Page 58 of Hearts on Ice
He didn’t know if he could skate combinations with, what, five hours of sleep. But he knew her well enough to know she wasn’t going to let him try for more.
He was used to driving early in the morning, but he was surprised that even that time had more traffic than now. No one was at the rink—even the media wouldn’t think to show up this early.
He opened the rink, and Colby nearly ran over him in her eagerness to get to the ice. She’d picked the song yesterday when they’d been driving around and Declan didn’t particularly like it, knowing he’d have to listen to it hundreds of times over the next months. But Colby was happy about it, so he was along for the ride.
When he didn’t get his skates on quickly enough, she dropped to her knees in front of him to tie his skate, smiling up at him.
“I can do it myself.”
“I know.” She pushed to her feet, pulling her phone out of her pocket and setting it up on the wall of the rink to record. She skated backwards to the center of the ice. He realized then that he didn’t have the first clue about what she wanted him to do.
He didn’t have to wait long. She positioned her hands on his hips to position him, and skated a few feet away with her hand stretched toward him.
“Okay, we’re going to start with you pulling me toward you, and I’ll lift my leg. You tuck your hand under my thigh and we spin three times, clockwise. Then you push me away, then skate away. I chase after you, we both do a double axel before you let me catch up to you. You pull me into your arms, your hand on the small of my back, elbows up, we skate to the other end, you turn me around to skate with my back against your chest, then I’m going to flip up, over your right shoulder, and you’re going to hold me up, while I do the splits.”
“Over my head?” His back hurt just thinking about the move.
“Our hands will be over your head, but I’ll be behind your back. Then you’ll twist me around in front of you while you turn at the same time.”
“I’m not sure I’ll be able to do that.”
“Do you think Josh will?”
“I mean, yeah. He’s strong enough.”
She slid her hands up his arms. “You’re strong enough.”
“Out of practice.”
She skated backwards. “Then let’s practice. You got what I told you?”
“Spin three times, skate away, double axel, lift.”
She looked a bit frustrated at his brief summary, but nodded and reached one hand toward him again. When she lifted her leg for him to pull her against him, he had to stop.
“I don’t know that this will work for Josh and Lexi,” he said, his voice a little husky as his cock pressed right up against her sex.
“I thought about that,” she said, her own voice a little rough. “They’re different heights than we are. So it won’t be quite as intimate.”
“We came close to getting fired before. This might be the thing to do it,” he said as she put some space between them so they could start from the beginning.
“It will be fine,” she said. “I need to get past this so we can move on to some other elements I have in mind. I just want to see if they work.”
“So you just—have all of this in your head? Like after we figured the song out yesterday?”
“It’s some of the same elements, some of the same sequences, but yeah. I see it playing out.”
“You didn’t write it down?”
“Not yet, but I promise, I won’t forget.” She held her hand toward him. “Come on, let’s give it another try.”
Declan’s armswere wobbly by the time the kids arrived, and he was starving. He wished he had time to run to get something from the drive through but Colby had worked them right up until the time their students arrived. Meanwhile he watched Colby on the edge of the rink, head bent over a stack of papers as she worked out the map of the new routine. Why did he find that so sexy, her concentration, her determination? He’d always found her determination sexy, if he was being honest. She’d always had this drive and he’d found her certainty that she knew what she wanted sexy as hell.
Meanwhile he worked with Josh and Lexi on the compulsory program. He thought about asking Mrs. Santos or Mrs. Fletcher to go pick up breakfast or coffee, but he could wait until the snack bar opened.
Why didn’t he have Sandra come in earlier than six?
At least Josh and Lexi seemed to be getting along better. And technically, they had the compulsory routine down pretty well. He was relieved that was in the bag, anyway.
