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last update publish date: 2026-08-01 19:32:49

𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐭

A hand waved right in front of my face, close enough that I flinched back on instinct before I even registered whose it was.

"Whoa. Hey." Malakai pulled his hand back, brows pulled together. "You good?"

I blinked, the rink coming back into focus around me, the sound of sticks and skates I hadn't fully been hearing a second ago suddenly loud again.

I'd been so deep in my own head that I hadn't even noticed him skate over, hadn't noticed anything really.

I've been too busy running
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  • Off Ice: A Forbidden Rink Romance    030

    𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐭A hand waved right in front of my face, close enough that I flinched back on instinct before I even registered whose it was."Whoa. Hey." Malakai pulled his hand back, brows pulled together. "You good?"I blinked, the rink coming back into focus around me, the sound of sticks and skates I hadn't fully been hearing a second ago suddenly loud again. I'd been so deep in my own head that I hadn't even noticed him skate over, hadn't noticed anything really.I've been too busy running numbers I hadn't asked for and planning my resignation letter, half convinced I could plan my way out of the mess Alister had dropped on me the night before if I just thought about it hard enough. The next match had been announced, posted up on the board outside the office like a countdown, and somewhere in my head I'd already decided that once it was over, I was done.Handing in my resignation. Ending all of it, cleanly, before it had the chance to end on its own in some way I couldn't contr

  • Off Ice: A Forbidden Rink Romance    029

    𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐭"Used to." Alister repeated it slowly, his eyes meeting mine. "Not anymore?"I smiled at him. "You shouldn't do this, Alister.""Do what?""This." I gestured vaguely between us, at the lunchbox still sitting open on my desk, at the whole ridiculous scene he'd set up like we were still two people who got to have easy dinners together after work. "Whatever this is supposed to be. Even if you don't respect me enough to stay away, you could at least respect the woman you're marrying. She deserves better than whatever this is."Something flashed across his face at that, quick, there and gone, gone fast enough that I almost convinced myself I'd imagined it. "It's a business marriage, Beckett. You know that. There's no love in it.""That doesn't make it not real.""It makes it exactly as real as it needs to be." He leaned back in the chair, unbothered.It was as if we were discussing the weather instead of the woman he was about to stand at an altar with soon. "The only pers

  • Off Ice: A Forbidden Rink Romance    028

    𝑴𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒌𝒂𝒊I pushed her off me.Not gentle about it either, hands landing on her shoulders and shoving back hard enough that she stumbled a step before catching herself against the side of my car.For a second neither of us moved. She stood there with her hand pressed flat against the passenger door, chest rising and falling too fast, staring at me like she genuinely hadn't expected that reaction, like kissing someone who'd just spent five minutes telling her to go home was supposed to land any other way.The parking lot was almost empty by now, just the two of us and a handful of cars under the security lights and the whole building behind us gone quiet for the night. My whole body still felt wrong, like something had gotten under my skin and I couldn't shake it loose fast enough."What the hell are you doing?""Malakai—""No, seriously." I wiped the back of my hand across my mouth like that would undo it, like I could just scrub the last ten seconds off my skin and pretend the

  • Off Ice: A Forbidden Rink Romance    027

    𝑴𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒌𝒂𝒊I was so pissed by the time I got to my car.Not about the stats. I could care less about running numbers tonight, and Beckett knew that too, which was exactly why I'd used it as an excuse to stay in the first place. What I was pissed about was the man showing up out of nowhere with his stupid lunchbox and his stupid smile, standing there in Beckett's office like he owned it and saying stuff like can't strategize on an empty stomach and a whole body that needs food to function.Funny how that works, like he was scoring points off me while Beckett just sat there and let him ruin our conversation.And Beckett didn't even chase him out.Instead he just told me to go home, like that fucker showing up unannounced wasn't the actual issue here.I could still see the way his eyes never left mine the whole time we were going back and forth, sizing me up the same way I was sizing him up. Both of us knew exactly what we were really fighting about even though neither of us said i

  • Off Ice: A Forbidden Rink Romance    026

    𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐭The knock cut me off before I could answer him.Malakai was still perched on the edge of my desk where he'd planted himself the second he walked in, close enough that I'd had to raise my head back just to keep looking at him properly.And for a second neither of us moved, both of us just staring at the door like it might go away if we ignored it long enough.It had been two days since the thirty day thing started, and already I was beginning to see how bad an idea it actually was. Not because it wasn't good. It was, that was the whole problem.The knock came again.I glanced at Malakai, wondering if it'll be weird for the both of us to be seen together this late in my office, but I brushed the thought off the second Malakai slid off the desk and dropped into the seat across from me instead.Arranging himself into something that almost looked like a player waiting on his coach."You gonna get that?" he asked, nodding toward the door, way too calm for someone who'd been

  • Off Ice: A Forbidden Rink Romance    025

    𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐭I still wasn't entirely sure how Malakai had talked me into agreeing to any of this, the thirty days, the whole ridiculous arrangement, but I definitely hadn't expected the volume of texts that came with it. Two days in, and my phone had become something closer to a leash than a device I actually controlled.It wasn't just the texting, either. He shown up at my office twice already this week, found excuses to linger after practice longer than necessary, sent me a single flower with no note attached that I still hadn't figured out how he managed to get delivered to a locked building. I kept telling myself this was exactly the kind of complication I'd warned him about that first night, the exact reason I should've said no in the first place.I hadn't said no, though. That was the part I still couldn't fully explain to myself.Part of me wanted to believe this was harmless, that thirty days would come and go and we'd both walk away with some clarity about whatever this

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