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“Okay. Now you need to learn to propel yourself,” he said, shifting until he was behind her, his hands no longer holding hers, but instead gripping her waist.
She started to panic, but he remained true to his word, never once letting her fall.
He instructed her on how to move her feet, how to turn, how to stop. He was a patient teacher. Thank God. Because she wasn’t sure how long they’d been outside. She would have expected to freeze her ass off, but instead, she was starting to work up a bit of a sweat.
“I did it!” she exclaimed when she mastered a turn without wavering once. Of course, there’d been no danger of falling because Elio still held her, though his hands were loose, left there just in case she needed him.
Elio grinned. “You’re a natural. Now…”
She felt his hands leave her waist. “Oh shit,” she muttered.
Elio came up next to her, clasping one of her hands with his. “We’re going to skate together,” he announced. “You’ve got the rhythm. You can do it.”
She followed his lead, the two of them skating several circles around the pond, hand in hand. She only stumbled once, but Elio had been right there, catching her before she went down.
As her confidence grew, so did his antics. He shifted, releasing her hands completely, skating backward in front of her.
“Show off,” she said, though she was impressed—and turned on—by his skating skills. She hadn’t admitted to him that she didn’t really consider herself much of a hockey fan. She and Grandma had never watched sports when she was growing up. Like, no sports. At all.
Sam’s chosen sport had been football, but he had a standing Sunday date with a bunch of his buddies in the fall to watch at one of the other guys’ houses—the friend with the big screen TV—so she gotten away without having to sit through many of those games as well. She’d always looked forward to those autumn Sundays because she got the house to herself to listen to music or watch whatever she wanted on TV. Sam had been a total remote hog, his interests running toward mystery series and true crime, while she preferred sitcoms.
She hadn’t been exposed to hockey until she became friends with Liza. And while she’d joined in with their watch parties, she’d never paid that much attention to the game, typically chatting with her girlfriends or offering to grab drinks or snacks, to keep from getting bored.
Something told her she wasn’t going to be able to look away from the game once Elio was back on the ice.
“Come on,” he said, still skating backward, as he took both her hands in his. “Let’s pick up the pace.”
Before she could veto that idea, he had them flying faster across the ice. His grip was firm, steady, and like in bed, she realized that she trusted him completely here too. The cold wind was flying, blowing the hair not covered by her hat, away from her face. He wasn’t holding back, and it felt like a thrill ride at an amusement park. She screamed loudly, though it wasn’t one of fear but utter delight.
“We’re going to crash!” she cried out when Elio got closer and closer to the shore. She should have saved her breath. With an ease that proved the man wore skates more than regular shoes, he managed to bring them to a perfect stop.
“Elio,” she said breathlessly.
“Fun?”
“God, it was terrifying. Exhilarating. I loved it!”
He drew her close, giving her a long, passionate kiss. She struggled to keep her feet steady, but it didn’t matter that she couldn’t. Elio held strong, keeping her upright and in place as he kissed her senseless.
“Ready to go in?” he asked after a few minutes.
She nodded as he helped her back to the bench. “Do you think we might have time to do this again tomorrow?”
“Hell yeah. It’s good for me to be out on the ice. I’m going to be in the doghouse when I get back to Baltimore, for failing to keep up with my workout routine.”
“You do those chin-ups three times a day,” Gianna pointed out, not bothering to mention watching him do what felt like an ungodly amount of pull-ups was her favorite pastime at the cabin.
“Yeah, but I’d only planned to stay here for a couple days before returning to Baltimore to practice with the team. I’d gotten that much cleared by my coach. He wasn’t too pleased when I called yesterday to say I would be stuck on the mountain at least two more days.” Elio changed from his skates to his snow boots as he talked.
“Will you get in trouble?”
Elio shrugged. “Let’s just say I foresee a lot of wind sprints in my immediate future.”
“I have no idea what those are, but they sound bad.”
Elio chuckled. “I’ll demonstrate when we get back. You ready?” He stood, reaching down to help her up. The two of them strolled back to the cabin hand in hand, and as they approached the front porch, Elio handed her his skates and showed her what wind sprints consisted of.
And while they weren’t something she would ever want to do, she sure as hell didn’t mind watching him.
