Page 104 of The Pucking Arrangement

“Maybe I’ll go through your laundry, find another jersey to wear while watching you play.”

I growl. “You’re trying to ruin me.”

“Is it working?”

“Perfectly.” I scrub a hand down my face. “I should let you sleep.”

She pouts. Actually pouts. “Already? Now that you’ve had your way with me, you’re just letting me go?”

I snort out a laugh. “I need to eat. I have early practice tomorrow. Big game.” I pause, watching her stretch like a satisfied cat. “And I need you rested for when I come back.”

Her cheeks darken, but then she shifts, inhaling deep. “Sorry to ask this...” She hesitates.

“What? Anything for you.”

“Uhh...would it be okay if Luka came over later this week? To record a few videos in your garden?”

I freeze.

“What?”

“Well, it’s such a beautiful, green setting,” she says quickly. “We thought it’d be perfect for a few pop arrangements.”

We.The word makes me recoil, the sound of it like nails on a chalkboard.

“Uh-huh,” I say, voice flat. “What exactly are you envisioning?”

“Luka suggested we play ‘Thunderstruck’—you know, the two-cello arrangement? Then maybe ‘Rolling in the Deep.’ The pool, the garden...it could really set the scene.” She pauses, reading the tension in my silence. “It’s supposed to rain Wednesday. That would make it even more dramatic.”

Rain. Great. Because what I really need is Luka Havran—smug, charming, sitting next to my girl soaked from rain.

Before I can respond, a sharp knock rattles my door.

“Sokolov!” Finn’s voice booms. “Get your ass down here! Coach is about to send a search party!”

I mutter several creative curses in Russian. Both at the interruption and at the idea of that slick bastard setting foot in my house.

But then my girl’s eyes go soft. Hopeful. And just like that, I know I’m going to say yes.

My girl.

That’s right, Havran.My girl.

“No problem,” I hear myself say, my teeth grinding together even as I say it.

Another bang at the door.

“Go.” Erin laughs softly. “Feed your magnificent body. But Dmitri?”

“Da?”

She tugs the collar of my shirt lower, just enough to make my mouth go dry. “Score for me tomorrow?”

“Anything for you,solnyshko.”

Her smile is the last thing I see before the screen goes dark, leaving me completely wrecked.

“Sokolov!”

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