Alle Kapitel von Off Ice: A Forbidden Rink Romance : Kapitel 11 – Kapitel 20

Content Warning: This chapter includes a drink-spiking and non-consensual situation. Please read with care. 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐭 William was still talking. Something about a merger at his firm, some deal that apparently "everyone in the industry was watching closely," and I nodded at what I hoped were the right moments while my brain quietly checked out somewhere around the second course. "...and that's when I told the board, if you want results, you have to be willing to take risks." "Right," I said. "Makes sense." It did not make sense. I had no idea what he'd actually said for the last two minutes. He kept going, moving from work straight into his life story, some tidy highlight reel about private school and study abroad and a gap year backpacking through places I'd never had the money to visit. Every sentence somehow circled back to how impressive he was, delivered with the kind of easy confidence that usually meant someone had never once questioned whether people wanted to h

𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐭My body was hot.It felt like someone had lit a fire inside me and forgotten to put it out. Every breath came out warmer than the last, every inch of my body too sensitive and too aware, like my own skin had turned into something foreign overnight.Even the cool air brushing against my face did nothing to ease it.Everything felt wrong.My limbs were heavy, my hands slow to respond whenever I tried moving them, like the signal from my brain took the scenic route getting there. Even lifting my head took more effort than it should have, and the moment I did, my vision spins hard enough to make my stomach churn.I blinked a few times, trying to force my vision to clear. The blurry shapes in front of me shifted before finally settling into something that almost looked familiar. Tall, broad shoulders and strong arms wrapped securely around me, steady in a way that felt like the only steady thing left in the entire world right now.Whoever it was smelled clean, with a faint s

𝑴𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒌𝒂𝒊The moment I opened the door, Ronan and the guys pushed straight past me without waiting for an invitation, Brian and some sophomores I barely recognized trailing behind him, already scanning my kitchen like they expected to find breakfast waiting."What are you doing here?""It's Sunday." Ronan flopped onto my couch like he owned it, kicking his feet up onto the coffee table without even asking. "We came to chill.""Get your ass outside. Now's not a good time.""Why not? You got plans or something?" Brian glanced around the apartment, clearly not buying my urgency for a second."We came to comfort you." Ronan put a hand over his heart, mock serious, batting his eyes at me like he was a girl. "About yesterday, coach was being harsh and all that.""Message received, you can leave now. I'm busy.""Busy doing what exactly?""None of your business. Not today, not ever, honestly.""C'mon, we heard you got benched from practice, sent home in front of everybody." Owen from the

𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐭"Stick on the ice, Brian! You're not gonna block anything waving it around like that!"Brian adjusted his stance immediately, and I blew the whistle for the drill to reset, watching the whole line skate back into position one more time."Ronan, tighten up that gap, you're giving him way too much room out there!""On it!"Playoff season had officially started, and Saint Aurelius was set to play some college team in less than two weeks, which meant every single practice from here on out actually mattered, no room left for slacking or half-effort drills, not with everything riding on this one stretch of the season."Again. Full speed this time."I ran the team hard that morning, drills on top of drills, working on every weak spot I'd spotted over the last few weeks. Passing lanes were sloppy, defense broke down too easily under pressure. Small things, fixable things, but fixable only if I kept my head fully in this and nowhere else.Nowhere else being, specifically, that t

𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐭"Listen up."Two weeks had flown by in a blink of an eye, the locker room went quiet. Twenty guys, all staring at me, gear half on, nerves written all over their faces, some of them bouncing on their toes already."This is it, everything we worked for these last few weeks comes down to the next sixty minutes."Ronan nodded, a couple guys tightened their gloves."Our opponent's tough. They're gonna try to rattle you early, get in your heads, make you play their game instead of ours." I looked around the room, made eye contact with as many of them as I could. "Don't let them, play your game. Trust your teammates and trust the work you put in.""Yes Coach.""I believe in every single one of you." My eyes landed on Malakai last, standing near the front, captain's C stitched on his jersey. "I mean that, every one of you."Somebody clapped, then everybody did."Now let's go win this."They erupted, sticks banging against the floor, and filed out toward the tunnel one by one.