Page 38 of Ice Princess

“Ridiculous or not, you’re my girlfriend.” I step forward.

She steps back, her tennis shoes skittering across a loose rock. “Fake girlfriend.”

I move in. “We’re dating.”

“Fakedating,” she stresses, fiddling with the collar of her pink mechanic jumper.

“And that means you—Rebel Eleanor Hart…”

Her eyes widen when she bounces against the door of her car.

“… Are my responsibility and I will have your back.”

Rebel looks up at me, her mouth slightly parted.

My eyes fasten on her lips. A fire that has no business burning spreads through my veins. My hands beg to touch her, to flatten on her back and give her the last, tiny nudge forward so nothing separates us.

But I don’t move.

Neither does she.

The silence between us is heated, filled to the brim with words and desires that would never cross our lips. Our eyes don’t stray an inch from each other’s. The air around us thickens with a dangerous kind of heat.

I’m no stranger to a glaring Rebel Hart. But this stare down is different from the usual stubborn sneer or the disgusted looks she ordinarily flings at me.

I find myself leaning closer, drawn to that unexplainable warmth in her.

It’s not like I have a choice.

Rebel Hart attracts people to her just by breathing, just byexisting.Heads swiveled when she walked into the Tipsy Tuna earlier. I heard groans when the table she chose to sit at was mine.

It’s some kind of sickness. Maybe something in the water?

Whatever it is, I’ve got zero immunity.

I reach out.

Rebel covers her mouth, coiling back.

My lips twitch and I continue to reach for her door. The handle makes a ‘clicking’ sound as it releases and the door bounces, lightly hitting her and pushing her forward.

Rebel’s eyes widen to take up half her face and she twists around, sees her open door, and realizes that I had not been intending to kiss her.

The flush across her face deepens in color.

“Text me if you’d like to go to the game together,” I say.

Rebel makes a garbled sound that, I assume, is supposed to be a response. Pointedly avoiding eye contact, she scrambles into her car, starts the engine and takes off, burning tire marks in the pavement.

I stagger back, taking in my first deep breath since we walked out together.

Rebel Hart thought I was going to kiss her. She was going to reject my kiss, sure. But the fact that she even thought about it…

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who felt something.

I slip a hand into my pocket, chuckling to myself.

Just then, I get a call from Max.

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