Page 47 of Pucking Bad Boys

Gen’s tone is condescending. “Sure, and you know that neither did my mom. But they both married NHL stars. Not blue-collar workers who live paycheck to paycheck. We never had to worry about our tuition or sell our cars to help parents who can’t afford to keep a roof over our heads.”

That sounds oddly specific. “What do you mean?”

“You didn’t know?” Olivia chimes in. “Talia’s father lost his business after a work injury, and the family got into debt, and their house was foreclosed.”

“Tucker is going to have a bright future in the NHL,” Gen whispers. “But his sister? If I hadn’t taken pity on her and given her a room in the house, she’d be homeless. She wouldn’t even have a car to sleep in; she had to sell it to pay the fee to stay in Zeta Theta Beta.”

I had no idea about the situation Talia and Tucker’s family is in. “It was good of you to help her, then.”

“Like I said, Tucker is a cool guy. I couldn’t let his sister become homeless. Besides, it would have been a blemish on the reputation of the whole sorority.”

In that moment, Mack walks over to Talia and her friend.

His interest is more than obvious from the way he keeps his eyes on her.

I don’t like that at all, and Genevieve is even more annoyed than I am.

“Although I have to say that I’m beginning to regret helping her. Have you seen that dress? It isn’t even designer.” She says with a shudder.

“True,” Olivia agrees. “It’s definitely an off the rack item.”

Madison’s giggle is full of malice. “Yeah, a clearance rack at a thrift store.”

Fuck. These women are brutal. I’d much rather face a two hundred pound D-man than one of the Zetas any day.

But I can’t let them talk about Talia that way. There is nothing wrong with her dress. She actually looks stunning in it. I’m about to say to her that I don’t appreciate that attitude and that not having money doesn’t make someone inferior. But the DJ chooses that moment to interrupt the background music to introduce a party game.

It sounds complicated, so I stop paying attention and focus on Talia. When is Mack going to leave her alone so I can go say hi to her?

But my brother doesn’t walk away. When the DJ is done explaining the game, he offers his hand to Talia, and she takes it.

I watch him lead her to the dance floor, irritated beyond belief that I wasn’t the one who asked Talia to dance.

“Come on, Becks. Let’s play too.”

No, thanks. The words are on the tip of my tongue, but I swallow them back. I’m not really in the mood to dance with Gen, but from what I gathered about the game’s rules, we can switch dance partners.

“Sure,” I bite out, determined to get to dance with Talia.

I’ll figure out the rest of the rules later.

All the couples on the dance floor begin to sway in sync to the slow song the DJ selected.

Gen and I are right next to Mack and Talia.

She’s close enough that I can take a better look at her. She’s so fucking pretty.

Our eyes meet for a second, but then Mack pulls her closer and whispers something to her, stealing her attention again.

They’re dancing so fucking close that I wish we were back in middle school with chaperones who would make sure that people keep a decent gap between themselves and their dancing partners.

Where the fuck is a chaperone when you really need one? I’m not even saying that because I want Mack to take two steps back from Talia. I’m the one who needs help.

Gen decides to use me more like her personal lap dancing pole than her dance partner.

Her body is practically wrapped around mine. One of her long legs is wedged between mine and the other is curled around my hip.

We’re barely even moving or following the music as she rubs herself against me.