Offside by Juliana Stone Read Free Book Online

fit and she perused the large board on the wall
until she found her dressing room inked in black marker.
    2B—Angry Pirates
    2C—Barker
    It was good to see they’d given Billie her
own room because, truthfully, she’d expected nothing more than a
damn closet or the bathroom.
    She made her way down the hall, ignoring the
stares, glares and yes, even the odd, deluded, and salacious eye on
her butt. Already, the familiar pregame nerves jolted her system
and she was anxious to get into her equipment and out onto the
ice.
    Billie found 2C down near the end of the
hallway on her right. She pushed open the door and...
    Mike Dearling, who on a good day tipped the
scales at three hundred pounds, stood a few feet away scratching
his butt with the end of his hockey stick. A normal gesture to be
sure, but when you took into account the fact that Mike Dearling
was buck naked and grinning at her as if he’d just scored a
hat-trick in a championship game, it was enough to make Billie’s
stomach roil.
    She took a moment and tore her gaze from the
fur that covered the man’s considerable backside and her eyes
nearly popped out of her head. A few feet beyond him, Jason Danvers
was doing the same, though he wasn’t scratching anything and he
sure as hell wasn’t three hundred pounds.
    But he was as naked as the day he was
born.
    She glanced from Danvers, back to Dearling
and was proud of the fact that she’d kept her cool. Every single
eye of the twelve men in the room was on her. Logan sat on the
bench, halfway up the room with a surprised look on his face. His
pants, shin pads and skates were on, though his chest was bare and
she was more than aware of just how good the man looked. An
intricate tattoo wrapped his left bicep in black ink and another
adorned his right shoulder.
    He looked bad ass. He looked ripped. He
looked so damn yummy, it was all she could do to tear her gaze away
and look elsewhere.
    Billie-Jo Barker was in the middle of a
dressing-room chalk full of testosterone, half naked men and—Mike
Dearling’s grin widened as he walked toward her and let one
rip—gas.
    She knew what was going on. A quick switch of
numbers and these idiots thought a little bit of naked man flesh
was enough to send her packing. They thought their scratching and
hairy body parts would scare her.
    Billie glared at Mike. They had no Goddamn
clue what she could put up with.
    None.
    Mike kept walking until he was so close that
an impressive amount of body odor hit her full blast. Mixed with
his early start on the beers, she wrinkled her nose and watched as
his grin widened.
    “What’s wrong, Barker?” Mike rubbed his belly
and it jiggled grotesquely. “You a little rattled?”
    Snickers greeted him and Billy set her bag
down. She gave him a once over, taking her time as she slowly
perused every inch of his sorry hide. “Nope. Not rattled so much
as…” her voice trailed off. The game was changing but Mike was
either too stupid or too drunk to realize it.
    He nodded, thinking he had her. “This is what
it’s all about little girl. We play hockey. We drink. We burp and
fart—”
    “Speak for yourself, Dearling.” Logan
inserted sarcastically as a few men chuckled.
    Mike’s eyes narrowed. “We don’t want you here
and if you’re rattled before we even head out onto the ice—”
    Billie cocked her head, but remained cool as
a cucumber. “Clean your ears out Dearling, or are they full of hair
too? I said I wasn’t rattled, so much as embarrassed.”
    “You should be embarrassed.” Jason Danvers
piped in, though now at least his junk was safely tucked away
inside his long-johns. “This is a men’s league.”
    Billie moved her focus from Mike to Jason for
just a moment. The guy was good looking—Hollywood type good
looking—but he’d always been an arrogant asshole and had a chip on
his shoulder because every Barker triplet had turned him down. Even
Betty and she was the easy one.
    Billie stared at him hard until he