MAX excerpt (Storm Brothers Book 2)
Share
Emerson
I race through the crowded hockey arena with my camera slung over my shoulder as I follow the moving puck with my gaze. The Montana Wild Kings take control of the puck and push across the blue line, and I freeze in the aisle about ten rows from the ice.
“Hey! Take a seat!” someone yells from behind me.
Without taking my eyes off the action on the ice, I crouch down on the aisle steps and watch as Montana’s first-line left-winger and the opposing defenseman bang up against the boards. I’m so close I can hear the players cursing each other out as they fight for the puck. And then—
Crash!
The boards shake as a third player barrels into the fray. He pokes at the puck with his stick, effortlessly dislodging it from the Florida defender’s skate and taking off down the ice.
“There he is!” the woman says from the seat next to where I’m crouching.
I inhale a sharp breath. Yes, there he is.
Max Storm.
I haven’t seen him in over a decade, and my hands are shaking so much I clench them into fists.
He’s no longer the boy I crushed on as a teenager. He’s a man now. One thing hasn’t changed, though—I’m still the girl on the sidelines, cheering him on while he shines so bright the whole arena can’t take their eyes off of him.
“The rumor is Storm won’t let any woman touch him,” my nosy neighbor shout-whispers.
“He must not date then,” her friend says.
“I went on a date with him,” a third female says confidently.
I dig my nails into my jeans, using every ounce of willpower not to turn and look over at them.
“Did he let you touch him?” the first woman asks.
Long pause.
I’m dying.
“No,” she finally says in a sullen tone. “All he wanted to do was take me as his date to a charity event. He wouldn’t even let me put out afterward. I mean, who does that? Look at me!”
Okay, now I sneak a peek.
Yeah, she’s pretty. Blonde, tanned, despite it being winter in Montana. And she’s confident. She knows she’s attractive, and she wears that knowledge all over her fake-bronzed face.
She doesn’t even spare me a glance, and I turn back to the ice.
Max may not let anyone touch him now, but he wasn’t always that way.
He was my first kiss.
And my first heartbreak.
But that was years ago.
Long before he became a hockey star.
We didn’t keep in contact. He has no idea I’m in Montana.
And I don’t know if he’d even remember me at all.
That’s the last thought I have before Max winds up and fires a shot that ricochets off the defenseman’s stick. It heads straight for our section.
I feel cold, hard heaviness hit me square on the forehead.
And then, the world goes dark.
* * *
Max
Fuck.
I’ve played hockey my whole life.
I’ve never once hit someone in the stands.
It would have been a goal if the damn defenseman hadn’t deflected the puck. Instead, my shot took somebody out. I stare up at the section where the errant puck went. Between the EMTs and the crowd, I can’t see what the hell’s going on.
As the refs call a timeout, I rush off the ice and over to the bench.
“Storm, don’t go up there!” Coach Tucker warns me. “Let the medical staff handle it.”
Fuck that. I toss off my helmet and throw on my skate guards.
“I need to make sure they’re all right,” I say. “I’ll come back in five.” I turn and head up the stairs.
The person is hunched over in the aisle. Her long blond hair is covering her face, and I can’t tell if she’s conscious or not.
I step out of the way as our team doctor hurries ahead and bends down in front of her. After a few minutes of checking in with her, he signals to the two EMTs who are standing with a stretcher.
They carefully lift the woman and place her onto it.
I lean over the stretcher and peer into her face.
With all that blond hair, I can’t see much of anything, but as I stare at her, a tightness hits my chest at the same time that warmth fills my body. I can’t explain it.
I brush a chunk of her hair off her cheek. “Hey,” I say softly. “Are you all right?”
Her eyes flutter open, and she stares up at me.
Gray-blue eyes fix on me in a way no one’s have since…
My hand freezes on her hair, and I’m brought back to twelve years ago. “Emmy?”
Want to continue reading?
Buy the whole series to bundle and save!
DOWNLOAD HOCKEY BUNDLE HERE