Rage simmered just beneath my surface as I arrived to practice the next morning. Pepper and I were being so damn careful, and yet Crosby and Ivy had basically flaunted their forbidden relationship until it became front-page tabloid news.

I pushed open the locker room doors with both hands and they sailed into the walls behind them with a thought that was not nearly as satisfying as I needed.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” I shouted at Crosby before I saw that Bentley, Lukas, and Connor had already beaten me to the punch.

“Fuck, not you too,” Crosby fired back, ripping his gear angrily from his locker.

“Yes, me too. How could you be so damned careless? Nine’s? Why didn’t you just kiss her on the Jumbotron?” I hissed.

“You are seriously going to rag on me about this?”  Crosby stood and stepped around the guys who had apparently already begun his lecture.

“Coach is gonna have your ass,” Connor said with a shake of his head.

“What would you know about it?” Crosby questioned, throwing a glare at Connor over his shoulder.

“I know enough to stay far away from the Harris twins. We were all there, Crosby. We all heard him say to keep our hands off his daughters. Your ass is on the line. Hell, Lucas fucks everything in sight, and even he knew better than to go after one of those two.” Connor walked back to his locker, muttering something about Crosby being an asshole.

“Guy’s, come on. Coach isn’t going to do a thing. I’m one of the best players on the team, and you know he’s not gonna jeopardize the season over a kiss. Besides, Bentley over here broke the rules too, and he’s still on the team.” Connor gestured toward Bentley, who was rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration.

“First off, asshole, Chloe and I had history. This is not the same thing. Second, the fact that you were even willing to jeopardize our season over someone you consider to be a piece of ass is unthinkable.” Bentley got right up in his face. “And don’t you ever compare what Chloe and I have to your sex life. Ever.”

“Damn,” Crosby snapped, throwing his hands up like he was under arrest. “Everyone’s so touchy today. Nothing’s going to happen. Watch. It’ll be a non-issue. And why the hell aren’t you  riding Gentry like this?”

My jaw locked to keep me from saying something stupid.

“Because he wasn’t the one sucking cheeks in a public place with the Harris twin,” Lukas answered as he strapped on his shin guards.

“Face,” I corrected Lukas. “It’s called sucking face.”

Crosby arched an eyebrow in my direction. “And do you think you’re so much better than me?”

For the first time in my life, I didn’t have the moral high ground. In truth, Crosby and I were both doing the same thing. Pepper and I were simply being smarter about it than he and Ivy were. Who was I to question his emotions toward Ivy? No one knew what I really felt for Pepper. Maybe I was being the asshole here not giving Crosby the benefit of doubt. Maybe he really cared for her.

“You’re just pissed that I got the twin who was more than ready to jump on this Shark train,” Crosby said with a smirk that made me nearly go nuclear.

So much for giving him the benefit of the doubt.

“Coach asked Gentry to watch after Pepper,” Gage fired across the locker room. “Last time I checked, he’d warned every single Shark away from his daughters. I personally think you’re going to get your ass handed to you, and you deserve to.”

Shit. I’d been so engrossed in my anger that I hadn’t noticed more of the team arriving.

Anything else I had to say to Crosby would have to wait.

I pulled my gear down piece by piece and started to get ready for practice.

“So, are you tapping that yet?” Crosby asked in a whisper, having slid down the bench to sit next to me.

I saw fucking red.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that,” I growled. “And the fact that you’re willing to let Pepper’s name get dragged through the tabloid circus is a low move. Despicable.”

I kept my voice low but saw Connor watching us carefully.

“Relax, Gentry. I’m sure Coach will clear it up immediately. He’ll throw Ivy under the bus to save his precious Sharks’ reputation. It’s not like he can’t tell that it’s Ivy in the damned picture.” He dropped his voice even lower. “Or you could come clean and give Pepper an alibi since everyone knows she was with you. Hell she’s with you every night, isn’t she? Because she’s sure as hell not at home with Ivy, or I’d see her. What’s really going on with you two?”

He didn’t know. He could assume all he wanted, but Pepper and I had been so careful it bordered on paranoia. He could give me that look all he wanted. He didn’t know shit, and I was going to keep it that way. Pepper meant way more to me than any asinine attempt at a locker room scorecard.

“Pepper is none of your business,” I fired back in a hiss.

“Well, she sure as hell seems like she’s yours.” He gave me a cocky smirk. “Business, that is. Not yours in any other way, right? Because the super righteous Captain America of this team would never even contemplate breaking one of the coach’s rules, right?” He gave me another shit-eating grin and slid back to his seat, thank God.

“It’s Iron Man, asshole,” I muttered. Not that I had anything against Cap, but he kind of had a stick up his ass, and he sure as hell didn’t end up with Pepper. I did.

Lukas took his seat next to me and started to gear up. “You okay?” He asked as he tied his shorts.

“Yeah, just frus—”

My words died on my lips as Coach busted through the doors. His normally pale skin was flushed and there was a demon in his eyes I’d never seen before. My stomach hit the fucking floor. Gage had been right. Coach was going to hand Crosby his ass. I couldn’t help but wonder if a pink slip would come with it.

“What. The. Actual. Fuck?” Coach shouted at a decibel I’d never heard from his mouth. The locker room fell silent as he marched right up to Crosby. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

You could’ve heard a pin drop, and this was a rubber floor.

“Good afternoon, Coach?” Crosby answered like the smartass he was.

“Are you fucking serious? You think this is a laughing matter, Crosby? You’ve broken at least two Sharks’ rules.”

“Coach, come on.” Crosby tried to give him one of his careless this-is-no-big-deal smiles. “It was just a little kiss. Purely consensual.”

Coach turned the shade of a cherry tomato.

“This is not good,” Lukas whispered.

It sure as hell was not.

“I don’t give a good goddamn if the fate of the world depended on you kissing my daughter. Or whatever the hell else is going on. You fraternized with a staff member of the Sharks and disrespected the rule I’d set down at the beginning of the season. My. Daughters. Are. Off. Limits.”

Fraternized?

“What the fuck are we going to do without you on defense?” Coach asked Crosby.

“Coach, it wasn’t—” Crosby started, the blood draining from his face.

“And just where the hell were you?” Coach shouted at me. “Did I not ask you to take care of her?”

“I’m sorry?” What the hell? Ironically, that’s where I had been when the picture was taken. Taking care of Pepper in a way her father would most definitely not approved of. Ways that included my hands and tongue. My level of guilt ratcheted up another notch. From this elevation, I couldn’t even see the moral high ground.

“Pepper. I asked you to take care of Pepper. To keep an eye on her. To keep assholes like Crosby—” he pointed down the bench while keeping his eyes locked on me. “Away from my little girl. So can you please tell me what the hell you’ve been doing? Giving her an alibi?”

Alibi? Crosby’s advice came roaring back in my ears. Did Coach know about my relationship with Pepper?

“Sir, I assure you I’ve done my best to protect Pepper.” To include taking her home for Thanksgiving when you bailed on her yet again.

“Oh really? And that’s how she ended up kissing Crosby?”

Holy shit. He really couldn’t tell the difference between his daughters. He thought it was a picture of Pepper. As if Pepper would ever deign to do something as heinous as kiss Crosby. Before I could correct him, he’d already turned back to Crosby.

“And as for you, pack your shit. You’re done. I warned you, you broke the rules, and now you’re off my fucking team. You have an hour to clear the locker room.” Coach headed toward the door.

“I’m on contract!” Crosby called out. “You can’t just kick me off the team.”

Coach turned slowly fixing him with a stare I knew would soon be turned on me once he knew the truth. “I couldn’t give a damn about your contract. I don’t have to trade you to get you off my team. I have two in reserves just waiting for your spot. I can bench you the rest of the season with zero guilt. So leave, trade, or sit on the damn bench. I don’t care as long as you’re not on my ice.” He left the same way he entered, slamming the door.

We all sat in stunned silence for a moment. What the hell just happened?

“He can’t do this,” Crosby railed.

“Looks like he just did,” Warren answered. “Honestly, I don’t blame him. I don’t want someone playing with me that I can’t trust. If I were you, I’d pack your gear before security helps you out.”

There was a slight stirring as the guys continued to put their gear on, but kept verbally silent.

“Fuck this,” Crosby seethed, carelessly throwing thousands of dollars in gear into his bag.

Shit. What was I going to do? As much as I had known the threat it existed, I never imagined Coach would actually cut someone over a personal relationship. I couldn’t even correct his assumption that it was Pepper without giving myself away. Without killing my chances of saving my family’s land.

“And fuck you,” Crosby shouted, pointing at me as he walked out of the locker room.

We remained silent as he stalked away, and stayed that way long after he’d slammed the doors as his exit.

Unlike every other practice, I wasn’t the first on the ice. I hung back in the locker room, trying to get my head on straight. Trying to figure out what the best thing for Pepper was. I knew she wouldn’t want me to fight her battles, but it went against my nature to let people think the worst of her. It set off something primal in the pit of my gut that demanded I stand up and claim my woman. She was mine. Not Crosby’s. Not even Coach’s. Mine.

“Hey,” Bentley said, coming back into the locker room.

“It wasn’t Pepper.” I needed to say it, even if it wasn’t the right man.

“I know that, and you know that, and she knows that. But that’s where the knowledge train pulls into the station. Unless you’re in some kind of hurry to pack your shit just like Crosby did.” He folded his arms across his chest.

“Yeah, and you’d let everyone just go around believing Chloe was kissing other guys?” I stood, holding my helmet under my arm.

“Hell no. But Chloe was never Coach Harris’s daughter. How serious is it between you two?”

My gut reaction was extremely. But I didn’t know what was in her head. I couldn’t answer for our relationship when it existed in secrecy. When I didn’t know where she stood.

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly.

He nodded. “Yeah, that stage is tough. I’m just saying that if she’s not your endgame, you might need to cut her loose.”

There was no way I could give her up. Walking away from Pepper would require an act of God, and even then I’d stand by her.

Oh, fuck. Fuck. Fuck. When had she crawled that deep inside my head? My heart?

“And if she is my endgame?” I asked.

Bentley sucked a breath in through his teeth. “Damn. Then you’d better get really good at keeping secrets. At least until the end of the season.”

I walked into my apartment after practice, and my exhaustion was instantly forgotten. Pepper was singing along to the Beastie Boys in the kitchen. I’d given her a key a couple of weeks ago to make our lives a little easier.

Dropping my bag in the front hall, I leaned against the support pillar that defined the open concept space, watching her shake her ass to Intergalactic as she demolished my kitchen with whatever she was attempting to bake.

Contentment slid through me, nice and easy, blocking out the shit from today. I could get used to this—coming home to her every day.

She spun and caught sight of me, her cheeks instantly blushing pink as she fumbled with her phone.

The music stopped.

“Please, don’t stop on my behalf,” I told her. “I was enjoying the show.”

She put her phone on the counter and skipped over to me. “Haha. Figured I’d bake some of those protein granola bars you like.” She rose on her toes and wrapped her arms around my neck. “Welcome home.”

I filled my hands with her ass and lifted her so our eyes were level. “I love coming home to you.” Then I kissed the shit out of her. Long and hard. She tasted like chocolate and bananas. My favorite.

God, I didn’t want to ruin her day.

I set her on the counter and stood between her thighs before pulling away. “We have to talk.”

“Oh, yeah, it’s been a shit day,” she admitted, playing with my hair. “Dad called screaming that I’d jeopardized his team, and how I could never earn the player’s respect if I went around sleeping with them. And how dare I be so foolish as to be cavorting—yes, he said cavorting—with Crosby on the street.” She smiled at me.

Smiled.

“Uh, okay. And you corrected him, right? Told him that it wasn’t you?” Not that I wanted Ivy to get the screaming treatment, but I didn’t want Pepper connected to Crosby, either.

“Nope!” she told me with too much glee. “If he seriously can’t tell his daughter’s apart then screw him. He didn’t even ask if it could have been her.”

“You’re just going to let him think you did that?”

She cocked an eyebrow. “I am doing that. Just not with Crosby.”

My hands flexed on her hips. “He kicked Crosby off the team today.”

Her jaw dropped. “What? He did?” Something like horror flashed across her features.

“Yeah. In front of the whole team and everything.”

She dropped her hands from my neck, and I immediately felt the loss. “Oh, God.”

“Pepper—”

“He’s going to fire you. You’ll lose your spot.” She shoved at my chest, but I didn’t move. I wasn’t budging until we had this out.

“Yep. He is.” I’d made my peace with that on the drive home.

“And you’re just...okay with that? You’ll lose your contract!” She shoved again.

“It’s super cute how you think all hundred and ten of your pounds can move me.”

Her eyes narrowed. “It’s super annoying how you aren’t taking this seriously. It’s one thing to let my dad stew for a few days thinking I really kissed Crosby. It’s another to throw away your career. We have to be done.” She nodded like it had been decided.

“No, we’re not.” I brushed her hair back and cupped her neck, my thumbs resting just in front of her ears. “I’m not giving you up. I can’t.”

Her eyes widened, softened for just a second before she puckered her forehead. “Nope. I’m giving you up. I refuse to cost you this much. I won’t.”

“You’re not going to cost me anything. We’re going to keep us on lockdown so tight it would take the NSA to figure it out. Just until the end of the season. The plan stays. I can’t walk away from the team and leave them hanging, but I’m sure as fuck not going to lose you.”

She blinked rapidly. “I can’t let you do this. Not for me.”

“Then let me do it for me. I need you, Pepper. And if you walk away, I’ll just go to your dad and tell him anyway. Then it would have been for nothing, and I’ll still come after you. This—what we have—is rare. I know that much.”

“That’s blackmail,” she accused, tears welling in her eyes.

“That’s creative negotiation,” I countered. “Please, Pepper. Don’t get scared. Don’t give up because it’s hard. Please don’t tell me you could walk away when I can’t—that I’m the only one out here in the deep end of the ocean.” We hadn’t labeled us. Hadn’t discussed our future, or where our relationship might fit into that. Maybe I really was the only one invested. Fuck, just the thought of that hurt like a bitch.

“I don’t want to give you up,” she admitted, leaning into my hand. “You’re not the only one in the deep end. I just don’t want to be your regret. I can’t be.”

“I could never regret you.”

I leaned forward and kissed her gently, just a soft brush of our lips.

She sighed and softened against me.

“What do you say, Pepper? You in this with me?” I asked, more than a little nervous to hear her answer.

She wove her fingers deep into my hair and nodded. “I’m in if you are. But stakes just went up, and my dad’s holding the cards.”

I kissed her again and smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ve always had a great poker face.”