Lucky Score (The Hawkeyes Hockey Series Book 6)

The minute I hear Brynn scream, my eyes fly open, and I realize that the fan in my room and my alarm clock are both off.

We lost power.

Shit.

“Help! Help!” I hear her scream from the bathroom down the hall.

That’s all it takes for me to spring into action.

I’m up and out of bed as fast as I can be, flipping the blanket off of me and getting to my feet.

I reach out quickly, grab the flashlight off my nightstand, and race down the hall toward the bathroom, flicking on the flashlight right before I reach the door.

Did she fall?

Is she hurt?

Something had to have happened for her to call out to me like that.

I run straight for the bathroom door and slam against it when the handle doesn’t turn.

She locked it, obviously.

I give it one more shove with my shoulder, and the door pops open with the splintering sound of wood cracking around the door casing.

I don’t care about the door.

If she’s hurt, I need to get to her.

It’s the only thing going through my head.

The door is a shitty one anyway, and yet another thing I’ve been meaning to replace ever since I bought the house.

The bathroom is just as dark as the rest of the house since the windows are boarded up, covering any reflecting moonlight, though the storm clouds are probably too dark to let much light through tonight anyway.

My flashlight gives me enough light to see Brynn just before she barrels into me.

The minute we collide, she slips from her wet feet, and I catch her, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her against me.

Her soapy, wet, naked body slams against my bare chest, and I feel the wetness from her body soak through my boxers.

Fuck, did she have to be wet?

“Whoa, are you okay?” I ask, looking down at the woman clinging to me to regain her footing.

Now, with her hair washed, the dark mascara cleaned from her fresh face, and the pink back in her cheeks, I can see very clearly that Brynn is a beautiful woman.

Damn it.

This is the last thing I need right now.

“We lost power while I was in the shower,” she says, clutching my arm to steady herself.

I pull her back up onto her feet quickly, and before I even know what I’m doing, I glance down at her bare tits against my chest. I can feel her nipples hardening against my pecs.

Goddamn it, that feels good.

I divert my eyes back up to hers but not fast enough. She just witnessed me checking her out after I bulldozed through the bathroom door that she locked to keep me out.

But what if she had been hurt?

What if I hadn’t gotten to her in time?

Will she believe any of that?

Probably not after I checked out her breasts.

Not exactly my shining moment of chivalry.

But everything happened so fast, and she’s a naked woman who fell into my arms and plastered her body against mine.

It was a reflex.

“Sorry. Shit, I thought you were in trouble.”

She did scream for help, after all.

“The power went out. It started me, that’s all,” she says, letting go of her grip on my arm now that she seems to have gotten back to her feet.

“Here, take this.”

I release my hold on her just as quickly and push my flashlight against her collarbone.

The last thing I need is for her to feel my growing interest as my cock swells with her body up against mine.

Then I swipe the towel off the counter and hand it to her to cover up, looking in any direction other than at her. The moment her arm clutches both items, I spin around and head for the exit immediately.

‘I’ll fix the door tomorrow,’ I call out over my shoulder.

She doesn’t call after me as I trudge past the broken door, and I don’t blame her after what I just did.

I’m not interested in the crazy romance writer who tried to break into my house less than a couple of hours ago.

Besides my niece Cammy, no other woman has ever slept under this roof. And just up until a few hours ago when Brynn showed up, I had no plans to change that.

She might be beautiful with a body to match, but a bedroom wall is all I need to remind myself that Brynn Fischer, romance author and house crasher, is off-limits.

My hands ball up into fists as I march down the hallway, heading for the front door to turn on the generators.

There’s only enough power to run the fridge and a few things during the night, but I can’t have the food in both mine and Rita’s refrigerators going bad.

Getting out of the house where Brynn is standing in my bathroom naked is probably not a bad idea either.

I knew letting her stay would be a problem, but I didn’t have a choice when she showed up on my porch with nowhere else to go.

I flip the deadbolt and the lock on the front door and swing it open. I slam the door behind me to make sure it closes entirely in this wind, and to vent my frustration at my situation.

The wind is howling through the palm trees all around me. The rain hasn’t let up since Brynn arrived, and the moment I step off my covered porch and onto the white sand heading towards Rita’s, the rain continues to beat down on me, stinging as it pelts against my bare skin. I’ll happily take any distraction that puts as much distance between me and Brynn as possible.

I don’t like the way I instantly reacted to her when she called out for me, and I don’t like the way I was willing to do anything to gain access to her.

Having her body up against mine lit something in me that I’d prefer to ignore.

My concern for having her in my space has now been validated, and she has to go.

As soon as physically possible.

Hurricane or no hurricane, I’ll pay whatever it takes to get her into a different house or hotel. I don’t care who I have to bribe to make it happen.

There’s something about Brynn that tells me she’s trouble for me and my future plans.

Keeping her here would be a mistake.

Tomorrow, Brynn leaves…

…or I do.