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I didn’t run into her as much as I thought I would considering we lived right across from each other. I had a sneaking suspicion that it was because she was avoiding us.
I didn’t want to look at her, but I could smell her cinnamon scent and despite everything it soothed something deep inside of me.
“I can hear them,” I told her, gesturing to my ears. “The funny thing about going blind is that it makes you have ears like a bat. I could hear you too.”
There was a huff and I realized she’d laughed.
“Do you want me to kick him out?”
I finally looked over at her, finding her face to be a blur of indecision. “You can’t. He’s the coach.”
Ciara turned and started to bicker with Eli, telling him to leave. I barely paid attention, too wrapped up in her scent and her closeness.
“From me,” Ciara said. “If you’ll have me.”
I blinked with surprise. “Sorry?”
“I give up,” I heard Eli say, but I was too busy staring at the alpha in front of me to care about the coach.
“Have you where?” I asked stupidly, my cheeks immediately flushing at the image of her pushing me up against a wall and pressing her lips to the spot where my pulse was the strongest.
But she didn’t mean that she was going to have her way with me and make all of the dreams I’ve had about her come true. No, she meant something far different.
“As your figure skating coach,” she finally supplied, the corner of her mouth pulling up into a grin.
I must have been asleep or something, because this was exactly how one of my dreams had begun last week… though admittedly she’d been dressed in a sexy nurse outfit and had smelled like a mixture of the rest of my pack.
“Artie?” Ciara prodded, not knowing that the mind-equivalent of a porn plot was playing out in my head.
It was enough to make the block I’d put on my bonds with Enzo and Leith slip for a moment, giving them the full feel of my ridiculous horn dog thoughts.
There was a curious brush from Leith before I slammed them back into place again.
“Why would you want to be my coach?” I asked, frowning at her as if she’d grown a second head. “Don’t you have enough on your plate without worrying about me?”
Ciara shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe. Or maybe I’m just tired of watching Eli do a shit job trying to work with you.”
I didn’t want to admit that I was uncoachable by the man whose trainees had dominated the female singles at the Olympics this year.
It should have been a dream come true to be coached by him.
But half the time it felt like he was trying to fit me into the mold he’d created for the rest of his skaters. A bit like trying to fit a square shaped peg into a round hole.
Ciara’s sigh filled my ears and she reached out and grabbed my hands. The contact was nearly electric, like my instincts were trying to tell me something I’d kind of already assumed all along.
I liked Ciara on a biological level and I was sure—if given half a chance—I’d like her on an emotional one too.
“Has Leith ever told you about my weird little quirk?” she asked, giving my fingers a squeeze.
Before seeing her again at the Olympics he honestly hadn’t mentioned her much past having a bad night here and there. Of course he’d told us the gist of their relationship—or I guess the lack thereof—but anything else I had to pull out of him as if I was trying to yank teeth out of his head.
I did know, however, that he was just as in love with her as he’d been four years ago. Time and space had changed nothing for my sweet alpha.
“No,” I finally answered. “I don’t think he has.”
“Bless that man for not embarrassing me at least.” Ciara’s voice was sheepish as she spoke and lifted my fingers to her eyelids, closing them. “When I was little and things were horrible, I had this DVD of a really old movie. Have you ever seen Ice Castles?”
I shook my head. It sounded vaguely familiar, but I wasn’t much for movies. I was a series binge-watcher through and through. Give me a two-hour film and I had the attention span of a honeybee, but give me twelve hours of a television show? I was locked in.
