Pucking The Hockey Captain: My Forbidden Fruit

Janessa's POV"Trevor… I got in.""Got in… where?" He asked, his attention buried in whatever game he was playing on his phone."Berkeley. I just got the email."I stood there, holding my phone so tightly my knuckles were turning white. My heart was pounding against my ribs, and I could feel this huge smile spreading across my face.Berkeley was my dream school, the place I had been obsessing over forever. I actually did it.Trevor finally looked up from his screen and blinked like he was trying to figure out what I said. Then his eyes went wide, and he tossed his phone onto the couch."Wait, seriously? Babe, that's insane!" He stood up and pulled me into a huge hug. He even lifted me off my feet a little and spun me around."I knew you could do it," he said. "I told you you were worrying for nothing.""I can't believe it," I breathed, burying my face in his shoulder. For a second, everything felt perfect, like nothing could touch me now that my hard work paid off.But then, the bank

Janessa's POV Walking into Brayden’s private condo was like stepping into an entirely different world.I thought the campus area only had rowdy frat houses and cramped apartments like Caleb’s, but this place was super expensive. It was a massive loft with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the city lights. The condo had sleek matte-black counters and polished concrete floors, and it was spotless, smelling faintly of expensive cologne and laundry detergent.On the far wall, a huge glass case held his hockey jersey, a sleek black stick, and a captain’s letter on the chest. Brayden wasn't just some college student getting by; he was the university's hockey captain, and clearly, he lived by different rules than his brothers.He tossed my suitcase onto the floor near the entryway without any gentleness. "Rule number one," he started, leaning against the kitchen island with his arms crossed. "Don't touch my stuff. Rule number two, don't bring any of Caleb's trashy friends over here.

Janessa's POVMy first actual day at Berkeley did not start the way I had envisioned it over the last six months.Instead of waking up in a cute dorm room and casually walking to class with a coffee, I woke up in the modern, freezing guest room of a hockey captain who looked like he could snap me in half. And to top it all off, he was currently driving me to campus.This was kinda surprising because I honestly expected him to leave me on the curb or tell me to call an Uber. When I dragged myself into the kitchen, he was already standing by the door, keys jingling, looking completely impatient. He didn't even ask if I was ready; he just walked out, expecting me to follow.Now, I was sitting in the passenger seat of his massive, blacked-out SUV, staring out the window as the campus buildings appeared. The silence inside the car was suffocating. Brayden had his hands gripped tightly on the steering wheel, his jaw set, completely ignoring me.I shifted in my seat, turning slightly toward

Brayden's POVI sat back against the cheap vinyl of the booth, watching Janessa stare at her buzzing phone like it was a live grenade.The screen kept lighting up, casting a pale glow over her face as Trevor's name flashed across it for the umpteenth time. She looked completely frozen, her chest heaving as she swallowed hard, her thumb hovering over the screen but never actually touching it. It was honestly beautiful to watch. For my entire life, Trevor’s perfect little world had been this untouchable, pristine thing that my parents worshiped. Now, just by sitting across from me in a run-down diner, his precious little fairytale was starting to crumble at the edges.But then I actually looked at her.Really looked at her.She wasn't just stressing; she was fully spiraling into a panic attack. Her fingers were trembling so violently she could barely hold the device, her breathing was coming in short, shallow gasps, and all the color had completely drained from her face. She looked like

 Brayden's POV My arm was wrapped tight around Janessa’s waist, and I had a front-row seat to the exact moment Trevor’s face turned from a worried boyfriend into an utterly betrayed twin. It was beautiful. The color drained from his face so fast he looked like he’d been hit by a puck mid-stride. His eyes bounced from my hand anchored firmly on Janessa’s hip up to my face, his jaw working silently as his brain completely short-circuited. He looked at us like we were a pair of ghosts, or worse, his worst nightmare brought to life under the flickering fluorescent lights of the humanities building. "What the hell is this?" Trevor finally choked out, his voice cracking slightly before it hardened into a sharp glare. He stepped closer, his fists clenching at his sides. "Brayden, take your hands off her. What the hell are you doing with my girlfriend?" I didn't blink, an