Ryan crossed her arms as she sat in the passenger seat of Ben’s black Tahoe and continued to glare at him. But clearly the past twenty minutes of it hadn’t been enough to prompt him to reveal their secret destination. “I know you’re trying to be cute by not telling me where we’re going, but you’re failing miserably.”

Ben laughed at her, the jerk. He’d picked her up at ten a.m. on a Wednesday outside the diner where they’d initially hatched this whole elaborate escort plan, and then told her they would be driving about thirty minutes outside Philadelphia.

She’d initially thought it was an odd time of day for a date, but Ben said where they were going tended to get busy later in the afternoon. Which only served to ramp up her curiosity. “If you don’t tell me, I’m going to think this is a kidnapping and alert To Catch a Predator.”

Ben scrunched up his face. “I’m pretty sure that show catches guys trying to hook up with underage girls on the internet.”

“I’m sure there’s an equivalent for twenty-six-year-old escorts who’ve been abducted by professional athletes.”

Ben chuckled again. “Where do you come up with this stuff?”

Ryan shrugged, but the beginning of a smile teased the corners of her lips. “It’s a gift.”

Turning to look out the window, Ryan tried to think of something else to say. She wanted to know how the rest of his visit home had been, but after their phone call, he hadn’t brought it up again and she’d been hesitant to ask him about it. It was clearly a sore subject, and she didn’t want to sour their second “date” with questions he probably didn’t want to answer.

Thankfully she was saved from obsessing over it for too much longer because Ben pulled into a lot and parked. “We’re here,” he said.

“Why are we at a place called Ice Zone?” Ryan asked as she looked up at the large, windowless building.

Ben already had his door open and was exiting the truck. “I thought it would be a good idea for you to get to know what I do a little better.”

Ben evidently took her silence for assent because he shut his door and then walked around to open hers. “You ready?” he asked.

“Uh, yeah. Totally.” She moved to get out of the car, but was harshly wrenched back by the seat belt she’d forgotten to unbuckle.

“Oh, shit, are you okay?” Ben asked.

Nope. “Yup. I just spaced out.” She hit the button and released the belt. But instead of feeling better to be free from the restraint, she felt much worse. Because now she had to get out of the car and walk into a place that was her version of hell frozen over.

Ryan had been ice-skating one other time. She’d been six, and it had been for a classmate’s birthday party. The only thing she’d gotten out of the day had been seventeen stitches and a fear of ice skates. But Ben had brought her here so she could see him in his element, and turning him down wasn’t something she wanted to do. So she slid from the car and waited while he grabbed a bag from the trunk. She raised an eyebrow at him.

“My skates,” he said in response.

“Oh, so I have to rent a foot disease while you use your special, hockey-player skates?” she teased.

“Yup,” he replied, his eyes twinkling with happiness. Happiness she hoped she didn’t ruin by dying.

They walked to the entrance and up to the counter where they were greeted by guy in a flannel shirt. “Welcome to Ice Zone. What can I do for you today?”

“She’ll need a pair of skates.” Ben turned to her. “What size are you?”

“Seven,” Ryan replied, hoping Ben didn’t hear the wobble in her voice.

“Coming right up,” the guy working the desk said.

Though unlikely, Ryan said a silent prayer that they were all out of size seven skates. Or maybe . . . “I didn’t bring socks.” He couldn’t expect her to put her foot in a rented shoe without socks. Could he?

“No worries.” Ben reached into the front pouch of his bag. “I brought you a pair.”

Slowly reaching out to take the socks from him, she couldn’t help the wary look on her face. “You have women’s socks lying around the house?”

Ben laughed. “No. I figured you might not be wearing them, but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise, so I picked up some yesterday. I have two more pairs in my trunk if you want them.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Ryan said through a smile. She had to admit, even though the man in front of her was unwittingly bringing one of her nightmares to life, he was damn cute.

Their gazes stayed locked on one another, and Ryan couldn’t deny the pull she felt toward Ben. Everything about him was inviting—his choice of activities aside—and Ryan felt herself drifting closer to him with no desire to stop.

The squeal of children as they ran past broke the moment.

Ryan came back to herself with a start, the knowledge that she’d been ready to suck Ben’s face off in front of a metrosexual lumberjack and a group of kids causing a different type of heat to run through her. That and the thoughts that they kept getting interrupted at the least opportune times.

The worker returned and handed her the skates before looking at Ben. “Anything else, Mr. Williamson?”

“No, I think that’ll be it. Thanks.” Ben took the skates from Ryan and led them to the bleachers. They sat and Ben immediately stripped off his sneakers and pulled his skates out of his bag.

Ryan watched him. “Come here often?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“The guy at the counter knew you.”

“I practice here a lot since my team’s in Denver. They let me reserve one of the back rinks to work out in.”

Ryan perked up at that. “Oh, is that where we’re skating?” It was bad enough to look like an ass in front of Ben, but for there to be even more spectators for what would undoubtedly be an epic failure worthy of Tosh.0 seemed like cruel and unusual punishment.

“No.”

Cruel and unusual it is.

Ben got up so he could squat down in front of her and lace up her skates. The gesture was so sweet she almost had trouble watching. The man in front of her was all kinds of nice, and it made Ryan feel things she had no business feeling.

Coughing, she tried to redirect her train of thought. “So why skating? It probably would’ve been easier to go watch hockey games somewhere so I could learn what’s happening. Not that I don’t want to be here.” I don’t. “I just don’t want you to go to any trouble.”

“It’s not any trouble.” Ben finished lacing her skates but stayed where he was and let his eyes drift over the large rink beside them. “I guess I brought you here because watching a game isn’t really enough to show you how much this game means to me. When I first put on skates . . . I can’t even explain it. It was like I knew they were meant to be there. There was always something so freeing about being on the ice for me. And even though my parents don’t completely understand it, they do know that I could never be with someone who I couldn’t share that part of myself with.” He brought his eyes back to hers. “Hockey isn’t something I do. It’s something I am.” He stood and put his hands in his pockets. “I can’t explain it to you. For you to really understand, I need to show you.”

Ryan looked up at him for a second before standing up.

And then promptly falling right back down again.

* * *

It took a second for Ben’s brain to catch up with his eyes, so there were a solid few seconds where Ryan stayed sprawled on the ground before he bent down to help her back onto the bench. “Holy shit, are you okay?” he asked once she’d gotten situated.

“No. My dignity is super bruised right now.”

Ben huffed out a laugh before squatting down in front of her again. “Seriously, does anything hurt? Physically speaking.”

“I’m fine.” Ryan’s voice was soft and unsteady.

“You want to try again then?” Ben asked carefully. He wasn’t sure what exactly was going on, but Ryan definitely looked like something was wrong.

“Um . . . no.” The statement came out as more of a question as she pursed her lips before biting the lower one.

Ben didn’t know what to say. Ryan hadn’t seemed like someone who let a minor fall deter her from an experience. But really, what did he know? He barely knew her. “Okay.” He knew he sounded disappointed, and that the tone was misleading. Because while he wanted to share skating with Ryan, he wasn’t going to be a baby about it. If she wasn’t into it, she wasn’t into it. But the thought that he really did barely know the girl in front of him, despite feeling like he did, rankled. He moved to stand, but Ryan placed a gentle hand on his forearm.

“It’s not that I don’t want to. Well, I mean, I don’t want to, but I would if it weren’t for . . . I guess I feel like this is a warning.”

“A warning?”

“Yes. A giant cosmic warning that I do not belong on frozen surfaces.”

Ben couldn’t resist smirking. “I thought you didn’t believe in that kind of thing.”

Rolling her eyes, Ryan sighed. “I believe in things as they suit me, okay?” Despite the slight exasperation in her voice, the smile she was clearly trying to fight off belied any real irritation. “Look,” she said, pointing to her arm. “See this?”

Moving to sit beside her and leaning in for a closer look, Ben caught a quick sniff of her sweet scent. So caught up in inhaling it, he nearly drifted into her before he realized what he was doing and ceased all movement. “What? That little scar?” There was a thin white line running across her arm right below her elbow.

“Little?” she replied, sounding almost offended. “I’ll have you know it took seventeen stitches to close that.”

He scoffed. “Must have been the smallest stitches known to man.”

She gaped at him. “People told me I could’ve bled to death.”

He couldn’t have stopped the laugh that tumbled from him even if he’d wanted to. “Who told you that?”

“Some of the other mothers. They said they’d never seen so much blood in their lives.” Ryan had crossed her arms as she spoke matter-of-factly.

Ben thought it was cute as hell. “A medical professional never corroborated this extensive blood loss theory, though?”

“It is not a theory.”

“It’s not a fact either.”

She glared at him. “Has anyone every told you you’re really annoying?”

That was an answer Ben didn’t have to think about. “Yes.” Not wanting to actually make her mad, he relented. “I’m sorry. I just haven’t gotten to see you all riled up yet. I was enjoying it a little too much.”

Her posture relaxed at his words, and the expression on her face softened. “Fear makes me a little . . . edgy.”

Nodding, Ben said, “Tell me about the scar.”

“I was at a birthday party at a skating rink when I was six. I was a little . . . spirited.”

“So . . . crazy as hell,” Ben said.

“Pretty much. Anyway, I stepped out on the ice and acted like I was Michelle freaking Kwon even though I’d never been on skates before. Within ten minutes, I was being carried off the ice and rushed to the hospital.”

Ben could see how the experience could be traumatic, but he also felt like there was something to be said for facing your fears. And what better chance would she get than with him? He realized he wanted to be that person: the one who helped her overcome a bad experience. She’d been so easygoing and accommodating with their arrangement. Maybe she could walk away from all of this with more than the money he’d paid. “I don’t doubt that was scary—God knows I have tons of horror stories from being on the ice—but maybe you just need to face the fear.”

“Face the fear? Ben, I ran over my own arm. Not fell and cut it or banged into someone else, I ran over it. I can’t even figure out how that’s humanly possible. And now, twenty years later, I try again and immediately fall as soon as I strap these damn things on. No, it’s definitely a sign from the skating gods that they do not want me intruding on their sport.”

“Or a sign that you have really bad coordination,” he muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. What if I promised to hold onto you? I’d never let you fall.”

“Some things are in the gods’ hands.”

He stood and extended his hand toward her. “And some things are in ours.”

She sat still and stared at his hand for a long moment before bringing her eyes up to meet his. “This is probably a really bad idea.”

Ben didn’t reply. This was her internal battle to fight. Whatever her decision was, he’d accept it. But man, did he ever hope that she showed a little trust in him.

Finally, she put her hand in his. “Okay. Let’s do it.” She didn’t look the least bit excited, but she was willing to try.

He couldn’t ask for anything more than that. Pulling her slowly to her feet, he reached out to grab her other hand when she started to sway. After a few minutes of standing still, he bowed down a little so he could look into her eyes. “Ready to walk?”

She nodded her head shakily, so Ben began walking backward as he held onto her hands. “You’re going to fall,” she said.

“No, I’m not.”

She didn’t argue, but whether it was because she believed him or because she was preoccupied by putting one foot in front of the other, he wasn’t sure. Eventually they made it to the rink entrance.

“Want me to get you one of the ice walkers?” he asked.

“You mean those things the little kids are all pushing around?” When Ben nodded, she said, “You got me, right?”

“Yeah. I got you.”

“Then no. I’d rather keep going like this.”

Instead of letting her see how happy her words made him, Ben took a step backward onto the ice and gently pulled her after him. Her legs shook as she got on the ice before scissoring back and forth as she began to flail. “Hey,” he said firmly.

Her gaze flew to his.

“Bend your knees slightly, lean forward a little, and try to relax your body while keeping your eyes on me.” He drew her arms straight out so that she was T-shaped. “Having your arms like this will let you use them to help you balance. I’m going to move my hands to your hips, okay?”

She nodded jerkily so he let go of her hands one at a time and gripped her hips instead. “I’m going to move us. You don’t need to do anything but glide,” he instructed. Ben skated backward slowly, pulling her with him. Once it was clear that she’d comfortably gotten her legs under her, he told her to try to start moving her legs in time with his. She fumbled a few times at first, but soon she was moving with more confidence.

They made a few trips around the rink before Ben asked, “You ready for me to let go?”

“‘Ready’ isn’t really the right word. But yeah. Let’s do it.”

Ben let go slowly. He backed away a little to give her space, but he remained in front of her. After a few tentative first glides, she got the knack of it on her own.

She shot a beaming smile up at him. “I’m skating.”

“I know.” He smiled back. And as he watched her continue to move around the rink, despite the coldness surrounding him, he felt nothing but warmth.