Page 23 of The Penalty

“Bo Bo!” I singsong at my brother.

He scoops me up in a hug that warms my soul while crushing my body. Then he drops me back on my socked feet unceremoniously, eyes tracking down straight to my right middle toe sticking through a gaping hole. Is that what you call your second toe?

There’s a slight twist of disbelief to his lips when he drags his eyes back up. “Hey, little sis. What happened? Did you leave your hairbrush at home? Dad cut off your sock allowance? I’ve missed you.”

“Not like we didn’t see each other over the summer.” I shove him. But I am happy we’ll be closer together this year. The past three years while we were at separate colleges was the longest span of time I’ve been apart from my twin. And even though he drives me bananas sometimes, I missed him.

“This is Lucy. He’s going to be the muscle today. Lucy, my little sister Cece.”

I laugh, glancing at Beau’s tall frame. Not like he can’t handle the heavy lifting, but I appreciate the help.

“Not little.”

As I’m standing on my tiptoes to peer over his shoulder, my mouth falls open, friendly greeting dying a quick death on my lips. The only part of my frozen body that’s moving is my stomach frolicking from my abdomen to my chest and back. I slow blink, trying to clear away the hallucination, but he’s still there looking all real, and huge, and... delicious. His stubble has grown out into a short, dark beard and my fingers are itching to run through it.

“Hi, I’m Devlin. You can call me Dev.” There was a brief jolt of shock on his face, but he recovers faster than me, holding out a hand past my brother while I’m still grappling to calm my racing heart.

“But.” I glance from Beau to Dev, ignoring the large hand hanging in the air between us. This can’t be happening.

Beau’s brow scrunches in confusion. “Cece? You, okay?”

I give my head a shake, reaching out a tentative hand. We share the fastest handshake known to humankind. I don’t think the Flash could have beaten me on this one. There’s still a sizzle of awareness at the brief contact. My skin heats, and electricityzips up my arm at the memory of where those hands have been and what they did to me.

“Nice to meet you, Dev. I didn’t realize Lucy wasn’t your actual name.” Not that it’s uncommon for the hockey team to have nicknames for each other. He calls his teammates all kinds of crazy things, but a lot of them are based on their real names. I was kind of assuming Lucy was short for Lucius, or Lucas, or maybe it was from his last name. Why can’t he be a Lucas? Why does he have to be my Dev? Star of the top three orgasms of my life. He blew away my previous top three all in one weekend. The window... Did that happen, or did I imagine the whole thing?

He clears his throat, shifting on his feet. “Yeah, it’s uh, Devlin. Like the devil. Lucifer.”

The loud smack of Beau’s hand slapping him on the back has me wincing, but he barely rocks on his feet.

“Don’t be so modest, Lucy. It’s actually because his feet smell like he spends his nights in the bad place.”

Dev’s lips press together in a thin line, and his already dark eyes are shadowed by his lowered brow. “Fuck off, Bo Bo.”

It’s a pleasure watching my brother get the shit thrown right back in his face.

“You planning to let us in?” My brother’s blond brow arches up toward his perfectly gelled hair. Which reminds me of the hot mess on top of my head I was trying to fix when they showed up early. “If not, I’m sure I can find something better to do with my day.”

I glance down at the clothes that didn’t seem so bad when it was only supposed to be my brother and some unknown frat boy hockey player. Not his unbearably hot roommate who I happened to see naked a couple of weeks ago. Naked and the embodiment of male perfection.

“Right. I’m so sorry. Welcome to my delightful abode.” I step back, swinging the door wide to let them in, and swooping my arm in what I hope is a welcoming sweep. “Over here you’ll find the nothing. This room is the void of emptiness. And over there,” I gesture toward the kitchen, “the black hole of ingredients. Make yourselves uncomfortable.”

Dev lets out a small bark of laughter, while Beau shakes his head, rolling his eyes at me.

“Hilarious. That is why we’re here, isn’t? Or is this the wrong address? Hang on, I’ll tell the driver to head over to my place until I can sort this out.”

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t know why you keep playing that silly game on skates when you’ve got such a promising career in comedy. Get to work then. Bring me my stuff. Preferably my couch first. Then I can take a seat like the queen I am and supervise my loyal subjects to make sure they don’t break anything.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Forget it, little sis, you are helping. Not going to make us sweat while you lounge around like a diva.”

I can picture the sweat beaded on Dev’s sculpted body. Dripping down his forehead as he slammed into me. Every muscle flexing.

“Hello, Cece. You still with me?”

I snap my focus back on my brother, which is the rudest of awakenings from that brief fantasy. “Yes. I’m here.”

“Are you feeling okay? You look a little flushed. You don’t have a fever, do you?” My loving brother backs a couple of steps away from me as if I’ve got the black plague. Actually, he might be less upset about that than he would be if he discovered I slept with one of his best friends. A hockey player, no less.

It shouldn’t matter. I’m a grownup. And not some sweet, innocent virgin who had her virtue stolen. But since Deacon... he’s kept me away from his hockey friends. Even when I got dragged to practice, he warned them away from me. Which was never really a problem. After I got abandoned for the game and the lifestyle, I wasn’t too keen on going back there. My little foray out on the ice turned me off hockey players.

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