Save Your Breath (Kings of the Ice, #4)

by Kandi Steiner

“Ich liebe di so wie du bisch.”

“If you ever bag Liv, I promise you, I will literally get on my hands and knees and kiss your feet,” Vince said.

It wasn’t unusual for me to have butterflies any time I knew I was going to be in the same place as my best friend.

“Mia, I’ve listened to every album you’ve ever released, front to back, at least a hundred times.”

“I’m just a girl with a guitar,” she breathes quietly.

“And I’m just a boy with a stick,” I say, daring to move an inch closer. “But I bet we can rule the world one day, Strings. I bet everyone will know our names.”

I hope I’m playing it cool as I run my knuckles down Mia’s arm, hope I look cocky like she said and not like the scared kid I really am.

“Don’t let them steal your pen when you’re just getting to the good part.”

Fuck, I was so gone for her. The realization hit me as if it hadn’t always been a present fact in my life, as if my ignoring it for years could do anything to erase it.

If only Charlie knew the lengths I’d gone to to keep my promises to him over the years, how I’d resisted his daughter in the most tempting moment of my young adult life.

Hell if I wasn’t going to make the most of the short period of time where I could touch her, hold her, kiss her, and pretend she was mine.

Past that, what did I have to offer? Nothing.

Could I ever tell her I bought that piano for her, just in case she ever came to see me, just in case she ever needed to play?

I swallowed, thinking about the time I booked a flight to L.A. with all the intentions in the world to tell Mia how I felt about her.

knew no matter what happened next between us, no matter who he dated or who I married or where our careers took us — I would always be able to close my eyes and see him.

How would I ever fall in love with anyone else when I knew my heart would always belong to him?

“Save your breath, Strings,”

I wanted her so badly, I’d risk being her mistake.

“To let me do more than just kiss you,” I clarified, sucking in a breath through my nose as my hand traveled down, fingertips tracing her jaw, her chin, until I splayed my hand over her neck and curled my fingers around it. “To let me ruin you in every way I’ve ever imagined.”

I gave into him with that breath, and he seemed to claim me with his.

It was a mouth so demanding and dominant I knew I’d never really been kissed by Aleks before — not like this.

It was surrender and assassination in tandem. He wanted to ruin me. I was desperate to be ruined.

“Tell me I can do anything I want.” “I’m yours.” And I was. I always had been.

Filthy. Degrading. Addicting. I wanted more. “You’re so full of yourself,” I said breathlessly, the bite of my rebuttal weak.

“You’ll be full of me soon, too.”

“No, I want this. I just…” I squeezed my eyes shut. I just… what? Think I might love you? Think I maybe always have? Think this might actually fucking ruin me forever?

“Shut up and watch me take my clothes off.”

We were being silly, toying with one another like we always did. We were still… us.

Fucking Mia was better than any high I’d ever experienced. It was better than a fist fight on the ice, better than scoring a goal, better than winning the Stanley Cup. It was everything.

“Because there’s nothing fake about the way I love you.”

I have always been so proud to call you my son, even if you weren’t technically family. Now, you will be.”

tonight. It felt like the end of one season in my life and the promise of another on its heels.