Page 36 of Hat Trick Holidate

“You can’t do that,” she huffs as I flip her over onto the rug, using one of her Jujitsu moves she taught Jolie and me.

“Flipping you over is my favorite pastime,” I whisper over the shell of her ear. Her hair splays across the floor, and her laughter dies down. The moment is here. The time when she succumbs to the life she could have. My head drifts toward hers. Those magical lips call my name.

When our lips are about to touch, I say, “I’m crossing the line. I’ve waited weeks to feel your lips and taste your…”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Jolie screams.

Cockblocked again, but in a split second, I’m taking the stairs three at a time and am in her room. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”

She points to her tablet, and her screen time has been reached for the day. “Don’t scream. When you reach your limit, that means it’s time to do something fun with Emmaline and me.”

Jolie jumps off her bed and gets out a new game I bought her. She played Operation at Cannon’s a few days ago.

“Okay, let’s see if we can perform an operation before my game tonight.”

She squeals as I throw her over my shoulder, and we pounce down the stairs. We prepare the operating room. Emmaline puts out a white tablecloth over the coffee table,gives us all sanitary gloves because as she says, in her doctor voice, “Surgeons must have clean hands in the operating room.”

A month ago, I never imagined this life—playing board games with my daughter and wrestling with the completely off-limits nanny, who just happens to be my teammate’s younger sister.

But now I can’t imagine a life without them in it.

chapter 14

EMMALINE

If there’sone little problem about being Jolie’s nanny, it’s seeing Bryce Wynward, hockey god, half naked. All the damn time.

I swear, he’s taunting and teasing me with his body. He’s tiptoeing on the blue line I set between us. Right now, he’s shirtless with gray sweatpants slung low on his hips, but not low enough to show his underwear. Oh geez, maybe he’s going commando.

Stop thinking about his schlong, Emmaline.

For the past two weeks, the three of us have settled into a routine. The times have varied, but we always eat at least one meal together. When Jolie is out of earshot, Bryce makes sexual innuendos, teasing me. He knows he’s irresistible, and I’m ready to give in. Seriously, I already feel like a Resistance Champion.

Jolie and I just came from the home gym, and she runs to the fridge for water while I run upstairs to change myclothes. I’m breathing hard and standing with my hands on my hips with my head falling back.

“Ahem.” My head spins to the doorway, and Bryce stands still—in his towel. “You’re good at that.”

I squish my face up. “Good at what?”

“Panting,” he says with one foot crossed at the ankles and a panty-disintegrating smile on his face.

My face turns fifty shades of red. There’s little-to-no resolve left between my legs or my heart to keep us in the friendzone. Not after I see how loving he is to his daughter, reminding me of my own dad. Everything I’ve seen of this man makes me want him more.

Right now, the way he’s looking at me is the same way he looked at me a couple of days ago when he came home from an away game, and I thought he was going to kiss me. Jolie walked in, breaking the moment, but I see the same desire in his eyes and in his heavy breathing pattern.

I let out a long sigh and lay down the gauntlet. “I don’t pant,” I quip, knowing he has personally and intimately experienced me panting.

“Really?” He twists his brow. “Sounds like a challenge.”

Yes, it does.

I playfully push on his shoulder, mainly so I can touch him. God, I want to feel his body again. “Are you trying to goad me?”

“Me?” He shrugs innocently. “I could make you pant right now.”

My breath hitches. “Don't get any ideas, Wynward.”

“I just wanted to teach you some new workout moves. Totally innocent.” He laughs and shakes his head. “And I’llmake sure there’s a lot of panting involved,” he says as he brushes my arm and adds a slow wink.

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