Daring the Defender

<p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)><em>There's only one person who would take me in after leaving my fiancé-my brother Axel</em></strong><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Unfortunately he's not the one who answered the door on that wintery Valentine's night. That was his best friend and roommate Reid Wilder. Copper-colored hair dark eyes and the number eight tattooed on his bicep.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>I should have turned around when he mistook me for a puck bunny and invited me in.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>I </span><em style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>definitely</em><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)> should have said no to the drink he offered while I waited.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>But the biggest mistake I made was climbing into his lap and kissing him.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>*</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>The rest of the campus may think it's pathetic that I spent Valentine's Day alone and not with one of the puck bunnies that love the Wittmore hockey players. But I know better. Valentine's Day is for committed relationships-like the one I just got out of with my ex.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Nah I'll just stay home eat my heart-shaped pizza and grab some half-off candy tomorrow. At least that was my plan until a girl showed up on my doorstep looking for my roommate Axel.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Figuring this was a former hook-up I tried to shoo her off but she was persistent.</span></p><p><em style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>And cute.</em></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Axel's got a girlfriend now. I figure why not mend my broken heart with the girl Cupid dropped off at my doorstep? So I kiss her.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Not just a kiss I realize. Her </span><em style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>first</em><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)> kiss.</span></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)><em>And when her overprotective brother finds out?</em></strong></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)><em>It'll probably be my last.</em></strong></p>