Page 26 of Yule Know It When You See It
When I fully enter the arena, fewer people skate on the ice than I anticipated. A mother holds her young daughter’s hands as she fumbles on her skates, a teenage girl makes laps, occasionally turning to skate backward, and there’s only one other person—Axel freaking Nord. He doesn’t do anything fancy and is simply skating circles on a pair of sport skates, but this isn’t a sight I ever imagined in a thousand years I’d see. And more astonishing? Despite the cold temperature here, which has to be even more chilly on the ice, he wears no jacket, only a T-shirt and jeans.
I sit in one of the hundred available stadium seats, taking off my dress shoes and exchanging them for a pair of skates. Doing up the laces, I pat them to ensure they’re snug, memories of doing this same action at seven years old flashing through my mind. I move to the open space leading to the ice, pluck off my guards, and wait for Axel to circle back.
Axel spots me and gapes before turning his heels to stop where I stand. “Theo. I was going to call you soon before practice starts to let you know I’m here—” He points behind him. “Howdidyou know I was here already?”
His surprise and unease have me beaming inside. And the sight of his bare, muscular arms, that elaborate tattoo making another appearance, and seeing more of it this time? It almost elicits a whimper from my throat.
“Simone told me. Gotta say I didn’t expectthis, however.” I step onto the ice.
Axel’s hands launch toward me. “Do you know how to—”
“Skate?” I grin and glide over the ice with ease, doing a complete turn with extra flourish before facing him. “You’re looking at a two-time youth state figure-skating champion.”
Lazily, Axel skates to my side and chuckles. “Well, damn. And here I hoped to see you fall on your ass every five minutes.”
“No such luck, Chuck.” I dip my head back into a layback spin, circling several times before gracefully pulling out of it. It’s like riding a bike. “And are you saying you wouldn’t have tried to stop me from falling?”
Axel snickers and speed skates past me, spins, and does a drift stop, sending ice spraying at me. “You don’t need my help. Isn’t that what you said?”
I had said this, yes. But now, for whatever reason, the idea of his hands on me, even if it was only to keep me from hitting the ice, seems—nice. “Suit yourself.” Shrugging, I zoom past him, whisking around the rink’s perimeter, using my arms at my sides to guide my movements.
“How did you grow up skating and not know much about hockey? They share the same turf,” Axel says with a smirk, yelling this to me when I draw near but keep moving past him.
“I was there to skate, Axel.” I glide back to him and come to a grinding halt at his side. “Not to learn hockey.”
Axel grins, a devilish mischief playing in his gaze as he spins. “When you skated, was it solo?”
Where is he going with this?
I skate literal circles around him, and he lets me. “Yes. Why?”
Axel’s lips take a wicked curl upward before his arm is around my waist, spinning us in circles. My heart throttles in my chest, and it downright stops when he lifts me from the ice for a breath, doing it with such ease one would think I weigh nothing more than a snowflake. He sets me down, still grinning.
“How the—” Breathing has become difficult, and my throat feels like sandpaper. “—how do you know how to do that?”
We’re both paused in the center of the ice, the other few skaters continuing laps around us.
“Aside from playing hockey through college, my sister figure skated. When her partner got sick or had to take the day off, she’d rope me into helping her practice.” The chill from the ice has turned Axel’s nose red, and he sniffles, rubbing a knuckle under it.
A dozen glittering monarchs churn in my stomach at this revelation. I press my hand to my stomach and skate a little closer to his side. “What else you got?”
His face falls, and he cracks his knuckles, sliding his skates forward and backward as if antsy. “You sure?”
“Yeah. Let’s just not try any crazy over-the-head moves. We’re not exactly at that level of trust yet.”
He swivels a nonchalant circle around me. “Yet?”
Rolling my eyes, I push against his chest, sending him skating backward. “You know what I mean.”
“Skate backward to me.” He makes ‘come at me’ gestures with his hands and waits.
Whose idea was it to do this again? To put myself in a position where his hands would beonme? Mine. All freaking mine. Mental facepalm.
Giving him my back, I glide toward him and can’t help the gasp that pushes from my lungs as his hands latch over my hips. He pulls me closer and lifts me straight up before resting me on the ice. His arms wrap around me from behind, and he spins us, lifting, and resting me on the opposite side. His hand dips to my shoulder, causing me to duck my head under his arm, and when I stand upright, I instinctively take his hand.
We lock gazes as we skate hand-in-hand, and electricity sparks through every nerve in my lower body. I’ve never felt this sort of—connection or reaction—with anyone before Axel, and it drives my mind into treacherous territory. A domain I should have sealed away behind a tightly locked metal door, but one I always manage to leave open a crack.
He’s suddenly behind me, grabbing my hips and pushing me gently across the ice. He takes a knee, gliding and bringing me down with him. My butt now rests on his knee, and I lift my skates, laughing, flat-out cackling as he gives me a ride. When he rises and sets me back on the ice, I skate ahead of him, dying to try a scratch spin—a lightning-fast-in-place turn with crossed ankles and arms folded against your chest.
