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His voice came out a bit hoarse. “Yeah, I can see how that could happen, especially if you never got the chance to get much outside feedback. My dad actually wasn’t at all supportive either. If he’d had his way, I’d have quit before I was even competing in Juniors.”
“What?” I burst out, shocked and horrified by the thought of a world without Jasper St. Pierre ever showing off his talent. “That’s ridiculous.”
The news stories about him had never even hinted at any conflict in his family. But then, the figure skating world usually shied away from drama when it could. The community preferred to give the impression of being as elegant in their lives as they were on the ice.
Jasper shrugged. “I’d say it’s just as ridiculous that your mom tore you down. I hate to think how much we’ve missed seeing because you stayed out of the competitive circuit so long.”
An unexpected sense of closeness settled over me. I reached out and rested my hand against his bare forearm.
A jolt of electricity shot through my nerves. Jasper’s gaze darted to meet mine, and I thought I caught a flicker of answering heat there.
“I think things have worked out pretty well in the end,” I said quietly. “Here I am, training with you—and Niko. I can’t imagine what I’d trade to have instead of this.”
A little of the flush I’d seen before colored Jasper’s cheeks again. “I think it’s pretty fantastic that you’re finally out here pursuing your dream. And even if I act like an ass about it sometimes, I’m glad I can be a part of that.”
I couldn’t resist leaning a little closer and arching my eyebrows at him. My pulse thumped double-time, but even though an ache was forming between my legs, I had other things on my mind than getting busy.
At least, not that kind of busy.
“Does that mean you’ll give this Dellville competition thing a try?”
Jasper’s gaze slid down my body, trailing heat in its wake. I was going to melt into a very different sort of puddle if he kept looking at me like that.
He swallowed audibly but managed to stay on topic. “You really want to, huh?”
“I’d like to find out what I can do when I’ve got more than a couple of people watching.”
His expression set into a more familiar expression of determination. He squeezed my hand—just for a second, but emphatically enough to spark another wave of heat through my body—and then pushed off toward Niko.
“Hey, Okabe! Sign us up. Those other Dellville skaters aren’t going to know what hit them.”
THIRTEEN
Jasper
Getting hungup on some woman I hardly knew wasn’t a good idea. I was supposed to be focusing on my art, not dreaming up erotic scenarios.
But as many times as I told myself that, as many pops of excitement as I squashed in my chest before heading into practice, here I was at nine o’clock at night sitting in my Mustang outside the bungalow Lou was renting, my heart thumping around like I was a preteen about to call his crush on the phone for the first time.
It was ridiculous. I was here to drop off the weights I’d said I’d lend her, nothing else.
I spent hours nearly every day around this woman. It wasn’t as if seeing her for a few minutes right now was ever so thrilling.
Sure, so maybe I was a little curious to see our unexpected punk prodigy in her home environment, but it wasn’tthatbig a deal.
Apparently I’d sat around too long convincing myself of that. As I pushed open the car door, Lou came bounding out of the bungalow.
“Hey! Thanks for bringing them by. Let me help you carry them in.”
The next thing I knew, she’d loped across the weedy lawn in her bare feet, her slim curves teasingly visible through her rough-hemmed tee and distressed jean shorts. She leaned through the passenger side window I’d left open to let in the cooling evening air and snatched the set of ankle weights off the seat.
I grumbled something not particularly articulate about personal space and grabbed the two pairs of dumbbells, but the truth was her audacity left me more giddy than irritated.
She always kept me on my toes, wondering what she’d do next. I should have hated it.
Instead, way too often, I found myself waiting in awed anticipation. I hatedthat.
“It’s no problem,” I made myself say as I hefted the jumble of weights over to her house. “I didn’t realize you had so little equipment with you for training off the rink. These are extras I had lying around.”
