Page 10

“I care about you, too,” I say quietly.

“I’m sorry about what happened. You’re right. It’s your life, and you should get to decide. I’ll talk to Dex, okay?” she suggests.

“No, it’s fine,” I mumble. “I still had fun tonight, and I got to have that serotonin boost of getting hit on by the NHL’s hottest center.”

Everleigh giggles. “I really have no clue what a center is.”

I laugh, too. “I don’t, either. It says it on his Instagram profile.”

“Show me,” she says, and I pick up my phone. His profile is still pulled up, and I scroll as she watches me.

Yeah, so I got pretty far down on his photos. I scroll a little while before I get to the top, and I show her.

“Damn,” she murmurs. “He hit on you?”

“He wanted to get me a drink, he and Dex had some words…and then we left. But when he said my name, oh my God, Ev. My underwear fell off. Just melted clean off my body.”

She laughs. “I know the feeling.”

I raise a brow. We’re not really the discuss our sex lives kind of sisters, but maybe that’s just because I’ve never had a sex life to discuss. I’m hopeful that at some point she’ll stop seeing me as the baby and start seeing me just as her sister—her sister she can girl talk with, gossip with, talk sex with, have fun with.

“Yeah? With Mav?”

“Oh, God, yes. He’s so…I don’t know. He’s passionate and hot as hell, and he gets broody sometimes, but he lets me see past that. When he lets me in, and we really connect…it’s something special. And that’s the guy you marry. But the others? It’s okay to have fun with the others. Just…be careful, you know? Dex was looking out for you not because you’re the baby but because you’re inexperienced with this type of thing. You’re new on the scene here, and it’s not that safety zone of college anymore. A pro athlete who’s a known player when you’re probably a decade younger than him? Tough place to start. That’s all. He was just trying to be a good big brother.”

I blow out a breath. “Fine. I’ll accept that for tonight, and I won’t get an Uber to take me back to the club. But if I run into him again, all bets are off.”

“You do you, boo,” she says, and I laugh before she continues. “Live your life however you want. It’s yours to live. Just be careful, okay? And not just about the herpes, though that’s possibly a valid point. Protect your heart, too.”

I nod. “Thanks, Ev. I will.”

She stands and wiggles her eyebrows. “I better get back to that hot husband of mine.”

“I’m glad at least someone is having sex tonight.”

“Your night will come.”

I hope by that she means the night will come when I will come.

CHAPTER 5: Cash Maddox

Ticktock

I go home alone like I should’ve done back when I told Kellan that’s what I was doing, back before I saw her up close and smelled her and exchanged words with her douchebag brother.

Do I rub one out while I’m thinking of her gorgeous mouth wrapped around my cock? You bet your ass I do. And it’s her name that I groan as I come all over my hand.

I’m fucking pathetic, but the first step to solving that issue is awareness.

I pass out sometime after that.

I drank a shit fuck ton of tequila tonight, and when morning dawns, I’m feeling it.

I pry my eyes open and pick up my phone to glance at the time. It’s after ten. I never sleep this late, but I’m usually not out partying as hard or as late as we stayed out last night.

My head throbs and my stomach rolls, and still, the first fucking thought of my day is of blonde hair, brown eyes, and tits that were meant for my eyes only.

Her brother’s not going to let it happen.