Page 39 of Blocked Score

My brow furrows at the sudden change of topic.

“Uh, yeah?” I add a questioning inflection because I’m not sure where he’s going with this.

“Remember that jerk who was ranting about a crying baby?”

I tilt my head, searching through my memories. “Oh!” I exclaim, recalling the incident. “Yeah. That guy was such a tool.”

Still not sure where Lane is going with this, though.

“Well, how many people who were actually in that line for the plane said anything to him? How many people walked by without standing up for that mom who looked so embarrassed? How many people would’ve kept passing without saying a word, justminding their own business—me included?”

I shrug. “I dunno.”

“And remember when we met a couple days later? How you got kicked out of that club for defending a girl who was getting bothered by some guy in there?”

Flush crawls into my cheeks, making them feel warm even against the frigid wind that just billowed down the block.

“Yeah,” I repeat again, my voice feeling soft from the fluttery feeling in my chest. Lane remembers all that?

“When most people see others being treated badly by jerks, they let it go. You don’t. I thinkthat’sa pretty damn high standard you hold yourself to. Caring a lot about hockey doesn’t seem too impressive by comparison.”

Wings flap in my stomach, and a happy sort of hum vibrates through my body down to my limbs.

The feeling combines with the alcohol still floating in my bloodstream and has me feeling a little giddy when we finally approach our house.

I go to leap from the walkway to the porch in a single bound instead of walking up the wooden steps. But in my tipsy state, Idon’t consider the very obvious likelihood of ice lurking on any surface at this time of year.

I slip on the frosty edge of the porch landing. My legs kick up and I go tumbling backward, colliding against Lane’s broad, firm chest.

His arms wrap around me, and my chest hitches when I find myself pressed flush against him.

My feet hover above the ground. His body heat rolls off him in waves, warming me. His forearm presses against the underside of my boobs, which suddenly feel so sensitive they ache.

His scent, fresh and clean with a musky, masculine undertone, fills my nose.

I’m not sober enough to check the vivid memories that stir from being this close to Lane. Not sober enough to keep myself from reliving when Lane relieved the kind of ache my tits feel right now by palming them with his rough hands and slanting his hot, wet tongue against my pebbled nipples in a way that made my back arch.

A slick warmth gathers between my legs, and desire tips into my bloodstream.

“Deja-vu,” Lane whispers, his humid breath skating against the soft shell of my ear. His face is so close to me that I can feel my hair feathering against his cheek.

I can feel his lips only a few torturous, teasing centimeters away from my skin, so close that the sheer want to feel them sliding against me has desire throbbing through my body.

Would it be such a bad idea if we opened the front door quietly, snuck up into his or my room, and …

That very front door opens suddenly, and immediately Lane loosens his grip. I drop a couple inches, standing in front of him now, and he takes a step back. Disappointment stabs throughmy ribs like a knife, and my whole body whines at losing contact with him.

Rhys stands in the bright yellow rectangle of light framing the open doorway amidst the darkness outside.

“It’s just Lane and Scarlett,” he turns his head to say in the direction of the living room.

Lane brushes past me, stepping up to walk inside. I try to swallow the disappointment stuck in my throat and follow him, being much more careful with my footsteps this time.

“Thought I heard someone out there,” Sebastian says from the living room as I close the door behind me.

“Thought a murderer was trying to break in?” Tuck teases, sitting next to Sebastian on the couch. They’re playing a video game on the TV, a hockey game this time.

“I watched this crazy Japanese horror movie about ghosts who travel through the internet late last night when I couldn’t fall asleep, so I’m on edge,” Sebastian says, earning snickers from Tuck and Rhys.

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