Page 87 of Break the Ice
Quiet settles all round when Dylan rests back into his tub with a sigh. It’s one of those moments where no one knows who should be the first to move or speak in case Daddy gets mad.
“Sorry,” Matheo murmurs to Elijah, leaning over the edge of his tub as he braves it first. “It was just a… I dunno, man. It was stupid.”
Elijah gives him a thumbs up without removing his mask. Anything from Elijah is something. That he hasn't ignored Matheo means they’re good.
Although, there’s a scratch in my chest that begrudges that. Finley doesn’t deserve to be the punchline of Matheo’s banter. Asshole doesn’t know her to be talking smack like that. And after what happened at the end of practice, Eli doesn’t need Hillier’s crap.
Asswipe.
“Don’t talk shit about people you don’t know,” I grumble, trying to relax back into the warm water as I close my eyes. I can’t force myself to zone out?no matter how much I try. All I can think about is Finley and Eli.
Finley’s bright blue stare. Finley’s plump pink lips. Her laugh. Her sighs. The way her hands hold Elijah’s. How their fingers knot together. The subtle way his skin is tanner than hers. But even with the callouses I know he has on the pads of his fingers and hands, they look soft together. The back of his hands are soft. The way his neck and shoulders are in contrast to his lightly stubbled jaw.
My pulse quickens with my thoughts. Stirring up a heat in me that feels like I’m about to combust.
Sinking lower into the water, I try to deviate my thoughts to anythingother than Elijah and Finley. Of course, I fail miserably. If anything, the effort only makes the visuals stronger. More potent. More vibrant.
Fuck.
I know I need to get out of here when my cock twitches. A heavy yearning settles over me, making it impossible to control my body and the unrelenting thoughts in my head. Reaching for my towel, hanging up behind the bath, I pull it down as I get up and wrap it around me as fast as I can before anyone notices my hard dick.
This is not good. Far from it—it’s terrible. A stupid fucking train of thought. A reckless reaction. As disastrous as it is, I can’t help looking back over my shoulder at Eli.
We have a good thing between us. We have game. I’ve never had a partner on the ice like him. Someone who can read me the way he can. Anyone whose body language is second nature to me.
There’s no way I can ruin that with my stupidity.
No way.
CHAPTER 26
ELIJAH
The water is tepid when I get out. The guys are all still chilling in their tubs, barring Andersen. He’s almost dressed when I rush into the showers and make the most of the scalding spray.
I’m hoping that if it doesn’t ease the tension from my prevailing migraine, then it will at least take away some of the guilt from the whir in my head.
I let myself get too close to Jayden.
I allowed myself to feel things I can’t.
Now I’m too lost in the haze of his touch, and the security it gives me even when it feels like life might be slipping from my hands. Or my brain is about to explode.
It still feels that way. The relentless pounding echoes endlessly through my neurons. An overload of electric current that threatens to fry the motherboard any second. But the more it hurts, the tighter I cling on to the ghost of Jayden’s hold. To the promise that I made Finley this morning.
“You need to go home and sleep this off,” Jayden speaks in a low tone from behind me, as though he lives in my head.
I’m so out of it with pain that my usual panic doesn’t register the surprise. Keeping my head glued to the tile I roll onto my back, my eyes closed so that the bright lights don’t scramble what’s left of my brain.
“Jesus, Eli, what happened to your leg?”
Fuck.
“Fuck,” I mutter the instant I open my eyes and the white light slits through my eyes. Spinning back to the wall, I do my best to push past thefresh onslaught of agony that’s got my marrow curdling in my bones. “It’s nothing. I just—” Shit, my head can’t take the sound of my own voice. “—cut myself.”
“What?” When he steps into the shower beside mine, I chance a glimpse at his concerned face. “How?”
Shrugging, I brace my forearms on the tiles so that I’m under the scorching water when I lie, “Stick snapped and… yeah…”
