Page 106 of Heated Rivalry 1
“Yeah.”
Shane could see a tightening in Ilya’s jaw. “Hey,” he said, as quietly as possible. “You all right?”
Ilya turned and met Shane’s eyes, and Shane felt a stab of longing in his heart. They were so close, but they couldn’t be more under the microscope than they were right now.
“We’ll talk later,” Shane promised.
“Yes. Later.”
Ilya skated away. Shane watched after him, and then he felt Hayden’s elbow bumping his arm. “What did Rozanov want?”
“Nothing,” Shane said, blinking and turning to face Hayden. “I was just...offering my condolences. You know.”
The news had gotten around that Rozanov’s father had died. Shane hoped the press wouldn’t ask Ilya too many questions about it.
“Oh. Yeah. That’s nice of you,” Hayden said. “I should have thought to do that. It’s just... Rozanov, y’know?”
“He’s not a bad guy,” Shane said, a little daringly. “It’s mostly an act.”
“Pretty convincing one.”
“Yeah, well...” Shane almost saidwe all have secrets, but he stopped himself. Instead, he said, “Let’s just make sure we win this one, all right?”
“Fucking right.”
Ilya loved playing against Hollander almost as much as he loved fucking him.
He was in the corner with him now, battling for the puck, and this was his favorite part of any game.
Hollander won, and skated away with his prize. Ilya smiled to himself and raced off after him. Shane was a better stick handler, but Ilya was a faster skater, and he caught up with him and poked the puck off his blade from behind.
Ilya had the puck for all of three seconds before Shane forced him into the boards and stole it back. Then he took off again, with a challenging (and somewhat flirty) glance back at Ilya. Ilya grinned and launched himself after him, but this time Shane wasflyingand Ilya was struggling to close the gap and then...
Oh god. No.
It happened so fast, Ilya could barely process it. One second, Shane was racing down the ice, and the next he was slamming against the boards after colliding hard with Cliff Marlow.
And then he was crumpled and motionless, on the ice, and Ilya didn’t know what to do.
“Shane?”
Blurry, bright shapes and screeching noise.
“Don’t move, all right? Just stay still. We’re going to take you off the ice.”
Ice?
“Hollander?”
A different voice.
“Ilya?”Did I say that?Shane heard his own voice, but had he moved his lips? He blinked, trying to get his eyes to focus.
“Is he all right?” That was Ilya’s voice for sure. It sounded different, though. It was...unsteady. Panicked.
“Mmokay,” Shane murmured. He had no idea if it was true, but he didn’t want to hear the worry in Ilya’s voice anymore.
“We’re going to move you onto the spinal board, Shane. Keep your head still, please.”
