Alle Kapitel von Off Ice: A Forbidden Rink Romance : Kapitel 21 – Kapitel 30

𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐭I had barely made it through my apartment door when my phone started ringing. I answered without checking the screen, my mind still tangled up in everything that had happened at the rink, my keys still dangling from the lock behind me, my coat only halfway off my shoulders."Where'd you go?" Malakai's voice came through immediately, no greeting first, a note of something close to worry underneath the usual confidence."I was tired." It wasn't the whole truth, but it wasn't exactly a lie either. "I needed to get home.""You could've told me that instead of just disappearing. I looked for you everywhere after the game, even thought you got kidnapped or something.""I appreciate the concern, I'm fine.""Are you sick or something?""It's nothing. Long night." I kept my voice light, hoping he wouldn't push further, dropping onto the arm of my couch as I talked, still not fully inside my own apartment yet."You sure?""I'm sure. Just tired."For a second, I found myself wonde

ᴬˡⁱˢᵗᵉʳI had been sitting in my car outside Beckett's apartment for nearly forty minutes, debating whether to actually get out and knock on his door.Every version of the conversation I ran through in my head ended differently. Sometimes he slammed the door in my face before I even finished my sentence. Sometimes he listened, arms crossed, waiting for me to explain myself properly instead of the rushed, half-formed version I'd given him at the rink. Sometimes, in the versions I liked best, he actually softened, just slightly, enough to let me back into whatever space I'd carved out for myself in his life two years ago.I needed him back. That part wasn't complicated, even if everything surrounding it was. The engagement had never been about wanting her. It was never going to be about anyone but Beckett, not really, not since the two of us had spent those years building something I still didn't fully understand how to walk away from, even after I was the one who'd left it behind fi

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

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

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