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

My head pounds violently. I clench my eyes together and inhale.

Mmm. What is that smell?

I sniff again.

The scent is familiar, yet I can’t name it.

With my eyes still closed, I lean forward and inhale one more time.

“Can you stop sniffing me?”

My eyelids fly open, and I’m left to stare at two very defined pecs.

Great.

I quickly analyze the situation. One arm is wrapped around his annoyingly toned torso while my leg drapes over his lap. There’s something resting on my thigh that I can only assume is his hand and⁠—

“Trying to come up with an escape route?” he asks.

There’s no way out of this.

I barely lift a shoulder. “That or a plan on how to murder you and get away with it.”

Kane’s deep chuckle vibrates his chest. I finally get the nerve to peek at him, and all I’m left to stare at is his bobbing throat and stony jawline.

My lungs beg for air.

Space.

I need space.

I slowly begin to slide off his lap. My arm brushes against his bare skin, and his head snaps toward my movement.

He levels me with a dark glare. “Not a fucking chance.”

His hand disappears from my leg, and he grabs my arm with a firm grip to keep me in place.

Something flares so brightly within his dark eyes that I flush with heat.

“I’ve got you right where I want you, Daisy-Petal.”

My teeth sink onto my lip. I pull back on my arm, but he’s too strong for me on a good day, let alone a day where I’m weak.

Kane’s eyebrow raises. “You’re not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell that was last night.”

I quickly go over the events that led me to the scenario I currently find myself in: tangled up with my brother’s best friend who hates me.

Has he been here all night with me? In his arms?

I search the coffee table, remembering I’d left my notebook there.

“Where is my notebook?” I ask.

His mouth twitches. “What notebook?”

I sigh.

I do not have the energy to deal with this.

Sensing my irritation, he pulls it out and waves it in front of my face. His grip loosens around me, and I take the opportunity to scramble out of his lap.

The last little bit of air trapped in my lungs rushes out as I fall to my butt. “Oof.”

Kane leans forward with a look of disapproval on his features, but instead of helping me to my feet, he just rolls his eyes in the most annoyingly hot way that I have ever seen and relaxes back onto the couch.

What does one do when they wake up in their enemy’s arms?

Run. Obviously.

I carefully climb to my feet. My head pounds as I turn to head…where?

This is my apartment. He’s the one who needs to leave.

Without making an idiot of myself, I smooth my features and spin to face him. “You need to leave.”

Kane makes absolutely no attempt to even acknowledge me. In fact, he doesn’t even look up from his…wait, that’s my phone!

My hands fly to my hips. “Give me my phone!”

“Oh this?” He nods to the device in his hand.

“Yes! What are you doing on my phone?” I scoff. “Making sure Wes didn’t try to swoop in and steal me via text message?”

Kane’s grip tightens against the device. “He has your number?”

Of course not.

I shrug. “Maybe.”

He glares at me, and I suddenly see why other players steer clear of him on the ice.

Finally, Kane drops my phone to his lap and rests both of his arms on the back of my couch.

“You can have your phone back after you tell me what’s going on with you.” He taps his fingers on the couch, like he’s waiting for my explanation.

I’m not sure why he even cares, but either way, I’m not telling him anything.

I cross my arms over my braless chest. I love that for me. “Or I can just grab it from you,” I counter.

Kane drops his chin and stares at my phone resting in his lap.

“Okay, Little Miss Confident, come and get it.”

A challenge? Don’t mind if I do.

I walk carefully, because I’m not so trusting of my balance after last night, until I’m standing right in front of him.

His sexy smirk drives me up a wall. My fingers itch with anticipation.

He remains unmoving with his arms still resting along the back of the couch like a smug asshole. Little flickers of his abs catch my eye that I try my hardest to ignore.

Although we seem to be at an impasse, neither of us moving, we’re dancing around each other with buzzing energy.

The haughty look in his eye is all the push I need to get the job done.

I amnot the little virgin teenager that he knew years ago. Dicks don’t scare me anymore.

Even his.

One.

Two.

Three.

My arm stretches forward, and my palm slaps against the phone, but before I can curl my fingers around it, Kane flexes his hips and traps me there with his hand. There’s a rigid outline that my fingertips brush against, and my thighs clench absentmindedly.

Shit, I hope he didn’t notice that.

“Tell me what’s going on with you,” he grits.

I wonder if I could make him beg.

“Let my hand go, and I will,” I whisper.

“I’m enjoying the placement, actually.” He winks.noveldrama

“With my hand on your dick?” I blurt.

He drops his attention to my boobs. “I was referring to your tits in my face. Did those grow over the last few years?”

I look down only to see my shirt gaping open from the angle. Ugh.

“It’s apparent that you like them.” I press on his hard length to make a point, but all that does is make his pupils dilate.

Suddenly, I’m swept off my feet and tossed onto his lap. My hands fly to his shoulders as both my legs wrap around his waist.

How the hell⁠—

He’s too swift for his own good.

“I have a hard-on because I have to take a piss, Daisy-Petal.” Kane grips my hips, and for a split second, I think he’s going to guide me back and forth against him. I completely ignore the fact that I want him to. “Surely you didn’t think I was turned on because of your body being on mine all night.”

My eyebrows knit together. “Of course I didn’t think that!”

Kane smirks and raises an eyebrow.

Annoyed and unable to keep up with this charade, I push off him and stomp away.

His laugh follows me all the way to the kitchen, where I start to make my matcha.

“You win,” I call over my shoulder. “I’m too tired to deal with you today, so if you could see yourself out, that’d be great.”

His dark chuckle races up my spine. “I’m not leaving until you tell me what this is.”

I glance toward the living room, and he’s still sitting in the same spot on the couch with his back to me. His hair is a darker blond now, likely from spending all this time inside an ice rink instead of underneath the sun outside. He waves my notebook in the air, and my hand freezes with the frother still spinning in mid-air.

“Still snooping around in my things? Grow up, Kane.”

I take my anger out on my matcha, frothing it so much it’s a foamy mess by the end. Refusing to admit defeat in any part of my morning, I take my too bubbly latte and sip on it while mentally sending daggers into the back of Kane’s head.

I feel much better this morning than last night, but I’m still not one hundred percent. I’m sluggish, and my limbs are heavy. Every time I blink, my eyelashes flutter too many times in their attempt to stay open.

Half of my matcha is gone by the time Kane climbs from the couch.

Just when I sigh in relief from his departure, he heads into River’s bathroom with my phone still in his possession.

Ugh.

I exhale heavily and head to the cupboard to grab my vitamins. My hands ache even more than my knees do. The rigid cap of the bottle cuts against my palm when I squeeze the lid to open it up.

Growling under my breath, I try again and again until my hand is shaking.

Lupus: 1

Daisy: 0

I use my other hand to try to open the container, but it’s even worse than my dominant one.

“Damn it,” I mutter.

I should have taken my brother up on one of those infomercial gadgets that help elderly people open pickle jars after their strength is gone. It was a joke, but it would honestly come in handy.

“Give it to me.” I jerk from the sound of Kane’s voice at my back.

The vitamin bottle goes flying into the air, and Kane catches it with a cat-like reflex. The cap is off within a blink of an eye, and he’s handing it to me.

Is this a truce?

Instead of taking it, I ping-pong my attention between him and the opened bottle.

My hand stretches forward slowly, and he does nothing but stare at me with an unreadable expression on his face. My fingers brush against his, his abs flexing with the touch. He doesn’t let go of the bottle. Instead, he peers at me in the same way he used to when we were kids.

“Are you sick, Daisy?”