Page 47 of Risky Play

Chapter Thirteen

MADDIE

The hurt cut deep when I woke up naked and alone in my bed. I wasn’t stupid; I knew he’d still keep me at arm’s length after our night together. But I hadn’t expected him to run out on me without a goodbye.

I told him it was ‘just sex.’ So why should he have treated me differently from any other one-night stand? I had no right to be upset. And yet, I couldn’t help the way my heart felt gutted at his absence.

Last night, he made me feel like we could have something more than a strained friendship riddled with sexual tension. In my wildest dreams, I knew it wasn’t possible. No matter how much I liked him or how Dinah buttered up my brother. Noah would never accept me dating one of his teammates.

I climbed out of my bed at the sound of my alarm ringing, and I moaned in pain from the soreness between my thighs. Practice was going to kick my ass today. But it had been so worth it. Playing club was a breeze compared to the level of competition at my old university, but it didn’t mean I didn’t hustle on the ice. Not sure I could slack off today with the Ice Queen nipping at my heels. Elsa was far too serious about her hockey. I might have appreciated that intensity last year or if I was trying to make the national team, but not when I was playing club hockey to an audience of hockey moms.

I dressed and ate breakfast in my room while I checked my email and made notes in my planner for my to-do list. I had stuff I needed to do for Dinah, and she kept nagging me to come to the game tonight, but I couldn’t do that after I slept with Matt. I needed some distance. Or else my heart might get more ideas than it already had.

I went to class, but my mind kept wandering, running over the way Matt held me tight last night and how his kisses made me feel that spark of electricity. All I could think about was how much I wanted to do it again, but that was an impossibility.

I went through the rest of my day in a daze, and I didn’t even flinch when Elsa snapped at me for being late to practice.

“Dude, chill!” Kiira came to my rescue. “She’s five minutes early.”

“If you’re five minutes early, you’re on time,” Elsa snipped and then took off in the direction of the ice, her blonde braid whipping around behind her.

“What’s her problem?” my linemate, Karen, asked me.

“No clue,” I said as I got dressed.

“She needs to get laid,” Kiira joked.

“Maybe,” I conceded.

The conversation forced my thoughts back to last night again. I was supposed to feel better now that I finally got laid, but I felt so blah. Not that it wasn’t good—it was—I just wasn’t sure how to process the confusing thoughts in my brain. God, maybe I should have fucked one of those douchey hockey bros instead of the sweet gentlemanly one I was crushing on.

I tied my skates, and when I got up, my inner thighs screamed. “Fuck me.”

“What’s with you?” Karen asked.

“Nothing. Sore from last practice?” I lied but said it like a question because I couldn’t believe my own lie.

She raised an eyebrow at me. “Is that so?”

“Uh-huh.”

A smirk worked its way up her mouth. “No way. You got it in last night, didn’t you?”

I felt heat rise to my face. “Uhhh…”

Karen gave me a smile. “Holy shit, good for you.”

“Hell yeah. No more pesky virginity for this one,” Kiira cheered and danced in her goalie gear.

“Kiira!” I hissed.

I had told her that in confidence. She gave me shit for virginity being a social construct, and when I told her I wasn’t completely innocent, she said oral sex was still sex, so I wasn’t a virgin.

Kiira pulled her goalie mask down before making her dramatic exit out of the locker room.

I sighed when I found my teammates still sitting around grinning at me.

“Was it good?” one teased.