Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“We have a new season to get geared up for,” I say with a nervous laugh. “Plenty of time to talk about weddings—”
“And a ring,” my dad cuts in on me, his head coming up and turning to Bishop. “It’s all well and good you’re talking about marriage, but you did it wrong. You should have gotten a ring for her, and that’s something that I expect will be corrected soon enough.”
“Dad,” I gasp with outrage as I drop my fork. “That’s none of your business.”
“Bullshit,” my dad says, stabbing his fork in the air first at me, then at Bishop. “Both of you must know I am not happy you hid this from me, or that I got slapped in the face with it today. But I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt. Now that it’s in the open, I expect you do this the right way.”
His gaze turns to Bishop and he stabs his fork in the air again, right at him. “That means you do this the right way for my daughter.”
“Understood,” Bishop replies in a clipped voice, and my guilt over this whole fiasco intensifies.
Chapter 5
Bishop
I hate holding her hand, and yet I feel I’d like it way too much under different circumstances.
We walk out to her car with our fingers laced together and her father probably watching us out the window. I had prepared to go in there and lie through my teeth with made-up facts to dispel Coach Perron’s suspicions, but he turned the fucking tables on us and seems pretty gung ho about a wedding.
“I am so sorry,” Brooke murmurs as we reach her driver’s side door.
“You’ve said that enough,” I tell her as I release her hand.
“Not enough,” she mutters as her head drops and she stares at her shoes. It causes a pang of sympathy to hit behind my breastbone, and I slide my fingers up her neck, pushing my thumb under her chin and forcing her to look at me. I bend in closer to her. “It’s done. Stop apologizing and let’s just figure out where to go from here, okay?”
She nods, a tremulous smile forming on her face.
“I mean it,” I tell her gently. I’d heard the tone in her dad’s voice when he was talking about his wife, and given everything that’s happened in that family, coupled with the fact that Brooke got us into this mess because she was altruistically trying to protect me from her father, I decided to just accept what’s happened. No sense in bemoaning it now that it’s done, and we just have to concentrate on finding a way out of this.
And until we do, I’m going to take advantage of a few things.
I lean into her, my hand now wrapping around the back of her neck. Slanting my head, I bring my mouth down onto hers for a softly lingering kiss. Brooke gasps with surprise into my mouth.
When I pull back, her expression is guarded. She brings a hand up, placing her fingers against her lips as if to hold on to the feeling. “Why did you do that?” she murmurs.
“Because your dad’s probably watching us right now.”
“Oh,” she says, her eyes dropping from mine.
Releasing her, I open her car door. Nodding my head to her seat, I say, “I’ll follow you to your house.”
“What?” She jerks with surprise.
“I’m coming to your house tonight.”
“Why?” A deep line of confusion etches in her forehead.
“Because you and I are practically engaged,” I tell her as I put a hand to her lower back and gently push her to get in. “We have a ruse to perpetuate not only to your dad, but to an entire professional hockey team.”
“We don’t have to sleep together to do that,” she points out.
I grin at her. “I don’t intend on getting much sleep tonight.”
“We don’t have to have sex to make people think we’re engaged,” she snaps at me, fire leaping in her eyes.
“Yeah, that’s where you’re wrong,” I tell her as I snag her from behind the neck again and pull her into me. Her lips part slightly and her hands brace against my chest. If her dad is watching, I suppose it looks like an intimate move. I tilt my head and bring my lips to her ear. “You see, Brooke, I’m still just a little pissed that my life is going to be disrupted for probably weeks over this. And if I’m supposed to act madly but stupidly in love with you, well…you’re just going to have to give me something to help me past that anger so I look like I’m crazy head over heels for you and don’t actually want to strangle you.”
She tries to push away from me, but I hold her with sheer strength. She tips her head back to look at me, eyes all frosted over with indignation. Brooke’s lips peel back in a snarl. “So you’re blackmailing me for sex? Or are you punishing me?”