Off the Ice
Liam stood in the center of the dark living room, the late-night skyline of Manhattan sprawling out behind him in a brilliant, chaotic grid of white and amber lights.
He was dressed in nothing but a pair of soft gray training pants, his bare chest pale under the ambient glow of the city. He was holding a single, heavy steel skate guard in his right hand, his fingers tracing the grooved plastic channel over and over in a restless, mechanical rhythm. Every muscle in his body was coiled tight, humming with the repressed velocity of a machine that had been tuned to its absolute limit but forbidden to start.
"Give me the guard, pixie."