If You Dare: A Hockey Bully Romance

Wes

“You know if you keep bringing her around, she’s going to fall in love with me.”

Chloe rolls her eyes, hands planted on her hips while she watches Violet waddle toward us on her skates. She’s got about five layers to cushion her fall if she hits the ice.

Not if. When.

“Why do you need me here, anyway?”

“I told you, I need you to help me teach her how to skate. I don’t want to be alone if she cracks her head on the ice. Besides, she’s already terrified enough. She’ll feel better having us both here, ready to catch her.”

I bet she would. I bet Violet Harris would love to fall into my arms. And I’d love to play hero. “If she’s so terrified, why is she trying it?”

“Because I dared her to,” Chloe says simply.

I lift a brow in her direction. “So?”

“So that’s our thing, Wes,” my sister huffs. “Come on. If she falls the second her skates hit the ice, we’ll never convince her to try again.”

“Funny how it’s we all of a sudden,” I grumble, but Chloe takes off to the edge of the rink, ignoring me.

Violet’s hair is swept back in a pretty braid. Must be Chloe’s doing. Somehow, she looks goddamn adorable in all those layers. Part of me wishes Chloe wasn’t here so I could persuade her to take them off.

“You know you don’t have to do something just because she dares you to,” I tell Violet. “What if she dares you to jump off a cliff?”

“If Chloe dares me to jump off a cliff, there’s water below, and she’s jumping with me.” They grin at each other, and I can’t help but grin too.

I love my sister, but she hasn’t exactly had many friends. The girls she skates with all see each other as competition, and Chloe’s hectic schedule leaves little room for friends. Not to mention most people are intimidated by her single-minded drive and can’t relate to her dedication.

Even I wonder if I’ll ever live up to my father’s and sister’s accomplishments.

“Take her other arm,” Chloe instructs me.

We both grab one of Violet’s arms. I’m touching her through at least three layers—a winter jacket over her hoodie and a long blue shirt dangling right above her ass—so the contact shouldn’t have this effect on me. Heart picking up speed, cock swelling in my pants, balls tightening.

I love how fragile she is. A primal urge to take care of her sweeps through my veins. To protect her in public so she’ll worship me for it in private.

Violet stares down at the ice with wide eyes, but she nods. “I’m ready.”

I can’t help but admire that she’s willing to do something she’s so scared of, especially because it’s for Chloe. Chloe adores sharing her love of the ice. They haven’t known each other that long, but Violet’s already proving herself to be the best friend Chloe’s ever had.

If she means this much to my sister, there must be something special about this girl.

Violet

Chloe is dying. Surely, her lungs must be bruised by now from all the laughing.

She swipes at the tears leaking from the corners of her eyes and wheezes. “Oh my god. How is a book with such a cute cover so filthy?”

“I didn’t know!” I’m laughing right alongside her.

“‘Come on, little duck. Be my good girl.’” Chloe squeals, kicking her legs in the air. “I love him so much! Why are fictional men so much hotter than men in real life? This is my new favorite book. If all books were like this, I’d be a voracious reader.”

“You told me you haven’t read a book since you were twelve.”

“Exactly.” She waves the romcom in the air. “You need to write a book like this. And dedicate it to me.”

“I am not writing a book like that. My mom will read it!”

Chloe whacks my knee with the book. “And she’d love it! You have to write a smutty story. I dare you to.”

Well, shit. Neither of us has backed down from a dare yet.

She jumps up when there’s a knock on the door, revealing Wes on the other side. My stomach immediately twists with nervous anticipation.

Chloe heaves a heavy sigh. “What are you doing here?”

He rolls his eyes. “Bringing you the snacks you were bitching about.”

Wes holds out a plastic bag, and Chloe snatches it from his hand. “I don’t bitch.”

She spills the contents onto her bed. Mostly protein bars and sugar-free beef jerky to help her stay fit and lean. She holds up chocolate peanut butter cups with a furrowed brow. “I didn’t ask for these.”

Wes’s startling blue eyes land on me. “They’re Violet’s favorites.”

How does Wes know that chocolate peanut butter cups are my favorite candy? I don’t remember telling him that.

However he found out, he went out of his way to get them for me.

I grin, opening up a peanut butter cup and popping it in my mouth. “Thanks.”

Chloe’s eyes flick back and forth between us. She flashes me a knowing little smirk before flouncing out of the room. “I need to pee!”

Leaving me entirely alone with Wes.

“Thanks for the chocolate. I forgot I told you they’re my favorite.”

He sits on my bed like he belongs there. “You didn’t.”

I swallow down the nerves mixed with delight. “Then how did you know? Have you been following me around?” I tease, even though part of me is certain it’s true.

“I’m a busy man, Violet. I don’t have time to follow pretty girls around campus, no matter how much I wish I did.” His lopsided smile tells me he’s lying through his teeth. “But I’ve noticed some things about you.”

“What else have you noticed?” I dare to ask, not sure I want to know the answer.

He leans back, arms folded casually to show off his enormous, corded biceps. “You’re the kind of girl who doesn’t have any confidence in what she says or thinks, even if she’s smarter than everyone else in the room. You’re prettier than you realize. You think you’re lucky just to have a man glance your way, when really a man would be lucky to fall to his knees before you. You think you’re the type of girl who should only want the things that are sweet and nice, even if that’s not what you really want deep down. You’re an iceberg girl—most people only get to see the five percent that’s on the surface, what you choose to show them. But there’s a lot more to you hiding underneath.”

His words utterly silence me. I have no idea what to say to that. No idea how someone who hasn’t known me for long at all could already understand me so well. I am fully clothed, but I might as well be nude in front of him.

“That’s . . . shockingly accurate,” I admit.

“I bet what’s underneath is pretty interesting too.” His ice-blue eyes rake down my body, taking in my flushed neck and chest, hovering over the mounds of my breasts under my sweater, trailing down to the slopes of my hips and my legging-clad thighs.

I swallow around the lump in my throat. Wes doesn’t want a relationship. Not with anyone, and certainly not with me. But if it wasn’t crystal clear before, it is now—he’s interested in me, even if that interest extends only to my body.

Part of me wants to save my first time for the right guy. The guy who will be gentle and caring and loving. My first boyfriend. My first love.

Another part of me wants my first time to be with Wes, no matter what that entails. Even if I’ll never be his girlfriend, even if he’ll never love me, some wild part of me wants to know what it would be like to be naked beneath him. To feel his mouth on my skin and his hard length between my legs.

His eyes dance with amusement, almost like he can read my thoughts. “So what were you two in here giggling about?”

Thank god he changes the subject. I cannot keep thinking about having sex with Wes Novak right in front of him.

“We were reading.”

To my horror, Wes picks up the book splayed open at the end of my bed.

“No—” I reach for it, but his eyes are already skimming the page.

“‘You like my hard, throbbing, monster cock buried deep in that sopping, wet pussy?’” Wes laughs. “Holy shit. The porn I watch isn’t this graphic.”

I reach for the book again, but he stands, holding it well out of reach.

“She moans. ‘Ugh, yes, daddy. My pussy is weeping for you.’ ‘Good girl. You’re going to take it deep. I want every single inch of my cock buried inside you.’”

Even though I’m mortified by what’s happening right now, a thrill zips down my spine at his low, rumbling voice reading the seductive words out loud. My thighs clench. If Wes was a narrator, I would only read audiobooks.

“Is this what you like to write?” Wes asks.

My face is actually on fire. “No, but Chloe dared me to.”

“How are you going to write a smutty story if you’ve never been with a guy?”

“That’s a great question.” I finally manage to snatch the book out of his hand and clutch it to my chest.

His grin turns wolfish. “Maybe someone needs to give you a little inspiration.”

“Next year, we’re getting an apartment with a private bathroom,” Chloe declares, striding into our dorm. She hops on her bed and glances back and forth between us. “What did you two talk about while I was gone?”

I flush and can’t meet either of their gazes.

Wes grins like he scored the winning goal at the championship. “Violet was just telling me she’s looking for some inspiration.”