Score Her Heart: A Marriage of Convenience Hockey Romance (Philadelphia Bulldogs Book 2) by Danica Flynn (free novels .TXT) 📕

I smirked, but it was faked because I hadn’t heard from Fi since this afternoon, and I was starting to wonder if I did still have a wife.

It was kind of late when I got home but not crazy late for a night-owl like Fi. When I walked into the condo, I heard the TV on but saw that she had fallen asleep on the couch with a paperback book on her lap, looking like she was ready to curl up into bed. I flicked off the TV with the remote and picked the book up off her lap. My eyes widened at what appeared to be a pretty intense sex scene. I glanced at the cover, a little surprised to see a naked man’s chest on the front of it. Okay…didn’t expect that from Fi. I found her bookmark on the coffee table and put it in the book before setting it down on the table. There was no way I was dealing with her wrath if I dog-eared her book.

The couch was comfortable, but I knew our bed would be way more comfortable to sleep in. Plus, I really missed having her next to me. Which was wild because we had barely been married for a week!

I bent down next to her ear. “Fi,” I whispered, but she didn’t move.

I wasn’t a stupid man, so I wasn’t about to shake her awake. Instead, I kneeled down and slid my arms underneath her body. I pulled her tight against my chest, gripping the back of her knees under one arm and her shoulders with the other arm.

I felt her stir against me, and she wrapped her hands around my neck, so I wouldn’t drop her. Like I ever would have done that. I felt her eyelashes flicker across my neck, giving me ticklish butterfly kisses. “Riley?” she asked sleepily. “What are you doing?”

“Shush,” I whispered to her. “Go back to sleep.”

I crossed the doorway of the bedroom and gently laid her down on her side of the bed. I felt warmth spread across my body at the sight. Before we recklessly got married, I didn’t sleep on one side of the bed but rather sprawled out like a starfish, stretching my big body across the bed. Now, with her here, she had wormed a place into my home and into my heart, and I didn’t want her to leave.

She was still half-asleep, and I couldn’t help but think about how cute she looked. I tip-toed into the bathroom to do my normal night-time routine. When I came back into the bedroom, she was asleep again. I pulled my shirt over my head and changed into a pair of pajama pants before I quietly sunk down onto the bed next to my beautiful wife.

“Riley?” she whispered, still half-asleep.

“Shush, go back to sleep,” I whispered back.

“Are you okay?” she asked. Her green eyes opened in the dark of the bedroom, but she peered at me seriously.

“What do you mean?”

“That asshole hit you right in the numbers!”

I chuckled. “What are you gonna do, fight him?”

“Maybe,” she mumbled. “Fucking asshole better stay away from my man.”

“Your man?” I asked with a laugh.

She lifted her left hand up to my jaw and pulled me down towards her lips. I grinned at the feeling of her wedding ring on my face as I kissed her properly. She pulled away sleepily.

“Missed you, baby,” she sighed sleepily.

“Yeah?” I asked.

She nodded but then promptly turned on her other side and fell back asleep. I had a feeling she wasn’t going to remember this conversation in the morning. I would, though. I was gonna keep that in the back of my mind. It was one step toward wooing my gorgeous trial wife.

I took off my watch and set it on the nightstand next to my side of the bed. My eyes lingered on the ring on my finger, but I kept that on. If it wasn’t for the risk of breaking my finger while I played, I would never take off my ring.

I scooted closer to Fi and wrapped my arm around her waist. She shifted in her sleep, and I smelled her shampoo, breathing it in. I had definitely missed her scent and her presence in my arms at night.

I was so totally screwed when it came to my wife.

Chapter Fifteen

FIONA

My eyes slanted open in confusion as I stared up at the ceiling of Riley’s bedroom. I didn’t remember coming to bed last night, which was weird for me. The last thing I remembered after Katie and Brad left was sinking down onto the couch to read that hockey romance that Brad’s wife had recommended. Shit, Riley was so going to make fun of me for that.

I ran my hands down my face to rub away the sleep, and my eyes wandered over to the lump on the other side of the bed. On Riley’s side of the bed. I must have fallen asleep on the couch, and he brought me to bed last night.

I found myself staring at him for too long, watching the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed in and out while he slept soundly in the bed next to me. I wanted to slink out of the bed, but something about his warm body being beside me hypnotized me into wanting to lay back on the bed and snuggle up with him. I sat up on the bed, at a crossroad, unsure what to do next.

“Stop staring at me,” I heard his gruff voice say.

It scared me so much I nearly yelped, and I almost saw the sheepish grin on his face without having to look at him. Sometimes it surprised me after all these years how well I still knew the man beside me.

His strong arms pulled me back down so my head was lying on his chest, and his hand stroked my hair.