Page 99 of Daring the Hockey Player

My mouth is dry and filled with bile at the words that leave my lips. "Are they friends?"

"Isn't he the guy who stole your first girlfriend?" Kyler asks, recognizing the douche.

I cough and clear my throat. "He's a dick. But he saved me from losing it to Bridget Malister."

A smile grazes Kyler's features. "Yeah, I can't believe the tween you dated turned out to be a puck bunny."

"We were thirteen when we first went out," I correct him. "And I can believe it after she left my ass over a pair of hockey tickets." She'd been flirting blatantly in front of me with Atlas. And the days when Knox picked up his little brother from practice, she went all out.

Kyler snorts. "Well, the next time you decide to date a girl, Em and I want to meet her and decide if she's good enough for you."

"Are you worried she's been using me for my good looks and athletic talent?"

Kyler's eyes widen. "You're using the past tense, as in, you met someone?"

Nothing seems to get by my older brother. I was hoping I could wait a couple of years before delving into the story of how Amber and I first hooked up. Although, we haven't actually hooked up. Just fooled around, and that was nearly a week ago.

Even phone sex is difficult while sharing a hotel room with my older brother. But now that I'm back home, I'm hoping to set the mood with Amber, take her out, show her a good time. I don't want to rush her into anything, but damn, just the thought of her lips on my cock makes me want to burst.

"Jasper?"

I don't answer him quickly enough, and he's in big brother interrogation mode.

"Is it someone I know?" he asks.

"It's not someone you don't know," I answer in a double negative, avoiding outright telling him yes.

"Who?" Kyler asks. "Is it some girl in another city you met while we were traveling for a game? That red-haired chick in Atlanta, or was it in Chicago? She kept chasing you around the bar when you went to grab us drinks."

I forgot aboutthatgirl. She was flirty and horribly drunk. I can only imagine the massive headache from being hungover that she sported. I had to sit her down on a stool and tell the bartender to call her a cab.

"Yeah, she lives in another city," I say. The words slide off my tongue with ease.

Amber and I haven't discussed what we'd say to our siblings about whatever it is that's transpiring between us. And since we don't even know what this new thing is, telling them first seems a bad idea.

"I knew you were having phone sex the other night in the hotel!" Kyler says a little too loudly.

Owen glances at the two of us with wide, incredulous eyes. "Do tell," Owen says. "This sounds like a juicy story."

"It's not," I say and glare at Kyler. "You interrupted. Besides, I don't kiss and tell." That's all they're getting out of me. Hopefully, it's enough to settle the beasts and keep them contained while Amber and I explore whatever is flourishing between us.

"Does your girlfriend care that you have a female roommate?" Kyler asks. "I mean, you didn't mention it when I suggested that Amber move in with you. Which, by the way, I fully intend on covering her rent."

"Why would you do that?" I ask.

"I asked you to take her on so that Em and I could have some space."

"I'm not taking your money. Amber is paying her share of the rent."

Kyler looks taken aback by my suggestion that I would make her pay anything. "You're expecting her to afford half? You know she's in college and works as a barista at some shop on campus."

"She works at a Mad Tea shop," I say, fully aware of her situation. "And I'm only making her pay a small portion of what she was already covering in rent at the last place that burned down."

My brother smacks me on the back. "You're a good guy. She's lucky to have you as a friend and roommate. But I'm still covering the other half of her portion. I pawned her ass off on you."

"I don't need your charity."

"No, but you suck out there, and if you keep floundering around like some fish, you're not going to get another contract when you're a free agent."