“Are you sure you’re okay?” Bailey asked me as Lettie explored the inner workings of Minnie Mouse’s kitchen. Hey, there had to be some perks to traveling with the team, and as far as perks went, Disneyland was a pretty good one. We’d spent all day here, and it showed on Lettie. Her pigtails were slightly disheveled under her Mickey’s sorcerer's hat, her cheeks were flushed, and there was still chocolate ice cream on the corners of her constant smile.

“Gage?” Bailey prompted.

“I’m fine,” I promised her for the tenth time, lightly rolling my shoulder. There was a hell of a bruise along my upper arm—the pads had taken most of the impact—but the joint wasn’t as tender as it had been a few days ago.

“I just worry,” she said, leaning her head onto my good shoulder.

I kissed her hairline. “I know, and I’m not playing tonight.”

The rookie was starting in my place tonight, and though it chapped my ass, I knew it was for the best. One week of rest was exactly what the joint needed. The rest of me wasn’t too happy, though.

“I can keep you busy,” she said, leaning up on her tiptoes to brush her lips against my jaw.

I wrapped my arm around her waist and grinned down at her, wishing we weren’t in public, or so close to Lettie. “You can bet that I’ll take you up on that later,” I promised.

We stood there, smiling at each other like idiots, and I loved every second of it. Being with Bailey was easy. Not easy in the, hey-she’s-already-here-why-not, but easy in a way that I felt content for the first time that I could remember.

Maybe that’s what happened when you started to fall for your best friend...everything just clicked.

We made our way out of Minnie’s very girlie house and into Toon Town, each of us taking one of Lettie’s hands.

“Did you have a good day, Lettie-Lou?” Bailey asked.

My chest tightened at her use of my nickname for Lettie, at the perfection that this day was.

“It’s been the best day ever!” Lettie exclaimed.

And she was right. I looked to my left, where my girls talked in excited, happy tones, and the simple rightness of the moment was so complete that it was almost frightening. Crazy right. A forever kind of right.

A diamond ring right.

Whoa. It was too soon to even have that thought—absolutely. But it was just that—a thought. But a damn good one. What if this was what a real relationship was? What if this was what the rest of our life could look like? Partners, friends, lovers, working together to raise Lettie?

What if Bailey was the one who didn’t leave?

It should have been scary. I should have run the other direction screaming from the crazy, committed thoughts that were going through my head. Hell, we’d only been together a couple of weeks.

But we’d been friends all of our lives. All the relationship aspect had added was the hottest sex of my life and the promise that she was the only one I’d see naked. Hell, she was the only one I wanted to see naked. That, itself, said something.

“Daddy?” Lettie asked, getting my attention.

“Yes?” I asked, looking down at her delighted, exhausted little face.

“We were wondering what you thought about grabbing pizza and eating at the hotel?” Bailey asked. “I think we’re all a little exhausted.”

I checked my watch. I wasn’t playing tonight, but I was still going to support my guys. “Yeah, we have time for that.”

When Lettie’s feet started to stumble, I picked her up and put her on my shoulders. Hell, I was tired from walking all around this place and my legs were a bit bigger than my four-year-old’s.

“So have you given any thought to those art programs you were talking about?” I asked Bailey as we walked to the parking lot.

She shook her head. “Not really. I mean, I’d love to get into a local gallery, but maybe that’s a pipe dream.”

“I remember telling you once that I thought hockey was a pipe dream.”

“Yeah, well, you have a God-given talent, Gage. It would have been a waste for you not to use it.”

“The same goes for you,” I said, helping her off a steep curb onto the sun-soaked pavement.

She shrugged. “Maybe we only get one massively great thing in our life. Not everyone is meant for the spotlight.”

I lowered Lettie off my shoulders as we reached the rental car. “I don’t believe that. You’re extraordinary, Bailey.”

She rolled my compliment off like she always did, with a tight smile and a change of subject. “Thanks. So, I was thinking that maybe we could have both of our mothers over for Thanksgiving? Unless you think that’s too much. I don’t want—”

I leaned down and kissed her, just a quick brush of our lips. “I think that would be great. I don’t want to have Thanksgiving without you.” Or Christmas. Or New Years.

God, I had it bad.

She lead Lettie to the back seat and strapped her in.

As I rounded the back of the rental car, I saw a woman struggling with her double stroller, an unruly toddler who apparently didn’t want to leave, and two squalling infants.

Some of Lettie’s early days played back through my mind, and my heart went out to the woman. “Ma’am?” I called out and crossed the blacktop to her minivan. “I promise I’m not a creep or anything—my girlfriend is right there with my little girl—can I give you a hand?”

Her shoulders sagged in relief as she wrestled the little boy. “Would you mind?”

“Not at all,” I said. “Why don’t you get him strapped in and I’ll keep these girls happy for a second? Is it okay if I hold them?”

She looked me up and down as the screaming intensified. Her eyes prickled with tears, and I knew that on any other day she would have told me to take a hike.

“My name is Gage McPherson,” I said softly. “I’m an NHL player for the Seattle Sharks. You can google me and everything.”

The boy screamed again, heading into full-on meltdown, and she nodded, clearly at her wit’s end. While she buckled the boy into the car, I unbuckled the girls, who looked to be about six months if my memory from Lettie was right.

I carefully lifted them one at a time into my arms, thankful that Lettie hadn’t been twins. Then again, I wasn’t sure the world could have handled two of her.

Or how I could have cared for two babies when Helen walked out.

The two girls tucked their little heads against my chest as I swayed, murmuring just how precious they were. They quieted, and I felt that little bit of peace that only calming a baby can give. I glanced over to our car, where Bailey leaned against the frame near Lettie’s open door, watching me.

The yearning on her face broke me down like nothing else could have. I knew that this had always been her dream—holding babies of her own. Hell, she’d been playing house since we were kids, mothering everyone around her, babysitting just for fun. Her impeccable maternal instinct had been one of the reasons I’d trusted her with Lettie when she’d come home from Cornell. That, and there was no one in this world who knew me better.

One of the babies yawned against my chest, and I smiled.

I got it, why Bailey wanted this so badly.

I just hoped I could love her enough that she wouldn’t feel like I’d cheated her out of it—that Lettie and I would be enough to content her need for family.

She gave me an adoring smile, and I mirrored it.

“Thank you,” the woman said, reaching for the first little girl. “Their dad is deployed and I just wanted to get them out of the house for the day.”

“He at Pendleton?” I asked as I handed the little bundle over.

She nodded, her eyes proud, but sad.

As she clicked one of the girls in, I gently bounced the other and took my wallet out of my back pocket, retrieving my card.

“Here you go,” I said to her as she took the second baby.

“Thank you, so much,” she said with a relieved sigh.

“Can I put your stroller in?”

She nodded gratefully and I collapsed the stroller and tucked it away in the back of her minivan, fondly remembering the first time I’d nearly thrown Lettie’s because I couldn’t get the damn thing to collapse. Strollers defied all common sense and logic.

As she came back around, I handed her my card. “I live in Seattle, but if there’s anything you need, just call this number. My dad was in the service, and I know it’s tough to handle everything on your own.”

Her eyes widened, and she took the card with a nod. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you.”

I said goodbye to the woman and headed back to my own little family. I opened Bailey’s door and she  kissed me lightly before sliding into her seat.

She was laughing as I got into the driver’s seat.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“I’m just hoping there were no photographers catching that little exchange.”

“What? It’s not like I did anything bad.”

“Oh, no, quite the opposite. It was drop dead sexy, and gallant, and every girl’s dream. That pic gets out and you’ll have every woman in America pregnant from just looking at it,” she said, running her hand down the back of my neck.

Every woman but you.

* * *

I couldn’t get her comment out of my head all evening. Even when I was at the game, watching that fucking rookie play my position, and cheering the win, Bailey was on my brain.

Lettie had been exhausted from Disney, so I’d left the girls at the hotel to rest while I came to the game. Besides, I knew I wasn’t much fun to be around while I was in game-mode.

Now, as I slid the key through the lock of our suite at the hotel, my mind was on overdrive. What if the kids thing really was a deal-breaker for Bailey? What if she was the one woman who would have stayed, but my actions drove her away?

What if I was the cause of all of my own unhappiness?

“Girls?” I asked as I walked into the quiet suite. Huh. I peeked into Lettie’s bedroom and found her sprawled across the bed, dead to the world. Her little torso rose and fell with her breaths, and her hair smelled like the strawberry shampoo she loved so much. I put her under the covers and pressed a kiss to her forehead, then left her to sleep, closing the door behind me as I left.

Bailey wasn’t in the living room, or in our bedroom, but I heard the soft sound of splashing coming from the bathroom, and I smiled. The bathroom was the room furthest from Lettie—no chance of waking her up—and pretty perfect for what I had in mind. Fuck, just the sound of that water, knowing it was sloshing against Bailey’s naked skin was enough to get me hard.

“Bailey?” I said, knocking lightly on the door that connected to the master bedroom.

“Come on in.” Her voice was muffled through the door.

I slid it open and closed it behind me quickly so the steamy air didn’t escape. Holy shit, she was a vision. Her hair was piled on top of her head and she was covered from breast to toe in bubbles, but I’d never seen a more erotic sight than her knee peeking just above the waterline in the giant jacuzzi tub.

I’d splurged on the bigger suite, and it was so worth it.

“How was the game?” she asked, looking up at me with those amazing, fuck-me eyes.

“We won,” I said, pulling my jersey over my head and throwing it to the marble floor.

“Did you?” she said, licking her bottom lip as my t-shirt joined the jersey. Her eyes trailed down my stomach, and I was instantly glad that I kept my body toned and tight.

“We did.” I unbuckled my pants and let them hit the floor, getting harder by the second as she watched.

“Were you thinking about… celebrating?” she asked, her eyes still on my steadily-growing cock.

“I was thinking about putting my mouth on you until you come, if that’s what you mean by celebrating,” I answered.

She swallowed. “Yes, please?”

God, she was so fucking hot. How had I missed that while we were growing up?

She moved forward and I stepped in behind her, grateful the tub was deep enough that we didn’t send water spilling over the sides. She turned, and I moved her knees around me so that she straddled me in the water.

Hell yes to huge bathtubs.

I cupped her perfect ass in my hands as she slid over me, my cock stroking through the folds of her pussy. Had there ever been a woman made more perfectly for me?

“You’re phenomenal,” I said to her.

She arched a little, bringing her tight nipples against my chest. “You’re not so bad yourself,” she answered.

My fingers traced her spine as they danced up her back, and once I had one of my hands buried in the dark silk of her hair, I brought her mouth to mine. Fuck, she kissed like she did everything else in life—with every bit of passion in her body and nothing held back.

Our tongues tangled, dueled, rubbed against each other the same way our lower bodies couldn’t help but grind under water. I felt like a powder keg, and Bailey held the match—hell, she was the match. She set me off like no one I’d ever met—and maybe it wasn’t because she was made for me, but that I was made for her.

Her whimpers grew louder as I kissed her, pouring everything of myself into her, and praying that it was enough—enough to give her everything she needed even though I knew I’d always come up short.

“Gage,” she sighed into my mouth as I thumbed her nipples, fighting every instinct I had to drive up into the silky heat just above my dick.

I pivoted, sending water cascading over the side of the tub, and lifted her ass to the smooth, tiled edge against the wall. “See that towel bar?” I asked her, motioning to the empty loop above her head.

“Yes?” she said, glancing up.

“Grab on and don’t let go,” I ordered.

Her hands latched onto the metal as her body quaked in a small shiver. “Cold, baby?” I asked.

“No,” she said, her voice already breathless.

“Good,” I said. Then I spread her knees in front of me and nearly groaned at the sight of her wet and swollen for me. Without preamble, I slipped her legs over my shoulders. With my head between her thighs, I split her apart with my thumbs and set my mouth to her.

“Gage!” She cried out, her voice echoing in the room.

“Shhhh,” I said against her trembling flesh. “What would the neighbors think?” Not that I gave a fuck who was on the other side of this wall.

“That your tongue is magic,” she said, her head lightly thumping against the tile wall.

“Well, in that case…” I put my mouth back to her soft pussy, licking and sucking the tender flesh, lashing my tongue against her clit as she mewled in pleasure.

God, just that sound had me ready to explode against the side of the tub.

I set the flat of my tongue against her, taking long drags up her slit as I thrust a finger inside her tight sheath.

“Yes!” She screamed, bucking against my finger. She was hot, impossibly tight and so wet that I knew I’d slide right inside the minute she came. Her fingers buried in my hair, her nails scraping my scalp perfectly, but I wanted all of her focus on her—not me.

“Hands on the towel bar, Bailey,” I ordered.

She whimpered, but she did as I told her, trusting me to take care of her.

Fuck, I wanted her. It wasn’t just a desire or lust—it was a primal need, a calling to claim this woman and make sure she damn-well knew who she belonged to, whose name she’d be crying out for the rest of her life.

I was the only one who would ever put my mouth on her like this ever again. She was mine, and I was hers. Period.

I added another finger and stroked her inner walls just along her G-spot as I sucked on her clit, flicking at the bud with my tongue at the same speed as my fingers. She tightened more, her hips bucking against my mouth, riding my face as I ground back into her.

“Gage!” She screamed as she came, her legs shaking against me.

I licked her down, helping her ride out the orgasm with every ounce of skill in my arsenal. Every woman I’d ever fucked, every porn I’d ever seen—it was all for this moment, for the ability to make this one, exquisite woman scream my name as she came apart.

I stood, letting her legs slide down my sides, and when they reached my waist, I gripped Bailey’s ass and took her with me. She fell limp against my chest, satisfied and spent, but her tongue traced a pattern on my neck that had my dick twitching, more than aware that it was our turn.

“I want you in our bed,” I told her, and she nodded.

I carried her to the bedroom and laid her out on the king-size bed, loving the way the moonlight played against her skin from the open window in the darkened room. She held out her arms to me, and I went, laying out over her to keep her warm where water droplets still clung to her skin.

“Now,” she begged, arching her hips against me.

We just needed...

“Shit, I don’t have a condom,” I groaned. How the fuck did I let this happen? “I think I saw some in the gift shop downstairs.”

She shook her head and nudged her wet folds against my cock. “Fuuuuuuck, Bailey.”

“I’m clean,” she said softly.

“I am, too,” I said. “I got tested before I ever touched you.”

“Then I’m okay with whatever happens,” she said, urging me to her. “I just want you. Please, Gage.”

I swallowed. If we were both clean, it wasn’t like anything could go wrong...but I knew she thought something else entirely because I hadn’t been honest with her. And just as I knew I was going to have to be, I also knew that I wasn’t going to be tonight. No, tonight I was going to be a selfish bastard and take the only woman I’d wanted to without any piece of flimsy plastic between us.

“Are you sure?” I asked, swirling my thumb lightly over her clit.

“Yes,” she moaned.

I leaned down, sucking the small drops of water from her pert nipples. “Fuck, you taste perfect.” I slid my cock through her wet folds and groaned. “You feel perfect.”

I played with her nipples and thrummed her clit gently until she was nearly bucking beneath me, her head thrashing on the covers. This woman was perfection, carved from the heavens just for me, and as my chest tightened impossibly, those three words flooded my brain, my soul...my mouth.

“Bailey,” I said as I poised my cock at her slick entrance.

“Gage?”

“I love you,” I told her as I slid into her.

She gasped as I filled her, every inch of her tight pussy rippling against my cock as I thrust home. “I love you,” she answered, our mouths meeting in a deep kiss as I began to rock within her.

She. Felt. So. Fucking. Good.

My brain turned to mush as my thrusts became more powerful, my rhythm strong—just the way I knew she loved it—and I abandoned any hope of staying in control with this woman.

She owned me.

Her nails scraped my back, her legs locked around my hips. “How does it feel?” she asked between gasps.

I knew what she meant—without the condom. I gripped one of her knees, pushing it toward her chest gently so I could stroke her deeper. “Like home,” I said and kissed her.

I lost track of everything then, my mind a tangle of emotion, sensation, and rightness as I made love to Bailey. I hoped that with every thrust I bound her to me, with every moan I staked my claim.

Fuck, I needed her to feel how good we were together because I knew we’d never know better if we ever lost each other. This was as good as it got.

Her muscles tightened beneath me, and her eyes got that gorgeous, wild look that told me she was about to come. “That’s it, baby,” I said, “come with me.”

I adjusted the angle just a bit so my pelvis would grind against her clit, and she came apart beneath me, tremors racking her. The pulsing squeezes of her pussy gripped me so hot, so tight, that I couldn’t help but give into the pressure that had been hammering at me—and let go. I came with a growl against her skin, pouring everything I had into not just her body, but what I hoped was her soul.

We lay there, all shuddering breaths and soft, stroking hands until we were both under control. Once we were both cleaned up, I tucked her against my chest as she faded into sleep.

I lay awake, staring at how peacefully she slept—scared to death it was the last time I’d ever see it.

I knew the truth was going to come out sooner than I was ready. I felt its approach like a fucking freight train. Because tonight I didn’t just make love to her, I’d done the unthinkable, most assholish thing I could have to her dreams.

I’d given her hope.