Frozen Barriers (7 page)

After about five minutes, I make my way out of the bathroom doors only to walk right into a tall wall of a muscular man. His arms wrap around my elbows, and I look up into the same big, brown eyes that I was running away from to begin with. I step away quickly, trying to make my way back to the table and then the hell out of here.

“Emily, stop,” Jeremy says firmly. I turn around and look to the floor since I’ve managed to not only insult him, but also embarrass myself. “You all right? You took off really quickly from the table. I thought maybe that rim job didn’t exactly agree with you.” Jeremy laughs as he crosses his arms and leans back against the hallway wall. “Tell me something. Did you run off because you can’t handle your booze, or because you tried to have a comeback line and instead made your face look like Christian Grey’s red room of pain?”

“How do you…”

“Seriously, I have a twenty-one-year-old sister, and have you met Sue? I know all about those books you girls are reading these days,” he replies.
Of course, he does.
He’s quick to respond to my inquisition. “Now, how does someone like you know about the red room of pain?” Okay, we need to seriously get off the topic of the only form of romance in my life, not that BDSM screams romance, but a girl can dream. Now’s not the time to admit to him that I occasionally dabble in erotic romance novels.

“Listen, Jeremy. I’m sorry for being so quick to judge you back there, but you have to understand, I’m not like the rest of you. I’m not used to being in social situations a lot where the television cameras aren’t involved, and even then, everything I am supposed to say is scripted. I should really get going. If you don’t mind, I’m just going to settle the bill with Suzanne and head out, but it was nice to see you again.”

Why am I so completely wrapped up in this shy little skater chick? One minute she’s licking cinnamon sugar off the rim of her beer causing more than just a stirring in my pants and the next she’s embarrassed to the hilt because she wasn’t aware of my hockey career. She might have gotten away once eight years ago, but I’ll be damned if she thinks she’s spending the next eight stuck in the same secluded life I know she’s living. I’m not sure why she’s staked her claim on me; it’s not like either of us has a shitload of time to spend together. I might have knocked her on her ass years ago, but every time I see this girl, she knocks the words right out of my mouth.

I push off the wall and make my way back to the table, only to see Emily isn’t there. “Where did Emily go?” I ask everyone.

Suzanne looks up at me. “She said she had a yoga class or something to get to. I gave her my cell number, and she said she’d give me a call to get together soon.” Bullshit. She’s running again. You don’t go to yoga after drinking a beer. I make my way to the front doors to see if I can catch her before she leaves, and I hear Courtney ask everyone where the hell I am going off to in a hurry. I’ll have to explain this one to her later. Hopefully, she won’t say much to Mom. She’s already wondering when either of her two oldest boys is going to finally settle down and have grandkids for her. If she hears I’ve been running after a girl I’ve basically met twice in my life, she’ll be planning my wedding before the end of the night.

Fuck it!

Once I’m outside, I see her across the parking lot looking for her keys inside her purse. I start sprinting across the lot before she’s just about to unlock the doors. “Emily!” I shout. She turns and sees me running toward her, and her face shoots up in shock. I make it to her car, putting one finger up as I’m leaning over onto my knees and trying to catch my breath. Seriously, I better start hitting up the gym a lot more in the next week. Spending my summer at the beach only doing twelve-ounce curls was not a wise idea.

“Jeremy?” she questions as she plays with her car keys in her hand.

“Hang on two seconds…” I raise my hand with one finger pointing up.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in good shape to play hockey?” I hear her ask just in front of me.

“Yeah, well, when you have the summers off and your friends want to do nothing but sit on the beach, drink beer, and play golf, you tend to lose interest in going to the gym.” I laugh, simply because she’s probably in better shape than me right now. Coach is clearly going to kick my ass when I report to training camp next week.

Emily leans against her car as I start to stand back up. “You don’t seem to be in so much of a rush to get to that yoga class anymore.”

I see her eyes stalling and searching for a reason in her head. “What are you talking about? I really am heading to a class.”

I call her bluff. “Emily, you’re heading to a yoga class just the same as you were planning on calling Suzanne to meet up again.”

“What do you want from me, Jeremy? I don’t fit in with you guys or anyone for that matter.”

“Excuses, excuses! Stop pushing people away because you think you don’t fit in. You did the same thing to me eight years ago. You know how long I waited for your call that never came? I even tried calling you a couple times after that to see if you were going to the rink. You never answered.”

“Jeremy, it’s not that I didn’t want to hang out with you. I did actually think you were funny, but you just don’t understand how my parents dictated my life back then. My God, they still do!”

“Emily, listen to me. I may not know you all that well, but I can see underneath all the fake smiles and frilly costumes there is a funny, beautiful person just waiting to live her life. What’s holding you back?”

She pushes off her car to face me. “I don’t know what you want from me, Jeremy. I can’t even offer anyone a normal friendship. I have one day off a week, and this isn’t even the busy time of year for me.”

Something inside me keeps telling me to fight for this girl. “Quit. Just say the hell with it! Do what makes you happy for once. From the first time I knocked you on your ass when you were eleven at the Forum, I knew you didn’t belong in that life.”

“You don’t even know me, Jeremy! Shit! I don’t even know me,” Emily exclaims.

“Emily, I want to get to know you, but you keep pushing me away. There’s a group of people back in that restaurant who have zero judgment on anyone. Come back inside for a while and just hang out, relax and have a few laughs. I promise you’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about. Plus, you owe me for standing me up back in high school,” I point out.

“I didn’t stand you up. It’s not like you asked me out on a date,” Emily barely whispers as she goes thumbing through her bag. Little does she know I heard her. She doesn’t expect me to wrap my arms around her waist and start spinning her around in the air. Emily lets out a huge gasp as I lift her. “Would you put me down, you big ape! People are staring!”

I slowly lower her to the ground, not letting my arms leave her waist. As her feet hit the ground, she has the largest
real
smile plastered on her face and the sweetest of giggles coming from her mouth. She finally realizes how close she is to me and tries to back away. Nope, I’m not letting that happen.

“See, I knew you could really smile and let loose. Now, what if I were to ask you out on a date? Would you go out with me?” It’s a long shot I know, but something is telling me I need to get to know this girl better.

“Jeremy, you know I can’t…”

I stop her before she says another word. My hands quickly come up to grab her face as her hands grip my wrists. She briefly looks into my eyes right before my lips crash into hers. I feel her go limp in my hands as her hands fall and grasp the sides of my T-shirt. She lets out just the slightest moan before I pull my lips from hers. Holy shit, why did I just do that? She’s going to absolutely freak the fuck out now.

Leaning my forehead against hers, I whisper, “Emily, please, just one date. I don’t even care if it’s a date. Just spend some time with me.” Pulling away to look her straight in the eyes, I continue pleading my case. “If you want, we can even hang out with Suzanne or Josh. I mean, I realize that’s always awkward since they are no longer dating, but they are still good friends. Please?” Emily looks like she’s about to pass out and goes to lean against her car again. Her hand comes up to touch her lips, and she’s not looking at anything but my eyes. “Em? What is it?” Oh, shit. I never even thought of this before I kissed her. “Oh, shit, Emily. I’m so sorry. Shit, you’ve already got a boyfriend, don’t you?! I’ve totally just screwed this up, didn’t I? Please tell me I’m not a complete idiot for doing that.”

She drops her fingers from her lips. “Jeremy, really, you think I’ve got a boyfriend? I have one day off a week to do my own thing.”

I give her a questioning look. “So, if that’s not it, then what was with the look of absolute terror on your face a moment ago?”

She sighs as if what she’s about to tell me is something that will give me the same expression. “Jeremy.” She sighs again. “I’ve never been kissed before.”

Upon hearing those words, my eyes almost fall out of my head as I run my hands through my hair and start pacing in front of her. “You can’t be fuckin’ serious! How is that even possible? Never? Like as in I’m the first?! But, you’re gorgeous and sexy as hell. How…really…and I just did that…aww fuck.” Now, I’m pacing faster and running my hands over my face in frustration, trying to think of some way to fix this.

“Was I really that bad at kissing?
”
she asks softly.

I already basically screwed this up big time and now she thinks she’s a bad kisser. I need to make this right and erase what might have been the worst first kiss in history. “Hey, Emily. Can you shut your eyes for a second?” She gives me a suspicious look and then a slight smirk on her face like she knows what I’m about to do, but she plays along anyway. She stands straighter, shuts her eyes, shakes her long blonde hair out away from her face, and tilts up her chin. “Oh, you think you know me, now do you?” I question, teasing her. She just stands there giggling under her breath and trying not to laugh, but I catch her peeking out of one closed eye. “No cheating!” I scold, and with that, she goes back to being serious.

I slowly make my way in front of her and wrap one arm around her waist and my other hand behind her head in her hair. I lower my mouth just enough to graze the skin on her lips. I lick my lips before I connect with hers, turning my head slightly and pushing my tongue along her lips. Urging her mouth open, I sense her unease at not knowing what to do, so I take control and slowly slip my tongue in and tangle it with hers. Within seconds, her hands are on my triceps, gripping tightly as her body goes limp in my arms. I gently push her back, so she’s leaning against the side of her car, and my hips slide up against her body. Before I know it, her tongue is dancing around with mine, and she’s fucking annihilated any other girl I’ve kissed before her. I take a slight nip of her bottom lip, and she flinches.
Shit, I got carried away.
She moves away and goes to rub her hand against her lip, but before she can get her hand there, I slide my thumb across her bottom lip and place a simple kiss there. “Does that help erase the worst first kiss of all time, or do I need to try again?”

Snapping out of her daze, she looks up at me, mouth agape and asks, “Huh?”

I laugh softly. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Oh, fuck yeah, that’s definitely a yes in both of our books.