Daring the Defender (Wittmore U Hockey #3)

Chapter 4

4

R eid

I’ve woken up with a boner every morning of my life since I hit puberty. It’s a sensation as familiar as stepping onto the ice, or the sound of a puck bouncing off the boards. As are the dreams that come with it–deep, ball-squeezing fantasies featuring whatever woman my subconscious conjured up. A few had recurring roles. The older babysitter three doors down showed up after seeing her sunbathe in a bikini in her backyard. My math teacher, Mrs. Walsh, was another, primarily due to the fact she had enormous tits and wore a tight sweater dress every fucking day. There were others; actresses, models, musicians–most recently Ingrid Flockton who seems to be everywhere with her guitar, long legs, and ever present cowboy boots.

But my best friend’s little sister?

That’s a first.

Shelby’s face and body are the last thing I see before the alarm jolts me awake, but it’s the memory of her weight, her thighs straddling mine, and the feel of her ass in my hands that has me rolling over and driving my cock painfully into the mattress.

Shelby Rakestraw showing up on our doorstep when I was home, intentionally avoiding females, is some epic-level irony. Showed up and kissed me. Some guys would call that luck, but that’s not what I felt when Axel sucker-punched me. Or currently, when all the blood in my body has rushed to my balls. I roll over to release some pressure, but that’s futile. Gripping the base of my shaft, I cave, and give it a long stroke.

It feels like I’m tempting fate and asking for another busted lip. Unfortunately, Axel can keep me away from his sister, but he can’t stop my subconscious from fantasizing. I don’t know what it was about her that got me hard two seconds after she climbed in my lap. The innocent good girl vibe? Those pouty, hot, naive lips. The feel of her body bearing down on my dick? I’d kept my wits–but if he hadn’t walked in, would I have stopped?

An image of me coming on her chest pops into my head and a second later, I groan, unable to stop the clench in my balls and the following orgasm.

Shit. My chest rises and falls as cum spills over my fist.

Axel’s right. I need to stay the hell away from Shelby. My goal for the rest of the year–the rest of my life–is for my relationships with women to be easy. And Shelby Rakestraw, for all her innocence, has complicated written all over her.

Syncing my phone to the speakers, I turn on my morning workout playlist, letting the music fill the weight room.

“Partner up?” Jefferson asks. His eyes are bleary, but he heads straight to the free weights to start his routine.

“Sure.” I grimace, feeling the bruise in my jaw. Jeff notices and his eyebrow raises. “Who the heck did you piss off last night? Someone’s boyfriend?”

“Not quite.” Although it does make me wonder what Shelby’s boyfriend or fiance or whatever would have thought about last night. “Someone’s big brother.”

He howls with laughter and my eyes dart across the room at the big brother in question in the middle of a set of pull-ups. His tattoos and cut muscles make him look like a beast. He is a beast and I know the busted lip could’ve been a lot worse.

“Wait,” Jeff says, the pieces slowly clicking into place. “Axel?” He blinks. “His sister? The virgin?” His voice lowers. “Did you fuck her?”

I wince, because that virgin thing is just speculation from things Ax has said about his family. “Dude, shut up unless you want a matching bruise.” Making sure no one is listening, I add, “No. It was just a miscommunication.”

A miscommunication? Is that what happened when she stuck her tongue in my mouth? Yeah, I don’t think so.

“Morning.” Reese strides into the room, thankfully getting me out of this conversation. He claps his hands together and announces, “Let’s get going!”

At the front of the room, our team leader fusses with the tape wrapped around his wrist. We’ve been friends and roommates for three years, and I’m lucky as hell we ended up on the same team. He’s a powerhouse–our center forward–headed to an early pick in the draft. Like me, he dated the same girl for a long time, then entered his slut-phase. Unlike me, his only lasted a few months before he fell hard for our former athletic trainer, Twyler. He’s tall, broad-shouldered, has a chiseled jaw like a Marvel superhero, and is an all-around good guy. He’s also captain of the team, but it’s the attitude that makes Jefferson jokingly call him Captain America. “Coach wants everyone to do a full series using your personalized training program then we’ll suit up for some cardio. We’re playing Eastman this weekend, and although we’re no longer undefeated, we’re in contention for the finals.”

His statement is followed by a groan, but Reese is right. Eastman is notorious for having unprecedented conditioning. They may not have the best forwards, but they make up for it with sheer stamina, able to keep going long after other teams have exhausted themselves.

“Is anyone else okay with the fact we lost our undefeated status?” Kirby asks, adding weights to the end of a bench press.

“I’m good with it.” Murphy lies on the bench underneath, arms stretched over his head, preparing to lift. “I couldn’t take another minute of Axel’s porn ‘stache.”

“It started to look like a squirrel was sleeping on his upper lip.” Kirby shudders. “Hey, Cap!” Reese looks up. “From now on, can all superstitions need to be voted on by the team?”

Axel drops off the pull-up bar and gives Kirby a dirty look. He wore that mustache the entire time we were undefeated. It was both hilarious and disturbing.

“If we’re voting on anything, it needs to be on music selection,” Axel says, the ring in his eyebrow glinting in the overhead light. “Who gave Wilder unilateral control?”

“The music gods,” I reply, smugly. “I have a gift for making the perfect playlist.”

He looks up to the speakers just as the song shifts from something with an electronic beat to something more pop. “You think this garbage is perfect?”

“Hey,” Jefferson calls out, “I like this song.”

We all roll our eyes. Jefferson has a notorious love of pop music–especially Ingrid Flockton. Which look, every guy, and some girls, of a certain age has had a crush on her. She’s about our age and we grew up listening to her. But in the last year, she’s grown from teen sensation to legit pop-star and gone from cute to an absolute knockout.

“You know who else likes this song?” Jefferson says, eyeing me. “Darla. I saw her dancing to it last night at the Kappa party.”

“Oh yeah?” I say, feigning disinterest in my ex. “Good for her.”

He’s testing me–waiting to see how I’ll respond to the fact my ex was at a frat party on Valentine’s Day. Darla and I dated since freshman year, and yeah, we fought a lot–mostly about stupid stuff. She’s bossy. I’m more laid back. She’s super organized. I’m a mess. I was in it for the long haul, but it turns out she wasn’t. Now I’m a single man.

I lift the weight over my head and focus on Ingrid’s voice, the song’s lyrics are about kicking her ex’s ass and taking names. No wonder Darla was dancing last night, probably on my theoretical grave.

I’m mid lift when the music suddenly shuts off.

“Hey!” Jefferson shouts.

When I look over, Axel is next to the speaker, his tattooed arms crossed over his chest. He glares out at the room. “Listen up. I have an announcement to make.”

I rack the bar and move to a sitting position, pretty sure I know where this announcement is going.

“My sister, Shelby, is in town for a few weeks. My younger , sweet, inexperienced, sister. She’ll be staying at the Manor which means she’ll be around some.” He makes eye contact with every guy in the room. “She’s going through some shit back home and the last thing she needs is some horny, cunt-stunned, hockey player messing with her.” His green eyes flick to mine, then away. “Understood?”

A chorus of voices agree, even though they don’t exactly know who Shelby is or what he’s talking about. Sisters are off limits. It’s a standard rule. I have my own sisters and get it. Which is why I’m not only a jerk for kissing her last night, but for rubbing one off thinking about her this morning, too.

Reese steps next to Axel. “I expect everyone to be welcoming to Ax’s sister and to be a gentleman. Treat her like your own sister–”

“Or I’ll break your face,” Axel interjects, this time he lets his gaze linger on me and he cracks a grin. “Not your fingers. You need those to win the championship.”

Reese claps, tells everyone to finish our reps and get suited up for cardio on the ice. The guys file out of the room, but I hold back and call out to Axel.

“Got a minute?”

He frowns, looking down at my busted lip. “One. What?”

“What did you mean by inexperienced?” It’s pretty obvious she’s a virgin but…

“I mean, completely inexperienced. I doubt she’s ever been kissed.” He grimaces. “Not thoroughly. Not by that dweeb, David Jones, that’s for sure.”

Well, she hadn’t been, but even with the bruised lip, my lips tingle at the thought of her mouth on mine.

“Shit,” I wince. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t know.”

“I know.” He sighs, running his hands through his hair, and his shoulders sag unexpectedly. “It’s not what I want for her–this closed off, sheltered life that my parents built for her. I’ve tried to convince her to want more, but she was raised with these ideals on purity and marriage and she bought into them, hook, line, and sinker.”

“What about you?” I ask, pulling off my weight lifting gloves. “Because you’re sure as hell nothing like that.”

“God no. It just didn’t take. I saw through the bullshit immediately, but Shelby? She wants to believe in it, or she always has. That’s why it’s a surprise she’s here.” He rubs the back of his neck. “Something in her woke up, but I doubt it will stick. Probably last minute jitters. She can stay for a bit, but it’s my plan to return her back home untouched. From there she can figure out what she wants to do with her life, but I’m not letting her get hurt on my watch, or do anything she’ll regret.”

“That makes sense.”

“This is the first time she’s done something rebellious, but the thing about living in a house like ours, is that we’re raised to think there are severe consequences for our actions. She’s not going to wake up with remorse. She’s going to feel guilt. The kind that eats you from the inside. She didn’t just do something stupid with you, dude, she committed a sin , and I have no idea how she’s going to react to that.”

It’s then that I realize how much I’ve screwed up. Axel isn’t just pissed I fooled around with his sister. He’s pissed that I took something from her. Something you can only give away once. Fuck, I’m more of a dick than I realized.

No more thinking about Shelby Rakestraw. Starting now.

How hard can it be?