Page 66 of Top Shelf
“You ready?” I hadn’t realized Quinn had made his way to the rink entrance and had taken his blade protectors off.
It took a little bit of awkward maneuvering to get mine popped off, but we managed it together. He set one blade on the ice, then the second, then shuffled his skates back and forth a few times, before extending both hands to me.
“I feel okay,” I told him. I let my fingers graze his, but I decided I wasn’t going to be nervous. I hadn’t lost anything. I was going to be fine.
And I was.
With a single push, I was gliding. Not with the same grace I usually had, but without falling. It was easy, like breathing. The cool air whipped around my face as I skated in long circles, and somewhere to my right, I could hear Quinn laughing.
“I guess I was more worried than you,” he called.
I spun and began to skate backward as he took off after me. He matched my pace easily, moving more with his hips thanwith his knees, but he had clearly not given this up the way I thought he might have.
He was at home here too.
His gaze met mine. “This is nice.”
It was. I swallowed heavily and nodded. Words were hard right then, but he didn’t seem to care.
His hand lifted and took mine, pulling me into him. I’d never done any real figure skating. My coach in juniors had made us all take a few lessons to improve our flexibility and our awareness of other skaters.
I hadn’t enjoyed it. I could never seem to get in sync with anyone else on my team.
But it was different with Quinn. I didn’t feel wobbly or off-center or out of rhythm. I matched his pace as naturally as my heart beat in my chest. His gaze darted down to our feet, then back up to my eyes.
“You’re as gorgeous on the ice as I thought you’d be,” he murmured.
“Is it okay to kiss you here?”
He laughed and spun us gently, slowing us not quite to a stop, but the air stopped whipping around me. “If you don’t mind an audience. I don’t know where Alex is.”
“Will he tell?”
Quinn bit his lip. “I don’t know. I don’t believe he will, but faith isn’t fact. He doesn’t owe me secrecy.”
“I don’t want to ruin anything for you.”
Quinn traced my lips, and I realized in that moment that although I still felt like I was flying around the rink, we’d both stopped moving. “You couldn’t.”
That was a lie. A mistimed comment or a pair of wandering eyes while I was being risky could ruin everything. But he leaned in like he didn’t care, and I wasn’t about to make his choices for him.
His lips met mine—hot and dry against the cold air around us. My eyes closed, and I swayed into him, and I felt him spin us very gently. Very slowly. He hummed into the kiss, his fingers gently pushing into my hair.
I felt encompassed by him. Loved, though I wouldn’t say that word aloud, no matter how I felt. And maybe that’s what that new emotion was. Maybe thatwasfalling in love.
I couldn’t possibly know. It had never happened for me before. It was nothing like how I felt about my friends or my family. It was nothing like any crush I’d ever had. And as much as it did hurt—there was no denying there was pain there—I never wanted it to stop.
“I’d like to go home soon,” Quinn murmured against my mouth. He pulled back slightly and looked at me like he was afraid of my answer.
“Home,” I repeated.
It really did feel like it was.
Even if it wasn’t mine.
Chapter Nineteen
Ferris
