Breaking the Beast on Ice

Chapter 5 - A Flaw in the Script

Girlfriend.

The word hangs heavy in the otherwise quiet air of the kitchen. It drops between us, shattering hard. I stare at Silas, waiting for him to say the punchline. I want him to laugh or even smirk, even if it means enduring his arrogant face. He’ll probably say that he was only trying to get a rise out of me.

But he does not do any of that. Instead, he just stands there with his chest heaving and jaw locked so tight, I can almost imagine it snapping.

“Your…what?” I finally ask.

My voice does not sound like the Ice Queen. To my horror, I sound small, horrified, and inexperienced. I sound younger.

“Emma Rhodes,” Silas explains, as he rubs his face with one hand, “called. But she isn’t…Christ. Holloway, I know what it sounds like, but it’s not -”

“It sounds exactly like a breach of contract, Vane,” I interrupt, thankful that I’ve managed to pull back down my shield, but I’m angry. I am angrier by the second. Who does this guy think he is? Making a fool of me. I do involuntarily step back. I need this distance because my body is humming at the memory of him shirtless, his body honed by the sport he loves.

It’s inconvenient that Silas Vane is gorgeous. He is sexy in a very primitive way. Because of that, I must lock him out. This may be my chance. My reason.

“How could my father have missed this?” I ask. “He usually does extensive background checks. Aren’t you supposed to disclose everything, including romantic entanglements? Did you actually think our fake relationship would work if you already have a girlfriend?”

“There was - is - nothing to disclose!” Silas roars. He steps forward, breaching the distance that I have chosen to build between us. “Emma isn’t my damn girlfriend!”

“You literally just said that she is!”

“She thinks she is,” he corrects, slamming his fist against the counter. I am afraid to say that I flinch, again stepping back as if we have been dancing back and forth.

To my horror, Silas notices the flinch.

He doesn’t laugh. Instead, he freezes, his eyes dropping to my trembling hands. There aren’t any pockets to hide them. Something passes across his face, something that almost looks like regret.

Then, he takes deliberate steps backward, raising his hands in peace. It looks like he wants me to see that it is safe here with him.

“Holloway,” he begins, his voice grave. It drops to a low, soothing cadence I never knew he could be capable of. “I am not going to hurt you. Ever. It’s just - Emma Rhodes. She’s a menace who can make a total mess of everything.”

I swallow hard. I’m not sure I believe him, but the last sentence feels like the truth. This Emma will make a mess of everything.

“Explain it to me, then, because it sounds like you lied to my father about something so important.”

Silas chuckles bitterly, leaning his heavy frame against the counter. He runs his fingers through his hair, and I get this unreasonable urge to join his fingers with mine.

“I met Emma at a bar after a game. It happened before the suspension, way before this fake relationship story we are trying to sell. We hooked up…Twice. She was insistent. It was hot, but it was nothing. Just the usual.”

My stomach does an unfamiliar, unpleasant flip. Hooked up. The words sound so casual, the usual, according to Silas. They are like gateways to a world of adult intimacy I have been pushed away from. Something skitters in my brain. A memory. It suffocates me. Now I have to face the truth: Silas has a past. Of course he has. Women have known the weight of his tattooed arms. I shake the thought away.

“Twice,” I echo tightly. “That makes her a girlfriend? Did you make any promises?”

“Of course, it doesn’t,” Silas snaps, his eyes on mine so intensely it makes me shiver. Enough of that. I am not a weakling, but this man has a way of affecting me. “Before she took me home, I was not looking for a relationship. She said she understood, but then, she started texting me constantly and showing up at the arena unannounced. She would not take a hint that I was and still am not interested.”

He pauses to glower at his face-down phone.

“Then, all of this happened. She saw the pictures of us together. Probably watched the interview. She actually believes I am cheating on her with someone she considers a stuck-up bitch.” My jaw drops. “She said she’s going to the media, any one of them, and set the record straight.”

Dread washes over me. This isn’t good. If we were a more established couple, we may be fine, but the press is already suspicious as it is. It won’t be good for Silas, and it won’t be good for me. If people believe that Emma Rhodes is Silas’s real, scorned girlfriend, everyone will confirm that the two of us are simply the most horrible people in the hockey world.

“She’s going to mess things up,” I whisper.

“That’s what I just told you.”

“You could have cleaned this up first before coming to my father,” I grouse.

“He came to me, and there isn’t much time. People are already looking at me as a villain,” he explains, exasperated.

“And I am a villain, too, at least in people’s minds. This is getting even worse.”

And yet, something niggles inside of me. How do I know Silas is not a good actor who is keeping his real girlfriend in the shadows? Or perhaps she knows about the arrangement and when she realizes that I have to stay so close to her boyfriend, she panics?

“I don’t know you, Silas Vane. How do I know you’re telling the truth? Men like you can have any woman you want. You can take from them and discard them When they no longer support your narrative. How do I know who to trust: you or Emma or neither of you?”

Silas narrows his eyes at me. Then, he moves forward, more boldly tihs time. My space disintegrates as he enters it. I am overwhelmed by his scent of clean soap and cedar. Heat comes from him in waves.

Fury. Desperation.

Silas towers over me. If he decides to lock me in his arms, I won’t be able to do a thing, at least not when i am not wearing sharp heels.

“Men like me?” His voice is dangerously low. He leans down until his face is inches from mine. “Do you think I am capable of playing you and your father, Heiress?”

“Even if you aren’t, you are a liability,” I reply.

“I don’t lie about these thing,” Silas says. “I may be a brute on the ice with an uncontrollable temper, but I don’t lie about women. When I sleep with a woman, she knows what it is about. Simple and casual. Maybe my fault was that I gave in a second time.”

“She must be gorgeous,” I mutter, before I can stop myself.

His eyes flash at the comment.

“Oh, yes, she is,” he says, holding my gaze. “But it does not mean she’s my girlfriend. I don’t expect you to trust me, Holloway, but I am telling you the truth.”

I bite my lip. I can’t help the doubt that arises in me, but before I can contemplate it,I feel hs hand on my chin. He tilts it up so I can look him in the eye again.

“What?” I ask, roughly.

“It looks like we need more practice convincing people we are a couple,” he says. “That way, nobody will think Emma is just that - a woman scorned or a little liar.”

“Oh, how do you propose to do that?” I ask, my heart pounding so hard, I swear he can hear it.