Bennett choked on nothing, a startled cough escaping his lips.
Iris laughed. ‘To keep it off the ground, I mean.’
‘Keep what off the ground?’ Jeanie asked, skating up beside them.
‘Me,’ Kira said, out of the corner of her eye catching the blush that had worked its way up Bennett’s cheeks.
Jeanie smiled. ‘I’m sure he will.’ She skated off with Iris, the two of them giggling and Kira started to wonder if there was something in the water in this town.
‘Those two are weird,’ she said.
‘Very.’
‘I will obviously keep track of my own ass.’
‘Obviously.’
She snuck another glance, and saw he was looking at her like he had other ideas in mind. Again, his thumb was tracing circles over her wrist, and she wondered if he knew he was doing it. If he was driving her crazy on purpose.
How had she ever thought he was wholesome when he was looking at her like that? Like he was thinking about her ass. Like he wanted her. Which was insane considering she was currently wearing the world’s bulkiest parka and was creeping around the rink like an elderly turtle.
But he was. That heat was back in Bennett’s eyes and Kira was getting dangerously close to stoking the flames. Would it be so bad to give in to that look? To see what this good guy had to offer?
He was still looking at her when the pee-wee hockey player nailed them from behind and they both went crashing to the ice.
‘Shit, shit, shit.’ Bennett hit the ice hard, his legs tangled up with Kira’s. She let out a scared little squeal as they went down that would probably haunt his dreams forever.
‘You okay?’ he asked, quickly sitting up. He looked down at where Kira was sprawled on the ice. ‘Can you get up?’
Kira winced. ‘If you mean, am I too injured to get up, the answer is no. If you’re asking if I am physically capable of getting up, the answer is also no.’
He huffed a laugh, relieved that she was okay enough to crack jokes.
‘Here.’ He took her by the arm and eased her up to a seat. The kid that crashed into them had already skated off, unscathed by the collision.
‘A hit and run,’ Kira said with a scowl. ‘I don’t even know which one it was. They all look the same with those helmets.’
‘What would you do if you knew who did it? Seek retribution?’
‘Something like that. Get their mom to yell at them at the very least.’
Bennett shook his head with a laugh. ‘All right, let’s get up before we get run over.’ He managed to get himself back on his feet but Kira was slipping and sliding all over the place, her flailing threatening to knock them both over again.
‘Maybe I should just crawl,’ she said with a groan as she fell back on her butt.
‘You’re not crawling.’ He leaned down, put his hands on her waist and hoisted her up to a stand. Her eyes went wide when he then scooped her into his arms.
‘What the hell are you doing?’
‘I’m carrying you.’
‘No way.’
‘You going to skate back?’ He raised an eyebrow in challenge and Kira glanced across the rink. They’d made it halfway and it had taken a hell of a long time to get here.
Kira frowned but relented. ‘I will allow it.’
He laughed and started to head toward the exit. And it was fine, totally just a friend helping a friend, until Kira leaned her head against his chest and sighed. Sighed like she liked being there. His fingers tightened on her thighs. First her hand in his, then all this talk about her ass, and now this? Kira in his arms, her silky hair tickling along his throat, her scent washing over him? And all he could think about was the soft skin of her wrist and how he’d wanted to replace his thumb with his tongue, how he’d wanted to explore a lot more than her wrist.
What the hell was he doing? He’d resolved to stay away from her, to tamp down his ‘rescuer’ instincts, and he’d ended up with Kira in a bridal hold as he escorted her off the ice. He was obviously failing epically.
‘Uh, the ice-skating lifeguard is blowing his whistle at us,’ Kira said, distracting him from his thoughts.
‘Ice-skating lifeguard?’ Bennett looked in the direction Kira was pointing. ‘Oh, the high-schooler with a whistle and a safety vest? I’m not worried about him.’
‘He’s yelling that you have to put me down,’ she said with a smile in her voice.
‘I’ll put you down when we get there.’
‘Uh-oh, Bennett, I thought you were a rule follower,’ she teased as they approached the exit. ‘A good boy.’
He slowed down, ignoring the way she’d purred those last words, and stepped carefully off the ice. He lowered Kira to the ground and tried desperately to ignore the way her body pressed against the entire length of his as he did. She didn’t pull away, just looked up at him with a mischievous grin.
There were so many rules he wanted to break when it came to Kira, mostly the ones he had made for himself. He wanted to take her home, he wanted to take her to bed, he wanted to dive headfirst into this thing with her that made no sense and would land him exactly where he always landed, alone and confused about what he’d done wrong this time.
But the answer was clear: he kept doing the same thing over and over again. Falling for women that he had no future with. His home wasn’t here. His life wasn’t here. He’d already been down this road before, and he couldn’t do it again.
