LOGINIzzy
He pushed the door open anyway. I jumped up and tried to shove it closed but he slipped in and shut it behind him. He looked at me. My face felt flushed. Breathing still fast. “You okay?” he asked. “You look all red and out of breath.” “I am fine,” I snapped. “What do you want? Get out of my room.” He did not move. “We need to talk for real. Stop pretending you did not see me last night.” I crossed my arms. “I did not see you. End of story. You were probably just imagining things because you feel guilty for stealing my video.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I did not steal it. It was on the shared cloud or something. But that is not the point. The video messed me up Izzy. Bad. I cannot stop thinking about you. Even though you annoy the hell out of me. You fight back all the time. You call me out. You are not like the other girls who just go along with everything.” I stared at him. My throat felt tight. “You hate me. You said we were broke and stuff. You are rude.” “Yeah I hate you,” he said. But he stepped closer. “Or I thought I did. But now I cannot get you out of my head. The way you looked in that video. Moaning my name. It is driving me crazy.” I swallowed. Tears pricked my eyes a little because this was all so confusing. One minute I wanted to slap him. Next I wanted him closer. “Well I still hate you too. This is wrong. We are stepsiblings.” We stood there for a bit just looking. The air felt heavy. Then he touched my cheek. His fingers were warm. I did not pull away. Suddenly we moved at the same time. Our mouths crashed together. It started rough. Angry. Like we were still fighting. His lips pressed hard on mine. I kissed back just as hard. Our teeth clicked once. I grabbed his shirt and pulled him in. He tasted like the gum he chewed earlier. We kept going. Mouths moving fast. I tilted my head and he did too. His tongue touched my lip. I opened and let him in. Our tongues met and it got messier. Wet. We pushed against each other. I made a small sound in my throat. He groaned back. We broke for air for one second. “This is stupid,” I said breathing hard. “Yeah really stupid,” he said. Then he kissed me again. Slower this time but deeper. His tongue explored my mouth like he was trying to learn every part. I did the same. We moved together. Back and forth. Sometimes I sucked on his tongue a little. He did it back. Our lips slid wet. I pushed my hands into his hair and tugged. He made this noise that went straight through me. We kissed like that for a while. Hungry. His hands held my waist tight. I pressed my body to his. I could feel him getting hard against me. It made me wetter. We kept at it. Lips pressing. Tongues tangling. Pulling back just to breathe then diving back in. One kiss turned into another and another. Messy and real. My lips felt swollen. His hands moved up my back under my shirt. Skin on skin. I shivered. He kissed the corner of my mouth then full on again. We talked between breaths. “You drive me nuts,” he muttered against my lips. “Good,” I said and bit his bottom lip soft. He groaned and kissed harder. Our mouths opened wide. Tongues sliding deep. It felt like we could not get enough. I sighed into him. He pulled me even closer. We stumbled a step toward the bed but stayed standing. The kissing went on. Long and needy. Sometimes fast and rough like we were mad. Sometimes slow and exploring. I touched his chest. He cupped the back of my neck to angle me better. Our breaths mixed. Little moans slipped out. Mine and his. We kept kissing like the world outside did not exist. Just this. Angry want and something softer underneath. I hated how much I liked it. But I did not stop. When we pulled apart again our foreheads touched. Both of us panting. “You are so wet for me already,” he said. His voice rough. “Shut up,” I whispered. But yeah I was. Really wet. My shorts felt damp. He smirked. “Hate me all you want but this feels good right.” I rolled my eyes. “You are still a total asshole.” “Yeah but you are kissing me anyway.” He leaned in and kissed me once more. This one softer but still hot. Lips brushing then pressing. Tongues meeting gentle at first then stronger. We did that for a bit. Learning how the other liked it. I melted a little. His hands slid down to my butt and squeezed. I gasped into his mouth. The kissing started up again. Full force. Mouths open. Wet sounds filling the room. We moved our heads side to side. Tongues dancing. I tugged his hair harder. He groaned loud. We broke. “Fuck Izzy,” he said. Then back at it. Deep kisses that made my knees weak. I held onto him tight. Our bodies rubbed together. Heat everywhere. It went on like that. Kiss after kiss. Some short and quick. Some long and rambly where we just stayed connected moving slow and deep. My mind felt fuzzy. All I knew was his mouth. His taste. How he made me feel even though I wanted to yell at him. Finally we stopped. He looked at me. Eyes dark. “I want to see you,” he said. “Take your shirt off.” I hesitated but then pulled my shirt over my head. My bra came off next. I stood there topless. Cheeks burning. Arms wanting to cover but I did not let them. Riven stared. He stepped back a little. His eyes went over my breasts slow. Really looking. Admiring. His mouth opened a bit. He did not say anything right away. Just kept staring like he could not believe it. Time stretched. My heart pounded hard. “Damn Izzy,” he said finally. Voice low and rough. “You are really really pretty. Like actually beautiful. I did not expect this. Your body is perfect. I just want to devour you. All of it.” He kept looking. Eyes tracing every curve. It made me feel exposed but wanted. Really wanted. He reached out and touched one breast light. Traced around it. Then cupped it full. His thumb brushed my nipple. I sucked in a breath. He leaned in close like he was about to put his mouth on it. His breath warm on my skin. I waited there half naked. Tension thick. Knowing this was only getting started and everything was about to get even more messed up. I stood there half naked feeling super exposed but his eyes on me made my skin tingle all over. Riven kept staring at my breasts like he could not get enough. Then he leaned in closer. His breath hit my skin warm and made me shiver. He kissed one nipple soft at first. Just lips brushing. I sucked in a quick breath. It felt good. Too good. He did it again then opened his mouth and sucked it in. Gentle at first but then harder. His tongue swirled around it wet and warm. I grabbed his shoulders because my legs felt wobbly. “Riven,” I whispered. My voice came out all shaky. “This is so wrong but do not stop.” He groaned against my skin and switched to the other breast. He kissed it all over. Little sucks and licks that made me arch into him. His hands held me steady. One on my waist. The other cupping the breast he was not sucking. He looked up at me while his mouth worked. Eyes dark and hungry. “You taste so good Izzy. Fuck I want to keep doing this forever.” I hated how much I liked it. My nipples got all hard and sensitive. Every lick sent heat straight down between my legs. I was soaked now. My shorts felt sticky. He kept going. Sucking harder. Biting soft then soothing with his tongue. I moaned a little and tugged his hair. “You are such an asshole for making me feel this,” I said but I pulled him closer instead of pushing away. He laughed low against my skin. The vibration made me gasp. “Yeah well you are the one moaning like that. Hate me later. Right now just feel it.” His hand slid down my stomach slow. Fingers teasing the edge of my shorts. I knew what he wanted. Part of me wanted it too. The ache down there was getting worse. He kissed my breasts one more time then stood up straight and looked at my face. “Can I touch you?” he asked. His voice rough. “Down here. I need to feel how wet you are for me.” I nodded fast even though my heart raced. “Fine but if you tell anyone I will kill you.” He smirked and slipped his hand inside my shorts. Past my panties. His fingers found me right away. I was dripping. He rubbed slow circles on my clit and I nearly buckled. “Shit Izzy you are soaked,” he muttered. Then he moved lower and tried to push one finger in. It did not go easy. I tensed up. He pushed a bit more gentle. Just the tip. I felt tight. Really tight. He stopped and looked at me surprised. “Wait. Izzy are you…?” I bit my lip hard. My face burned. He tried again careful. His finger barely went in. I winced a little but it felt good mixed with the stretch. He pulled back and stared at me. Eyes wide now. “You are so tight. Like really tight. Have you never…?” I did not answer right away. I just looked at him breathing fast. My body wanted more but my brain screamed this was crazy. He realized it then. His face changed. Shock mixed with something else. Like he could not believe it. “You are a virgin?” he said low. His hand still there but not moving. Everything hung in the air between us. My heart pounded waiting for what he would say next.Chapter 76VesperDamien's thumb moved slowly on the back of my knee while he talked about the playoff race."If we keep this pace through March," he said to Mr. Callahan, the team's majority owner, "you are looking at home ice for the first two rounds at least. The sponsors will be very happy.""From your mouth," Mr. Callahan said, and laughed, and clinked his glass against Damien's.I stood at the front of the owners' box beside Damien's chair with my tablet held against my chest and my smile fixed on my face. Nobody else in the room could see his hand. The chairs were close together and the lights were low, and from behind it looked like he was just sitting near me the way a fiancé sits near the woman he is going to marry. His palm was warm through my stockings. His thumb made the same small circle over and over, and every circle made me want to scream.I did not move. I did not look down. I watched the ice.Silas was on the second line. He came over the boards a minute into the pe
Chapter 75SilasI locked the phone and stood up so fast the bench scraped across the floor behind me.Riven did not step back. He stayed exactly where he was, a foot away from me, with his jacket half off one shoulder and his bag still at his feet, and he looked at me the way a captain looks at a guy who just took a stupid penalty. Not angry yet. Just waiting to hear what I was going to say.I grabbed the front of his jacket with both hands and pushed him back against the row of lockers. The metal banged loud enough to echo down the empty room."You did not see anything," I said."I saw it, Rook.""You saw a text.""I saw a text from Damien Thorne telling you to remember the second period." He did not lift his hands to push me off. He just stood there with his back against the lockers and let me hold him. "I can read."My hands were shaking in his jacket. I hated that he could feel it. I had played seven years in this league, I had dropped my gloves with men twice my size, and here I
Chapter 74Riven I stood up behind her. The zipper was small and the dress was tight, and my hands were not as steady as I wanted them to be. I pulled it down slowly, all the way to the small of her back, and the dress loosened around her shoulders."I am never wearing blue again," she said. "Ever. Not even socks."I leaned down and kissed the back of her neck, right where her hair had been. She shivered."That is a shame," I said against her skin. "Because it is my favorite color now."She turned around in my arms and looked up at me with the dress slipping off one shoulder. "Since when?""Since about seven o'clock tonight, when you walked down the stairs at Callie's.""Liar.""I am done lying to you, remember?"She smiled, a real one, the first real smile I had seen on her face in days. Then she reached up and pulled my tie loose, slowly, one end at a time, watching my face while she did it like she wanted to see what it did to me."You are teasing me," I said."You teased me about
Chapter 73RivenI told her to stay with Lily, and I meant it, and I still found myself walking across the ballroom toward that staff door about thirty seconds after it closed behind her.Nobody stopped me. A couple of the guys from the team raised their glasses as I passed, and one of the sponsors' wives tried to catch my arm to tell me how much she loved the overtime goal, and I smiled and kept moving. The side door opened into a narrow concrete corridor that smelled like cleaning products and old coffee, and at the far end another door had been propped open with a brick. Cold air was coming through it.Izzy was standing just inside that doorway with her back pressed to the wall and her camera raised to her eye. I could hear the soft, fast clicking of the shutter from halfway down the corridor.I walked as quietly as I could and stopped right behind her. Over her shoulder, through the gap, I could see the loading area under the tall light. My father was there with Kane. And a third
Chapter 72IzzyKane kept smiling at me from the stage, and for one long moment I was sure he was going to walk straight down the steps and across the ballroom and pull me out of that hallway by the arm in front of everyone.He did not move.He could not. Six hundred people were sitting in the dark looking up at him, and the spotlight was on his face, and every phone in the room was already raised to film the team's star player introducing the season. I watched him understand that at the same moment I did. His hand came out of his jacket empty and settled on the edge of the podium, and he leaned toward the microphone with an easy little laugh."Sorry, everyone," he said. "Public speaking makes me more nervous than a shootout."The whole room laughed with him. Somebody near the front whistled."I had a whole speech written down," Kane went on, still smiling, "but I think I will let the boys do the talking instead." He turned his head toward the back corner of the ballroom, where the te
Chapter 71Izzy"Isolde, over here! Riven, give us one together!"The photographers at the entrance were shouting before we even reached the top of the steps, and the flashes came so fast that for a few seconds I could not see anything except white. Riven's hand found the small of my back and stayed there, steady, while I smiled the way I had watched a hundred players smile into my own camera. It was strange being on the other side of the lens. My own camera hung around my neck on its strap, heavy against the blue dress, and I kept one hand on it like it could protect me."Keep walking," Riven said through his smile."I am walking.""You are walking like you are about to fight someone.""I might be."He laughed under his breath, and it was the first time I had heard him laugh in two days. He had showered at Callie's and borrowed a razor and put on the suit his father had picked out for him, and he looked like the captain everyone in this city thought he was. He had also, finally, put
Izzy I slammed the door so hard my hand stung right away. My heart would not slow down. It kept pounding like it wanted to jump out. I ran down the hall to my room and locked the door fast. I pressed my back against it and slid all the way down to the floor. My legs felt weak. What the hell did I
Riven I shifted on the bed trying to ignore it pushing the phone down for a second and running a hand through my hair thinking about all the reasons this was stupid I hated how she looked at me like I was the intruder when they moved in and how she fought back every time instead of just staying ou
Riven I couldn’t shake it no matter how hard I tried, the whole thing kept replaying in my head like some bad loop I couldn’t pause, her standing there in my doorway with her eyes wide and her mouth dropped open after she barged in without knocking like she owned the place too now that our parents
Izzy I dragged myself through the front door way later than I meant to, legs aching from running around the rink all day trying to get decent shots while Riven acted like I was invisible except when he wanted to glare at me. The house was lit up like always, and right away Mom and Mr. Holt were







