Page 10 of Meet Your Match (Kings of the Ice)

True to my word, I tried to be invisible as Vince ran through his pre-game routine.

The only question I asked was what he did before I got there, to which he told me he had a big pre-game meal — which apparently was the same for him every game, a huge heaping pile of some sort of pasta — and a long nap with the air conditioning turned down to sixty degrees.

I’d wondered why I had been freezing when I first walked in, and now I had my answer.

That little tidbit of knowledge along with what I observed him do had me smiling to myself.

Vince Cool was superstitious.

He didn’t shave on game days, and he also brushed his teeth not once but twice — once after he finished his coffee and another time after he had his pre-game snack, which was a piece of wheat toast slathered in peanut butter and topped with bananas.

He got dressed in a very particularly order, and he packed his bag to take to the stadium in a very particular way, too. When we were getting close to ready to leave, he dropped to the ground and did four pushups. Only four. Then, he surprised me further by calling his little sister.

Her bright blue eyes filled the screen, and she looked so much like Vince I wondered if they were twins. But a quick Google search told me she was a year-and-a-half younger than him.

“Hey, big bro,” she sang, her smile wide, teeth like the ones you saw on orthodontist billboards. “You ready to kick ass?”

“Almost.”

She sighed on a laugh. “You know, I might be getting too old for this.”

“You’re not allowed to. Ever. You know the rules.”

“Yeah, yeah, pre-game ritual,” she said with a grin. She perked up when she saw me standing behind her brother. “Oh! You’re Maven King!”

Vince held the phone at a better angle for her to see me. “I am,” I said with an awkward wave. “Hello.”

“Hi! I’m Grace, Vinny’s sister. Nice to meet you. I’m so excited for this piece you’re doing on my brother.” She paused, her nose wrinkling. “I could do with you showing him with more clothes on, though.”

I laughed, and Vince pointed the phone back at himself. “Come on, sis. Gotta give the people what they want.”

“Isn’t what they want supposed to be you scoring goals?”

“Yes,” he said. “ And making them cream their panties.”

“Ew!” she screamed at the same time I said, “Gross!”

Vince smiled victoriously. “Alright, we need to get downstairs for the bus. Let’s go.”

“Fine,” she sang again, and then she propped her phone up so she could stand in the middle of the room. I didn’t know where she was, but it looked like a college dorm, and she swung a leg out like she was testing the space around her.

I pulled out my phone and recorded Vince from behind, arching a brow at him and then the screen .

Then, Grace started singing.

Well, it wasn’t really singing as much as it was half-cheering, half-squawking like a bird.

She did the most ridiculous dance, her hair flying about as she chirped something about forty one, best under the sun , forty one, let’s have some fun, Vinny, Vinny, you’re so cool, you’re so cool you rule the school and then she ended it all with a back tuck into a split.

Vince held up his fist when she finished. “Perfect ten.”

“I know,” she said, climbing to her feet. “Go get ’em, big bro.”

“Later, sis.”

The call ended as abruptly as it had begun, and I turned off my own video, momentarily stunned.

“Um…” I laughed. “What was that?”

Vince shrugged, and I noticed he’d slipped out of his usual goofy demeanor into one more serious. The transition had been slow, starting from the moment I’d walked in the door and getting more severe as the hours ticked on.

He was mentally preparing himself for the game, that much was easy to see.

“Just a little tradition,” he said.

I couldn’t help but laugh again. “What — your little sister doing a bizarre dance and backflip?”

“Yes,” he said, snapping his eyes to mine. “Is there an issue?”

I swallowed under his gaze, which was harder than it ever had been when it was on me. “No,” I said. “I just wasn’t aware you needed someone to squawk like a bird to feel game ready.”

He narrowed his gaze, standing from where he had been on the couch. It always took my breath away, how tall and broad he was. “It was something she did to cheer me up before a game in high school when I was on a shit streak. I got a hat trick that game, and so now it’s routine.”

“But… you’ve lost games since then,” I pointed out. “So it can’t always work.”

“You don’t get it.”

He was gathering the last of his things to head out the door when I cut him off. “So explain it to me.”

He sighed, looking up at the ceiling. The movement exposed that long column of his throat, and I traced his Adam’s apple with a bolt of electricity firing off between my thighs.

How is this man’s throat so damn hot?

“I can’t. It’s just… I don’t know. Something I have to do.”

He walked toward his bedroom then, which confused me, since we needed to head downstairs. I followed him, and when he turned on his closet light instead of flicking it off like a normal person would do before they left, I laughed.

“Don’t tell me this is part of it, too?”

He didn’t answer, but the muscle in his jaw ticced.

I shook my head on another quiet laugh, jotting it all down in my notes. “What’s next? Going to hop on one foot, rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time?”

At that, Vince gritted his teeth, the muscle of his jaw flexing under his skin. “Can you stop being such a bitch?”

My jaw fell open at that.

“ What did you just—”

“A bitch. That’s what I called you. Because that’s what you’re acting like.

” He stepped into my space, sucking all the air out of the room when he did.

“Maybe this isn’t important to you. Maybe all you can focus on is getting your little photos and videos and likes and shares.

But just like that’s your career, this is mine, okay?

It’s my whole fucking life.” He stepped even closer.

“It’s important to me. And if you can’t respect that, then we can’t work together. ”

We were chest to chest now, and his was heaving almost as hard as mine.

“You’re such a bastard,” I said, lifting my chin to let him know I wasn’t backing down. “So, what? I’m a bitch because I didn’t smile and tell you how adorable you are when you do idiotic, superstitious stunts before a game?”

He puffed his chest even more, and that scarred eyebrow dipped low and menacing.

I couldn’t explain it, the electricity buzzing through me then. He was angry. He was staring at me like he wanted to wring my neck.

And something inside me was giddy about it.

“Fine,” I said after a moment, dragging the word out.

I knew I sounded like the bitch he’d accused me of being even as the words came out of my mouth, full of sarcasm and not genuine in the least, but I couldn’t help it.

I wanted to test him, to see just how far I could push.

“I’m sorry . How dare I not understand why it’s so important to turn on your closet light before a game?

I promise to be more respectful of your precious little rituals. ” I smiled sweetly. “Okay, Tanny Boy ?”

His hand shot out so fast I couldn’t register it.

One minute, I was smiling up at him with my little jest.

The next, he had my chin gripped tight between his thumb and forefinger, his knuckle guiding my chin up even farther so he could properly look down at me. He was just above me, his lips maybe only an inch from mine, so close I could smell the mint on his breath when he spoke .

“If only you had something better to do with this smart mouth of yours.”

He spat the words like a curse, like he wanted to throw me to the ground and leave me there. Instead, he held my chin in place, dark hazel eyes flicking between mine before they fell to my lips and stared hard and long.

Shock zipped through me from where his bruising grip held my chin, but it was quickly washed away by the stronger, more prevalent sensation I couldn’t quite name. It was hot and charged, reckless and consuming.

I should have been appalled. Intimidated. Scared, even.

Instead, I was aroused.

I didn’t have a single ounce of fear in me that he would hurt me. I wasn’t afraid of how hard he gripped me, or how he was so close I could feel his breath on my lips.

All I could focus on was his hazel eyes and how they darkened the longer he stared at my mouth.

He blinked, three times in rapid succession, like he was waking up from a sleepwalking dream. His expression softened, along with this grip.

Vince released me, tilting his chin a bit higher before he turned and took all the heat with him.

He grabbed his bag without another look in my direction, tossing it over his shoulder and barreling out of the suite with the door clicking shut behind him.

And I just stood there, blinking, sucking in a breath that burned as my hands floated up to trace where his had been.

What the actual fuck was that ?