He’s a hockey star with no strings attached and a life any other college student would be jealous of… but when he meets a girl with big green eyes and tears on her face, he’s a goner.

When I open the door to our hockey frat house late one night and find a distraught woman shivering on the doorstep, every protective instinct inside me rises to the challenge. I’ll do anything to help her and wipe that terrified look off her face. It doesn’t matter that I’ve never seen her before and I don’t know anything about her or even what happened.

That’s the kind of guy I am. I’m the protector, the defenseman, the one who makes sure everyone is all right, on the ice and off it.

But the more time I spend with her, the more I’m intrigued by her quiet smile and her unflinching grit. She’s got more backbone and quicker defense reflexes than most hockey goalies I know. She’s also keeping the truth locked down so tight I still don’t know exactly what happened to her that night, but the way she flinches at loud noises and the fear that flashes through her eyes tells me enough.

Someone hurt her.

And for some reason, the thought of that is more than I can handle. I’m determined to find out who did this to her, and then I’m going to make sure they’ll never be able to hurt her again.

I’ve never felt like this before about a girl. I want to protect her, to keep her safe…. But I also want to make her mine.