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Kris and Kelsey's story deals with chronic illness, childhood illness, cancer, and infertility concerns. If you find these difficult issues upsetting, this book may not be suitable for you. If you are rooting for this couple, rest assured, they do get their HEA. But you may need a few tissues along the way.
-Nichole
Chapter One
Kelsey
Five Weeks Ago
I feel Kristján Jónsson following me long before I hear the blades of his skates cutting across the ice behind me. My heart races, even though it shouldn't. Kris is off-limits with a capital O.
He's the captain of the hottest hockey team in the NHL, the catch of the century…and the only man on the planet I dream about. He's also the one I'll never say yes to.
I wish he'd stop asking already.
No. That's a lie.
The day he quits chasing me will be the day my heart breaks for good. He's been asking me out for two years, and I've been shooting him down for just as long. It never deters him. He givesme space, but never too much. Never enough to let me forget that he's here. Waiting.
Never enough to make me forget how much I want him.
"Wait up,elskan mín."
Elskan mín. He's been calling me that for months but won't tell me what it means. I'm a little afraid to look it up. I figure it'll either mean something offensive, at which point I'll have to kill him, or it'll mean something wildly inappropriate, and I'll fall even harder.
I can't afford to fall harder. Well, that's not true. Giving my whole heart to him would be as easy as breathing. Buthecan't afford for me to fall harder.
He has a future to think about…and I don't. Not one that a man like him needs to worry about, anyway. My blood is poison. I'll never have a completely normal life. I've known that since I was eleven. But that isn't his cross to bear. It's mine.
"You have a game, Kris. You should go get ready for that. Preferably before one of your teammates gives me more work to do this week," I say, not stopping to wait for him. I promised Gray Larsen that I'd watch the interview with Rhonda, a fan who won my disastrousWin a Datecontest, got drunk, and proceeded to vomit all over him. It looks bad for him. The press has been insinuating that he did something inappropriate ever since.
We have no idea what Rhonda's going to say in her interview tonight, but I'm hoping she clears Gray's name. He's a great guy. He doesn't deserve the flak he's caught because I had a bad idea. I owe it to him to fix the problem since it was mostly my creation.
"We need to talk."
"We don't," I disagree, slipping out of the arena into the team hallway. The last thing I need to do is talk to Kris right now. He's too tempting, and I'm not nearly strong enough to resist him.Maintaining a healthy distance is the only thing that keeps me from throwing myself at him.
The clunk of his skates on the cement reaches my ears. Great. He's going to damage the blades. Stubborn, infuriating, gorgeous, perfect….
"What?" I growl, spinning to face him.
He's a lot closer than I expected. Too close. His hard body brushes mine as he presses me up against the cinderblock wall, blocking me in so I can't escape. He looms over me, as imposing as a glacier, as bright as the sun. His warm scent wraps around me, wiping every thought from my mind.
Those beautiful crystalline eyes settle on my face, probing and inquisitive. He's always so focused on me, so curious. He watches me as if he notices every little thing I do, every move I make. As if he knows every single thing about me. Yet he doesn't. He doesn't know what I've been hiding from him and everyone else for years.
He doesn't know that I'm sick.
Sick.I almost laugh out loud at the word. If leukemia is sick, then hell is just an underground sauna. There is no cure for the kind I have, but it isn't terminal. Unless I'm seriously unlucky, I won't die until I'm old and gray. I was fortunate to have been born when I was. Fifteen years earlier and the story would have gone differently. But I'll never have babies of my own. My "normal" life will consist of a steady diet of medication that keeps me functioning and prayers that I stay in remission this time. I've never made it to the five-year mark without a flare-up.
Kris doesn't need that kind of turmoil in his life.
He's at the top of his game, one of the best players in the league. He's the heart of this team. My diagnosis tore my family apart. My parents divorced. My mom turned to alcohol. I haven't even seen her in years. It was just me and my dad until he died. Iknow the kind of toll it can take on people. I don't ever want that to be Kris.
"You seem stressed,elskan mín," he murmurs, cupping my face. His thumb runs just beneath my eye, sending my heart into overdrive. A lock of his overly-long blond hair falls across his forehead. "You know what happened with Gray wasn't your fault."
"I'm fine, Kris. Just busy."
"When are you going to stop running from me?"
