If I’d been able to climb through the phone and kick Natalie’s ass, I would have.

I rub my first cleanser over my face, trying to tamp down my anger that anyone would be so callously vindictive.

It’s handled now, she’ll be retracting her accusations tomorrow morning and making it clear that she doesn’t want to take things any further.

Marissa will keep an eye on her, and my PI will keep her under surveillance and make sure she doesn’t try to disappear with Addison.

“Why would you try to smear him that way?” I’d asked when Dane was out of earshot.

“It made me angry.” She’d sniffed. “Before I saw him talk about you, I thought I could get him back if I just waited and made him fall for me again. After…I just…I knew. I FELT that it was over and I couldn’t deal with that. Why does he get to be happy? Why does he get to have Addison and love and a career he loves and I don’t have anything.” She’d cried.

“You have a beautiful daughter, and you put that in jeopardy because of your ego.” Part of me felt bad. But I knew that if she didn’t get a wake-up call, she’d never change. “In return for not blackballing you from employment and bringing charges against you, I want you to agree not to fight Dane for custody when he files.”

“What?”

“If you haven’t realized it already, I’m not a good enemy to have. You either agree to not fight him for custody of Addison, or I’ll make your life a living hell. It’s your choice, but I’m going to warn you that one option gives you the chance to receive visitation after you’ve completed therapy.”

“You can’t ask me to do that. She’s my daughter, she’s all I have.”

“And you could’ve had so much more if you hadn’t gotten greedy.” I swallowed, forcing the words past my lips. “Choose.”

The line was silent for moments except for her quiet crying, and I willed myself not to cry.

“I won’t fight him.” She whispered. “Are you…you promise you’ll let me see her? After?”

“I promise,” I whisper back and she gives a shuddering sigh.

“Just tell me what to do, then.”

I rinse my face and with it, the memories of the conversation. It’s done, there’s no sense dwelling on it now.

I’m patting moisturizer in when I look in the mirror and see Dane leaning in the doorway.

“Hey.” He rumbles, eyes regretful.

“Hey.” I put my toothbrush back in the holder and rub the remaining moisturizer into my hands, looking at the sink.

He comes closer to me and wraps his arms around me, crossing them over my midsection.

“I’m a jerk of the highest order and I’m going to be ashamed of my reaction for a long as I live.” He dips and rests his chin on my shoulder, speaking directly into my ear.

He already looks so pitiful that I don’t have it in me to make it worse.

“I can’t be too mad at you, logically. I thought we’d used protection too.” I admit, wrapping my arms around his and leaning back against him. I just don’t even have the energy to be angry.

“Maybe there was a small leak. However it happened…I hope you know that I’d never disrespect you that way. Insinuating…”

“I know. Well, I know now. You kind of started things badly with those initial accusations the next day.”

“We’re going to add that to the list of things I’m making up for, and try very, very hard not to add to it.” He mumbles and I laugh.

I meet his dark eyes in the mirror. “How do you feel about it? Really?”

“I think I’ve been blessed with a lot of good things in my life, and for some reason, I was gifted you.”

My eyes tear up and my lip trembles. This time, I don’t know if it’s the extra hormones or just me.

“I dream of being as fierce as you are about the people you love. I feel so lucky to be one of those people, and there is no one…” He turns me to face him and kisses the tears on my face. “There is no one that I want to start a family with more than you. I will spend all of eternity trying to be worthy of you, of this child, of Addison. You, Keyra Banks, make me want to be a better man. That’s something I can never repay you for.”

I start bawling like a child, and the alarm on Dane’s face is comical so I start laughing too and he really looks scared.

“I’m fine,” I assure him, alternately giggling and sobbing. “I promise. Just, you know, extra hormones plus you’re being all sweet.”

“So it’s not because you’ve realized you won’t be able to get rid of me?” He smiles and I notice a bit of sheen to his eyes.

“Never.” I lean up and place my lips against his softly, and what starts off as a slow, tentative exploration soon turns into me wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his hips as he backs up to the bed.

Then I remember something.

“Wait, what’s the plan for hockey season? Have you looked at pre-schools? I actually don’t mind shifting my focus a bit if you want to try home-schooling.” I muse, straddling him as he lays back.

His face twists and I put my hands on my hips. “What?”

“I uh, forgot to mention that I’m thinking about retiring.”

“Retiring?” I echo. “You’re 27!”

“I’m not getting any younger and I don’t want to miss out on any time with you, or Addison…I mean, we have a new baby coming!”

“You’re not thinking about this because you think I’d want you to give up hockey, right? Because I wouldn’t. I don’t. I know how much you love it.”

“Honestly, I’ve been thinking about it since I found out about Addison. I saw a teammate get wiped out and they took him off, unconscious…I just felt fear. Hockey isn’t golf, you know?”

“That one time I convinced you to golf with me, I thought you were going to shed real tears, you were so bored.” I grin, but it fades away. “I don’t think you should decide anything just yet. Wait until things settle, think of some other options, but you know…let it marinate a bit more.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He moves his hands to the drawstring on my sweatpants, untying it. “Now, if you don’t mind…”

“I have a question.”

“You ask, I’ll get you naked.” He mumbles, pulling me forward so he can pull off my shirt. Now I’m straddling him in just a bra and sweatpants…no panties.

I figure I have until he figures that out to keep him coherent.

“If I’m already pregnant, does it matter if you come inside me? What are the chances of me getting pregnant twice?”

He stills.

I thought he was hard before…but now it feels like there’s a throbbing, steel rod under me and I can’t help but wiggle a bit.

“Woman.” He growls low and I shiver, my nipples hardening damn near instantly.

“I’m just saying. We can go for a couples STD test when we get back, but I know you’re religious about being tested. I’m safe. If there’s no practical need for a condom…”

The breath whooshes out of me when he reverses our positions, looming over me like some big, delicious dark-haired angel.

He pulls my sweatpants down my legs and I hear his sharp inhale when he realizes I’m not wearing any underwear. Then it’s my turn to gasp when he flattens his tongue and runs it over my slit and up to my clit on one long lick. He repeats that same, devastating move a few more times, and it never ceases to make me feel like his whole meal.

“Dane.”

“It turns me on so much when you say my name like that. Almost completely out of breath.” He wraps his tongue around my clit and I nearly jolt off the bed because I’m so sensitive.

“A little softer.”

The man takes direction like a champ, and he immediately softens his assault to nearly feather light and my thighs clench against his head.

“Ooooh.” I let a small moan slip. Dane looks up and makes eye contact with me, gripping my thighs.

“So hot.” He mutters. “Taste so good, baby.” I close my eyes and arch my back, pushing against him. His tongue keeps a maddening rhythm even as he reaches an arm across the bed and grabs a pillow. He lifts me up and slides the pillow underneath my hips. “I love when you’re spread for me like this. Completely at my mercy.” He trails one finger down my slit. “All mine.”

He parts me with his thumbs, and darts his tongue around my clit, then plunges it inside me before he suckles my clit gently into his mouth again.

It’s that gentle suckling that drives me up a wall, and I cuss loudly, slamming my hand over my mouth because I know Harlan and Kaija are in the room next to ours.

Sounds spill from my covered mouth and I become desperate, writhing against him and bracing my feet against his back. His tongue works faster and he reaches up and jerks my wrists away from my mouth, taking both of them in one hand and keeping my hips to him with another.

“Fuck…Oh my god, I c-can’t…Oh, I’m gonna come, fuck.” I roll my hips against him, biting my lower lip and tossing my head against the bed. “DANE!” I yell, unable to keep my voice down anymore.

I shatter into a million wonderfully sensitive pieces, but he keeps his mouth on me, licking and sucking me through the orgasm and sending me roughly tumbling into another until my mind is mush and I’ve yelled everything I could think of.

He gives me one last lick and I squeal, snapping my legs together. He stands, eyes glowing with satisfaction even though I’m the one whose world just got rocked.

“I want to hear you every time. Don’t try to keep quiet.” He strips off his shirt and pushes his shorts down, cock springing up so readily that I hear and see it slap onto his abdomen. And what a beautiful cock it is. “And get that cock-hungry look out of your eyes, I can’t take it.” He says roughly.

He gets on the bed on his knees, and pulls me toward him, pushing the pillow to the floor and keeping a grip on my lower thighs. He uses his hold to lift my hips and bring me onto his thighs, and I rest my ankles on his shoulders.

Dane draws his lower lip between his teeth as he positions his cock against my slit, and it’s the most intensely sexy look I’ve ever seen. This cross between concentration and complete need.

“You gonna make me wait all night to feel you bare inside me?” I whisper, and his head drops back as he shudders. I love that I can do that for him because he lights me up every time.

He presses inside me painstakingly, and the angle, my word, this angle. And I can feel him, his heat, every ridge of his cock that I’d only felt with my mouth before.

He’s deep, so deep it’s almost uncomfortable, but not enough for me to do anything but whimper in ecstasy as he surges into me over and over.

The pressure builds inside me again, quicker than I thought possible and his grunts and moans of my name only add to the feeling.

“Your pussy is addictive.” He grits out, and the rawness of the words make me clench around his dick. “Ah, fuck.” He widens my legs and moves his knees from under me, leaning down and rolling so that I’m on top of him.

He wraps a hand around my hair and presses me down so he can lick his way into my mouth, and at this point, I might be on top but I have none of the control.

“I want to feel you come, feel you squeezing me so fucking hard.” He speaks against my lips as he holds my hips still with his other hand and fucks me, really fucks me, driving his cock up and into me fast and deep. Holding me in place so I’m exactly where he wants me, his to do whatever he wants with.

“You gonna come all over my cock, baby? Hm? You gonna lose your mind over this dick?”

I don’t know what flips the switch for him between sweet and sinful, but I am all the way on board.

“Yes,” I whisper against his mouth.

“Yeah?” He groans.

“Fuck yes.” My body collapses, shaking over him and gripping him tightly, and he growls, his fingers digging into my scalp and hips. I tremble in his arms and feel the almost scalding jets of his come inside me.

The aftershocks still roll through me and I lay on his chest, spent.

“Can you make me a sandwich? I’m famished.” I sigh, and his body shakes as he laughs.

“I love you.” He presses kisses to my ear and down my neck, stopping at my shoulder.

“I love me too.” I tease, and he smacks my ass hard. “Ow! Love you too.” I bury my head in his neck, breathing in his smoky scent.

I thought I knew it all, then I met him.

And I couldn’t be happier.