Dangerously Yours: Caught Between My Step Brother and His Rival

"Give it back, Chloe." "Or what, charity case?" Chloe laughed, dangling my plain grey tee over the disgusting, sweat-stained locker room floor. My heart was already hammering. "Just drop the shirt. Practice ended twenty minutes ago and the guys are going to be out of the showers any second." "That's kind of the point, isn't it?" Chloe replied with a venomous smile. She tossed her perfect blonde hair over her shoulder, smiling like she’d already won. I had only taken the sweaty shirt off for two seconds to change into a clean one after hauling two hundred pounds of hockey gear across the rink, but Chloe had snatched it right out of my hands. "Are you gonna cry?" Jess snickered from the doorway, loudly popping her chewing gum. She was standing guard, making sure nobody came in while they messed with me. That made three of them: Chloe, Britt, and Jess. Three perfectly manicured, vicious cheerleaders who had decided I was their target for the day. Without my shirt, I was standing in the middle of the men's locker room wearing nothing but a paper-thin white camisole and tiny spandex workout shorts. The air conditioning blasted against my bare skin, raising goosebumps that had nothing to do with the cold and everything to do with the panic rising in my throat. "You seriously think you belong here?" Britt stepped away from the metal lockers to box me in. "You're just the unpaid intern who washes jockstraps. You're practically the help." "I manage the team's equipment," I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest. "And I input the training stats. Something you wouldn't understand since your brain cells are too busy fighting for their lives." "b***h," Britt spat, taking a threatening step forward. "Ooh, she's got claws," Jess laughed from the door. "Too bad she dresses like she raided a lost and found bin." "Let her be, guys," Chloe smirked, stepping closer to me. "We all know why she really took this internship. You think we don't see how you look at the players? Specially the captains." "I don't look at anyone.” "Lie," Jess coughed into her hand. "Cole is off-limits," Chloe went on, her voice dropping like a warning. "And Ryder? Please. He wouldn't look twice at a girl like you. He transferred here from King's Academy. He's old money, top-tier draft pick material. You're just... the sad little girl picking up his dirty laundry." "I literally don't care about Ryder or Cole," I lied. My heart pounded a little harder at Cole's name. If Chloe knew Cole was actually my stepbrother, she’d probably lose her mind. But keeping our parents' sudden marriage a secret was the one massive rule Cole had drilled into my head since we got to campus. “To everyone else, we are nothing.” That was his strict command, and I couldn't risk breaking it now no matter how badly I wanted to throw it right in her face. "Good. Keep it that way," Chloe sneered, stepping right into my personal space. "Because the pro scouts are coming next month. The coach made them co-captains to see who breaks first. It's a bloodbath out on the ice. Ryder and Cole hate each other's guts. But Ryder is going to win that pro spot. And he's mine." "You guys broke up three months ago," I said, unable to stop myself from poking the bear even though I knew I should keep my mouth shut. Her face went red. "We are on a break!" she snapped. "Just take the picture and let's go," Britt muttered, already pulling out her own phone. "It stinks in here." Chloe's eyes lit up with a wicked idea. She pulled her phone out of her expensive designer bag. The camera lens glared right at me. "Actually, I think the whole school needs to see how the little intern dresses when she's trying to seduce the hockey team." "Hey! Put that away!" I lunged for her. But Britt shoved me back hard by my shoulder, while Jess laughed cruelly from the door. I stumbled, my bare back slamming into the cold metal of the lockers behind me with a loud clang. Pain exploded across my spine. My entire college scholarship flashed through my mind in one second. If a video of me half-naked in the men's locker room went viral, the coach would fire me before I could even explain myself. Everything I had scraped and fought for… gone. "Smile, Amy," Chloe laughed, tapping the bright screen to start recording. "Delete it. Right now." My hands balled into tight fists. "What's the caption?" Britt asked, leaning over Chloe's shoulder. "Slutty intern caught waiting for the team?" "Perfect," Chloe giggled. "Post it to the main campus page," Jess suggested from the door, malice dancing in her eyes. "I said, give me the damn phone!" I shouted, pushing past Britt. But before I could reach Chloe to snatch the phone out of her hands, the heavy frosted glass door to the shower room banged open hard against the wall. Thick white steam poured out into the main locker area, instantly carrying the sharp, clean scent of mint body wash and damp heat. The cruel laughter died instantly. The locker room fell so quiet I could hear the hum of the overhead lights and the steady drip of water hitting tile. "What the hell is going on out here?" a deep, rough voice demanded. Ryder stepped out of the steam, dripping wet. A white towel hung dangerously low on his hips, clinging to the deep V-line carved into his lower abdomen. Water ran down his sculpted, muscular chest, tracking over the dark ink of a tattoo on his ribs before disappearing into the terrycloth. His wet hair was a dark, dishevelled mess across his forehead, and his eyes were the kind of pale blue that looked less like a colour and more like shattered ice. He didn't look like a regular college student. Standing there, he looked like violence wrapped in a really expensive package. "Ryder!" Chloe's entire personality flipped in a heartbeat. The venom vanished, replaced by a high-pitched, fake-sweet voice that grated on my ears. She quickly lowered her phone, pasting on a bright smile. "Hey. We were just... waiting for you." Ryder didn't even look at her at first. His cold, intimidating eyes slowly swept the room, assessing the situation in a fraction of a second. His gaze landed on Britt, who practically shrunk under his stare. Then he looked at Jess frozen at the door. Finally, he looked at my discarded grey shirt on the floor before his eyes landed on me. I stopped breathing completely. His gaze dragged slowly up my bare legs, lingering heavily on the thin, practically see-through camisole hugging my chest, before finally meeting my wide eyes. A muscle feathered dangerously in his tight jaw. A beat of total silence stretched between all of us. Then his voice came out low and flat, breaking the silence. "Give me the phone, Chloe.”