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

taste. We were both quiet while we ate. More like Riley devoured his food, and I took my time eating because I was thinking too hard. When we were done, I took the empty plates and loaded up the dishwasher. He tried to protest, but I glared with a killing look, and he held up his hands in surrender.

When I finished the clean-up, I saw he was sitting on the couch and furrowing his brow while reading the book I had been reading last night. Embarrassment colored my face as I walked over to him and sat on the couch next to him.

He turned to me with the biggest smirk I had ever seen on his face. “I can’t believe they let people write books like this.”

I barked out a long laugh. “Oh, honey, you don’t even know. That’s not even like a BDSM book. That one’s pretty tame.”

He flipped to the back to read the summary. “Wait a second...this is a hockey romance?”

I put my face in my hands but laughed. It was kind of ironic to be reading a hockey romance book when my life was currently feeling like one. Riley closed the book, leaving my bookmark where I left off last night and putting the book back on the coffee table. I would definitely be picking that back up when he was back on the road.

He sighed. “So I think we should talk about things.”

I swear I could hear my heart, it started beating so hard. No one ever wanted to hear that sentence, and I was worried about what he wanted to talk about. But I nodded and calmly said, “Okay.”

He twisted his ring around on his left hand, and subconsciously I started to fidget with my own. Even though I had asked to get divorced the day after we got married, I hadn’t taken off my ring, not once. I was a little confused about what that meant. I watched him sigh and run a hand down his chiseled jaw. He hadn’t shaved in a couple days, and I couldn’t help but think the rugged look was damn sexy on him.

“Look, I’m done with the single life. I want something real, and I think…I want something real with you.” I was sensing a ‘but’ coming here, but I stayed quiet and let him continue. “I feel like I trapped you into this marriage, so if you really want a divorce and to not give this a shot with me, I’ll understand.”

I did want that...or at least I thought that was what I wanted. But I had really missed him while he had been away. And now, seeing this man before me so vulnerable and so caring, I wasn’t sure what I wanted.

“I don’t know what I want,” I admitted. “I do feel like this marriage was a bit rushed, but I told you I would give you a couple months to prove to me that this could work between us.”

He turned to me with a surprised look on his face. “I think we could have a happy life together, but if you’re not happy, I don’t want that. You’re right, though, and Mom said the same thing, that we rushed into this too quickly after what happened to you.”

I nodded. “She’s not wrong, but I think my relationship with Eric had ended a long time ago. Him not showing up was the final straw. Katie thinks he had been cheating on me the whole time.”

Riley’s jaw clenched, and I noticed his fists did too. I knew how he felt about cheaters after what his dad did to his mom. I felt the anger rolling off of him, so I reached out a hand to calm him down. “Hey, it’s okay. Good thing I didn’t marry him. Good thing I married you instead.”

Riley nodded, but he still seemed cautious and unsure, which was strange to me because I wanted him to lean over and slant his mouth onto mine. There was a torrent of emotions clouding his eyes, and it filled me with dread. I really thought we had made a mistake in getting married, but when I looked at him sitting here bearing his soul to me, something in my heart flipped over. I told myself it was just my lust for his hot bod, but I wasn’t exactly sure about that. Maybe it wasn’t just sexual attraction between us. There were too many years between us for it to just be platonic love between friends. That’s what scared me the most.

He grabbed my hand suddenly and kissed the back of it. Oh, he was so smooth. I think my heart melted at that sweet gesture a little bit. “You know my schedule’s crazy,” he warned.

“I know.”

“We have a road stretch next week, and I’ll be gone all week.”

“I know,” I said again. I had checked his schedule the other day, wanting to know how much we would get to see each other. In a couple months, the season would be over unless they made the playoffs, which I kind of doubted they would.

“A lot of women can’t handle the pressure of having an absent partner. So I would understand if it gets to be too much for you.”

I cocked my head at him and studied his profile for a moment. “Riley, I know the deal, and…I can’t believe I’m saying this, but okay, let’s try this. What did I say when we went to get our marriage license?”

He smirked. “I believe you said YOLO.”

“Do you think anyone will ever buy that we got married?”

He laughed. “I have gotten a lot of questions from my teammates.”

I paused for a second. I knew hockey was important to him and his teammates were important to him, but the idea of being a WAG and having my whole identity based on him rubbed me the wrong way. So it was really strange to me when my mouth opened on its own accord and I asked, “So do you