There's only one person who would take me in after leaving my fiancé—my brother Axel.

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.