“I do, so much.”

His hand came up her back and along her neck to bring her down for a long lengthy kiss. When they parted, he was smiling so big that it took Elli’s breath away.

“Say it again.”

She giggled before she said, “I love you.”

“Oh, baby, I love you. More than you’ll ever know.”

Shea wrapped her up in his one arm, kissing her senseless. Nothing could ever top the way she felt at that moment. They were in love and nothing would ever come between that.

Chapter 29

Elli stood by the player’s bench in the arena, wondering what the hell Shea was thinking.

It had only been a week since he had gotten the tape taken off, and he thought it was a good idea to come out and shoot some pucks? Elli watched as he swung the stick back and released. The crack of the stick filled the air as he made contact with the punk, shooting it straight into the net.

It was as if he had never missed a game. His accuracy was outstanding, and his form was perfect. She was getting turned on watching him shoot a puck. Yeah, he was something, that’s for sure. Elli loved him more with each passing day. That was probably why she was pissed as hell at him. What was he trying to do, mess his arm up again?

He put all of his weight behind his next shot; Elli didn’t even see the puck until it went in. She smiled, throwing her arms up in the air.

“And he scores!!!!! The crowd goes wild!” she said in her best announcer voice. He looked over his shoulder and his look said it all.

He knew he was caught.

“Hey baby, what are you doing here?” he asked, skating towards her, “Oh yeah, you had that promo with some of the guys today.”

“I did. And to my surprise, I heard a rumor my boyfriend was down here shooting pucks. I knew they had to be crazy talking so I came to look for myself and look what I found,” she said with a shake of her head. Shea leaned against the boards, kissing her softly on the lips. She let him because she couldn’t get enough of his kisses.

“How many buckets?”

He looked sheepish as he looked behind him, “Four.”

“Four? Are you kidding me?” she asked, since that meant he probably shot close to 500 pucks, “You're gonna be hurting tonight, and I don’t want to hear it.”

“Probably, but it’s worth it. I’m known for my slap shot. I can’t lose it because of an injury.”

“I know, Shea, but you need to get better.”

“I’m fine.”

He was such a liar. She could tell he was in pain, but he was pushing past it.

“Oh. Well, do what you do, I guess. But when you can’t move tomorrow, don’t come cryin’ to me.”

“I won’t. I’ve been shooting since I got my tape off. I’m okay, I swear.”

Elli eyes filled with anger. He’d been shooting for a week!?

“You’re a crazy fool, Shea Adler.”

He gave her a grin, “Oh, and you love me.”

“I do, damn it. That’s why you worry the piss out of me.”

“I’m fine, babe. I gotta keep strong. Keep breaking the glass.”

Elli smiled, “I’m pretty sure you can still break the glass, Shea.”

Shea was known for breaking the glass behind the goal when he would try to shoot and totally miss. He did it a lot when he was a rookie, but it had only happened a few times since.

“Wanna see?”

Elli laughed, “Doesn’t Papa get angry about that?”

“Oh yeah. But he just yells and makes me pay a fee, no big deal.”

Elli looked at him, confused, “A fee?”

“Yeah, $2000,” he said, looking around the rink.

“Oh my god! That’s crazy! You need to stop doing that. Not only could you hurt someone, but you’re wasting money!”

“Okay, for one, it’s not like I mean to do it. Two, no one can get hurt. The glass takes all the force. At most they’ll get cut, no biggie. And three, it’s just $2000. That’s like $2 to you.”

“Hey! What does that mean?”

“It means that you dropped enough money to pay off a house while we were in Boston, so you can’t talk to me about wasting money.”

Elli blinked a few times, because there was no comeback to that. He was completely right.

“Shut up.”

He laughed, pulling back and shooting the puck, hitting the back of the net hard.

“Don’t worry about me, baby. I’m good.”

“I’ll always worry about you, you big lug. Now come here, give me a kiss. I need to get back to the office,” she said, pulling him by his skin tight shirt and placing her lips on his. He gave her a long, drugging kiss, before she pulled back. Not only was she having problems breathing, but she could hardly walk away as his laughter followed her out the arena. Hold on, wasn’t she supposed to be mad at him? Not dizzy with his kisses?

Crap.

Shea was ready to stand in front of a leading scoring forward and take the puck he was shooting right in the head. They had been looking at houses for almost three weeks, and Elli was driving him insane. When he would like one, she hated it, when she thought the house was okay, he hated it. They had looked at more than 60 houses and Elli only liked one, and Shea thought it was dog ugly. Who would have thought looking at houses was going to be so hard?

Shea sat with Elli and Jill Mancina, their realtor, shaking his head. Jill said she had worked all week on the list of houses she had found for them, and Elli didn’t like any of them. Shea didn’t even bother looking at the list, it would be a waste of time.