Page 25 of The Off Limits Captain
Her fingers slide into my hair.
“No.”
The word goes through me harder than any hit.
I kiss her again, and the hallway, the game, the team fall away until there is only Peyton’s breath, Peyton’s hands, Peyton choosing me with every inch I give her the chance to refuse.
I stop first because one of us has to and because if it is her, I will spend the rest of the night wondering whether I have taken too much before she finds the words.
I press my forehead to the wall beside her head, breathing hard.
Peyton’s hand stays in my shirt.
“That was noble in a very irritating way.”
“It was survival.”
“Whose?”
I laugh once, low and not happy. “Both.”
For a moment, we stand there with the lamp throwing yellow light across the bed and the whole hotel quiet outside a door Ihave not locked. Her mouth is swollen. My pulse is stupid. The story on her laptop has my name in it, and the woman in front of me has my restraint in her fist.
I want to stay.
That makes leaving necessary.
“Lock the door,” I say.
Peyton’s expression shifts. Not hurt. Not exactly. More like she catches the wound before it can hide.
“Ryan.”
“Please.”
She lets go slowly.
I leave before I can be talked into becoming careless, and I hate myself for the relief that follows me down the hall.
Ryan
At 5:57 a.m., I am alone on the practice rink.
No cameras. No PR. No glass between me and the ice.
Just the scrape of my blades, the stale cold of an empty arena, and the kind of quiet a man can trust because it does not ask anything back.
I push through a hard lap, cross over at the far circle, and drive into the next turn until the bruise along my shin lights hot under the pad.
Pain has rules.
Pain does not take notes.
The door by the bench opens at exactly six.
Peyton Hayes steps through in jeans, boots, and a dark jacket zipped to her throat. No blazer. No polished newsroom armor. Her hair is pulled back, but some strands have escaped around her face, suggesting she got ready in a hurry, which she refuses to admit.
She carries a notebook anyway.
