Page 67 of Ace of Spades

“Promise me, that the second Keelan Landry skates onto the ice tonight, you boo him to the point of making him cry.”

Sienna looks at me questioningly, and I shrug.

But Julian seems to be in on some inside joke because he laughs, giving the guy a chest bump, and they snap.

“Done. It’s a deal.”

“Thanks, Julian,” the guy says, as he focuses on scribbling his autograph onto the jersey, then looks up at Sienna and smiles as he hands Julian his jersey back.

I instantly bristle. I know his game.

Immediately, Julian sheds his Thunderhawks t-shirt and slips the jersey on, smoothing it down his stomach in admiration.

“Alright, boys,” Brody says, already at the door to the locker room. “Y’all kick major ass out there. They don’t know what’s coming.”

“No mercy!” The team chants back like a battalion getting ready for war.

“No mercy,” Brody says with a fist in the air.

He taps Milo on the head as he makes his way out of the room, and we follow close behind.

Julian whispers-squeals to Sienna, “He knows my name!”

Sienna throws an arm over his shoulders, “Easy tiger.”

* * *

I lower into the empty arena seat next to Sienna with a grunt.

“This seat taken?” I ask, already sitting.

“Unfortunately not,” she mutters, gripping her soda like it’s the only thing keeping her from slapping me.

“Sienna–”

“I’m really not in the mood to get into it with you at the moment, Levi,” she says, cutting me off. “Let’s just watch the game and get this over with.”

The crowd roars as the players take the ice, and the bass from the arena speakers thrums in my chest.

I can feel the heat from Sienna’s thigh through my jeans, and it’s infuriating how my body reacts like it knowsexactlywhat we want but refuse to act on.

The puck drops, but the noise from the crowd barely registers. Not when she’s next to me. Not when every breath I take fills my lungs with her scent. It’s something sweet and wild and sharp enough to cut through my defenses.

I try not to look at her. I really do.

But then it happens.

The guy behind us lunges forward, beer sloshing, and she jolts right into me.

There’s no time to think. No time to process.

Suddenly… she’sin my lap.

Not beside me. Not brushing shoulders.

On me.

Her weight knocks the breath out of me, but it’s the heat of her thighs straddling mine, the way her hands clutch at my chest like she’s trying to find something solid, that really sends me spiraling.

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