Rush the Edge: A Brother’s Best Friend Hockey Romance (Blue Devils Hockey Book 3)

I felt terrible yesterday, but today, I’m a brand-new person.

That’s the thing with having an autoimmune disease. Some days you are fine, and other days, you’re just not.

I went to Dr. Gibson’s office yesterday for some routine bloodwork to make sure my Lupus is still at bay, and apparently, my body was not a fan of that. Nausea got the best of me, and then it was made three hundred times worse when the elevator door opened to reveal Kane mauling some girl’s neck.

Heat swept my lower belly, and nausea rolled through me.

That’s why I reacted the way I did.

With River at the hospital again, I ordered some necessities to get me through the night if the nausea continued, but instead of stepping onto the elevator to meet my delivery driver downstairs, I got a front-row seat to a porno.

Ugh.

He said my little stunt last night initiated war, but doesn’t he realize we’ve been in a constant war since the moment we met years ago?

Only now, we’re fighting to get away from one another instead of fighting to get closer.

“There she is!” I perk up at the sound of Cindy’s voice. She’s a friendly face compared to Kane’s and the grumpy Uber driver with the eyepatch.

“Hi.” I smile.

“You ready for this, Blue Devil?” Cindy pulls me over to the center of the visitor locker room floor, which is what we’re borrowing for the fitting since the team is on the ice for practice.

“As ready as ever,” I lie.

I glance at the huge Blue Devil head on the bench and cannot believe I’m about to be the team’s mascot. I still haven’t filled River in because he’ll find it hilarious, and I can’t deal with that right now.

I’m sure Kane will manage to get a video of me falling on the ice and send it to him anyway, so I won’t have to worry about it.

“Oooh, lucky me,” I mutter as I pull the top of the costume on. “My own Blue Devil jersey.”

The woman taking my measurements snickers. It doesn’t take long for her to get everything pinned in the correct spots. When she’s done, I slowly eye the Blue Devil head again before making my way over to it.

I can’t help but burst out into laughter a moment later as I stare down at it.

Am I seriously taking this job just to prove a point? The pay is good, but is it really that good?

Cindy and the seamstress both turn to look at me like I’m crazy, which at this point, I think I am.

I grab the head, expecting it to be a lot heavier than it is, and slip it onto my shoulders.

It takes all of three seconds for me to burst out into laughter again. It echoes around the bobbling devil head, and I laugh so hard I clutch my stomach.

“Someone please take my photo for my best friend,” I call out.

Natalia asked me how Chicago was during our FaceTime call yesterday, and when I send her this photo, she’ll understand my reluctance.

I pull the head off my shoulders after I hear the shuttering of the camera, my hair a wispy mess. “This is too funny not to share,” I say with a laugh.

“Funny or not”—Cindy shows me the photo, and I laugh harder—“I am so thankful to have filled this spot. You’re literally saving my ass. I was afraid I was going to have to do this.”

“Well…” I smile. “I guess you’re welcome.”

After pulling the outfit off so the seamstress can sew it for tomorrow, Cindy and I go over some of the details before handing me a pair of skates.

“Size eight, right?” she asks.

I nod and begin trying them on.

It’s been a while since I’ve ice skated. I’m certain I’ll be fine, but a few practice rounds might be beneficial, especially with my joints aching a little more than usual today.

“Do you mind?” I nod in the direction of the ice.

Cindy glances at her watch. “Practice just ended. It’s shorter the day before a game, so the ice should be yours.”

Thank god.

Carefully, I make my way toward the arena. The closer I get, the stronger the crisp ice scent is. A pinch of nostalgia hits me, and I smile to myself with the reminder of evenings spent in the stands with my parents, watching River…and Kane.

Kane was the one who taught me to skate, which is really just annoying now that I think about it.

The moment my skate lands on the slick ice, energy zooms to my heels and travels all the way to my hips. There isn’t a sound to be heard except for the tiny hash marks I’m cutting into the rink. I start off slow, allowing my body to remember the feel of it, but it doesn’t take long to skate the outer edge of the rink.

Easy peasy.

I can do this.

The nice thing about being the mascot is that no one will even know it’s me.

Except for Kane…but he doesn’t count.

“Uh, who are you?”

I do a half-turn and make eye contact with a tall guy wearing a Blue Devils practice jersey.

“The new mascot,” I say.

The guy breaks into a grin, and the closer he gets to me, the bluer his eyes become.

“The new mascot?” He skates a circle around me. “Yeah, right.”noveldrama

I can’t blame him for being skeptical. It is hard to believe.

“I’m serious.” I put my hands on my hips. “I just wanted to get a feel for the ice before tomorrow’s game.”

The guy tosses his stick back and forth in his hands and stares at me incredulously. He peers back at the bench where the goalie is climbing onto the ice in full gear.

“Who’s this?” he grumbles, seeming annoyed. “Ice girl? Sorry, but we need the rink to ourselves.”

I blanch from the assumption. “I am not an ice girl.”

“Oh. My bad,” he calls over his shoulder as he skates to the net.

“She said she’s the mascot,” the blue-eyed guy shouts in his thick accent.

“Yeah, okay,” the goalie shouts back. “I don’t really care, Lars. Get your girlfriend off the ice. I’m not staying here all day to help you.”

“I’m not his girlfriend!” I yell, heading off to the side.

Lars skates alongside me with ease. He’s easily a foot taller than me.

He bends down, his helmet not even strapped on the bottom, with a smirk on his face. “Do you want to be, though?”

My mouth opens to decline his offer, but a familiar presence makes himself known, causing me to pause. Lars’s eyes get larger, like he’s surprised that I’m considering it.

I’m not, but it’s fun to pretend with Kane listening in.

The last thing he wants is for me to mess around with one of his teammates, even if he won’t admit it. I wouldn’t stoop that low, though I’m sure hewould if the roles were reversed. He’s made it obvious that he’s done exactly what I thought he’d do when he left for life beyond our small town.

“No, she doesn’t,” Kane answers for me, pulling both of our attention to the bench.

Kane, still in his hockey gear except for his helmet, skates onto the ice and makes his way over to us.

My heart skips a beat when our eyes meet. For some reason, I feel as if I’ve been caught doing something wrong, but Kane has no place in any decision I make when it comes to my romantic life.

Not that I am focused on that part of my life right now, but if I was, he doesn’t get to have a say.

“I can make my own decisions, thank you very much.”

Kane snorts right before he flings ice up in between us. I quickly try to move out of the way of the cold shavings, but I’m not that comfortable on the ice yet, and my legs slip right out from under me.

It is wishful thinking to hope that Lars’s arm is wrapped around my waist instead of Kane’s, but I recognize his touch as if it’s my own. Heat races to the part of my lower stomach that he’s touching. Skin on skin. It burns.

“You can’t even skate on your own, let alone make decisions on who to fuck,” he says in a grumbly voice.

Lars interjects. “Who said anything about fucking? I was going to take her on a date. That’s what you do in Sweden, unlike you, horas.”

Kane’s grip on my waist grows tight as he puts me back on my feet. “Did you just insult me?”

Lars taps his stick on the ice in frustration. “I saw her first.”

Is he fighting over me?

My gaze skips to Kane, and I freeze. His devilish lip tips, and I know exactly what he’s going to say before he even opens his mouth.

“I already had her…and sorry, I won’t allow you to have my sloppy seconds.”

Blistering anger sweeps through me. I try to move out from beneath Kane’s hold on my hip, but he’s too strong, and I’m not steady enough on skates right now to escape. Lars skates away after we make eye contact and begins sending pucks into the net with the grumpy goalie blocking the shots.

“Let go of me,” I hiss.

Kane chuckles. “No.”

I cross my arms and stiffen my entire body in hopes it’ll make it harder on Kane as he tries to pull me off the ice. It doesn’t, though. The only thing it does is illicit a curse to fly from his mouth as he hauls me up into his arms and down the hall where the visitor locker room is.

“I see that you’re still a stubborn brat,” he mutters before opening the door and shoving me inside. The mascot head is still in the center of the bench along with my bag, but Cindy and the seamstress are gone, along with the rest of the mascot costume.

“And you’re still a jealous asshole,” I sneer.

“Jealous?” Kane’s hands go to his hips in disbelief before dropping his head. When he pops back up, his blue eyes are burning with something I can’t name. I feel it everywhere, though, brushing over my flesh like electricity. “I’m not jealous, Daisy. Fuck whomever you want, just no one on the team.”

An undeniable spark zips through me that I’ve only felt once before, and it’s taken me until right now to realize just how much I’ve craved it. No one has come close to giving me a taste of exhilaration quite like Kane Barlow. I’m not sure how, but he has always managed to make me feel so at ease and chaotic at the same time.

I became addicted to it several years ago, and like a fiend, I’m craving it all over again being alone with him.

“Why not?” I flutter my eyelashes and purse my lips. “Afraid you’ll overhear something that’ll sound a little too familiar and give you a reminder of the past?”

Why am I pushing his buttons on purpose?

Kane’s jaw flexes, and I hate that I’m proud of myself for getting under his skin. I almost drop my guard until he quickly advances on me. I’m not fast enough to dodge the bullet. He backs me all the way to the wall before grabbing both of my arms and trapping them above my head.

Breath vanishes from my lungs as I stare up at him.

“You think you’re so clever, don’t you, Daisy-Petal?”

I give him a closed-lipped smile, even if my heart is beating straight out of my chest. The undeniable pull that’s always been between us is back with our closeness, and I have the urge to press against him just to see what he’ll do.

Kane’s eyes drop to my mouth, and I flush.

“I remember the tiny little freckle you have right below your left hip bone…” his voice scrapes against my skin like a jagged piece of glass. “And the birthmark you have on the inner part of your right thigh…” Kane moves his knee between mine, spreading my legs apart slightly.

I need to jerk out of his grip or do something, anything, to act as if he isn’t making my heart rate spike. But I’m stuck like glue.

How did I let him pin me here?

A shaky breath falls from between my lips, and his nostrils flare before he steals back the last bit of my control.

“I don’t need reminders when it comes to you,” he admits. “I just don’t want you fucking my teammates, because I don’t want you to screw with their head like you screwed with mine.”

Kane’s grip against my arm tightens, and I wince when he hits the tender spot from yesterday’s bloodwork. He notices the catch in my expression and immediately lets go. Distance increases between us, but I still can’t breathe.

Silence fills the locker room when he angrily pushes open the door and leaves me alone.

I look back at the Blue Devil head and sigh shakily. I attempt to lower my blood pressure, but in the end, I accept it for what it is.

A loss.

“We lost that one, huh?” I ask the immobile head.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if it nodded back.