Chapter 13
Zayden
I knew she’d come again.
Did I ask Jasper to let me know if he saw her sneaking out again? Maybe.
She doesn’t see me as she laces her skates and then steps onto the ice. Then she moves, not the way she usually does during training.
She’s faster, freer. There’s this fire to her movement, sharp, elegant, and a little wild. I stay in the shadows for a while, watching her.
Just her and the ice.
Something about the way she moves feels like a secret no one else was meant to witness.
She’s good.
Really good.
Not like Anastasia.
Luna is something else entirely.
Where Anastasia is poise, Luna is power.
Where Anastasia floats, Luna flies.
There’s nothing soft about the way she moves. She’s not an ice princess, she’s an ice storm. Unpredictable. Dangerous. Beautiful in the way lightning is right before it strikes. But I already knew that. She’s better than she was three years ago, when I saw her skating for the first time.
Before I can think about what I’m doing, I’m moving. Pulled in by a gravity I can’t fight. My skates hit the ice, and her head snaps up.
She sees me, but she doesn’t stop or ask why I’m here, just keeps skating, so I join her. Not close at first. Just enough to find her rhythm and let it pull me in.
She’s not holding back. Her spins are quick, tight, dangerous. As she passes me, I catch her by the waist. She jumps, and I throw her with no hesitation. She lands perfectly.
Then she laughs. The sound catches me off guard for a second, because I’ve never heard anything more beautiful, especially coming from her. I’ve gotten used to her icy glare. I didn’t know she had that in her.
She charges toward me again, and I lift her higher this time, spinning faster. These are not movements you would see in a competition; they are ones that would get us disqualified if we were competing.
She skates across the rink and then back to me. I don’t back away this time. She slows just enough to stop a breath away from me. Her laugh fades into a soft, quiet smile.
And God—she’s beautiful. I’ve known that since the first time I saw her on the ice. But having her this close, seeing the curve of her lips, the glow in her cheeks, the softness that replaces all her fight, and when she looks at me like this, it’s different.
She’s still breathing hard from skating, chest rising and falling between us, and I’m sure she can hear my heartbeat. Hell, I can feel it in my throat.
Her eyes flick to my lips, and I swear we both stop breathing. My hand twitches like it wants to reach for her, to touch her face, her waist, anything.
But I don’t.
Then she exhales and steps back, and I let her. I turn away before I do something stupid, like kissing those fucking lips. I skate toward the far end of the rink, eyes on the ice, not her.
It was the adrenaline.
That’s all it was.
“Zayden…” I like the way my name sounds on her lips.
I look back, but she’s frowning down at her phone. I pull out mine, too, seeing the message.
Unknown number: There are more secrets buried here than you two dancing around each other.