text-align: start">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.

I should have turned around when he mistook me for a puck bunny and invited me in.

I definitely should have said no to the drink he offered while I waited.

But the biggest mistake I made was climbing into his lap and kissing him.

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.

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.

Figuring this was a former hook-up, I tried to shoo her off, but she was persistent.

And cute.

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.

Not just a kiss, I realize. Her first kiss.

And when her overprotective brother finds out?

It’ll probably be my last.

Shelby and Reid's story is about a brother's best friend, secret and forbidden, college hockey, spicy romance. Daring the Defender is a standalone novel in the Wittmore U: Hockey series.