Page 44 of Caught from Behind

I plunk the cup in front of her, order again, more firmly this time, “Eat.”

“Riggs.”

“Christ,” I mutter, leaning down and wrapping my arm around her middle. I lift her enough to drop my ass in the chair then tug her down into my lap. “Eat, chérie. I know that you have a long day ahead of you.”

And my day is free, minus meeting up with Knox later today to do some off-ice.

Which sends my mind reeling forward, an idea forming…scheming maybe.

Taking a page out of Ella’s book.

I grin, sweeping her curls aside and baring the slender curve of her neck.Bending, I press my lips to the soft skin there, inhaling the scent of her, loving that she trembles.

She likes that.

She’s given me another piece of her.

And I’ve caught it. I’m holding it close.

Going to continue to catching those pieces until I have them all.

“How do you know I have a long day?” she asks a moment later.

I nudge the muffin closer, don’t miss her sigh…nor the way she reaches for it a moment later, starts unpeeling the paper wrapper. “I know you have a long day,” I say, “because Nova and Knox have both mentioned that you’ve been working nonstop.”

And because I’ve driven by the salon late at night more times than I’ll admit, have seen the lights on and only a couple of cars in the lot—hers being one of them.

Not that I tell her that.

Instead, I press my lips to the back of her neck. “Tell me about your clients today.”

She stills. “Why?”

It’s a quiet question, as though she can’t fathom why I’d want to know what she has happening.

I snag her mug, lift it toward her mouth. “Is it a multiple cup of coffee day?”

She shifts in my lap, her eyes hitting mine before she greedily snags the mug and sips deeply. “It’s always a multiple cup of coffee day.”

I chuckle. “Isn’t that the truth?”

“A hockey god such as yourself would dare to defile his body with something as terrible as caffeine?” she teases.

Lightly tugging a strand of her hair, I steal her muffin, take a bite of it. “Trouble.”

“And proud of it,” she says, setting the mug down and stealing it back.

But then she does something wonderful, something completely, totally Ella.

She breaks off a piece and feeds it to me, and then…

She tells me about her day.

“First I have a new client for a consult, then I have a full-head highlight, a root touch-up, and an all-over color?—”

I see that I’m going to have to do some Googling.

Because I know those words belong to the English language but put together in that order and she may as well be speaking Greek.

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