Page 30 of Rush the Edge

Blistering anger sweeps through me. I try to move out from beneath Kane’s hold on my hip, but he’s too strong, and I’m not steady enough on skates right now to escape. Lars skates away after we make eye contact and begins sending pucks into the net with the grumpy goalie blocking the shots.

“Let go of me,” I hiss.

Kane chuckles. “No.”

I cross my arms and stiffen my entire body in hopes it’ll make it harder on Kane as he tries to pull me off the ice. It doesn’t, though. The only thing it does is illicit a curse to fly from his mouth as he hauls me up into his arms and down the hall where the visitor locker room is.

“I see that you’re still a stubborn brat,” he mutters before opening the door and shoving me inside. The mascot head is still in the center of the bench along with my bag, but Cindy and the seamstress are gone, along with the rest of the mascot costume.

“And you’re still a jealous asshole,” I sneer.

“Jealous?” Kane’s hands go to his hips in disbelief before dropping his head. When he pops back up, his blue eyes are burning with something I can’t name. I feel it everywhere, though,brushing over my flesh like electricity.“I’m not jealous, Daisy. Fuck whomever you want, just no one on the team.”

An undeniable spark zips through me that I’ve only felt once before, and it's taken me until right now to realize just how much I’ve craved it. No one has come close to giving me a taste of exhilaration quite like Kane Barlow. I’m not sure how, but he has always managed to make me feel so at ease and chaotic at the same time.

I became addicted to it several years ago, and like a fiend, I’m craving it all over again being alone with him.

“Why not?” I flutter my eyelashes and purse my lips. “Afraid you’ll overhear something that’ll sound a little too familiar and give you a reminder of the past?”

Why am I pushing his buttons on purpose?

Kane’s jaw flexes, and I hate that I’m proud of myself for getting under his skin. I almost drop my guard until he quickly advances on me. I’m not fast enough to dodge the bullet. He backs me all the way to the wall before grabbing both of my arms and trapping them above my head.

Breath vanishes from my lungs as I stare up at him.

“You think you’re so clever, don’t you, Daisy-Petal?”

I give him a closed-lipped smile, even if my heart is beating straight out of my chest. The undeniable pull that’s always been between us is back with our closeness, and I have the urge to press against him just to see what he’ll do.

Kane’s eyes drop to my mouth, and I flush.

“I remember the tiny little freckle you have right below your left hip bone…” his voice scrapes against my skin like a jagged piece of glass. “And the birthmark you have on the inner part of your right thigh…” Kane moves his knee between mine, spreading my legs apart slightly.

I need to jerk out of his grip or do something,anything, to act as if he isn’t making my heart rate spike. But I’m stuck like glue.

How did I let him pin me here?

A shaky breath falls from between my lips, and his nostrils flare before he steals back the last bit of my control.

“I don’t need reminders when it comes to you,” he admits. “I just don’t want you fucking my teammates, because I don’t want you to screw with their head like you screwed with mine.”

Kane’s grip against my arm tightens, and I wince when he hits the tender spot from yesterday’s bloodwork. He notices the catch in my expression and immediately lets go. Distance increases between us, but I still can’t breathe.

Silence fills the locker room when he angrily pushes open the door and leaves me alone.

I look back at the Blue Devil head and sigh shakily. I attempt to lower my blood pressure, but in the end, I accept it for what it is.

A loss.

“We lost that one, huh?” I ask the immobile head.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if it nodded back.

Twelve

KANE

The night before a game,I’m practically crawling out of my skin.

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