Page 38

THIRTY-THREE

brOOKS

“We’re staying here?” Sara scans the ice, then looks back at me, her brows lowered in confusion.

Now that I’ve changed into warmer clothing, I’m ready to get this date started. “For the first part of the date, we are.”

“Oh, you think I’m going to let you take me on a multipart date?” she teases.

I run my tongue along my lips and bite down on a smile. “That’s not guaranteed?”

She laughs. “Maybe. We’ll see how you do out on the ice.”

I grin. “Then I got this in the bag. We both know the ice is my specialty.” I pull her toward the bench and drop to my knees. “Sit. Need to get you laced up.”

She’s still wearing my personal jersey. It’s taking everything in me not to drag her home so I can strip every other inch of clothing from her body and do all the dirty things that have been playing on repeat in my mind since the moment she pulled it over her head.

For once she doesn’t sass me. Instead, she demurely sits in front of me and allows me to take off her boots. She keeps her hands clasped in her lap and watches with a shy smile as I replace them with skates. When she’s laced up and ready, I lead her out to the ice to my personal place of worship.

“I’m not as good at this as you,” she warns, wobbling a little.

I chuckle and pull her close, then I push off gently so we move at a slow speed. “Not planning on letting go. Don’t worry.”

For several quiet moments, we skate hand in hand. She shuffles her skates, allowing me to lead. Everything about this space relaxes me. The familiar smell of the arena—the lingering scent of the concessions mixed with a hint of industrial cleaner and that indescribable smell of the cold. The crisp air against my cheeks. The sound of our skates sliding across the ice as our blades sink into it and push forward, making it feel like I have a superpower, like I’m gliding through air.

And even more than the location, Sara relaxes me.

“So this was your big plan?” she teases, breaking the silence. “Take me ice skating so you can show off your skills? Newsflash, Brooks, I watch you on the ice almost daily. Consider me impressed.”

There’s my sassy girl. “No. Thought we could talk. Hoped maybe you’d let me ask you a few questions so we could really get to know one another.”

She side-eyes me, her lips turned down. “What are you talking about? We’ve been friends for over a year. By now you probably know me better than anyone.” She squeezes my hand. “You can ask me whatever you want. You know that, right? You always could.”

I push off harder so we move across the ice a little quicker. “No, I couldn’t.” The lump lodged in my throat makes it hard to breathe, but I swallow past it. “I love everything you’ve ever shared with me, but there are questions I’ve never asked because I had to protect myself…”

She slips and almost goes down, but I’ve got a good grip on her, so I slow and steady her.

With a deep breath, she continues shuffling forward. “And now?”

“Now I know it’s pointless. I don’t know when I fell, Sar, but there is no turning back. Even if I get hurt, I’d rather know everything there is to know about my friend, my favorite person…” My stomach knots as I force the words out. “And if I’m lucky, maybe my real girlfriend.”

She turns to me then, her smile soft. “If the date goes well, you mean.”

“Yeah.” I clear my throat. “I know I have work to do. I need to show you that the guy last week… He’s not me.” I’m still so angry at myself.

“I know that’s not you, it’s just…” She ducks her head, focusing on the ice in front of us. “It hurt. And I’m not sure I’m even ready to date for real again.” She sighs. “But I’m not willing to lose you. So can we take this slow?”

My heart pangs in my chest. What’s slow when I want to give her forever?

“How ’bout we start with a few questions?”

“Okay, but I get to go first.” The smile she aims at me is bright. Shit. I’d give her anything when she looks at me like that.

“What do you want to know?”

“Tell me something no one else knows.”

I pull her along beside me, trying like hell to think of something that would impress her. The first thing that pops into my head is so not impressive. She’d probably laugh her ass off, though, and I do love her smile. “This secret isn’t really mine, but since you’re cute, I’ll tell ya anyway.”

She bites back a smile and raises a brow, waiting for me to spill the details.

“Last year in New Orleans, the guys and I were out after a game. We’d had a few drinks and were playing Truth or Dare.”

Sara covers her eyes with her free hand, totally trusting me to guide her. “Oh God. Do I even want to know?”

I laugh. “Maybe not.”

She peeks at me between her fingers, then sighs. “Okay, hit me with it.”

“War is the most competitive guy I know, right?”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“And Aiden is a shit-stirrer.”

She giggles. “Right.”

“During War’s turn, he chose truth , but then he refused to answer Aiden’s question. So Aiden dared him to get his dick pierced.”

“What was the question about?”

“Smart girl. How’d I know that’s what you’d focus on?”

She throws her head back and squeezes her eyes shut. “I don’t really want to picture Tyler’s dick, so …”

I cough out a laugh. “Hate to break it to you, but that’s gonna be hard after this convo.”

“Oh no.” She squeaks. “Either way, I wanna know what the question was.”

“Aiden asked him why he missed that event. The one that Ava was so pissed about.”

“The one at the YMCA?”

“Yup.”

“Why wouldn’t he tell you guys the truth about that?”

I shrug. “No idea, but since he wouldn’t, he got his dick pierced.”

She barks out a laugh. “Oh my God. And you guys were all there?”

That’s when I wince. “Like I said, we’d all had a few drinks, so we went with him. And like idiots, we kept playing the game. War, being the mastermind that he is, came up with questions he knew we wouldn’t answer.”

“What was yours?”

My stomach plummets then. I shoulda known she would ask that. “He asked when the last time I had sex was.”

“And you wouldn’t answer it?”

“Well, he phrased it a bit differently, I guess.”

The crease between her brows deepens. “How did he phrase it?”

“He asked whether I’d been saving myself for you since we met.”

Her mouth falls open, and she brings a hand to her chest. “What?”

Truth time . I take a deep breath and will my stomach to stop rolling. “I guess that could be considered my secret, since I didn’t admit it that night.”

Sara spins and grabs the front of my shirt with both hands. Her movements are so abrupt her feet almost go out from under her, but I grasp her elbows to steady her.

“Wait,” she practically hollers. “Brooks Langfield, does that mean you have a piercing ?”

I nod, blowing out a relieved breath that she isn’t focusing on the fact that I haven’t touched a woman since I met her.

And, well, a fuck ton longer than that.

“And Aiden and Tyler?”

“Yeah, we’re idiots. I know.” Despite how ridiculously sideways that night went, the memory of it is damn entertaining. “War and I had to, since we wouldn’t give up our truths. Fucking Aiden did it because he doesn’t like to be left out.”

“Holy shit! You’ve got a bejeweled penis! The whole team has fancy peens!” she shouts.

With a chuckle, I slap a hand to her mouth. “Remember how I said it was a secret?”

She nods beneath my palm, so I remove it. Though I take advantage of the moment and drop a kiss to her lips.

“Have you seen theirs?” she whispers, her eyes the size of saucers.

I scoff and give her a grin. “We all shower together, Sar.”

“Oh my God.” She palms her forehead and groans. “That is so not an image I needed.”

“Are you picturing all of us showering together now?”

She nods, her lip pulled between her teeth again. “And your bedazzled penises.”The words are barely out of her mouth when she falls against me and cackles.

“Stop talking about my cock like it’s a Lisa Frank art project.” I squeeze her tight, holding in my own laugh and relishing the heat of her body against me.

She snorts, and her skates slip on the ice. “I can’t.”

“You’re picturing them colored now, aren’t you?”

She’s laughing so hard she can’t breathe.

I heft her a little higher, because with every laugh, she slides a little closer to the ground. “Fuck, Sar.”

“I’m sorry.” At this point, tears are streaming down her face.

She blows out an exaggerated breath and swipes at them. “Wait, you can’t have sex after getting pierced. For, like, a while.”

I squint at her. “You been looking this up?”

Without shame, she nods. She doesn’t even look away.

Now that she’s mostly calm, I take off again, pulling her with me and keeping my speed slow.

I probably don’t want to know why she was researching care instructions for dick piercings, but I’m irrationally happy that she’s curious rather than freaked out about it.

“The website I found said you couldn’t have sex for quite a while.”

“You worried ’bout having sex with me, Pumpkin?”

Her cheeks go rosy, and she stumbles forward. I pull her against my chest and bring us to a complete stop again. “Relax, I got it done last year. Completely healed now.”

“Right,” she breathes, avoiding eye contact all of a sudden. “And you don’t have sex during the season.”

That tongue of hers peeks out, sliding along her bottom lip, and I swear she moves in closer, her chest brushing mine as she inhales. Finally, she tilts her chin, and for a second, I get lost in her eyes. They’re my favorite color, the lightest of blues, the color of ice.

Caressing her cheek with my thumb, I brush my lips against hers. “For you, I could make an exception.”

Her eyes flare with heat, the ice of her irises suddenly a flickering blue flame. “I definitely think you should.” Her flirty tone has the last bit of my control snapping. I push her back against the glass and kiss the hell out of her. Just like every time I touch her like this, I forget where we are. I forget that anyone but the two of us exists. That we might not be alone. And I get lost in Sara.