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Bennett Legros adds Saint Devereaux to Boy Gang chat.

Saint Devereaux has left the chat.

Bennett Legros adds Saint Devereaux to Boy Gang chat.

Bennett Legros: Let us love you, goddamnit

Saint: Stop adding me to this shit Legros. I see enough of you fucks on the ice.

Tyler Gravois: He’s right which is scary, but… let us looooove you Devereaux. Come play COD with us.

Saint Devereaux has left the chat.

Tyler Gravois adds Saint Devereaux to Boy Gang chat.

Bennett Legros: We’re not giving up. You’re going to be part of our boy gang.

Saint: Did you… just refer to yourselves as a… BOY gang?

Bennett Legros: It is, ain’t it?

Bennett: You’re in right?

Bennett: Saint?

Tyler: Sigh.

I’m shoving my phone into the front pocket of my hoodie when I hear the heavy doors of the rink slam shut behind me.

Right on time, Golden Girl.

It’s been three days since the elevator, and it’s been radio silence. Not that we have a habit of texting when it’s not necessary, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about texting her after that kiss.

Ultimately, I decided not to because 1) it would be weird if I checked in on her.

Who the fuck am I , checking in?

And 2) I know her well enough to know that she’s as skittish as a stray, sometimes feral cat, and pushing her too far isn’t going to get me what I want.

I might not know everything about her, but I do know that.

So, I’m going to leave the ball in her court, and I’m not saying shit about it.

Not a fucking word.

We’ll play the longest cat-and-mouse game in history if that’s what it takes because I’m patient enough to wait it out. Especially when I know just how sweet the payoff will be.

I slap a puck into the net, then pick up another with the end of my stick and flick it up, catching it on the end. I toss it up a few times before snapping it into the net with the rest.

I hear the smooth glide of her blades when she hits the ice, and I slowly turn, my gaze sliding to her. My fingers tighten on my stick as I tamp down the groan.

Fuck, she looks good.

Another frilly little fucking skirt that gives just enough of a glimpse of her creamy thighs to have my mouth watering.

I swear she wears this shit solely to torture me. It’s even worse now that I’ve touched her, felt all of those soft, lush curves beneath my hands. Now I know what I’m missing.

As if she feels my eyes on her, she lifts her gaze but quickly drops it to the ice, tucking her long hair behind her ear. Even from halfway across the ice, I can still see her cheeks blazing.

Yeah, remember every fucking second of my hands on you. Fuck knows I haven’t stop thinking about it since it happened.

That’s exactly the reason she’s blushing like a schoolgirl the second she sees me.

I skate to the center line, the one she’s banished me behind. “Golden Girl.”

She looks up, crossing her arms over her chest. “ Satan.”

I smirk, then turn and skate back to the net, scooping all the pucks out so I can work on more shots.

There’s a thick silence that lingers around the rink, with only the sound of me steadily slapping pucks into the net.

It’s so quiet that I almost think she’s left until I hear her let out an exaggerated huff.

“That’s it?” I hear from behind me. “No shit talking? No goading me until I’m ready to snap?”

Slowly, I swivel toward her, brow arched. “You did tell me to stay on my side of the ice, yeah? Just following directions like a good boy.” Her eyes widen in surprise. Guess that wasn’t the answer she was expecting. “Unless there’s something you wanna talk about?”

“Nope. All good.”

Bullshit.

Tossing her a smirk, I give her a salute and turn to the net yet again, going back to my drills. I make a point not to glance over at her a single time. But I feel her eyes on me, can practically feel how badly she wants me to bring up what happened, but I won’t.

The hour passes quickly after I finally push out all of the distraction and lock in, and by the time I’m done, I’m fucking drenched, and my muscles are screaming.

I’ve got work tonight, another shift I picked up so I can somehow pay the rent. Even though I’m exhausted and need to catch up on sleep, there’s no other choice.

A few more shifts should take care of it, but fuck, they’re dragging on.

Hopping off the ice, I sink down onto the bench and quickly take off my skates, tossing them into my bag.

Since I need to head straight to Tommy’s from the rink, I gotta take a quick shower in the locker room because I smell pretty fucking foul.

There have been more times than I can count that I’ve opted for a shower at the rink instead of going home, avoiding my father at all costs. Sometimes it feels like I live out of a bag between the school, the rink, and Tommy’s.

I push through the doors and head for the shower stall, hanging my hockey bag on the hook before shedding my sweat-soaked clothes and stepping beneath the freezing spray.

The quick equivalent of an ice bath.

I should probably roll my hips and quads because they’re already hurting, but I’ll have to do it after work, maybe before I finally crawl my exhausted ass into bed.

After washing my hair and body, I turn the water off and grab a towel from the cabinet, quickly drying off.

With the towel knotted around my waist, I walk back out into the locker room, my hair still dripping from the shower, when the door suddenly flies open, and Lennon breezes in.

“You’re not attracted to me,” she blurts, hands on her hips, eyes dropping to the towel before she hitches a breath and drags her gaze back to mine.

My brow arches. “You asking or telling me? Unclear.”

“I mean… Are you not attracted to me? I-…is that why you’re pretending that Saturday didn’t happen?”

“Who said I’m pretending it didn’t happen?” I lean back against the counter in front of the mirrors, curling my fingers around the edge as I stare back at her.

“You haven’t brought it up at all, and you’re not being your normal asshole self.”

I chuckle darkly, satisfaction rippling through me. I fucking knew it.

“Yeah, and neither did you.”

For a second, she’s quiet. Her mouth opens, then snaps shut before she says, “Well… now I am.”

I push off the counter and prowl toward her, stopping when I’m towering above her tiny frame. “Now you are.” I dip my head to her ear. “Do you need a reminder about how hard I was beneath your hot little pussy? Does that answer your question about whether I’m attracted to you?”

She has no goddamn clue about all the filthy, disgusting shit I want to do to her body.

How out of my fucking mind that one small, very innocent by my standards moment has driven me in the last three days.

I pull back and look down at her, cataloging the way a rough swallow slides down her delicate throat, how her lips part, the way those bright green eyes flare like wildfire.

“God, I can’t even think when you’re around.” She takes a step back and then another and another until she’s colliding with the wall behind her. “Stay over there.”

Am I going to listen? Probably not.

I smirk. “Why are you here, Golden Girl?”

“I… It was our ice time.”

I shake my head as I pin her with a get fucking real stare. We both know exactly why she’s here, but I want to hear it out of those pretty little lips. “You know that’s not what I’m asking.”

For a moment, she hesitates, chewing the corner of her lip as her eyes bounce between mine.

And then she answers so quietly I barely hear the words I’ve been waiting for.

“I want to do it again.”

“Gonna need you to be more specific. Do what again?”

Her eyes roll. “Hook up. We’re already doing this… whatever we’re doing to piss off my parents. Why not at least have fun while we’re doing it? It would make the fact that I’m stuck around you slightly more tolerable.”

“Oh?” I murmur, biting back a grin.

Lennon shrugs noncommittally, feigning a nonchalance that I see all the way the fuck through.

She’s fidgeting with the hem of her skirt, tapping her foot against the tile as she adds, “I mean, if you want to. If not, no big deal. Actually, you know what, this was stupid. Forget I even brought it up.”

When she turns to leave, I push off the counter and close the distance between us, crowding her back against the locker room wall, causing a surprised burst of air to fly past her lips.

I flatten my palm along the wall behind her and use my other finger to tip her chin up.

“If you wanted my dick, all you had to do was ask.”