Read Online Complete Harmony by Julia Kent - Free Book Online

could look like an ogre’s pet boar for all it mattered.
    She was Josie.
    And they would have babies.
    He walked to her, and plunked down on the ground, and put on his skates, the toes pinching a bit, making his feet feel swollen, but for an hour on the ice he could suffer. His ankles would take a beating, and his old failed ice hockey seasons—all of two, in middle school—gave him enough muscle memory to manage this.
    Standing carefully, Jo sie balanced well and impressed him as she glided on the ice, taking care. Her ankles wobbled and she caught the toe of one ice skate on a bump in the very uneven ice, but soon was skating with decent control. Not circles or triple axles, but she could move with a level of grace that surprised him.
    She could always surprise him.
    His turn. Being well over six feet, close to seven, meant his center of gravity was far different than hers. BAM! His ass cracked hard against the ice, the moon laughing at him as he looked up.
    The snick snick snick of Josie’s skates on the ice told him she was coming to his rescue. Or something like that. Her pe t ite form couldn’t possibly pull him up w i thout the two of them wrecking each other in a painful pileup.
    “You need to talk to Professor X again,” she said, her face over his now, grinning. The moon spilled light over the back of her body, framing it like an aura.
    “Why?”
    “That superpower of yours needs to include better ankles.”
    He slipped and slid, finally giving up and turning over onto all fours, ass in the air as Josie dissolved into giggles. Aching move by aching move, he toed his skates and pulled up to standing. He felt like a toddler wrapped in bubble wrap, trying to run.
    Those two failed seasons o f ice hockey came back to him. They had been a failure precisely because of this.
    He couldn’t skate w orth a damn.
    At indoor ice rinks he could cling to the wall for help, but out on the open ice his only option was Josie, and he’d snap her like a twig if he used her to balance on.
    CRACK! He was down again, helpless, like a turtle on its back. Alex wasn’t accustomed to this sense of impossibility. The ice was defeating him, and a simple matter of physics ought to have allowed him to figure this out. Millions of people, from tiny toddlers to elderly folks, could ice skate. Why on earth was this eluding him?
    “You’re too big.”
    “That’s what she said,” he joked.
    Josie rolled her eyes as she looked down at him, then glided away. “Dr. Perfect isn’t so perfect at something,” she teased, her voice floating through the still night.
    He blinked for what felt like one long minute, and then began to crawl to shore, her laughter twink l ing like the stars.
    When he reached the snow, he sat and watched her as he took off his skates, her face luminous, her body in rare form. Controlled. Hesitant and cautious until she got it right. But skating with abandon, navigating the new and uncomfortable, the ice as nature intended.
    Pausing, he took her in, legs taut as she made a turn, her mind and body in complete harmony.
    In that moment, he realized, he had no choice. The universe had made it for him. She carried his heart with her, encased inside, and whatever remained of his natural life was hers, and only hers.
    The moon seemed to glow a little brighter, as if agreeing.

Dylan
    If men could have PMS, then lately, Mike was the poster child for whatever drug the pharmaceutical companies would debut for it. Fucking hell. His moods had always been erratic, even as he used medication to chill.
    That, and running until he destroyed a pair of shoes in six weeks. Too many miles.
    Not that Dylan couldn’t keep up. If he wanted to. But why destroy muscle when you could lift and bulk up?  
    He thought about the gym. Hadn’t been there in forever. Same with the old firehouse. The grapevine told him Murphy’s wife was on the mend, and those volunteer shifts he’d grabbed for a while ended once Jillian was born. You stay