Page 1 of My Brother's Best Friend

CHAPTER1

MADDIE

“Here’s to the start of an undefeated Redwood hockey season!” my brother, Oliver, shouted over the rap music blasting in my parents’ living room.

I ran a hand over my face and groaned through the phone at the noise … and at the scene unfolding in front of me.

Oliver’s entitled man-whore best friend, Alec Wolfe, stood next to him on the coffee table, throwing back a shot of tequila while a group of half-naked hockey groupies and teammates roared wildly around them.

I held my phone to my ear and glared at Alec fondling Sandra, his ex-girlfriend and one of the popular girls at Redwood who made my life a living hell.

“God,” I growled, hand tightening around the stupid piece of metal in my hand. “I hate him so freaking much.”

“Why don’t you come over to my house?” Vera, my bestie, asked through the phone. “It’s quiet, and it doesn’t have smelly-ass boys in it. They probably didn’t even shower after that game. I can smell their BO from here.”

Alec licked the last drop of tequila off his lips and hazily gazed in my direction with his dark, hooded eyes that I fuckingloathed seeing every day. And then this dickhead had theaudacityto smirk.

To smirk at me!

I wanted to kill him.

So many Redwood groupies had been graced with the infamous Wolfe smirk, but Alec had barely evenlookedin my direction since he and Oliver had started hanging out five years ago. I didn’t know what this little smirk was all about tonight.

We hated each other. Well, mostly, I hated him because he was a disgusting man-whore who couldn’t keep it in his pants, he was fine as hell, and he couldn’t spare me a single moment out of the damn day.

Ugh, whatever.

“Too distracted?” Vera hummed, a small giggle escaping through the phone.

“Yeah, sure,” I said sarcastically. “Distracted by Alec grinding up against three girls.” My hand tightened around the phone, and I glared harder at him so he’d look away, but he didn’t. I gritted my teeth. “I’ll be over soon.”

This was exactly why I left the house anytime Oliver threw a stupid party.

Alec hopped off the table, grabbed a red Solo cup from one of his teammates, and stumbled in my direction, his gaze on me the entire time. Not even glancing back at a cheerleader who pulled off her top.

Wanting to distance myself from him, I swallowed hard and made a beeline for the kitchen. “See you in a half hour, V.”

I slammed my finger on the End Call button and slipped into the other room, hoping that Alec somehow lost his way in my parents’ fucking mansion.

After grabbing a cup, I filled it with water from the fridge and chugged it. All I had to do was grab some overnight clothes from my bedroom and force my way through the crowd of smelly boys in the living room, and then it’d just be me and Vera for the rest of the?—

Someone seized my waist from behind and tugged me closer until I collided with a hard, taut chest. The scent of Alec’s cologne that I knew all too well drifted through my nose. Alec grazed his nose against my ear, the stench of alcohol coming off him in waves.

“Looking for me, Cupcake?” he murmured into my ear.

A wave of heat ran through my entire body.Fuck.

I twirled around and slammed my hands into his chest, my fingers brushing against the thick muscle that lay underneath his V-neck. I clenched my jaw and ignored the warmth building between my legs. “What the hell are you doing?” I whisper-yelled, not wanting anyone to see.

Alec Wolfe had never touched me like this, had never even looked twice in my direction … when he was sober. Now that he was hyped up on hard liquor, I bet he thought I was another one of his little groupies.

Probably couldn’t even see straight.

Stumbling back, he drunkenly grinned at me. “What does it look like? I want to dance with the sexiest girl at Redwood tonight.” He stepped closer to me, his large hands resting on my waist again. “Come here.”

I pushed Alec away and ignored those sultry eyes that he was giving me. He was drunk and mistaking me for someone else because popular guys like himneverliked nerdy, awkward girls like me. Except in Vera’s case with her skateboard-loving bad-boy fling.

“Why don’t you go back out to the living room with your girlfriend?” I huffed.

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