CHAPTER 84
Ana
HE SHOWED UP.
After our argument, I assumed Troy wouldn’t have wanted to speak with me until Skate America—or ever.
But two days before the competition and two days after we fought, he still meets me tonight for our extra evening practice after the weekend break from the additional sessions.
Our routine doesn’t feel the same though.
We shape over the ice without exchanging a smile or a scowl. We edge the boards, our faces stoic. And we meet in the center of the rink with a heavy, distracting tension clouding between us.
When both his hands reach around my lower back, pulling my outer thigh around his hip for the final pose of the free skate, our eyes start piercing through the other’s.
We haven’t had sex in close to a week, which for us, is a really long time, considering it felt like we were tearing at each other’s clothes at least a few times a day for a good few weeks.
This close again, I can feel his heartbeat, see it rising from his thermal, and when he sees me flick my gaze down to his chest, he drops my thigh and lets go of me.
The move was so sudden, so quick, I stretch my neck at the arousal that’s been building in me, all the stress that I haven’t released, not in the way we were that was helping everything feel so much lighter for a minute there.
He notices the way I roll back my shoulders like I need him to help me fix the pain. And by the way he skates up to me again I wonder, from the heat in his gaze, if he could be thinking the same.
A big palm lands to the side of my hair, tucking a strand away from my cheeks.
“Let’s go.”
His comment stings over my skin that’s burning suddenly.
“No.” His brows pull together. “I’ll see you at home. I just want to make sure my axels are sharp enough for the routine.”
“Ana,” he says calmly and I know what that means but this is too damn important.
And we’re almost there.
“I know,” I say, trying to sound reasonable. “Just another hour since the competition is in two days.”
“You keep saying that,” he says, the anger in his voice growing, “but then your extra hour turns into two and then three and then you’re exhausted and you’re going to get hurt if you don’t stop when you can still think straight.”
“Stop giving me your unsolicited advice, Troy,” I snap. “You’re not my mom or my boyfriend. You’re just the guy I have sex with. So leave it at that.”
The shortest beat of silence drops before his lips break into a crooked small grin.
“Understood.”
I shut my eyes so tight because I can’t fucking believe I just said that to him.
“Wait,” I say, reaching my hand out to him to make amends.
But he’s skating away already, raising a hand in the air. “I’ll be at the apartment ready for you to fuck.”
“Troy. I didn’t mean that!”