A Dose of Pretty Poison: A Brother’s Best Friend Romance (Pretty Poison Trilogy Book 1)

I shouldn’t be here.

Every part of me knows I should just sit in my truck and wait for the guys to get here for practice. But as I stare at Laiken’s car sitting across the parking lot, I can’t be bothered with what I should do.

Screw it. I’ve already fucked everything to hell a few days ago. It’s not like making the right choices now is going to change my fate.

As I walk in, the music Laiken skates to plays on blast through the speakers. I quickly drop my bag off in the locker room and then head over to the rink. I’m expecting to see her on the ice, making spins and turns look like magic, but when I get there, it’s completely empty.

Where the fuck is she?

First, I wonder if Mali picked her up or something. It wouldn’t be the first time she left her car at the rink. We all do it. But then I think about how the music is still playing, and a part of me worries something might have happened to her.

My eyes search the rink, trying to see any sign of her, and just when my stress level starts to rise, it falls right back down again.

“Looking for someone?”

I spin around to see Laiken standing there, skates still on her feet as she drinks from a water bottle.

“Yeah, actually.”

Without hesitation, I step closer and pull her in for a kiss. She drops her water bottle on the floor and immediately melts into me. Her arms wrap around my neck and I lift her up, carrying her behind the bleachers, where we aren’t so out in the open.

Hooking up isn’t something new to me. What is new, however, is the way I fucking crave her. I’ve never found myself going out of my way to see a girl until Laiken.

I’m not sure I like it, but if I’ve learned anything over the last month, it’s that I don’t have a single say in the matter.

Moving my hands to her ass, I press her against the wall and grind into her. She reacts exactly how I thought she would—moaning into my mouth like the needy little thing she is. Between that, and her tugging on my hair, all the blood goes straight to my cock.

Fucking hell, I’m like a goddamn preteen who just discovered porn.

I allow myself to kiss her once more before reluctantly pulling away and putting her down.

“If we keep going, I won’t be able to get my cup on,” I explain when I see the look on her face.

She scrunches her nose. “Those things do not sound comfortable.”

“They’re not, but it’s better than taking a puck to the balls, so we deal with it.” I pause as I think of how Isaac refuses to wear one during practice. Idiot. “Well, most of us anyway.”

She pulls the hair tie out, letting her hair down and running her fingers through it. And while I should probably be a little less eager, I can’t help myself. Leaning in to kiss her one more time, I feel her smile against my mouth.

“I’ll be right back,” she tells me. “I just have to go turn off the music.”

As soon as she’s gone, I reach down and fix myself in my jeans. It would be so much easier if I could just wear sweatpants or basketball shorts, but they provide nothing in terms of being discreet if someone catches us together. They’d see the tent in my pants and there would be nothing we could say to deny what’s going on between us.

I sit on the bench and look around. The last time I was here, I walked in with only two goals in mind. One, make Beaufort regret everything they said about our team. And two, keep my mind on the game and off Laiken.

Only one of those were accomplished, and it wasn’t because of me.

The moment she stepped into the locker room and held up that phone number like some kind of trophy, I knew I couldn’t push her away anymore. It would have sent her straight into his arms. And after finally having her attention again, I wasn’t about to let that happen.

Although, I didn’t know that she was a virgin. That one was a shock. If I had any idea, I never would’ve brought her to that beach. And even once I knew, I had no intentions of fucking her. I meant it when I said that she deserves more than losing her v-card in the front seat of my truck near a public beach.

She needed some relief, and I was going to give it to her, but I was never going to let it go that far. But watching her grind herself up and down my dick, chasing her own high, I needed it. I needed to feel her clench around me as she explodes. And once she mentioned the possibility of giving that part of her to someone else, that was it.

I could no longer deny her of what we both wanted.

And now that I’ve had her, I can’t get enough. She’s got her claws in deep, and it drives me nuts. We haven’t been able to have sex again, because apparently sneaking around isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but we have been able to slip in a few make-out sessions that leave me with blue balls for the rest of the day.

Laiken comes back and smiles as she sits beside me, untying her skates and taking them off.

“So, how was work?” I ask.

She hums, giggling slightly. “It’s always interesting, to say the least. The girls are great, and some of the boys have a lot of focus and determination. It’s the ones that are being forced to come by their parents that give me the most issue.”

“Using you as a daycare service?”

“Pretty much,” she answers. “I was thinking about telling the parents I need them to come on the ice and help with them in order to lessen the chance of injury. I figure they’ll either do as I ask or stop bringing their kids to lessons. Regardless, I win.”

I chuckle and nudge her with my elbow. “You’ve just got everything all figured out, don’t you?”

“For the most part.” She winks at me. “Oh! There is this one little girl. She’s only six, but I’ve had to move her up to the class with the eleven-year-olds because she catches on so quickly. She’s just so determined for being so young, and she listens really well.”

Her voice trails off as she turns to see me already smiling back at her.

“Sorry, I’m sharing too much,” she says.

“No,” I tell her, grabbing her hand with mine. “I like hearing you talk about things that are important to you.”

She looks down at where I’m holding her hand, and I know I probably shouldn’t have done it. The last thing I’m trying to do is give her things to read into. But the way she smiles up at me and leans in for a kiss, I can’t find a bit of regret in me.

Owen’s voice bounces off the walls, followed by Isaac telling him to shut up, and I know our time is up. I drop my head and sigh heavily.

“That’s my cue.”

She chuckles at my disappointment. “I could always ask Coach if I can give you guys another ballet lesson.”

My eyes widen. “For the love of God, no.”

It was bad enough that I had to do that shit once, and in front of Laiken, for that matter. It was solid proof that Karma has a sense of humor. But having to do it now, after we’ve had sex, that’s a whole new level of humiliation.

Knowing they’ve probably already seen my truck in the parking lot, it’s only a matter of time before one of the guys comes looking for me. So, in the interest of not getting caught, I give Laiken a quick kiss goodbye and squeeze her hand before letting go and heading into the locker room.

“Hey, Mayweather,” Owen jokes, getting his cracks in now since he hasn’t seen me since the game. “How was your early night?”

I roll my eyes and flip him off. “That shithead deserved every bit of what he got.”

“What he got was three stitches near his left eye,” Isaac informs me. “Since when do you play dirty like that?”

“Since people don’t know when to shut their fucking mouths. You want to be next?”

Isaac and I tolerate each other for the sake of the team, but we’re not friends by any means. He’s a prick. A pompous, arrogant, pain in my ass who thinks he’s the best at everything because his parents spoiled him as a child. Even in high school, he thought that he was hot shit simply because his family is wealthier than most.

It’s probably why he’s yet to leave home even though he has the trust fund to do so.

He’s completely content living off Mommy and Daddy’s money, only doing something somewhat productive when he comes to hockey practice.

“Dude, did you see someone tried to burn the place down?” Lucas questions, pointing to the black mark on the tile.

My brows furrow. “What the fuck? Who would do that?”

“I thought it was you,” Owen tells me.

“Me?”

He shrugs. “You were the last one in here.”

I chuckle in disbelief. “What part of me screams arsonist to you?”

“All of it,” Owen and Lucas answer in unison.

“Fuck you both.”

Cam walks in as Owen is trying to rub the spot away with his shoe with no luck. “I’m just saying, you were pretty pissed when you got thrown out of the game.”

Looking at the mark and then back at me, Cam’s brows raise. “You trying to burn the whole world to the ground, pyro?”

There is no believable excuse for lighting that asshole’s phone number on fire, so my only option is to deny it.

“That shit wasn’t me,” I tell him. “If I wanted to set the place on fire, I’d have done a lot better job than that.”

The guys all exchange a look and Cam purses his lips as he nods. “Fair point.”

Everyone goes back to getting ready for practice while Cam places his stuff on the bench beside me. I try to read him, to see if he has any idea of what went on the other night, but there’s nothing off about him.

“Wilder,” Coach says as he walks out of his office. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t bench you for the stunt you pulled the other night.”

I can think of plenty.

He’s an asshole who fucked with the wrong guy.

He doesn’t know when to shut his mouth.

He was hitting on my girl.

But none of those are the answers he wants to hear, and the last one isn’t an option. The only thing I can do is drop my head and swallow my pride.

“He got under my skin,” I tell him. “It won’t happen again.”

“Not good enough. You’re one of my best players. I can’t have you getting thrown out of games, especially ones where we have something to prove.”

I nod, accepting that I’m going to be forced to sit out the next game, but Cam shuts his locker and spins around.

“Coach, with all due respect, I’m on H’s side here,” he says.

Coach looks anything but amused. “No shit, Sherlock. He’s your best friend.”

Cam shakes his head. “It’s not that. Some of the guys on the Mariners were trying to use Laiken to fuck with us. I heard them talking about it after the game.”

The possibility passed through my mind at one point, but hearing I was right pisses me off. I hate knowing I played right into their hand. But what I hate even more is that they tried to use Laiken as a pawn.

“Is that true, H?”

I nod. “He said some pretty disrespectful things about her, and I lost my temper.”

Coach glances between Cam and me, then sighs heavily. “Fine, but if it happens again, I’m benching you. No exceptions.”

He disappears back into his office as Cam sits down to pull on his skates. “What did that guy say to you, anyway?”

I’m not surprised Cam didn’t hear it. Ever since he got arrested, he’s been keeping earplugs in during games. At first it was so he didn’t hear things people were saying about him, but after he got used to it, he realized that it helps him focus.

As far as I know, the only person that heard what was said is the ref.

“Just called her a couple inappropriate names and made Laiken spill her drink all over herself so she would have to wear his jersey.”

“Ahh.” He nods. “I was wondering why she was wearing that, but before I could ask her, she changed into yours.”

Huffing, I lace up my skates. “Yeah, there was no way I was letting them get away with that shit. They want girls in their jerseys, they can bring their own puck bunnies with them.”

We all finish getting ready and some of the guys start to leave the locker room. Cam and I stand up to follow and he pats me on the shoulder.

“Coach may disagree with it, but I appreciate you having my back,” he says, making the guilt in me intensify. “Thanks, man.”

I watch as he gets on the ice and all I can think about is how fucked up this all is. He thinks I’m this great friend, and meanwhile I’m lying to him and sneaking around with his little sister—betraying him in a way that’s bound to ruin our friendship.

But I’ve tried to stop.

I’ve tried to stay away from her.

It’s just not something I have the ability to do.

I want her too much.

WALKING THROUGH THE FRONT door, Cam is going on and on about some new play he figured out and how it’s going to be a game changer. Honestly, he’s probably right, if we can get the guys to figure it out. It’s complicated, and it’ll take a lot of practice before we can use it in a game.

As he does every time he comes home from practice, Cam heads straight to the kitchen to refuel. I’m looking down at my phone, smiling at a text Laiken sent me, when his words catch my attention.

“Hey, traitor,” he quips.

Looking up, I see Laiken standing there. She’s leaning against the counter and peeling open a banana.

She scoffs. “Traitor? I wore the thing for all of like two seconds before Hayes got me one from the locker room.”

It’s smart thinking on her part, making it seem like she asked me to grab her something else to put on. Not only does it make her look less guilty, but it makes me look less like the possessive fuck I was being.

“Doesn’t matter. You wore another team’s colors.”

Putting the banana down for a second, she hops up to sit on the counter. “Fine, next time I’ll just walk around in my bra.”

Thank God Cam has his head shoved in the fridge as he grabs everything somewhat appetizing in the fridge, because if it wasn’t, he would see the way my jaw locks and I glare at her.

Don’t you dare, I mouth at her.

She smiles, winking at me before going back to taking all the “stringy things” as she calls them, off the banana. If she was considerate, she would break off a piece and eat it that way. Everyone knows that eating it the regular way looks erotic as hell. But as the devious little smirk appears on her face, I realize that may be her plan.

She’s not.

She wouldn’t.

Oh, who am I kidding? Of course, she would.

And she does, making eye contact with me and everything as she wraps her mouth around the banana like she’s imagining it’s my dick.

I try to look away, to focus on literally anything else, but she’s still there in my peripheral vision, blowing the goddamn banana. There’s no way I can stand here while she does that and look completely unaffected.

“I’ll be back,” I tell Cam. “I need to use the bathroom.”

He waves me off as he opens and shuts another drawer of the fridge. I shoot Laiken a dark look as I pass her, and she chuckles quietly. As soon as I’m safely behind the bathroom door, where my hard-on can go unnoticed until it goes away, I take out my phone and send her a text.

You’re going to pay for that later.