Page 38 of Pucking Your Best Friend

Matt flicked the handle to make the showerhead run ice-cold. He squinted, cursing, and turned it off.

Shit, what was he doing?

His phone vibrated as he stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel. He glanced at the display and saw a message from Dax:

Ice Lounge in an hour. Come and don’t be a chicken.

Then came a gif of a chicken running around headless. Dax had only started sending gifs since he hooked up with Lucy. The whole James family bombarded each other with them.

Matt snorted loudly, not sure if he wanted to listen to another round of annoying jokes. He wrapped the towel around his shoulders and reached for another one just as the door opened.

His heart skipped a beat and he froze. He had been so lost in thought that he had obviously forgotten to lock the door. He was wearing a towel — but around his damn shoulders, not his waist.

Maddie stared at him. She ripped the headphones out of her ears and her eyes widened. Then her gaze wandered. And wandered.

Over his shoulders to his bare chest where the drops were still trickling down. They slid down his six-pack, lower…

Time stood still.

Maddie licked her lips. Swallowed. Then she seemed to realize what she was doing.

Suddenly, she jumped back in shock and put her hand over her eyes. “Oh my God,” she blurted out. “Oh my God, oh my God. You’re naked. A naked man.”

She opened her fingers an inch and looked at his face, but then her gaze wandered to another spot as if she just couldn’t control it.

Matt’s heart pounded as heat spread like wildfire through his body. Shit, now he was getting hard. And no towel could have hidden that.

Swearing, he slammed the door shut so that it shook in the frame.

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Oh my God, Matt. I’m so sorry!” Maddie called through the door, a hint of panic in her voice.

Yes, that was just what a man wanted to hear from a hot woman that had just been staring at his penis a little too intensely.

He groaned and buried his face in his hands, heat still pulsing through his veins. Everything in his body stiffened.

Maddie’s hungry gaze. Her dilated pupils. The moment she licked her lips.

“Fuck,” he whispered, turning his back to the door and leaning his forehead against the cold tile wall, then punching it with his fist. Anything to cool his body down.

He had to get himself under control, pretend it was no big deal.

Although,no big dealwas another phrase no guy wanted to say, let alone hear, when he was naked.

They were friends. Just friends. He didn’t want to ruin it. He needed Maddie. She was his anchor – outside of the game, outside of hockey. She was the person he talked openly with about everything.

About everythingexcept this.

“Sorry, Matt. I thought you were still at the arena!” Maddie’s muffled voice came through the door as he hastily pulled another towel from the rack and tied it around his waist.

“I’m not,” he replied tersely, splashing cold water on his face. He took long, deep breaths.

“I can see that! But usually, you shower there.”

“Not today.”

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