Excerpt from :
Chapter 1:
Ice Girl
Honor Bennett
Screeching guitars wailed over the arena's booming speakers, revving up the rowdy Saturday night crowd all around us. But even over the noise, I still managed to hear my boyfriend Todd's lustful mumble:
“Oh, God damn.”
His hungry, beady eyes were zeroed-in on the ice girls' wiggling butts as they pushed shovels from one end of the rink to the other. Their short and frilly mini-skirts flounced as they skated, treating the crowd to the occasional glimpse of their toned bottoms.
Todd grunted as if something was lodged in his throat. “Now who are they?”
“Those are the ice girls I told you about earlier.”
“Ice girls? The heck are those? I don't remember hearing anything about ice girls.”
“I guess you weren't listening.” I sighed. “Anyway, while I was scouring the job ads, I came across a listing for open auditions.”
“Open auditions for what?”
“For ice girls!”
“Wait. You mean you want to be one of those?” Todd asked, pointing at the team of girls as they skated up and down the ice.
“Sure, why not?”
Todd looked at me, and then at the ice girls, and then back at me again. And then his shoulders started to shake with silent laughter.
“No reason,” he said at last. He must've seen the fire rising in my eyes, because he quickly changed gears. “Um—I mean—it just doesn't seem like you. You're more of a quiet, artsy chick than you are the rah-rah cheerleader type.”
“I guess. But isn't that why we moved out here to Denver? To try new things, and reinvent ourselves? And I have an ice skating background, after all, so it's not that big of a stretch … is it?”
“Yeah, sure.” Todd shrugged. “So, uh, what are the ice girls for, anyway? And what's with the shovels?”
“They're pushing all the ice chips and snow shavings away, so the ice is better for the players to skate on.”
Todd didn't answer—he just stared at the girls. And I realized he was staring at one girl in particular: blonde, long-legged, and lean. I tried not to take it personally or anything like that—because this was what the ice girls were for, after all. To look pretty and raise the fans' spirits and get everyone all loud and worked up. And they were cute, and yes, their flirty little outfits were super sexy. I knew that. It'd be crazy to get mad at Todd over it. But at the same time, seeing him ogle those girls struck at a weakness inside me.
Because maybe, deep down, I wanted Todd to look at me like that for once. I didn't want to be that 'quiet, artsy chick' forever.
So I laughed and tried to play it cool. “Did you just become a hockey fan, Todd?”
Todd couldn't peel his eyes off that blonde. “God. I mean … maybe.”
“She's got a great butt, huh?” I asked. And I meant it, because she did, and I wanted Todd to know that I wasn't this psycho girlfriend who became furious when he noticed an attractive woman.
“God. She sure does,” Todd croaked without breaking his gaze—but then he took it too far. “The things I'd do to her, Honor.”
Thankfully, he knew enough to spare me what things, exactly, he'd do to her.
But still my stomach sank like a heavy rock dropped into the ocean—plunk! And bubbling up in its place was a realization that made me sad: after a year of dating, Todd never looked at me like that anymore—like he couldn't wait to take me home and rip me out of my clothes and have his way with me.
Maybe, truthfully, he never had? He was always in a bigger rush to get home and fire up his videogames.
The ice girls skated back towards our seats, their long, beautiful hair flowing behind them. They all looked so happy, with bright gleaming smiles and enthusiastic hand-waves at the crowd. I wished I could be there on the ice with those girls. All eyes on us. I never realized how much I missed that feeling until now.
Todd's focus stayed trained on the same girl. Her round breasts jiggled in her tiny crop-top, and a silver chain studded with diamonds dangled from her navel.
“You think she's cold in that outfit?” I asked jokingly, still pretending that the crummy churning in my guts wasn't real.
“By the looks of it?” Todd asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows. “Oh yeah.”
Ah, yes. Her nipples are hard.
I laughed softly, sucking air through gritted teeth, as the ice girls finished their job and left the ice. I was almost ashamed to be relieved, but—finally—their spell over Todd was broken, and the threat had passed.
Whew.
I hooked my arm around Todd's elbow, claiming my boyfriend back. “It's too bad you never saw me during my figure skating days. I wore some pretty cute dresses myself, you know.”
Todd tilted his head, his face pinched with confusion. “Huh? When were you a figure skater?”
“Todd! I've told you about it so many times already. I competed for five years as a teen.”
“Oh. Yeah. Sounds kinda familiar. But, it's not really the same. Figure skaters don't dress like those girls.”
Without another word, I leaned into the far side of my seat, away from Todd. Some days, it can sure seem like your man is possessed by some brain-dead drive to say the absolute wrong thing. This was apparently one of those days.
The hockey game resumed. Our hometown team, the Colorado Blizzard, were in a battle with the visiting Florida Cats. The two teams traded chances, rushing up and down the ice, until play stopped again.
Todd spoke when play halted. “Listen, Honor. I'm not really comfortable with you trying out for that ice girl thing.”
“Why not?”
“For one, it's really objectifying. I don't want all these people looking at you while you bop around, barely wearing any clothes.”
I stifled a laugh. “You didn't seem all that bothered to objectify those girls yourself.”
“Well—yeah, that's my point!”
I rolled my eyes.
“For two …” The words died in his throat as the ice girls pranced out to the ice again, smiling, waving, cute butts bouncing all over. Tongue-tied, Todd could only helplessly wet his lips as he watched the ice girls' routine. All of it. Until they disappeared from the ice once more.
I stared at him, waiting. “You were saying?”
“I … forgot.” Todd scratched his head. “Jesus, those girls are hot.”
“Uh huh.”
“What? Are you mad now?” Todd asked, although he didn't sound very concerned.
“No, it's just—funny, that's all.”
“What's funny?”
“For as much as you drool over other women in front of me? You sure get bent out of shape whenever I have the gall to tell you which movie stars I think are cute.”
“That is so not true.”
Ha! Yeah, right, I thought. We'll see.
I searched the ice for the first hunk I could find. And that's when I found him. Truth was? I couldn't see his face at all. But he was big and tall, and—most importantly—he had the 'C' stitched on the front of his jersey.
Hey there, captain. You'll do just fine.
After a few minutes had passed, I elbowed Todd in the side and pointed at the player. “Wow-ee. Look at him, #37.”
“What—him?”
“Yeah. The captain. He's hot. Really hot.”
Todd huffed and shot me a nasty look. “Hey, what the hell, Honor?”
“What? I can say that, can't I? You said the ice girls were hot.”
“You said she had a great ass first! I thought that meant I had the green light to talk about her like that. But this is completely different.” Todd folded his arms and threw his back against his seat. “Ugh, you know what? Whatever. Forget it.”
I snickered and watched the Colorado captain glide around the ice. His body moved with the purpose, power and stealth of a shark—and maybe the cold, apathetic loneliness of a shark, too.
“Oh, don't get all hurt over it, Todd. I was just proving a point.”
“You know something, Honor? You're so antagonistic because of those damned brothers of yours. If they didn't pick on you so much when you were younger, and actually treated you like . . .”
While Todd ranted about what a mean girl I was because of my brothers, I tuned him out and followed the action on the ice.
The Colorado captain skated fast, in hot pursuit of the puck carrier. He was so fast and strong, he caught up to the guy like a cheetah after wounded prey. And all the captain had to do was barely lean into his opponent and give him a little shove, and the Florida player went flying through the air. His body smashed into the glass, and he toppled over ass-first, spilling to the ice like a bag of wet cement. The hometown crowd went wild, and the captain raced up the ice with the puck.
Wow. He's fast.
The captain took a shot on goal, but the Florida goalie made a great save, and the ref blew the whistle to stop play.
And who happened to stop right by our seats, but the captain himself. With his helmet on, I couldn't quite see what he looked like. But a rugged jawline and chiseled chin, shadowed with dark stubble, suggested he'd sure be a babe with his helmet off.
The captain stared intently at the ice as he waited for the faceoff. Beads of sweat rolled from under his helmet, down his temples, and dripped from his jaw. Wisps of steam rose from his muscular and glistening neck.
Wish I could see your face, I thought, holding my cell phone at the ready to snap his picture. With those features, I bet you're devastatingly handsome.
But the key word there was devastating—because I couldn't help but sense something dark and mysterious about the captain, as if he were stewing in some miserable hell that no one could possibly know.
Todd clucked his tongue at me. “Really? Taking his picture? So I guess I'll be allowed to do that with the ice girls, then.”
“Shush.”
I snapped the captain's picture and texted it to my brother Derek.
“Hey bro, random Q. Who is this dreamboat?”
Always happy to talk hockey with his little sister, Derek's reply came in quick.
“That's Hunter Rockwell. You think he's hot? Better get in line, Honor, the girls go nuts for that guy. Voted hottest player in the league—but not for his play, that's for sure.”
“I see. So he's not any good?” I texted back.
“He's alright. He was traded to Colorado three years ago, from Boston. He was good—really good—in Boston. But in Colorado, he hasn't really lived up to expectations. He's just not the same player he was before. It's like his heart isn't in it anymore. Who knows what his deal is.”
That seemed to fit—it sure explained the darkness I'd sensed in him, anyway.
“Thank you for the scouting report, Derek!”
Hunter Rockwell lowered himself into his faceoff stance. When the ref dropped the puck, he swiped at it and easily won the draw.
And then Rockwell was off. His powerful legs unspooled beneath him, and he raced into open ice.
He looks better than 'alright' to me …