Page 147 of The Nanny Goal

She wiggles her hips. “Ooh, I like that, but—” She squeaks as I slip my hand up the loose leg of her shorts, squeezing the juiciest part of her ass just because I can, because it’s mine, she’s mine, and she’s starting to tell people.

“Hang on,” she gasps, laughing, then gasping when my fingers dip between her cheeks. “Alexei?—”

“Get off my sister.”

She hands me my phone, which she has answered and Forrest is on speaker—apparently.

“Hey bud,” I say casually.

“Don’they budme. Why the fuck am I hearing about this from Emery?”

“Because she’s your sister.”

“And you’re my best friend. You need to face me like a man.”

Emery makes a gagging sound.

I put my finger to my lips. “Oh yeah? Why?”

“Because you can’t just… I mean, she’s going to kill me for this, but it’sEmery, you know? She’s sweet as fuck. And you’re…”

“A filthy hockey player?”

“Exactly.”

“But I have to respect her privacy, yes?”

That trips him up. “Well…”

“Forrest, I love your sister.”

“I know, but?—”

“Do you know? I’ve been in love with her for two years, man. And she wanted nothing to do with me. This isn’t something casual. Iloveher.” I’m talking to her brother, but I’m looking at Emery.

And she’s smiling back at me.

“I knew she was trouble as soon as we met,” I continue. “The best kind of trouble. And as long as she wanted that to be secret, it was going to be secret. Now, she wants you to know, so now you know.”

“But Mom and Dad don’t know yet, so you have to keep it secret with us,” she adds, crawling on top of me.

Taking my phone and hanging up on her brother.

Putting my hands back on her ass.

“Trouble,” I growl at her.

She gives me a smile that is brighter than the surface of the sun.

* * *

We go to bed early that night, because she needs to be at the airport in Toronto at four in the morning. My parents sleep upstairs, to be close to Inessa while I’m gone, in the room that was very briefly Emery’s, but her place is in my bed now, and nobody questions that.

At three, her alarm goes off.

I drive her to the airport. The highway is pretty empty at this hour, and it doesn’t take us long enough.

Before I know it, I’m holding her at the curb on the departures level.

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