Page 53 of Carved in Ice (Made of Steel 3)

“Wrong answer,” Liza said. She threw the dart that was in her hand as hard as she could. It missed him by a whole foot, hit the wall, bounced off, and fell directly onto her bare foot.

“Oh shit,” Liza said. “Plan C! Initiate plan C!”

“I don’t know what plan C is! Liza?”

She teetered to the side and V caught her.

“What the hell were you two trying to do?”

“See your face,” Liza said and reach up and touched his mask. “Your beautiful, perfect face you lovely man, you.” And then she immediately fell asleep and started snoring.

“Is she dead?” I asked. “Liza, wake up!”

V looked up at me. “No, she just passed out.”

“Don’t date rape her.”

“I’m not going to," said V. "Seriously, are you high or something?”

“Lemonade.” I pointed down the hall at the mess we had left in the family room.

“I see.” He lifted Liza in his arms and carried her to her bedroom.

I followed close behind to make sure he didn’t do anything unlawful. When he set her down on the bed, he pulled off her hat and gloves. He went to unzip her jacket and I caught his hand.

“You’re breaking the rules. You owe me three articles of clothing.”

He brushed my hand aside and pulled off Liza’s coat. “I’m not playing your game.” He pulled her blanket on top of her.

For a moment I remembered my father tucking me into bed. I tried to swallow down the lump in my throat. V was so caring and sweet. Just like Liza had said.

He went to leave the room, but I stayed where I was. I felt bad for trying to trick him into taking his mask off. And I didn’t want to be alone with him. Because all these feelings were swirling around in my stomach and I made Liza a promise. A best friend promise. V was completely off limits. Besides, I loved Eli.

“She needs to sleep,” he said and grabbed my arm, steering me back into the hall.

My body betrayed me. I melted into his side.

“You’re burning up,” he said and pulled the hat off my head.

I stood there in the hall as he took off each of my gloves. My heart fluttered as he unzipped my winter jacket. His fingers traced down my arms as he pushed my coat off.

“You owe me so many articles of clothing,” I said.

He laughed.

I wanted to beg him to let me see his face. Instead, I said, “Are you sure she’s okay? Maybe I should stay in there with her.”

“You need sleep too.”

I nodded. “Okay. Yeah, I’ll go to sleep.” But I didn’t move.

His hands didn’t leave my arms.

We both just stood there, staring at each other.

Until he stepped closer.

Until I lifted my face to his.

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