be and we can find another way to keep you warm.” She gasps, just a little shallow breath, and I can see the longing, the wanting, the neediness deep in her eyes.

“So…what’s it going to be, Maggie. Fucking. James?”

She firmly pulls her other arm out of my hold, sharply gripping my shirt in return. She looks at me, heat burning in her gaze, the tension between us as thick as the humidity in the air.

“Fuck it,” she finally replies, her lips slamming into mine.