All Chapters of Second Chance on the Rink: Rebirth of the Ice Queen: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

109 Chapters

Chapter71 Jealous

Scarlett's POV I had a plan. It was a good plan. Simple, clean, no room for error. Distance.That was all I needed. Just some basic professional distance between me and Preston Beaumont, enough space to remember that he was a business arrangement and not a person I had feelings for.I could do that. I was a grown adult with functional self-control.The problem was that he played hockey .And as the sponsor of this tournament, I had no choice but to be here.He scored on the second period's opening shift, clean and fast, the kind of goal that made the handful of scouts in the upper section sit up straighter.The team erupted. Tyler and Jake crashed into him from both sides and Cody was already pointing up at the scoreboard before the red light finished flashing. X looked straight at me from across the ice. He tapped two fingers to the side of his helmet.

Chapter72 Hot Springs Invitation

Scarlett's POVX looked at me, not at Pierce. His voice was level. "So who is it going to be, Scarlett? Him or Preston?"I already knew I wanted nothing to do with Pierce. That part was easy. But standing there with X looking at me like that, like my answer was going to mean something beyond just this moment, I felt my jaw set."You," I said. "Obviously."X's expression didn't change. Pierce's did.I turned to Pierce directly. "We are done. We have been done. Stop showing up. Stop bringing flowers. Stop bringing rings. Stop. I mean it this time."Pierce looked at me for a second, then at X, then back at me. He didn't say anything else. He picked up the ring box, closed it, put it in his pocket, and walked away.X watched him go."Good choice," he said."Don't," I said.He almost smiled. Then Preston's hand came down on my shoulder from behind."Come on," Preston said. "Let's go."The rest of the team was already moving. Tyler had somehow gotten there first and was already doing an obn

Chapter73 Sex Under the Water

Scarlett's POVPreston pulled back just enough to look at me. His eyes were dark with want.He shifted me against the smooth rock wall under the water, my back pressing into it.His hands moved down my body, sliding over my wet skin. "This is gonna help me both get ready for the finals," he said, his voice low and rough even underwater. "Better foundation this way. Trust me."I pushed at his chest a little, not really meaning it. The water made it hard to move fast. "Preston, wait... someone might see." My words came out in a rush of bubbles.He grinned and shook his head. "No one's around. Just us."He pressed closer, his body pinning me there. One hand slipped between my legs, fingers teasing until I gasped.Then he was inside me, slow but steady, the water making every thrust feel different, deeper somehow.I bit my lip to keep quiet.It felt good, too good. His hips moved in a rhythm that matched the gentle current around us. I wrapped my legs around him without thinking.Half of

Chapter74 Hard to Let Go

Scarlett's POVHe saw me at the same moment I saw him.His eyes moved over me once. The wet hair.The robe. The collar that had slipped again.He looked at my neck for one second longer than necessary and his jaw tightened immediately.I pulled the robe collar up."What are you doing here?" I said."Client dinner," he said. "They're staying here." He crossed the lobby slowly and stopped a few feet away. His voice dropped. "Who were you with.""That's none of your business.""Scarlett.""Pierce, I'm not doing this.""Your neck," he said, and then stopped himself.I looked at him. "What about it?"He pressed his lips together. He looked away toward the fireplace and then back at me, and there was something in his face I recognized. The specific expression he got when he was angry and trying to pass it off as concern."This isn't like you," he said."You don't know what's like me anymore. You haven't for a long time.""I know you well enough," he said. "I know you well enough to know tha

Chapter75 Mom's in the Hospital

Scarlett's POVThe final was everything I expected it to be and more.The Silver Reapers were up against the defending champions, a team from the Pacific Northwest that had held the title for two consecutive seasons and had the kind of roster depth that made analysts comfortable putting them at heavy favorites.The odds boards reflected that. Most of the money in the room was not on Preston's team.I pulled up the betting interface on my phone and put in fifty million on the Silver Reapers.The woman next to me, a tournament investor I recognized from the opening reception, glanced over at my screen and raised her eyebrows slightly.I put my phone away.The arena was different from the early rounds. It was louder, fuller, charged in a different way.The first period opened fast.The champions set an early defensive line that was tight and well-drilled, exactly what you would expect from a team that had won it before.They were good. They were patient. They moved the puck around the pe

Chapter76 She Left With Him

Preston's POVThe buzzer for halftime hit and we skated back toward the tunnel with a two-goal lead.It was not a comfortable lead. Against this team, two goals meant nothing until the final buzzer.But the guys were feeling it anyway. Tyler had his helmet off before we even reached the locker room and was already talking fast about the second period. Jake was nodding along. Cody had the specific look he got when he thought something was already settled.I let them talk. I turned back toward the ice and looked up at the stands.Her seat was empty.I looked at it for a second, then looked at the surrounding section to make sure I had the right spot. I did. Same row, same position.I turned back toward the tunnel."Hey," Jake said, catching up to me. "Where's Scarlett? Bathroom run?""Probably," I said.I kept walking.In the locker room I sat in my stall and went through the adjustments I needed to make for the second period. Their left defenseman had been cheating toward center on the

Chapter77 Are You Going Back to Him?

Scarlett's POVThe doctor was a woman in her late forties with a calm, measured way of talking that I appreciated more than I could say in that moment."Your mother is out of immediate danger," she said. "The bleeding caused some pressure on the neural pathways, which is why she's still unconscious. But her vitals are stable and we expect her to come around within the next several hours. Possibly sooner."I stood there and let the words land one at a time.Out of danger. Still unconscious. Stable."Can I see her?" I said."For a short while, yes. She's been moved to a room upstairs. A nurse will take you up."I nodded. I thanked her. I am not entirely sure what else I said.The nurse led me down a corridor and into a room that was quiet and too bright and smelled like every hospital room smells.My mother was in the bed, tubes and monitors doing their work around her. Her face was still. There was a bandage along her left temple.I sat in the chair next to the bed and looked at her fo

Chapter78 Something's Off With Preston

Scarlett's POVThat person.It was a strange way to put it. I turned the phrase over for a second, trying to figure out what he meant by it.Why would he refer to her that way, with that specific distance in his voice, like she was someone I had no business going to see?Then it clicked.He thought I was going to Pierce.He had spent the whole evening thinking I left the game with Pierce, and now he thought I was packing a bag to go stay with him. That was what "that person" meant. Not my mother.Pierce.I almost said something to correct it.Then I looked at him standing in the doorway of my bedroom, jaw set, arms crossed, two thirds of a bottle of something in his system, looking at me like I was already guilty of whatever he had decided I had done, and I thought about my mother in a hospital bed two miles away and I thought about how tired I was.I did not have the energy for this tonight."Fine," I said. "I'm going."Preston straightened up. "Do you even know what your situation i

Chapter79 Caught on Camera

Scarlett's POVMy mother's color was better on the third day.She was awake more often, and when she was awake she was herself, asking about the company, asking about the tournament results, asking why I looked tired.I told her I was fine every time she asked and she did not believe me every time I said it, which was very her.Sarah had been running the office without complaint.She sent me summaries twice a day and only flagged the things that actually needed my attention, which was exactly what I had asked for and exactly why I trusted her. I read through everything each evening in the hospital chair next to my mother's bed and handled what I could handle from my phone.I was doing that on the third morning when Pierce walked in.He had flowers. Again. Smaller arrangement this time, appropriate for a hospital room, nothing that looked like a statement.He stopped in the doorway and looked at my mother first,

Chapter80 I Only Shoot If Scarlett's Here

Preston's POVThe mask was Tyler's idea.He had shown up to the shoot location with four of them in a bag, the kind with a simple design, nothing flashy, and distributed them to the guys like it was completely normal."Cap doesn't want to get recognized before the campaign drops," he announced to no one in particular.The shoot was for the tournament sponsorship campaign. I had agreed to it weeks ago, back when agreeing to things Scarlett asked for had felt easy and uncomplicated.The production team had set up near the practice rink, lights and cameras and a director who had introduced himself three times because he kept forgetting I already knew his name.My phone buzzed.A photo. From Isla.Scarlett was in a coffee shop. Across the table from her was Pierce. They were leaning toward each other the way people lean when they are saying something they do not want overheard.Her hands were on the table. H

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