I had a gift-wrapped basket in my hands and I had almost dropped it a dozen times. I was on my way to a fucking baby shower. I’d thought I’d be able to escape all this girl stuff. Those things were for women, weren’t they?

But when Angel Halliwell beamed at me, hand delivering an invite and saying, “I hope you’ll be there, Sly,” I was sunk.

That was it. That was all it took. She’d gone and done something I didn’t think was possible and that was to make one of my best friends happy—and not just a little happy, but over the fucking moon happy.

Mac was content.

Hell, I was content, if I went by my definition of it. Things were what they were and they were all a lot better than they had been, too. I didn’t see how anything could get much better for me, and I knew by conversations with the man that Mac hadn’t been looking for things to change for him either.

But they had. He’d found something I didn’t think guys like us could find—peace.

Angel hadn’t just made it to where it was normal to see him smiling. The big bastard even laughed on a regular basis.

I might, in the dead of night, when I was alone, admit that I was a little jealous.

But I didn’t begrudge him. He’d earned that peace, deserved it. The nightmares he’d been having, trying to outrun his past, well, mine were probably worse, so I knew what it was like to need to quiet the demons in your head.

Maybe I couldn’t entirely deal with mine in any way other than shoving them into a mental closet and ignoring them, but Mac had handled his and Angel was a big reason why.

I owed her.

I owed her even more because I’d been a complete ass early on when he’d found out about the baby. So here I was, just outside one of the conference rooms at the hotel where the shower was taking place.

They were hoping the renovations would be done on the large suite where she, Mac, and the baby would live part-time once the little guy or girl was brought home, but since those renovations were still ongoing, the shower was taking place in one of the hotel’s seriously kick-ass rooms.

It was one of the perks, I guess, of owning the hotel where you lived off and on during the week.

You could arrange such a thing at the drop of a hat—or the call of an events planner—like Mac had done.

I hadn’t even known he knew we had events planners. I did, but then again, I was more involved in the day-to-day running of Hotel Torrid. Must be the control freak inside me.

The cellophane-wrapped package slipped again and my hands—hands that had been called ‘some of the most clever to ever grace a Las Vegas stage’—seemed to have grown an extra set of thumbs.

It was nerves.

I hadn’t had a case of them like this since well before the first time I stepped on the stage here at the hotel I owned with my two friends, Mac and LeVan.

LeVan.

Why in the hell had I been late?

I could’ve gone in there with him and Thea.

Now I had to walk in alone—

The door opened.

A woman came rushing out, head bent as she spoke hurriedly into a phone. She crashed into me as I fumbled with the basket and it went crashing to the ground.

“For fuck’s sake!” I barked.

She jumped and looked at me through a pair of red-framed glasses. Her lips pursed—they were slicked the same shade of red as her glasses, and I decided the red clashed with the vivid blue-green of her eyes. After a brief second, she said shortly, “Sorry.” Then she cut around me, leaving me there with the present—now a mess—that I planned on turning over before running like hell.

“Sly!”

Angel’s voice bounced through the room, bright and happy as a kid’s beach ball, and I grimaced inwardly before offering a wave. Stooping down, I picked up the basket, checking to make sure the actual gift was still inside. The envelope was in the bear’s arms, all snug and secure.

I hadn’t known what else to buy a baby who would grow up to have everything so I’d gotten the kid the one thing I’d wished I’d had. Not that I planned on telling Angel that. Mac might get it. He was more insightful than some people realized, but Angel and I weren’t exactly tight.

It didn’t help the fact that I’d been a total ass the first time we’d met. And probably the second and third. To be honest, I doubt I’d do it any different if things could be done over again, because until I knew nobody was out to hurt my friends, I planned to keep a close eye on them.

There were too many users, too many takers in the world.

Mac, the way he lived with his head tucked low, might be aware of the pain others went through, but he wasn’t always as self-aware as he could be.

But Angel had turned out to be good for him.

She came up to me and I couldn’t help but smile. Her grin was the infectious kind that made it hard not to return it. She caught sight of the basket and bear and gasped. “Is that…Sly, you brought a present!”

“That’s what you do at these things, right?” Feeling self-conscious, I went to push it at her, hoping I could still get the hell out of there but she stepped back, out of pass-off range.

“Take it over there to the gift table. Mom doesn’t want me touching any of them.” She rolled her big blue eyes at me. “She thinks I’ll peek.”

“Would you?” I skimmed the crowd with a practiced gaze. I was an expert at getting out of tight places. I could handle this.

“You bet I’d peek.”

I slid her a look.

She gave me an unrepentant smile.

Ruefully, I admitted, “So would I.”

“Wow. We have something in common besides Mac.” She looked like she was going to say something else, then someone called her name. “I gotta go.”

She turned, moving away with more grace than I would’ve imagined considering the belly. That belly…it all but sailed in front of her. I couldn’t believe it. From the back, she didn’t really look much different—hips a bit wider, maybe. Her boobs were definitely bigger. Not that I was really checking out the rack. She was hooked up with one of my best friends.

But I knew three things in life—the art of the con, magic, and ladies.

Even if she’d gone up half a cup size, I would’ve noticed. She’d gone up a lot more than half a cup.

As soon as she turned, though, that belly was just…there. I’d asked Mac if she was carrying a baby or a basketball and he’d warned me not to make comments like that around her.

I’d sneered at him.

Like I said. I know the con, magic, and ladies.

It was impressive that she could still be so graceful considering how much her shape had changed in the past couple of months. If I was carting around a belly with something the size of a basketball inside me, I’d be bumping into everything, but Angel just moved like…Angel.

“She’s not carrying an alien, you know.”

The voice came from the side.

Turning my head, I found myself staring into a pair of blue-green eyes that couldn’t possibly be natural.

It was the woman who’d crashed into me—the one who just might have ruined my escape form this party.

“What?”

She wrinkled her nose at me. “You’re staring at Angel like you’re expecting her to drop and give birth to the thing from Alien or something—have it rip out of her belly and attack someone.”

That image flashed through my mind and I wasn’t happy with the effect it had.

“Are you a guest?” I demanded, irritated with her. “Or one of the servers the caterer brought in?”

She narrowed her eyes as she looked at me, cocking her head. She had pale blonde hair cut in a chin-length bob and strands of it were streaked with alternating bands of pink and blue. The rainbow-hair trend was one I’d never found appealing, but on this little number, I didn’t mind.

“Why would you think I’m a server? I’m not dressed in black and white.”

I let my eyes roam freely down her body now that she’d asked me that discerning question. Sure, she wasn’t dressed in black and white, but that didn’t mean much to me. From the tempting curves and perfect lines under the soft fabric of her clothes, I’d be happy to let her get on her knees and serve me.

I met her eyes again. “True, but I’m just trying to figure out why you’re over here talking to me, instead of being over…there.” I waved toward the rest of the guests, men and women of varying ages.

She just shook her head and went off in another direction. I watched and appreciated the sway of her hips as she left. She was a mysterious little thing. Usually I could tell a virgin from a mile away. They had a certain gait when they walked, like their hips hadn’t been spread apart far enough to loosen up their stride. This girl gave off some of that energy, except there was something more raw, different, wild. Maybe my theory was off. Turning back to the crowd, I looked for my buddies. One thing I noticed—being late hadn’t cost me much more than an awkward entrance, because LeVan and Thea weren’t here yet, and I didn’t see Mac either.

Even as that thought circled through my head, the door behind me opened and I glanced back to see Mac coming through with a familiar bag in his hand. The sight of it made me grin. “Again?”

Angel had developed a mad craving for salted pretzels—all the time. Mac was threatening to get a vendor in the hotel just because of that craving.

He shrugged, but there was a half-grin on his face that said he didn’t mind at all. The daddy thing was settling well on him and the baby wasn’t even here yet.

“LeVan and Thea are right behind me—she was running a little behind.” He glanced at me. “Nick has a date tonight.”

I blinked at him. “A date.”

“They’re eating ice cream at the place next to the center.” Mac shrugged. “Thea’s all worried about it, but Nick has been riding the bus back and forth between his place and the center for the past two months. He should be able to handle it just fine now.”

LeVan was my other best friend and the third partner in the hotel we owned. He was also the third Knight in our little trio of merry mad men—we were the Knights. That was what we called ourselves, although fuck me if I can remember why. I think it was LeVan’s idea.

His fiancée Thea had moved out here with her brother Nick a couple of months ago, right before Angel and Mac ended up finding each other. My two best friends had gone and settled down on me. It was enough to make normal men nervous.

But I’d never been normal and there was no way in hell settling down was in my future.

No decent woman would ever want me and that was just fine.

“How worried is Thea?” I asked, glancing back at the room. Idly, my gaze roamed around, searching for the petite blonde. I spied her over by Angel, the two of them talking, Angel’s darker blonde head bent down lower so she could speak to the shorter woman.

“On a scale of one to ten? She’s a fifty.” Mac glanced at the basket I was still holding. “You planning on putting that on the table and running?”

“No.” And I said it truthfully. At least I meant it truthfully now, because I wasn’t going to let him see me turn tail and run.