More than Friends

“Yes, Kitten.”

“Please tell me that’s a TV remote or something other than you digging into my ass.”

“It’s a TV remote,” I lie but the laughter in my voice gives me away.

“No, it’s not, you idiot. I know every part of you.”

“I can’t help it, okay? Bedtime is sort of…Just close your eyes and go to sleep.”

She laughs. “If you need to take care of that, I don’t mind. Go take a shower.”

“This is why you are my best friend,” I say laughing against her neck. “I’ll stay until you fall asleep and then go back to my hotel.”

“No, your mom is here and so am I. Spend the night with me.”

She has a good point. There’s no sense in going to my shitty hotel, only to come back in the morning to take my mom to the airport.

“As you wish,” I whisper.

It’s not long before my body returns to normal, and I fall asleep, with Kat snoring in my arms and me wishing we were more than friends.

Chapter 10

Senior Year

Kat

Music thumps through the house, vibrating beneath my feet. The air stinks of sex and sweat, a nauseating mixture that causes my stomach to turn as if this house doesn’t smell bad enough on a normal day. Every year, the Strickland Senators throw a party at the house my brothers and Dean share with their teammates. They get everyone together to celebrate the end of their season, sparing no expense for the event. After another championship, the vibe is electric, making the normal off-campus party even more intense.

Dean and the twins have amassed a crowd around them, a mixture of their teammates and girls who want the chance to hook up with them. I guess that makes me the gatekeeper once again. I am always the shrew who has to beat the skanks away from my men. Most of the time, I do it knowing they want my help. But Tucker looks interested in the brunette dangling on his arm, though I’m not sure whether she has decided if she wants Tucker or Theo.

They play these dirty twin games, as I call them, when it comes to girls and school. It’s hard to tell the twins apart if you don’t know the differences in their personalities, and they take full advantage of the situation. I yell at them all the time for duping people into believing that they are each other. Idiots.

Surrounded by a flock of eyelash batting hockey hookers, I spot Dean pounding another beer. He’s been going full tilt since this afternoon to make up for all the parties he missed during hockey season. Dean is just as strict with his workouts and diet as my family and me. We give ourselves a short amount of downtime after each season ends, which doesn’t last long before we get back to work.

But my career as a hockey player is over. My team didn’t make it to the championship round of the women’s Frozen Four this year, ending my final season on a less exciting note as the men’s hockey team. Unlike Dean and my brothers, I have to enter the real world after graduation.

Dean looks up from the crowd around him, and our eyes meet. He smiles and waves me over, moving the people around him to the side. The girls he pushed away glance over their shoulders at me and give me the usual evil eye I get anytime I am with Dean. Having four brothers has given me a thicker skin when it comes to dealing with catty girls, so I pay no mind to them, as I elbow my way through the throng to get to Dean.

“Kitten.” Dean slurs his words as he takes a strand of my hair and tucks it behind my ear.

“You are so hammered,” I tell him.

“It’s a party.” He touches the bottom of the cup in my hand and lifts it to my mouth. “Drink up.”

I tilt my head back and finish the rest of the beer in the plastic cup, and then grab Dean by the hand. “I need a refill. You are coming with me.”

As I steer Dean toward the kitchen, I laugh to myself as the girls mutter rude comments under their breath to me. “You were done with them, right?”

“Who?” Dean narrows his eyes at me.

“Those girls.”

“I wasn’t even paying attention to them. The only girl I see in this house is you, Kitten.”

I flash a closed mouth smile at him. “Real smooth.”

He slides his arm across the back of my neck, weighing me down. “I don’t have to be smooth. I have a big dick and can shoot a puck.”