AllFreeNovel
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Oh, sweet agony.
“You and Joel?”
She shakes her head. Her breathing isn’t coming easily. “Just me.”
I hum.
The elevator doors close again. We zoom downward, responding to someone else’s call on another floor. We stare at each other, and precious seconds go by. Her heartbeat drums against the pads of my fingers.
“You’re not going to marry him,” I finally say. “You can’t.”
She tilts her head to the side. “No? There isn’tanythingyou want in exchange for my freedom?”
There’s a warning chime again, right before the doors open, and I quickly step back. I drop my hand away from her, ignoring how hard we’re both breathing. Jesus, I barely touched her and her chest is heaving.
Is there anything I want in exchange for her freedom?
“No, sunshine. Knowing you’re chained to me is the sweetest joy I know.”
Her gaze hardens.
I don’t even care what floor I’m on—I’ll take the stairs up to my condo. I leave her alone in the elevator, glaring at me like she wants to kill me.
Maybe she does.
But now I know that she lives here.Alone.
And that’s another gift in and of itself.
A couple of steps off the elevator with Aurora, I turn and watch the doors slide closed. But suddenly she stops it, sticking her hand out, and joins me on the sixth floor. She cocks her head again, eyeing me up and down.
“I hope you have a plan for when you get yourself kicked out of the NHL.” She brushes past me toward the stairwell.
Oh, no she doesn’t.
I chase after her. “Excuse me?”
“You’re going to fuck up your career, Knox. It’s only a matter of time.” Aurora shrugs, pushing out and heading down the stairs.
I laugh and follow. “I don’t see your meaning.”
“You get traded to the Titans, can’t focus because you’re so intent on hating me and Joel, play the worst season of your very short rookie career… and then what? Do you think they’ll keep you? Do you think any other team will want you?”
My stomach cramps.
She keeps moving, trotting down the steps faster than I anticipated. She’s leaving me behind—and I don’t like it. I skip steps and hit the landing of the second floor only a moment after her. I grab her shoulder and spin her around, backing her against the wall.
“Ooh,” she goads. “Are you hoping someone else will walk in and interpret this as a sexual situation?”
“It worked, didn’t it?”
“It worked,” she agrees. She presses her hand to my chest.
Her palm fucking burns through my shirt, although she doesn’t react to my miniscule flinch.
“You’re not going to sign the papers,” she says.
“Obviously.”
