“I do, but I have a feeling you let me win.”
He lifted up his mask and gave her a fierce glare. “Woman, you know how competitive I am. Do you really think I’d let you score on me?”
She squinted, studying him. “Hmmm, probably not. You’d likely try and kick my ass.”
“You’re right about that.” He moved in closer, backing her toward the boards until she was cornered. He pulled off her helmet and it clattered on the ice.
“You should take better care of your equipment. It needs to protect your head.”
“That’s practice equipment. We treat game equipment like gold.” He pulled off his gloves and pressed his hand against her neck. His fingers were cold. They felt good against her heated skin. Who knew one could sweat like this on the ice? She knew the guys worked hard when they played the game—she watched how fast they skated and wondered how they didn’t exhaust themselves. Ty’s muscular body told her how hard they worked at it.
When he swept his thumb over the pulse point in her neck, she grew even warmer, especially with his pad-covered body pinning her to the boards. He drew in closer, close enough to feel his warm breath ruffle her hair. Her nipples tightened.
“So,” he said. “Figured out yet what you wanted to talk to me about?”
She pulled off her gloves and dropped them, then laid her palms on his chest, wishing there wasn’t all this…stuff…between them so she could touch his skin. “Not really. I’m confused.”
“About?”
“You and me.”
“What about you and me confuses you?”
He stroked his thumb behind her ear, slid his hand into her hair.
How was she supposed to talk to him when he was touching her like that?
“Ty.”
“Yeah.” His gaze bored into hers, and she didn’t think he was all that interested in what she had to say, which was a good thing because she didn’t much feel like talking anyway.
He tilted her head back and her lips parted for him just as his mouth covered hers.
His kiss was hungry, making her muscles clench as he moved his lips over hers in a way that demanded more. This wasn’t a light and easy kiss, it was hard and passionate, his tongue sliding between her teeth to lick against hers. She gasped and held on to him as he pushed her against the boards and demanded everything from that kiss, stealing her breath as he wrapped his arm around her and pressed his body intimately against hers.
Pinned against the boards, she could only hold on to him. The ice was slick and she dug the edge of one skate into the ice for balance, clutching Ty’s pads while he kissed her senseless.
She was on fire, her body needing his touch, his skin against hers. She’d missed him, had missed…this. This connecting to him on that intimate level. She didn’t want to talk, didn’t want to hash out everything that was screwed up in her head, or all the reasons she didn’t want to be with him, because right now none of that mattered.
She did want to be with him. Here and now, with hot and cold swirling around her, driving her into a frenzy of need and desire.
When he pulled back, his eyes were half lidded, desire darkening them to a stormy gray.
That’s what she needed to see, what she focused on. The rest of it was just extraneous fluff she didn’t want to make sense of right now.
Not when he gave her a look like that.
She swallowed, her throat dry. She licked her lips and he zeroed in on her mouth and kissed her again, tugging her bottom lip between his teeth until she threw her head back against the glass and moaned out of sheer pleasure. He pressed kisses to her jaw, her neck, using his teeth to graze her throat.
“Ty, please.”
“I love when you say my name. Do you have any idea what that does to me?”
“No. Tell me.”
“I think I’ll show you instead.”
The next thing she knew he had untied the pads she wore, removed his own pads and tossed them across the ice.
It was distinctly cooler without all that padding. Her dress and tights weren’t warm enough.
“I’m cold. Can we go now?”
“I’ll warm you up.” He cupped her face with his hands and kissed her, this time a gentle brush of his lips, and then he paused. She held her breath, waiting for him to continue. He pulled back and she saw his lips curl in a smile that turned her world off balance. She reached up to rub her fingers over his lips, then arched up on her skates to reach his mouth.