Page 20 of Pucking Your Best Friend

“Of course I would be — I’m beautiful! The answer is still no.”

Frustrated, she groaned and released him. “God, what good is it to know a famous ice hockey player if I can’t use him for my own financial gain?”

“It brings you a wonderful friendship?”

“Yeah, yeah, right.” She made a grumpy face. “But seriously, Matt, it’s your loss. Our questionnaire works and you’ll miss out on your true love.”

“Oh, I’m more of the brief affair type anyway, so it doesn’t bother me at all.”

“Matt!”

“No.” Wide-eyed, she stared at him and batted her eyelashes.

Fighting a bad feeling, he shifted from one foot to the other. God, he couldn’t ever let on how well that expression worked. He immediately felt guilty and she looked so damn cute and innocent. He knew the effect was deceptive, however.

“No,” he stated, remaining steadfast.

“Why not? You don’t even have to actually date. We could just pretend you’re serious so I can get some good publicity.”

“Hm,” he uttered, then leaned forward and started tugging on her earlobes. He frowned and leaned first to the right and then to the left with narrowed eyes.

Maddie flinched and hastily rubbed her ears. Goosebumps had visibly risen all the way down her neck. “What are you doing?”

“Checking if there’s anything wrong with your ears. My answer was no!”

After all, he had just decided to take a break from dating.

With a sigh, her shoulders sagged. “Great! Can you at least ask the team? Maybe someone is looking for their dream woman. Or dream man. It would help me a lot.”

“I don’t think that…”

“Just ask, okay? For me?” She raised her eyebrows.

He groaned and rubbed his eyes. “Fine. For you. God, you don’t play fair.”

She smiled contentedly. “I guess I’d make a good hockey player, wouldn’t I?” she said, then walked past him toward the bedrooms, grabbing her suitcase along the way. Instead oftaking the door to the guest room, however, she pushed open the one to his own bedroom.

“Oh. I’ve never been in here before,” she announced, setting down the suitcase and entering.

He quickly followed. That was his room. He slept in it and…did other things.

“Nice photo,” she said, nodding at the large print of mountains and a gray stone mansion that hung over his huge, unmade bed. “Is this your parents’ winery?”

“Yep,” he said curtly, nervously pushing the sleeves of his shirt down his arms.

It was strange to see her standing so close to his bed. It created a strange knot in his stomach that he couldn’t quite place. Maddie wasn’t a woman he associated with his bedroom and certainly not with his bed. At most, he associated her with…her own bed. No, actually,no bed at all.Maddieandbedwere two words that had no connection whatsoever.

“It seems much cozier in here than in the living room,” she stated, nodding at the bookshelves on the walls, the large brown armchair in one corner, and the red carpet on the floor. “And now I know for sure you have handcuffs just lying around.” Grinning, she pointed to the pair of pink fur handcuffs lying on the shelf next to theGame of Thronesbooks.

Okay, it was getting uncomfortably warm in here. “They’re merely decorative,” he replied hastily, his mouth suddenly far too dry, and stepped forward to guide Maddie out of the room by her shoulders. Those were two more words that didn’t belong in the same sentence:Maddieandhandcuffs.

Maddie chuckled loudly. “Decorative…”

“I’ve never used them. Nell gave them to me for my eighteenth birthday. As a joke.” It was the truth, but he could tell from Maddie’s expression that she didn’t believe him.

“Yeah, sure,” she said lightly, and then her gaze briefly slid to the ceiling.

Matt chuckled loudly and pushed her back into the living room. She hadn’t really done that, had she?

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