Playing for Keeps: A Brother’s Best Friend Hockey Romance (Hot Jocks Book 1)

Ishould be paying attention to the conversation around me. I should be listening like the good friend I am, and contributing at all the right moments. Instead?

I’m hyper aware of the man seated next to me. Justin is on my right, and I can’t seem to stop my eyes from drifting that way every few minutes or so. I’m aware of every breath, every tiny movement. He’s doing nothing more than sitting beside me nursing a bottle of imported beer, yet I’m enthralled.

His upper lip is fuller than the lower, and I’m not sure why I’ve never noticed that before, but all I want to do is nibble on his gorgeous lips, and gah! It’s distracting. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me, but I’ve never felt this way before.

During the season, most of the guys seem to forget how to shave. Justin hasn’t, but it does seem to become more sporadic based on the delicious five o’clock shadow dusting his defined jaw. His eyes are the color of the ocean at sunset, and when they meet mine, a jolt of awareness skates through me.

I want him tonight.

Justin looks away, glancing over at Teddy who’s in the middle of a story about the rookie player named Morgan and a killer play they made last weekend. But I’m left with the warmth of his big body beside mine and his lingering scent that fills me with every happy memory and safe feeling from my adolescence. I don’t hate it. Not even a little bit.

I feel his hand touch my knee under the table and I’m almost surprised when I don’t jump out of my seat. A knowing smile twitches on Justin’s lips. He must know the effect he has on me. The smug bastard. I want to give him a taste of his own medicine, want him to feel the same sense of reckless abandon I feel whenever he’s near. This out of control feeling is new for me. It’s certainly not something I experienced while dating Andy, the school teacher.

Bringing one hand beneath the cover of the table, I place my palm on his thigh and give it a firm squeeze. It’s less of a warning and more of a playful taunt.

But if he’s affected by my touch, it doesn’t show. His expression gives nothing away. He takes a casual sip of his beer and sets it on the table in front of him, his thumb picking at the label. My hand drifts further up his thigh until I reach inappropriate territory, and wait to see if I’ve elicited a response from him.

His mouth pulls into a frown and his eyes cut to mine. I keep my expression neutral as I explore, locating my prize, and give it a playful squeeze.

Justin’s hand grabs mine and removes it from his hardening manhood, then places it on my lap. He gives me a dark look and mouths behave.

I shrug, fighting off a grin.

He’s right though—I’ve never felt this reckless or daring before. It’s like I’ve had a sexual awakening. But apparently Justin doesn’t want our friends witnessing it. I guess I can’t blame him. At least Owen’s not here tonight. He left about an hour ago with some puck bunny he met not even fifteen minutes before. My brother is a slut, but he’s also sweet and a loyal friend, so we don’t give him too much crap for it.

I take a sip of my drink and try to focus, listening as Sara recounts an awful first date she went on recently.

“It couldn’t have been that bad,” sweet, innocent Becca says. “At least you’re putting yourself out there and dating.”

“Oh it was that bad. At the end of the night he actually put my hand on his crotch and suggested that it was my job to take care of his problem since I was the one who created it.”

Becca groans in sympathy, and Sara nods, taking a long sip of her martini.

It makes me glad I’m not out in the dating scene, at least for the time being, while Justin and I explore our chemistry, and since he and I agreed to be exclusive. Honestly if we hadn’t, I don’t think I could have continued with this fling. Because while I’ve talked a big game to Becca, and made it seem like I was invincible, and that I was incapable of getting hurt during this whole thing, the truth is, I’m just like anyone else. I have insecurities and uncertainties, and since I’m ninety-nine percent certain I could never measure up to the brazen sexpots Justin usually attracts, it’s just better this way. Not to mention safer. I like knowing that he isn’t sharing his body with anyone else for however long it takes us to work this attraction out of our systems. Even if I am a bit surprised at how quickly he agreed to be exclusive. Scratch that, actually it was his idea—he was the one who suggested it.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Justin says, interrupting my runaway brain.

I press my lips together. I can’t exactly admit that he was the star of my daydream, especially when several sets of eyes swing over to me from across the table.

I shrug. “Nothing. I’m just glad I’m taking a break from the dating scene after the disaster that was Andy.”

Sara raises her glass and clinks it against the side of mine in solidarity. “Cheers to the single life.” She grins at me.

The conversation shifts to guy-code things that I’ll probably never understand. I hear Teddy raise his voice, passionately defending something Sara has no doubt called him on.

“Yeah but when a girl orders a salad on a date,” Teddy says, leaning forward on his elbows, “and then starts making googly eyes at my steak and fries, that’s where I draw the line. Just order what you want. Don’t steal my food.”

Sara makes a low noise of disagreement.

“You always share your fries, TK. That’s like a rule,” Becca corrects him.

“You are literally the worst, Teddy,” Sara adds, her tone firm.

“Fine.” Teddy leans back, crossing his bulky arms over his massive chest. “Let’s hear your side. In fact, everyone should share. Let’s hear your most insightful commentary on the opposite sex.”

“What do you mean by commentary? Like advice?” Becca asks.

“Sure,” Teddy agrees, grinning. “Advice.”

Teddy is always down for some good-natured fun. He reminds me of Owen a little, in that Owen is always in a cheerful mood and doesn’t let things get under his skin. But where my brother is lighter, with sandy brown hair and gray eyes, Teddy has dark hair and deep coffee-colored eyes that crinkle in the corner when he laughs.

“I’ll start,” Teddy says, taking a quick sip of his beer. “Unspoken rule—if I make a comment to a girl and it could be interpreted in one of two ways, and one of those ways offends you, I meant it the other way.”

Becca chuckles softly while Sara lightly punches Teddy in the shoulder. “You’re an idiot.”

He flashes her a grin.

They have an interesting friendship, that’s for sure. From what I’ve seen, their time spent together is generally filled with biting insults and complaints about the opposite sex, yet it’s clear that they’re close.

“You’re up, bro.” Teddy motions to Justin.

For a second I wonder if Justin’s going to play along. He’s usually not into Teddy’s games, but after a pause, he opens his mouth to speak.

“If you receive one, you better give two back,” Justin says.

Sara and I both grin. She raises her glass. “Here, here. Now that’s my kind of man.”

Teddy rolls his eyes. “Fine Justin, since you’re all about doubles, why don’t you give us one more.”

Once again Justin considers before he speaks, taking his time, and I’m not certain he’s going to oblige, but then he does. “Absolutely nothing is hotter than a confident girl who makes the first move.” Justin looks right at me as he says this and tingles race down my spine. Is he referring to earlier when I groped him under the table? Even though he made me stop, maybe he did appreciate my initiative? I’m really not sure, but I hope to find out later.

Sara signals our server for another round, and then leans forward like she’s about to let all of us in on a secret. “I’ve got one. Women have two types of crushes. The first? Damn he’s hot, I want to bang it out with him. And the second… Damn he’s everything, I want to marry him.”

“Men are the exact same way,” Teddy says.

Everyone goes quiet for a second and I want to look to Justin to see his reaction, but I lose my nerve and then a second later, his phone is buzzing and he’s fishing it from his pocket.

“It’s Owen,” he announces, looking down at the screen with a puzzled expression.

“What’s wrong?” I lean closer, stealing a peek at his phone.

Sex emergency, dude. 911.

I frown as Justin begins typing out a reply. What in the world would constitute as a sex emergency?

No condoms? Justin replies.

Worse. Can you come over here?

Now?

Right fucking now.

Justin and I exchange a curious look before his phone pings again.

ASAP. Fucking hurry.

My stomach turns and I start to feel worried. Justin and I make eye contact again, but he just shrugs.

“I have no idea what’s going on, but maybe we should go?”

I nod just as an address appears on his screen.

Justin removes his wallet from his pocket and leaves some cash on the table, enough to cover both of our drinks plus a generous tip.

“Where are you two kids off to?” Becca asks, voice slightly suspicious. I’m sure she’s thinking we’re taking off to hookup. Sadly, that’s not the case.

“We have to go get Owen out of some jam,” I say.

Becca frowns. “Is everything okay?”

Justin looks down at his phone again and whatever he sees on the screen makes him shudder. Okay that is just weird, because I’ve never once in my entire life seen Justin shudder.

“It’s some type of sex emergency,” I whisper toward Becca.

“How exactly does one have a sex emergency?” Becca asks, loud enough for the entire table to hear.

God bless drunk Becca. The girl has absolutely zero filter.

Teddy’s the one that answers. “It’s Owen, the dude’s inventive, what can I say?”

“Elise?” Justin asks and my gaze swings over to his. “We better go.”

“Right.” I nod.

I give Becca and Sara a quick hug.

“Call me later,” Becca requests just before Justin and I head out.

I can tell she’s curious about what’s happening, but honestly so am I, in a slightly morbid kind of way, because Owen is my brother, and there’s a solid chance that once I find out whatever this emergency is, I’ll be scarred for life. God, the things you do for family…

Since we’d planned to spend the night out drinking, neither of us has a car, and we have to catch a ride over to the address Owen indicated, but it doesn’t take us long to arrive since there’s no real traffic this time of night.

The car rolls to a stop in front of a brick apartment building, and while it doesn’t look like anything sinister, I’m suddenly even more worried than I was before.

“Is he okay? I’m kinda scared to go in there,” I say in a tentative voice to Justin as we step out of the car and onto the curb.

Justin chuckles, the sound low under his breath. “He’s fine. He’s a fucking idiot, but he’ll live.”

I swallow, and nod. Then I feel Justin’s hand close around mine and we start up the stairs for the third floor. It’s chilly out tonight and the staircase is open to the elements, so I pull my fleece jacket tighter around my body as we trudge up the steps.

We stop in front of apartment 316 and Justin knocks twice on the door before pushing it open.

The living room is empty, just a lonely beige-colored couch facing a flat screen TV. There’s a scratching post for a cat, and then an orange tabby cat appears from around the corner, eyeing us with curiosity.

This is so freaking weird.

“Justin? That you?” Owen’s voice calls out from a back bedroom.

“Yeah. It’s me and Elise is here too.”

“Fuck.” Owen curses from the other room. “She needs to wait outside.”

Justin’s gaze swings over to mine. “Well, you heard the man.”

What are we doing here? Part of me doesn’t want to know, and the other half of me is dying to find out what my old brother has gotten himself into this time.

“Stay put, okay?” Justin says, releasing my hand with a faint squeeze.

I nod, feeling slightly terrified and slightly amused.

Justin disappears inside the bedroom and his sharp bark of laughter is immediate, followed by the sound of groaning. I hear them exchange a few words, but can’t make out what’s being said. That might be for the best, because I’m not sure I want to know what my big brother has gotten himself into this time.

When Justin emerges a few minutes later, Owen trails behind him, buttoning his jeans and throwing his sweatshirt on over his head.

Owen won’t meet my eyes, and I have the strangest feeling that something bad happened to him. As we follow Justin to the front door, I jog to catch up to him, touching his shoulder until he turns to face me.

“What happened, Owen? Is everything okay?” I ask.

Owen’s expression is more somber than I’ve ever seen it. “I feel violated.”

Justin chuckles. “Pretty sure you got what was coming to you.”

“What the hell is going on?” I press again for details, but they’re both moving again and I’m left with no choice but to follow.

“Let’s never speak of that again,” Owen says, closing the door behind us.

“Roger that,” Justin agrees as we begin descending the stairs.