Clipped by Love (Bellevue Bullies #2) Read online

  But he won’t.

  I go left again, and when he follows like I wanted him to, I throw the puck to the right, going around him fast. But he’s on me, following, and he poke checks the puck from me. But it doesn’t get far out of my reach, so I take it and spin around once more to go to his right, but when I do, I come down on my knee. I hear the little audience gasp, but I don’t even feel the pain. Jayden doesn’t seem to care one bit because he steals the puck, rushing it back to the goal, looking at me with determination but maybe a bit of concern too.

  Laughing, I skate toward him. If he were smart, he would have rushed the goal and tried to score while I was down, but I respect that he wanted to wait for me to be on my feet.

  “Oh, so a fair player, eh?”

  He laughs, his eyes trained on mine but at the same time on the puck. I can see that he is calculating his next move, and I have no clue why I am turned on by that, but I am. “Canadian, are you? Is that why you think you’re good?”

  Shaking my head, I square up in front of him. “Nope, my dad is. Kind of a habit to say ‘eh,’ and I’m good because I was born to do this.”

  He nods. “So you’re finally dropping the ‘play a bit’ act?”

  I shrug. “I think you knew from the beginning that it was an act.”

  He gives me a knowing grin, one that has my belly fluttering. What a stupid feeling, but it’s happening to me at that second and I refuse to allow it to get me off my game.

  “The socks gave you away. No girl takes stinky socks.”

  I actually giggle, which is pathetic, but I can’t help it. I like this asshole.

  “I’m not like other girls,” I say, and he looks up at me, giving me his full attention.

  “I can tell, but I hope you don’t cry when I beat you. I don’t like when girls cry.”

  “You’re in luck ’cause I don’t cry,” I say, and I take the opening, poking the puck out between his legs, and rushing around him for the puck. Once I have it under my control, I haul ass toward the goal, but like I knew he would be, he’s on me, trying to push it away. But I’m quicker, pressing my hip into his stomach as I inch my way to the goal. Somehow, he’s behind me, almost holding my stick as he tries to push the puck away. My ass is in his groin and I swear he is hard, but I have to ignore that! I have to score.

  With the puck, of course.

  As I press my elbow into his gut, he lets out an oomph and I take that opening, turning and shooting. I miss though, to my dismay. Cursing, I rush with him at my side toward the puck. We reach it at the same time, both throwing elbows and hips, trying to get away from each other.

  “Damn, Jay! Take it easy,” one of his brothers says when his elbow connects with my ribs, but I doubt he hears them. Hell, I hardly hear them until he comes up with the puck, skating toward the pink line.

  Looking at me, he grins. “You okay there, Moore?”

  “Just dandy, Sinclair. You can’t hurt me.”

  Well, he could, but I wouldn’t allow him.

  “Good to know, because I don’t see you as a hot, innocent girl in short shorts and a sexy tank that shows the sides of her tits when she skates hard.”

  A grin comes over my face as it heats to color. “So what you’re saying is, if I wasn’t about to kick your ass, then you’d see me that way?”

  Skating backward, he moves the puck back and forth as he holds my gaze. “Maybe.”

  I chuckle a bit. “So instead, what do you see me as?”

  “My competitor.”

  Yup, I like him a lot.

  “Dude, calm your tits, she’s a chick,” one of them calls.

  “Don’t say that. She’s a dude in a chick’s body. She’s kinda mean,” Delanie says and I grin harder.

  “I am,” I say with a wink.

  “I’m not scared,” he says, holding my gaze. “Not one bit.”

  “Then stop babysitting the fucking puck and try to score,” I challenge and he nods.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he says, and then to my surprise at his size, he cuts left. When I go with him, he goes the other way, getting around me like I’m a fucking rookie and I’m left chasing him. When he goes to shoot, though, I lift his stick, hip checking him, trying to put my weight into him to throw him off, but he hip checks me instead, pain going up my side. Somehow though, I end up with the puck, and when I shoot, this time it clinks on the side of the pipe.

  Since my dad isn’t here, I throw my arms up and grin. “Booyah!”

  “Booyah? What are you, ten?” he asks, getting the puck and skating toward the line.

  “Aw, are you upset? Did I dent your ego?”

  “Baby, you have no effect on me.”

  I laugh at that. “Please, I can see how bad you want to beat me.”

  That has him laughing. “Yeah, I do, but then I want to fuck you too. Can you tell that too?”

  I gasp, my eyes going wide as his bore into mine. His statement has me a little taken aback; he’s so damn blunt and fucking hot! When he flashes me a sexy little grin, I think it was his plan to distract me, because then he’s off to the races, and before I can even try to block him, he shoots, hitting it off the pipe.

  Throwing his hands up, he points his stick at me and says, “Booyah.”

  “Asshole,” I say, taking the puck to the line. “I’m pretty sure you said that to distract me.”

  He shrugs. “Maybe, maybe not. You’ll never know.”

  Shit, why do I want to know? He means nothing to me. Damn it.

  I square off to him and hold his gaze as I move the puck, calculating my next move. I could go left, even right, but a part of me wants to go right the fuck through him. Just to show him not to mess with me. I’m mad that I want to beat him and that I want him too. I don’t like this feeling. It’s weird and scary and I just want him to go away, but then I want to wrap my arms around him and make him tell me I’m pretty.

  I’m insane.

  Deciding that showing him who he is messing with is a good idea, I send the puck through his open legs, and then I go into him with all my might. But he’s a solid fucking wall, and instead of knocking him on his ass, I fall hard on mine.

  And at that moment, I miss my girdle like a normal girl misses her phone.

  With a loud laugh, he turns, taking the puck and ignoring me laid out on the ground before shooting with ease off the damn pipe. Reaching for the puck, he turns and grins at me.

  With a nod as I get up, he says, “I like your tenacity, so yeah, I’ll fuck ya.”

  “Oh my God! Let me rip my clothes off now! Fuck you, and give me the damn puck,” I say, and like I wanted, he passes the puck to me, and I take it to the line as my ass aches in pain.

  “Aww, someone is getting angry!” he teases, his eyes playful, but he isn’t joking. He wants to get under my skin, he wants to beat me, but it will be a cold day in fucking hell before that happens. He has just made it so it’s my life’s mission to ruin him. To cut him down to size.

  “Jayden, that’s enough. Leave her be,” I think Jace calls out.

  “Yeah, man, this is getting to be a little bit too much,” Jude says.

  “Y’all are just fueling her hate-fire,” Delanie says.

  “Yeah, she lives for this shit,” Mandie says, expelling a breath. “I think we should go cook.”

  “Hell no, this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” Jace says.

  “For sure,” Jude agrees, but they are the least of my worries.

  Jayden fucking Sinclair is public enemy number one.

  Coming to me, his grin is unstoppable and his eyes are burning into mine, but I won’t let him get one up on me. He isn’t even that cute.

  “I don’t know if you realize, but I’m winning.”

  “Noted,” I say, glaring as I arch to the left, stretching out my hip, hoping to relieve some of the pain.

  “Are you okay?” he asks softly.

  I look at him and my glare deepens. “Like you care.”

  He smiles. “Ah, that coul