Daring the Defender (Wittmore U Hockey #3)

Chapter 8

8

R eid

There’s a certain kind of energy needed for an off campus party and I’m not sure that after confronting my ex, three periods of intense hockey, and a surprise visit from my family, that I’ve got it.

“You want another beer?”

I look down at the girl glued to my side. Mara. She’s a sophomore who has spent the last year working her way into the hockey crowd, and the last few weeks working on me. She’s been next to me since Jeff and I walked through the door when she pressed a cold beer into my hand, attached herself like a parasite, and hasn’t budged since.

“I’m good,” I tell her. Reese has this one drink policy during the season, and I try to stick to it, especially when I feel like doing something stupid, and right now, stupidity is really tempting. If I’m going to do something dumb, I may as well remember it.

“Or,” she leans into me, tits pressed to my side, “if you want a little more privacy, we can head to my room upstairs.”

Jefferson abandoned me fifteen minutes after we walked in the door, a girl on each side. My friend probably has the right idea, there are worse ways to feel better than burying myself into this puck bunny.

Except… I can see it in Mara’s dark brown eyes. She doesn’t want a conquest. She’s looking for a relationship. That’s the curse of being an athlete who is known for monogamy. Every girl looks at you like they could very well be the next WAG.

Sorry, girls, I’m done with serious relationships. Those only happen in fairy tales.

Mara shifts, giving me a view straight down the front of her shirt. Christ.

Fuck it. She wants something and I want something. Why am I overthinking it?

“Why go upstairs?” I place a hand on her backside and urge her closer. There’s no bigger fuckboy move than a little PDA. She grins, seemingly into it, and slings a leg over my hip.

Eye-to-eye she runs a pointed, manicured nail over my bottom lip. “Did you get this in the game?”

“What’s hotter, a busted lip from the game or one from a fight with my roommate?”

She shrugs. “They’re both sexy.”

I pull her closer, wanting to feel the weight of her on top of me. “Sounds like a win-win to me.”

“I’ve heard things about you, Reid Wilder,” she says, kissing her way up my neck.

“Oh yeah? What kind of things?” I wait for the tingle of want. For the urge of desire to take over the dark gloom in my chest.

“That you’re sweet.” she says. “And this is the first time you’ve been single in a while.”

“No lies detected,” I laugh, skimming my fingers along her bare thigh. “Anything else?”

“That you’re normally not the typical fuckboy hockey player that comes to parties like this to hook up, but you’re nursing a broken heart.” Placing her hands on my chest, she grinds down. “Good thing I’m pre-med, I can mend you right up.”

Jesus that feels good, or, well, it should. Her hot pussy is rubbing up and down my cock but other than a half-chub in response, my body isn’t working.

Maybe she’s right. I am broken.

A flicker of an emotion tugs at my gut, but it’s when her lips are inches from mine, and a different face flashes in my mind, that a jolt of regret hits me. “Shit, sorry babe.” I lift her back up. “I don’t think this is going to work.”

“But–”

“Hey, it’s not you.” I stand, adjusting my shorts and grabbing my jacket off the back of the couch. “It is one thousand percent me. You said it. I may be a little bit broken.”

She pouts, but I turn away, not sure why I feel bad for having this girl in my lap, and definitely not sure why the person I thought about while some chick was grinding on my dick was Axel’s little sister.

Yeah, that’s not great.

I pull out my phone and text Jeff, letting him know I’m heading home. He’ll get the text when he comes up for air, whenever that will be.

I take the walk back to campus, feeling the need for some cool air and some sleep. Unfortunately, I walk in the front door of the manor and the first thing I see is Shelby lugging her suitcase down the stairs.

There’s no missing the look of sheer determination on her face. The second? That tight black v-neck tee. Yeah, I knew she had perfect tits hidden under those innocent girl clothes.

Annnnd that sends more blood flow to my cock than anything else tonight.

“Going somewhere?” I ask, shrugging off my hockey jacket and hanging it on the rack by the door.

She lugs the suitcase down to the first floor. “Just moving into the porch.”

“That porch?” I look over my shoulder to the musty room we use to store everything we don’t want to deal with. “That porch is cold and gross and I think there may be spiders.”

“I cleaned it up,” she says proudly. “At least I tried to.”

I take the suitcase from her, lifting it by the handle, and I follow her to the porch. It’s chilly, but it is a lot cleaner than before. No cobwebs and the couch has been made into a bed with fresh sheets.

“My plan was to move down here and give my brother his room back,” she explains. “Even if it’s going to be a shorter visit than I planned.”

I frown. “What does that mean?”

“Any idea when he’s coming home?” she asks, avoiding the question and pushing the suitcase deeper into the porch. The hard wheels clack against the tile floor.

No sooner than the question is out of her mouth, Axel and Nadia stumble through the door. Well, Nadia stumbles.

Behind me I hear a soft “eep,” and then a small hand wraps around my wrist and Shelby pulls me into the porch, quietly closing the door.

Looking down at where her hand is wrapped around my wrist I note, “You’re surprisingly strong for someone so small.”

“He can’t see us together,” she says, slowly removing her hand.

“We weren’t together until you dragged me in here,” I point out.

“Shhhhh!” she hisses at me, those big eyes reflecting guilty fear at the two of us being caught together after her brother explicitly forbid it.

I clamp my mouth shut and step behind Shelby, leaning forward to press my ear to the door. My hands are on her shoulders, and her hair smells sweet and clean. Even though I probably shouldn’t, I take a deep inhale.

Fuck, she smells good.

Outside, in the main part of the house, Axel and Nadia aren’t quiet. The refrigerator door opens and slams shut. They laugh and joke together. The sink runs. There’s a long spell of quiet that I’m certain means they’re making out. Finally I hear the echo of footsteps on the stairs.

“Are they gone?” Shelby whispers so low I almost miss it.

“I think s?—”

A rap against the window shakes the glass. “Shel, I see the light on, are you up?”

She cranes her neck and looks up at me. I shrug. She’s right. If her brother catches me in here, I’ll have worse than a bloody lip. I dip my head and whisper in her ear, “Tell him you’re already in bed and you’ll talk in the morning.”

The column of her neck tenses as she swallows but in a wobbly, clearly not used to lying voice, she says, “I’m up, but I’m already in bed. Can we talk in the morning?”

Can we? Fuck no. This girl needs to learn how to assert herself.

“Nadia told me you moved to give me my room back. You know that wasn’t necessary.”

“It’s fine,” she replies. “You know I love to tackle a good project.”

He laughs. “Yeah, you do.” There’s a beat. “You going to be warm enough? I’ve got extra blankets.”

Shelby looks up at me, and there’s no missing the flush in her cheeks. “I’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” Axel relents. “Let’s talk in the morning then. Good night.”

“Night,” she says, but doesn’t exhale until his footsteps retreat and are on the steps.

Once we’re both sure he’s upstairs, I take a step back, giving myself a little room from this sweet smelling girl. I should leave, immediately, but I have questions.

I blink. “I only had one beer at the party, so I know I’m not drunk, but you’re going to need to explain this to me better.”

She peeks out the curtain, like she’s making certain he’s gone. In a low voice she says, “I just don’t think this is where I need to be. There’s no need to disrupt anyone this late at night, but I’m going to let him know tomorrow that I’m going back home.”

Taking her by the shoulder, I spin her around to face me. “Okay, what happened?”

Her big blue eyes dart away. “Nothing happened.”

“You went from cleaning out the porch and moving in to hiding from your brother.” I cross my arms over my chest. “Your notoriously overprotective older brother.” I narrow my eyes. “Nuh-uh. Spill?”

Her hands clasp and she worries that little band on her ring finger. I kind of hate that ring. “Fine. I hung out with Nadia and Twyler tonight at the Badger Den and it was…” she pushes her hair behind her ear, “... a lot.”

Nadia took this innocent good girl out to a bar? During hockey season? Say no more. “So they popped your hockey bar cherry.”

“Ugh,” she drops her face into her hands, “do all of you have dirty mouths?”

“Probably. And for the record,” I grin, “that wasn’t even close to dirty.”

“That doesn’t make it any better. It just proves how out of place I am. I’m just not used to all this...” She pulls at her shirt. “The tight clothes, which by the way, I think belonged to someone called a puck bunny. And Nadia’s language is filthy–”

“Nadia has spent a lot of time around athletes. Same with Twyler. It comes with the territory.”

“All I know is that coming here was a mistake.”

“Why? Because a few cuss words and that sexy shirt are an affront to your good girl sensibilities?”

She stares at me. “Don’t call me that.”

My eyebrows raise. “A good girl?”

“I think I lost that title when I ran away and hurt both David and my family. I made a commitment to him and then panicked when I felt like things were moving too fast. But coming here isn’t the answer. I don’t know what I thought would happen by coming here, but I know for certain that getting cornered by some guy at a bar wasn’t–”

“You got what?” I ask, voice tight. “By who at the bar?”

“Oh.” Guilt flickers across her face again. “Some jerk at the bar got a little too close. Mike helped me.”

“Mike the owner?” We all know Mike. He’s a solid guy. Former Wittmore player, class of ‘91.

“Yeah.” She absently tugs at that shirt again, giving me a flash of upper boob. Jesus. It’s no surprise that some kid tried to make a move on her. “He kicked him out.”

“Okay.” I take a deep breath, trying to wrap my head around everything Shelby is saying. I gesture to the couch, “Sit.”

She does as she’s told, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. Where’s the fight in this girl?

“Why did you leave home?”

She makes a face, like she’d tasted something bitter. “Things were moving too fast. My mother and David’s mother skipped right over the engagement party to the wedding. They’d picked everything out; the date, the colors, even my wedding dress. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I found out that my father had plans to build us a house. Plans he chose. On property he picked out. Everything just felt really out of control.” She rubs a hand over her chest. “Out of my control for sure.”

“That makes sense.” Darla and I’d started making plans for our future. It was scary but exciting and I thought we both wanted the same thing, until it turned out that we didn’t.

“And David? You still love him?”

There’s a flicker in her eye, followed by the slightest hesitation, but ultimately she answers, “I do, but he seems perfectly content to have our families manage our lives.”

Oh, David. You stupid dumbass. “Okay, tell me why you came here?”

“I didn’t really have anywhere else to go. Everyone I know is associated with my family. But I knew Axel would at least listen to me. He and my parents haven’t seen eye to eye in a long time.”

“That’s all?”

She thinks for a minute, then adds, “I guess I kind of wanted to see what his life was like. I’d heard about it all, but I didn’t know what it was really like to go to college, play a varsity sport, have a girlfriend that he can spend time with without a chaperone.” She stares down at her knees. “I guess I just wanted to know what it was like to have the freedom of no one watching all the time, or judging every little move I make.”

“You know what I think?” I ask.

“No, what?”

“I think you’re pretty fu -freaking brave. And smart. Because it would be easy to just keep barreling down the same path even with all the red flags waving in front of your face.” Trust me. Been there, done that. There were a million signs me and Darla weren’t going to work and I ignored them all, looking for some kind of ideal. “Giving yourself a little time to experience life is smart.”

“Thank you, Reid. I appreciate it, but after tonight I think I’m done.”

I take the way she pushes her hair over her shoulder as a sign of resolve, which is oddly why I blurt, “Actually, I don’t think you are.”

“Excuse me? What does that mean?”

“It means you came here for a reason. You want to experience life a little bit, and I think it’s a good idea.” I sit next to her, the old couch sagging under my weight. “Look, my girlfriend and I broke up a few months ago. We had long term plans, too.”

“You were engaged?” Her eyes widen with surprise. “Seriously?”

“Not quite engaged,” I admit, feeling stupid all over again, “but we talked rings and dates. I thought it was happening, but apparently she had other ideas.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, it sucked.” I exhale, not liking the way the hurt still lingers in my chest. “And honestly, it was a little scary, but it made me realize I’m not ready for something so serious. I’m young, good looking,” I raise an eyebrow, “and have a future in the NHL. I need to live my life a little and that may mean that I may not be a saint, but I won’t have regrets. I think that’s what you need to consider doing with the time you’ll be here.”

“Live my best life?”

“Yep.”

She looks at me with those big blue eyes, doubt creeping in at the edges. “What if I don’t know how to do that?”

That’s how it happens. How I get locked in. Because you never issue a competitor like me a challenge that I’m going to pass up. Especially when it’s a vulnerable, messy, hot girl making the offer. My decision is sealed before I ever say the words, “Then I guess I’ll have to show you.”