Chapter 10
MATT
Damn, she was so pretty. When she gave me that sunny smile, it was like her whole face lit up despite the dim lights of the bar. Her hair was in those loose waves chicks always put it in, and I wanted to slide my hands through her dark locks while I kissed her senseless.
Get it together, Callahan! Off-limits!
“Matt?” Maddie’s voice came from far away, and I looked up at her in question. She stared at me with her cute little nose scrunched up like when she was thinking too hard. “Did you hear anything I said?”
I rubbed my jaw. “Sorry. A lot on my mind.”
“Tell me,” she urged.
I huffed out a frustrated breath.
I was still worried about fighting for my spot on the team. Getting benched was a wake-up call. I’d been training with my teammates, watching video, and studying our plays as much as I could. The goal last night was my first of the season, and it felt like I wasn’t playing to my potential.
“You don’t want to hear about it,” I told her.
“Yes, I do.”
I pinned her with a disbelieving look. “No, you don’t. You won’t get it.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, but that made me notice her lacy bra peeking out beneath her cleavage. Good God, hanging with her made it harder to resist temptation. “I’m also a hockey player. Talk to me. What’s going on?”
“Normal worries that I’m not good enough.”
“You play in the big leagues. You scored that awesome goal last night. Matt…” She bit her lip and paused for a moment.
“What?”
“It was hot.”
I furrowed my brow. “What?”
“Watching you make that backdoor goal!” she exclaimed a little too loudly, and some people looked at us with curious glances. Hockey lingo was so weird to those not in the community. “It was such a beauty of a goal. So yes, I was partly jealous of the goal, but also kinda horny about it.”
My throat felt thick at her words. She was not saying watching me score a goal made her horny. Nope, definitely not what she was saying at all.
“Maddie,” I warned.
She gave me an innocent grin and took another sip of her beer. Innocent my ass, this girl was trouble for me, and she knew it.
I cleared my throat. “So anyway…do you still need your wingman?”
Her smile faltered so slightly, I barely would have noticed it had I not been staring intently at her glossy lips. “Yeah.”
I glanced around the room for a suitable guy. Not the guys in backwards hats making a lot of noise at the dartboard. Not the frat bros having a chugging competition either. There was a guy a few tables away with a bushy beard and glasses. He looked nice.
I nodded my head to the guy in question. “What about him?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Pass.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“I don’t like beards. Or nerds.”
“Glasses don’t mean he’s a nerd.”
She lifted one shoulder apathetically. “It would be like kissing my brother. Gross.”
“So what’s your ideal guy, then?”
She set down her beer and chewed on her lip in thought. “I love the clean-cut look. Maybe tall with dark hair that looks like he rolled out of bed, but he actually spent a long time styling it. Maybe he’s great at hockey.”
I gulped and tried to ignore that she was describing me. From the naughty smile playing across her pretty lips, I couldn’t tell if she meant it or if she was messing with me.
She put a hand on her cheek and sighed. “I’m not interested in any of these guys.”
“Okay. Want to hit up a different bar? Or find another party?”
“I want to head back to my dorm.”
I nodded. The server came back around to ask if we wanted a refill on our beers, but I asked her for the check. She brought it back a couple minutes later, and I snatched it before Maddie could. I hid my grin at her pout.
“I said I’d buy you a drink,” she argued.
“No way, sweet pea. I got this.”
She groaned. “Fine. Do you want to hang out? Watch a movie?”
There was a hopeful look in her eye that should have made me suspicious.
“Do you want to hang out?” I slid my credit card onto the table and left it waiting for the server to come grab it while we finished our beers.
“Sure. Aren’t we friends?” Maddie asked, that bright smile of hers returning.
“Are we?”
I wouldn’t say we were friends, especially when I found out she moved to Philly and she looked like she wanted nothing to do with me. Although we had been chatting since I promised to help her with ‘operation lose it’ as she called it.
She frowned. “I thought we were.”
“We’re getting there,” I teased.
She slapped my arm. “Then come hang out with me! It’ll be fun. Then you don’t have to go back to the awkwardness at my brother’s.”
I shuddered. It was pretty obvious what had been going on when I came home. Noah had looked embarrassed, but Dinah laughed her ass off. That lady did not give a single fuck about anything.
I was sure my unease was painted across my face because Maddie’s laughter rang out through the bar again.
I couldn’t help the way her bubbly laughter made my lips upturn in a smile. Or how the way she looked at me made me want to forget the fact I lived with her brother.
“You’re not gonna make me watch a chick flick?” I teased after I finished my beer.
“First of all, sexist! Second of all, no. I prefer cheesy action flicks.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“If The Rock’s in it, I’m in!”
“Really?”
“Yes. He can get it.”
I laughed again, and she gave me a teasing smile. God, that smile. I needed to stop feeling like it was for me. Our server dropped off my credit card. I hadn’t noticed she picked it up, having gotten lost in the conversation with Maddie.
I picked up my card and signed my name. I gave the server a nice tip. She had been good, and I always tipped well.
“Okay Action Queen, let’s roll.”
I grabbed our jackets and helped her into hers. I untucked her hair out of the collar once she had it on, and she gave me a shy smile in thanks. I pulled my jacket on, and we walked out of the bar together. She didn’t link our arms together like she had on the walk in, and part of me was bummed about that.
I was so screwed when it came to Maddie Kennedy. She had me wrapped around her little finger. I had no business going back to her dorm room with her. Red flashing lights were shining in my head, but I didn’t want to stop hanging out with her or talking to her.
We walked toward her dorm, and she scanned her ID to unlock the door. I held it open for her and let her go inside first. I followed her through the lobby and onto the elevator, where we went up to her floor.
It was a bad idea to come upstairs with her, but the truth was, I liked Maddie. A lot. I hadn’t stopped thinking about her since our hook-up at Noah’s wedding. When she helped me with the ad spot, it shone a different light on her. Maddie was smart and kind, and the more I hung out with her, the more I wanted to get to know her better. We had been texting a lot, and I’d gone with her to parties twice already, but none of the guys she told me she was interested in could measure up. They weren’t worthy of this beacon of sunshine.
She unlocked the door to her suite and led me through a small hallway, then through another door where a small room held a twin bed and a desk across from it. She toed off her shoes, and I repeated the action.
“You can sit on the bed. Sorry, I know my room’s small,” she said with an apologetic smile.
“I’m surprised you don’t have to share a room. I thought that’s what all colleges were like.”
“It surprised me too. I think the first-year dorms are like that, but I’m in the four-year house since I’m an international student.”
“I always forget you’re Canadian,” I said as I climbed onto her loft-style bed.
“Why? Because I’m not a Canadian stereotype like my brother, who says ‘eh’ like every other word?”
I grinned at her.
“Ass.” She shed the outer white and blue plaid shirt she was wearing and grabbed something from her dresser. “I’ll be right back.”
I sat on her bed, leaned against the wall, and scanned the room. It was neatly organized, but it had little touches of Maddie all over it. Above her desk was a Winnipeg Whitecaps calendar—interesting that it wasn’t a Bulldogs one. Next to it was one of those corkboard things with a spattering of photos pinned up. On her desk was a stack of books, but none of which looked like textbooks. They looked like the books that made up her Instagram profile.
There was one such book lying next to me on the bed. I picked it up and scanned the cover. An oily, muscular man stood behind a woman with his hand wrapped around her throat as he kissed her neck.
Jesus, what was she reading?
“Gimme that!” she shrieked as she came back into the room, now wearing a thin tank top and a pair of leggings that hugged the curves of her thighs. I couldn’t see her ass, but I bet it looked fantastic. I had to tell my dick to settle down at the sight of her comfy attire.
“What kind of books are you reading?” I asked. I turned it over and read the summary on the back. I was sure my eyebrows were at the ceiling at what I read.
She took the book from me and placed it on her desk. “The kinky kind. Don’t judge!”
She walked back to her bedroom door and shut it behind her. Then she found the remote for the small TV that sat on her dresser, and she turned it on. She flipped through until she put on a cheesy action film that she no doubt loved. She climbed up on the bed beside me, her thighs pressed against mine.
“So, are those books like your guilty pleasures?” I asked.
“Nope.”
“No?”
She turned toward me with a fiery fight in her eyes. “No, because I don’t have guilty pleasures. I’m not ashamed of what I read. You can try to shame me for liking books that explore love and sexuality, but you won’t make me feel bad for wanting to read steamy romance novels that give me a happy ending.”
I held up my hands in surrender.
“The world’s such a mess. I like that I have one thing that can comfort me,” she continued.
Damn, she really told me off about that.
“Okay, I get that. Sorry if you thought I was judging you. My mom read a lot of bodice rippers growing up.”
“Nothing wrong with that. Your dad probably got laid a lot. Probably still does.”
“EW! Maddie, what the fuck!”
She belted out her laughter. “You totally walked into that one.”
“I don’t want to be traumatized twice in one day.”
She leaned against me, and as if on instinct, I wrapped my arm around her and let her lean into my chest. “Sorry, that was too easy.”
“And I thought Canadians were nice,” I teased.
“Um, that’s a stereotype. Only my brother’s that way,” she chirped back at me.
This girl. She really could dish it out, and I loved that about her.
“Now, shush, this is the best part!”
She pressed up against me, and I realized I was cuddling her like this was a date. Like we weren’t strictly friends. The feeling of her thighs pressed up against mine was making my hormones work into overdrive. I needed to get a grip.
I wasn’t paying attention to the movie, and I barely registered the not-subtle way she slid her hand into mine.
I was so totally fucked. You never slept with your teammate’s sister, but I was pretty sure that was exactly what I was going to do.
Fuck me.