He’d never once doubted I’d figure it out.
Daddy had always had complete confidence in me like that. It was flattering, but it had always made me push myself, to prove myself worthy of my father’s belief. With Kardok…it was like I never had to doubt.Anything.
He was slowly fitting into my world, like when I caught him watching skating videos just because he liked the music, or when he pointed out the way the streetlights reflected on a puddle or a piece of architecture, just because he knew I would find it beautiful.
And he attended the Aldermere Society Annual Dinner and stood quietly at my side. Kardok wasn’t in a suit like the rest of the men there, and his collar was open and his sleeves were rolled up to show off a few of his tattoos. Iknewevery female there over the age of eighteen was eyeing him in appreciation.
When Mr. Charles Alderman, Junior, the current Society president, began to talk over me, Kardok had growled almost subsonic. The older man’s mouth abruptly snapped shut, and I just smiled sweetly and continued.
See what I mean? Kardok supported me.
How could a girlnotfall in love with him?
Being around him made my chest feel all light, like I was filled with bubbles. I seemed to be able to guess when he was going to walk through the door, or what he was feeling, before he announced it.
It had taken me a while to figure out what I was feeling, but now that I’d realized I loved him, I needed to find the perfect way to tell him. For now, I was holding the knowledge carefully…just imagining how I could confess my feelings to him made me simultaneously terrified and ecstatic.
Meanwhile, he’d accepted me into his world, and honestly, I was having loads of fun.
Now that training had begun, he’d started texting me throughout the day with funny things Torrk did, or the way Jord was teasing him. I’d helped him marinate and grill abkarn—basically a haunch of venison—and invited the guys from the team over one Sunday afternoon.
And last week we’d gone to a minor league exhibition game in the next county over. It had been a drive, but worth it to sit on the hard bleachers beside him and eat unhealthy hot dog and nachos.
It was kind of cute, the way he kept being surprised by what I knew about the game. I guess, when I told him I’d spent years obsessing over the Teal Terrors andhim, he didn’t quite understand what that meant.
But you know what brought me the most joy?
Kardok’slaughter.
The world—and I, for the longest time—knew him as this wild berserker who threw 150% of himself into every game, primal and wicked. He would turn to the cameras and do that thing with his tongue that would make all the ladies swoon—and which I now understoodquite well, thank you very much—and then whoop and howl with rage or glee.
But he didn’t laugh. Not on camera.
In the weeks since we’d begun…dating? Is that what we were doing? Spending our free time together, sleeping together,meshing together? Well, in the weeks since we’d begunblending our worlds, as Joshua called it in our routine, Kardok laughed.
He laughed with me, he laughed at my stories, he laughed when I blushed. He laughed when he threw me over his shoulder and carried me into my bedroom, he laughed when he related stories of teamwork from the day’s practice.
Helaughed, and that brought me more joy than I would have thought possible.
So yes, I was happy. Beyond happy.
Which is why I should’ve known this was too good to last.
Thursday, the day before the gala I’d been planning and adjusting for a month, I decided to work out of my secondary office at the Bramblebluff Ice Complex.
I had a perfectly lovely corner office in the Fairbanks Enterprise corporate office downtown—one of the benefits of being the boss’s daughter, I suppose—but for the last few weeks, I’d been working out ofthisoffice more often than not.
I told myself it was practical—rehearsal was at four, and why drive across town twice when I could simply set up here? But the truth was that working at the complex meant I might catch a glimpse of Kardok arriving for morning training. And if I happened to be walking past the gym at a certain hour, and happened to lookthrough the window in the door, and happened to observe a large green orc doing pull-ups without his shirt?—
Well. That was just good time management.
Besides, with the exhibition and the gala tomorrow evening, this week had involved quite a few last-minute meetings here at the complex to ensure everything was set up; the caterer had access to the kitchen, the rental company would begin placing the comfortable chairs tomorrow morning, and the maintenance company had finished up with the fresh paint they’d promised.
Yes, it just made sense to behere, where everything was happening.
I said good morning to the front desk staff, stopped to discuss a scheduling issue with the rink manager, approved the catering order for tomorrow’s gala in the lobby, and made it to my office feeling like the kind of person who had everything under control.
Because I did, of course. I wasgoodat my job, good at looking good.
