Page 81 of Off The Ice

He smiled devilishly at me,lovingthe fact that he had the power to get me in some deep shit if he wanted to.

But I didn’t fucking care. I was hardly the first person to punch a guy, and this one sure as hell deserved it.

“She’ll come back to me,” he said assuredly. “She always does. Some brutish hockey player won’t change that.”

“Man, you’re really asking for it, aren’t you?” Brody laughed without humor.

“Doesn’t look too good for the Harbor Wolves that two of their players have a fan cornered and bloody, does it?”

At that, I unclenched his shirt, taking a safe step back. This didn’t matter right now. Cassie did. And she was outside, cold, and waiting to go home.

I took a breath, stepping away so I could get my car keys and get the hell out of there. Dave stared at me cautiously as if I were a wild animal that might pounce on him at any moment.

“Come on, man.” Brody clapped my back. “Let’s go.”

And I started to, but then, something made me turn, feeling a compulsive need to get the message across loud and clear before I left.

“Next time you come near my girlfriend.” I brought my face deathly close to his. “I’ll destroy you. And I don’t care what the fuck it does to my career. Got it?”

His silence was a good enough answer for me.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Cassie

Ihated my traitorous body and the incessant pounding of its heart.

I wasfine.Everything was fine. I was in Liam’s car, and he was driving me home.

My body, however, felt I was an animal being hunted for sport in the wild. I was hyper-aware of everything. The cars going by, the silence in the car.

The tension radiating from Liam.

That was the worst of all.

I wondered if he was mad at me. I’d thrown a fit and run out. It was humiliating to think back on. But I couldn’t face Dave. I just didn’t have it in me. I’d never been able to do confrontations. Least of all with the man who broke my heart.

“I’m sorry,” I finally said after a few minutes of the unbearable quiet, watching the way his fingers clenched the wheel so hard they were almost white.

His head whipped so fast I thought it might’ve hurt him.

“Why are you sorry?”

“You’re mad at me, aren’t you?”

He couldn’t have looked anymore shocked if I told him I was in the running for the next presidential election.

“Why would I be mad at you?”

“Because I ran out so abruptly?” I said, my fingers twitching in my lap. “I’m sorry I did that. It was so immature of me. To run away like that? I don’t know what happened. I just—”

“Cassie, you don’t have to explain.”

But I did. I couldn’t handle the thought of Liam thinking I was some neurotic weirdo who was prone to fleeing conversations at random.

“I just saw someone that I knew, and I guess I wanted to avoid a conversation with them.”

“Someone?” Liam bit out tersely.

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