"Good to know. Give her the phone."
I grin, holding the phone out to her. "Your dad wants to talk to you, baby."
"I'm not here," she mumbles, eyeing it like it might bite her. "Tell him that my soul has left my body."
"No can do." I drop down over her, planting a hard kiss on her mouth. "I need to get going. I've got practice, and then I seem to remember something about a contract I need to sign."
"Oh, the one for your soul," she says sweetly. "Yes. It's with your assistant."
I kiss her again and then roll from the bed, leaving her to talk to her dad. I want to linger and eavesdrop, but I have a feeling she needs a little time to process both my confession and the fact that her dad knows about us. If I'm all up in her space right now,she may very well bolt. The only place I want her running is into my arms.
I can be a patient motherfucker. After a lifetime spent guarding a goddamn goal, you bet your ass I can be patient when it counts. This time, it counts more than ever.
By the time I stroll out of the bathroom, Emelia's off the phone, sitting up in bed. Her gaze roves over me, her cheeks pink.
"Morning, pretty baby," I murmur. "How'd your call go?"
"Oh, you know," she says with a shrug. "Same ole, same ole."
"Yeah?" I grin, sauntering toward her. "Is that so?"
"Yep." She tilts her head back, looking up at me. "He likes you."
"You think so?"
"Yes," she grumbles, pouting. It's fucking cute. "He didn't even threaten you. You know what he did when I went to prom?"
"What's that?"
"Had all of my uncles come over to meet my date at the door. Do you know how intimidating a bunch of overprotective former professional hockey players are to a high school boy?" she complains. "He almost wrecked the car on the way because he was shaking so bad!"
I chuckle, dropping a kiss on her lips. "I bet he kept his fucking hands to himself, though, didn't he?"
"Maybe." She smirks at me. "I'll never tell."
I laugh, kissing her again. "I gotta go, babe. Will you be in your office today?"
"I'll be there this afternoon. I'm going to murder Santiago Devlin this morning." She beams up at me. "And then I'll probably terrorize a few of his teammates for good measure."
"That's my girl," I whisper, kissing the fuck out of her. By the time I let her up, she's boneless and whimpering beneath me, and I want to say to hell with practice and crawl right back into bed with her.
Instead, I pry myself away, watching the way she watches me. "I'll stop by this afternoon."
"Okay." Her teeth sink into her bottom lip. "Hey, Royce?"
"Yeah?"
"Did you mean it or were you just messing with my dad?"
I pause at the door, turning to look at her. I wait until her gaze tangles with mine to speak. "I meant it, Emelia. Every fucking word," I growl, my heart in my throat.
"Okay," she whispers.
I don't push her to say it back, not yet. I know she will, though. It's written all over her face. She just needs a little while to process it first. That's fine with me. As far as I'm concerned, we've got a lifetime.
Chapter Nine
Emelia
