Page 29 of Rule Breaker

“The only game I play is hockey, so the answer to your question is no. Now stop talking in circles, and say what you mean. One moment we were reading each other’s essay, the next?—”

Kayden scoffed and looked away. “Youwrote an essay. Like a PhD thesis. And I wrote… I wrote shit.”

“What?”

Wait. This is all about that econ essay?

“I’m sure you had a good laugh about it,” he continued. “Stupid Kayden who can’t write. Were you gonna tell everyone on the team about how dumb I am?”

His assumption hit me like a two hundred pound skater at full speed. He thought I was going to do that to him? Then again, he didn’t know me at all.

“I don’t think it and I would never say it. You’re making an accusation that has no basis in fact. I offered to help you. Now you’re accusing me of what? Making fun of you? I didn’t fucking do that. And I wouldn’t.”

Kayden looked up and finally met my gaze. “It hit me in the library that maybe you were, you know, getting close to me just to turn around and?—”

“And what, bully you?”

Kayden nodded, biting his lower lip. “It’s happened before. I start to trust someone, and then they do a one-eighty and blindside me. It’s like getting cross-checked from behind. It hurts worse because you’re not prepared.”

I yanked off my mask, finally able to breathe.

“You don’t know me, and I don’t know you. But I’ll tell you something; what you see is what you get. If I have an opinion about you, I’ll say it. Flat out. I don’t evade, I don’t play mind games, and I don’t fucking bully.”

Kayden said nothing. He stared at me for a moment and…skated away.

Whatever. I had no more talk left in me.This. This was why I didn’t bother making friends. What a fucking headache. And it stung. Given my sharp mouth, it wasn’t surprising that Kayden thought the worst of me. Who was I kidding? I wasn’t good for anyone, not as a friend, and least of all for someone like him.

I slowly made my way down the ice, back to my net. I waited there for a while, alone, letting the cold and the quiet calm me.

Once I was ready, I headed for the boards. The locker room had to be empty by now. And when I got there, thankfully, it was. I undressed and headed for the showers.

Only, I was wrong. Therewasa player here. And, since it was an open shower room, I could clearly see that the player in question was Kayden.

Hot water sluiced down his broad back, between his shoulder blades and lower, over his taut ass. I stopped short because I couldn’t stop staring at him, my mouth suddenly dry.

Kayden was…fuck, I couldn’t deny it. The guy was hot as hell. There. I’d said it. I could admit when a guy was fit. It’snot like I was immune to good-looking people. And he was. Nothing but hard muscles and smooth skin that was marred only by hockey bruises and sprinkled with golden hair. And freckles. Everywhere.

He lifted his head back and the water poured down over him. The scene reminded me of a Greek statue coming to life. Then I imagined Kayden trying to sit still long enough to pose for an artist and I bit back a laugh. Man, I had to stop doing that. Laughing. And staring at my teammate’s body. Especially that big, round hockey ass.

But it was his posture—hands on the wall, shoulders slumped—that had me concerned.

Before I could think about it, I wandered into the room and turned on the shower across from him. I could’ve sworn I felt his eyes on me. And my cock—wayward bastard that he was—started to get hard. Okay, it chubbed up when I walked in here and saw Kayden naked, but now my dick was getting to full mast and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

Think of something, anything, to calm down.

With my back to him, I scrubbed up and ignored my dick. Which was painfully hard, curled up against my abs.

Flashes of someone touching me, jerking me off, flooded my mind and I couldn’t shut it off. But the hand that was touching me wasn’t a woman’s. It was big and calloused, the rough grip teasing my skin. Worst of all? The hand was covered in freckles.

Stop it.

Despite deep breaths and repeated attempts to calm down, my erection didn’t flag. Neither did the images of me and Kayden.

I heard Kayden’s shower shut off and prayed that he was going to leave and leave now. Why the fuck had I wandered in here? To clean up, duh. But as soon as I saw him, I should’ve waited. Why couldn’t I just wait until he was done?

When his footsteps got farther and farther away, I breathed a sigh of relief. Glancing around, and now that I was alone, I poured more soap into my hand and tugged on my cock, jerking off hard and fast. I shouldn’t be doing this, not here, not now, but I didn’t care. I needed to come so badly. I closed my eyes, and all I could see was Kayden kneeling at my feet, his big hand stroking my dick.

Oh fuck.