The Forbidden Freshman: A College Sports Romance (Nolan U Hockey Book 1)

The thumping on the door roused me, as did something about not bothering to get dressed this morning.

The words take a minute to register, my sleepy brain too slow to calculate them. With a little groan, I roll over and creep my eyes open.

Ethan is gazing at me, but the sweet smile on his face does absolutely nothing to hide his worry.

“What was all that about?” I mumble, my morning voice taking a minute to kick in.

“Uh… just this, um… I have this thing with Asher.” His eyes dart past my shoulder, and I sit up with a jolt, my small boobs jiggling.

His gaze skims my body, and I resist the urge to cover up. He just spent the night exploring every inch of me; I can’t go getting bashful now.

Lightly pinching his chin, I force him to look me in the eye and ask, “What thing? The look on your face tells me it’s not good. So, spill.”

He covers his eyes with a groan, then rattles off the details so fast I struggle to keep up with them. “I made a bet with Asher and lost, so I’m not supposed to have sex for a month.”

I blink. “No sex. For a month?”

“Yeah.” He groans again.

I look down at our naked bodies. “You do realize that what we did last night is called sex, right?”

His dry glare is comical enough to make me laugh, but his lips aren’t even twitching, so I quickly sober up.

“Okay.” I swivel my body to face him, and his hand lands on my hip. I love the way his large fingers curve around my body. He’s so big and broad and beautiful and⁠—

Focus, Mick!

“So… what was the bet?”

He gives me a sheepish wince. “That I could beat him at darts. We’d been drinking,” he adds, as if that explains everything.

“Okay, and you lost, so now you’re not supposed to have sex for a month.” A thought hits me—yes, my morning brain is slow—and I let out a gasp. “Wait. Is that why you kept hesitating over us?”

He gives me a well, duh look, and I can’t help a huge grin. He did want me. He wanted me all along.

“Why didn’t you just tell me? It could have saved a lot of angst, you know?”

“Yeah.” He squeezes my hip, his eyes lingering over my body before he looks up at my face again. “But it was part of the deal. I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone so that girls would think I wasn’t into them.”

“Well, it worked,” I mutter, then narrow my eyes at him. “So, you broke the rules last night. Obvi.” I point between us. “What are the consequences for that?”

His expression buckles, and my insides jolt with alarm. Every guy, no matter how amazing they are, has at least one asshole gene. Some have many, and that look on Ethan’s face is warning me that Asher has a whole bunch of them.

“What do you have to do?” I practically growl.

He throws back the covers with a sigh, exposing his long, glorious body to me as he rises out of bed. His ass cheeks clench when he mutters to the wall, “I have to spend the day naked.”

“Naked?”

“Yeah.” He spins around with a sigh. “I’ve got to walk around campus naked.”

“What?” My eyes bulge. “No way! You are not doing that.”

“I have to.” He flings his arms wide and starts heading for the door.

I scramble off the bed and chase him, grabbing his arm and spinning him back around. He could get into so much trouble for that. Someone will call the campus police, and he’ll get arrested. Sure, he might only get a slap on the wrist, but it’ll still go on his record, and what is his coach going to say? He might get suspended and miss the start of the season, or worse! If he gets kicked off the team over this, I’ll⁠—

“No.” I give him a pointed look. “You’re not doing this.”

“A bet’s a bet, Mick. I’m a man of my word, and I have to follow through.”

He goes to move again, but I squeeze his wrist and keep him put, taking another step forward and wishing I was tall enough to eyeball him. I could spout off about all this hockey stuff, but I’m sure he’s already thought that through.

Yet he still gave in to his desire for me. I made him break this bet. Sure, I didn’t know it, but I was kind of demanding about the whole sex thing, needing to rid myself of these insecurities.

Dammit! I won’t let him do this.

And besides all that, I’m not letting him walk out the door butt naked for the rest of the world to see.

“You’re mine now,” I tell him. “And you’re not walking around campus so everyone can check out the goodies.” I point at his glorious manhood. “That junk belongs to me, and it’s for my eyes only.”

He lets out a surprised laugh. “You can’t own my junk.”

My right eyebrow arches as I throw him the most challenging look I can muster.

He throws one right back at me, so I let him go, crossing my arms with a nod that makes my insides flail.

But it’s the only thing I can think to do.

“Okay, fine.” I go to move past him, reaching for the door handle.

“What are you doing?” His voice pitches with alarm.

I look over my shoulder at him. “If you’re gonna walk around naked, then so am I.”

“No fucking way.” He wraps his arm around my waist, lifting me off my feet and pulling me back from the door.

“But you can’t own my body. I can show it to whoever the hell I want to.”

He growls, setting me down by the bed and pointing at me. He’s about to say something that will spark an argument between us, but bring it on.

I am not letting him do this!

He opens his mouth and snaps it shut when someone starts pounding on the door again. “Let’s go, lover boy! Time to pay up!”

“In a minute!” Ethan thunders over his shoulder while I shout in a bright voice.

“Come in.”

Ethan’s head whips around, and he gapes at me with a horrified glare as the door pops open. Jumping in front of me, he covers my naked body with his own, reaching back to snatch my arms so I can’t dart around him and show… oh, it’s Asher… that I’m not wearing a stitch.

Ethan’s broad frame blocks most of my view, but when I try to peek around his arm, he quickly jerks my body back behind his.

I can’t see Asher’s face right now, but I can tell he’s grinning. “Looks like you’re ready to go.”

With a little grunt, I fight Ethan’s hold and pop my head out around his arm. “Not yet. We’re just discussing something.”

Ethan growls and spins around, pulling me close so my breasts are squished against his hard torso. His protective arms keep me in place, and I stay still, figuring Asher even seeing one nipple might just kill Ethan on the spot.

“You’ve got three minutes, dude. Then it’s on.” Asher walks away with a laugh, and I wrestle myself free of Ethan’s hold.

Looking up with an arched brow, I quietly warn him, “If I can’t stop you doing this, then you can’t stop me. You can try, but you will fail. I will strip my clothes off in the middle of the quad if I have to.”

His nostrils flare as he points at the bed behind me. “I will tie you up in here and lock the door.”

I can’t help a short snicker. Ethan’s angry face is kinda cute. I’m pretty sure he’ll hate to know that, so I lick my lips and give him an unrelenting look. “No you won’t, because I will get you back so hard for doing that to me.” I point at him. “Now, you need to stop this, or I will.”

“And how the hell are you gonna do that?” He crosses his arms, his frown annoyingly skeptical.

I wish I had some eloquent, genius thing to say, but I’m working on the fly here.

Truth is, Ethan’s the wrong person to be arguing with.

“I need to talk to Asher,” I mutter under my breath, grabbing Ethan’s T-shirt off the floor and throwing it on before bolting from the room.