Page 87 of Blitzing Emily

He let out a laugh. “Naked always works for me.”

Half an hour later he pulled into a parking space at the Sharks’ headquarters. The visitors’ parking lot was full, which wasn’t a good sign. Even worse, he saw news trucks lined up outside the building. Emily glanced around at hundreds of parked cars and turned to him.

“There are an awful lot of people here today,” she said. “Maybe you should tell me what’s going on.”

“I’m appearing at a press conference with the coach and the team’s general manager in a few minutes.”

She clasped her hands in her lap, crossed her ankles and leaned back in the passenger seat. He saw the two little worry lines that bracketed her nose whenever she frowned make an appearance. In other words, she was mad at him.

“I should have told you what was really going on, but I didn’t want you to worry. All you have to do is sit there and look gorgeous,” he reassured. “We’ll be out of there before you know it.”

She shook her head.

“Don’t be mad at me, sugar,” he cajoled. He reached out to lay one hand over hers.

She was silent for a minute or two. She turned to face him. “It hurts my feelings when you aren’t truthful with me about what’s really happening. I feel like you don’t trust me when you do it.”

He thought she might be a bit irritated with him. He couldn’t have been more shocked if she doubled up a fist and drove it into his gut.

She pulled in another lungful of air. “If we’re going to stay together, if we’re going to move forward, I need to feel like you trust me enough to tell me what’s going on.”

All he heard was “if.” Fear skittered up and down his spine, a cold, slimy presence. Her quiet anger shook him more than if she’d screamed at him. Even more, she didn’t wrap her fingers around his hand like she usually would. She turned to look out the window again.

He swallowed hard. “You’re right. I should have talked to you about this. I’m sorry. I will do my best to make sure it doesn’t happen anymore.”

She scooped her handbag off the floorboard. “We’re going to be late.”

He hurried around the front of his car to loop an arm around her shoulders. A few seconds later, he felt her arm slide around his waist. He let out the breath he’d been holding.

ASHORT TIMElater, Brandon, the Sharks’ coach, and the team’s general manager sat before a packed room. Emily was sitting in a chair he found for her in the back of the room. He winked at her. He saw her lips twitch into a smile.

“Mr. McKenna has a prepared statement, and then we’ll take questions,” the general manager said.

Brandon cleared his throat, took a sip of water, and said, “I’d like to apologize to the young men who observed my conduct yesterday. It was regrettable, and I apologize to them and to their parents. The group will be my guests at an upcoming Sharks game as well. I have paid the fine I was assessed by the league. I hope that we can put this incident behind us and move on.”

The first reporter didn’t even wait until the echo from the microphone was over. “Were you with Emily Hamilton?”

“My mama always told me that gentlemen don’t kiss and tell.”

“Has Miss Hamilton apologized as well?”

“She has nothing to apologize for.” Brandon’s hands curled into fists. Wait till that guy was looking for “an exclusive” next season.

The general manager held up a hand. “Let’s leave Miss Hamilton out of this.”

“She was with you, wasn’t she?” The press smelled blood in the water. He wasn’t going to give them what they wanted.

“No comment,” Brandon said.

“If you weren’t with her, who were you with?”

“No comment,” Brandon said, but with a bit more emphasis.

“Are you and Miss Hamilton still engaged, and does she know you were with someone else yesterday?”

He really didn’t care what they said about him, but trashing Emily was out of the question.Don’t flip out,he told himself.It’s what they want. Stay calm.As much as he wanted to punch that asshole from the second-place sports radio station, it wasn’t going to help her. For the first time, the downside of being engaged to a man whose every public activity had the potential for media coverage was making itself known to Emily. More than his own embarrassment, he felt badly for her.

Brandon scanned the crowd till he found Emily again. Their eyes met, and held. He saw color rising in her face, but she touched her fingertips to her lips, and lightly blew. At that moment, he knew he would walk through a wall for her.

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