Chapter 3

What the hell is happening?

Madison’s lips were sliding across mine. Her hands were clawing at my shirt, and she was kissing me…like she wanted me.

And yet, I didn’t want it to end.

Because she felt good.

So. Damn. Good.

Madison’s fingers threaded through my hair, and she pulled at the strands with so much force that I almost forgot my name. Her other hand wrapped around my neck as she stood on her tiptoes, desperately trying to keep our connection. Her tongue swiped across my lips before she dipped it into my mouth.

She wanted me, and I was doing nothing to stop it.

I was also doing nothing to encourage it, either. My hands were at my side, too stunned to move, and my lips hadn’t quite fathomed that the perfect, pillowy lips kissing them were attached to my best friend’s little sister. And her lips…shit. Her lips were already the end of me. She was the end of me. Soft, pliable, and plump, they were better than I’d ever imagined. And I’d imagined her lips in many different places over the years. All of which were more inappropriate than the last.

Hungry and lustful, Madison let out a small whimper before her hands disconnected from me and landed on my chest. Then she pushed with enough force to stun a linebacker, making me almost lose my balance.

Her red lip gloss was smudged across her face. Her hair was a mess, but she looked phenomenal, nonetheless. Staring at me, she took a deep breath, making her chest poke out. It took everything in me not to look down at her perfect breasts. The only thing that helped was that I’d already memorized how amazing her rack looked earlier in the night.

Thwack!

A sharp pain radiated down my cheek as my body fell back. My hand immediately went to the side of my face to the stinging pain.

“What the hell was that for, Madison?” When I snapped my gaze to her, she was just standing in front of me with her arms folded and an angry pout across those perfect lips.

“Why didn’t you kiss me back?” she yelled. I checked the surroundings, thankful that most people were still inside and weren’t witnessing this.

“Why did you kiss me in the first place?” I couldn’t help but laugh because this conversation was ridiculous.

“You know why.” It sounded more like a threat than anything else.

“No.” I chuckled sarcastically. “I really don’t.”

With her hands covering her face, she threw her head up to the sky and groaned in disappointment. “This is so stupid, Dash.”

I was still rubbing my cheek, watching her intently as she dropped her hands and drew her chin down. It was hard to make out her features in the dark, but what was left of her lip gloss was glistening against the streetlight, enticing me to taste her again.

“Tell me, Dash. Why did you just pull me out of there? Didn’t like me getting close to the football guys, or was it Brandon Gold that got you hot and bothered?”

With a tense jaw, I unclenched my fists at the mere memory of those guys looking at Madison. She didn’t have to dress like a goddess to be one, but today those athletes got her at her best. They wanted her, and all I wanted to do was claim her, even though I knew I couldn’t.

“I don’t like you getting close to any of them,” I gritted out, hating that she managed to get me to admit it out loud. It wasn’t my fault. She was poking the bear, and I was answering instinctively.

“I knew it.” She had this crazed, smug look on her face, and I was concerned over what she might uncover, so I cut this interaction short.

“Because they’re athletes, Madison,” I replied sharply. “I know exactly what goes through their minds, and I don’t want you anywhere near them.”

“Oh, really?! And why do you care so much?” She had a raised brow and a smile on her face, as though she’d just caught me outside with my pants off. Thankfully, she hadn’t because otherwise she would have seen the obnoxiously large boner I had due to our impromptu kiss.

“Because Henry was an asshole to you, and I vowed to Cade that I wouldn’t let another athlete hurt you like that again.”

Thwack.

Another slap, and I grunted in sheer pain. Madison was a small thing, but my goodness, when she slapped, it felt like I was going against Ronda Rousey.

“Why’d you do that?” I groused.

“Because you’re an idiot, and I’m tired of trying to pretend that I’m not desperately in love with you.”

I hadn’t looked up from the floor since her hit, but I felt like her last sentence alone was a punch in the gut. Did she just tell me she was desperately in love with me? Because if she did, we were going to have a serious problem on our hands.

“Is that it?” she chimed out. “You’ve got nothing to say.”

What could I say? Admit that I was in love with her too? Because hell, I loved her from the minute I laid eyes on her in middle school, but even back then I knew that nothing could ever happen between us. The feeling only intensified when I saw her heart breaking over a loser like Henry because she deserved so much better than him.

Madison was looking at me, waiting for me to answer, but I was lost for words. Sure, she loved to flirt, but she’d never taken it this far, and honestly, my brain was still a little fuzzy because I kissed her, so I didn’t want to say something I might regret later.

Madison didn’t love me. It wasn’t possible. That yearning feeling for her was one-sided. She was fucking with me. That was the only explanation for her incoherent ramblings.

Madison laughed bitterly, shaking her head as she looked at me with so much anger, I wished my net was around so I could cower into it. That was my safe space. The only place that I felt truly comfortable because all I had to do when I was in there was focus on the puck. That was it. None of this soft shit where looking at Madison’s face made my heart beat in ways that I knew was inappropriate.

“You’re a coward, Dash.”

She was right. My gaze was still very much focused on the gum on the ground and her gold-pointed shoe right next to it. I knew I was going crazy because it felt like the shoes were looking at me with disappointment. She tipped her toes, and I breathed in, still not ready to talk about it.

Then, before I could look up, she growled in frustration as her feet turned and she walked away. It was only after the clanking of her heels started to fade that I looked up and watched that perfect ass of hers strut into the distance again.

It was getting darker, and in that tight black dress, Madison was getting harder to see. No one was around, but she couldn’t run in sneakers, let alone those heels. If someone wanted to attack her, she’d be there for the taking.

Fuck.

I scraped a hand across my face, groaning as I watched her get further away. I couldn’t leave her. Cade would kill me. Not to mention, I’d never forgive myself if something happened to her. Not after we kissed. But if she knew I was following her, she’d pester me about my feelings, and I wasn’t willing to talk about it. Not until I’d figured out what they were for myself.

So I did what any normal person would do in my situation. I subtly walked behind her with no intention of announcing my presence. With my hands stuffed in my pockets and my head hung low, I silently walked behind her, only looking up occasionally through my…curtains. I was getting my hair cut in the morning .

Madison hadn’t noticed me at all, but that could have been because I was using streetlights and bushes to cover myself every time she glanced over her shoulder to check her surroundings. Honestly, her inability to detect the fact that someone was following her frightened me. What if I’d really been a creeper with different intentions? It wasn’t like I was a small guy. I was six foot six, which was perfect for guarding the net, but not so good when you were trying to be inconspicuous.

I nearly rushed to help her when she stumbled on her heel, but as she gained her footing, she cursed my name, so I subtly stepped to the side, taking cover in a large bush before she could see me.

Sniffling and grumbling more obscenities, she riffled through her bag and took her phone out. Dipping further into the bush, I ignored the fact that there was a stick poking in my ear and checked my own phone to make sure it was on silent. On the off chance that she was calling me, I didn’t want it to give me away.

“Hey, Tiff,” she drawled out, wiping her eyes as she did it. I knew exactly who she was talking to, and it only served to rile me up more.

Why couldn't she have waited until she got to her dorm to call her cousin?

“I know it’s late. I’m sorry. I didn’t wake up Ella, did I? Oh, good. It’s just I’ve had a crappy night, and I need to vent.”

My back was nearly breaking in this crouched position, and I tried to subtly stretch but cringed when a stick snapped under my foot.

Dammit.

So much for being inconspicuous. Madison’s head whipped in my direction, and I stayed deathly still, hoping she would be too scared to come looking in the bushes and find me.

“Yeah, I’m still here, sorry.” She shook her head, turned around, and as she started walking to her dorm, I sighed in relief. “I just thought I heard someone behind me, but it must have been a coyote.”

I pushed out a silent snort because she’d have no chance against a coyote, let alone a two-hundred-and-twenty-pound hockey player. Although maybe I’d been underestimating her this whole time since my face was still tingling from those slaps earlier.

“I kissed Dash.”

Her voice had all kinds of emotion in it. Hope, excitement, but the main one was sadness, and that didn’t make me feel good.

I could have sworn I heard her cousin squeal down the phone, but Madison didn’t pull it away, so it was probably just the ringing in my head from the stick piercing my eardrum.

“No. You don’t get it. I kissed him. He didn’t kiss me back.” Okay, she was upset. Her sadness was heavy and thick now, and I was almost certain she’d been silently crying as she hobbled across campus. I acted like a dick, and it felt like my stomach was being gutted.

“I know. I know. I should have gotten over him a long time ago, but you don’t see the way he looks at me. It’s like he wants to eat me, and you know him, he hardly looks at anyone. He even dragged me out of this dating event because he didn’t want to see me in there.”

She took a long breath, which turned into a snort-slash-sniff at the end. It wasn’t the most flattering noise, but Madison could vomit on my shoes, and I’d still marvel at the pretty pattern it made.

“I’m outside. All right, I’ll call you later,” she huffed before dropping her phone back into her purse and strutting to the dorm. Madison wasn’t drunk, but she wasn’t steady on her heels either, and I could only assume it was because she was so upset, she couldn’t walk straight.

By the time she made it back to her dorm, I sighed in relief. At least she was in there and not fraternizing with the football team. Not that they were bad guys or anything, but they weren’t for her. Especially not Aiden.

The only person for Madison Bright was me.

Even if I could never have her.

Checking my phone, I swiped through a bunch of annoyed messages from Scotty for ditching him, which, if I was being honest, I was surprised he’d noticed, and then headed straight to my dorm, which was only a ten-minute walk away.

As I opened the door, I smiled, waved at the girl behind the desk, and headed to the hockey wing.

Unlike the football players, who ended up in the frats and private housing, the hockey team had its own dedicated dorm block. With bathrooms attached to each bedroom, we were the luckiest team on campus because the Hendricks Building was considered the best. Yes, you heard that correctly. The Hendricks Building. The block was purchased and maintained by Scott Hendricks, Scotty’s father, when Scotty committed to playing here before joining his father’s old team, the Toronto Thrashers. Some would think it was crazy for a father to purchase an entire building for their son, but that was typical of Scott Hendricks. He’d do anything to give Scotty everything he needed to make it as a professional NHL player.

Scotty was lucky. He was rich beyond his wildest desires, better looking than the rest of us, and could play the game like his father. He had everything going for him and more, yet we still had one thing in common: He couldn’t get the one girl he wanted, either.

As I trudged up the stairs, I decided to respond to him and let him know I had to bail because I was feeling sick. It wasn’t a lie. Seeing Madison with Aiden had made me nauseous, and I did need a little alone time to recover from the reality of the situation, which was that I was eventually going to have to watch Madison date someone else and be…happy for her.

I didn’t like that idea, but there was no other choice. I couldn’t police her life, and she deserved to be happy, even if it wasn’t with me. But just like high school, that could wait until I’d left college at the end of the year and officially signed my entry level contract to the Atlanta Anglerfish, so I wasn’t here to see it.

“Dash,” Cade drawled as I appeared at the top of the steps. He had a hand wrapped around a girl’s waist as he tipped his chin and winked. “What are you doing home so early? I thought you were out with Scotty.”

“What are you doing here at all? Didn’t you tell Scotty you had something to do tonight?”

His eyes gleamed with mischief as he squeezed the hip of the girl he was standing with. “I do. She’s right here. Who needs to go to The Draft when you’re already guaranteed some puck bunny love?” He nuzzled her neck, and my brows crossed in confusion. Was she okay with being called that? Judging by the soft smile on her face and the way she drew her head back, it seemed so.

I rolled my eyes because Cade was such a pig when it came to women. “Looks like you didn’t do too badly, either. Let me guess. Cherry?” He gestured to my face.

“What are you talking about? ”

“The flavor of the girl’s lip gloss you made out with tonight?”

Fuck.

I clasped my hand over my mouth, and the sticky substance clung to my palm.

Double fuck.

I’d been walking around campus with the evidence of Madison all over my face without realizing it. I licked my lips subconsciously, and surprisingly, I could still taste her, which made that boner that had just calmed down a little more visible. God, that kiss was imprinted in my brain. I’d never forget how good it felt to have her tongue gliding across mine.

“Who was it?” Cade asked, his eyebrows wiggling in amusement.

“Don’t remember,” I quipped, because any other answer would put me in a direct line for a punch.

“Dash.” Cade unwound from the girl so he could push me on the arm. “I had no idea you were such a lothario.” He leaned into the girl beside him. “When we were in high school, his girlfriend cheated on him and broke his heart. From then on, he was too shy to speak to anyone else, and the only way he could get over his anxiety was to date on the internet.”

“Aww,” the girl next to him cooed, and I was about ready to add to the scar Madison put on Cade’s eyebrow for the lie, but luckily for him, my phone started buzzing in my jeans pocket. I went to grab it but stopped because I was still standing opposite Cade, and what if it was Madison calling?

“I don’t need your pity. I’ve dated girls. Cade’s even met them, he’s just too self-absorbed to remember.”

“Have I?”

“Yes, I went on dates before you punched a hole in my door.” It wasn’t a lie. I went on maybe two if you counted that girl I had to work with in one of my classes. However, the timing of Madison arriving on campus and that door punch was convenient because it was such a good excuse for not dating. I hadn’t tried very hard the first two years here, but I pretty much stopped looking at any girl once Madison was back in my life.

Cade narrowed his eyes and looked at the girl before turning his attention to me. “Are you sure those girls weren’t your cousins? I always thought you looked related. ”

“No. They definitely weren’t.” He clearly didn’t remember or care, because if he did, he would have questioned why Amy and any other girl I had casually dated had a striking resemblance to his sister.

My phone was still buzzing, and I was itching to see who it was.

“You going to answer that?” Cade raised a brow in challenge. “Whoever it is seems to be desperate to talk to you. Wonder if it’s Little Miss Pop My Cherry?”

“I don’t know, I can’t get the phone out of my pants, Scotty’s jeans are too tight.”

He scoffed. “So she doesn’t have a name?” My hands dropped to my sides.

“I already told you, I don’t remember,” I responded curtly.

He gave me a lopsided smile. “Don’t worry, man. It happens to the best of us. I’m sure she’ll come looking for you if she hasn’t already found you.”

I hoped not, because if Madison did, she’d more than likely find her brother. Shit, I really did need to talk to her about this and how we planned on dealing with it around Cade. Should we tell him? Was one little kiss worth my balls being chopped off? After all, Madison was acting on impulse, and I had no idea how much she’d drunk tonight. She didn’t want me. She couldn’t. I was the overly grumpy, quiet goalie who kept to myself. Even if she thought she had a crush on me, she’d grow bored in a week because there was no way I could keep a girl like her entertained.

“You know what? I’ve had a long night. I’m going to bed,” I grumbled, walking past Cade and his companion. I jumped when Cade slapped my butt on the way past. Idiot.

“I bet you did, you dirty dog.” I could only imagine the pain I’d have felt if he found out it was Madison’s lip gloss coating my mouth.

Stupid, stupid mistake.

I trudged into my room, and when the door was shut, I closed my eyes, careful not to growl in annoyance as I thought about Madison because the only thing protecting me from the common room was a giant pizza box taped over the hole in my door, and I had no doubt Cade was eavesdropping.

When my phone buzzed again, after much fidgeting, I was able to pull it out of my pocket, and my chest tightened when I saw who’d messaged me.

Scotty…and Madison.

Scotty: I can’t believe you bailed because you’re “sick.” What ever happened to no man left behind? I’m now stuck talking to some Brooks-obsessed fangirl who is showing me all the compilation videos she made of the guy. As much as I like him, I don’t think I’m ever going to recover from seeing his bare chest in a near-professionally edited film montage.

I quickly responded to Scotty, telling him to try pestering Erik because I had some personal stuff to deal with. He may not have liked that answer, but at least he knew I wasn’t about to go back there and save him.

Madison: Let’s just pretend tonight never happened, m’kay? Thx.

Short and simple, and I wasn’t surprised given the content of the conversation I heard her have with Tiff. However, there was just one problem with that request. There was no way I was going to be able to forget her now.