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CHAPTER SIX
Vanessa
Mybreathescapesfrommy mouth in a cloud of foggy steam.
“It’s freezing in here!” I say, shivering on the bench.
Aiden grins over his shoulder at me. Normally I would be admiring his fine ass, but right now my teeth are chattering so hard I think they might shatter.
“It’s not cold,” Aiden chuckles. “You’re just staring at the ice, thinking it’s cold.”
He tosses me a thick pair of socks and flicks his hair with a jerking movement of his head. I’ve been sitting here beneath a giant logo of the Vancouver Vikings hockey team that’s painted on the wall behind me for the past ten minutes. Aiden has been moving around the team area, organizing a pair of skates that might fit my tiny feet.
“I’m not ready for this.” I grit my teeth as the words escape in another cloud of steam. “Seriously, I’m happy to just watch you skate around.” Aiden’s head drops to the side. “Please…”
I flap my lashes like a puppy dog. Anything so he doesn’t get me on the ice.
“Come on, stop being a baby.”
Aiden drops to his knees and grabs my calf. I look down at him and breathe a heavy sigh that doesn’t ease the nervousness in my belly. “I wish I was a baby. Babies can’t skate. So at least then I wouldn’t have to-”
Just as the words form in my mouth, I’m stopped by the heat of Aiden’s hand gliding down my leg. A flutter in my belly tickles all the way to my rapidly beating heart and when he looks up at me, I can’t ignore the way his honey brown eyes shine in the brightness of the ice rink.
“I promise I wouldn’t let anything happen to you,” Aiden says, rolling the first of the thickest pair of socks I’ve ever seen over my right foot. “You can hold me for support until you find your feet.”
I’m chewing the inside of my lip, biting, ripping the skin from my mouth. I do the same thing on audition days. It’s my coping mechanism when I’m nervous and somehow, the fact that I’m about to go ice skating for the first time in my life feels awfully similar to the agonizing trials Hollywood has put me through.
Aiden lifts my other foot up and slides the sock on. My hands are gripping the bench seat, but looking down at him, I can’t help but think there’s no other person in the world I’d rather have teaching me to skate.
It says a lot about my relationship with my brother. He’s a professional hockey player, but not once has he ever wanted to take me out and show me how to play.
His best friend on the other hand…
“Ready?”
Aiden stands tall in front of me. Really tall. His shoulders are like boulders and my stomach swoops just at the sight of him.
The stadium around us is empty. It’s eery, like we’re sitting in the middle of a freezing cold ghost town. Seeing something so massive, so colossal… Something that’s usually so rabid with passion and enthusiasm… Seeing it empty almost feels confronting.
Lost in thought, I barely see Aiden tighten the pair of skates on my feet, and now he’s holding his enormous hand out, guiding me up on the fine steel blade lifting me inches from the stability of earth.
He smiles at me. I wobble and falter at the first hurdle, but I don’t know whether it’s the skates or the sexy man hunk in front of me putting me off balance.
“Shit! Shit!”
No. It’s the skates. Definitely the skates.
Aiden curls a hand around my forearms, and he steadies me with a smile. My chest is aching, only now it’s not because of the man smiling across at me.
“Steady your nerves,” Aiden says calmly. “Deep breaths. You’re going to be great.”
I nod gently. I don’t know how he does it, but dammit, I believe him. I’d believe anything this man said. He has a genuinity to him like I’ve never seen. He oozes kindness and respect despite having the appearance of a wild grizzly bear.
I take a timid step forward. Aiden opens the gate that leads to the ice and flashes a toothy grin. I whimper at the sight of my impending doom and hold his hand with a firm squeeze.
Fear tears through my gut. It’s then that I swear I’m never letting him go. Ever. The rink is beaming bright white, and I’m squinting from the glare reflecting from the stadium lights above us.
“Imagine ten-thousand angry fans all yelling at you,” Aiden says, stepping on the ice and looking up at the stands surrounding us. “You think this is scary… You haven’t seen anything, Princess.”
