Bailey woke to a hand between her legs, a finger skating over her clit, sending lightning bolts shivering through her entire body. She opened her legs immediately, seeking more. Behind her, Alexei put his mouth on her shoulder, laughed against her skin before nipping it lightly.

“I was gonna ask if you like wake-up sex, but I think I know the answer now.”

If the sex was with him, she thought she might like it whenever he wanted to do it. But she didn’t say that. Instead, she reached behind her, grasped his cock. He was hot and hard and her core flooded with liquid desire.

“Can we stay here all day and do this?” She gasped as his fingers moved expertly against her clit.

He bit her shoulder. “What about food?”

“Delivery.”

“I like the way you think, baby.”

She shivered at the endearment. She’d told him not to call her things like baby or honey or sweetie because it made her think of the men at the club and the way they treated the girls like something less than human. But coming from Alexei, it didn’t feel wrong. It didn’t feel like he couldn’t remember her name or like it was just easier to call all women baby. It felt personal somehow, even if it was a common enough term.

He stopped the wonderful thing he was doing and glided a hand up her thigh, pushing it high enough to give him access from behind. She heard the condom wrapper open, and then he pulled her hand away from him. A moment later, the thick head of his cock nudged into her wet entrance.

“Fuck,” he groaned as he slid all the way inside.

Bailey groaned too, both from the pleasurable soreness last night had created and from the way he stretched her, causing friction on all her sensitive parts.

He cupped a breast in his hand. The other hand slipped into her folds. “So wet,” he breathed against her neck. “So ready for me.”

“Please, Alexei—I can’t wait any longer.”

He pulled out and then thrust deep, filling her, his fingers working her clit as he settled into a rhythm. It felt amazing, so incredibly hot and sexy as he slammed into her over and over. She could feel her orgasm building, feel the tension growing stronger in every cell of her body.

She was close—and he pulled out. “Alexei!”

He rolled her over, toward him, hooking an arm behind her knee and spreading her wide before slamming back inside her at a new angle. She wrapped her other leg around his hip, moaning.

“Need to kiss you,” he groaned, letting her leg go and dropping his mouth to hers. Their tongues met, tangling as he fucked her harder, hearts pounding, breaths mingling, bodies frantically straining toward that perfect peak, that moment when the tension exploded and euphoria overcame them.

It happened for Bailey first. Her body stiffened as the fire took hold of her, rippling out across her limbs and making her dig her fingers into his back as she shattered. She was still coming when Alexei tore his mouth from hers and groaned into her neck, coming deep inside her. His cock pulsed as he poured himself into the condom.

They lay entwined for several moments before he lifted himself off her. She rolled over and sprawled on the bed, spent, the aftershocks of her orgasm still zinging through her. He swatted her ass as he got out of bed and left her there. She heard the water running in the bathroom, first the sink and then the shower.

She managed to talk herself into sitting up. She reached for her phone and then remembered it was with her bag in her room. Bailey padded across the hallway and into the guest room. The blinds were down, so she wasn’t worried about being seen. Plucking the phone from the charger, her stomach dropped as the text message indicator lit up. She swiped it open and tapped the app.

Kayla: Yes, I lied. I didn’t know what else to do. Alex was nice to me. He went after a guy who stiffed me on a bill once. Made him pay up. I never slept with him, but I wanted him to be Ana’s father because she deserves that kind of a dad. Not like our dad, you know?

Bailey swallowed the knot in her throat. She did know.

Ana is safer with you and Alex. I’m no good for her. And her father definitely isn’t. Dunn is her father—and he doesn’t care about her. He wanted to sell her to an adoption agency. I couldn’t let that happen. He won’t ever let me leave him. He’ll come for me—but he can’t have Ana too. That’s why I left her. I thought you’d take her to Alex and he’d keep her safe. He’s that kind of man.

Bailey’s eyes pricked with tears as she squeezed the phone in her fist. Dammit, he was that kind of man. But Ana wasn’t his responsibility. Neither was she. In spite of the night they’d shared, she knew this wasn’t permanent. Alexei wasn’t going to magically fall for her and ask her to stay just because they’d had sex. It didn’t work that way.

She tapped out a reply, sniffling as she did so. Call me, Kayla. Alex is a good guy and he knows people. He can protect you. And Ana. She’s safe, but she needs her mother. I know you care. If you didn’t, if you really didn’t want to be a mom, you’d have let Dunn sell her to the agency. But you didn’t do that. So you care and you want your baby. Come home and let me help. Love you, B.

“Bailey?” Alexei stood in the door, a towel wrapped around his torso, his gaze questioning. “You okay?”

She dragged in a breath and tried to smile. It probably didn’t look like much of a smile. “Kayla answered.” She lifted the phone. “You’ll be pleased to know you never slept with her. She lied because you made a guy pay his bill after he tried to stiff her. She thought you were nice.”

He frowned. “I remember that incident. But I didn’t realize it was her. Some guy spent hours there, eating wings and pizza, drinking beer—bought a few rounds for the bar too. But then he walked out on a three-hundred-plus bill. Unfortunately for him, he spent a little too much time in the parking lot trying to get into some girl’s pants. I walked him back inside and made him pull out his credit card.”

“Well, it earned you the coveted spot as her pretend baby daddy when she needed one.”

Bailey bit the inside of her lip. She wasn’t mad because her sister thought Alexei was a good guy and would be a good dad for Ana. She was mad because Kayla had thought nothing of implicating an innocent man in the first place. Even if she had done it for what she thought was a good reason. Bailey was also mad because Kayla hadn’t told her any of this in the first place, hadn’t trusted Bailey to help keep her and Ana safe. Maybe Bailey wouldn’t be here with Alexei now, but she’d have thought of something. They could have left town. Called the police. Something.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Alexei asked.

Bailey pulled in a breath. “Dunn is Ana’s father. He wanted to sell her to an adoption agency. That’s why Kayla said she left. She thought that I would bring Ana to you, which I did, and you’d keep her safe. She clearly didn’t think the whole thing out in any depth.”

“You sound pissed.” He walked into the room, his gaze straying down her form. She’d forgotten she was naked until then. Her nipples tightened at his perusal. Sexy beast.

“A little. She didn’t think about how it would affect you to be accused. The way it might disrupt your life. Or mine. Or how being left with her clueless aunt might affect Ana. And what if there were no drugstore paternity tests? What then?”

“We’d have found another way.” His towel was beginning to move. He ran his hands softly over her arms. “I know this is important, but I can’t fucking think right now,” he told her. “You’re naked and your mouth is red and swollen. All I can think about is getting inside you again—but first I need your pussy in my face.”

Her breath hitched. “You just showered.”

“I’ll shower again. With you. After I make you come a few more times.”

The towel was a tent now. She reached for it, slipped it free, and let it fall. Because he was the only thing making her feel good right now. Her one indulgence.

“Okay… but only if I get to suck you off first.”

“No deal, babe. But I’ll let you suck me if you straddle my face while you do it.”

Bailey shivered at the thought. “Now that sounds like a deal I can wrap my lips around…”

“Thank God you’re here,” Cowboy muttered as Alexei walked into the house behind Bailey. He tried not to laugh at the wide-eyed crazy look his teammate sported.

“Yeah, thanks for taking care of the squirt.”

Cowboy put a hand on his shoulder, stopped him from proceeding. “Camel, man, I love you like a brother, but if my wife starts telling me she wants to begin a family, I’m going to kill you in your sleep.”

Alexei snorted. “Aw, come on, dude. That little pip-squeak scared you that much? She’s cute and pretty easy right now. It gets more difficult later.”

“More difficult? Like how? I’m going to have nightmares about changing diapers as it is.”

“Miranda made you learn, huh?”

Cowboy grumbled. “Probably wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t told her I was glad it wasn’t me having to do it. Even then, I might have gotten away with it if I hadn’t said I’d probably never change a diaper in my life because it’d make me gag. I was trying to prepare her, you know, in case…” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, I learned. Right then and there. No matter how much I gagged.”

Alexei couldn’t stop the laugh this time.

Cowboy frowned. “Seriously. You. Dead. Fragged somewhere. I’ll get the guys to back me up. They will when I tell them.”

Alexei wrapped an arm around his teammate and smacked a kiss on his cheek before Cowboy could stop him. “Dream on, buddy. You love me too much.”

“Eww, don’t do that you crazy motherfucker,” Cowboy said, pushing him away and wiping his cheek while Alexei laughed harder.

“Then don’t threaten me and make me prove that you harbor mad unrequited love for me.”

“Jesus. Hell no, not in this lifetime,” Cowboy growled. “Not unless you develop tits and a pussy—and not even then because Miranda’s the only one for me.”

Alexei slugged Cowboy in the arm. Not hard. “I know. Just ribbing you, man. It’s funny as hell to watch you freak out.” He gazed into the living room where Miranda and Bailey were gathered, Ana cradled in her aunt’s arms, Bailey making funny faces and talking in a high-pitched voice. His heart did a little stumble thing in his chest and he rubbed his hand over it. What the hell was that shit?

“I know,” Cowboy said, voice pitched low. “It’s terrifying as hell to watch women with babies, right? I mean it gets you thinking maybe, if she really wanted to have one…” He shook his head. “Nope, nope, nope. Not going there.”

“Hey, Cowboy,” Alexei began, and his friend turned from where he’d been all starry-eyed over Miranda.

“Yeah?”

“How did you know? About Miranda, I mean?”

Cowboy arched an eyebrow. “You asking for a reason?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “I just don’t know how people know. I mean maybe fucking the same person is great and all that, and knowing there’ll be someone there when you get home instead of having to call a hookup—that has to be a nice thing. But what makes it different? What makes it real? How do you know it’s not just infatuation because you’re enjoying the pussy too much?”

Cowboy looked far more serious than Alexei would have thought in a moment like this. He’d have expected jokes and innuendo about his life and, yeah, even insinuations about his relationship with Bailey. It was probably obvious they’d had sex by now. Hot sex. Found-a-new-religion sex.

Well, maybe that part wasn’t obvious, though he expected the sex part was. He’d spent far too much time alone with Bailey, not to mention she was as hot as a Playboy bunny, for Cowboy not to think he’d gone there with her.

“I’m not going to say the skies parted and a light shone down and I knew,” Cowboy said. “But I knew that I felt different with her. And I knew, when I wasn’t with her, that I wanted to be. Nothing felt right without her. And everything did when I was with her. The thought of ever being with another woman? Not even remotely appealing. Miranda is the best part of me. I can’t be who I am without her. Not anymore.”

Alexei couldn’t fathom that part. Not be who he was without a woman? Someone else be the best part of him? It didn’t seem possible. He liked who he was, liked his life. Well, most of it anyway. Sometimes coming home to an empty house, especially after a mission, was a little lonely. Not that he minded it too much. He was a loner. Always had liked his solitude, probably from growing up surrounded by so much chaos.

“Thanks,” he said. “Just wondering.”

“You’ll know,” Cowboy told him. “Maybe not right away, maybe not when you should—but there’ll come a moment when it’s all clear as rain. And you’ll pray to God you didn’t fuck it up too badly and she’ll still want you.”

“Yeah, pretty sure this miraculous woman doesn’t exist, so I’m not too worried about it. I’ll just keep fucking my way through the greater DC area and feeling sorry for you bozos who’ve decided to settle down. Especially when the babies start coming,” he added.

Cowboy shook himself. “Asshole.”

“What, you don’t want any little pieces of you and Miranda running around? Being adorable and shit?”

“Not saying that. Just not yet. I want more time with her alone before I start to share.”

“Yeah, I hear you.” That had been his parents’ problem from the beginning. They’d married because she’d been pregnant with him. And then she’d stayed pregnant for years. They’d never had time alone together. Time to learn each other and let their relationship strengthen.

Alexei and Cowboy went to join the women. Bailey looked up when he approached, her eyes sparkling with happiness. Something inside him twisted, like a key inserting into a lock. It just clicked, and he stood there wondering what the fuck it was. What had just happened to him. He didn’t feel any different, so he went to her side and put his hand on Ana’s head.

“Hey, pip-squeak,” he said. “Did you behave yourself for Auntie Miranda and Uncle Cowboy?”

“Oh, she’s just a little angel,” Miranda said excitedly. “So precious. Sleeps pretty good too. I was surprised.”

“Thank you so much for keeping her,” Bailey said. “I know two nights is a lot with a baby who’s not yours, and I really appreciate it.”

Miranda squeezed Bailey’s arm. “Sweetie,” she said, her Alabama accent lilting and syrupy, “You don’t have to keep saying it. I really did enjoy her.” She eyed Cowboy. “I learned a few things about my man too. We’re going to have to work on some stuff around here.”

Bailey smiled softly at Cowboy. Alexei tried not to feel a pinprick of annoyance at that soft smile that wasn’t for him.

“Sorry about that, Cody,” she said.

“Eh, she’d have figured it out sooner or later,” he replied. “Not to mention, taught me a few things about babies that I didn’t know… like how much of a commitment it is to have one. I knew, but I didn’t know.”

Bailey laughed. “You and me both. It’s trial by fire—but you figure it out. Especially when you have help,” she finished, glancing at Alexei.

“So hey, y’all want to grab something to eat?” Miranda asked. “We were thinking of going out for Italian. Or Korean. I can’t decide.”

Alexei wanted to say no. He wanted to take Bailey back to his place, get Ana settled into her crib, and then nail her aunt again while the baby took a nap. Bailey didn’t have to work for two more nights, so he’d been busy thinking about all the ways he was going to fuck her. But Bailey was looking at him like she’d enjoy the outing, so he nodded. “Yeah, sounds great. Bailey?”

“I’m hungry. Sure.”

“Awesome,” Miranda said. “So which do y’all prefer?”

“Pasta sounds great to me,” Bailey said, “so long as everyone else agrees.”

Everyone did. Miranda turned to Cowboy. “Babe, can you call the restaurant and see if we can get a table?”

He pulled his phone out and walked away to make the call.

Miranda turned to them. “I know it’s only midafternoon, but they’re pretty popular,” she explained.

He came back a few moments later and gave a thumbs-up. “We’re good.”

Bailey took Ana’s carrier while Alexei carried her things to his truck and put them in. Then he took the carrier from Bailey and buckled it into the back seat. It wasn’t the first time he’d put Ana in his truck and taken her and Bailey with him somewhere, but it felt different this time. Almost like a preview of some strange future where he had a woman and a kid, the very things he wasn’t ready for.

“Something wrong?” Bailey asked when he got into the driver’s seat and started the vehicle. He glanced at her, at her pretty face and purple hair, and thought, Wow. Then he thought, What the hell have I gotten myself into?

“What color is your hair really?”

She blinked. “You’re just now asking that?”

He shrugged. “I thought I’d know when I stripped you naked, but I didn’t realize you’d shaved your pussy. By the time I knew that, your hair color was the last thing on my mind.”

Her mouth quirked. “And your mind hasn’t been working since?”

“Not really, no. In fact, I’m not sure what made me wonder now, except that I was thinking of your pussy and figuring out how long it’s going to be before I get to lick it again.”

“Alexei,” she breathed, her voice sounding strained. “I don’t know why you have such a fixation with doing that, but I’m pretty happy you do.”

“Baby doll, pussy is one of my five favorite things.”

She snorted. “What are the other four?”

“Tits. Ass. Guns. And pancakes. Love pancakes.”

She burst out laughing. “Oh my God, not what I expected.”

“So what color is it, baby? You gonna tell me or what?”

“It’s boring. Blond, but not sunny blond like Miranda’s. More like a sandy blond that wishes it was more exciting.”

He glanced at her as he turned onto the main road, right behind Cowboy and Miranda. “Bailey, if you got any more exciting, I’d probably lose consciousness.”

She blinked. “Why’s that?”

“All that blood draining from my brain to my dick would happen much too fast for me to handle.”

Bailey burst into giggles. Alexei couldn’t help but laugh too. Damn, she was fun. He liked hearing her laugh. Liked hearing her moan too. Tonight he planned to make that happen as much as possible. Before this was all over and he had to give her up for good.