All Chapters of Fake Dating My Ex's Favourite Hockey Player: Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

EMILIAThe “rounds,” as it turns out, are Liam pulling me from group to group like a show-and-tell prize he refuses to set down. Every few feet someone claps him on the back, shouts his name, or chirps about the last game. Every single time, his arm winds tighter around my waist, or his chin dips to brush my temple, or his lips find the crown of my head in a fleeting kiss that makes my stomach somersault.And the teasing — oh God, the teasing.“Emilia, huh? It’s great to finally meet you.” “She actually exists? I could have sworn Calloway was just conjuring you from his imagination. You actually put up with this guy?” “Careful, sweetheart, don’t let him near the grill. He’ll burn your eyebrows off.”The wives are worse. They close ranks around me like I’ve already signed some invisible membership form. One of them — tall, dark-skinned, effortlessly stylish — flashes a grin that’s part warm welcome, part finally, she’s here.“Emilia, right? I’m Fareeda, Aarav’s wife.”She gestures to

TESSAWe walk in silence. Familiar silence. The kind that carries a weird nostalgia I wasn’t expecting.I’ve done this before — walking side by side in this same parking lot with a man I couldn’t figure out no matter how hard I tried. The memory creeps in, makes me smile, then immediately buries me under a wave of secondhand embarrassment. Time really is cruel, isn’t it?I still remember it. That ridiculous moment with Aaron: “Can you carry me in too? You were right about the heels, I think I sprained my ankle.”It was a joke. I never thought he’d actually scoop me up and set me down in the passenger seat, fussing over my feet like some lovesick idiot.I laugh under my breath. God, how mortifying must that have been for him?But then it stings all over again, because I also remember the flowers. The ones I never even accepted from the deliveryman.How must that have felt for him? He never pushed. Never harassed me the way Lyle did. He just… stayed normal. After I’d spent minutes cryin

TESSAAaron ends up driving me home. Once I get out, heels dangling from my fingers, barefoot on the pavement and feeling zero shame about it, I glance back to see him still in the driver’s seat. Not moving. Not even pretending to. I raise a brow.“What are you waiting for? A divine intervention?”He blinks at me like he’s stuck buffering. Hands loose on the steering wheel, but his shoulders stiff like he doesn’t know what the next step is. I sigh, dramatic enough to jolt him out of whatever trance he’s in.“I promise, I’m not stealing your innocence or something. You can just come get something to drink. Or we can hang out for a bit.”Like wildfire, his whole face turns crimson. It rushes up his neck, settles under those sharp green eyes of his, and he looks away fast, like he doesn’t trust himself to look straight at me. It’s so unexpectedly endearing, my chest actually flutters. I realize it’s only the second time I’ve seen him like this — bashful, flustered, the calm and controlle

TESSAHis mouth is on mine. Not careful. Not gentle. Just hungry.I gasp, and he takes advantage, deepening it, tasting me like he’s been starving. The plate slips from my lap to the coffee table with a clatter, and suddenly we’re kissing like we might actually die if we stop. His hands are everywhere — firm at my waist, sliding up my spine, anchoring me.I clutch his shirt, dragging him closer, and he makes this low sound in his throat that just about undoes me.“You taste—” he breaks off, lips brushing mine as he catches his breath, “—better than the food.”I laugh against his mouth, breathless, before he swallows it with another kiss, deeper this time, his tongue sliding against mine, slow and devastating. It’s dizzying, like being caught in a storm we both secretly wanted.“I thought you liked the food,” I murmur when I finally tear back half an inch, lips tingling, swollen.“I did,” he counters, kissing me again, the word ruined by how desperate he sounds.We’re smiling into it n

EMILIA“That’s not what I said.”“Good. That means this is the part where you come thank your amazing boyfriend with a kiss, mhm?”I’d only ever offhandedly thought about how cute flowers out front would be when we were at the farmers market. Now they’re actually here. And I’m so happy I can barely breathe, except also completely panicking because— “Wait. Did I say that out loud? Are you some kind of mind reader? Should I be concerned?”Liam just sighs and steals the kiss for himself, like he doesn’t trust me not to combust. When he’s satisfied, he finally laughs at me. “You’re really easy to read when you want something. It was kind of obvious, Em.”“Really?” I narrow my eyes. “That can’t be right. If it was, Tessa wouldn’t have kicked me off her Netflix.”I push open the bakery door, and Liam strolls in like it’s his second apartment. I shake my head. “Don’t you have practice?”“Kind of.”“Kind of?” I blink at him. “What does that even mean?”It’s already been a week since Owen’s ba