“Don’t you dare,” she says, and tries to back away, but I’ve got a good hold on her and she’s not going anywhere soon.
“You, on the ice with me,” I say.
She st
ops struggling, and her eyes go wide. For the briefest of seconds, I see fear backlighting her baby blues, but then she quickly blinks it away. “You have a concussion. You can’t skate.”
“When I get the all clear, I’m going to need a skating partner to help me out.”
She goes quiet for a minute, and I can almost hear the wheels turning in her pretty head. I know her well enough to understand she’s figuring she can get the game information she needs, then bail before I ever get back on the ice.
“Like someone to spot you?” she asks.
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Okay,” she agrees.
“But until that time, there is something else I’m going to want.” I let go of her legs, brace my hands on the edge of the pool and lift myself out. I stand over her, invade her personal space. Water from my hair drips onto her thin shirt, wetting it enough that I can see a hint of her lacey bra. Fuck, she’s hot—and if her brother knew what was going through my head, a concussion would be the last thing I needed to worry about. He’d rip my left nut right out of the sac. He’s not called Crazy Callaghan for nothing.
She lifts her chin an inch. “What?”
I cup her face, and I swipe my thumb over her plump bottom lip. Are having two balls really that important? “I get to kiss you whenever I want.”
3
Nina
I get to kiss you whenever I want.
Even though it’s been a full day since Cole dropped that ridiculous bombshell on me, I’m still fuming mad. I clench and unclench my fingers, wanting to hit something—mainly that devil-may-care smirk that crossed his too-handsome face when he laid out his terms.
“Cocky son of a bitch,” I mumble and pace around my small living room. From the sofa, Jess examines her fingernails, only half listening to me. Not that I blame her at this point. I’ve been ranting ever since she arrived over an hour ago.
“How dare he think I’m some puck bunny dying to climb all over his…stick?” Jess snickers and my gaze flies to hers. “What?”
“Nothing,” she says and waves her hand for me to continue.
I pace some more, and a tortured growl catches in my throat. Kiss me whenever he wants. As if. I am not kissing him. Even if I wanted to—which I don’t—I wouldn’t kiss him. Not only is he a cocky bastard, he’s my brother’s best friend and I’ve known him since forever. He might as well be my brother, too, or a really close cousin.
Ah, but you don’t think of him that way at all.
I shut down that line of thinking and say, “By rights, I should have just introduced my knee to his crotch.”
“But you didn’t, did you.” Jess says.
I cut Jess a look. I could almost swear there was laughter in her tone, but she’s still looking at her nails. “No, I didn’t.”
“And why do you think that is?”
I draw in a long breath and slowly blow it back out. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s that thing about eating and having a roof over my head.”
Jess pulls her phone from her purse and slides her finger over the screen. With her attention half on her latest text and half on me, she says, “Is that the only reason?”
“Yes,” I shoot back quickly.
She drops her phone, and her lips quirk as dubious brown eyes gaze at me like I’m telling half-truths, which I very well could be, but I’m not about to admit that.
“Are those the only reasons, Nina?”