His Dangerous Love On Ice (Olivia and Zane) novel Chapter 9

ZANE’s POV

I sat on the balcony, cigarette between my fingers, half-listening the guys lose their minds over tomorrow’s game.

The team had decided to throw a party the night before our biggest match of the season. Because apparently, getting drunk and high before a championship game was peak athletic performance.

Idiots.

Nike was going on about how this was his first big paycheck. How he was going to buy his mom a new car and pay off his sister’s college tuition. Noble. Cute. Boring as fuck.

I took a drag and let the smoke fill my lungs, eyes fixed on the city lights stretching out below us.

The last thing I wanted was to be here.

But I had to be. Had to play the part. Had to sit here with these boys and pretend I gave a shit about their dreams and their families and their fucking first paychecks.

Because if I didn’t, I’d do something stupid.

Like walk into her suite. Climb through her window. Press her against the wall and make her understand exactly why rejecting me was the worst decision she’d ever made.

Three days.

I’d given her three days to come crawling back.

And she hadn’t.

Stubborn little thing.

I smirked, ashing the cigarette over the railing.

She thought she could walk away from me. Thought she could sand there in that hotel room, all fire and fury, and tell me to “find someone else to play chess with.”

Like I was just some bored rich boy looking for entertainment.

She had no idea what game she’d walked into.

The door to the suite opened, and the room went silent.

I didn’t even have to look to know who it was. I felt the shift in the air-the way tension crawled up everyone’s spine when he walked in.

Hunter Sinclair.

The kid whose slot I’d bought with a single conversation. The one who’d sold out his sister for a chance to play in the big leagues.

I remembered how I’d arranged a meeting with him. How he’d frozen when he saw the very man he couldn’t withstand. How I’d offered him that proposition, ensuring he knew I gave no fucks about him and all I was interested in was his stepsister.

How he’d accepted with trembling hands. So quick. So fast. So easy.

I glanced over my shoulder.

He stood in the doorway, jaw clenched, eyes locked on me like he wanted to put his fist through my face.

I raised my cigarette in a mock salute.

His jaw tightened further.

Yeah. He still hated me.

Good.

Beside him, another figure stepped into the room, and my smirk faded.

Cole Maddox.

The walking, talking embodiment of everything I despised. The kind of man who slithered his way into women’s lives, used them, and discarded them the second someone more useful care along.

The kind of man who’d destroyed my mother.

And now he had his claws in my sister.

Cole’s eyes lit up the second he saw me. Like a fucking puppy seeing its owner. He nudged past Hunter, settling onto the couch with an eagerness that made my stomach turn.

He wanted my approval. Wanted to be close to me. Wanted to prove he belonged.

But I wanted to drag him to the underground club and let my boys work him over until he confessed why the fuck he was still sniffing around Sophia.

But not here.

Not yet.

turned back to the balcony, taking another drag.

“Okay, men.” Ryan’s voice cut through the tension, loud and obnoxious as always. “We need to talk about women.”

I rolled my eyes. Of course we did.

Ryan was my cousin by blood, but I’d disown him if I could. The kid had been handed everything-his slot on this team, his trust fund, his entire fucking life-and still acted like he’d earned it.

My father had only brought him on because Ryan’s mother-my aunt-had begged. Said her son needed a “real opportunity.”

What he needed was a personality transplant..

“So I met this woman,” Ryan continued, leaning forward like he was about to share state secrets. “A very hot-ass woman.”

The guys leaned in, grinning. Someone passed him a joint.

I stayed on the balcony, but I was listening now.

“And I made a bet with her.” Ryan took a hit, exhaling slowly. “It he can’t get the attention of someone in this room, I get to do whatever I want with her. And I mean whatever.”

The room erupted. Guys cheering, slapping Ryan’s back, laughing like he’d just told the funniest joke in the world.

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