Page 149 of Heated Rivalry 1
“He tripped me! Hey, what the fuck, ref! That was tripping!”
Shane glared up at the ref, and then at Ilya, who was looming over him in his Ottawa jersey. “You fell,” Ilya said.
“I didn’tfall. It wastripping.”
“Yes. Was you tripping over your own skates.”
“Get fucked, Rozanov.”
Ilya’s lips quirked up. “Was planning on it.”
And now Shane had to bite back a grin. He rose to his knees, then stood, still mad as hell. Ilya had totally tripped him.
The crowd was booing, cursing Ilya’s name, and Shane got up in his face. “Stop being an asshole.”
“Stop falling down.”
Shane jabbed him in the chest with a gloved finger. He heard the crowd roar its approval. “You can’t beat me withoutcheating.”
Ilya raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think?”
Someone grabbed Shane’s arm and pulled him away. “All right, keep it in your pants, you two. Jesus.”
“Hi, Hayden,” Ilya said, grinning.
“I still don’t like you, Rozanov,” Hayden said.
“Oh no!” Ilya mocked him. “How can I impress Montreal’s fifteenth best player?”
“Shane, I’m gonna punch him.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m gonna punch him.”
“No you’re not,” the ref barked. “Get back to your benches, all three of you. It’s a commercial break. Go cool off.”
Ilya winked at Shane and then skated to his bench. Shane could feel his cheeks burning.
“I still can’t believe he’s your...you know,” Hayden grumbled as they headed for their own bench.
“Quiet.”
“I know. I know. Just...it fucks me up, thinking about it.”
“Then don’t!”
“I mean, I could have found you a nice dude, if you had just—”
“Shut it.”
They had reached the bench, and although Shane had come out to his teammates last season, he hadn’t told any of them about Ilya. Hayden had done the math and figured it out after a Boston road trip a month ago.
“Hey, can I ask you something?” he had said as they’d walked to their cars after arriving home from a road trip. “You know how you used to go meet up with your mystery man every time we played in Boston? But now you don’t?”
“Um. We, uh...broke up,” Shane had said quickly. And unconvincingly.
“Uh-huh. But you’ve been driving to Ottawa a lot this month.”
