Page 49

ERIK

I should’ve known that Kayden wouldn’t stay away from me forever.

Like, we’d both done a great job of avoiding each other over the last few days.

No texts or phone calls, barely even a glance in one another’s direction.

Yeah, game seven of the championship series was tomorrow, and the two of us not being on speaking terms didn’t help our chances.

But I couldn’t take the blame for it. I couldn’t help it if Kayden’s behavior had grown unmanageable, and I’d had to take action. And we hadn’t broken up.

Staying silent on the breakup seemed appropriate enough since we’d never announced our relationship to anyone in the first place. It was best that we just ignore each other completely. That way, we could move on with our lives after this game.

But Kayden wasn’t sensible. He approached me on the ice after our last practice, once everyone else had hit the locker room. Like I said, I should’ve known better.

At first, I didn’t know what he really wanted.

I should have, though. Common sense, right?

I felt like I could predict his every move.

He’d stayed at one end of the ice while I remained at the other.

When he stared down the length of the rink at me, I knew I couldn’t escape him.

The question was whether he would have the guts to chase after what he wanted.

Everything I knew about Kayden told me he would.

God, those moments were so fucking awkward.

Finally, he skated toward me, and my eyelids fell shut. Telling him to go to hell wouldn’t help. It would feel good, but it would drive another wedge between us, and neither of us could afford more animosity.

He stopped in front of me, but amazingly didn’t shoot ice shavings at me. He didn’t wear his usual cocky look, no swagger, but neither did he look sheepish. Yeah, I wanted to analyze his every move but understood that would do no good either.

“Need to talk to you,” he said.

“And I need to take a shower.”

“Hard practice, I know.”

“No, it’s from having to spend less than five minutes around you, dude. Anyone would feel filthy inside.”

His expression didn’t change. Normally, he would think up a comeback for a remark like that. It wouldn’t be a very good comeback, but he wouldn’t stay silent.

This is Kayden Preston we’re talking about.

“Look, we should talk,” he said. “It’s for the good of the team to clear the air a little.”

“Fine.”

I quarter-turned, unable to look at him head-on.

Discomfort consumed me,and I couldn’t squash it.

Kayden had a point. Maybe a talk wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

A few days had passed, and we’d calmed down a little.

Maybe he could even pass for a rational human being.

But I still hated having this conversation.

I had no idea where it would lead or if I wanted to go there.

“We’ve got to at least be clear about what’s going on,” he said. “And then we’ve really got to drop some stuff.”

“Like what?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Whatever you want to call what happened between us the other night, we’ve got to pretend like it didn’t happen.”

“Why?” I waited for Kayden to huff and let his frustration show, but he stayed cool.

“Why? Because people are noticing. And they’re asking questions.”

He wasn’t wrong about that. Braxton Wilson had broached the topic with me.

For all I knew, he’d done the same with Kayden.

If not Braxton, then maybe another teammate caught on and started asking questions.

In that case, Kayden had a point, but I didn’t care to pretend like nothing had happened.

I’m not saying I’d been perfect, but Kayden had been creepy as hell and I couldn’t deal with that.

“You want clarification,” I said. “Great, what do you want to clarify?”

He half-smiled. He must’ve felt as uncomfortable as I did. “Neither of us said we were breaking up,” he said.

He paused, as if waiting for me to agree. I didn’t want to say any more than I had to. Talking only stood to worsen our problem. Think of silence as my only defense mechanism in that situation.

“Well?” he asked.

“Well, what?”

“Come on, Erik. Don’t make this impossible. If we didn’t actually say we were calling it quits then…”

Again, I didn’t respond.

“Jeez, dude,” he said. “I always knew you were stubborn—a pain in the ass, actually—but I never thought you were this bad.”

I pulled off my gloves, slammed them onto the ice, and huffed.

“What do you want from me?”

“You already know what I want from you. No need to repeat it.”

“Right, a simple conversation just so we know where we stand?”

“Right.”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“I guess so, but with all the confusion, I can’t be totally sure. And I don’t know what’s coming next or if I should move on. As it is, people say it’s like we’re going through a breakup.”

“They’re saying that to you too?”

“Yep, and if they’re saying it to both of us, then there’s probably something to it, right?”

I shrugged. I understood his point but wouldn’t give him any leverage.

“And that means they’re on to something,” Kayden said.

“Whatever that something is. You’re saying you think they knew about us all along?”

Now he shrugged. “Maybe not all along. Whether they did or not, they know something’s weird between us now, and that doesn’t help.”

I sighed. “And I’m supposed to do something about it?”

“If you’re asking me if I want you to wave a magic wand and make it all better, then no. I’m just saying we should…”

“Should at least pretend like everything’s okay?”

“If that’s what we’ve got to do to get through game seven, then hell yeah.”

I didn’t know if I could do that for a million dollars. Or ten million. How I felt was how I felt, optics be damned. I’d learned that from Kayden Preston, hadn’t I?

I saw no reason to change now.

But I wasn’t na?ve. We would have to address the topic sooner or later. There would be no running away from it. Maybe pretending like nothing had happened would help in the short-term, but it would only allow our problems time to fester.

“Why don’t we use the direct approach?” he said. “Are we broken up?”

I didn’t answer that. Like I said, it could lead somewhere I didn’t want to go. Besides, if Kayden didn’t know, then he obviously hadn’t made his own decision. If that was the case, why would I know?

Those blue eyes of his stayed fixed on me. Even now, after all we’d been through, those eyes could melt me. Their power was far too great to ignore. I couldn’t let him take control, so I turned away from him.

Kayden swung around in front of me, and I felt the power of those blue eyes again. I breathed several deep breaths, in and out, nice and slow.

“Well?” he asked.

I couldn’t avoid him now. If I said we were broken up, that would make it final. There would be no turning back. Oh sure, people went back to guys they’d broken up with before, but this would be different. If I actually said it, then I would be stuck with it.

Here’s another thing: his eyes were kind of like the sun.

You know that you shouldn’t look directly at it, but you do anyway.

When I caved into temptation, I started thinking about his lips pressed against mine.

The sweet taste felt new again. I remembered the first time I felt his hard cock brush against my leg.

Most of all, I thought of the first time we’d torn off our clothes and become one.

I had to stop thinking about that. That was killing me.

“Look,” I said, “let’s not get into this.”

“Why not? I need answers, and so do you.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing this would go away but understood that it wouldn’t as long as he stood there looking so incredible.

But maybe that was all Kayden Preston had ever been: just a gorgeous stud with nothing more to offer.

“You know that this is only going to hurt the team, don’t you?” he asked.

I skated away from him. I didn’t look back either. If I did that, I would have to look at those blue eyes again. If I looked at those blue eyes, I could get hard. If I got hard then…

I’d freed myself and would survive for another day.

And I didn’t owe him anything. We’d broken up. Period. Even if we hadn’t agreed on exactly what to call it, that was what we were.

At this point, going back sounded like the craziest thing on earth.