“Why the hell are you staring at my sister?”

Forcing his gaze away from the girl, Karson looked back at Grady and asked, “That’s your sister?”

He nodded. “Yeah, stop staring at her before I kick your ass.”

The whistle blew, signaling it was time for the next in line to go. Karson looked back to see it was his turn, but he didn’t want to move. He wanted to know more about Grady’s sister, despite the fact that Grady would very much follow through with his threat. Digging in, he headed for the goal, ready for the pass. When it came, he shot it right into the goalie’s glove.

Not good.

Letting out a breath, he knew he should have taken that little mess-up as a sign saying he needed to ignore his attraction to Grady’s sister, but instead, his gaze found its way back to her. He couldn’t wait to know more about her.

He was still staring.

Lacey Martin couldn’t believe it, but Karson King was staring at her, like almost undressing her. So bad that she found herself wrapping her arms tighter around herself. He made her feel naked with those caramel-colored eyes fixed on her. She didn’t know why he was staring, but she would be lying if she said she didn’t like it. Even though she wasn’t one of those girls to get completely hung up on a guy, Karson King was beautiful.

He had arresting eyes, dark brown hair that had a red hue to it, and a face that could grace an ad for Calvin Klein. With hard angles, scruff that made him hotter, and a sexy smile, he made Lacey feel like there was a rainstorm in her panties. His body just screamed sex. He had door-busting shoulders, toned and thick in the most delicious way. He was magnificent. She had seen him all over campus; girls flocked to him like he was a famous pro. Even though he was gorgeous, Lacey refused to be one of those girls. Yeah, he had the kind of eyes that could make a girl bend over and take it any way he wanted, and maybe he did have the greatest ass on the team, but she wasn’t stupid. There was no way a guy like that would want her.

Lacey was content with her life. She didn’t need to get her hopes up, thinking that Karson would want something to do with her. Not only would that be dumb, but if it were true, she needed to stay a thousand feet away from him. His rejection could break her and, after the year she had, she didn’t need anything else breaking her. She had finally put herself back together; she was finally getting into the groove of things. Nothing could jeopardize that—not even someone as gorgeous and lethal as Karson King.

She was finally Lacey again.

That was why she was at the arena that morning. She had come to watch her brother play. She missed doing that, and it was worth waking up at the butt-crack of dawn just to see her big brother’s grin when he saw her in the stands. She knew he missed seeing her, and it was nice to be able to start doing the things she had been doing her whole life.

She had always been there, through Grady’s whole hockey career. Being the only girl in the household, she wasn’t allowed to be a girl. The fact that she didn’t have a dick hanging between her legs wasn’t ever brought up. She got dirty, she cussed like a sailor, she knew how to change her oil, and she knew how to hold her own. Girl or boy, Lacey wasn’t going down without a fight. Despite her father wanting her to be the Grady of women’s hockey, she had no interest in playing, but her father would be damned if she didn’t know the ins and outs.

She loved the sport, loved watching her brother play, and even loved skating, but she had no patience when the stick was in her hands. Grady would steal the puck and, instead of trying to steal it back, she would try to physically take him out. Yes, it might be frowned upon, and yes, Grady accused her of having anger issues, but she thought it was more like passion than anything else. Grady didn’t agree, and that was probably why he and their father thought it was crazy that Lacey wanted to design lingerie.

It was such a neat idea though! She had always loved designing things. Clothes, rooms, and even the jerseys that Grady wore, but there was something about bras and panties that just got her gears turning. She loved making sexy things. She loved the feminine part of it, and that was probably because she had been around farts and burps her whole life. Any time she came out in anything remotely sexy, her dad and Grady would throw a fit, so most of the time she walked around covered up like a nun, when all she really wanted was to walk around in lingerie. Well, she did before, now she was perfectly happy being covered up. Before though, it wasn’t as if she wanted to be a ho or anything—she just wanted to feel pretty. But since that might never ever happen again, she decided she would design pretty things for other women to feel beautiful.

So that was what she was going to school for, business and design. It was her first year, and she loved every minute of it. Not only had she made great friends, but she was in the school’s a cappella group, the Catappellas. Yes, she knew the name was dumb, but she enjoyed it so much. Singing had always been a passion of hers and, while she could carry a tune, her love for it wasn’t something she wanted to do with the rest of her life. It was just a pastime.

With the year she had just had, she decided she was only going to do what made her happy. She was going to live life to the fullest—no matter what. Even though the idea of having Karson King interested in her made her all giggly, inside she knew it was a bad idea.

Still though, her gaze fell on the sexy captain who wore number sixteen.

When Coach blew his whistle again, Lacey knew practice was over. She stood and pulled on her gloves, wrapping her scarf around her neck before picking up her books to head out to the rink. She could wait for Grady, but there was no telling if he would be out before her eight o’clock class, so instead, she headed for it. It was freezing out, so she hurried across the quad to Reeding Hall, thankful when the warm air hit her face. Letting out a breath, she headed up the stairs to her class to find that her best friend, Rachel Wise, was waiting for her.