Page 24 of Your Kiss Is On My List

TREY

Nate and I arrive home late after our road trip. We only traveled to Boston, but by the time we wrap up press coverage and take the two-hour bus ride, it’s past midnight. I collapse into bed and Nate sits in the throne-chair, an oversized recliner more comfortable than it is ugly, which is fucking extreme.

Dani, Dooley, Heather, Emily, Shelby, and Bane barge into my room, high on whiskey and life and the fact that we’re still on holiday break for one more day.

Dooley passes Nate the open bottle of JD and he swigs a healthy shot’s worth then hands the bottle off to me. Flashes of insight barrage through my head, beginning with Coach’s warning and ending with Dani staring me in the face in all her hot energetic glory. Is there such thing as Big V energy? How it all adds up to me sitting up, grabbing the bottle, and downing well more than is advisable after sweating through a game, I don’t know.

Or maybe I do know. I’m staring at her.

“Let’s stay up all night,” she says and I’m wondering how much whiskey she’s had. I don’t have any idea if she’s a drinker, but Lou never mentioned it. She was always someone who liked to be under control.

“Go for it, “I say, testing her. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“That’s just the whiskey talking,” she says, laughing at me as I lie back on my bed and close my eyes.

“Whiskey and hockey. Makes for a good long night’s sleep.” I feel her nudge my leg and I wish the room was empty, that we were alone, because I have it in my head now that I’d like to test her resolve about staying up all night, about keeping me awake, and I’m wondering how far she’d go—

“Here it is,” Nate says. I open my eyes to see him pulling my emergency stash of good whiskey from the freezer. “I knew you had the good stuff.” It’s a bottle of 1792 Full Proof Bourbon my dad got for me after we lost early in the NCAA championship last year—and when I say early, I mean we never even made it to the playoffs, which sucked. Our hockey program has a fucking ridiculous history and it’s a lot to live up to.

“I’ve been saving that to celebrate winning the Frozen Four,” I say. I’m not telling him not to drink it, but he shoves it back into the freezer with a nod.

“Good plan. I didn’t need more than one swig of the other stuff to put me to sleep anyway,” he says and heads for the door. Halle-fucking-lujah. I give Dooley a look that suggests he ought to leave too and he gets it.

“And I thought hockey players had stamina,” Dooley says. Heather giggles and Emily mutters something under her breath.

“Let’s let this old dog sleep,” Shelby says, wrapping his arms around Heather and Emily and ushering them to the door. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was on his way to a threesome. But I know those girls and I know Shelby. Not fucking likely.

Meanwhile it’s me and my filthy mind that goes there because I’m sex starved and I can’t do a fucking thing about it. Dani leans over me, a sultry smile full of all kinds of promise short-circuits my brain. Maybe I can do something about it.

I reach up and cup her cheek. She stills, hovering over me, close, her lips quivering. Need pulses strong between us. It’s not my fucking imagination.

“When’s Lou coming up for a visit?” Bane asks, flopping in the chair and breaking that sensual connection between me and Dani with a shattering blow like he just slapped me in the face with reality. Dani is Lou’s best friend, like a kid sister to me. What the hell am I thinking?

Pushing her back, I sit up, rub a hand across the stubble of my chin, and drill Bane with my eyes.

“It doesn’t fucking matter when Lou is fucking visiting next because you are having nothing to do with her. She’s fucking off-limits to you and any other asshole in this house who has ideas. Got that?”

“Whoa there, Sheriff. Take it easy. Don’t shoot. I was just asking, I wasn’t going to—I mean I don’t have any—shit. I just think she’s fun is all.” I narrow my eyes at him.

“Fucking liar. You think she’s hot.”

“She is hot,” Dani says. “And she’s a big girl now, Trey. You can’t keep her protected from every guy you don’t think is right for her.” She puts her hand on my shoulder and I turn to her automatically like a tree leaning into the sun. My heart’s racing and I don’t know if it’s her words or her touch or her nearness or my juiced-up dick wanting something it can’t have causing the crazy beating, but I take a deep breath to slow it down.

“She’s right,” Bane says and he puts his hands up when I scowl at him. “Not because I have interest—”

“Which you do. Admit it,” I say.

“Okay, I told you. I like her and she’s… gorgeous—but more than that.”

“No. You’re too old for her,” I insist, refusing to wrap my mind around Bane and Lou. He laughs.

“Same age difference as you and Dani.”

My head explodes and I’m about to rip him apart, tensing to jump from my bed, when Dani grips my arm, reminding me we have this fake arrangement. Fuck. I grit my teeth.

“She’d never go for you. You don’t play hockey,” I say.

He laughs again, with more enthusiasm because let’s face it—that was a laughable thing to say. Even Dani lets a snicker escape.