Breaking Away: A fake dating grumpy sunshine hockey romance by Sookh Kaur

Author:Sookh Kaur [Kaur, Sookh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sookh Kaur
Published: 2024-10-20T00:00:00+00:00

32

KAVI

Just my luck, I’m being kidnapped. I scream as loud as I can, fighting them off. “You can’t take me!”

“It’s me,” a rough growl of a voice claims, somehow ducking the swing of my arm.

“Who is ME?!” I shriek-ask. Whoever this person is, they’re too solid to budge. My measly punches bounce right off them. I’m gathering myself mentally to go for the eyeballs when this rugged shadow man gives me his name.

“Dmitri,” he grunts. “It’s Lokhov.”

Oh.

I settle. We’re still in the dark, so I can’t see his expression when I hiss out, “Why are you kidnapping me?”

“I’m not.”

Isn’t he? Instead of putting me down, I’m lifted into his arms, carried away. He walks, apparently with enough spatial memory to get us into the living room without knocking anything over. Gently, I’m lowered onto a couch. Then he disappears. When the lights flood on, I realize he had gone to turn them on.

My eyes water. I’m blinking, half-sprawled on the couch like a disoriented goddess. Not that I feel super glamorous. Dark pinkish-hair sticks out of a toppled-over bun, and I’m wearing pajamas. A silky top and shorts so short you can see dimpled thighs.

Lokhov stares, half-way across the room, frozen mid-step.

I’m frozen, too, that is—for Lokhov is naked. Not fully, but enough. I drag my teeth over my lip, trying not to hyperventilate. He’s got sweatpants on… and that’s it. No shirt. There are abs. And then there are more abs. And sure, I’ve seen muscles before. Tyler and the rest of the team packed a lot of them, but Lokhov’s body is different. It’s meaner. Blunter. There’s a happy trail, thumbprint wide, arrowing into his pants.

When he finally reanimates, it doesn’t help. Lokhov stalks like caged energy. It’s careful and slow. A panther waiting behind wheat stalks. A kind of beast that you don’t expect is moving but is, inch-by-inch.

The back of my neck prickles as he approaches.

Clumsily, I raise my chin. “Excuse me. Why were you, um, lurking like that?”

“Why were you sitting in the dark?”

My mouth twists. “When did you get in?”

“Last night.” I watch as his eyes travel down the length of me and then stop abruptly, locked on my knee. I look down and see it. The most minor of scuffs, probably from when my leg grazed the edge of his kitchen island or something.

“You’re hurt.” It’s not a question, but a statement. Before I can tell him it’s nothing, he’s already there, hunched over and inspecting it.

There’s nothing to inspect. It’s pink, somewhat sore, but there’s no blood or anything. My skin was barely scratched.

“It’s fine,” I say.

Calloused fingers feather along the joint. “Does it hurt to move?”

“Uh. No.” To show him, my thumb goes down and buffs out the mark.

“I’ll call a physiotherapist to come over. Just to make sure you’re okay.”

I laugh, but the sound fades when I see his expression. He’s not smiling back. It wasn’t a joke. “Oh, that’s very unnecessary. I’m good.”

“If you don’t have good knees, you can’t move.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.