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“I enjoyed today,” Ren said, bringing my thoughts back into the cab with us.

“Yeah, me too.” I looked over and found him already watching me. He’d been doing that a lot today, looking a little too long, as though there had been some heat behind it. He was still so damn hard to read. Any other guy, I could just ask, “Hey, are you hot for me?” But it was different with him. I didn’t want to make us about something stupid, about sex, or whatever. I really wanted to be with him, all the time, doing nothing and everything. Eating crazy pastries, walking through parks, but also asleep in a chair because he needed the space, or being at the end of a text. The boring and the fun.

I think I knew I cared for him a long time ago, but I’d hoped the feelings would go away if he went away. Turned out, feelings didn’t work like that. Not for me.

Nothing had changed about our lives, though. He had his life and I had mine. He didn’t want a guy for a lover. Or for anything.

Today had just been . . . fun. Like I’d said. I couldn’t make it about anything else. It could have been selfish, especially after he’d already spiraled once in the last twenty-four hours.

“The day ended better than it began,” he said, smiling.

I chuckled softly. “Yeah.”

“Thank you again, for helping me.” His dark hair had fallen loose for much of the day. He usually had his bangs controlled, but they fell forward now, softening his whole face.

I shook my head. “Stop thanking me. You’d have done the same for me.”

His eyes turned serious. “I would have, yes.”

“So we’re good.”

Signs for the Olympic Village showed up at the roadside. We had a few minutes before we arrived and had to go back to being Camden Navarro and Ren Hasegawa, rivals on the ice.

“So, I guess this will be the last time we can talk before the competition,” I said.

The taxi slowed as it approached the drop-off point outside the security booth.

I heard the rustle of his coat, felt his fingers touch my jaw, then apply pressure. He turned my head. His mouth fluttered over mine. A kiss, but not quite, like he’d frozen in the last second. I took too long to realize what was happening, then grabbed the back of his neck and slammed my mouth onto his. Hard. The feel of him was new again, and thrilling, but familiar somehow too. My body knew him, craved him, wanted to yank every inch of him closer.

The taxi rocked to a stop. The driver cleared his throat.

Goddamn, Ren had to do this now?!

Someone walked by outside. We separated fast, breathing hard. The kiss had been a sudden, heated collision. Barely anything more.

“I uh . . . we should . . .” I licked my lips, still tasting him there, wanting more. Heat had scorched through my veins and now sizzled in my body with nowhere to go. He was smiling, the asshole. So fucking proud of himself for unbalancing me in the last seconds. “We should . . .” I said again, then opened the door and stumbled out onto the packed snow.

Ren must have paid, then he closed the taxi door, let the car pull away, and joined me on the sidewalk. Cars were coming and going through the gates. There was a small queue at the security building. Too many people hung around for us to stand less than five inches apart.

“So,” he said. Like that one little word explained our whole day.

“So.”

My phone buzzed in my pocket. It had been ringing and pinging all day. I’d ignored all of it. Casey probably thought I’d died in a ditch somewhere.

“So,” I said again. “Good luck, I guess.”

“To you and your team also.”

I looked at the line of people through the windows. “We should probably go in.”

“I suppose.”

We lined up, showed our passes, then caught the shuttle bus toward the residential blocks. Sitting next to each other felt odd, now we were back on Olympic territory. But it did mean his knee brushed mine without anyone noticing. Then he shifted, and his whole thigh rested along mine. The heat of him did things to me that had no business happening on a public bus. God, this man. He knew what he was doing. Seeing him across the cafeteria every morning was going to kill me.

Then, just for a few seconds, he lowered his hand and laid it on my thigh. His fingers dug in, just enough to make a statement. This isn’t a mistake, his hold said. Ren didn’t make mistakes.

The heat came roaring back, just from that touch. If we’d been alone, I’d have climbed into his lap and kissed him into the seat, done a whole lot more too. Need had my dick getting interested, which definitely was not appropriate in public in Japan.