Page 39 of The Heart Breaker

He holds my gaze for what feels like forever, but he doesn’t step back. Instead, he moves in even closer, leaning down until his breath skims my cheek and a sharp breath catches in my throat.

“Want to know what I actually want?”

My lips part, a shaky breath leaving my lips as our eyes lock.

“I want you to stop showing up wherever the fuck I am. I want you out of my sight.” His gaze drops to my mouth, then lifts again, pinning me in place. “I want you to go home alone tonight instead of with my teammate.”

My pulse stumbles so hard it makes me angry. God, I hate what that does to me. Hate the way one look from him can drag me right back to how his hands felt on me.

I snap myself out of it and lift my chin, refusing to let him see any of it.

“You don’t get a say in where I go or who I go home with,” I tell him, forcing the words out past the mess in my chest. “Justbecause we fucked doesn’t mean you have any control over my body.”

His jaw ticks, and then he leans into me again until the last inch between us is gone, and my spine presses against the wall behind me. His chest hovers so close I can feel the heat coming off him.

His gaze drops to my mouth, moving slowly over my lips, and I lick them without thinking, my throat suddenly dry.

Something shifts in his expression, tightening for half a second, and then, just as suddenly as he crowded into my space, he steps back.

“Do whatever you want,” he says. “You’re not my problem.”

He tears his gaze away from me, shoves his hands into his pockets, and turns, stalking toward the girl he left behind as if he can’t get away from me fast enough.

I stay exactly where I am, breathing hard.

What is it about Cole that scrambles every wire in my brain and turns me into whatever the hell that was? I’ve never been like this. Never stumbled over my words, never let my body get ahead of my head, never felt so completely thrown off by someone I can’t stand.

I drag in a breath, smooth my hair back, and then reach into my bag for my phone. I fire off a quick text to the girls and turn the opposite way, heading home, leaving the movie, the noise, and Cole behind me.

14

COLE

I’m exhausted, pissed off, and skating on pure spite when I line Holden Miller up and drive my shoulder straight into his ribs.

It’s not my hardest check—if I really tried, he’d be picking his teeth up off the ice—but it’s solid enough that his stick goes flying and he eats shit, sliding all the way to the blue line on his ass.

Holden groans, rolling to his knees. “What the fuck, man?” he snaps, ripping his helmet off as he gets to his feet.

I chew my gum harder, rolling it between my teeth, and turn, skating away.

Coach Hayes’s whistle shrieks across the rink. “Ellis! You wanna explain why I just watched you bodycheck your teammate?”

I lift my hand, hoping he drops it. Was it necessary? No. Do I want to do it again? Yeah.

Austin coasts up beside me, his breath puffing in the cold arena air. “Okay, what the hell was that?”

“He pissed me off,” I mutter.

Austin’s brows pull together, waiting for more, but when I don’t say anything, he huffs out a laugh, shakes his head, and skates off when Coach blows the whistle to start drills.

My legs feel heavy, weak. My head is pounding, which is to be expected when I’ve been awake since—hell, I don’t even remember when I closed my eyes. If I even did. I barely listened through my classes, just sat there staring straight through every lecture while my thoughts kept circling right back to her.

Holden keeps a good three-stick distance from me during the next lap. Smart kid.

It shouldn’t bother me this much. Him. Her. Any of it. But the image keeps replaying in the back of my skull. Holden’s arm slung over Aurora’s shoulders. The way she didn’t shrug him off. The way she leaned into him and pretended not to notice me, then kept sneaking glances anyway.

But what really gets under my skin isn’t him touching her.