Page 49 of Icebound Hearts

I hate him. I hate how easily he gets under my skin. I shift, feigning nonchalance. “You ask a lot of questions, Knight. Maybe if you weren’t so—”

“What are you so afraid of?” I freeze. His voice is low and quiet, but there’s something sharp underneath it. Something raw. Something that makes my breath catch. I swallow hard, my throat dry.

“I’m not afraid.” Aiden steps closer, the distance between us almost gone. His scent makes my mind hazy. I feel drunk on him.

“Then why do you keep running?” I don’t move. I can’t. My back is already against the wall, and he’s right there, his presence suffocating, intoxicating, too much.

“I’m not,” I whisper, but it’s weak, even to my own ears. Aiden exhales through his nose, shaking his head slightly like I’m exhausting him.

“You can dance with Alexei all you want. You can pretend you don’t care, pretend I don’t get to you. But you and I both know the truth, Kat.”

I hate how easily he says it. Like it’s a fact. Like he’s already won. I lift my chin, meeting his stare head-on. “And what truth is that?” A slow smirk tugs at the corner of his lips, but his eyes are dark, full of something I don’t want to name.

“That no matter how hard you fight it…” Aiden whispers, leaning in, his breath warm against my ear. “You want me just as much as I want you.”

My body betrays me, shivering at the sound of his voice, at the heat of his presence. And unfortunately for me, he notices. His smirk deepens, his fingers twitching at his side like he wants to touch me like he’s waiting for me to break first. I swallow hard, forcing myself to find my voice. “You don’t know anything, Aiden.”

His grin is slow and confident, as he right fingers graze my left arm from top to bottom. Burning my skin with his touch “Keep telling yourself that, baby.” And just like before, he turns and leaves, walking away from me for the second time tonight.

Leaving me standing there, breathless, frustrated, and completely undone.

Chapter twenty - three

KATERINA

Pretending nothing happened is more challenging than I thought. But I do it anyway. The following day, I wake up, throw on my usual training gear, and show up at the rink like Aiden Knight hasn’t been invading my thoughts since the second he walked away from me last night. I don’t think about his voice in my ear, the way his presence suffocated me in the best, most infuriating way. I don’t think about how my body reacted to his words, how he knew exactly what he was doing, and how much he was getting to me. I shove it all down, tuck it into the darkest corner of my mind, and focus on the only thing that matters. Winning.

Training starts as usual. Alexei and I run through our warm-up, step sequences, and spins. My body is tired, still recovering from the night before, but I push through it. Everything is fine until Aiden shows up with Roman.

Aiden leans against the boards, arms crossed, watching me like he has every right to be here. His dark eyes scan the rink, his expression unreadable, but I can feel the tension radiating from him. He hasn’t said a word yet, but I can already tell he’s about to say something stupid. I grit my teeth, skating to a stop near Alexei, ignoring the way my pulse kicks up when Aidenpushes off the wall and takes a few slow steps closer to where I’ve stopped.

“What are you doing here, Knight?” I ask, voice clipped. He smirks, shoving his hands into his hoodie pockets.

“Watching.” I roll my eyes, annoyed at his presence.

“Don’t you have hockey practice?” I snap, avoiding eye contact.

“Don’t you have a routine to land?” My jaw tightens at his comment. Alexei glances between us, amused but smart enough not to say anything. I scowl, turning away and ignoring him.

“Let’s go again,” I tell Alexei. I push off, moving through our following sequence, doing everything I can to pretend Aiden isn’t standing there, burning holes into me with his stare. And for a while, it works until the throw.

Alexei’s grip is perfect; his strength is precisely where it needs to be as he launches me into the air. It should be flawless. It should be routine, but something isn’t right. Maybe it’s the exhaustion. Perhaps it’s the tension thrumming beneath my skin. Maybe it’s the fact that my mind hasn’t been as clear as I thought it was.

Either way—I fall.

It happens fast. Too fast. One second, I’m rotating through the air, everything precise and controlled, and the next—

Pain. I slam into the ice, my left shoulder taking the full force of the impact. It's the same shoulder that keeps bugging me. A sickening snap rings in my ears. Sharp. Deep. Wrong. Gasps ripple through the rink, but I barely hear them. All I hear is the roaring in my ears. The way my breath comes too fast, too shallow. My shoulder—

Something is wrong with my shoulder. Alexei kneels beside me, hands hovering near me but not touching.

“Kat,” he says, voice tight. “Are you okay?” No. I am not okay. But I force a breath out, gritting my teeth against the pain. “I—” And then, he’s there. Aiden.

The sight of him standing over me is the final straw. “Stay away,” I snap before he can even say anything. Aiden freezes, his eyes narrowing.

“Kat—”

“I said stay away.” His jaw clenches, but I don’t care. I can’t care. Not when my shoulder is screaming in pain. Not when reality sets in— I might have just lost my shot at gold. Tears burn the back of my eyes, but I blink them away, swallowing the lump in my throat. Alexei helps me sit up his face pinched with concern.

---