Our shoulders collided with a jarring crack. I stumbled backward, taking him with me, and we slammed into a tall metal rack of spare sticks.
Wood rattled loudly against metal. To stop the rack from crashing down, Aleksey reached out fast. His large hands grabbed the front of my jacket. He pinned me flat against the metal bars, using his grip to force me to stay quiet.
I went absolutely still.
Aleksey leaned in close, his breathing harsh. A muscle twitched in his cheek.
“If you say a single word to anyone about what happened in the library,” Aleksey said, his voice dropping low, “I’ll fucking end you.”
I didn’t try to break his grip. I simply let him hold me there so he’d know I wasn’t fighting him.
“I’m not going to tell anyone,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “I don’t even have anyone to tell.”
The sting of the admission made me purse my lips. It wasn’t about having no one. I had Elliot. I had Matt. I was constantlysurrounded by people. But I was also dealing with the fact that I couldn’t stop thinking about another guy’s hands on me, and I didn’t have a single person in my world who wouldn’t look at me differently if they knew.
The fight seemed to drain out of Aleksey’s eyes at that. His hands loosened, the fabric of my jacket slipping from his fingers. He stepped back, clearly thrown off balance by my words.
“That’s not supposed to make me feel worse,” he muttered.
“I wasn’t trying to make you feel anything.”
“Well, congratulations. You’re the most annoying person I’ve ever met.” He shook his head and moved toward the exit. “It was a mistake.”
I moved quickly into his path of escape again. “But you didn’t act like it was a mistake last night.”
“I was tired. Leave it alone.”
He shoved past me, hard enough to shift me out of the way, snatched his bag off the floor, and strode out into the hallway.
For a few seconds, I just stood there among the piles of spare gear. I should have turned around, walked back to my stall, and pretended none of this had ever happened. Yet my feet wouldn’t turn back toward the locker-room. Instead, I chased him right out of the building, bursting through the facility doors into the biting, icy wind outside.
Snow swirled across the asphalt, but all my focus was on Aleksey. He was already halfway across the parking lot, his imposing frame moving fast to put as much distance between us as possible.
“Youstarted it!” I yelled.
He did not stop. He kept heading toward the edge of the lot.
“You kissed me first,” I added. My voice carried easily over the wind.
That stopped him. Aleksey spun around. He stalked back to me, closing the distance in two long strides until we stood inches apart in the snow.
“Keep your damn voice down,” he snapped, leaning in towards me. “Besides, youwantedit, legacy.”
He spat the title at me like it was supposed to put me back in my place. But standing in the snow, with the memory of his fingertips still ghosting across my skin, I didn’t want to deflect. My jaw locked. I planted my feet, refusing to give up a single inch of ground.
“Yeah, I did,” I said. “I never said I didn’t.”
Aleksey fixed me with an icy stare, but said nothing.
Progress.
“So, what now?” I asked. “You expect me to pretend it didn’t happen?”
“I don’t have time for this.” He gestured sharply toward the brick wall of the rink. “I’m one strike away from stocking shelves in Detroit for the rest of my life.”
“I’m not trying to get you into trouble.”
“So, you wanna be my girlfriend or something?” The sneer in his voice didn’t match the hint of confusion in his eyes. “Write me notes? Hold hands in the dining hall?”
