Page 48 of Against The Boards

I nodded. Fishtown was kinda the hipster side of town, but I remembered moving Fi out of her old apartment, and it was in a decent area.

I gestured with a thumb to my SUV. “Come on, let’s get going.”

She was quiet on the ride to the hotel, but she was probably exhausted. We should have flown up instead of driving several hours to spend barely an hour getting her things from her ex. I didn’t think about suggesting it this morning because I didn’t know how much stuff she had to bring back. It wasn’t much, a handful of boxes and no furniture.

When we got to her ex’s apartment, it was apparent the whole thing was a ploy to get Rox back, especially when Rox asked me to pretend to be her boyfriend. I had heard her ex accuse her of being straight while I was loading up the boxes, and that pissed me off. I never said I understood the spectrum of sexuality, but her ex seemed like a jerk. I didn’t like how she hurt Rox and then tried to reel her back. I hadn’t minded pretending to be her boyfriend if only to help her get the closure she needed.

We checked into the hotel, and she protested when I handed over my credit card. I shushed her while the concierge looked between us with a smile. When we got into the room, Rox set herself up on the bed with her computer while I dropped my backpack on the floor.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” I asked. “I can sleep on the floor.”

Luckily, I booked a room with a king-sized bed, and it looked big enough for us to sleep comfortably on it. My feet might dangle off the end, but I was used to that with my height.

“I think the bed’s big enough for the two of us. It’ll be fine,” she said and started typing on her computer.

“I’m sorry. I booked it without looking at the description.”

She shrugged. “It’s fine. It’s just one night.”

“Right.”

I took my shoes off and sunk into the bed next to her. She leaned against the headboard with her computer on her lap, and her long legs stretched out in front of her. I leaned onto my side towards her and reached a hand out to lie against her thigh.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked.

She nodded, but I noticed she didn’t swat my hand away. Interesting…

“I’m good. Sorry, I have to catch up on some work emails and call that landlady. Maybe we could get dinner in an hour?” she asked.

I nodded and eyed the book she had lying on the bed in between us. I removed my hand from her thigh and picked it up. On the cover, there was a half-naked guy flexing his muscles, and he had a pair of hockey skates around his neck.

What? Who does that?

I didn’t realize she read books like this. I saw Fi read a lot of romance books when I lived with her and Riley, but I didn’t realize there were ones about hockey. Or ones about hockey and hate banging your enemy according to the description on the back. That sounded eerily familiar.

“Oh my God!” she squealed when she saw what I was doing. “Give me that!”

I held it out of her reach. “Nuh-uh. What are you reading?”

She grimaced. “It’s a romance book. Stop making fun of me.”

“Not making fun. It’s about hockey?”

Her cheeks tinted pink, and it looked so cute. “Yes,” she gritted out in embarrassment. “Sports romances are a big sub-genre of the romance genre. They’re my favorite.”

I laid on my back and flipped to the first page to read. “Why do you like them so much?”

She shrugged as she tapped away on her keyboard. “I like sports. I played hockey, I like hockey, so I enjoy reading any sort of book that has to do with it. Fi leant me that one.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really? I think she’s working on a romance novel.”

“Wait, really? I need to read that!”

I held a finger up to my lips. “Baby, shush, I’m reading.”

That got me another glare and the middle finger, which made me laugh. I didn’t know why I insisted on making her angry all the time. Probably because it made her chest heave, and her eyes got all dark and sexy. I was in over my head with this woman. Sleeping with her didn’t get it out of my system. Not by a long shot. Sleeping with her made me desperate to pin her underneath me again, but I knew that wasn’t an option.

I stopped bothering her while she worked, and I read. I had to admit the hockey stuff was pretty accurate, so that was cool. I didn’t even mind the kissing stuff in it, especially when it got very detailed. Holy fuck, people wrote this stuff? I felt my dick thicken against my thigh and my palms sweat. How did words in a frigging book get my motor going like this?