Caged (Gold Hockey Book 11) by Elise Faber (romantic love story reading TXT) 📕

that you’re not the absolute most gorgeous man in all the universe, so freaking beautiful and sexy that I’ve fucking fantasized about you for years. I mean, your tattoos, your butt, your abs—”

She clamped a hand over her mouth.

Meanwhile, he was processing.

Processing.

Beautiful and sexy and gorgeous and . . . fantasized?

About him?

“Oh, my God,” she moaned, the words muffled through her hand. She dropped it. “Please, tell me I’m in a horrible dream, that I didn’t actually just say that out loud.”

He couldn’t bite back the smile. “Fortunately, for me, no, we’re not in a dream.”

She pinched herself on the arm. “Ouch!”

Ethan took a step toward her, wanting to grab her hand, to stop her from hurting herself again, but his arms were full of books. “What’d you do that for?” he muttered.

She moaned again, one hand coming to her forehead, the other still clenching the novel at her hip. “Not a dream. Not a dream. Oh God, not a dream.”

“Dani?”

Shaking her head, she whirled around and went directly to her car, yanked at the handle and started to climb inside.

He hotfooted it over to her, managing to slip into the opening before she could slam the door shut. The metal panel collided with his hip. “Didn’t you want your books?” he asked when she didn’t look at him, just slammed the door against his hip once more.

A sigh, her body going still.

Then she released the door.

He crouched. “I like your dress.”

“Books, please,” she said, twisting to hold out her arms, though her eyes were deliberately away from his.

Ethan separated his from the stack then handed hers over.

“Dani?” he asked again.

She spent an inordinate amount of time stacking them on her passenger’s seat.

He waited, had the feeling that he would wait for however long this woman needed. Of course, the alternative was that she run him over or barrel through the parking lot with her driver’s door open.

Though, he supposed, given the weight of the glare she tossed his way, neither of those options was out of the realm of possibility.

“You’re attracted to me?” He set his books on the roof of the car.

She groaned, plunked her head against the steering wheel. “Why?” she moaned, banging it enough times that he finally reached out and captured her shoulders. “Why, God,” she moaned, her eyes sliding closed, “are we still having this conversation?”

He held on to her. Waited.

She peeled back her eyelids, glared at him again. “Did the whole drooling over your abs and tattoo thing not clue you in?”

A smile tugged at his lips.

Another groan.

“What?” he asked, brows drawn together.

“That.” She waved a hand at his face.

“What?” he asked again.

“That,” she muttered. “That smile peeking out at me like it’s the best freaking gift I’ve received all day. It’s just a smile. I shouldn’t like a freaking smile so much.”

“But you do?”

Her eyes sparked, and she sighed heavily. “Do you have an ego problem or something? You need someone to constantly be building it up?”

A shrug. “Better than it being constantly pricked.”

She sighed again, then said, “Why are you tormenting me?”

“Because I have questions.”

Another glare. “Well, I have errands.”

His lips twitched. “Me, too.”

She waited.

“What errands do you have?” he asked.

A muscle pulsed in her jaw, just beneath the edge of the bone, at the top of that kissable expanse of neck. He could almost feel the tremble against his mouth, wanted to dart his tongue out to taste the flicker.

“Dani?” he prompted.

Her fingers clenched on the steering wheel. “Grocery shopping.”

“What else?”

Her shoulders crept up. “Nothing.”

“Sweetheart?”

“Not your—”

“Sweetheart,” he interrupted. “Right. Sorry.”

Her lips pressed flat.

“So, what else?”

There was that pink again.

“What?” he pressed.

“I should go.”

Okay, now his curiosity was seriously peaked. But he was seeing that this woman was stubborn, that she wouldn’t give in easy. Which, of course, made her all the more interesting, especially considering this was the longest conversation they’d ever had. “What are you buying?”

Her brows drew down, another V forming.

“At the grocery store,” he said, anticipating her query. “What are you picking up? More cold pizza?”

He watched her throat work as she swallowed. But then her chin lifted, her tone growing clipped. “Food, Ethan,” she muttered. “I’m buying food that isn’t pizza.”

“Me, too,” he said. “I’m going to the store to buy food, too.”

This was definitely not a charming exchange, this definitely bordered on inane and nonsensical, and yet . . . he was having a fucking ball.

“And then what?” he asked. “After the food, you’re going . . .”

Silence. Long and drawn out and . . .

That chin lifted again, the amber in her eyes flared with fire. “And,” she snapped, “now we’re circling back to why are we even having this conversation?” Her eyes were on his, not disappearing over his shoulder or sliding down to her hands. Just fierce brown eyes holding his . . . and he fucking wanted her.

Bad.

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

Other than the fact he was in deep . . . and loving every minute of it.

“So, you’ll be going?” she asked, the question so expectant that a curl of wickedness coiled through his abdomen, slipping in alongside the need and affection. She might as well have asked, “So you’ll be coming inside me?” for how his body reacted.

He liked her like this—her expression arched, her eyes on his, that shyness slipping away so he could see the fierce woman inside.

He rose to his feet. “You’re right.”

That froze her again, the plump, kissable pillow of her bottom lip separating from the top, a flash of bright white teeth as she scrambled to comprehend his sudden agreement.

As tempting as it was to lean in, to taste that mouth, he gave into wicked.

Well, wicked that wasn’t having him take liberties in the parking lot of a public library.

Smiling, he stepped out of the opening between the door and car, snagged his books, crossed around the front, picked up her books, and crammed himself into the passenger’s seat of the tiny sedan.

Chapter Five

Dani

The click his seat belt startled her out of her