Page 77 of Hockey Wife

“No. Of me.”

She still lay against his neck, so he moved to get a better look at her.

“Georgia, what does that mean?”

“Look what we’d done. What I had done. This crazy thing. And I figured that it was just one more example of Georgia screwing up and pulling another innocent into her web.”

“Innocent old me, you mean?”

Her eyebrows slammed together. “How else do you explain what happened, Banks? I have a reputation, mostly well-earned, of making trouble. And usually that’s only harmful to me. But here I am, dragging you into my nonsense, and I thought it would be best to get out of there.”

“Instead of sticking around to fix it?”

She blew out a breath. “I never said this self-awareness came with good problem-solving skills.”

That made him chuckle. He thought about last night, how she admitted she wanted to start her own charity, separate from her parents’ sphere of influence. Something for her.

None of this meant that Georgia had wanted more from their mistaken marriage. After all, she’d put it down to grief over Dani. But he felt like he understood her a little bit better than before.

Plus there was the added bonus: she was still in his arms.

Yep, he’d adjusted his free hand to slide over and curl around her back. Now it rested, palm-down on her lower spine, just a skosh above the rise of her sweet little ass. No harm, no foul.

“No more apologies, okay? We’re making it work for … reasons.”

“Hmm. Reasons.” She gave a raspy chuckle and that sound—God—it did things to him. Not just to his dick. “Is this great act working?”

His grandmother liked Georgia. His mom, too. That was all that mattered.

“Well enough.”

She squirmed a fraction, and it reminded him of how close she was. How exquisite it felt to be on the edge like this. In the last few moments, his hand on her back had started to move in tight, soothing circles. To comfort her, he said. To put her at ease.

Now he coasted it down her back, grazed the top of her ass, and came back again.

She didn’t pull away. If anything, she moved infinitesimally closer, enough to have him make an embarrassing sound of what could only be termed as pleasure.

“What?” she whispered. “Did I hurt you?”

“As if you could.”

She made the same move, testing his limits. Always testing, this girl. He swallowed back a groan, determined she would get nothing from him. This was madness enough already.

“This is nice,” she murmured, a whisper of breath against his chest.

He made an indeterminate sound.

“Did you sleep okay?”

“Eventually.” Shit.

She raised her head, met his tired gaze head on. “You couldn’t sleep? Because I’m here?”

Yes. No. “I’m not used to sharing a bed.”

“At all? You mean … you’re a virgin?”

He smiled. “No, but it’s been a while since I’ve slept in the same bed with someone. Not since …” That night in Vegas. “I was engaged.”

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