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Quentin cut his gaze toward me. His tone went from cool to outright cold. “You didn’t think I would let you weasel out of a proper competition that easily, did you, St. Pierre? It wasn’t a problem to get me switched over from singles to pairs.”
“But—you haven’t even been training—”
He scoffed. “It isn’t as if working with a partner is that hard.”
“Especially when he’s got one like me,” Jess put in, slinging her arm around his waist and cozying up to him.
Quentin offered her a smile that wasn’t much more than a smirk and leaned in to nip her earlobe. Her breathy giggle set my jaw on edge.
I couldn’t tell if he even actuallylikedher. This was just one more way to piss us off.
“You’re such a fucking idiot,” I snapped. “You can’t possibly be properly prepared to make this work. Why would you rearrange your plans for that?”
Quentin ignored me long enough to flick his tongue across Jess’s jaw and squeeze her ass. She giggled again and nuzzled his neck as he returned his gaze to me.
“We actually tried out a little pairs skating this year already, just to see how it’d go. So it won’t be too hard to pick up where we left off. You bowed out before I had the chance to beat you last year. I’m not letting you run away again. It’s going to besomuch more satisfying to crush you head-to-head.”
Lou let out a guffaw behind me. “Somehow I think we’ll be the ones getting all the satisfaction. Including the satisfaction of not having to listen to your crap any longer.” She grabbed my hand. “Come on, Jasper. We’ve got more important things to focus on.”
Fuming silently, I let her drag me away, my free hand balled into a fist. That fucking prick and his oversized ego…
“I’ll meet you two out front,” Niko said as we ducked into our respective locker rooms.
I peeled off my sweaty clothing and rushed through a hasty shower, but even the cool water I set it to didn’t cool my temper. When I stalked out into the hall, my jaw was still clenched, my nerves jittering with annoyance.
How was I supposed to relax and enjoy the strides we’d been making when I knew I’d have to face that jerk’s stupid mug throughout the competition? Fuck, was he going to keep up the whole pairs thing all the way to Finals?
Ifweeven made it that far.
My teeth gritted harder. Why was I letting him get to me? I was letting him screw me up when I should have just ignored him.
But I couldn’t quite will the anger away, and that only made me more pissed off.
Lou emerged a minute later, took one look at my face, and tsked at me. “You’re still stewing.”
“He just—he did thison purposeto try to mess with me.”
She stepped closer, setting her hands against my chest and peering up at me through her eyelashes in a pose I had to admit was totally delectable and at least a little distracting. “So don’t be messed with. We’re better than those two—we have to be when we have months more practice at skating together.”
She had a point. Even through my frustration, I could admit that.
“I just wish I didn’t have to think about him at all,” I grumbled.
“You don’t.” She cocked her head. “Why do you care what he does anyway? He’s just one more skater we’ll be up against, right? There are lots of others.”
I exhaled in a rush. “I know. But none of the others are set on taking me down a peg like he is. He just—he gets under my skin. All that talk about how there’s no way I could be good enough…”
I trailed off at the ache that came into my gut with the admission. A familiar ache, but not one that’d originated with Quentin.
Lou’s expression softened. “What? Did something bad happen between you two, more than just heckling?”
“No,” I said quickly. “He’s never done anything but mouth off.”
I hesitated, wanting to shove the other memories that’d risen up back into the recesses of my mind where I preferred they stayed. But the concern in Lou’s eyes loosened my tongue a little more than usual.
I owed her some honesty, didn’t I?
She stayed silent, giving me the space to decide how much I wanted to tell her. Affection overwhelmed the painful pang inside me.
