All Chapters of Breaking The Ice Between Us: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Logan POVShe’s staring at me like she’s waiting for me to finally tell the truth.I don’t.I tell her something safer.“I’m not built for relationships,” I say. “You know that.”Her mouth presses into a thin line. “Funny. You seemed pretty built for what happened in your bed.”The memory hits like a body check.Her skin under my hands.The way she said my name like it meant something dangerous.The way she looked at me afterward, like she was already bracing for impact.I swallow. “That was… different.”She laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “That’s the problem. You keep saying that like it makes it better.”“I’m not saying it didn’t matter.”“Then what are you saying?” she asks.I hesitate.Too long.Her eyes sharpen. “You’re saying you don’t want it to matter.”“That’s not—”“Logan.” Her voice drops. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to let someone touch you the way I let you touch me?”My chest tightens.“I didn’t plan for it,” she continues. “I didn’t wake up thinking, you kn

Harper POVThe lecture hall feels too small.Too warm. Too loud. Too full of people who have no idea my entire nervous system is still in recovery mode.I take my seat in the second row like I always do, notebook out, pen aligned, posture straight. If I look normal enough, maybe I’ll feel normal.I don’t.I can feel him before I see him.That awareness hits first—like my skin has learned a new language overnight and now it only speaks Logan.The chair three rows back scrapes.My shoulders tense.I don’t turn around.I don’t need to.I know it’s him.Class starts. Professor Keene launches into something about market elasticity, and I write it down like my life depends on it. My handwriting is a little sharper than usual. My jaw is a little tighter.I tell myself I don’t care that he’s behind me.Another lie.For fifty minutes, I pretend he’s not there.I almost succeed.When class ends, the room erupts into the usual chaos—bags zipping, chairs scraping, people already half in conversat

Harper POVMy room smells like vanilla and printer ink.It’s the quiet, comforting kind of chaos—textbooks stacked too high on my desk, my laptop open to a half-finished budget spreadsheet, a legal pad full of notes for the auction meeting tomorrow. The glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling are faint in the late afternoon light, barely visible, but they’re still there—tiny reminders of a girl who used to need them.I’m trying to focus.I really am.But my brain keeps drifting to the same unhelpful places.Logan’s mouth.Logan’s hands.Logan’s stupid, confused, frustrating face in the lecture hall when I snapped at him.They say sex changes things, I think bitterly. Yeah. No kidding.Because it changed everything for me.It didn’t make things easier or clearer. It didn’t turn us into some rom-com couple who suddenly knows what they’re doing. It just… complicated it. Deepened it. Made every interaction feel loaded and sharp and personal in a way I didn’t ask for.I hate that part the mos

Logan POVMy room is too quiet.That’s the first thing I notice after Harper leaves.Not the door closing. Not the echo of her footsteps on the stairs. The quiet.The kind that presses in on your ears and makes your thoughts louder.I sit on the edge of my bed and stare at the floor like it might explain how the hell my life went sideways in under twenty-four hours.She didn’t cry.That’s worse.Harper Lane doesn’t cry. She locks things away. Builds walls. Gets cold and precise and distant.Which means I didn’t just hurt her.I changed how she sees me.That realization sits in my chest like a brick.I reach for my phone, then stop.What am I going to say?Sorry I’m emotionally defective?Sorry I don’t know how to want someone without panicking?Sorry I keep proving every bad assumption you ever had about me?I drop the phone back onto the mattress.A knock sounds on my door—then it opens without waiting.Cole.Of course it’s Cole.“Go bother someone else,” I mutter without looking up.

Cole POVI see her before she sees me.She’s walking across the quad with a stack of folders pressed to her chest, ponytail swinging, steps quick and purposeful like she’s got somewhere important to be and zero patience for the world.Which tracks.Harper Lane always looks like she’s holding herself together with willpower and color-coded schedules.Today, though?Today she looks… thinner somehow. Not physically. Emotionally. Like someone took a little shine off her.Her shoulders are tight. Her mouth is set in that polite-not-okay line. And there’s something in her eyes that makes my chest pinch.Yeah.Logan did a number on her.I angle off the path and fall into step beside her. “You’re going to walk straight into a pole if you keep staring at those papers like they owe you money.”She startles, then looks over.“Oh. Hi, Cole.”Not angry. Not cold.Just… tired.“How’s the kingdom?” I ask. “Still standing?”She gives me a small smile. “Barely. The auction has turned into a full-scale