Alex
Three days.
That’s how long it’s been since I showed Cate the real me—the man obsessed with her, who won’t be willing or able to let her go if things go further than they already have. The man whose obsession with her should scare her a little.
And maybe it does, because aside from a few smiles and professional chatter, she’s been quiet. Quieter than usual. No off-key belting of Taylor Swift while she jogs on the treadmill in the gym. No laughing or teasing during practice.
There are moments when I think I’ve overplayed my hand and scared her off, and then I try to convince myself that it’s a good thing. But then I catch her staring at me, and I know she’s thinking over everything I said, and I want her to say yes. Yes to everything I promised. I see the fire in her eyes when we skate together, and I know she’s thinking about me.
Thinking, but nothing more. And again, if I were a better man, I’d be able to convince myself that that’s a good thing.
It’s not.
Because I don’t just want Cate. I need her. I have from the moment I laid eyes on her. And now that I’ve tasted her, now that I know she wants me too, I’m ready to say damn the consequences. But it needs to be her choice. Because as obsessed as I am, I’m not going to strong-arm her into anything she doesn’t want.
I don’t know how I’ll survive if she doesn’t choose me.
I feel like an out of control car, careening all over the place. One minute I’m on one road, and the next, I’m being pulled in a direction I know I shouldn’t go, but it’s inevitable. Like the steering wheel is locked and fuck the consequences anyway.
I check my appearance in the hallway mirror one last time before snatching up my keys and heading to the rink. We have an evening practice tonight, and it’ll just be us and our coaches while we run through our tango program. It’s not coming together as easily as the short program did, both because the elements are more difficult, and because of the nature of the program. Its intensity and passion and themes of forbidden love and longing are fucking distracting.
It’s still light out when I arrive at the rink, but there are only a handful of cars in the parking lot, and the outdoor sign is lit up, buzzing softly. My heart thuds against my ribs when I see Cate’s little Honda parked several spaces away.
I head to the empty locker room and pull on my skates, energy thrumming through me. By the time I hit the ice, I feel amped up. Almost jittery. Like the longer I go without knowing where Cate and I stand, the more tightly wound I get.
I pause just as I’m about to step onto the ice. Cate’s the only skater out there, and she’s clearly skating through some old program, moving with effortless grace from element to element. I watch her land a triple Salchow. I watch her bend her back into a stunning Ina Bauer and then launch into a flawless double Axel. I watch her spin with speed and precision, one leg held aloft over her head, her back arched in a perfect C.
She’s perfection. She’s beautiful and flawless and athletic. Together, we can conquer podiums. I know we can.
And maybe we can be more at the same time. I have to hope, because the intensity of my feelings for her, my obsession with her, is eating me alive.
“Oh,” she says when she comes out of the spin and spots me. Her cheeks are pink with exertion, stray tendrils falling loose from her ponytail and framing her face. I step onto the ice and skate towards her. All I can think about is kissing her.
“Where’s Deb?” I ask. I don’t sound casual or relaxed, and fuck it. I don’t care. I can’t pretend with her.
“She’s sick,” says Cate, skating in a slow circle. “She called me just a few minutes before I got here. She’s got a migraine and can’t make it tonight.”
“And Scott’s at that coaching seminar in Vancouver until tomorrow,” I say. A silence settles between us, and our eyes meet. A wave of heat, prickly with lust, washes over me, and I feel every single one of my muscles tighten.
“I mean, we could still run the routine a few times since we’re both here,” she says with a little shrug. “It’s not often we have the ice to ourselves.”
I swallow thickly and nod. She’s right. Since we’re both here, there’s no reason not to run through the routine a few times.
“What?” she asks, her skate scraping softly against the ice. “You seem off tonight.”
I let out a tight sounding laugh and shove a hand through my hair. “You’re killing me, here.”
Her eyebrows go up, emphasizing how big and pretty her eyes are framed with those thick lashes. Her cute little nose stud winks in the fluorescent lighting. “I’m killing you?” She shakes her head. “I don’t understand.”
I skate closer until we’re only inches apart. “I need to know if you want this as much as I do.” I pick up the end of her ponytail and wrap it around my finger. “I asked you to be sure. I need to know where we stand.”
She slides her hands up my chest, making my balls ache. “What if I say yes? Are you going to take what you want and then push me away again, saying I’m too young and that it’s what’s best for the partnership?”
I feel flayed open by her question, like she’s taken a knife and plunged it into my guts. And I deserve it. I’ve given her mixed signals not because I don’t want her but because I feel guilty about how much I do.
I slide my free hand around her waist and pull her against me. She’s wearing an impossibly soft long-sleeved white sweater and black leggings that show off her toned legs and rounded ass.
“If you say yes, then you’re mine, and I’m never letting you go. No more mixed signals, no more denial of what’s obviously between us.”
She sighs, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. “There’s something you need to know.”
I frown slightly, tightening my grip on her. “What? You can tell me anything.”
“I’ve never had a boyfriend before. I’ve never…” She blinks and looks away, her cheeks pink. Fuck, she’s so sweet. “When you kissed me, that was my first kiss.”
It’s like an explosion goes off inside me. She’s so young and innocent, and I’m done pretending I don’t like it. Like I don’t fucking love it.
A grin spreads across my face. “I’m the only one who knows how you taste,” I say, my voice going hoarse. She makes a soft whimpering noise. “And if you say yes, that’s how it’ll stay, because I don’t fucking share.”
She licks her lips, drawing my attention to her lush mouth, and I stifle a groan. “Let’s…let’s do the routine. Right now, with this energy.”
I let out a pained laugh. “Okay. Give me a second though. You don’t want me lifting you with eighty percent of my blood in my dick.”
She giggles. “No, probably not. But there are definitely other things I want you to do to me in that…condition.”
I groan. “You saying things like that to me isn’t helping the situation.”
She skates around me in a circle, dragging the tips of her fingers around my waist, grazing my ass. “It’s not?” she asks, blinking at me innocently. “So I shouldn’t tell you about how I go home every night after practice and touch myself, imagining it’s your fingers between my legs?”
I let out a growl and grab her, pulling her against me. “Are you my dirty little virgin, Cate?”
“Not for long, I hope,” she whispers, and I lose all control. I wrap her ponytail around my fist and pull her face to mine, kissing her hard and deep. Claiming her mouth the way I want to claim every inch of her body.
“What do you think about when you touch yourself, princess?” I rasp against her mouth.
“You,” she moans. “How much I want you. How much I like you. How I think I might be—“ She cuts herself off and my heart pounds in my chest, because I know what she was going to say.
That she might be falling for me. I know, because I think I’m falling for her, too.
“Still want to do the routine?” I ask, giving her ponytail a little tug. She whimpers but then nods.
“We should. With this tension, we should.” She pulls away slightly. “Whisper dirty things to me while we skate.”
I swallow and nod. My entire body feels like a steel rod, wound tight with need, but she wants to run this routine, so we will. She’s disciplined, my girl.
My girl.The words sink into me as she skates to the side of the ice to cue up our music. That’s what she is—mine. And there’s a part of me that knew it from the moment I saw her. And I’m done fighting against all the reasons why we shouldn’t do this.
I take my spot in the middle of the ice and she quickly skates back to me and into my arms for our opening pose.
“I stroke my cock every single night, too,” I say as the music starts and we begin to move together. “And all I think about is how good your little cunt would feel wrapped around it.”
She gasps, her fingers shaky as she takes my hand. We move into the first element, a triple twist. I launch her into the air and she spins rapidly before I catch her easily, her body sliding sensuously against mine.
“I want to make your sweet little pussy feel so good,” I say low in her ear. “I want to make you come over and over again, until you’re dripping and swollen for me.”
“Alex,” she gasps, and when her eyes meet mine, they’re wild with lust and passion.
We get through the side-by-side triple toe loops—don’t ask me how—and the second she’s back in my arms, filth is spilling from my mouth.
“I want to put your legs over my shoulders and fuck you so hard and deep you feel me for days. Fill you up with so much come that it leaks out of you and down your thighs,” I growl. We move into a lift, and despite the sexual tension crackling between us, we execute it flawlessly, even when I let my fingers graze her pussy on the dismount.
I can feel how wet she is through her leggings, and I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the rest of this routine.
“All I think about is you. Making you come. Worshiping your sweet pussy, with my mouth, and my fingers, and my fucking cock. Marking you with my scent so that everyone knows you’re mine.”
“Yours,” she sighs, and we’re not skating anymore. She’s in my arms, her legs around my waist, and we’re kissing, the routine abandoned even as the music still plays through the speakers. I glide across the ice with her in my arms until her back bumps against the boards, and I hold her there, kissing her, breathing her in.
“Tell me you’re sure,” I say, scraping my teeth over her jaw.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
It’s all I need to hear before I carry her off the ice.